Flipside Movie Emporium

[beltmann]

Congrats, Jim! Cover looks perfect. We're all getting signed copies, right?
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"When I was in Barcelona they showed pornography on regular television. I'm assuming it's the same way in Mexico since they also speak Spanish." - IMDb user comment

[Michael Scrutchin]

[Jim Harper]

[the night watchman]

[the night watchman]

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (George Lucas, 2005) - This final installment doesn?t excuse the missed opportunities of Episodes I and II, but it easily ranks in quality with Star Wars and Empire, and most importantly, it?s a hell of a lot of fun. Hayden Christensen delivers a better performance than the movie?s detractors (and even many of its supporters) are willing to give him credit for. Ian McDiarmid gives an absolutely great one. But I especially appreciated how Lucas at long last was finally able to tap into the magic of the first two movies, and, in doing so, return me to the sci-fi zeitgeist of my childhood for three hours.

The Beguiled (Don Siegel, 1971) - I hadn?t heard much about this movie, and guessed it to be a Civil War drama, but since I generally like the team of Eastwood and Siegel, I thought I?d give it a try. I was happy to discover that it?s actually a delightfully ghoulish little Gothic tale about a deceitful Union soldier and a gaggle of sexually repressed adolescent girls, and their equally repressed matron, at a Southern boarding house for girls near the end of the war. It?s like Misery with seven Annie Wilkes and a less than sympathetic Paul Sheldon. Wake up your inner sadist for this one.

Jarhead (Sam Mendes, 2005) - Anti-war, and correctly so, but not anti-military, Jarhead is a fairly unique post-Vietnam war movie. Instead of combat it delivers anticipation, and instead troubled and remorseful soldiers killing the enemy for their lives and for their country, it delivers marines who really really want to shoot someone, but are never allowed. I think the very lack of warfare underscores the existential tragedy of training up young men to be killers better than can the sight of a slue of bombs, firefights, and wounded soldiers.
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"If you're talking about censorship, and what things should be shown and what things shouldn't be shown, I've said that as an artist you have no social responsibility whatsoever."

-David Cronenberg

[beltmann]

[beltmann]

[the night watchman]

[Mark Dujsik]

[beltmann]

11/6 ? 11/13/05

I?m still recovering from the film festival, but here?s what I managed to see this week:

Jarhead (Mendes, USA 2005). I can?t say whether Swofford?s book provides the template, but I?m surprised by how resolutely Mendes favors the psychological over the political. Quite refreshing, even if the overall effect is underwhelming.

Nobody Knows (Koreeda, Japan 2004). Time constraints forced me to stretch the viewing over four nights, which surely detracted from the overall experience. I?ll refrain from passing judgment.

North Country (Caro, USA 2005). Well, at least I liked the three Bob Dylan songs. (To be fair, I also very much admired the look and places of the movie.)

The Hitchhiker?s Guide to the Galaxy (Jennings, USA 2005). I hated it, but I also never much cared for the book?s absurdism or toothless satire.

Eric
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"When I was in Barcelona they showed pornography on regular television. I'm assuming it's the same way in Mexico since they also speak Spanish." - IMDb user comment

[xAndyx]

Donnie Darko 2001

Grosse Pointe Blank 1997

Star Wars Episode III 2005 (repeat)

Saw 2 2005 (repeat)

I spent the weekend at my friends house in Platteville, WI and enjoyed quite a few movies over the days. Donnie Darko is a great, but WEIRD movie. If anyone in that rabbit suit got within 100ft of me I would stab them with a fork. Well since its 100ft it'd be more like throw,but you get what I mean. Grosse Pointe Blank was also a fairly good film, nothing that great but I enjoyed it. Saw 2 is great. It improves every element of the 1st film, and the introduction of the villan may be one of my favorite characters of all time. You know a movie gets you thinking when on the 2 mile walk back to my friends house we discussed traps we'd use on people. HA...creepy.
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One day you will look behind you and you will see we three, and on that day, you will repent, and we will send you to whatever god you wish.

-The Boondock Saints

[Jordanio]

Annie Hall

The Graduate

I'd seen both numerous times, but I needed some good viewing for once.
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www.myspace.com/jordanmuehlbauer

[Danny Baldwin]

[the night watchman]

A Tale of Two Sisters (Ji-woon Kim, 2003) - Flat out one of the best supernatural horror movies I?ve ever seen. I?d rank it up there with Wise?s The Haunting, Kubrick?s The Shining, Kiyoshi Kurosawa?s Kairo*, and, yes, even Dreyer?s Vampyr. Lest you think I dropped a big steaming spoiler with the first sentence, I?ve read reviews (including Eric?s?) that approach Tale as purely psychological. Either way, it?s an acute and moving portrait of emotional pain and denial, and rings remarkably true whether viewed as fantasy or realism precisely because uses its horror tropes to reveal the inner life of anguish.

Swamp Thing (Wes Craven, 1982) - Boy, wasn?t this movie more entertaining when you were thirteen?

Christine (John Carpenter, 1983) - Carpenter and scripter Bill Phillips do an adequate job of stuffing six-hundred pages of novel into ninety minutes of movie. Carpenter?s score is superb (especially the sultry, noirish theme set to Christine?s resurrection in Darnell?s garage), and there are more than a few really wonderful sequences to be found. However, replacing Roland LeBay with his brother George, while essentially keeping the character Roland, alters the essence of Arnie?s transformation and renders the changes in his personality somewhat arbitrary. Also, the role of Leigh Cabot is woeful underwritten, and Alexandra Paul doesn?t quite have the chops to make up for it. In the end, Christine suffers from the typical malaise most King screen adaptations suffered in the 80s--too much story, not enough time. Still, for my money, I think it?s worth watching.

Derailed (Mikael Hafstrom, 2005) - Noir sanitized for your health. Actually, it?s pretty engaging even if (or maybe because) it?s clear what?s up from the get go. The problem lies in the third act, which wants to wrap everything up in a pretty ribbon and restore the nuclear family to its pedestal when it really should stick to assessing why Clive Owen?s character is in the situation he?s in. Though I wouldn?t try to dissuade anyone from checking it out, I wouldn?t try to talk him into seeing it, either.

*I caught a trailer for Pulse, the American remake of Kurosawa?s Kairo, at the front of Derailed. On the plus side, it showed a few scenes that seemed straight out of the original (including the crashing cargo plane). On the negative, the cast is the usual bevy of blandly attractive twenty-somethings, and the dialogue sounds thumpingly banal. I also get the sense that the narrative will be regularly punctuated with prerequisite jumps and fake-jumps. I?ll keep my fingers crossed anyway.
_________________
"If you're talking about censorship, and what things should be shown and what things shouldn't be shown, I've said that as an artist you have no social responsibility whatsoever."

-David Cronenberg

[the night watchman]