Four films, thanks to United flights out West and back this week (West to East is the provides the better viewing experience for early December travelers.)

The DaVinci Code  Nothing like writing about a near-blockbuster that everyone else saw months ago, but, what a piece of garbage!  It seemed like a weak remake of National Treasure.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend  I wonder if Uma Thurman still has the same agent after this film.

Neverwas  Never heard of Neverwas before, but it turned out to be the best of the four.  Ian McKellen, William Hurt, Nick Nolte, Aaron Eckert, Brittany Murphy, Jessica Lange and Michael Moriarty in a cross between One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and The Chronicles of Narnia.

Invincible  Harmless Disney sports film.  Opening shot shows the timeclock counting down the final seconds of the Eagles/Bengals game in 1975 -- in tenths of a second.  I know scoreboards only used full seconds until at least the mid-eighties.

The movie came out in 1981.

Garden State

I couldn't watch more than 10 minutes of this. Based on what I saw, I would say that Zach Braff is very pretentious.
I don't like Scrubs either, maybe he's been damaged by that show.

The Godfather

I actually watched this for the first time ever last night. It's one of those films that has permeated pop culture so deeply that you feel you've seen it many times before even if you haven't actually sat through the thing in it's entirety. Well, now I actually have, and I'm glad I did. 

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I can't believe there's anyone that doesn't like Blues Brothers... but I won't get into that... Anyways, I watched Mean Girls on TV the other night. I meant to just turn it on for a few minutes, but I actually liked it a lot... I thought it was very funny, though the last 20 minutes or so were pretty bad... Lindsay Lohan isn't actually pretty good, and Rachel MacAdams is shaping up to be an impressive actress. It was way too similar to Heathers though... funny I get all excited about the Fountain and then am disappointed, then I wind up watching Mean Girls by accident and like it better... It's a strange world...

That god damn trailer's more popular than Uncle's Day in a whorehouse!

Bobby

Yes, William H. Macy is momentarily topless in it. (Flaccid boobs, gray body hair and all.)

However, it had a great ensemble cast, was well acted and had a good message. Lindsay Lohan was even good

Nice little tribute to RFK. 

Glad you finally sat down and watched the Godfather, Booth. Part Two is just as good, quite possibly the greatest sequel of all time.

Blood Diamond: I enjoyed it. It is quite action packed and Zwick blends in the social commetary without getting too preachy, which easily could have happened considering the subject matter. Leo was quite good although he was a little over the top in some parts, but he was very good in the final act. His performance in the Departed is definitely the better of the two. Jennifer Connelly was, well, Jennifer Connelly. Dlimon Hounsow was superb all the way around and the best thing about the movie. I do recommend and it is cinematically excellent to warrant seeing it in the theatre.     

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

That god damn trailer's more popular than Uncle's Day in a whorehouse!

To what circle of hell have you been cast, Booth, that you must be subjected to the likes of Beauty Shop and Soul Plane? Or are you just a masochist?

The Godfather, Part Two

Very long. So long, it'll probably take another viewing before I can digest it all. 

With an ending like the one this movie has, I can't imagine audiences having to wait 20 years for a proper conclusion. Myself, I just have to wait 'till I'm in the mood to pop in the final DVD.

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Road To Perdition: Wow, haven't watched this one in a while. Say what you want about Tom Hanks, but I love this movie and hey, it's Sam Mendes and it's got a little Newman in it too...well, two actually, the great Paul and a wonderful score by Thomas. There's only one person who loves it as much as I do and that's Kevin (Requiem). Whereas American Beauty was told through the brilliant script by Alan Ball, Road to Perditon is told more subtely, but you can see the words so clearly in everyone's face. I find it a very moving film and very well told and shot by the late Conrad Hall and the first movie I ever saw with Daniel Craig.       

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

The Terminator

"It's the eighties! Do a lot of coke and vote for Ronald Reagan!"
Yeah, it's a great action flick, as those things go, but it hasn't aged too well. I kept getting the urge to switch it for the MST3K version of Hobgoblins. Maybe another night.

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Here's what I saw this week:

 Pennies from Heaven:

 Wonderful eighties musical that has been forgotten for some reason. It has Steve Martin has a music sheet salesman who hopes to open his own shop (during the Great Depression) using money from his cold, passionless wife (played by Jessica Harper). He sees a beautiful schoolteacher (Bernadette Peters), falls in love with her, and has an affair with her. He can't stand his wife, but stays with her so that he can run his shop. Eventually both their lives are ruined. The great thing about the movie are the sequences in which the characters imagine their bleak lives as a musical. They lip synch to the original recordings of hits from the forties. Great dancing and wonderfully produced musical numbers make this terriffic watching, as well as great performances from Bernadette Peters and Jessica Harper (though Steve Martin's all wrong for the role... his dancing's great though.) I highly reccomend it.

Peggie Sue Got Married:

Huh, all these movies are from the eighties... didn't think of that before. I finally saw this movie, which I'd been meaning to see for a long time and was not disappointed. It's about a woman (Peggy Sue, played radiantly by Kathleen Turner) who is about to get divorced from her husband Charlie (a hilarious Nicholas Cage). At her 25th anniversary high school reunion she collapses, and goes back to her senior year of highschool (all the actors are still the same). Peggy still middle aged (in her mind) so her friends and family find her behavior odd, and she tries to live her life differently this time around. The first half is wonderful and magical, but something is lost in the second half, which is merely entertaining. Still well worth watching, and with a wonderful and uncharacteristic performance from Turner.

One from the Heart:

Another Coppola film. This one was pretty disappointing, though very interesting visually. It's about a couple, Franny and Hank (played by Teri Garr and Frederic Forrest) who split up and have one night stands with much more likeable and attractive people (Nastassja Kinski and Raul Julia), and at the end they get back together for some reason (not really a spoiler...you'll see it coming a mile away, though it really shouldn't have happened). The movie had great visuals, since it was all filmed on sets. It was very expensive and looked it. It really should've been a musical, but judging from the few musical scenes Coppola was pretty inept when it comes to choreography (though there was one good, though way too short, dance scene). The script was pretty bad, and the two main characters were totally unlikeable. Garr still managed to shine through in parts but Forrest was terrible... a really awful character. There was no reason whatsoever for her to get back with him. Raul Julia and Nastassja Kinski were much better and more likeable, as well as the wonderful Harry Dean Stanton (who has now been in three movies with Kinski, including Inland Empire). Worth watching, but nothing special.

That god damn trailer's more popular than Uncle's Day in a whorehouse!

Pans Labyrinth

Amazing, one of the best films of the year. 

I saw "Remember the Night" last night. It was a very good forgotten holiday film from the 1940 written by Preston Sturges and starring Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck (the same couple who starred together in Double Indemnity four years later). It's about a lawyer (MacMurray) who's prosecuting a shoplifter (Stanwyck, in one of her best performances). He postpones the case till after Christmas. He doesn't want Stanwyck to have to spend Christmas in jail so he pays her bail. However, she gets handed over to him. He decides to take her to see her estranged mother for Christmas (since she lives nearby his mother who he's visiting), but they have a fight and he takes her home with him instead to visit his loving family. Of course the two fall in love, but there are obvious complications. The film is kind of odd, but very touching and with a marvelous performance from Stanwyck. I like her a lot and I think she was even better than this than in either Double Indemnity or The Lady Eve (though those are better, more consistent films). The downside is a rather on and off quality to the movie. The beginning is terrible, with a horrendous opening trial scene, but once you make through that it's highly enjoyable. It isn't on DVD though, and the VHS is hard to find (I saw it on TV, on TCM)... so it's very difficult to find. I hope that this airing will revive this movie and inspire a DVD release.

That god damn trailer's more popular than Uncle's Day in a whorehouse!

I have many Barbara Stanwyck films recorded onto VHS and Remember The Night is one of them. Great stuff. If you want to see another classic, I recommend Ball of Fire, directed by Howard Hawks and written by Billy Wilder starring Barbara and Gary Cooper.

I want to see Pan's Labyrinth, because I thoroughly enjoyed Del Toro's The Devils Backbone...anyway...and now that I know The Good German was written by Paul Attanasio I actually want to see it now, but Children of Men is the movie I am really wanting to see because Clive Owen and Julianne Moore are two of the best out there and throw in  a little Michael Caine too  

Babel - Finally saw it and it is amazing. I don't want to say too much but I do recommend it. Brad and Cate aren't in it all that much but are good when they are. The same can be said for Gael Garcia Bernal. Rinko Kikuchi, however, steals the show. You are watching the film and watching all the drama unfold in Morroco (and later in the film in Mexico), the search for the shooter and whether or not Cate's character is going to make it and then you have this other storyline in Japan that is very thinly and one might even say flimsily linked to the Morrocan plot. And even if you ask yourself? What's the point? Cheiko's story (Rinko's character) is the most poignant part of the film. A beautiful performance that will likely get her an Oscar nomination. She's deaf and the way Inarritu's films part of the scenes in silence to show her perspective is brilliant, especially in the night club scene which is also beautifully shot. Adrianna Barraza is also spectacular as Amelia the caretaker of Brad and Cate's kids. All in all a big f-ing thumbs up. Should be considered for best film. It'll make up for 21 Grams not being nominated which I humbly think was the best film of 2003.             

update: I knew Rinko was nominated for a Golden Globe but after re-checking the nominees, I was pleased to see Adrianna Barraza nominated as well.

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love."