With the baseball season starting this week, I went on a little bit of a bender. As I got down towards the bottom of the pile, I found myself wanting to watch a few more. So if you see titles like SUGAR and BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY listed in this space over the next few weeks, don’t be surprised.

The other thing I’m looking forward to this week is catching up with a few more new releases. I’ve bemoaned this several times, but for a while now it has felt like there’s been precious little in theatres worth tracking down. Happily now though there are offerings like BULLY to pick up the slack, the upcoming CABIN IN THE WOODS, and after an odd amount of praise from people I trust…MIRROR MIRROR.

Oh, and did I mention the stack of screener dvd’s that Hot Docs has sent me? That’s what happens when you start thinking to yourself that there’s not much out there to watch – you’re handed a plethora of material, and the baseball season starts up.

Here’s The Week at Hand…

Screenings
BLOOD AND SAND – Hopefully some day I’ll catch up with this on dvd and fill in a few blanks.
1,000 LAFFS – Chaplin, Keaton, Arbuckle, Laurel and Hardy all in one afternoon. Cinematic bliss!
THE ITALIAN STRAW HAT – This one easily ranks amongst my all-time top five moviegoing experiences

Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
BORN YESTERDAY (1950) – This would have been apropos to watch before my trip to DC last summer.
BEWARE OF MR. BAKER – Hot Docs Screener: The first of what I think will be a handful of great rock docs.

Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Watched Before
MAJOR LEAGUE – Ever notice that all the stadiums seen in this movie are gone?
ALFIE (2004) – The original is better; The remake is prettier.
(500) DAYS OF SUMMER – Every time I watch this film I love it more and more
FIELD OF DREAMS – The movie ends and Lindsay says “Can you dry your tears and take out the garbage”. That’s love.
FEVER PITCH – “The outfield grass…is it spongey?”

Boxscore for The Year
61 First-Timers, 63 Re-Watched
26 Screenings
124 Movies in Total

How’s about you – seen anything good?

26 Replies to “Days of The Week (Films Watched Mar 31 – Apr 6)”

  1. Firsts: Oldboy– Bloody shocking, but I ended up loving it.
    Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day– It was sweet. I needed something normal after Oldboy. Amy Adams was adorable.
    The Piano Teacher– I really liked it, something I did not expect to happen. Isabelle Huppert is amazing.
    Doubt– Interesting. I love how bitchy Meryl Streep can be.
    Battle Royale– This *is* better than The Hunger Games. I’m so happy my school is over.
    Shame– Really good and incredible work by Fassy.

    Rewatched: In Bruges– I need a DVD of this pronto to take screenshots of Ralph Fiennes’s expressions and like worship then forever.
    Notting Hill– I was craving Hugh Grant.

    1. SHAME is sorta nuts isn’t it? There was a lot about it that resonated for me, but it was a tough story to actually latch on to due to how unsavoury it was.

      By the way, if you enjoyed IN BRUGES and haven’t seen it already, look for a movie with Brendan Gleason called THE GUARD. You can thank me later.

    2. Oh, The Guard is a great one. Would love to do a double-feature of that and In Bruges. Can’t wait to hear about the new one where Brendan Gleason plays a local priest who has a contract on his life.

  2. Cabin In The Woods is really good, I am not going to say anything else about it…

    Looking forward to see Beware of Mr Baker in Hot Docs.

    First time watch this wk:

    Jeff Who Lives At Home: Disappointing effort from the Duplass Brothers.
    The Loved Ones: Your slightly above average horror/torture in high-school.

    The Myth Of the American Sleepover: The indie(r) version of Dazed And Confused.

    You Are The Apple Of My Eye: A very good coming of age love story from Taiwan. A nice surprise.

    Rewatched:

    Zombie Girl The Movie: Watching some Docs to get ready for Hot Docs, I watched this in HotDocs 09

    Project Nim: Don’t let any chimp watch this, or they will end up being Caesar and conquer the world.

    Titanic 3D: It holds up remarkably well, theater is full and half the people were sobbing (one girl start weeping loudly halfway through, and was quite a mess when it’s over). Say what you will about Cameron’s dialogue and his lack of subtleties, when that boat sinks, nothing else matters. Meant to be seen on a big screen. The 3D is completely not necessary, I didn’t remember I have the glasses on after 20 minutes.

    1. Sorry to hear you weren’t fussed about JEFF. That was actually a joy for me late in last year’s TIFF (and actually will be the subject of the next Matineecast).

      I’ll admit there is a small part of me that wants to go back to TITANIC…but after seeing it three times in theatres on its original release (including on an IMAX screen the last time), I think I’ll sit it out.

    1. I was actually a little surprised that there weren’t many biblical films on TV this weekend. If I had time today, I’d queue up BEN-HUR. LAST TEMPTATION has been on a lot, but I flip past it as I intend to buy the Criterion blu-ry soon and want to watch it that way.

  4. Hi Ryan,

    It really tickled me that you watched baseball films prior to the season starting. I had completely forgotten that Fever Pitch had been remade and the sport switched to baseball. Have you ever either read the original book or seen the original 1997 film (starring a rather young Colin Firth)? I can’t remember much about the original film, but the book is excellent, classic Nick Hornby.

    Cheers

    Will

    1. Welcome to The Matinee Will!

      I’m a rather big fan of Mr. Hornby, so I have indeed read the book (which I loved) and seen the Firth movie (which I didn’t as much). Being a lifelong fan of a few local teams, I could relate to many of the stories he tells.

  5. Short week for me. Kinda sad.

    New to me:
    La Dolce Vita: Fellini is hit-or-miss for me, but boy! does this one hit!
    Zabriskie Point: More Zabriskie than point.
    Ordinary People: A wow. Very real and very raw.
    The Docks of New York: Surprisingly gritty and beautifully filmed.
    Bringing Up Baby: I so wanted to love this and I so didn’t.

    Rewatch:
    Boogie Nights: My favorite P.T. Anderson to watch.

    2. A fair question. Sadly, it’s one I won’t answer until I finish my current giant list and move on to watching every Best Picture nominee.

    3. Well that would answer a whole sub-question of “Did best Picture of 1980 only come down to ORDINARY PEOPLE and RAGING BULL?”

      I want to know what you think of just these two titles head-to-head…

  6. A little baseball films for the beginning of the baseball season I see. Blue Jays still can’t play, though 😉

    Being in Chicago, it has been a slow week.

    —

    The Front Page
    The Raid: Redemption
    Tower Heist
    Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy
    Fast Times At Ridgemont High
    Le Havre
    Bananas

  7. SHAME even more awesome than I could imagine, watching this movie just makes me better than anyone who hasn’t (I think)
    ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA boring meandering movie that looks like it wants to be something important but isn’t

    Those were my highlights.

    1. As people start to bring up SHAME again (now that it’s hitting blu-ray) I’m reminded of all the fights it caused at bar night here in town. People either seemed to love it or h-a-a-a-a-t-e it.

  8. Screenings:
    Jiro Dreams of Sushi – I got so hungry for sushi watching this documentary.
    Bully – Competent for what it is, doubt it will actually change anything.
    Vampire’s Kiss – The Nicolas Cage series concludes with a bang. I’ve seen so many films in this series (all but 4), I’m probably going to write a retrospective blog post.

    DVD/Blu-Ray/Netflix First Time:
    – Copy Shot – An interesting experimental short film.
    – Doodlebug – Short film Christopher Nolan made in film school.
    – Mirrormask – I thought this looked like a bad made-for-tv film. I got about 36 minutes in before turning it off.

    DVD/Blu-Ray/Netflix Seen Before:
    Meshes of the Afternoon – In class screening. Interesting, yet weird.
    Crank – Those Cinecast homework assignments help when I can’t decide what to watch.
    Erik the Viking – Sadly I started the film too late at night and fell asleep halfway through.
    Cowboys and Aliens – Watched the extended version on blu-ray. More scenes that probably should have remained cut from the film (plus we now have humans exploding into a bloody mess after being shot by alien rayguns).

    1. I had a few friends talk me into MIRRORMASK last year after it came up on a Matineecast or two, and like you I wasn’t fussed. It has some really lovely visuals, but seems half-realized as a film. Pity too, since I’m usually on board for most of what Neil Gaiman does.

      Given my new found want for sushi, I should probably get myself to a screening of Jiro soon.

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