Last Movie You Watched

[George]

     I thought he was a fine Woody surrogate. Like the Wood Man himself, he has a surface shallowness that obscures a deeper shallowness. If only we knew.....

    Nah, that's unfair to Wilson. He did play a shallow character with hidden depths in The Minus Man.

He shined brightest in Bottle Rocket, I think.

[eyeresist]

My reaction was a bit mixed. Woody Allen has the worst case of art cult snobbery ever to appear in mass audience films, yet he has the sense to make fun of the trait in his characters (Michael Sheen). Basically I'm through with Allen. He panders to his audience with cheap uplift. A real industrial strength snob like me doesn't think a thin application of art knowledge is good for you, or even that art is good for you. Children benefit from it because it opens channels of the mind and mental performance improves.  The funny thing is that Allen is a genuine practitioner with the attitudes of a cultural tourist getting his art ticket punched. I'm sick of it.

I saw Match Point and Vicky Christina Barcelona a few weeks ago, and found them unsatisfactory. I think the problem for me in both cases is that beneath the thin veneer of intellectual lipservice is a plot which is driven purely by infatuation, which the characters and the film never examine or question.
In Allen's earlier films, I recall characters contemplating their actions, asking "Why am I doing this?", "Why am I compelled?", or at least "What will people think?" (I'm thinking particularly of this quote from Manhattan: "You know, it's important to have some kind of personal integrity. I'll be hanging in a classroom one day and I wanna make sure when I thin out that I'm well thought of." Also the berating self-doubt of Michael Caine's character in Hannah & Her Sisters.) Even if these questions were never answered, it showed some sign of self awareness.
Now the characters (at least in Match Point and VCB) have self-pity but no introspection. They have adult vocabularies but live like beasts. I'm sure there are people like this, but as far as Allen's artistic development goes, he seems to have gone backwards.

[mc ukrneal]

I saw Match Point and Vicky Christina Barcelona a few weeks ago, and found them unsatisfactory. I think the problem for me in both cases is that beneath the thin veneer of intellectual lipservice is a plot which is driven purely by infatuation, which the characters and the film never examine or question.
In Allen's earlier films, I recall characters contemplating their actions, asking "Why am I doing this?", "Why am I compelled?", or at least "What will people think?" (I'm thinking particularly of this quote from Manhattan: "You know, it's important to have some kind of personal integrity. I'll be hanging in a classroom one day and I wanna make sure when I thin out that I'm well thought of." Also the berating self-doubt of Michael Caine's character in Hannah & Her Sisters.) Even if these questions were never answered, it showed some sign of self awareness.
Now the characters (at least in Match Point and VCB) have self-pity but no introspection. They have adult vocabularies but live like beasts. I'm sure there are people like this, but as far as Allen's artistic development goes, he seems to have gone backwards.

I didn't like these either, though I felt Vicky Christina Barcelona was far worse. I lamented the wasted time watching it. 

[eyeresist]

I didn't like these either, though I felt Vicky Christina Barcelona was far worse. I lamented the wasted time watching it.

I thought their pointlessness was about equal

[SonicMan46]

I'm a big fan of American musicals, whether on film or live on stage; own a bunch from the 1930s to the recent present (e.g. Chicago) - continuing some DVD replacements w/ Blu-ray discs, just added to my favorites shown below! 

Music Man, The (1962) - Robert Preston & Shirley Jones; BOY, 50th year anniversary!  I saw this film in the theater as a teenager and sat through it twice @ that time; there was a TV movie remake from 2003 w/ Matthew Broderick - hmmm; well for me Preston remains the ultimate in this role -

My Fair Lady (1964) - Rex Harrison & Audrey Hepburn; now I still enjoy the late 1930s non-musical film Pygmalion w/ Leslie Howard & Wendy Hiller - both of these BD releases are superb transfers; still I would have loved to seen Julie Andrews in this role who played Doolittle on the Broadway stage! - 

 

[eyeresist]

I'm a big fan of American musicals, whether on film or live on stage; own a bunch from the 1930s to the recent present

So this is probably not the time to mention I think Singing In The Rain would be much better without the musical numbers? I am a big fan of Fred & Ginger, though.

[eyeresist]

One for the horror fans:  Is anyone familiar with The League of Gentlemen or its follow-up Psychoville?

I avoided the first because descriptions were too vague for me to have any idea what it was like. Psychoville on the other hand gives it away in the title. It's interesting because it combines thoroughly British approaches to both comedy and horror. Definitely a classic Brit comedy feel to it (grubby shops, odd accents, men dressed as women), but I would not recommend it to Karl because the pervasive horror elements make for a rather disturbing experience. In fact, I don't think it's very funny, but the comic element feeds the grotesquery in an essential way.

I picked up the complete series of League of Gentlemen last night. Haven't started watching it yet, but am slightly disturbed to hear it has a laugh track!

[Bulldog]

     I thought he was a fine Woody surrogate. Like the Wood Man himself, he has a surface shallowness that obscures a deeper shallowness. If only we knew.....

As usual our opinions are at opposite poles.  Frankly, I don't think Owen Wilson has any significant acting ability.

[DavidW]

Frankly, I don't think Owen Wilson has any significant acting ability.

Unless you count squinting as acting!!

[Bogey]

My Fair Lady (1964) - Rex Harrison & Audrey Hepburn; now I still enjoy the late 1930s non-musical film Pygmalion w/ Leslie Howard & Wendy Hiller - both of these BD releases are superb transfers; still I would have loved to seen Julie Andrews in this role who played Doolittle on the Broadway stage! - 

 

Win win with whoever takes the role.  Great movie, Dave.

[SonicMan46]

So this is probably not the time to mention I think Singing In The Rain would be much better without the musical numbers? I am a big fan of Fred & Ginger, though.

Oh Boy - you must be jesting here - 

Just to mention a few scenes in that film, i.e. Gene Kelly dancing in the rain & Donald O'Connor's solo scene w/ the couch/doll - I return to this film often for those experiences, and there are so many others!  Please tell me that you are kidding - 

 

[eyeresist]

Please tell me that you are kidding - 

No, sadly I'm quite serious. The magic just doesn't work for me.

[Bogey]

No, sadly I'm quite serious. The magic just doesn't work for me.

Singing Dialogue in the Rain? 

[eyeresist]

Singing Dialogue in the Rain? 

I saw it years ago, so my memory may be slightly off.... I found the stuff about the early film industry interesting and the story humorous, but Gene Kelly has a bland screen presence, and the songs are simplistic compared to stuff by Cole Porter or Irving Berlin. I also fail to see how anyone could not be irritated by "Make 'em laugh" (though that song is apparently a rip-off of "Be a clown" by Cole Porter, so there you go). I'm not a lover of musicals in general - my attitude is one of provisional disdain until I'm convinced otherwise, usually by wit or interesting harmonic formulations. Perhaps I'm more tolerant of the bare-faced let's-sing-a-song quality of Wizard of Oz, due to that film's fantasy setting plus the melancholy undercurrent - or maybe the songs are better!


EDIT: Now I think about it, the fact that Oz is expertly through-composed may be a factor.

[DavidW]

I watched The Lady in White good ghost story and obvious who dun it.  I really enjoyed this yarn about a kid that discovers the ghost of a girl who is murdered every night... and the mystery of who murdered her (and nearly him).

[asin]B000A7LRA0[/asin]

[eyeresist]

I watched The Lady in White good ghost story and obvious who dun it.  I really enjoyed this yarn about a kid that discovers the ghost of a girl who is murdered every night... and the mystery of who murdered her (and nearly him).

I read a review which said this film was ruined by the excessive use of dramatic sound effects. Comments?

[Lethevich]

I picked up the complete series of League of Gentlemen last night. Haven't started watching it yet, but am slightly disturbed to hear it has a laugh track!

TLOG is better imo, a kind of quieter weirdness - the laugh track works well though, it's like a typical black comedy ramped up to levels that the audience seem to find funny outside of the humour itself - a kind of meta-game thing.

[TheGSMoeller]

.[asin]B0000CABGW[/asin]


Japanese extreme cinema at it's finest. Was glad to see this airing on Sundance Channel, one of my favorites from Miike.

[DavidW]

I read a review which said this film was ruined by the excessive use of dramatic sound effects. Comments?

It seemed pretty conventional in terms of sound effects and film score.  I would call that nit picking.

[DavidW]

Japanese extreme cinema at it's finest. Was glad to see this airing on Sundance Channel, one of my favorites from Miike.

This is the most nonchalant reaction to one of the most insane movies I've seen!!  It's not quite as crazy as Audition but dang Greg!