Category: Movies

Only 47 movies left to go! Since last I wrote I’ve seen 28 Weeks Later (about as good as the first), Matchstick Men (great acting but I figured out the ending and it was an ending I was hoping against), Pirate of the Caribbean 2 (only good for the action/fx), The Black Cauldron, Catch Me If You Can (good!), The Hard Way, Heat, Sin City (Terrible! I actually couldn’t watch it all the way through so I guess technically it doesn’t count) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Also Bloodsuckers – the intergalactic vampire hunters TV movie that has a Thickets song in it during a space battle. I’ve had the DVD that a loyal fan made me for well over a year, but I finally got around to watching it.

Watched YANKEE DOODLE DANDY last night. More a series of musical numbers than a movie. And dull! Also watched CATCH ME IF YOU CAN which was pretty good.

Here’s my “movies to see” list these days.

25th Hour (2002 Norton/Hoffman)
Always Outnumbered 1998
Anima Mundi 1991 28 minutes Godfrey Reggio documentary 7.8
Barry Lyndon 1975 Historical Drama/Romance/War Dir: Kubric 7.8
Begotten 1991 Fantasy (B&W)5.8
Born into Brothels 2004
Breaker Morant 1980
Capote
Careful 1992 (Guy Madden) 7.8
Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, not Wes Craven)
Close-Up 1976 Documentary/Short (France)
Dogville (2003) lars von trier/chloe sevigny
Down by Law 1986 Comedy/Drama Tom Waits 7.5 NAR
Evidence 1995 8 minute documentary Reggio 8.3
Fiddler on the Roof 1971 Musical 7.4
First Men on the Moon 1999 Sci-Fi
Gia 1998 Drama Angelina Jolie (TV) 7.2
George Washington 2000 Drama (VIFF) 7.2
The God Who Wasn’t There docu 2005 7.2
Grey Gardens (docu)
Horror Express 1972 Horror/Mystery/Sci-Fi 6.0
King Leopold’s Ghost (doc)
Leolo 1992 Comedy/Drama (Canada/France) 7.1
Living in Oblivion 1995 Comedy Steve Buscemi 7.4
Luzhin Defence 2000 Drama/Romance Turturro 7.5
Marjoe (1972)
Manhattan 1979 Woody Allen 8.2
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky 1992 7.9
May (Denmark) 2002
Naked Man 1998 Comedy/Drama Ethan Coen 5.7
Natural History of the Chicken 2000 7.0 documentary
Next of Kin 1984 Dir: Atom Agoyan (Canadian) 7.0
Opportunists, The 2000 Walken 6.2
One Day in September 1999 documentary 8.0
Paradise Lost: Child Murders 1996 Documentary 8.4
The Party – Peter Sellers
Pennies from Heaven (Steve Martin)
Planet of the Vampires (Terrore nello spazio) Mario Bava) 1965 6.4
Salesman (docu) 1969 8.2
The Savages 2007
The Score 2001 Crime/Drama/Thriller De Niro, Norton 7.0
Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb 1993 Animation/Sci-Fi 6.9
Secretary 2002 7.3
Seksmisja (Sexmission) 1984 sci-fi 7.4
Session 9 2001 Thriller/Horror 5.8
Sex: The Annabel Chong Story 1999 Documentary 5.9
Shifter (VIFF New Zealand)
Singing Detective 1986 (mini)
Somebody to Love 1994 Drama Buscemi/Tucci 5.0
Source, The 1999 Documentary Turturro 7.4
State and Main (Mamet) 2000 7.1 Hoffman
Tales from the Gimli Hospital 1988 horror 7.4
Talk to Her 2002
Thin Blue Line 1988 documentary 8.1
Towering Inferno 1974 Paul Newman, Faye Dunaway 6.3
Valley of Gwangi (scifi western)
Vanishing 88 original
Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg, 1971)
Way of the Gun

CLASSIC

Adam’s Rib 1949 Tracy/Hepburn 7.6
Ball of Fire 1941 Comedy/Romance Gary Cooper 7.8
Ben-Hur 1959 Action/Drama 8.1
Best Years of Our Lives 1946 Drama/War 8.4
Breakfast at Tiffany’s 1961 Audrey Hepburn 7.7
Charade 1963 cary grant & hepburn 8.1
Campanadas a medianoche/chimes at midnight orson welles 8.4 hist/com
Dark Intruder 1965 Horror/Mystery Leslie Nielsen 7.0
Fail-Safe 1964 7.8
Greed 1925 Drama 8.5
High Noon 1952 Thriller/Western Gary Cooper 8.3
His Girl Friday 1940
Hobson’s Choice 1954 drama 7.9
Intolerance 1916 Drama 8.3
Invaders from Mars 1953 Sci-Fi 6.3
IT! Terror from Beyond Space 1958 Horror/Sci-Fi 5.2
Kind Hearts and Coronets Alec Guinness 1949 com 8.2
Lady Vanishes (hitchcock) 1938 8
Lavender Hill Mob, The 1951 Comedy/Crime Hepburn,
Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 1943
Laura 1944 Film-Noir/Mystery (B&W) 8.2
Letter From an Unknown Woman 1948 Drama (B&W) 8.0
Lion in Winter 68 drama/historic 8.1
Louisiana Story 1948 Documentary (B&W) 8.1
M 1931 Crime/Thriller 8.7
Matter of Life and Death 1946 Fantasy/rom
Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 1962 western
Matewan 1987 drama 7.6
Midnight Cowboy 1969 Drama Dustin Hoffman 7.9
Mister Roberts 1955 comedy 8.0
On the Threshold of Space 1956 Drama 7.5
Paths of Glory 1957 Drama/War Kirk Douglas 8.7
Pit and the Pendulum, The 1961 Horror 6.7
Porgy and Bess 1959 drama 8.1
Rat Pfink a Boo Boo 1965 Comedy/Action/Thriller 3.1
Rebecca 1940 hitchcock 8.3
Room at the top 1959 8.1
Sabrina Audrey Hepburn 50’s 7.6
Searchers, The 1956 Western John Wayne 8.3
Some Like it Hot (lemmon) 1959 8.5
Strangers on a Train (hitchcock) 1951 8.1
Sullivan’s Travels!!!! 1942 Comedy 8.4
Sunrise 1927 Drama/Romance B&W 8.5
Sunset Blvd. (1950 8.6
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? 1969 Jane Fonda 7.5
To Be or Not to Be , Jack Benny 1942 8.3
Trouble in Paradise 1932 Comedy/Romance 8.4
World Without End 1956 Sci-Fi 5.5

FOREIGN

The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959
Abra Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) 1997 8.1
Aguirre: The Wrath of God 1972 Adventure 8.0
Alphaville
Attack the Gas Station aka Juyuso seubgyuksageun
1999 Comedy (VIFF South Korea) 7.9
Amarcord 1974 Comedy/Foreign (Italian) Dir. Fellini 8.1
An Autumn Afternoon aka Sanma No Aji 1964 8.3
Avventura è l’avventura, L’ 1972? Adv/Com (France/Italy)
Atanarjuat,The Fast Runner 2001 Canada Inuit 7.6
Battleship Potemkin 1925
Drama/War/Foreign (Soviet Union B&W Silent) 8.4
Belle noiseuse, La 1991 Drama/Foreign (French) 7.5
Betty Blue/37’2 Le Matin 1986 Comedy/Drama/Foreign (French) 7.0
Bicycle Thief aka Ladri di biciclette 1948 Drama/Foreign (Italian) 8.6
Bride with White Hair (pramas)
Brighter Summer Day, A aka Guling jie shaonian sha ren shijian 1991 (Taiwan) 6.8
Burning Paradise 94 (pramas)
Burnt by the Sun 7.5 1994
Cabaret Balkan (Bure Baruta, 1998 Yugoslavian) (Serbo-Croatian) 7.1
Children of Heaven (Iran) (Bacheha-Ye aseman) 1997 7.4
Dersu Uzala 1974 Adv/Dra Akira Kurosawa 8.1
Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The 1972 Com (French) 8.1
Diva 1996 Animation (Portugal)
Dragon Gate Inn (pramas)
Drifting Clouds aka Kauas pilvet karkaavat 1996 Com (Finland) 7.5
Elephant 2003 Gus van Sant
Gui da gui/Encounters of the Spooky Kind 1980 wuxia 7.3
Europa Europa 1990
Festen 1998 aka The Celebration 1998 (Denmark) 8.4
Filantropica 9.0 comedy
Flowers of Shanghai 1998 (Taiwan) 7.8
Friend (vff 2001 selection, south korea)
The goddess of 1967 (angela)
Gojoe senki 2000 Action/Foreign (Japan VIFF) 7.0
Good Morning (Yasujiro Ozu, 1959)
Goya in Bordeaux 1999 Drama/Foreign (VIFF, spain) 6.1
Hana-bi /Fireworks 1997 Com/Crime/Thriller (Japanese) Kitano 7.7
Hidden Fortress 1958 Kurosawa 7.8
Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952
In praise of love (eloge de l’amour) (angela)
Indochine 1992 Drama/Romance (French?) 6.9
Insomnia 1997 Thriller/Foreign (Norwegian) 7.0
Intacto 2001 (italian) 7.3 VIFF
Irréversible 2002 french VIFF 7.1
Kandahar/ Safar e Ghandehar
2001 Iran/France
Kin-Dza-Dza 8.7 russian sci fi com
Kings of the Road / Im Lauf der Zeit 1976 (Germany B&W) 8.3
L’eau Froide 1994 Foreign/Drama ??
Moment of Innocence aka Nun va Goldoon 1996 foreign 8.4
Mimi wo sumaseba aka Whisper of the Heart 1995 ghibli (Japanese) 8.9
Mr Vampire 1985 7.5
My Sassy Girl/Yeopgijeogin geunyeo, rom/com South Korea 2001 8.4
Nouvelle vague 1990 Drama (French) 6.9
No Man’s Land (Bosnia) 2001 8.1
Nuovo cinema Paradiso (aka Cinema Paradiso) (1989 8.3
Ohayo (Good Morning) Japan 1959 8.2
Oldboy (Korean) 8.6
Once Upon a Time in the West /C’era una volta il West 1969 Henry Fonda (Italian) 8.6
Our Lady of the Assassins (angela)
Persona aka Kinematografi 1966 Drama (Swedish) 8.2
Princess and the Warrior 2000 Germany
Raise the Red Lantern / Da hong deng long gao gao gua 1991
Ran 1985 Drama/War (Japanese) 8.4
Rules of the Game (French) 1939 8.2
Sanjuro 1962 Action/Adv (Japan B&W) Dir: Kurosawa 8.0
Sanshô dayû aka Sansho the Bailiff 1954 Drama/Foreign (Japan) 9.4!!!
Santa Sangre 1989 7.0
Sátántangó 1994 Drama/Foreign (Hungarian) 6.9
Sonatine 1993 Action/Drama/Crime (Japan) 7.5
Subway 1985 Crim/Rom/Thril/Foreign (French) Dir:Luc Besson 6.3
Swordsman II (1992 Jet Li) 7.3
Tai chi master (1993) Jet Li 7.0
Tampopo (1985) 7.6
Tender Place (2001 vff selection japan)
A time for drunken horses 2000 7.5
Ikiru/To Live! (china 1952 8.1)
Tokyo Drifter 1966 7.3
Tokyo Olympiad (Kon Ichikawa, 1965
Tokyo Story aka Tokyo monogatari 1953 8.3
Tosun Pasa 9.1 Turkish comedy
Town is Quiet (La Ville est Tranquille) 2000 8.0
Triumph of the Will (nazi propaganda film) 1935 7.4
Ugetsu Monogatari 1953 8.4
Vive l’amour aka Aiqing wansui 1994 (Taiwan) 7.4
Wings of Desire aka Himmel über Berlin, Der
1987 Fantasy 8.0
Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain 1983 6.6

BURNING WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL!
I am now playing a biweekly BURNING WHEEL game. Burning Wheel is a roleplaying game where the players have a lot more say in creating the world than in D&D. And the characters are much more fleshed out. And the rewards are not XPs. So far I’m enjoying it! However it has caused me to forget to tape LIFE OF BIRDS two consecutive times.

BIKE
I’ve taken my bike in to 3 different places to get fixed over the past year. You may remember I’ve complained here about how most of them aren’t open on Mondays. Anyway I think I’ve finally settle on Cyclepath, since one of the staff is a Thickets fan, that’s my best in for service and value! Cashing in the rock chips! Today I biked downtown to Elfsar and back, and tonight I biked to Burnaby and back for Joe’s housewarming, where I played some X-Box Guitar Hero. Joe was telling me they have Settlers of Catan for X-Box now.

COMICS
At free comics day I got some Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse comics! Also I purchased a sizeable chunk of ‘how to’ books, including WRITING FOR COMICS WITH PETER DAVID and INKING THE DC WAY. I also bought this crazy book called THE FANTASY FIGURE ARTIST’S REFERENCE FILE which has some pretty cheeseball stuff in it but also some nice photos of belts. Which is important.

56 MOVIES TO GO
On imdb.com, you can give movies a rating between 1 and 10, and also submit reviews. Over the past few years I’ve been inputting ratings of movies that I’ve seen as well as movies I remember well enough to give a faithful rating. I’m up to 944 titles. It’s my goal to hit 1000 in as short a time as possible, so I have to go now and watch something.
Here’s my list by the way [link]

Remember this? It ran before 9/11.

I’m trying to figure out if the black costume in Spidey 3 is going to be from space. I’m betting it is. So it seems we’ve got three forces that Parker is up against – Sandman, Hobgoblin and the parasite costume/Venom. Too much for one movie? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. I don’t usually speculate on movies before I see them, but I was explaining to Joyous that in the comics J.Jonah Jameson’s son, who Mary Jane almost married in the second movie, became a some kind of werewolf, and that the parasite costume came from another planet/universe during the Secret Wars comic book miniseries. Now, I’d love to see a Secret Wars movie, though I’m sure it would be terrible, but I doubt very much that they’ll keep that origin for the black costume in Spidey 3. I’m guessing maybe JJ’s son brings it back from some space mission. But that’s just a guess. But the good news is that Dylan Baker reprises his role as Dr Connors (who we comic book fans all know becomes The Lizard) in the new film.

So anyway, here’s a shot from the Iron Man movie, which is interesting. I imagine it’s the first prototype in the storyline.

And here’s a shot from Transformers. I still don’t like how pointy they seem to be.

I just read that Sci Fi Channel is making a Flash Gordon TV series. I like that!

The Celluloid Social Club is a monthly Vancouver institution that I wish I had more time to get involved with. But…

from Mike Jackson:

Hi folks! The extended cut of the Veil is FINALLY getting a Vancouver screening, at next Wednesday’s Celluloid Social Club (details below)! It’s Ken Hegan’s last time as MC, so it’s likely to be packed. Anyway, hope to see some (or all) of you down there!

The Veil will also be getting its Austrailian premiere in a couple of weeks at the ‘Night of Horror’ film festival in Sydney – Its sixth festival.

Hope all’s well with everyone. All the best,

-M

The CELLULOID SOCIAL CLUB

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21st, 2007

FEATURING the WORLD PREMIERE of
BIF NAKED’s New Music Video
‘MY GREATEST MASTERPIECE’

in support of the THEATRICAL RELEASE of ‘CROSSING’

ALSO FEATURING SEVERAL FILMS ON A ZOMBIE THEME

in support of the THEATRICAL RELEASE of ‘FIDO’

with a Q&A with the director ANDREW CURRIE

ALSO FEATURING THE POPULAR YouTube WEBISERIES ‘DONOVAN LIFE’
directed by ROGER EVAN LARRY
starring SEBASTIAN SPENCE and CRYSTAL BUBLE

PARTY FOLLOWING SCREENING:

BON VOYAGE PARTY for our HOST of 9 YEARS

KEN HEGAN

and THE COLD READING SERIES PRODUCER
SARAH NIXEY
as THEY JOURNEY to TORONTO for 1 YEAR

Doors – 7:30pm Show – 8:00pm
The ANZA Club, #3 West 8th Ave. at Ontario St., Vancouver, B.C.

www.celluloidsocialclub.com

604-734-8339 Admission – $5.00 at the door

You will remember The Veil as the short Lovecraftian film that I was involved with.

When was it that style became a genre? Was it The Matrix? Was it Kill Bill or Sky Captain? Or was it 300?

I can’t believe 300 got 8.3 out of 10 on imdb.com – unless for some reason…the internet is populated by nerds? 300 comes across like it was made by 17-year-old boys for 17-year-old boys. I’d say that there was a romantic angle thrown in for the women, but actually it was just a sex scene. This is one of those films where I hear people say “it’s good for what it is supposed to be.” And they’re right – if you like pretty crap, this is some of the best. But I’m tired of qualifiers. If it’s a movie about zombies, I want a good movie about zombies If it’s a movie about dancing CG penguins, give me a good movie about dancing CG penguins. And if it’s a movie about 300 Spartans vs a million Persians…well you know. Give me some good acting. Give me a character I can identify with (any character! PLEASE! Don’t make me root for the traitorous hunchback because he evokes the most pathos). Give me some character development (don’t show me a boy fighting a CGI wolf and then have a voiceover telling me “this boy is fighting a wolf”). A bit of clever or meaningful dialogue and a story with more than one layer would be an added bonus.

Here’s my problem with 300 in a nutshell: those elephants are way too big. Don’t give me Lord of the Rings and tell me it’s Greek history. I’ve seen enough elves surfing down castle stairs on shields while firing volleys of arrows. I’ve seen plenty of music videos.

Sometimes less is more. And sometimes more is less. A lot less. At least The Matrix for all it’s flair had a human element to it.

I will give it one thing: they didn’t use the often-used and never-should-be-used shakey, blurry, quick-cut action scene style. They showed me everything and everywhere that the swords were going, and I applaud that.

They could have done so much better by making it more human.
4/10.

That I saw:

4/10
Silent Hill
Snakes on a Plane
5/10:
Art School Confidential
Nacho Libre
Curse of the Golden Flower
6/10:
Clerks II
The Departed
For Your Consideration
Miami Vice
7/10:
Inside Man
Superman Returns
X-Men: The Last Stand
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Sophie Scholl
Thank You for Smoking
The Illusionist
8/10:
An Inconvenient Truth
Little Miss Sunshine
9/10
Deep Sea 3D
Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny

Missed/Missing:
The Queen
World’s Fastest Indian
Pirates of the Caribbean 2
Why We Fight
Volver
Casino Royale
Last King of Scotland
Children of Men
Pan’s Labyrinth
Manufactured Landscapes
Letters from Iwo Jima
Jesus Camp
Stranger Than Fiction

http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/tenaciousdinthepickofdestiny/

Sure, it looks like a typical movie trailer, but hell, the only thing that truly matters is the classical sauce.

Garage Sale Tally

I completely forgot to go out garage saling yesterday (Saturday – the primo garage sale day), but I did manage to get out to a few this afternoon.

Garage Sale #1 had this huge box of flashlights, in packages, with batteries. There must have been at least 40 of them. I might have bought one except there was no sign of a price, nor did anyone seem particularly interested in offering me anything. So if you’re putting on a garage sale, keep that in mind – pricing your items will help them sell. The most interesting thing about this garage sale was that you got a free portrait done by…well by some guy. Looks like he was doing an OK job but I didn’t really get a good look.

Garage Sale #2 – this one was unattended and everything was free. Of course, most of it was crap but there was a monitor and some computer power cords.
SCORE
2 power cords: free!

Garage Sale #3 I stumbled upon quite accidentally – not having seen any signs for it. When I got there some chump was talking the seller’s ear off about Tiger Beer being available in bottles in Calgary but not here. The most interesting thing about this one was that the seller had a very nice British accent – I asked him where he was from. He’s from Stratfordshire. He’s lived in San Diego and Toronto, and doesn’t miss England nearly as much as he does California. That was our 60 second conversation.
SCORE
big backpack: $2
Thrasher magazine: 10 cents

Garage Sale #4 This one was teeming with kids of all ages. Most of it was clothing, but I gathered that the family was of the petite Japanese variety, and since I am neither Japanese and (more importantly) not petite, I didn’t bother looking through the racks and the bins (of which there were at least 4). Lots of shoes too. They had some really nice lamps but I couldn’t really justify buying them, even though they were cheap $5 and, as I said, really nice. I did find some magazines but again, there were no prices. I was interested enough to ask how much they were, but I had absolutely no idea who was in charge so I just kind of yelled in a vague direction hoping somebody would answer me.
SCORE
12 Men’s Health magazines for $3.

I will now comment on a commentary

Last night Ed emailed me about the DVD audio commentary for Graveyard. He rented a mixer from Long & McQuade and I met him at his place, which is 2 blocks from here. Then we walked to James’. Kier-La (James’ roommate and as many of you know, the director of the Cinemuerte film festival, and an old friend of mine) is in Texas right now and when she gets back she’s moving out of the place. She’s lived in that house for as long as I’ve known her (6 years). There is a bunch of free stuff at the side of the house that anyone can take away. I took some cloth and some video tapes. I don’t know the address, but it’s on 19th and Cambie basically and if you email me I can tell you more. Some of the stuff might be rained on by now though…like old Cannibal Culture magazines. Anyway I hadn’t been in that house for probably 2 years or more, so it was like strolling through memory…house. James is moving in with his sister and he tells me that the people in back of the house (it’s one of those split level houses with several suites) are getting the suite that they had – I don’t know who’s getting their old place or why they want to move.

Thor Arrives
Anyway, Ed set up the microphones and we waited for Thor to arrive (his real name is Jon but I much prefer Thor – I know too many Jons, I’ll rant about that another day). Finally we all were set up and we went through the movie once with the sound on, to refresh our memories, and then we went through it again with the sound off, so that we wouldn’t get feedback on the commentary. It was a blast. I loved it. I did a fucking audio commentary! We talked about the usual stuff you talk about on an audio commentary along with all the expected witty quips. Shira, who played “the girl” showed up halfway through and sat in as well. At the end both James and Shira performed a little jaw harp song, it was very touching. Then Shira and Thor left leaving James, Ed and me to do the commentary for the 2 deleted scenes. Ed says that the audio commentary tracks for the deleted scenes aren’t going to be listed, so you just have to guess they’re there and press the audio button on your DVD player. I actually am against secret stuff – what they call “easter eggs” on DVDs. I don’t want to spend time hunting around my DVD menus for extra stuff – just tell me where it is for Yog’s sake. Nevertheless, we did them. We only had to redo the very last delete scene because James started going off on a tangent and asking Ed if he would date a guy and it was just kind of pointless.

Bottomful Fries
Then we sat around, chewed the proverbial fat, and finally decided to go out for food, along with Janet, Ed’s S.O. Ed apparently has this thing for Red Robin’s, which actually was fine with me, I haven’t been there for quite a while. Janet and I shared a plate of nachos and I mooched off of James bottomless fries, which were in fact not bottomless because we got there pretty late so they shut down the kitchen while we were still eating. The service was wretched but at least James was very vocal about it, so that made me feel good.