Days of The Week (Films Watched Dec 15 – Dec 21)

23 Replies to “Days of The Week (Films Watched Dec 15 – Dec 21)”

1. I’ve been busy as well.

   Screenings:
   Phantasm – It seems Don Coscarelli has always made weird, darkly humorous horror films
   Searching for Sugar Man – Excellent music doc. I almost want to buy the soundtrack.
   Children of Men – Glad I finally got to see this
   Zardoz – I think I was the one doing the belly laughs
   Jack Reacher – An enjoyable action/thriller
   Scrooge – Alastair Sim is an excellent Scrooge (so much so, I realized Jim Carrey copied him).
   This is 40 – Did Judd Apatow truly think making a family drama, about coping with middle age, disguised as a comedy was a good idea?

   Netflix/TMN First Time:
   Bad Santa – I personally think the film would’ve been funnier if Bill Murray was still in the lead role (he dropped out to do Lost in Translation).
   Crazy Stupid Love – Better than your average rom-com, but still a bit cliched.

   1. Some TV station had BAD SANTA playing on a loop last night. Led me to realize that Thornton has a trashiness the role needs that Murray doesn’t have.

2. First time:

   The Queen of Versailles – Great doc that made me want to slap the husband by the end.

   The Hobbit – It was alright but I walked away rather indifferent to it.

   The Expendables 2 – Somehow it managed to be worse than the first one.

   Killer Joe – Glorious trash! I really liked this film.

   Savages – Plays decent enough if you watch it a few hours after Killer Joe.

   Once a Time Upon the West – Was going to be on the 2013 Blind Spot list but realized that Netflix Canada had it.

   Rashomon – This month’s Blind Spot film. Hopefully I will actually post my thoughts on time. I still haven’t written about last month’s Blind Spot (La Dolce Vita) film yet. LOL

   Snow White and the Huntsman – Surprisingly dull considering the cast and visual flare.

   1. As I said to you in the bar – I love KILLER JOE, but doesn’t it seem like the dvd should leave a grease stain behind if you leave it sitting on the table?

3. Kind of a sad little week on account of seminars, exams and making big, fat 3rd blog birthday posts. Also I don’t like King Kong or It’s a Wonderful Life. Love While You Were Sleeping though.

   Firsts: The Hobbit– Ugh curse 48 fps! Freeman fangirl forever.
   Frankenweenie– Adorbs. Weird Girl is my new favourite Tim Burton creation.
   The Bridge on River Kwai– Was surprised at how entertaining it was.
   2012– ‘Cuz duh.

   1. What is it you don’t like about IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE?

   2. The basic premise. I think I have a fear of being emotionally manipulated into choosing a kind of life by a wingless angel.

   3. Allow me to persuade you.

4. I only saw parts of Zardoz, bloody hell!!!!

   This is what I saw this week.

   First-Timers: The Three Musketeers (2011 film version), Coming Home, Delicatessen, Chopper, The Claim, Ordinary People, and later tonight, Bound for Glory.

   Re-Watches: The Running Man, Namath, and Green Lantern.

   1. You *must* watch all of ZARDOZ!! Every ten minutes there’s a new moment of batshit insanity!

5. I wish I was in town for Zardoz. Damn.

   First time:

   AMOUR – It’s very good. The first Haneke film I can get along with.
   ANNA KARENINA – Very conflicted on this one.
   HYDE PARK ON HUDSON – Skip it.
   SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN – Great story, good songs, too bad the director didn’t do more with the material. Still very enjoyable.
   KNUCKLEBALL! – In honor of R.A Dickey becoming a Jay…
   THIS IS 40 – A very funny but self indulgent unfocused mess.

   Rewatch:

   MAGIC MIKE – Not as strong the second time around, but Dallas is a fantastic character. I would rather see him as the main character of the movie.

   1. Pity you missed ZARDOZ…can’t see it getting screened again anytime soon. How were you conflicted on ANNA KARENINA?

6. It’s been rather slow for me lately.

   First time:
   Double Dragon – Pretty bad. But not without a fun jet ski vs. powerboat scene. 🙂
   The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Amazing. I loved it completely and I don’t understand the negativity thrown at the movie. It everything I could have wanted in a Hobbit movie, and I’m stoked for the sequels.
   Fist of the North Star – One of the most fun anime I’ve ever seen.

   And I re-watched:
   Story of Ricky – Absolutely one of the greatest gore movies of all time. Holds up even better than I remember.

   1. I was alright with HOBBIT, if slightly let down. I imagine as we get further along in this new trilogy I will like them more.

7. SCROOGE but the Albert Finney version. Don’t get me wrong, the Alastair Sim version is my favorite movie Carol, but it’s good to mix it up some years. Watched the Patrick Stewart version a couple of weeks ago (for the first time) and enjoyed it also.

   THE HOBBIT was entertaining but their straining so visibly to connect it to LOTR has me worried about the next movies. No reservations about Martin Freeman though, he’s a terrific Bilbo.

   1. Can’t say I’ve ever seen the Finney Christmas Carol or the Stewart one. The George C. Scott version was on this week and I caught a few minutes of it.

      Where do you come down on the mo-cap version starring Jim Carrey?

   2. There are so many reasons to dislike it: the miniaturized Scrooge theme-park chase, the multi-character casting (most notably Oldman as Bob and Tim, Wright Penn as Fan and Belle), the overall creepiness of the character designs, the general lack of Christmas spirit….

      1. Good points. No check marks in the positive column for its direction – how it allows us to move through London in ways we couldn’t if it was live action? – and likewise for how it plays up the old fashioned Christmas association with ghost stories?

8. Very, very slow week, sometimes you just got to read.

   Amour – Lovely, cold setting. But I can’t help thinking about Riva and JLT when they were young – so bloody beautiful. And, espicially JLT who even in his 50s was so mesmerising in Three Colours: Red, he had this completely blinding magnetism about him. I did see a hint of in the moment before he strangles Riva, and he’s holding her hand and telling her a story of his childhood. Other than that, loved the view of the windows outside and the way the outside world kept on moving. However, I do think a score could have involved me more emotionally, considering that the protoganists were piano teachers.

   Christmas in Conneticut – Barbara Stanwyck, need I say more?

   1. AMOUR is just so beautifully bleak, isn’t it? I’ve talked to a few people who didn’t care for it, perhaps because it stands as too stone-cold of a reminder. For me though, it embodies a type of love we don’t see on screen often enough…and one they don’t really tell you about in the brochure.

      Confession: I haven’t seen Three Colours. Guess I have homework to do, eh?

      1. Yes. Immediately. Three Colours: Red really changed my whole perspective on cinema and colour and love. However, Blue is also tremendous to look at and contains a marvelously indifferent performance by Juliet Binoche. On the otherhand, White kind of paled in comparison mostly because it tried to incorporate this tragi-comic element and as a result faltered.

         Try going in that order and please write a review as I’d love to get another opinion on it.

         Oh, and also watch out for Trintignant’s performance, its oddly compelling, primarily because he plays a misanthrope but you see his humanity and bitterness and restraint, and suddenly your on his side.

9. Didn’t want to say it, but The Hobbit felt like a chore to sit through.

   1. You’ll get no argument out of me! Jackson might have set the bar for himself a little too high.

Comments are closed.