Index of Movie Posts -- from Sept. 2008 to present!
IT'S A SOMY -- the blog for those who love dumb fake products in their anime
- Created By Shinmaru
Modern Art Makes Me Want to Rock Out
Is it just me, or does this image I made for The Des come off like some bizarre surrealist painting? Cowbell!Guy is kind of freaking me out right now.
Also, I need sleep.
RIP Paul Newman (1925-2008)
Paul Newman dies after battle with cancer.
Boy, great news to wake up to, huh? Man. He lived a hell of a life, though -- 83 years is nothing to sneeze at, and he did so much and was so giving throughout his life.
As I have delved more into the movies, Paul Newman has become one of my favorite actors. I first saw him in The Sting and was floored. It's a great movie, and a lot of fun, and Newman is just so smooth and confident in it.
I remembered that when I watched Cool Hand Luke and The Hustler, both of which have taken him into the stratosphere for me. Absolutely nobody would be able to play Luke or "Fast Eddie" Felson like Paul Newman. Nobody. If you like movies even a bit, and you have not seen any of the movies I just mentioned, do yourselves a favor and seek them out. You will not be disappointed.
There are still so many movies of his I have not seen yet -- Hud, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Verdict, The Color of Money, Road to Perdition, Nobody's Fool, The Hudsucker Proxy and so on and so forth. In a way, I am glad that even after I have watched three of the best movies I will ever see, there is still so much more for me to see. I'll enjoy every second of it.
Rest in peace to one of the best actors I will ever have the pleasure of watching.
This Is Awesome
So, as it turns out, the Empire top 100 list I dorked out about a while back was not the actual top 100 -- the magazine had just selected 100 movies from the top 500 to use as covers to promote the list as a whole (and conveniently forgot...Movie Post II: Electric Boogaloo
Fewer movies this week (I was busy wasting my time in other ways!), but they were some good ones.
Munich (2005): Damn good movie, despite what people may think about the historical authenticity of what Steven Spielberg is presenting. (My view on it is this -- it is a movie. Fiction. It is not going to be 100 percent accurate with the facts, especially with something like this, where people do not know all the facts. Munich definitely tries -- people have accepted the first third of the movie, which depicts the events of the 1972 Olympics when Israeli athletes were held hostage and killed -- but ultimately it is a dramatization that aims for emotional truth rather than complete historical accuracy.) My only real issue with the movie is that it is a bit long; my attention wavered a bit during a couple of parts.
Traffic (2000): Great movie. I love the visual style used to separate the main stories (Michael Douglas' is done in a blue tint, which gives it a cold, melancholy feel; Catherine Zeta-Jones is a bit warmer; and Benicio del Toro's is harsh and sharp, which emphasizes the cruelty and seediness of the drug wars in Mexico). Putting aside the movie's politics (which I agree with for the most part), the story is strong, thrilling and I had no trouble at all keeping up with it. My favorite of the storylines is the one down in Mexico with Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez (del Toro) and his partner, Manolo Sanchez (Jacob Vargas). They have to make so many difficult choices to keep from falling into the ebb and flow of corruption within the Mexican police.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951): This is the old style science-fiction movie, and it is every bit as great as I hoped it would be. (Though I am now frightened of the remake scheduled for release in December -- Keanu Reeves as Klaatu? He's rational, not wooden. Also, can you imagine Reeves solving complex mathematical problems? My god.) I am pretty sure that were I a kid in 1951 and saw this, I would have worshiped Klaatu (which is sort of ironic considering he's a Christ figure). He is the coolest -- his knowing, "silly humans lol" smirks are great. Klaatu barada nikto ftw btw.
On the plate this week: Bug (2006), Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) and Rashomon (1950).
Movie Count: 71 (Live Free and Die Hard, Time Bandits, The Hustler, Black Dragon (Miracles), Hollywoodland, Blood Diamond, Animal Crackers, Marie Antoinette, Inside Man, The Fountain, Tombstone, Jurassic Park (Rifftrax), No Country for Old Men, Juno, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Rifftrax), There Will Be Blood, Rize, Born Into Brothels, Eastern Promises, Gone Baby Gone, Hard Candy, The Matrix Reloaded (Rifftrax), Hot Fuzz, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs, Phone Booth, The Dark Knight, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Predator, Ratatouille, Renaissance, Pretty in Pink, Scanners, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, Stop Making Sense, The Killing, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rifftrax), Voices of a Distant Star, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Amadeus, Touch of Evil, Paths of Glory, Gangs of New York, Five Easy Pieces, Perfect Blue, Novocaine, A Fish Called Wanda, A Hard Day's Night, Arsenic and Old Lace, Out of the Past, The Lady from Shanghai, The Wild Bunch, The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Bringing Up Baby, Pleasantville, Citizen Kane, They Live, The Terminator, The Adolescence of Utena, The Castle of Cagliostro, The Professional, High Plains Drifter, In the Heat of the Night, Michael Clayton, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Munich, Traffic, The Day the Earth Stood Still)
Anime Watchin'
Before you read this, I demand you all read this story by Nehszriah, which was inspired by The Books of Moe. Any story that displays everything that is so wonderful about Samuel L. Jackson is well worth reading. Also, it is funny as hell.
This past month or so has probably been the most active anime viewing period of my life. It would practically be superhuman if I did not have Des around to knock me back to Earth. :P
So, quick thoughts.
AIR: Loved this. First off, super beautiful series -- would not be at all surprised if I watched it again simply to admire the pure art of it. Also greatly enjoyed how quickly the series enabled me to become attached to the characters. I was actually a bit put off by Misuzu in the beginning -- she came off as artificial to me -- but within the space of a couple of episodes, her story cut right to my heart. Parent/child relationship stories also resonate strongly with me, so I loved the theme of maternal relationships throughout. (The end got to me strongly, obviously, but my heart was also ripped to shreds during the dinner with Tohno, her mother, Michiru and Yukito. It's so simple and so bittersweet. I am a huge sap, btw.)
Mnemosyne: Liked it so much that I don't have to look up the spelling anymore! Should I be ashamed that my initial interest in the series came from the main character, Rin, pushing just about every button I have, and even some I didn't even know I had? My god. But there are two main things I love about the series. 1) The sexuality, and how it is used to develop character. It ranges from sensual to loving to brutal and to downright disgusting and horrifying. And 2) How people and the world evolve throughout. Rin and her cohort, Mimi, are immortal, and Mnemosyne follows roughly 65 years of their existence. Characters come into their lives, grow and die, all while being replaced in Rin and Mimi's lives by descendants. I like how it is pulled off in this series.
Eureka Seven: Five episodes in and I am enjoying it greatly. Renton is a character I am actually liking quite a bit right now, because I can identify with the kid so much. (Well, identify with how I was at his age, anyway. ... Man, that sentence made me feel old.) Eureka is also quite different from how I imagined her, which is cool with me. Plus, there are air surfing mechas. How fucking cool is that?? Actually, it probably would have sounded ridiculous to me before I watched this, but now I totally want one. It seems the larger story is starting to emerge now, so I am looking forward to the coming episodes.
After Eureka Seven I am thinking about watching Black Lagoon (and probably Second Barrage if I like Black Lagoon, which I am sure I will, haha). After that is a mystery!
