Ryan McNeil
I’m hard-pressed to remember a week where I watched so few films.
Between being social, taking in a concert, keeping up with the beginning of baseball season and the end of the basketball season, this week left me precious little time to watch film. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t care all that much, except for the fact that Hot Docs is growing pretty quickly on the horizon and I’d hoped I’d be more well-versed by now.
Then again, maybe I should get used to this. The next month is going to fly by for me. If I put up a post on May 11th and say “How is it already Mother’s Day”, point me back towards this post.
Then again, I do have a long weekend to look forward to before this post next week. Perhaps I should swing for double-digits? Challenge accepted!
Here’s The Week at Hand…
Screenings
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER – For my money, this is right up there with the first IRON MAN amongst the best Avengers stand-alone films.
Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
JUST EAT IT: A FOOD WASTE STORY – (Hot Docs Screener) The sort of film I wish a lot of people would make a point of seeing.
SLEEPLESS IN NEW YORK – (Hot Docs Screener) This one’s gonna stick with me for a while.
MUGSHOT – (Hot Docs Screener) I’m left wondering why the interviewees weren’t mugshotted?
ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD (1951) – I seriously didn’t expect this to be this charming.
Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Watched Before
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN – The hope is that sometime before Easter I stop humming “Moses Supposes”
I didn’t see a lot of new things this week due to some major spring cleaning as my mom’s favorite cousin visited for a day yesterday. Still, I did see some things:
First-Timers: The Lone Ranger, WrestleMania XXX, Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, Zero de conduite, and later tonight, The Hustler.
Re-Watches: Pitch Perfect, The 40-Year Old Virgin, Before Midnight, The Man With the Iron Mask, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, and The Godfather Pt. II.
I suspect with Wrestlemania now over & done with that your film watching will go back on the uptick again.
What’d you make of THE LONE RANGER?
I had a successful week. Crossed off many classics of my watchlist. Haven’t seen any film from your list except Singin’ in the Rain which is due for a rewatch. Will see Captain America soon.
Capturing The Friedmans – I loved how it played with the notion of truth. However I think there was something strange about these people. Very dysfunctional family. I was glad the mom found happiness though.
Adult World – Small indie about a poet working at a porn shop. It was nice but not very original.
The Grand Budapest Hotel – On the big screen. Worth any penny. Hilarious, loved the Gustave H character as well as Ralph Fiennes’ performance. It was strange to see how violent it was for a Wes Anderson movie. I will watch it again when it comes on DVD.
The Usual Suspects – Liked it a lot. Loved the opening credits and the music. Very mysterious. I like how it is constructed and the actors are giving their best however it was hard for me to concentrate during the film. Maybe I wasn’t in the mood for it. I did like it though and at the end was glued to the screen. It just took me a while to get in this position. Still thinking about the twist and its possibility though.
Citizen Kane – Wow. I sure see why it is so praised. Must have been innovative at that time. Every scene was brilliant. However I don’t see myself watching it again anytime soon. Not very enjoyable. But I see what it is so lauded for.
The Others – Been looking for a gothic ghost story film for a while. This is the closest I could get so far. I loved the look and Nicole Kidman is an actress I like more and more. I liked how they developed the ending but I think the twist itself was predictable. If you really look for it throughout the film. I didn’t try to predict it but it wasn’t as much of a shocker. There weren’t many ways to end the story.
Paris, Texas – Very interesting story. Loved the look and the music. The scenes between Kinski and Stanton were by far the best part. Highly recommended film. It’s also my first Wenders film.
Citizen Kane – I *do* implore you to watch it one more time sometime in the near future, but this time watch it with Roger Ebert’s commentary track on and learn about all the little details and tricks that are in the film that we don’t see with a casual glance.
Well, I’m back down to only two films for this week…
First time:
Escape Plan – so much better than I expected. I loved it.
The Lizard
And once again, your selections stare at me as unknown entities. How do you keep doing this man?
B-Movies and martial arts, mostly. 🙂 You should know of Escape Plan, though. The Stallone/Schwarzenegger joint from just a few months back!
It’s also because a lot of the movies I watch are for one of the many review series I do, so this sort of limits my ability to get through the more well-known stuff.
Ryan, your short week still topped me by a good margin. I saw three films, and two were just okay for me.
THOR: THE DARK WORLD – I enjoyed it but found it to be the least memorable of all the Marvel films in their current run. It’s ridiculous and over the top, but it never really grabbed me.
AMERICAN HUSTLE – In a strange way, I had a similar reaction to this movie. I admire the acting and the way that Russell goes for it, but I felt detached from the characters. I can totally understand the acclaim, but it didn’t grab me.
DRUG WAR – This was the highlight of the week for me. I’m not a huge fan of procedurals, but I was never bored by this Johnnie To film. The finale is something to see.
I’m actually quite anxious to revisit AMERICAN HUSTLE and see where it lands for me on rewatch. I seem to remember writing my review and finishing off my thoughts about 150 – 200 words shy of where I usually do. In my experience, a low word-count is usually a sign that a movie doesn’t transcend into anything more…but perhaps I’ll feel different now that the conversation around it has died down.
I’m in a similar boat. I’ve been writing about most films that I watch this year, and I just decided not to for AMERICAN HUSTLE since I didn’t have that much to say about it. It’s not a bad film, but it just didn’t grab me and make me want to dig into it.