Seen in 2003
Submitted by jim on Mon, 01/06/2003 - 12:01
Tags:
- December
- The Italian Job (2003) ... Listed here.
- Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) ... I think all romantic comedies should include a "bad date montage." In a genre that's pretty hard to get right, that scene at least is almost always a winner. Here is no exception, and the movie's pretty good to boot. Our writer/producer/co-stars are very good, not even counting the credit I automatically extend them for buying back the rights to their project so they can do it the way they want. While I did feel at times that the script was slightly uneven, it is generally strong, and does a nice job of lightly and neurotically exploring many facets of friendship, love, and sex in the big city. Finally, somebody made a Woody Allen movie I like. :-)
- X2: X-Men United (2003) ... Listed here and here.
- About Schmidt (2002) ... I preferred this to director Payne's other well-known work, Election, largely because I could see the truth in the story of an empty shell of a man who isn't quite able to turn the corner. For the most part the realism of this sad, small man helps temper the snide misanthropy that generally mars Payne's work for me (at least in the two movies of his I've seen). Nicholson does a great job playing against type and he's to be commended for it, although I was constantly aware of his self-restraint, so I have to wonder if I would have enjoyed the movie more if it had been cast differently.
- Talk to Her (2002) ... I think I'm going to have to pigeonhole Pedro Almodovar right alongside David Mamet as "directors most everybody likes but me." I've tried two other films of his years ago, and I don't remember which they were, but I do remember not finishing them. That said, this one almost worked for me. Marco is a great, strong, honest character and even Benigno is admirable in an entirely wrong-headed obsessive way. Marco's appalled reaction to Benigno's marriage dreams is handled very well - it pins down exactly the wrongness of it, and yet we still feel sympathy for Benigno, as his affection is surely genuine. It is to Almodovar's credit that he made me feel sympathetic towards a character I'd normally find irretrievably creepy. Perhaps this, along with a few other scenes, is why the movie made me uncomfortable. Discomfort can be a good thing, but I wasn't feeling receptive to it last night. Another time, another place, perhaps this would have affected me differently. Still, I think I'm glad to have it in the cinematic landscape of my brain.
- The Iron Giant (1999) ... Rewatched and listed here.
- Ninja Scroll (1995) ... Listed here.
- The Lady Eve (1941) ... Listed here.
- His Girl Friday (1940) ... Listed here.
- Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001) ... Listed here.
- Balto (1995) ... Listed here.
- Musa (2001) ... Listed here.
- November
- Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) ... Listed here.
- Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) ... Listed here.
- Impostor (2002) ... I kinda enjoyed this minor adaptation of a minor Philip K. Dick story, but it makes sense that its theatrical release was pretty much scuttled by the studio. The story would have been better suited to a Twilight Zone-length program, and while the special effects are surprisingly good, the cinematography has a made-for-TV look about it. Finally, there are two huge gaping plot holes that cost the movie big points. Big spoilers: Spoiler: Highlight to viewFirst, there's a test that can prove Sinese's identity, but D'Onofrio won't let him take it?! Second, why didn't Sinese blow up when he first came in contact with D'Onofrio? I thought the whole point was that he's this unaware bomb who only goes off in contact with his target? Well he had plenty of contact with him in the first 15 minutes of the movie, but I guess that would have made it pretty short.
- The Matrix Revolutions (2003) ... Listed here.
- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) ... Another day, another abysmal appreciative failure on my part. Who am I kidding with these movie reviews anyway? I'll always be a philistine. Anyway, the set design was fantastic, and the look of the movie is quite creepy, if at times campy. And I'm glad to have seen (sort of; see below) the granddaddy of all horror movies. But fer cryin' out loud, how long did it take people in 1920 to read?! I'd read the subtitle card and then wait. And wait. Which brings me to my ugly confession: at about the 20-minute mark I started to toy with the idea of fast-forwarding. I figure I'm reading the placards in *at most* half the time they're on-screen, and temptingly my DVD player has a 2x speed. I grappled with the question of whether or not I want to sacrifice my higher artistic ideals (such as they are) for expedience. How much could the music (which wasn't really doing anything for me) and half the frames really matter? I'm kidding, of course. I understood that I'd be short-changing my experience of the movie pretty seriously. I deliberated for at least 20 minutes before, filled with self-loathing, fast-forwarding the last third of the movie. I have to admit, I was quite impressed by the twist at the end, a twist that has seen a ton of play in the subsequent 83 years of film.
- Children of Paradise (1945) ... I was sorely tempted to skip reviewing this movie because I know not loving it earmarks me as a rube even more than not caring for The French Connection did. It's the Citizen Kane (yet another movie I fail to love) of French cinema, and in the running for "best movie ever" according to a number of sources. It's beautifully shot, particularly the outdoor scenes showing the bustle of the street where even the background action is interesting. The script, and particularly the dialog, is rich, witty, and insightful on various aspects of human nature. Add to that extra points for extreme degree of difficulty, as it was not only filmed during the Nazi occupation of France, it manages to allegorize said occupation. And yet, and yet . . . I just couldn't get into it. I suck.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) ... Listed here.
- The Hulk (2003) ... Ang Lee walks a fine line with his emotional depictions. One one side of the line he's subtle and understated, and on the other side of the line he's flat and and clinical. This one's the latter, eclipsing even The Ice Storm as an emotional failure. That's pretty much a death blow for this movie since I think Lee set out to make the most brooding, introspective superhero movie ever. A very tough row to hoe, and I applaud him shooting for the moon, but I think it would have been almost impossible to pull off. Add to that a script which makes Sam Elliot's General Ross oscillate between wildly restrictive and conservative to provoke responses from his daughter (and us) and ridiculously permissive (to allow an absurd reunion at the end, among other major security lapses) and you've pretty much got a loser, despite obvious higher ambitions. Too bad. On the bright side, the thing I was *expecting* to be disappointed by surprised me. The CGI Hulk largely worked! It wasn't perfect by any means which I guess means it's another flaw, but it was a damn good try, and downright impressive at times.
- Road to Perdition (2002) ... Listed here.
- The Cranes are Flying (1957) ... Listed here.
- From Here to Eternity (1953) ... Listed here.
- Daddy Day Care (2003) ... Between watching this and Beverly Hills Ninja a few days ago, it might seem like I'm trying to make a dent in stumpy's worst movies from Saturday Night Live alumni list. Pure coincidence, I assure you. Even I am not so masochistic. That said, the big difference between these two outings is that Eddie Murphy could read me his grocery list and I'd think it was funny, whereas you could give Chris Farley great material and I still wouldn't understand his reputation (in some circles) for comic genius (of course this is just a theory, since I don't think he ever actually worked from great material, and his untimely death will leave the question forever unresolved). Anyway, this was a "Friday Night Amelia" movie, and it was cute enough for we grownups, and Amelia liked it enough to want to watch it again the next day. And it was almost totally benign. Nothing scary, and the worst the language gets is one utterance of "sucks" and another of "pervert" (thankfully not used in the same sentence :-).
- October
- Bonnie and Clyde (1967) ... Listed here.
- Beverly Hills Ninja (1997) ... I remember watching the trailer for this six years ago and thinking it might hit my comedy/kung fu sweet spot. Alas, it sucked. Even the stuff that I originally thought was funny in the trailer managed to be less funny in context.
- The Battleship Potemkin (1925) ... Listed here and here.
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) ... This, along with The Thing from Another World and Invasion of the Body Snatchers completes my 1950s "they were talking about the Russians, weren't they?" science fiction hat trick. I actually think too much is made of that reading of these movies, but it's impossible not to watch 'em without thinking that at least a bit. Anyway, of the three, I probably liked this the least, but that may have been because I was dog tired. It was nonetheless quite good, and I liked the idea of the alien looking like us, blending in, and observing our culture. I bet this was pretty novel at the time, as I can think of later (usually inferior) movies that used this plot, but not any earlier ones. A bit preachy at times, but the acting, script, and characters were generally strong enough to get away with it.
- The Neverending Story (1984) ... This was the second entry in our "Friday Night Movie" series where we pick a movie to watch with Amelia (the first was The Land Before Time which was adequate for kids, but offered nothing for we adults). This wasn't a bad fantasy, although it was a bit scary for Amelia in a couple parts (particularly the wolf-thing, and I'm glad she had her eyes closed when we see the corpse that those sphinxish things fry with their eye beams). I do get a kick out of pre-CGI special effects, and these hold up pretty well. I bet they were great back in the day. Our two lead male youngsters were pretty weak, but Tami Stronach as the child-empress was much better. Too bad she had like 5 lines and hasn't made a movie since. I wonder why?
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) ... Listed here.
- 28 Days Later... (2002) ... If it weren't for a couple big flaws, this might have been a brilliant horror movie. The performances ranged from solid to strong, there's a palpable sense of tension, a few good scares, and the worst monsters of the movie aren't zombies. The digital cinematography lends a grilly realistic feel, and much like I loved the shots of an empty Times Square in Vanilla Sky, I loved the shots of desolate London in this. Unfortunately, I can come up with no good reason for the streets to be devoid of people and cars except as a mechanism for allowing those cool desolate shots, and for allowing our heros to take a long drive unimpeded. Those streets should have been jammed with corpses and abandoned cars. The radio problem is a significant one as well, especially considering the ending. Also, what kind of sick-o hospital leaves a patient totally naked on top of the sheets!? :-) There are numerous other improbabilities, and a few bone-headed moves by our heros to boot. Finally, the ending is fairly weak, even if I did kinda like it personally. Anyway, with all these flaws I found it ironic that my favorite ending (the DVD has 4 to choose from, including the original theatrical ending) ultimately didn't get made because it was unbelievable. If you're going to have all this other unbelievable stuff, go ahead and make the best ending despite it's implausibility. Boyle's commentary is pretty funny though, regarding the proposed plot device of a whole-body blood transfusion as the only cure. It went something like: "we've already established that a single drop of blood in your eye can cause infection, so how the hell can we make the audience believe they've cleaned every drop of blood out during the transfusion? All those fucking capillaries..."
- Behind the Sun (2001) ... Listed here and here.
- Chicago (2002) ... Listed here.
- Cabaret (1972) ... Listed here.
- The Thing From Another World (1951) ... Many folks I respect prefer this original to John Carpenter's 80s version, but I just can't get there from here. Maybe it's because I saw Carpenter's version as a kid (and was thus scared silly) and this as an adult (and thus was not scared even a little bit), but Carpenter's version seems superior in every respect, at least from a horror perspective. The original does have better dialog and more likeable characters, and it's quite enjoyable for those elements, but it's not horror. Heck, it's barely even suspense! Still, I liked it, I'm glad I watched it, and I'd recommend it. One of the better 50s sci-fi movies I've seen (although I vaguely remember being impressed and frightened by Invasion of the Body Snatchers; perhaps I'll check that out again one of these days).
- Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) ... Listed here and here.
- Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) ... Listed here and here.
- Baran (2001) ... I know, as a budding film buff, I should really love Iranian cinema, but so far my few attempts at Iranian films haven't really done it for me. The extensive attention to the details of daily life, and the lengthy time spent establishing a sense of place, allow my lamentably short attention span to wander. Baran managed to suck me in though. It tells the tale of a rather selfish (or at least insensitive) young man that has his gofer position taken at a construction site by the "son" of an injured Afghan worker. He is quite resentful until he realizes the "son" is really a daughter in disguise. His increasing infatuation with her is sad and wonderful to watch. I'm not sure what to make of the ending though, as there is a slow-motion scene of a curtain waving in a door that clearly signified some sort of great transformation (and which flew right over my head). Also, the look on the young man's face suggests to me the ending is somehow satisfying to him, which frankly doesn't seem possible. But perhaps I'm just interpreting his look wrong, or perhaps I'm dealing with some kind of "happy ending culture gap."
- Barbershop (2002) ... Listed here and here.
- Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) ... Listed here and here.
- Anger Management (2003) ... Despite Jack Nicholson and Marisa Tomei dressing up the place a bit, this is still more of a Happy Gilmore Adam Sandler outing rather than Punch-Drunk Love affair, so you should gauge your potential enjoyment of this along the appropriate Sandleresque lines. If you happen to like Adam Sandler, as I do (although not without some guilt), you'll find things to enjoy here. If you don't, I doubt this'll be the movie to turn you around. Still, there are enough good moments in this movie to make me think that it really could have been a noteworthy comedy, if not for the uneven script, complete with dead spots.
- The Hunted (2003) ... Listed here.
- A Mighty Wind (2003) ... Listed here.
- September
- Identity (2003) ... Ten strangers--John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, Rebecca DeMornay, and six red shirts, are trapped at a motel in a freak storm. Malevolent forces go to work. A name brand actor is picked off first, casting doubt on the natural order of things, and augmenting the already-decent tension and atmospherics. Since twists are obligatory these days, this movie has a goodly handful of 'em, but while some are telegraphed, none feel particularly forced. Even the twist that I anticipated, and was prepared to hate, was handled well. The holes I thought I found I was later able to explain, and the end result is a pretty tight plot, from the writer of Jack Frost *and* Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman no less! Whoda thunk it?
- Below (2002) ... WWII: A US submarine, crewed by little-known actors, picks up three shipwrecked British little-known actors. The best known of the lot is probably Bruce Greenwood. In a cast full of red shirts, it's very hard to know who's going to live to tell the tale as malevolent forces go to work. As a submarine movie, it's not as good as Das Boot, but it's reams better than U-571. As an underwater horror movie, it may be as good as it gets (The Abyss is not horror, Deep Blue Sea is an action movie, and Jaws takes place above the surface).
- Baraka (1992) ... Listed here.
- Final Destination 2 (2003) ... The main thing the original Final Destination had going for it was the fairly new idea of an unseen reaper man obsessed with keeping his books straight, and who has a penchant for Rube Goldberg-style executions. The sequel subjects our heros to the same convoluted, tension-provoking contraptions/contrivances (some quite spectacular and morbidly entertaining), but the "been there, done that" feel affected me more than I thought it would. My recollection is fuzzy (or perhaps just obscured by a blood-red haze), but I'm pretty sure the sequel is quite a bit gorier than the original. All rather cartoonishly so, though (one guy gets cut into three pieces so swiftly that he stands there for a few moments before kinda sliding apart). I have been bothered by gore in the past, but here it didn't affect me, for the most part.
- An Ideal Husband (1999) ... Listed here.
- The Quick and the Dead (1995) ... The darkly comic melodrama that worked for Raimi in Darkman largely fails him here (I wonder if I'd like Darkman today as much as I did in college?). I had to exert myself slightly to see this western through to the finish, and thankfully the ending does have a modicum of emotional resonance, but the rest of the movie was just too silly for me to work up any involvement in the early duels. It's not until the semis that things get even remotely interesting, which pretty much makes this the NBA of movies.
- Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) ... Listed here.
- Happy Accidents (2000) ... Listed here.
- The Recruit (2003) ... The past month has pretty much been a big Colin Farrell-fest for us, and happily he's the real deal. The other three of his movie came to us coincidentally, but this on I actually picked off the shelf: "Jeez, which of the five widescreen movies this store has interests me. Hmm, The Recruit. Mixed reviews, I think, but what the hell, I've seen everything else of note Farrell has done in the last few weeks." So that's how I cam to rent it, and it worked out pretty well. The plot was twisty enough, if a little nonsensical at times. I was sufficiently diverted.
- August
- Daredevil (2003) ... A superhero movie that falls just short of mediocre. Colin Farrell was enjoyable as Bullseye, but I can't at the moment recall any other above-average features of the movie. I thought Affleck had mastered the art of the adequate performance, but he falls short even by that dubious standard here as The Man Without Fear. The action scenes are only rarely interesting, and the voice-over is annoying. So it didn't totally suck, but it threatened to.
- Minority Report (2002) ... Listed here.
- Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) ... Man, it sucks to be indigenous. This movie tells the true story of three Aborigine "half-caste" children that are taken from their families to be assimilated into white culture, and their escape and LONG walk home. The epilogue is particularly heart-breaking. I have to give the movie points for not demonizing the oppressors. Many people that do very bad things think they are acting for their victims' own good, and that's portrayed well here. We still despise what they are doing, but we recognize them as human rather than one-dimensional villains. The road to hell really is paved with good intentions.
- The Four Musketeers (1974) ... Listed here.
- Hard Day's Night (1964) ... The standouts in this movie are the dialog (mostly due to the great script rather than ad-libbing, I understand) and great black-and-white cinematography. The Beatles themselves come across as mediocre actors, but charming nonetheless. Like Richard Lester's Musketeers movies, this one stands up remarkably well decades later.
- Phone Booth (2002) ... Listed here.
- Seabiscuit (2003) ... A better movie could have been made out of this fabulous, unbelievable true story and wonderful book, but this one works out pretty good, even if Gary Ross couldn't resist hokifying what was already a feel-good story in real life. Fortunately I have a sweet tooth. The cast performs admirably, and I thought Elizabeth Banks did a lot with a little. Much to my surprise, even though he looked the part, Chris Cooper really didn't work for me, but at least I stopped being distracted by him about a third of the way through. Of course, he was playing a guy that was known for his silence, so that's tricky. As long as I'm talking about being distracted, the David McCullough narrations really took me out of the story. Sorry, but his voice automatically makes me think I'm watching a Ken Burns documentary. But even with some pretty big flaws (including in the finale!), it's impossible not to root for the little horse that could. The race scenes were genuinely thrilling, William H. Macy rocked, and the source material simply can't be beat.
- Die Another Day (2002) ... Listed here.
- July
- Catch Me If You Can (2002) ... Listed here.
- The Importance of Being Earnest (2002) ... Listed here.
- Das Experiment (2001) ... Listed here.
- Adaptation (2002) ... I know I'll be in the vast minority on this one, but I feel about this movie much the same way as I did about Being John Malkovich. In short, unclever rhyme-form: "very smart, but lacking in heart" (I toyed with rewriting that as a haiku, but decided that would be even more unclever). Both movies kept me interested throughout, featured excellent performances, and left me feeling... well... not very much. If I had to describe my nondescript feeling after both these movies, I'd have to say I was "clinically impressed", which in the end just doesn't cut it for me.
- June
- Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) ... Listed here.
- Punch-Drunk Love (2002) ... Listed here.
- Happy Times (2001) ... A lesser effort from my favorite director, but still good. There are many elements of this movie that work quite well. The comedy is fairly light and quite accessible (to me, at least, and I rarely get Chinese comedy), our hero is a bumbler but never really crosses the line into oafishness, and we sense, for all his self-centered moments, that he has a good heart. Dong Jie turns in a great performance as the blind stepdaughter, and all her emotions play out in her face perfectly. Unfortunately the whole is a bit less than the sum of its parts, and the movie lacks a consistent emotional tone and feels a bit disjointed. I don't have a problem with the open-endedness of the ending, but I do feel it was rather abrupt. Keep in mind that this movie is marketed in the spirit of "British Coal Mine Dramedies Falsely Advertised to Americans as All-Out Comedies" (only without the coal miners).
- Finding Nemo (2003) ... Listed here.
- Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2000) ... Listed here.
- Spirited Away (2001) ... Listed here and here.
- The Hot Rock (1972) ... As a fan of Donald Westlake's Dortmunder series, I've been looking forward to this, supposedly the best film adaptation, for quite awhile. It leapt to the top of my Netflix queue when I learned it was available (fearing it would become unavailable again if I blinked). It was okay, but if this was the best of the lot I really don't feel compelled to see any of the others, although my knowing the plot in advance probably really worked against my enjoyment of this movie. Having found very few heist movies that I like, I've come to assume it's a very tough genre to do right, but I'm beginning to consider the possibility that it's just a genre that I *think* I like, but really don't. Anyway, watching this movie did kick off a fun "Dream Cast" conversation with my wife. We'd cast Ed Norton as Dortmunder, Katherine Keener as May, Sam Rockwell as Kelp, Michael Clarke Duncan as Tiny, and Joe Pantoliano as Murch. We wanted Kathy Bates as Murch's mom, but I don't think she's old enough if we cast Joey Pants. How 'bout Judi Densh? That'd be a different role for her! The book they should adapt is Drowned Hopes and that way they could get Clint Eastwood to play the villian, Tom Jimson. I'd pay $20 to see such a movie.
- Grave of the Fireflies (1988) ... Listed here.
- The Matrix Reloaded (2003) ... Listed here and here.
- Sunset Boulevard (1950) ... Listed here.
- The Business of Strangers (2001) ... Not a bad movie about female office gamesmanship, featuring good performances from Stockard Channing and Julia Stiles. Unfortunately I think this suffered a bit in my eyes by it's proximity to The Company of Men. I'm not saying male office gamesmanship is more interesting, or that men are crueler. I'm just saying it was a much better movie and I couldn't ignore their similarities.
- The Believer (2001) ... Listed here.
- The Three Musketeers (1973) ... Listed here.
- May
- The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) ... You'd think this would get shelved with the action movies (my Welterweights lists), but there's really very little action in this swashbuckler. I once heard the show Friends referred to as "time porn." Bastardizing that witticism, I'd have to classify this movie as "revenge porn." Our hero is greatly wronged, and watching him exact his revenge is quite a bit of fun (although I believe all my favorite moments of the movie occur when James Caviezel and Richard Harris share the screen, pre-revenge-taking). As for the action, I was discouraged by the opening skirmish (my incorrect snap judgement was that it didn't bode well for the rest of the movie), but the final duel is quite good, and I found myself wondering if it was possible that the fight choreographer was influenced by the guy that did the 70s Musketeers movies. Same guy, it turns out.
- Topsy-Turvy (1999) ... I enjoyed this movie quite a bit once I realized it wasn't going to be the laugh-riot the previews suggested it would be. Why do they do that? Is it really necessary to resort to trickery to bring an audience in to see a good movie? But I digress before I've even started. While most of my Gilbert & Sullivan comes from Sideshow Bob, I nonetheless found this to be an interesting and entertaining account of their tumultuous relationship, and their production of The Mikada (which followed on the heels of their first failure (or so the movie presents it - can anybody speak to the historical accuracy of this movie?)). The cast is excellent, and Jim Broadbent shares a brilliant and heartbreaking moment with Lesley Manville as she tells her story to him under the pretext of sharing an idea for his new play (indeed, I think she starts out that way in earnest, with no ulterior motive, and then the dam breaks oh-so-slowly; at first a trickle, but there's no stopping it once it's started). Anyway, with one viewing under my belt and my preconceptions dispelled, this one will likely move up the ranks on a future rewatch.
- The Bourne Identity (2002) ... Listed here and here.
- Equilibrium (2002) ... Listed here and here.
- Lone Star State of Mind (2002) ... Two things in this movie brought Raising Arizona to mind: one was the "preparing for a robbery with what should have been pantyhose" scene, and the other was that I'm pretty sure the main villian was played by the same guy that played Glen ("I'm talkin' about wife swappin'!"). Fate brought me this movie. Netflix sent me the sleeve for The Believer, but when I sat down to watch it this was the movie I found inside. I'd never heard of it, but figured I'd give it a whirl. Fate apparently decided I needed a night of idle easily forgettable entertainment. It was considerably better than I thought it would be, given it sliding under my radar undetected during it's theatrical run. I even laughed out loud several times. I'd list it here if I weren't on the verge of scraping the cruft from that list.
- Chocolat (2000) ... I love these Netflix-induced coincidences. This time they gave me a Juliette Binoche double-feature. Listed here.
- The Widow of Saint-Pierre (2000) ... Listed here.
- Tender Mercies (1983) ... Listed here.
- In the Mood for Love (2000) ... Listed here.
- The Sum of All Fears (2002) ... More of a diplomatic thriller than an action movie, and not quite as dumb as I feared it would be when it was revealed in the first five minutes that the plot would hinge on Israel losing (and not finding! (and forgetting about!!)) a nuclear bomb in the Syrian desert during the Seven Day War. My wife got bored and left after the first hour, which is too bad because while the first hour is pretty slow it picks up a bit in the second half. Not quite enough, but a bit.
- Man Bites Dog (1992) ... Bold ultra-dark media satire or just exploitative and icky? I'm more inclined to believe the latter, although you have to note that this "psycho with the gift of gab" mockumentary came out the same year Tarantino's villains talked up a witty storm in Reservoir Dogs. Benoit Poelvoorde does a fabulous job in the lead, such as it is, and you can see why his career went into a tailspin in much the same manner as Malcolm McDowell's did after A Clockwork Orange or Anthony Perkins' did after Psycho (based purely on the criteria that this is the only movie of his I've heard of). But I'm probably wrong in thinking the satire was heavy-handed, overblown, and extreme; after all, the Criterion Collection thought it was worth immortalizing.
- Walking and Talking (1996) ... Since I just started the practice of waiting a bit before writing up reviews, this movie conveniently provides an example of why it's a good idea for me to work that way. Had I reviewed this the next day, I probably would have listed it here, on what has become the lowest-caliber list of my "recommended" series (which I'll have to prune a bit some day). This was mildly entertaining, and not nearly as annoying as I often find movies of this genre. But beyond that, I'm finding the impression it left me is written in sand: I struggle to recall who was in it, who was or wasn't in love and why, etc. I do like Catherine Keener (and just realized she had a bit part in a favorite of mine, Out of Sight), and I find myself enjoying Liev Schreiber (although more in the "seems likeable" department rather than the "great actor" department (note to self: coin term "Bruce Willis Syndrome") - I just wish I didn't always have to refer to the IMDb whenever I want to write his name so I get the "ie" and "ei"). Anyway, go ahead and rent it. You might like it, but it won't rock your world (that's my prediction, anyway).
- April
- Hero (2002) ... Listed here and here.
- Me Myself I (1999) ... Listed here.
- Strictly Ballroom (1992) ... Listed here.
- About a Boy (2002) ... Listed here.
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) ... Read my review of the first HP movie. This one is pretty much more of the same, but I checked the clock more often. Not a bad way to spend a little time, but basically forgettable. Oh, I did think Kenneth Branagh's casting and performance were inspired though.
- The Ring (2002) ... Listed here.
- The Tall Guy (1989) ... After about 30 minutes my wife and I had to go to bed because of some early morning plans, and when I had to decide if I was interested enough to keep it for another day or trade it in sooner for my next Netflix title, it was a no-brainer - back it went. Somehow I was told this was a great comedy, and I've been looking for it in video stores off and on for years. Netflix came through for me. While Rowan Atkinson is in this movie, his part is small. Nonetheless, I expect if you like his brand of humor, you'll like the brand of humor of this movie. I don't like Rowan Atkinson, and even though his role is too small to have any appreciable effect on this movie (or at least what I saw of it) I still felt like I was watching his kind of humor somehow. Jeff Goldblum is a fine supporting comedic actor, but he can't carry the lead, and as tall as he is his physical humor comes up way short.
- Insomnia (2002) ... A good drama (not really a thriller) that didn't really grab me. Lots of nice elements come into play, especially the weird symbiotic guilt/fear/rationalization parallels between our hero and our villian. I get the impression lots of folks don't like Robin Williams in *anything*, ranging from schmalty comedies to thrillers. I haven't seen any of his spat of saccharine roles, but I think he makes a decent psycho. Al Pacino does a good job growing increasingly beaten down from fatigue and stress. I don't have insomnia but I have been sleep deprived and the director and cinematographer do a nice job with that. The log chase, while gratuitous, was very well-done. Hilary Swank really deserves to get more work. All that good stuff, and yet it just didn't grab me. Oh well, maybe next time.
- Red Dragon (2002) ... Listed here.
- In the Company of Men (1997) ... Listed here.
- Blue Ridge Fall (1999) ... Not a bad little drama about four buddies who try to cover up a morally defensible (sort of) crime. Some decent if conventional grey-area ethics (there, I've gone and used "moral" and "ethical" interchangably; a linguistic no-no, I believe). I already feel it slipping from my mind though.
- Legally Blonde (2001) ... Yet another lightweight, I'm-probably-in-the-minority-for-liking-it comedy for this list, the shakiest of my "recommended" series. But what the heck, my wife and I both enjoyed it a bit, in all its silliness. Witherspoon's character can only be described as "plucky" (okay, I imagine some folks would use the word "annoying" instead, but not me).
- The Virgin Suicides (1999) ... While the characterization was a little thin to draw me in emotionally to the central tragedy of this movie, I thought it did a wonderful job of depicting the smaller triumphs and tragedies of everyday adolescence. Very nicely done; it's like witnessing adolescent exhileration, joy, awkwardness, embarrassement, and pain in microcosm.
- March
- Shallow Hal (2001) ... There's Something About Mary manages to overcome the cringe facter with its volume of magnitude of laughs, however crude. Shallow Hal eases the cringe-factor with heart instead (although there are some laughs along the way) and it works pretty well, although I never felt enough at ease for all the cringing. Nice work by Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow.
- Piglet's Big Movie (2003) ... A gentle movie from the gentlest of the Pooh characters. Good for the kids, but not much there for we grownups (which it appropriate for little kid movies, as much as I appreciate all the efforts by moviemakers to entertain me as the attending parent).
- Death to Smoochy (2002) ... Pretty good black comedy, despite bombing with the critics. I'm afraid I don't have much more to say at the moment; it's late and I'm tired.
- The Hidden Fortress (1958) ... Listed here.
- Withnail & I (1987) ... I liked this movie; it features great dialog, great performances, and plenty of funny moments. I think it would certainly find a home on one of my "Recommended" lists on a second viewing, but it had a couple things working against it this time around. First, Richard E. Grant (who does an excellect job) is too much of a bastard, and it's not until the end that I really understood what a sad character he is. It also felt like a movie that is best watched either drunk, with lots of friends, or both. I don't drink and I watched it alone. Finally, I think the humor needs a second viewing for full appreciation. Anyway, good movie that I'll probably revisit someday.
- Z (1969) ... I'm guessing this was the prototype for those 70s political muckraking movies like All the President's Men. Terrific documentary feel in this account of the collapse of Greek democracy. I was particulary struck by the delayed impact; it wasn't until the final 5 or 10 minutes that I really started to feel the pent up sense of loss and frustration. It's disturbing how democracy can appear to be only gradually eroding and then suddenly it's gone.
- Beautiful Girls (1996) ... Not a bad movie about a bunch of semi-likable jerks and the women they mess up. Somewhat undermines itself by saying men are fixated on beautiful women and not the more average-looking women around them while having the latter class portrayed by Mira Sorvino, Uma Thurman, Lauren Holly, Natalie Portman, etc. (okay, Thurman basically plays someone from the latter class, but close enough) but I didn't mind too much. Most everybody was fair, the dialog was good enough (with moments of brilliance), and I was interested in seeing it through to the end. Not a ringing endorsement, but not a bad way to spend an evening by any means. I will say this, it will be nice when Natalie Portman finishes with the Star Wars debacle and gets back to acting. She was clearly the standout here. This performance alone made me want to see more of her.
- Shanghai Knights (2003) ... Listed here and here.
- Startup.com (2001) ... Not a bad documentary about a dot-com flameout that acheived some success along the way. I couldn't help feeling the venture was doomed from the start, but perhaps that's just the hindsight talking. The big problem was that I really felt nothing for our "heros"; I didn't thrill at their successes nor mourn their failures. I also don't really understand why they needed 230+ employees to build a website that processes parking tickets. Finally, I think this documentary would have benefitted from at least a little engagement from the documentarians. Perhaps an occassional interview question so we could figure out what the subjects were thinking rather than 1:40 of fly-on-the-wall observation. I got plenty of "what", but not very much "why".
- Romancing the Stone (1984) ... Rewatched and listed here.
- Ice Age (2002) ... Listed here.
- Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002) ... Much cutsier than the original, which cost this one several points in my book. On the heavyweight and middleweight lists this one probably wouldn't make the cut, but it seems to be in good company here, as I seem to be cutting the tier 3 lightweights a little more slack. I guess the bottom line is that I'd happily rewatch the original on my own, but I'd really only rewatch this one with my kids. If you get the DVD, make sure you check out Rodriguez's 10-minute tutorial on making movies inexpensively. Very interesting. Oh, and watch for the little Raiders joke.
- Amelie (2001) ... Listed here.
- Atlantic City (1980) ... Listed here.
- Shadow of the Vampire (2000) ... Willem Dafoe fares very well, much better than the rest of the cast, or the rest of the movie for that matter. It's not that I didn't catch the themes of obsession and monomaniacal genius or the filmmaking satire and in-jokes (although I'm sure I missed a few). I just didn't care.
- Men in Black II (2002) ... If you loved Men in Black (as I did), I expect you'll find this a serviceable enough diversion (as I did). Anything less than love for the original and I'd avoid this sequel. The best part of the DVD was the animated short titled The Chubb Chubbs, which had some genuinely funny moments.
- Breaking Away (1979) ... Rewatched and listed here.
- February
- Blade II (2002) ... Listed here.
- Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002) ... Panned here.
- One Hour Photo (2002) ... Robin Williams does a pretty good job in these "maniac next door" roles, and his is a nice coiled-spring performance here. He (and the script) also do a pretty good job of highlighting his character's loneliness and making him an object of pity as much as fear. I could have done without the cliched exposition of why he turned out the way he is, but I can forgive that here, as I was quite drawn in otherwise to the unravelling of this sad, strange little man (a phrase my mind insisted on saying with Tim Allen's voice, much to my distraction).
- The Devil's Backbone (2001) ... Listed here.
- Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) ... Listed here and here.
- The Jungle Book 2 (2003) ... Listed here.
- The Lion in Winter (1968) ... Boy, and I thought *I* found Christmas stressful! The ultimate family holiday disaster. Henry II invites his three sons and imprisoned wife over for Christmas so they can scheme, plot and backstab over which son will inherit the throne. Possibly the schemingest movie I've ever seen, with great quotes and insults. This movie is all about the script and the performances, as this is basically a filmed play (although the on-location scenery adds to the mood). I docked points for minor pacing problems and occasional (very) heavy-handed dialog. I also wasn't as emotionally engaged as I should have been, which is the biggest thing keeping it from the next tier up. Certainly worth it for the script or performances alone.
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) ... I weathered both the hype and the critical backlash before seeing this, and ended up liking it for what is it: a relatively good romantic comedy. I'm starting to think romantic comedy is the hardest genre to get right, so I have to applaud any movie that fares so well. Nia Vardalos plays one of the more realistic "frump transformations" in recent memory (of course, the role isn't exactly a stretch for her) and it was interesting to note that while she basically plays herself they got 6'5" long-haired Northern Exposure hero John Corbett to play her stocky bald husband. So it doesn't only happen to women (or is this the exception that proves the rule?). And there was none of the contrived "oh no a misunderstanding is going to put their happiness in jeopardy in the third act" nonsense. It's just a story about two nice people with crazy families finding each other and falling in love.
- Series 7: The Contenders (2001) ... Possible explanations for why I didn't care for this movie: [1] Except for maybe two episodes of MTV's The Real World many moons ago, I've never seen a "reality" program. [2] I already think the country is going to hell in a handbasket, but I think we're still pretty far away from a reality-TV compulsory draft. [3] The teenager contender's parents were just too over-the-top. [4] It felt fake.
- Legend of 1900 (1998) ... A simple story: Tim Roth plays 1900, a virtuoso piano player that is born on a ship and never leaves it. For the first half I thought for sure this was going to be a tier 1 entry, but by the end I found I had little emotional involvement with the characters. I should have been saddened by the end, but I was strangely unmoved. It's really a shame; such an opportunity that just doesn't quite deliver. But I really loved parts of this movie, and the piano-in-the-storm scene is worth the rental alone.
- Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002) ... Panned here.
- Heaven Can Wait (1978) ... Warren Beatty plays a QB for the Rams who is taken up to heaven prematurely. The Powers That Be find a way to put him back. Fish Out Of Water amusements ensue. This one watches like a fairly charming made-for-TV movie. I usually find Beatty vaguely smarmy, so it was nice to see him as a rather affable lug. I can't shake the feeling that my time would have been better spent doing something else, but it was a decent diversion. My biggest complaint is with the ending, which was grossly unfair: Spoiler: Highlight to viewWe're told that Beatty should have lived another 50 years and that They are going to make it right by finding him another body. When they finally do "place" him, they wipe his memory and he basically carries on with the memories and personality of the guy he now inhabits. By my reckoning, that is tantamount to snuffing him.
- Signs (2002) ... I know from checking other lists that this is a polarizing movie, so I guess I'm one of the few that found it merely adequate. It was tense enough, there were some good scares, and a few chuckles thrown in. However, I found the acting ranged from poor to mediocre. This was also more of a message movie than a twist movie, and the message was handled pretty awkwardly. I suppose we're left with the question of whether or not the message was legitimate or if Mel was just reading too much into coincidences, but I don't think we're supposed to have that question; I think we're supposed to have faith. Not a complete miss for M. Night, but a glancing blow at best. Still a fan of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable though.
- Pleasantville (1998) ... Rewatched and listed here.
- January
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) ... Listed here.
- Stagecoach (1939) ... Listed here and here.
- The Last Picture Show (1971) ... Listed here.
- Black Orpheus (1959) ... Listed here.
- Night of the Hunter (1955) ... This was a very interesting movie that included several stunning scenes (especially the underwater shot which I won't describe further for fear of spoiling it). Although the biggest shock was the matronly woman's explicit commentary on sex: "I just lie there and think about my canning!" Being a bigger fan of old movies than I (although I'm gaining), you should have seen my wife's jaw hit the floor at *that* line. Mitchum's performance was quite menacing, and several of the scenes were genuinely tense. Unfortunately the whole surreal mood of the movie felt a bit campy rather than creepy for me too often (like when Mitchum frankensteinishly runs up the stairs with his arms outstretched), and that deflated much of the impact. Still a good viewing, but I would have listed it so much higher without that sense. Oh, and I'm happy to finally get the LUV/HAT Simpsons joke.
- Gosford Park (2001) ... Listed here.
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) ... Rewatched and listed here.
- Black Hawk Down (2001) ... A good-not-great war movie. But I had to list it because it effectively brought home for me the danger and the human cost of our smaller military actions. I guess it's actually not a war movie so much as it is an "armed conflict" movie, but the two are equally lethal and I'm grateful for the reminder.
- Conspiracy (2001) ... Listed here.
- The Bicycle Thief (1948) ... Listed here.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) ... Listed here.
- The Straight Story (1999) ... Richard Farnsworth was wonderful and Sissy Spacek was distracting (perhaps because I just saw her in In The Bedroom, but I suspect I wouldn't have liked her performance under any circumstances). Fortunately it's much more his movie than hers. The movie is so slow and gentle it's soothing. It's perhaps the slowest (earning it a spot here rather than the corresponding "middleweights" list), lowest-key feel-good movie I've ever seen, and the scene with the two old fellas exchanging WWII stories is positively heart-breaking.
Cloned From:
lol, yeah, I always wondered where that LUV / HAT thing came from before I saw "Night of the Hunter."
Oh yeah, and that reminded me of something else. Last Halloween, I pulled out a very half-assed and obscure costume by writing "LOVE" and "HATE" on my own fingers. And one of my friends actually got it! But then when I tried to wash it off, the "LOVE" ink came off much faster than the "HATE" ink, so for a few days, I looked like a KKK member who had the word "HATE" tattooed on his body. Eh, oh well.
:-) Good thing Something Wicked This Way Comes wasn't fresh in your mind that Halloween.
With The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance and Stagecoach in a row, you just knocked down half of my top four Westerns in two viewings!
Wow!
Now you'll have to indulge in the twenty thousand spoiler-tagged messages elsewhere on the site concerning Signs. :)
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Yeah, I saw those two westerns on the same day. It was a good day. Definitely worthy choices to include in a top four, although I get the impression from browsing this site that I liked TMWSLV a bit less than most, and Stagecoach a bit more.
I'm just trying to redeem myself for being ambivalent about The Searchers. :-)
Thanks for reminding me about all those spoilered Signs posts! I have to come down on your side of the debate. The ending was horribly illogical, it just didn't bother me as much as it bothered you. It's amazing how forgiving I can be if I'm entertained along the way, and I suspect I was more entertained by the first three-quarters than you were. I have to add my own spoilerized thought:
The thing that bugged me was the implication that the aliens were "harvesting" humans. I remember them saying something like "they didn't come here for our planet, they came here for us." And of course if aliens are harvesting us it is so they can eat us rather than, say, have us prepare their tax returns. But we're mostly water, which is poison to them. I suppose they could dry us into jerky, but I bet we'd be be pretty tough and stringy. I can't imagine we're the tastiest treat in the universe for a water-adverse species.
I'll respond as soon as I finish laughing from the idea of the new dried product your post suggests!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Jim,
I see you have been plucking movies from my forgotten 100 best list. Glad to see on the whole you are enjoying them.
Night of The Hunter is one of those polarizing movies. You either love it or you just think it is ok. Seems you fall in the second category.
A dual bill of Stagecoach and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance now that is what I call a good movie night. I don't know if you did this intentionally but you chose two movies that many people believe started and ended the golden era of the Western.
I have an intersting theory on your liking Stagecoach more than Liberty. If you watch them together and you like Stagecoach more, you are an optomist. If you like Liberty more , like me, you are a pessimist.
Really doesnt matter much and I am glad to see you are enjoying some movies I love.
I am staying out of the Signs debate but I did find your spoiler food theory interesting and hilarious.
Neglected but not forgotten, I hope! I love that list, I can't wait for you to finish it, and it's been serving me very well. I didn't realize until now that I saw five in a row from that list of yours. That was a good streak.
I wish I could take credit for the Stagecoach/TMWSLV double bill, but I have to thank Netflix for that one. They happened to send them together, which was a nice bit of serendipity. Very good movie night - it's a double bill I'd highly recommend.
Y'know, I really don't know if I'm an optimist or a pessimist. I'm pretty optimistic when it comes to my own life and future, but pretty pessimistic when it comes to humanity.
Hmm, that's an interesting theory. I'll have to test that out on myself sometime (I actually have both "Stagecoach" and "TMWSLV" just sitting around my house, waiting to be seen). I have always considered myself an optimist, but I think you're implying that TMWSLV was a darker movie, and I love many dark movies, so I'm not sure where this will put me.
jim, i loved your description of your daughter at the movie theater. there is something magical about watching a child's first experiences...
while i don't have kids of my own, i do have 3 year old twin brothers who give me an occasional taste of its joys. we took them to see the veggie tales movie and they were so funny. they were enrapt as soon as the screen lit up with previews and afterward they exclaimed with amazement "that was a BIG tv!"
:-) Love the "big TV" quote. Since our TV serves exclusively as a VCR/DVD terminal, I love watching our five-year-old try to "rewind" network television during her rare exposures to it.
You really shouldn't encourage me in the kid-stories department. You'll never shut me up.
Jim, did you like the Virgin Suicides?
I'm hoping to get that review and three others up today (only three?! geez, it really has been a busy month!).
Uh Oh; Jim is starting the coming soon comments. Once you start down that slippery slope it is hard to catch up....
Of course if I was really serious about this, I would be writing up some comments on my own lists as opposed to making inane comments on this one....
Yeah, I think I still have some Italian for Beginners comments yet to be born...
Careful, Jim. And jgandcag, shape up sir! We're still waiting for comments on Yi Yi, Femme Fatale, Auto Focus, and (giggle) Scooby Doo!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
:-) I started the "coming soon" thing intentionally because I wanted a little more time to digest the movies before writing them up. So I figured I'd always lag one viewing session behind (i.e. see one, then wait to write it up until I've seen another). But here I am, two behind, and about to add a third before I go to bed. The slope isn't just slippery, it's greased! But I'm confident I'll acquire the discipline.
Although now that you've both given me the opportunity, I have to say I'm dying for more movie comments from both of you!
Thanks for the comments! It's nice the change didn't go unnoticed.
Well, several new reviews I'm a-waitin' on here, then. Let's get to movin'!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Done! I stayed up far too late working on those. So now that you owe me, when you going to start up your "Seen in ___" list again? :-)
Great reviews!
I'll see if I can't start spitting out reviews again in June...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
TOPSY-TURVY?! Quick man, pump out that review!
Alrighty my friend, you got it. And I see you're promised (in advance, no less!) to return the favor. Can't wait!
Oooh, is this your first viewing of "Sunset Boulevard"? One of my favorites. Can't wait to hear your comments!
Yup, first viewing! A short preview of my review is that I really really liked it. Perhaps loved it.
Alrighty, reformatting reviews for two different venues was getting to be a pain, especially when making corrections or additions. What do you folks think of this approach (initiated with Pirates of the Caribbean), where I put the link to the movie here (and on various "recommended" lists, when it qualifies) but the review on my weblog? So I keep maintaining the lists, but you have to click through to the reviews?
I post this for my 3 to 5 loyal readers. :-) Everybody else should feel to continue ignoring me.
Alright, Jim. I'm making an appearance just to let you know that I don't ignore you, I just don't comment! :-)
That being said, I don't see any problems with the new format, especially if it's easier for you. I'm sure you have enough to do without having to copy and paste your reviews a billion times!
:-) Thanks!
And the rest of us will go on with ignoring you... :-)
Just kidding, Jim, and the new linking format is fine with me if it's easier for you.
:-) Glad to hear the new format isn't a step down. It is quite a bit easier for me to manage.
Hey, Jim! In the spirit of providing feedback...
I'm not really a fan of way that you've been posting your reviews on your weblog as of late. Of course you should handle things however you choose but having to go to biancolo.com just to see the reviews really takes me out of and away from seeing all of your movie comments and reviews as a complete body of work. I know it probably makes things much easier for you though.
On a related note, does shifting your reviews to your weblog have anything to do with the inevitable (?) shuttering of Listology because of monetary concerns, even if that closing doesn't occur for many months?
Hey, thanks for the feedback! Most important thing first: Listology will not be shuttered as long as I have a job, and I have no reason to believe my job isn't secure (knock on wood). I would have to fall on very hard times before I'd shutter it. And if the improbable happened and I *did* have to shutter it, I'd still post all the existing content on some static server somewhere, you just wouldn't be able to add new stuff. So even in that extreme case, it's not like anything anybody has contributed would be lost or unavailable.
As for the new format of my movies lists, I actually don't like it as much either, but I'm so swamped lately I had to streamline. It was a big pain to type up the review for Listology, append it to the appropriate list, then reformat it slightly for the weblog and repost it there. Then if I had corrections to make... ugh.
One solution would be for me to not track movies in two places, but I've been trying to centralize (to a certain extent) my writing and projects in one place, and the weblog seemed like the right place to do it (easier to fold movies in over there than documentation on an Ultimate Frisbee play animation tool over here :-). Of course, I didn't (and don't) want to neglect Listology in the process, so I was trying to strike a happy medium, with the reviews over there, and the lists/breakdowns over here. Mixed results, so far. I'll probably keep playing with it until I find a format I like better.
Oh, I don't know if it helps at all, but while the links go directly to specific movies reviews, there are monthly archive pages that show a whole month's worth of movies at once (September, for example).
Alrighty, I fixed it. But since the time has to come from somewhere, I'm archiving my "Read in 2003" list. :-)
Hi Jim, just a quick note to let you know that your 28 Days Later link seems to take me to the edit version of the list.
Shawn
Whoa, thanks, I wonder how that slipped in there! Fortunately it's not a security breach when folks like me slip up and do that (nobody can edit anybody else's lists, even under such circumstances), but it's still an error.
Ah, Jim, you're no philistine. You're just unique, which is groovy.
I'll admit, though, that you are the first person I know who has watched all of Children of Paradise and not dug it. I do have several friends who just don't get as excited over Dr. Caligari as I do...
I'm working a temp job now, and putting in around ten to twelve hours a day, so forgive my silence. I'm at a library on my lunch break at the moment. With work, it seems to be feast or famine.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Jim, I did the same thing with the text frames of Dr. Caligari. And though I watched it all the way through, there have been a few films that have gotten the fast-forward treatment from me and not all of them silent ones (Dark Harbor comes to mind).
Thanks for the support guys! I guess I don't *have* to like every great movie that comes down the Pike, but I do try.
Lbangs, me being the *only* person you know that didn't dig Children of Paradise is a dubious distinction for me. :-) On the job front, sorry to hear you're working such long hours, but congrats on resuming the inbound money-flow. So've you found a CD mailer yet?
Always nice to catch Iron Giant again, eh?
Glad you caught Talk to Her, even if you didn't go as wonkers as I did over it! :)
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Yeah, I love that movie. We've had it on DVD for quite awhile, but it's been lurking in the back while we've been waiting for Amelia to be old enough. She's six now, and it seems to be just the right age for her. She loved it! Of course, Ella's only two, and she does what sister does, so she's seeing stuff *much* earlier. Ah well, like most folks, we've let our guard way down with kid #2. :-)
I just noticed you haven't done an Almodovar CC list. Seems like he might be a good candidate!
Hey, you've been around quite a bit today! That doesn't bode ill on the employment front, does it?
I envy your opportunity to watch family films with a family. For now, I just have to channel my inner child (which isn't hard, cuz he ain't too far down in there)!
I'm actually working on an Almodovar CC! Great minds...
My presence here on the site today has more to do with the coming holiday season than any bad work situation. For now, I'm still chalking up the hours and getting those blessed, accursed checks! Thanks for asking!
Beware. I am a second child. ;)
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
That tears it, Ella's going back on Barney. Let the 2nd-child crackdown begin. :-)