Amph What was the last movie you saw?

Johnny English Reborn. That movie was really funny...

 

Would like to go see Skyfall, maybe next week.

 

Skyfall. It did not disappoint.

 

Rise of the Guardians. I got to see a sneak peek this morning, and this movie did not disappoint. The animation was absolutely beautiful, especially with Sandman and his powers. The attention to detail on the animation was great too (like Santa's belly actually shaking when he laughed and breathed). The story was really good, it had it's moments of laughter and fear, and was a pretty heartwarming movie overall. I wouldn't rank it completely up there with How to Train Your Dragon, but this was a fantastic film.

I also was super skeptical about Russian Santa, but I really loved him. Even if it did throw me off with the irony of Santa listening to Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, and using Rimsky-Korsakov as an exclamation. I also loved that they mentioned Krampus (at least I think that's what they said).

Sandman is who stole the show, though, which is awesome because he never spoke a word. Such beautiful animation on him.

 

I saw Skyfall today just because it was easier to get to than Lincoln. I had somewhat high expectations going in due to all the great reviews, but I should have known better. It started off great but then took a head first plunge into the realm of bad Die Hard sequels. The movie was nice-looking and moody, just like Bond himself, but also ridiculous to the point of giving its audience the finger.

 

I saw Superbad (Extended Cut) in its entirety for the first time today. I LOLed several times. The friendships felt very real and the swearing was delivered in a really fun way. Only other Seth Rogen film I found this hilarious was Pineapple Express.

 

Cloud Atlas again. I still love it and would go see it again soon.

 

Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift. Baaaap!!

 

Mr Bean the Movie.

It was really boring except for that scene where he restores a painting. Meh.

 

Ep. V

 

Room in Rome (Italian)
This one was in the "recently seen" row on my Netlix, which is strange, as I hadn't recently seen it. But since I just started using Netflix, a bunch of random movies filled up that row, until I started seeing films and then those I had actually recently seen started filling up the row instead. In any case, it piqued my interest because, I'll be honest, its cover poster has two naked ladies on it. So I read the synopsis, and it's about two women who meet in a hotel room in Rome for a lesbian liaison. Very well, even better.

The entire narrative takes place in the hotel room (hence the title) in the late hours from they arrive until the following morning when they vacate it, and is a window into the lives of these two women, their separate pasts, and the bond they form during these waking hours until dawn where their fates have met. I suppose it's what you call a social realism flick or something. Or just a drama.

It's pretty somber. Especially from the middle onward it becomes bittersweet because it is revealed that they both have separate relationships in their own lives, one of them is even engaged, so the fondness they develop for each other becomes in vain.

It was good. I don't know what to rate it. 4 or 5... It could probably have benefited from a more ambitious scope. On the other hand, the fact that the narrative never leaves the confines of the here and now also serves a point, as the two women at first are not certain of whether the other is telling their real past or just making up a story. The lack of flashbacks reflects this uncertainty on to the viewer.

 

Is that your viewing or fapping rating system? Or both?

 

In all my years as a Universal Monsters fan, I've never seen this film. Thank you for the review that has absolutely pushed me over the edge and made it a must-see. I'll post my own mini-review here after I've seen it. Thanks again.

 

European cinema is typically more relaxed when it comes to depiction of sex and nudity, but this takes it further than I am used to, as the two leads are naked for most of the duration of the movie. One can wonder what was really the purpose here... But in all seriousness, it does have a story to tell. Upon viewing it becomes very apparent that this is not some soft porn flick or anything like that. I suppose it's one of those films that people call "artsy". For what it's worth, here's the IMDB entry. It turns out that it's a remake of a film made five years prior. And apparently it's a Spanish production, not Italian, even though the plot takes place there.

I think I'm settling on a 4 out of 5. Its imdb score sits at 6 out of 10.

 

Maybe the produces knew they need a hook to draw in the common audience, and that hook was nude protagonists. Nudity always helps to make overly artsiness easier to watch. It's one of those Blu-Rays you find on every BD isle (which doesn't speak for or against its quality mind you). So I guess their tactic, if there was one, worked. As for me, I have yet to see the film. I've only seen bits and pieces on TV.

 

Just finished my first watch of E.T. in about 30 years.

Yes, I cried through about half of it.

DONT JUDGE MEEEEEE

 

The childish innocence makes it that much more moving.

 

I saw ET last month in theaters for the 30th anniversary. Whole body goosebumps as soon as the first bike flying sequence started, and totally tears later on.

 

Moon
Brilliant. 5 out of 5.

 

Dog Day Afternoon
Fantastic. Great performances too. Won an Oscar for best script.

5 out of 5 from me, without question.

 

Ep. VI

 

Each Dawn I Die (1939) - William Keighley



So how tough are you, babe?

It would have been like Heat. Cagney was the violent, hot tempered irrepressible villain, all fire and thunder; George Raft was the cool, impeccably dressed, button downed gangster, all ice and stillness. The moment they end up next to each other on the bus in this movie, the only film in which they shared lead billing, you get to know that other generations had moments like Pacino and De Niro sitting down for coffee.

Unlike Heat, this film puts the two leads together repeatedly, sharing scenes together regularly, a clash of the titans. Like Heat, however, this film is a masterwork, though a masterpiece of economy, something Mann never heard of. Cagney is a crusading reporter; all too quickly, within just five minutes, he’s brushed against a crooked politician who’s running for governor. He’s ambushed and framed for manslaughter and sent to prison for twenty years; the political machine, the DA’s office, has its way. On the bus to prison, Cagney’s Frank Ross is seated next to George Raft’s clear headed Stacy, a bank robber and killer in for 199 years. 199 years this time. The argument starts immediately, but over the body of the film, the two will form a relationship that sustains them through their difficulties and leads them each to sacrifice for the other more than they think they can bear.

Cagney’s performance is a master class in acting; for once he underplays for almost the entire movie and there are moments that should be shown in every acting class: the look on Cagney’s face during that slow push in when he realizes he’s been framed, the scene where he is visited in prison by his fiancée and his mother, a scene where he barely moves his body, barely moves his face, but creates a tapestry of human suffering of incredible intensity. Later, on the walk back to the factory floor, he brushes at his face and the sadness and brokenness of that simple movement is something most actors couldn’t reach with all the histrionics in the world.

Raft is his equal, a deeply menacing character at times. A murder in a theater, Stacy throwing his knife again and again into bales of twine, practicing until he could split a hair at thirty paces; these moments burn into the brain. Most especially a late scene when Stacy is confronted by Ross’ fiancée is brilliantly acted. Raft makes his character’s slow journey to selflessness seem not maudlin and not clichéd, but simply an intelligent man slowly coming to realize that, for the first time in his life, he really owes someone else and what it means to accept that responsibility.

The film has all the clichés of the prison film; the rat, the sadistic screw, the sick prisoner, the one going stir crazy, the stint in the hole, the prison break, the riot, the parole board hearing. But the script weaves a story about two real men living through these circumstances and at times it subverts the clichés; Cagney’s anger during the parole board hearing is a physical thing, but when he finally snaps, it is to break down and sob like a child, a horrifying moment, one of two in the film when Cagney breaks down in a humiliating and powerful way. As bracing and shocking as these moments are today, I can’t imagine what the audience in 1939 would have thought to see Cagney in tears; it was this same year that Gable would resist unto blood to avoid having Rhett shed tears in Gone with the Wind. Gable would finally allow Rhett to shed a tear or two, but Cagney opens the floodgates.

And the climax is intense and violent, fast paced and high energy, so much so that the clichés don’t matter anymore. But mainly the film works because of those two beacons in the lead roles. Sometimes you get in your head from watching too many inferior older movies that the acting style really doesn’t translate, but when you see a truly fine film like this one, it’s obvious that Cagney and Raft were two actors who could survive in any filmmaking climate. Truly, the men deserve their legendary status; no one’s come along like them since, no one at all. The weight of veracity bears on every word they say; you simply believe it all. This film isn’t remembered as one of Cagney’s best, but I’m not sure why. His performance here is certainly right up there with his best and Raft is entirely forgotten all too often as his performance here shows.

Sometimes, the old films stand up and shout in your face; sometimes they survive with a manic intensity so fantastic you’d swear they’d been filmed yesterday. This is one of those films. Watching Cagney is always a pleasure. In a movie this good, it’s even more so. And look at him in that rain storm; luminous black and white: the two colors of this film’s images. Also the two extremes of two men, one innocent, one guilty, and the relationship they forge in spite of the difference.

4 ½ out of 5 stars.

 

Pitch Perfect - filmed at LSU, some funny moments and Anna Kendrick is great