Skipped a week because I watched just a couple of movies last week and didn't feel like posting. But now I have four to post about! Yay!
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008): Classic Woody Allen -- neurotics try to not completely screw up their lives and fail miserably. Good times! It's funny and well-written, though, so hey. Best parts are when the pretentiousness of both Vicky and Cristina are goofed on. Also, it is totally weird to see Javier Bardem as a Casanova type, since the last movie I saw him in was No Country for Old Men ... haha. And, jeez, Penelope Cruz is so great in this. From the moment she appears, you can immediately understand why she holds such a strong place in the life of Bardem's character. Sucks that she never really succeeded crossing over into English language movies, because she has been fantastic in all the Spanish parts I have seen her play.
The Beast with Five Fingers (1946): Not a bad psychological horror movie for the time. Plus, just about anything with Peter Lorre in it will be awesome just because. My only problem with it is one plot thread is wrapped up in just about the dumbest, most unbelievable way possible at the end of the movie. It nearly ruined the ending for me. So bad. But as a horror fan, I've weathered dumber things, so whatever. Just a bit disappointing to downgrade the movie from "good" to "OK" because of that one dumb piece of plot.
This Gun for Hire (1942): The film noir that put Alan Ladd's career on the map (most people will know him from Shane, which is not a film noir, but whatever). It's actually pretty interesting because it has one of the first instances of a protagonist who is rather despicable, although there are some characteristics that soften him a bit. But he's best when he is being a loner and a killer, haha. There is also a rah rah patriotic element to the movie that comes across as really corny today; however, it probably fit right in upon first release, so I don't want to fault it too much. But if you like film noir, This Gun for Hire is essential viewing.
Funny tidbit: Alan Ladd is 5'5" (or so) but looks taller in this movie because Veronica Lake is 4'10". It's hilarious when Ladd is paired with one of the movie's villains, Willard Gates (played by Laird Cregar), who has to be at least half a foot taller than Ladd.
Jackie Brown (1997): Aside from Inglourious Basterds, this is the only Quentin Tarantino movie I hadn't see -- don't know why I always avoided watching it, but I just did. But to anyone else who might be avoiding it: Stop. It's so awesome and so much fun; basically the whole thing is Jackie Brown (played by Pam Grier) pulling an epic Xanatos Gambit on nearly everyone in the movie. The story is tense as can be, and it's littered with all the great types of moments that make Tarantino's movies so damn great to watch. Don't know why I am always surprised to be cracking up during a Tarantino movie, but the moments he crafts just come out of nowhere and are all the funnier because of it. See this movie, people!
On the queue for this week: Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Total Movies: 147 (Gaslight, The Last King of Scotland, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Darjeeling Limited, This Film is Not Yet Rated, Diary of the Dead, Bullets Over Broadway, Interiors, Husbands and Wives, The Professional: Golgo 13, Lars and the Real Girl, Lolita, Quills, Hamlet, Iris, Manhattan Murder Mystery, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, The Savages, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Stranger, Love and Death, Harold and Maude, Spartacus, Scarlet Street, Sabrina, Zelig, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), Stardust Memories, Barry Lyndon, Be Kind Rewind, Radio Days, Deconstructing Harry, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Creating Rem Lazar, Undefeatable, Ninja Terminator, Ninja Dragon, Rumble Fish, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, In Bruges, The Bank Dick, Marathon Man, Clannad, Air, Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, MirrorMask, Slither, It's a Gift, Splendor in the Grass, Waitress, North by Northwest, Monkey Business, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, The Brave One, 3:10 to Yuma, Bringing Out the Dead, Gurren Lagann: Gurren-hen, There Will Be Blood, Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder, The Princess Bride, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Spellbound, Frenzy, Anatomy of a Murder, Clue, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Changeling, Shadows and Fog, Into the Wild, Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Man Who Fell to Earth (1987), Synecdoche, New York, Carlito's Way, Shoot 'Em Up, Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Up, Yor: Hunter from the Future, Tropic Thunder, True Romance, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, A Woman Under the Influence, Casablanca, Frost/Nixon, Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Le Samouraï, Inland Empire, The Reader, Doubt, Arachnophobia, Manhunter, Wild At Heart, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Omega Man, Hitman, Leaving Las Vegas, Cape Fear, Say Anything ..., Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa, Chasing Amy, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Point Break, 500 Days of Summer, Man Bites Dog, Burn After Reading, Glory, Training Day, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, White Heat, All About Eve, The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), The Big Heat, Death at a Funeral, Valkyrie, Shane, Stalag 17, Secondhand Lions, Bride of Frankenstein, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, Witness for the Prosecution, In a Lonely Place, Dracula, Escaflowne, Dark Passage, X/1999, Watchmen, High Anxiety, Point Blank, Murder, My Sweet, The Thing from Another World, Revolutionary Road, Commando, Coraline, Rachel Getting Married, V for Vendetta, Let the Right One In, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Beast with Five Fingers, This Gun for Hire, Jackie Brown)
