Movies I've Seen

Click on the letters or the name of the movie (in green) to expand it. This is a librarian's personality at work, cataloguing the movies I've seen. I'll update this as I have time. The Internet Movie DataBase remains the best source of movie information, and I favour Rotten Tomatoes for movie reviews.

Numbers

3:10 to Yuma (2007): An outlaw (Crowe) is captured in a small town. A poor rancher (Bale) with a bunch of problems agrees to escort him to the train - for a fee. A very good script and really good performances all around take what could have been a mundane Western and bring it up to something that deserved its large cluster of award nominations. 2007, dir. James Mangold. With Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Logan Lerman, Dallas Roberts, Ben Foster, Peter Fonda, Gretchen Mol, Alan Tudyk.
7 Plus Seven: Apted's ongoing documentary series, revisiting the lives of several Britons every seven years. The first ("Seven Up!") was a 40 minute black and white special for Granada Television, after which Apted picked up the reins and made the series fly. This is their teen years, and a very good start to an excellent series. All future titles are numerical: "21 Up," "28 Up," "35 Up," etc. 1970, dir. Michael Apted.
12 Angry Men: All but three minutes of this movie occur inside the jury room. We see the debate among the jurors about the first degree murder trial they're deciding. It's an interesting consideration of what happens in the jury room and how personality and personal motivations affect jury decisions. Well enough done to receive five Oscars. Good. 1957. dir. Sidney Lumet. With Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, Jack Klugman.
21 Grams: Very disjoint in time: at least "Memento" was consistent. This one hops all over, backwards, forwards, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. The people in it aren't particularly nice, and it's hard to care even after you start putting the events together. It's about death and dying. 2003. dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu. With Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio Del Toro.
49 Up: One of the longest running projects ever done in film, and certainly the most fascinating. Apted started with the film "7 Up" for Granada TV in London in 1963, and every seven years has returned to visit the lives of each of the school children he first interviewed in 1963. I've seen them all from "21 Up" onward, and I love them. This one took me a while to get into, I suppose because I'm not a fan of Tony and Jackie who he started with. But then he got to some of the people I really like - Nick and Suzy particularly. The reason for the success of the movies is in large part Apted's not pursuing an agenda (he and Granada had an agenda in '63, but that died when it became his project), just letting them talk. At 49 they all seem happier than they've ever been, and it's great to see that. Highly recommended, all of them. 2006, dir. Michael Apted.
300: Following after "Sin City," firmly establishes red as Frank Miller's favourite colour. (In case you're not getting it, that would be BLOOD.) I liked "Sin City." While it was drawn in broad strokes and was incredibly nasty and bloody, it was at least interesting. This one is packed full of boring, unswerving archetypes: The Noble King (one), The Noble Queen (one), The Noble Warrior (300), The Corrupt Priest (five), The Corrupt Politician (one), The Insane God King (one), etc. The Noble Warrior(TM) comes complete with CGI washboard abs and muscles - like the real Spartans would all have had those. So we have a long drawn out setup and macho battles, with the final inevitable conclusion - you do know about the Spartans at Thermopylae, right?). 2006, dir. Zack Snyder. With Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West, David Wenham, Vincent Regan, Michael Fassbender, Tom Wisdom, Andrew Pleavin, Andrew Tiernan, Rodrigo Santoro.
2046: It's a room number, it's a year, it's a place, it's unclear ... Brilliant and bizarre cinematography in the service of a muddled story about a womanizer and his lost love(s) and regrets. The critics really liked this one, but did they actually understand it? I doubt it. Or maybe it was just me. But it's very pretty to look at. 2004, dir. Kar Wai Wong. With Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Li Gong, Ziyi Zhang, Maggie Cheung.

A

The Accidental Tourist: I saw this shortly after it was released and remembered it as very good, but my tastes have changed a lot since then. So it was a pleasant surprise to find that in 2008 this is even better than I remembered it. I thought well enough of it to read the original book by Anne Tyler in the intervening years, discovering in the process that, as eccentric as Kasdan's characters were, Tyler's were much more so. The book and the movie are both really good, and have characters with the same names with similar story arcs: but they're very different. This is a very funny, very poignant movie. Highly recommended. 1988, dir. Lawrence Kasdan. With William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Geena Davis, Amy Wright, David Ogden Stiers, Bill Pullman, Ed Begley Jr.
Across the Universe: A musical done entirely with Beatles music. I'm not a fan of musicals, but I watched this because of the music. Whatever they paid their director of photography, it wasn't enough: Every. Single. Shot. Was a thing of beauty. Nevertheless I left the movie a little disheartened: the story isn't very good, the references were stretched to breaking (they sang "Dear Prudence" to Prudence and that was fine, but "where did she come from?" "She came in through the bathroom window" was just stupid), the song interpretations are a bit uneven (Izzard doing Mr. Kite was possibly both the worst and the most interesting), the large middle stretch of surreality may fit the Sixties but was irritating, and it doesn't hold together particularly well. Still, there were some very good ideas and brilliant cinematography. 2007, dir. Julie Taymor. With Jim Sturgess, Evan Rachel Wood, Joe Anderson, Dana Fuchs, Martin Luther, T.V. Carpio, Eddie Izzard.
Adam's Rib: The trailer (which is on the DVD) claims this is a "romantic comedy." I didn't find much humour in it, and very little romance. Most of the humour consisted of the lawyer couple (Tracy and Hepburn) bickering constantly over the court case about a woman attempting to shoot her philandering husband and how it was all about equal rights for women. 1949. dir. George Cukor. With Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn.
The Addams Family: A cartoonist drew sick and twisted images of a family he named after himself - back in the 1950s, some of the comics didn't even run. But in the 1960s a somewhat toned down version became a TV series that won lasting fame. I don't remember anyone really expecting this movie to live up to the TV series, but it did: Julia and Houston were absolutely wonderful as Gomez and Morticia, and Ricci pretty much stole every scene she was in as Wednesday. The humour is twisted, but not sick enough to significantly change the audience demographic from the TV show. A lot of fun. 1991, dir. Barry Sonnenfeld. With Raul Julia, Angelica Houston, Christina Ricci, Christopher Lloyd.
After Life (orig. "Wandâfuru Raifu"): When you die, you are given one week to choose a single memory that you will live in forever. And then the team of people who help you choose that memory will film it, recreate it for you. The premise is thin and absurd, but Kore-eda filmed a bunch of people, actors and non-actors, talking about their favourite memories from their entire lives - and it's mesmerizing. In many ways the second half, which has slightly less talking, is not as good as the first half. A quiet and fascinating movie. 1998, dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda. With Arata, Erika Oda, Taketoshi Naitô.
Æon Flux: Lots of special effects. Lots. But guess what, that doesn't make a movie. I kind of enjoyed this science fiction extravaganza, but it's really not a good movie. Based on a graphic novel (or a series), look to the animated TV series for better material. 2005, dir. Karyn Kusama. With Charlize Theron, Pete Postlethwaite.
Ah! My Goddess: Mildly bizarre, kind of complex, targetting teens, doesn't make a lot of sense, and ultimately sickly sweet. Set in the future, with "gods" and "goddesses" walking around in both "heaven" and earth. A goddess and an human fall in love, and their love is tested - with a threat that might destroy the earth as we know it. 1993. dir. Hiroaki Gôda. With Kikuko Inoue, Masami Kikuchi, Yumi T�ma, Aya Hisakawa.
Akeelah and the Bee: Incredibly pedantic ("face your fears," and "be nice") and often overly sweet, this movie manages to be emotionally moving on the strengths of Fishburne's and Palmer's performances. Palmer, at age 12, is something of a miracle. Reminiscent of "Searching for Bobby Fischer." Enjoyable and uplifting. 2006, dir. Doug Atchison. With Keke Palmer, Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, J.R. Villarreal, Curtis Armstrong.
Alegría (live in Sydney): Cirque du Soleil's show "Alegría" filmed live in Sydney. Very good. I got it at the same time as the DVD of their show "Dralion," and it's an odd comparison: "Dralion" is the better show, but "Alegría" was filmed better. 1999. Dir. Franco Dragone. Cirque du Soleil.
Alegría: Dragone brings us a bowdlerized version of Cirque du Soleil. One of the earliest images of the movie is a view of the main character of the movie, Frac, looking up out of a packing case. Whether the horrible pun "Frac in a box" was intentional or not, it sets the tone for the movie. It's awfully difficult to take drama seriously when most of the characters are in clown face. It's a poor story, and there's very little support from the artistry and acrobatics of the Cirque that I expected. Don't see this. 1998. dir. Franco Dragone. With René Bazinet, Frank Langella, Julie Cox.
Alexander Nevsky: Russian anti-German propaganda, but kind of fun. Prince Alexander - who is obviously a good prince because he fishes with his people - leads the defence of Russia against the evil Teutons. The evil people with money want to buy off the invaders, but the peasants (the good working people of the country) are roused to defend the land. They sing many songs. The battle scenes consist of people milling about making chopping motions, the acting is poor, and it's all in the service of a political agenda. Despite which it's a well filmed and interesting movie. And it deserves considerable credit for better historical accuracy than most films - in the day-to-day stuff, if not the politics. 1938, dir. Sergei Eisenstein.
Alfie (2004): Remarkably similar to its predecessor, a morality play dressed up as a sex comedy. Law talks to the camera (as Caine did in the original), a cocky sleep-with-anyone guy. But his indiscretions all catch up to him at once, what a shock. Wait, were we supposed to care for this asshole at the end of the movie? 2004, dir. Charles Shyer. With Jude Law, Jane Krakowski, Marisa Tomei, Omar Epps, Nia Long, Gedde Watanabe, Sienna Miller, Susan Sarandon.
Alien vs. Predator: No, no, I wasn't expecting quality here. Pretty much by the numbers. People's chests explode, Predators kill Aliens, Aliens kill Predators, big Alien threat to all mankind. Yup. New record though: end credits clocked in at TWELVE MINUTES. 2004, dir. Paul Anderson. With no one you've heard of.
All About My Mother: I think "Talk to Her" is Almodavar's best, but this one's pretty good. He puts his characters in absurd situations, but the characters themselves are very good ... In this case, Manuela's son (her only family) dies. She returns to Barcelona to find her son's father and comes into the company of some ... interesting people. 2000 dir. Pedro Almodavar. With Cecilia Roth, Penélope Cruz, Antonia San Juan, Marisa Paredes, Candela Peña.
All the King's Men (2006): The story of an earnest, passionate man (Penn) who rises to power as the governor of Loiusiana and becomes as corrupt as those he was trying to drive out, seen through the eyes of his assistant (Law). The tale of a whole bunch of morally bankrupt people told in bits in pieces with not-very-compelling speeches and heavy-handed colourizing (or de-colourizing) of the film. I understand the 1949 version was very good - if so, this doesn't live up to it. 2006, dir. Steven Zaillian. With Sean Penn, Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo, Patricia Clarkson, James Gandolfini.
Amelie: An incredibly charming movie about a young woman in Paris who messes with the lives of her friends and co-workers - and finds her own life changing. Hilariously funny. 2001. dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet. With Audrey Tatou, Mathieu Kassovitz.
American Splendor: An HBO movie following up on the success of "Crumb." Looks at the life of cartoonist Harvey Pekar, a friend of Crumb's. Weird blend of reality and fictionalized biography. Spends a great deal of time taxiing down the runway, setting the stage, but when in finally takes off it's really good. The voice-over on the DVD is suprisingly good - a reunion of nearly all the actors and all the people they played. 2003 dir. Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini. With Paul Giamatti, Harvey Pekar, Hope Davis.
Angel (Season 1, Disc 2): Contains the episodes "Expecting," "She," "I've Got You Under My Skin," and "The Prodigy." I suppose I was hoping for the equivalent of the first season of "Buffy," instead I got something that felt like it had already been running for six seasons. It tries to balance its humour and pathos the way "Buffy" did, but fails: the humour is too flippant, and the pathos doesn't really stand on a solid enough base to really affect the viewer. Disappointing. 2000. With David Boreanaz, Alexis Denisof, Charisma Carpenter.
Antz: Allen brings existential angst to animated kids's films. Go figure. A lot of the humour is aimed squarely at adults, and a lot at kids - with little crossover. It's fairly entertaining, more than a bit didactic, and somewhat confused about its target audience. The line-up of actors is pretty incredible. 1998, dir. Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson. With Woody Allen, Dan Ackroyd, Anne Bancroft, Danny Glover, Gene Hackman, Christopher Walken, Sylvester Stallone, Jennifer Lopez, Sharon Stone.
The Apartment: I was fairly concerned at the beginning that I was going to watch a slapstick comedy with no real content - it took a good 45 minutes to get warmed up and actually put some emotion into the silliness. It was a bit late, but it was pretty good anyway. Lemmon plays a low ranking business man who loans his apartment to higher ranking business men for their trysts - an awkward circumstance at best, and now he finds he's fallen for one of the mistresses. 1959, dir. Billy Wilder. With Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray.
Appleseed: After a massive world war, humanity sets up a single utopian city to live in. Of course, there are cracks and flaws in utopia, quickly discovered by Deunan when she's brought into the city from the outside world. The buildings and machines are all CG and generally look pretty good, but most of the people are hand-drawn. Not that the people look bad, but I found the mix a little disconcerting. The dialogue is awful and the story absurd. 2004, dir. Shinji Aramaki.
Arabian Nights: Hallmark Entertainment - had I known that up front, I probably wouldn't have watched it. Despite which, it's pretty damn good for a TV mini-series. Lavish production, some clever ideas, and famous stories brought to life in credible style. 1999, dir. Steve Barron. With Mili Avital, Dougray Scott, James Frain, Rufus Sewell, Jason Scott Lee, Tcheky Karyo, Alan Bates, John Leguizamo.
The Aristocrats: One hundred comedians (or there abouts) and their takes on one incredibly filthy joke. Some of the view of how comedians work, their analysis of humour, was interesting - but I found the central joke relatively unfunny which left me kind of disinterested in a lot of the proceedings. With Penn Gillette, Whoopi Goldberg, Gilbert Gottfried, Bob Sagat, George Carlin ...
Around the World in Eighty Days: I love Jackie Chan. I've become accustomed to watching stupid but entertaining movies based around his skills. In this case, all I got was stupid. Charming, but so silly it was pathetic and I didn't think much of the action, usually one of Chan's strengths. 2004.
As You Like It (BBC, 1978): A BBC TV production with a surprisingly untalented cast. Only Mirren is even halfway decent, and she's too old for her role (Rosalind) and rather subdued. It's not disasterous, and it does appear to include the entire text (rather unusual these days). 1978, dir. Basil Coleman. With Helen Mirren, Brian Stirner, Richard Pasco, Angharad Rees, James Bolam, Clive Francis.
As You Like It (CBC, 1983): Filmed on the stage at the Stratford Festival in 1983, and, honestly, far superior to the 1978 BBC version also listed here. It's very well acted, and well interpreted - meaning that someone spent a lot of time thinking about Shakespeare's meaning, and some physical hints are given to help us understand Shakespeare's more obscure language ... without going overboard or taking us out of the play. Besides, it's broad comedy. A very good production. 1983, dir. John Hirsch. With Roberta Maxwell (Rosalind), Andrew Gillies (Orlando), Nicholas Pennell (Jacques), Rosemary Dunsmore (Celia).
Atonement: Wright's follow-up to his very good version of "Pride and Prejudice," he chose to adapt another novel - this time a recent novel by Ian McEwan about Britain during the war. While the older daughter of the Tallis family (Knightley) falls for one of the servants (McAvoy), the younger Tallis daughter (Ronan, Garai, Redgrave) accuses him of a crime he didn't commit, changing all their lives. Flashbacks and different points of view of the same event mean that you spend a lot of time patching the actual sequence of events together in your head. I found the eventual conclusion ... realistic, but unsatisfying. 2007, dir. Joe Wright. With Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, James McAvoy, Brenda Blethyn, Romola Garai, Vanessa Redgrave.
The Awful Truth: A Broadway play-turned-movie, and thus full of witty one-liners and caustic humour. But somewhat impaired in the common sense department ... not just the characters, but the screenwriters as well. Grant and Dunne play two characters who get into a tiff and immediately decide that divorce is the only solution, and we spend the next hour and a quarter watching them reconsider. Silly, and, as mentioned, occasionally funny. 1937, dir. Leo McCarey. With Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Ralph Bellamy, Alexander D'Arcy, Cecil Cunningham, Molly Lamont, Esther Dale.

B

Babette's Feast: A French woman of unknown origins prepares a huge feast for a group of religious puritans in a remote town in Denmark. Fairly good, but I found much of it emotionally cold - it doesn't draw you in or involve you much. 1987. dir. Gabriel Axel.
Bad Boys: A couple of really funny jokes in a long and tedious movie. Don't bother. With Will Smith.
Bad Influence: Michael (Spader) is a young executive who is letting himself be pushed around in all aspects of his life. After an incident in a bar, he meets Alex (Lowe) and starts to learn from him not to let himself be pushed around. But Alex's wildness goes rather farther than Michael's conscience will let him, and their confrontations become extremely ugly. A psychological thriller of sorts, one I didn't like much although the two leads played their parts very well. 1990, dir. Curtis Hanson. With James Spader, Rob Lowe.
Balls of Fury: Another one of those I'm a little embarassed to admit I watched ... It's bad. On the other hand, it did have a couple of big laughs - albeit with far too big a wait between them. Reminds me a lot of the over-the-top, hit-or-miss approach to comedy that the SNL alumni seem to take to comedy: it's extremely uneven, and perfectly happy to go for the gross-out. The basic premise has Randy Daytona (Fogler) coming out of retirement to play Ping Pong again, trying to get into a high stakes Ping Pong match run by the deadly Feng (Walken). 2007, dir. Robert Ben Garant. With Dan Fogler, Christopher Walken, George Lopez, Maggie Q, James Hong.
Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy: More than anything you can see the influence of producer Dino de Laurentiis, who redifined "camp" every time he made a movie. We're talking about the man behind the 1980 version of "Flash Gordon." This movie is mostly about bad special effects and Fonda in slinky outfits (or nothing at all). And I now know where Duran Duran got their name, and where "Flesh Gordon" drew its primary inspiration. Sad to say, this is a landmark in SF film (not entirely a bad thing: SF film needed both sexuality and humour in a bad way). Ludicrous as it is, this is definitely worth watching. 1968, dir. Roger Vadim. With Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg, Milo O'Shea.
The Barbarian Invasions (orig.: Les Invasions Barbares): Arcand brings back most of the cast of "The Decline of the American Empire" 17 years later. Once again, the topic of the day is sex. Last time it was sex and life, but now one of their number is dying so it becomes sex and death. I found it remarkably ... disposable considering its central pillar is a death - even if it is used as a confirmation of life. Still, enjoyable and with a fair bit to think about. 2003, dir. Denys Arcand. With Rémy Girard, Stéphane Rousseau, Dorothée Berryman, Louise Portal, Dominique Michel, Yves Jacques, Pierre Curzi, Marie-Josée Croze.
Barefoot Gen (orig. "Hadashi no Gen"): A super cute movie about starving in WWII Hiroshima, right up until the bomb drops on them and most people die horribly. Then more people die of radiation sickness. Good fun for the whole family. Gen is a young boy who ends up trying to be a protector to his pregnant mother when the rest of his family dies. The combination of cute and horror didn't really work for me, even if the author did live through the Hiroshima bomb. 1992, dir. Mori Masaki. With Issei Miyazaki, Masaki Kôda, Yoshie Shimamura.
Batman Begins: Another shot at Batman's origins, and a fairly good one. The final denouement is massively over the top, but that's no different than any other action movie these days. 2005, dir. Christopher Nolan. With Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Katie Holmes, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Linus Roache, Morgan Freeman.
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm: Animated. Slightly better than the 20 minute TV cartoons it's based upon. A "Phantasm" begins killing off local crime figures, contrary to Batman's desire to adhere to the law. Simultaneously, a woman that he had considered marrying as Bruce Wayne resurfaces in his life. No attempt is ever made to explain the Phantasm's magical abilities: he just does what he does. 2005. With Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Dana Delany, Hart Bochner, Abe Vigour.
A Beautiful Mind: John Nash is a mathematician who received the Nobel Prize for economics in 1994. "A Beautiful Mind" is the story of his life, as interpreted by Howard. I'm usually unimpressed by Howard's more manipulative sentimental notes, but he uses it to excellent effect here - I was hugely impressed with this movie. An interesting follow-up to this is the one hour PBS documentary "A Brilliant Madness," a biography of Nash. Howard strayed in the details of Nash's madness, but ultimately "A Beautiful Mind" was quite an accurate portrayal. 2001. dir. Ron Howard. With Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris.
Becoming Jane: An attempt to reconstruct the early life of Jane Austen. The first half was clever and extremely funny (even though I didn't believe a word of it had actually happened ... they recreated the history, but no one knows the conversations), but the second half had to dig into the romance that almost certainly formed her life, and the reasons that it didn't quite happen. Some of it was a little too pat (such as the reason Jane decides to leave Tom Lefroy), but for the most part it was very enjoyable. The closing scene includes one hell of a wicked jab that you won't be expecting: yes, Lefroy really did name his child that. Hathaway and McAvoy were excellent, which went a long way to making this one good. 2007, dir. Julian Jarrold. With Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, James Cromwell, Maggie Smith, Joe Anderson, Lucy Cohu, Laurence Fox, Ian Richardson, Anne Maxwell Martin.
Bee Movie: I was never a fan of Seinfeld: either his stand-up comedy or his show. But he has almost redeemed himself with this incredibly charming film (he wrote and did the voice work for the main character). Perhaps having kids has reduced the cynicism that got on my nerves so much. The main premise is a fairly typical one: Barry B. Benson, a bee, has just graduated from bee college and is now required to choose a job that he'll hold the rest of his life. But he refuses, and then goes out into the world beyond the hive - and ends up mixing with the humans and causing all kinds of havoc. It's very funny, the animation is good (especially the flying sequences which work particularly well), and there are a bunch of entertaining cameos to keep the adults paying attention. 2007, dir. Steve Hickner, Simon J. Smith. With Jerry Seinfeld, Renée Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, Patrick Warburton, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Larry King, Sting, Ray Liotta.
Before Sunrise: Linklater does like his talk. That's all this is, endless talk and negotiation of ideas. Hawke plays the American and Delpy the French woman who meet on a train on the way to Vienna and spend one evening and night together ... talking. Hawke plays the brash, annoying but kind of charming American to the hilt - a stereotype I've never liked. Much of the blame goes to Linklater's writing and direction - many people love this movie, but I don't really like the script. But the characters are intelligent, and the dialogue has occasional moments of insight. 1995, dir. Richard Linklater. With Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy.
Benny and Joon: Benny (Quinn) lives with his intelligent but slightly crazy sister Joon (Masterson), who isn't entirely stable. At one of Benny's bizarre (and hilarious) poker games, Joon loses a hand and is required to house Sam (Depp). Personal interactions get complicated, and Benny in particular has trouble adjusting to the changes. Depp does his best to emulate Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, and is spectacularly funny. I found Benny's explosion at the climax of the film a bit excessive for his character, but in all other respects this is a hilarious and wonderful film, highly recommended. 1993, dir. Jeremiah S. Chechik. With Aidan Quinn, Mary Stewart Masterson, Johnny Depp, Oliver Platt, Julianne Moore.
Beowulf and Grendel: Beowulf, but with massive embellishments, redrawn to cast everything in shades of gray. Grendel is no longer an evil monster, and Beowulf is still a hero, but his actions are seen in a very different light. Polley plays a substantial role as a witch who never appeared in the original poem, and there's a sub-plot about a recruiting Christian priest that's new. The Icelandic scenery (and weather!) is spectacular, and the historical reconstruction is good (it convinced me, but perhaps that's not hard). Very not Hollywood, always a plus. 2005, dir. Sturla Gunnarsson. With Gerard Butler, Ingvar E. Sigurdsson, Stellan Skarsgård, Tony Curran, Sarah Polley.
Beowulf: Borrows from the 2005 version - once again there's a strong tie between the community and the monster, and this time also between the mother and Beowulf's later life. But this version is animated, sort of. On top of the actions of real actors. What this primarily does is utterly destroy the acting. Why hire good actors (Hopkins, Wright Penn, Malkovitch, Gleeson) if you're going to obscure the subtleties behind artificial masks? There's a circularity to the story (in part by Neil Gaiman) that's annoying in its cleverness. Despite all of which it's quite a spectacle to see. 2007, dir. Robert Zemeckis. With Ray Winstone, Brendan Gleeson, Robin Wright Penn, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman, Angelina Jolie.
Bend It Like Beckham: Has a lot in common with "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," re-written for an Indian family in the U.K. This is a very funny and up-beat movie about a young Indian girl whose parents don't want her to play football (aka. "soccer"), which is pretty much the only thing she wants to do. 2002. dir. Gurinder Chadha. With Parminder K. Nagra, Keira Knightley.
The Best of Not the 9 O'Clock News: A very influential TV comedy show from Britain, starting in 1979 and running into the early 80s. This two DVD set compiles the best bits from quite a few episodes, and runs about three hours. Like Monty Python before them (Python gets an explicit nod in one of the skits) they're very uneven. But definitely worth a look. Of course if you don't know who Margaret Thatcher or the Royal Family are, a fair chunk of the humour will be lost to you. Atkinson went on to fame most notably as Mr. Bean, and Smith and Jones went on to the very long-running series "Alas Smith & Jones." 1979-1982. With Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones, Pamela Stephenson.
The Best of Youth (orig. "La Meglio Gioventù"): A six hour epic following the lives of two brothers from Rome and their family and friends over nearly 40 years. It takes over an hour to really get interesting, but once it does you're in for the full run. A real Italian history lesson for the rest of us: from floods in Turin to communist rebels to mafia assassinations of judges - but most of the film centres on the smaller things, the lives of the main characters. I was frustrated in a couple places where it became obvious from small clues what the characters were going to do ... but not why. How can we have seen so much of their lives and know so little about their motivations? But that's another aspect of the movie not preaching to its viewers, and ... it's really good. Have a look. 2003, dir. Marco Tullio Giordana. With Luigi Lo Cascio, Alessio Boni, Adriana Asti, Sonia Bergamasco, Fabrizio Gifuni, Maya Sansa, Valentina Carnelutti, Jasmine Trinca, Andrea Tidona, Lidia Vitale, Claudio Gioè.
Better Than Chocolate: Two young women start a romance just before one's mother moves in with her. Genuine Canadian content - Vancouver/Port Coquitlam, relaxed attitude about sex and underage drinking. Erotic. Mediocre acting. Passable but not great script. 1999 dir. Anne Wheeler. With Karyn Dwyer, Christina Cox.
Beyond Silence (orig. "Jenseits der Stille"): The child of two deaf parents chooses to play clarinet like her aunt, who is estranged from her father. A little too sweet in places (particularly the ending), but intelligent and well filmed. 1996, dir. Caroline Link. With Sylvie Testud, Tatjana Trieb, Howie Seago, Emmanuelle Laborit, Sibylle Canonica, Matthias Habich.
The Big Bounce: A comedy of sorts, in which everyone is scamming everyone else. It's hard to care about any of the characters, and since the humour is pretty limited and this sure as hell isn't a drama, what's left to watch? Pretty poor. 2004, dir. George Armitage. With Owen Wilson, Morgan Freeman, Charlie Sheen, Sara Foster, Gary Sinise.
The Big Chill: I saw this when it first came out, but haven't again until now - 2008. It's a relief to see that it's as good as I remembered, possibly even better as there were some nuances I missed back then. Kasdan really did bring together the right cast with a very good story about friendship, trust, and growth. A group of college friends come together for the funeral of one of the members of the clique who committed suicide, although none of them know why. And strange things happen as the result of their reunion. It looks a bit dated, but it remains a damn fine movie. 1983, dir. Lawrence Kasdan. With Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly, JoBeth Williams.
The Big Easy: Quaid puts on a Creole accent (irritating, and I can't say if it's accurate, it was at least consistent) as a New Orleans cop on the take who falls for a district attorney (Barkin) who's after corrupt cops. The two leads look sexy, and nobody acts badly, but no one is great either. And the plot is split between corruption and romance in such a way that neither quite comes together right. Not bad, but ... 1987, dir. Jim McBride. With Dennis Quaid, Ellen Barkin, Ned Beatty, John Goodman.
Big Fish: I always have mixed reactions to Burton's movies. Crudup plays a thirty-something coming to the bedside of his dying father, who has told him tall tales all his life. He tries to get his father to tell him more of the truth of his life, and the movie is partly a view of the past, a retelling of the stories he's heard, and partly his attempts at reconcilliation. It's a strange movie, but pretty good. 2003, dir. Tim Burton. With Billy Crudup, Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter, Alison Lohman, Matthew McGrory.
The Big Sleep: Probably the movie that made Bacall a star, although that honour could arguably go to "To Have and Have Not" (also with Bogart). This is based on Raymond Chandler's first novel, also his first novel starring Philip Marlowe (played by Bogart). For the first fifteen minutes I greatly enjoyed the rapid-fire witty banter, but it becomes tiresome and annoying: it happens occasionally in life, but is never as continuous as this. Bogart and Bacall play well, but a very convoluted plot leave you rather befuddled. Enjoyable to watch, but hard to follow. 1946, dir. Howard Hawks. With Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers.
The Black Cauldron: One of Disney's poorer outings, and a blundering insult to the source material. Lloyd Alexander wrote a series of children's books called "The Prydain Chronicles," very good books. The Black Cauldron was the second of five, and possibly the darkest of the lot. The Horned King and his legions of dead soldiers are a horrific threat in the book, and they kill quite a few people. Does anybody die in this movie? Not even a single bad guy. The characters are as quirky as they are in the original, but this is actually a liability - without back-story, it makes little sense that they should be so weird. All is reduced to cuteness and overwhelmed by trite. Even if you haven't read the original, this is going to be a pretty poor movie. 1985, dir. Ted Berman and Richard Rich. With Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, Freddie Jones, Nigel Hawthorne.
Blade: This is the best action horror movie ever made. Snipes plays a half-human-half-vampire Vampire hunter, assisted by Kristofferson (in a role that probably saved his career). Humour, violence, and lots of action. See it. 1998. dir. Stephen Norrington. With Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson.
Blade II: The darkest of the three movies, finds Blade teaming up with some other vampires to fight a new breed of uber-vampires. While there's plenty of action, this is the closest to pure horror that the series got. There's a lot of leaping about in the fights, for which the chose CG over wirework. Unfortunately, it's very obvious. 2002, dir. Guillermo del Toro. With Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman.
Blade Trinity: Humour was what was needed to liven up the overly serious "Blade II," but they added too much, with Snipes still taking himself way too seriously. Some of the action is enjoyable, but this is a fairly bad movie. 2004, dir. David Goyer. With Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Jennifer Biel, Ryan Reynolds, Dominic Purcell, Parker Posey.
Bladerunner: One of the greatest science fiction films ever made. Only the director's cut is available on DVD. I preferred the original with Harrison Ford's voice-over (I'd seen it something like nine times), but this is still excellent. Based on a Philip K. Dick novel, the movie follows the story of Deckard (Ford) as he hunts "replicants" (very human androids). The setting is the 2019, in a brilliantly conceived dystopian Los Angeles. 1982. dir. Ridley Scott. With Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Rutger Hauer, Daryl Hannah, Edward James Olmos.
Blast from the Past: In 1962, a brilliant but paranoid physicist (Walken, of course) takes his pregnant wife (Spacek) down into their bomb shelter just as a plane crashes on their house. Convinced that "the bomb" has gone off, he locks them in for 35 years. So when his son Adam (Fraser) emerges in 1997, he embodies early Sixties values in the modern world and knows nothing of modern technology. He meets Eve (Silverstone) and hilarity ensues. More or less. Unbelievably cheesy, but I have to admit I kind of enjoyed it. 1999, dir. Hugh Wilson. With Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek, Dave Foley, Joey Slotnick.
Blue Submarine No. 6: I think this was originally a TV miniseries in four parts, only a half hour each - so about movie length. The Japanese don't have quite the same sense of plotting, or good and bad, as we do. This one leaps into the action with no introduction and never fully fills you in on the backstory. The ragged blend of CGI and hand-drawn cell animation is actually fairly attractive, but the plot and conclusion are ... unsatisfactory. 1998. dir. Mahiro Maeda.
The Bodyguard from Beijing: One of Li's Hong Kong movies (and the better for it). Passable action, something vaguely resembling romance. The tape has better subtitles than the DVD. dir. Cory Yuen. With Jet Li.
Boiler Room: Ribisi plays a college drop-out who runs his own illegal casino at the start of the movie, and is shortly recruited for a questionable stock brokerage. No one in this is particularly good, and, while the plot is good, it's not enough to make this a good movie. 2000. dir. Ben Younger. With Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, and Nia Long.
Bon Cop, Bad Cop: Yes, it borrows heavily from the Hollywood buddy cop genre, and that's a little disappointing for a Canadian movie. But it's entertaining, isn't that what we're aiming for? And besides, it reeks of Canada: half the dialogue is in French, the references to "Ontario," "Quebec," "Montreal," and "Toronto" are extremely frequent, and, above all, the motivating problem is HOCKEY murders. It's a seriously Canadian film. It's not great art, but it's funny and entertaining and that's a good thing. 2006, dir. Erik Canuel. With Colm Feore, Patrick Huard, Rick Mercer, Erik Knudsen, Sylvain Marcel.
Bon Voyage: A big line-up of some of the best actors in French cinema struggle with a mediocre script and the bizarre idea that the Nazi invasion of France at the beginning of the Second World War would be a good time to stage a romantic comedy. In one sense it is: people of all classes and backgrounds are packed into hotels and boarding rooms with regard only for expediency, and that gives rise to opportunities for humour: but around every corner is the horrors of displacement, invasion, and war. And the script still needs work. Adjani plays a reprehensible actress who uses her beauty to manipulate men, Derangère a childhood friend who loves her desperately, and Depardieu the vacillating government minister who is Adjani's latest target. 2003, dir. Jean-Paul Rappeneau. With Grégori Derangère, Isabelle Adjani, Gérard Depardieu, Virginie Ledoyen, Yvan Attal, Peter Coyote, Jean-Marc Stehl´.
Born to Defense: I think there's a factory right next to the fortune cookie factory that cranks out bad martial arts movie titles. Hong Kong product, Li's directorial debut. Bloodier than most of his, fights are okay but not great. I like elegant fights, but these ones are messy. dir. Jet Li. With Jet Li.
The Bourne Identity: A man washes ashore full of bullets and without memory. He shortly finds he's a target for several people who want to kill him - and that he's pretty good at killing people himself. It's predictable in the sense that he unravels his own history while fighting off bad guys, but it's better done than most movies of the type: you're always a little off balance, and (with the exception of the five storey drop at the end) they obey pretty much all the laws of physics. 2002, dir. Doug Liman. With Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Brian Cox, Julia Stiles.
The Bourne Supremacy: Damon is back as Bourne. After two years of a quiet life, he's attacked and his friend killed. He sets out on a vedetta to assure they never bother him again (apparently he's not successful, as there's another sequel). How they manage to make a single man successfully taking on a large portion of the CIA convincing, I don't know - but they do. Again, Bourne is entirely efficient and effective ... but haunted by his conscience. Urban hardly has any speaking lines, but is on screen a lot and quite good as another highly efficient assassin (who obeys the laws of physics). Greengrass's perpetual hand-held and steadicam work manages to maintain the sense of always being a little off balance without making the audience seasick. Another very good movie. 2004, dir. Paul Greengrass. With Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Brian Cox, Joan Allen, Julia Stiles, Karl Urban.
The Bourne Ultimatum: Back again, Bourne once again accused/threatened with doing something he had nothing to do with. And again, he sets out to clear his name (or just get rid of the people causing problems) - leaving a trail of bodies behind him. Greengrass again offers his unsteady camera work, and Allen, Stiles, and Strathairn are along to add some class. 2007, dir. Paul Greengrass. With Matt Damon, David Strathairn, Joan Allen, Julia Stiles, Scott Glenn, Albert Finney, Joey Ansah.
Brazil: It would be simple to say this is 1984 meets Monty Python, and that's certainly true on the surface. But there's a bit more to it. Sam Lowry (played by Pryce) lives in a dystopian world full of broken duct work and a bureaucracy that combines the worst aspects of the current U.S. government and that of the former U.S.S.R. He works for the government and has, shall we say, a very active fantasy life. It's extremely surreal, occasionally very funny, brutally depressing, and absolutely brilliant. 1985, dir. Terry Gilliam. With Jonathan Pryce, Kim Greist, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin, Ian Richardson, Peter Vaughan, Jim Broadbent.
Bread and Tulips ("Pane e Tulipani"): A woman with a wife and family is accidentally left behind at a rest stop on the highway when her family is on vacation. While waiting for them, she abruptly decides to hitch a ride, ending up in Venice where she stays rather longer than she had planned. Fitting the plan of comedies everywhere, she encounters and becomes involved in the lives of a bunch of local eccentrics. It's charming and somewhat funny. 2000, dir. Silvio Soldini. With Licia Maglietta, Bruno Ganz.
The Break-Up: I'm not sure why I dragged myself to or through this one. Aniston? Of the "Friends," she's the only one with any acting talent - but it's not really that much. And here doesn't particularly stretch herself playing opposite Vaughn, who has only the one tired old routine. Not funny, not romantic, and not even interesting. You know you're in for trouble when everyone else is a walking plot device. 2006, dir. Peyton Reed. With Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston, Joey Lauren Adams, Cole Hauser, Jon Favreau, Vincent D'Onofrio.
Breakfast at Tiffany's: Watching this was an interesting exercise. Hepburn plays Holly Golightly, and (to borrow a phrase from "EdTV") "she's damaged goods, Bro!" To believe a romantic comedy, you have to be convinced that the leads would appeal to each other and I definitely wasn't convinced. Rooney played "Mr. Funyoshi," the stereotyped Asian landlord: an incredibly obnoxious and unfunny role usually reserved for the deservedly maligned Jerry Lewis. 1961. dir. Blake Edwards. With Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Mickey Rooney.
Breaking Away: Strange to see this again, 27 years after seeing it in the theatres ... Quaid looks so young, and Stern is pretty funny in a minor role, not yet having fallen into his later stereotype(s). But the main story of this group of four recent high school graduates focuses on Christopher, a talented cyclist who should (perhaps) be in college. Yes sir, another coming-of-age tale ... done with a little more wit, intelligence and compassion than usual. Pretty good. 1979, dir. Peter Yates. With Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley, Robyn Douglass, Barbara Barrie, Paul Dooley.
Breathless (À bout de souffle): The movie that probably single-handedly started the French New Wave. Belmondo's character steals a car, and ends up killing a police man. He spends most of his time on the run in Paris flirting with Seberg. The shooting and editing are incredibly choppy - sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. If that's the charm of the movie, I failed to see it. 1960, dir. Jean-Luc Godard. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg.
The Breed: Low budget sort of science fiction story about vampires living among us. Cop buddy movie with one of the partners being a vampire (Adrian Paul) and the other human. I enjoyed it despite it being fairly cheesy.
Bride and Prejudice: Since I've seen two versions of "Pride and Prejudice" and read the book, I'm not even going to try to look at this separately. I think my favourite character has always been the father - he's very smart and funny, and just doesn't get enough airtime. But that's not really what the movie is about, just a personal thing. It's funny, and the musical numbers are pretty good and very colourful. 2004, dir. Gurinder Chadha. With Aishwarya Rai, Martin Henderson, Naveen Andrews, Namrata Shirodkar, Anupam Kher.
The Bridge on the River Kwai: This won seven Academy Awards in 1957, but didn't particularly enchant me in 2004. It's good but not stunning. Being Lean, it's 2h40m - fairly restrained for him. Guinness plays a British officer leading prisoners of war under the Japanese in Ceylon. Holden plays an American unimpressed by Baldwin's determination to live honourably at all costs. 1957. dir. David Lean. With Alec Guinness, William Holden.
Brokeback Mountain: A good movie that I didn't like, despite having Lee at the helm. Gyllenhaal and Ledger were both excellent. 2005. dir. Ang Lee. With Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Randy Quaid, Anne Hathaway.
Brokedown Palace: Two friends fresh out of high school decide to go on a big adventure together. They end up in Thailand, and an encounter with a friendly Australian leads them on a weekend trip to Hong Kong. They're arrested and thrown in jail when drugs are found in one of their backpacks. Most of the movie is about their time in a Thai jail and their attempts to get out. Not a happy movie, and not particularly good. 1999, dir. Jonathan Kaplan. With Claire Danes, Kate Beckinsale, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jacqueline Kim, Bill Pullman.
Broken Flowers: It's the journey itself that matters, not the destination, right? Don't expect any answers from this film - but it's an interesting trip, I guess. Murray plays an aging Don Juan who receives a letter from a woman saying that she had a son, his son, that he didn't know about, 20 years before. Rather involuntarily, he sets off in search of the woman. The word "sparse" comes to mind. 2005, dir. Jim Jarmusch. With Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Julie Delpy, Sharon Stone, Chloëaut; Sevigny, Jessica Lange.
The Brothers Grimm: Ledger and Damon play the brothers, who make their money scamming people into believing their area is haunted and then they come in and remove the problem - for a fee. They are shortly recruited, involuntarily, to take care of an actual enchanted forest. It's not Gilliam at his best - typical of Gilliam, he has requested massively over-the-top performances (and a bunch of bad accents), and the ending in particular is irritating, but there's still a lot to enjoy in the movie. It's a great vision of where the Grimm brothers might have started out. 2005, dir. Terry Gilliam. With Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Peter Stormare, Jonathon Pryce, Lena Headey, Monica Belluci.
Bruce Almighty: Bruce (Carrey) complains at God. God (Freeman) lets Bruce take over his job temporarily. If you like Carrey, you'll probably like this movie. To me, the only thing that made it worth watching was Freeman, who's a whole lot more charming and has a lot more presence than Carrey. Anniston as Bruce's girlfriend was wasted - she's not a great actress, but she's not bad and could have helped. 2003. With Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Anniston.
Buena Vista Social Club: A charming but not particularly exciting documentary about a group of mostly forgotten Cuban musicians brought together by Ry Cooder to make a (highly successful) album and play a couple concerts. 1999, dir. Wim Wenders.
Buffalo Soldiers: A very cynical movie. What do soldiers do in time of peace? Especially if they're soldiers because the alternative was jail time? Phoenix plays a Ray Elwood, in charge of supplies at a U.S. army base in West Germany just as the Berlin Wall is falling. He steals stuff and deals drugs. But things get ugly when he comes by a large supply of weaponry that he tries to sell, and a new Sergeant appears on base intent on making his life difficult. 2001, dir. Gregor Jordan. With Joaquin Phoenix, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Anna Paquin, Elizabeth McGovern, Michael Peña, Leon Robinson.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer [movie]: The concept is a pretty good one: the horror movie cliche of the pretty blonde girl walking into an alley and being slaughtered is turned on its head: Buffy walks into an alley, the vampire(s) die. It has its moments, but the TV series it inspired was actually quite a bit better. 1992. dir. Fran Rubel Kuzui. With Kristy Swanson, Donald Sutherland, Luke Perry, Rutger Hauer, and Paul Reubens.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1 (TV): Put in as a mid-season replacement, Buffy was probably a surprise to the networks. I suppose it should be classified as a "horror-comedy," but it's not actually very horrifying. It is pretty funny though. 12 episodes on four DVDs. The series picks up where the movie left off, with Buffy and her mother in the town of Sunnydale trying to start a new life. She ends up with a team of companions that help her fight evil from episode to episode. I've always been partial to Giles the Librarian, even if it is his last name. The series is better than the movie, and Gellar is definitely a better Buffy. 1997-1998. With Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Head, Nicholas Brendon, David Boreanaz.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 2 (TV): Darker and funnier than the first season. Season two weighs in at a more regular 22 episodes on six DVDs. While some of the necessities of TV plotting kick in (don't kill off those recurring characters, illogical things from people's pasts haunt them, good people/creatures become evil, evil becomes good, blah blah blah), this is really entertaining stuff. 1998-1999. With Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Head, Nicholas Brendon, David Boreanaz, James Marsters.
Bulletproof Monk: Terrible, terrible movie. Such a waste of Yun-Fat. The idea that Scott has charisma is completely laughable - I think that's what they were going for, but the guy who played Stifler would have to be a damn fine actor to pull it off, and he isn't. King was terrible. Yun-Fat added a bit of charm and looked pretty good in this tale of an eternally youthful monk protecting a world-shaking Buddhist scroll, but the only redeeming feature I found (and it ain't much) is that huge chunks of the movie were shot in Toronto. 2003, dir. Paul Hunter. With Yun-Fat Chow, Seann William Scott, Jaime King.
Bullitt: If they hadn't named the movie "Bullitt" you might mistakenly have taken this to be a police procedural with elements of action and mystery. Certainly, McQueen as "Frank Bullitt" is central to the movie, but it doesn't play like a character study. Watching it in 2007 I'm probably just not getting it because I can't appreciate what a star McQueen was at the time. Despite the odd naming, the movie itself is pretty good, if rather ambiguous about a couple major elements. The famous car chase is, while not as intricate or as crazy as modern ones, all the better for feeling (and being!) real. McQueen is good in the lead, and the cinematography is very good - and was probably ground-breaking at the time. 1968, dir. Peter Yates. With Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, Don Gordon.
Bulworth: Beatty's magnum opus, stomping all over American politics. Very funny, kind of dark. Beatty plays a politician up for re-election who finds himself representing everything he hated in the political process. He gets a whole bunch of life insurance and then takes out a contract on his own life. Then he proceeds to crash and burn, and starts rapping at political gatherings. It's bizarre, but hilarious. "All we need is a voluntary, free-spirited, open-ended program of procreative racial deconstruction. Everybody just gotta keep fuckin' everybody 'til they're all the same color." 1998, dir. Warren Beatty. With Warren Beatty, Halle Berry, Oliver Platt, Don Cheadle.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: Famous, but not my thing when I watched it in 2007. Fictionalizes the life of two of the U.S.'s best known Old West bank robbers. Robberies, shooting, machismo, and Bolivia. 1969, dir. George Roy Hill. With Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross.

C

Calendar Girls: Based on a true story, several middle-aged members of the Women's Institute in a small town in Britain decide that their yearly calendar should be more interesting than in the past: they pose (discretely) nude for it, to raise money for a local hospital. Mirren leads a good cast. Funny and charming. 2003, dir. Nigel Cole. With Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, John Alderton, Linda Bassett, Annette Crosbie, Ciarán Hinds.
Caligula: Take the sex content of your average 70's porno movie, the violence of one of the recent Korean revenge flicks, add a bunch of very well known actors, and edit out any sense of plot continuity while letting the movie run to two and a half hours, and voila, you have "Caligula." I only managed to watch the first hour, I took to skimming after that - seriously foul stuff. 1979, dir. Tinto Brass, Bob Guccione. With Malcolm McDowell, Teresa Ann Savoy, Guido Mannari, John Gielgud, Peter O'Toole, Giancarlo Badessi, Bruno Brive, Helen Mirren.
Cars: This was a terribly frustrating movie for me - I desperately wanted to like it because Pixar has produced such excellent movies in the past ("Toy Story," "Finding Nemo," "The Incredibles ..."), but this doesn't live up to that. Instead, I found some hysterically funny moments embedded in a sickly sweet syrup of American family values. Pixar has always delivered family values, but in a more subtle, much more palatable form. And, unfortunately, Larry the Cable Guy does get to deliver several bodily function noises. Despite which there are some truly inspired moments: the Ahhnold SUV, Jay Limo the talk show host, the Japanese news show, the passing reference to Pixar's own short "For the Birds," ditto with "ET," and the truly inspired closing credits (reminiscent of the equally brilliant closing credits in Lasseter's own "A Bug's Life" and "Toy Story 2"). 2006, dir. John Lasseter. With Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Paul Newman, Cheech Marin, Tony Shalhoub.
Casablanca: A truly great movie. The main character is Rick (Bogart), the owner of "Rick's Cafe Americain" in Casablanca, a disillusioned man who "sticks his neck out for nobody." This is Casablanca in 1941(?), a purgatory, marginally safe ground during the second world war that people flee to while trying to escape to America. Rick's life is badly shaken with the appearance of Ilsa (Bergman), the love of her life - who has her politically active husband with her and is looking for safe passage. The story is great, but what really makes it work is good cinematography, good acting, and a sly wit. It's also the origin of several iconic quotes in modern society: "Play it again, Sam," (even though nobody ever actually said that), "Here's looking at you, kid," and "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." 1943, dir. Michael Curtiz. With Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre.
Casino Royale (2006): The Bond movies have always been financially successful, but almost never critically so. After a wave of franchises re-inventing themselves (Batman, Superman ...) the Bond group decided to have a shot at it. New Bond, much less reliance on technology toys and bad puns, very good action, a real sense of danger in what Bond is doing, and real live acting and emotion add up to an excellent movie. I was particularly impressed with the parkour (the chase through the construction site) near the beginning, and the scene when he breaks into M's house (also early on). It shows remarkably well that she's dealing with a group of men (the "double-0s") who are extremely capable, above the law (she put them there), extremely dangerous, and borderline psychopaths. Not a view of Bond we've had before. 2006, dir. Martin Campbell. With Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench.
The Cat and the Canary: Based on a play, the movie is about the reading of a will at a British mansion in the country. The attendees are unpleasant and in some cases at each other's throats, and the will doesn't help. They must stay in the mansion overnight, complicated by the possible presence of an escaped mental asylum inmate in the area. Tries to be both scary and funny, but succeeds in neither. 1979, dir. Radley Metzger. With Carol Lynley, Michael Callan, Olivia Hussey.
The Cat Returns (orig. "Neko no ongaeshi"): The title refers to the appearance of a very similar cat character in "Whispers of the Heart," another anime movie. Haru is a young woman lacking in self-assurance. When she saves a cat about to be run over by a truck, she finds herself offered the rewards for saving the son of the King of Cats - including being taken permanently to the Kingdom of Cats and marrying the prince in question. She's not entirely sure this is what she wants to do, and with some very odd assistance she attempts to sort things out. While not a Miyazaki movie, this comes from the same studio (Ghibli) and that influence is obvious in both the primary setup and the attention to detail. I found much of it quite charming (and funny), but it was never as compelling as Miyazaki's best. It's a good start for a young director, probably worth watching. 2002, dir. Hiroyuki Morita. English voices by Anne Hathaway, Cary Elwes, Elliott Gould, Peter Boyle, Tim Curry.
Cast Away: Tom Hanks is a workaholic FedEx employee who is the sole survivor of a plane crash. He's stranded on a deserted island for a several years. Too long, somewhat overblown, but a good performance by Hanks. 2002. dir. Robert Zemeckis. With Tom Hanks.
Castle in the Sky: Another surreal and beautiful world from Miyazaki, carrying many of his favourite themes: caring for nature, young girls coming of age (although the male character is equally important - unusual in a Miyazaki), and lots of flying things. All the characters are wonderfully developed and entertaining, and the visuals are fantastic. A great movie. Anna Paquin's pseudo-British accent as the main female character was awful - unfortunately the Japanese soundtrack on the DVD I rented was also extremely poorly done (huge chunks of the dialogue had simply been dropped) although the subtitles were fine. 1986, dir. Hayao Miyazaki. English voices: Anna Paquin, James van der Beek.
The Castle of Cagliostro: Brings the famous anime character (and, further back, a famous French literary character) Lupin III to the big screen. I was interested in this because it's directed by Miyazaki, but nothing about it really shows his touch. It's conventional, passable anime. dir. Hayao Miyazaki.
Catch Me If You Can: Biography (of sorts) of a very good and very young con man, Frank Abagnale Jr. Quite a good movie, very well put together. 2002. dir. Steven Spielberg. With Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken.
The Cell: A visual extravaganza, lurid and bizarre. Lopez isn't much of an actress, although she did better than I expected. She plays a psychologist using an experimental process to enter the mind of people in a coma. She's asked to enter the mind of a serial killer to try to find the location of his last victim before she dies. I thought they did well with some of the wild visuals for the mindscapes, but ultimately the plot doesn't support it very well. May be worth seeing if you have a fascination with extraordinary cinematography. 2000. dir. Tarsem Singh. With Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D'Onofrio.
Cellular: About two minutes of intro and no extro at all, just action from end to end. Kidnapped woman manages to make a (long-lasting) phone call to a random guy (Evans) on his cellular, and his attempts to help her lead him into random acts of ... well, violence. Some major logical flaws surrounding the phone calls, but if you can ignore that it's not too bad. 2004, dir. David Ellis. With Chris Evans, Kim Basinger, Jason Statham, William H. Macy.
Chain Reaction: Where to start? The technological basis for this film is blurry at best. There are more logical flaws than the bridges of Chicago have rivets. Reeves plays a student machinist kicked out of school for blowing something up by mistake, but his machinist skills are apparently enough to take on or outrun huge numbers of thugs and cops. If he was more of a "MacGyver" it would have been easier to swallow, as absurd as that show was. Freeman and Weisz can't save this one - and don't blame it all on Reeves either: he may not have been brilliant, but this is hardly his fault. 1996, dir. Andrew Davis. With Keanu Reeves, Morgan Freeman, Rachel Weisz, Fred Ward, Brian Cox.
Chaplin: A mediocre movie, but a really good biopic, if that makes any sense. Chaplin surely did love his women young ... I'm afraid that's the main thing that stuck with me. If the movie is correct, he married four times, and the oldest of them was 18 - when he was in his fifties. (This appears to be fairly accurate.) Downey is, as reported, superb in the lead - he does Chaplin's slapstick incredibly well, and that's a hell of a trick. The problem with the movie is that Chaplin had a messy life, and layered on top of this is the idea that what we're seeing is a flashback of his life through the discussion of his biography-in-progress between Chaplin and his agent (Hopkins). Messy. But fascinating! 1992, dir. . With Robert Downey Jr., Dan Aykroyd, Geraldine Chaplin, Anthony Hopkins, Milla Jovovich, Moira Kelly, Kevin Kline, Diane Lane, Penelope Ann Miller, Paul Rhys, Marisa Tomei, Nancy Travis, James Woods, John Thaw.
Chaos Theory: About a man with an overly organized life. One thing goes wrong and his entire life falls like dominoes. Sweet and occasionally amusing, but forgettable and not very good. 2007, dir. Marcos Siega. With Ryan Reynolds, Emily Mortimer, Stuart Townsend.
Charade: Hepburn and Grant turn in good performances, but the movie seemed somewhat unsure about whether it was a murder mystery or a comedy. Eventually it decided on more of the latter, with a concomitant loss of menace. But the leads are charming and the dialogue is clever. 1963, dir. Stanley Donen. With Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Depp at his absolute weirdest - which is pretty damn weird - in a Burton movie, so you know the whole thing is going to be more than a little off balance. I think Roald Dahl would have been pretty pleased with this take on his work. The kids are appropriately over-the-top, the special effects are very good, and the whole experience is damn weird. 2005, dir. Tim Burton. With Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore, David Kelly, Helena Bonham Carter, Noah Taylor, Deep Roy.
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle: I don't think I've ever seen a more humiliating or embarassing piece of film in my entire life. I cringed all the way through it. I ask myself why I watched the whole thing, and all I can think is "car wreck syndrome:" I just couldn't believe it was really that bad. Apparently the original was just as bad so there appears to be a market for it. The action was ludicrous in its even more blantant than usual disregard of the laws of physics, and the whole movie was a sequence of vignettes attempting to put the three main women in more and more foolish outfits and positions. It made me begin to wonder if maybe the Austin Powers films are actually high art. With Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Demi Moore.
Charlotte's Web: I think we have "Babe" to thank for the slightly less sentimental attitude about farm animals in children's movies. In any case, it's made quite clear early on that Wilbur is going to be bacon if something extraordinary doesn't happen. And of course that's where Charlotte comes in. Fanning is great - they couldn't have done this without her. The line-up of voice talent is staggering. The humour is wonderful - although it gets pushed aside to some extent in the second half to make way for a bit too much pathos and sentimentality. Still, definitely an enjoyable movie. 2006, dir. Gary Winick. With Julia Roberts, Dominic Scott Kay, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Oprah Winfrey, Cedric the Entertainer, Kathy Bates, Reba McEntire, Robert Redford, Thomas Haden Church, André Benjamin.
Chasing Amy: Probably Smith's best work. It's meant for a young crowd - it's raunchy and has some scenes that'll make adults cringe, but it's an excellent piece of work despite that. Basic premise: male comic artist falls for female comic artist who turns out to be a lesbian. I suppose it's a romantic comedy, but hardly standard issue. And for once, Affleck turns in a decent acting job. 1999, dir. Kevin Smith. With Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes.
Chicago: Renée Zellweger is a want-to-be Jazz singer in the Twenties. She sees her life in musical numbers, and after she murders her nasty boyfriend, much of the movie takes place in jail. The director calls it a satire and the Academy apparently thought it was worth six Oscars, but a couple good numbers couldn't redeem this one for me. 2002. dir. Rob Marshall. With Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah.
Children of a Lesser God: At this point (2003) it really screams "Eighties" - despite which it's still a pretty good movie. The two leads are excellent and the script is good, it's the peripherals that are dated. Matlin got (and deserved) a best actress Oscar. 1986. dir. Randa Haines. With William Hurt, Marlee Matlin.
Children of Men: Brilliant filming, brilliant SF. Fantastic world-building. In the near future (2027), there hasn't been a child born in 18 years. The world has pretty much gone to hell - the UK has soldiered on as they've often done, although under brutal military rule and detaining and deporting all foreigners. Owen plays Theo, a former political activist who has turned to the bottle and pretty much given up. Into his world comes his ex-, who dumps a huge problem into his lap: a pregnant foreigner. Don't look for light or cheerful entertainment here, but it's a really excellent film. 2006, dir. Alfonso Cuarón. With Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Claire-Hope Ashitey, Chiwetel Ejiofor.
The Chinese Connection: Bruce Lee, see the alternative title "Fist of Fury."
Chobits: A relatively short (27 episodes, 22 minutes each) Anime series. Obscenely cute, fairly funny. Would be appropriate for ten year olds if it didn't mention (but not show) porn and breasts so often. Motosuwa can't afford a "persocon" (a personal computer/robot/significant-other-replacement), but finds one on a trash heap. She runs without an OS, and may be a "Chobits," an urban legend of an uber-persocon. He names her "Chii." The series is about her learning to be human, and the evolution of their relationship.
Les Choristes (aka. "The Chorus"): Yes, it's a bit cheesy and perhaps undeservedly optimistic, but it's also incredibly charming and enjoyable. I'm usually not a fan of choral music, but even I found something to like in the music. 2004, dir. Christophe Barratier. With Gérard Jugnot, François Berléand, Kad Merad, Jean-Paul Bonnaire, Marie Bunel, Jean-Baptiste Maunier.
A Christmas Story: Something of a Christmas classic that I didn't see until 2006. Billingsley plays a 10 year old(?) in hot pursuit of a Red Ryder BB Gun prior to Christmas, while trying to survive the travails of school, parents, and the approaching holiday season. A friend pointed out that the kids do in fact act more like kids than in most any other movie, and it's amusing to compare the nostalgia of the voice-over of the adult to the out-and-out avarice of the child. The story is a bit episodic, All-American vignettes written by Jean Shepherd (who also does the voice-over) that remind me a little of Garrison Keillor. An amusing side note: director Clark's previous movies were the "much maligned" (as he put it) "Porky's" and "Porky's II," without which (he notes) this movie could not have existed. 1983, dir. Bob Clark. With Peter Billingsley, Darren McGavin, Melinda Dillon, (voice of) Jean Shepherd.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Beautiful, not quite so heavy handed with the religion as the original, but unfortunately pedestrian in the interpretation. Oddly, the add-on intro that wasn't in the book was one of the better parts of the movie. The kids acted fairly well except for the youngest - who was nevertheless very cute. The talking animals weren't a huge success. 2005, dir. Andrew Adamson. With William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Skandar Keynes, Georgie Henley, Tilda Swinton, James McAvoy.
The Chronicles of Riddick: A really disappointing movie ... Riddick is Diesel's character from "Pitch Black," one of the best SF/horror movies of the last decade. The character of Riddick was a pretty compelling one, but they tried to expand on his background and threw in all kinds of nonsensical crap. The overall story of the movie itself was disappointing too (peaceful planet, evil alien invasion, blah blah blah), and Dench's performance was ... lousy. This was Diesel's project: he'd been dying to work with Dench and convinced her. I just wish he'd picked a better project, for both of them. 2003. dir. David Twohy. With Vin Diesel, Judi Dench, Colm Feore, Thandie Newton, Karl Urban, Alexa Davalos.
Cider House Rules: Cain runs an orphanage, Maguire is his favourite. Maguire leaves to see the world. A coming of age story set in the U.S. during the second world war, based on a John Irving novel. It's fairly good, but it's also depressing, and if I watch a depressing movie, I want it to be better than this was. dir. Lasse Hellstrom. With Michael Caine, Toby Maguire, Charlize Theron, Delroy Lindo.
Cinema Paradiso: The original was heavy-handed but powerful. The new version (released in 2003(?) on DVD) is heavy-handed and incredibly tedious with another 51 minutes of footage. Someone please stop directors from "fixing" the injustices forced on them in editing the film ... See the original version: it's good. 1989. dir. Guiseppe Tornatore. With Philippe Noiret.
City Hunter (orig. "Sing si lip yan"): Based on a Japanese manga, Chan plays a womanizing private detective (with a Japanese name, but speaking Cantonese ...) hired to ... oh hell, I don't remember. Anyway he ends up on a cruise ship where he flirts with women, has fights, and performs numerous pratfalls. This can be considered a spoof or a manga brought literally to life, your choice: someone falls a long way and leaves a person-shaped hole in the deck of the ship, that kind of thing. I was hoping for a bunch of Chan's signature martial arts fights, but they went mostly for a lot of humour that didn't particularly work for me. 1993, dir. Jing Wong. With Jackie Chan, Joey Wang, Chingmy Yau, Richard Norton, Michael Wong, Gary Daniels.
The City of Lost Children (orig. "La Cité des enfants perdus"): Caro and Jeunet's second full length film after "Delicatessen," this one is so surreal and bizarre it makes "Delicatessen" look, well, "normal." And if you've seen "Delicatessen" you'll know that's one hell of an achievement. Evidently Emilfork's character "Krank" is unable to dream, so he kidnaps children from a nearby city to steal their dreams. Perlman plays the not-all-there strongman "One," whose adopted younger brother is stolen. Vittet plays a young girl who works for "The Octopus," a very nasty pair of women joined at the hip (Brunet and Mallet, identical twins). Krank is assisted by five copies of Pinon, all of whom deliberately over-act (along with the rest of the cast). The sets are quite impressive. Utterly bizarre. I'm not sorry I watched it, but I wouldn't really recommend it either. 1995, dir. Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet. With Ron Perlman, Daniel Emilfork, Judith Vittet, Dominique Pinon, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Geneviève Brunet, Odile Mallet.
Closely Watched Trains (orig. "Ostre sledované vlaky"): A mildly surreal Czech comedy about sex, set during the Second World War. That latter part doesn't seem to make much difference - right up until the end. But this is proof once again that old comedy doesn't always translate well - I hardly laughed at all. Mostly it was just surreal. I suppose it's not as funny anymore because it's about sex and we've long ago brushed past all the mores it was sideswiping. 1966, dir. Jirí Menzel. With Václav Neckár, Josef Somr, Vlastimil Brodský.
Closer: A movie about four people abusing each other emotionally for two hours. A lot of people liked this movie, but none of the characters are even remotely likeable - and even if that's okay with you I didn't think the dialogue was particularly realistic. 2004, dir. Mike Nichols. With Jude Law, Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, Clive Owen.
Cloverfield: Does for the Godzilla genre what "Blair Witch" did for lost-in-the-woods. That is to say, shaky POV. Fairly clever and well executed, although some people may get motion sickness. You've never heard of any of the cast, despite the budget. We have J.J. Abrams to thank for this over-the-top craziness. Reeves sounds like an intelligent guy and may actually produce some work worth seeing later. 2007, dir. Matt Reeves. With Michael Stahl-David, T. J. Miller, Jessica Lucas, Mike Vogel, Lizzy Caplan, Odette Yustman.
Clueless: A loose modern remake of Jane Austen's "Emma," this is amusing in places but its heavy reliance on the slang and fashion of its time have made it feel extremely dated less than ten years later. 1995. dir. Amy Heckerling. With Alicia Silverstone, Wallace Shawn, Brittany Murphy.
Code 46: Ahh, the extraordinary Samantha Morton. Not beautiful, not ugly, not talented or untalented, just ... extraordinary. Her bizarre acting was great as the girl who saw the future in "Minority Report," but in this one I got sick of seeing her writhe, squirm, moan, and occasionally look confused. The movie amounted to a bunch of fairly standard science fiction ideas (papers for everything, language melding, elite city dwellers, memory wiping, control of genetics) and molds them into a poor plot around an unconvincing forbidden love. 2003, dir. Michael Winterbottom. With Tim Robbins, Samantha Morton.
Collateral: Foxx plays a cabbie who finds himself driving a contract killer around Los Angeles as he does a series of hits. It's an action movie, and as they go, it's actually a pretty good one. Both of the main characters act fairly well, and there's a bit more of a nod to reality than usual (although not a lot more). 2004. dir. Michael Mann. With Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith.
The Commitments: The story (based on a Roddy Doyle book) of ten musicians from Dublin's poor north side starting up a Soul band. Very funny, and allowing musicians to play the part of musicians means that the music is fabulous. A very enjoyable movie. 1991. dir. Alan Parker.
The Constant Gardener: Would have been an excellent movie if it wasn't for the music video editing, use of colour, and volume. It's an intelligent political intrigue, not a brainless action movie. Despite the editing and with the help of very good performances by Weisz and Fiennes, this is a good (albeit very depressing) movie about the evils of drug companies in the Third World. Original story by John le Carré. 2005, dir. Fernando Meirelles. With Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Bill Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite.
Constantine: Based on the DC comic "Hellblazer," "Constantine" stars Reeves as an attempted suicide who's been to hell and can see the angels and demons walking on earth among us. If you can accept that premise, you might enjoy this movie. Watch past the end of the credits. Fans of the comic will be disappointed in the choice of Reeves, who isn't blond and isn't Cockney. But Weisz is excellent, Swinton and Reeves are very good, the ideas are wild, and the action is great. Despite huge flaws, it's highly entertaining. 2005, dir. Francis Lawrence. With Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton.
Contact: A grand vision of alien contact from Carl Sagan. Foster and McConaughey are both excellent as the "driven scientist" and "man of faith" respectively. Don't let my titles put you off this one: it's a mystery and a celebration of humanity and a bunch of other things all wrapped in one. Really good. 1997, dir. Robert Zemeckis. With Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Skerritt, William Fichtner, Jake Busey, Angela Bassett, James Woods, Rob Lowe.
The Cooler: Macy plays the titular "cooler," a man whose luck is so bad he's employed by a casino to "cool" tables - his presence will destroy anyone's run of luck. That is, until he falls in love (with Bello's character). So now he's being paid to bring bad luck and is instead bringing good luck ... not exactly what his vindictive employer (Baldwin) wants. Definitely a bit on the surreal side. Macy is entertaining, Baldwin vicious, and Bello gets naked again. Weird, and I didn't like it much. 2003, dir. Wayne Kramer. With William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin, Maria Bello.
The Core: A modern Seventies disaster movie with modern tropes and good acting ... which doesn't prevent it from having painfully bad science. But this is one of those ones where you go into it knowing it's going to be really bad and enjoy it anyway. It was fun. The basic premise is that the core of the Earth has stopped rotating, and everyone on the planet will die in under a year unless our intrepid (and very intelligent and antagonistic) heroes get to the core and detonate a bunch of atomic bombs to start the core rotating again. Against impossible odds and insurmountable problems and etc. 2003, dir. Jon Amiel. With Hilary Swank, Aaron Eckhart, Delroy Lindo, Stanley Tucci, DJ Qualls, Tchéky Karyo, Bruce Greenwood, Alfre Woodard.
Coup de Torchon: A cop in French West Africa in 1938 gets tired of being insulted by everyone and takes it upon himself dispense justice in his own unique way - uninformed by much moral sense. I'm sure there were black comedies before this one, but this is very dark. Funny, nasty, and mesmerizing. 1981, dir. Bertrand Tavernier. With Philippe Noiret, Isabelle Huppert.
Cradle 2 the Grave: This movie is pretty bad - which is to say it's better than most of Jet Li's American movies. Jet Li is an extremely talented martial artist, and, while he's no actor, he's at least fairly charming. But his goofy Hong Kong movies look excellent by comparison to the tripe he's turned out since he was "discovered." I keep hoping he'll end up in something better. 2003. dir. Andrzej Bartkowiak. With Jet Li, DMX.
Crank: The basic premise is that our hero ("Chev Chelios," played by Statham) wakes up to find he's been poisoned by an enemy and the only way to stay alive is to stay cranked on adrenaline. That tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the movie. I hope you can guess that it's intensely ludicrous. It's a bad movie, but ... pretty entertaining. Although I'm more than a little embarassed to say that in public. 2006, dir. Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor. With Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Efren Ramirez, Dwight Yoakam, Carlos Sanz, Keone Young.
The Crow: One of the earlier graphic-novel-to-movie translations, this time of a vicious revenge story. Lee died during the making of the movie. I still don't understand why the critics like this one so much: sure, Proyas has a great eye for sets and shots, but the story is over-the-top vicious, silly, and not very well acted. If you want to see Proyas really on his game, watch "Dark City." "I, Robot" is more accessible and has issues, but is still very good. 1994, dir. Alex Proyas. With Brandon Lee, Rochelle Davis, Ernie Hudson, David Patrick Kelly, Michael Wincott, Bai Ling.
Crumb: Robert Crumb had a lot to do with starting the underground comics movement in the late 60s. He's still an active comics author. This movie follows him around for a while, talks to his family, looks at his comics, and looks into his past life. Crumb has no problem talking about his life in considerable detail: it's how he's made his living for the past thirty years. Many of his comics are his own bizarre interpretations of the events in his life. Many of his comics are about sex, and the movie spends time dwelling on his fantasies, and occasionally his actual sex life. Get ready for a really weird ride. He's a pretty strange individual, but as the movie progresses and you meet his brothers and mother, you realize he's the sane one ... Hilarious and extremely disturbing. I highly recommend it - you won't forget it for a long time. 1998. dir. Terry Zwigoff.
The Cup: About Buddhism, passion, and Tibet. Probably the only movie you'll ever see in Bhutanese (the Tibetan language?). Based on a true story. Several young monks at a Buddhist monastery in India are determined to see the World Cup football games, even though it's against monastery rules. The people in the movie are (I think) all monks, and not particularly good actors. But it's funny and enjoyable, and very educational about Tibetans and Buddhism. 2000. dir. Khyentse Norbu.

D

The Da Vinci Code: A long-winded, muddled mess of a movie. I haven't read the book. There are only two types of scenes in this movie: long explanations of art or Christian conspiracy theory, or action. This leaves no time for acting by an otherwise excellent cast. Even with all the explanations, it's occasionally unclear what's going on and you probably don't care anyways. 2006, dir. Ron Howard. With Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Paul Bettany, Alfred Molina.
Dances With Wolves: Far too long at four hours, there's a passable movie lurking inside this behemoth. The cinematography was beautiful, doing justice to the prairie setting. Costner was wooden. The leisurely pace has some advantages, but for the most part left me restless. The main story concerns a soldier who has just escaped the chaos of the American Civil War slowly being absorbed into a Plains Indian tribe. 1990. Dir. Kevin Costner. With Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant, Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman.
Dangerous Liaisons: France, before the revolution. Not exactly the picture of courtly love. Brutal sexual and psychological manipulation. Excellent. Very depressing. 1988. dir. Stephen Frears. With John Malkovitch, Glenn Close, Uma Thurman, Keanu Reeves.
Daredevil: Not as bad as I expected after it received a lot of bad reviews. It varies between Ferrell in the ludicrous role of "Bullseye" (okay, the whole thing is ludicrous, but we're trying to suspend disbelief here and he makes that even more difficult) and the very entertaining playground fight. Not the best of the superhero movies, but not the worst either. The second disc includes a great deal of material about the making of the movie and the comic books which is at least as interesting as the movie itself. 2003. dir. Mark Steven Johnson. With Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Colin Ferrell.
The Darjeeling Limited: Definitely a Wes Anderson movie, with his great eye for visuals and penchant for family dysfunction. Falls squarely in the middle between the resounding success of "The Royal Tenenbaums" and the disasterous "The Life Aquatic." Same cast as always, very similar themes. Three brothers convene on a train in India, speaking to each other for the first time in a year. 2007, dir. Wes Anderson. With Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Amara Karan, Wallace Wolodarsky, Anjelica Huston.
Dark City: I own this one, and love it. It's weird, dark, and very hard to describe. Think of the paranoia of Philip K. Dick, throw in Proyas's directing style, and you have a story of aliens invading a city and experimenting with people's memories. Bizarre, but very good, and a visual feast. 1998, dir. Alex Proyas. With Rufus Sewell, Jennifer Connelly, William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland.
Dave Chappelle's Block Party: The critics loved this one, so I decided to have a look at it. I didn't find it funny enough to cover my disinterest in the music, but Wyclef Jean made it worth my time at the end: "Remember, the white man don't owe you shit. You're responsible for yourself. They got libraries in the ghetto. You need to go in there and educate yourselves. I couldn't speak English when I came to this country, but I went to the library and read. That's what you got to do." And he goes on to say "and if they don't have libraries, talk to your politician, talk to your mayor, make it happen." I think I like him. 2006, dir. Michel Gondry. With Dave Chappelle.
The Day of the Jackal: Far superior to "The Jackal," the 1997 remake. The plot revolves around an assassination attempt on Charles de Gaulle. Fox is cold and systematic as the assassin. When Fox isn't on screen the movie is about the pursuit of this completely unknown assassin - hard to find when he has no name, no face, and not even a reputation, but they're pretty sure he's very good at what he does. 1973, dir. Fred Zinnemann. With Edward Fox, Michel Auclair, Denis Carey, Derek Jacobi.
The Day the Earth Stood Still: One of the "classics" of science fiction. A spaceship lands in Washington, and the visitor is shot by a nervous soldier within thirty seconds of descending from the ship. The visitor turns out to be essentially human, and after healing (incredibly quickly) he slips off to try to meet real humans. There are a bunch of bizarre assumptions (he understands humans so well that he can blend in fine at a boarding house - and yet he doesn't know about money or the value of diamonds), but that's probably inevitable. While it shows some of the prejudices of the period, it also holds up remarkably well. (This is where the name "Klaatu" originated - he's the visitor - and his robot is called "Gort.") 1951, dir. Robert Wise. With Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Sam Jaffe.
Dear Frankie: Frankie frequently writes to his father who is in the merchant marine since the separation of his parents when he was very young. We soon find out that his letters end up in his mother's (Mortimer) hands, and she replies to them. Which works well enough until the ship Frankie thinks his father is on pulls into port. Rather than give up on the ruse, Mortimer hires someone (Butler) to play the part of the father, with substantial side effects. Charming, almost sickly sweet, with a very open ending. Mortimer and Butler are good. 2004, dir. Shona Auerbach. With Emily Mortimer, Jack McElhone, Gerard Butler.
Death Trap: A well-known playwright (Caine) riding a string of flops is approached by one of his young students (Reeve) to review the student's play. He decides to invite the student over and murder him to get the play for himself. This is followed by a string of reversals and betrayals to stagger the mind. It's meant to be ludicrously funny, but to me it was just ludicrous. But it's odd to see Reeve so long ago: I've thought of him for so long as a wheelchair-borne quadraplegic that I'd forgotten he was a good looking actor when he was younger. 1982, dir. Sidney Lumet. With Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, Dyan Cannon, Irene Worth.
Delicatessen: "Surreal" doesn't begin to cover it. In a post-apocalyptic world, a surviving delicatessen serves up the occasional passer-by the local residents. I borrowed this because it was directed by Jeunet, and it certainly has many of the touches he shows in later films including a heavy inclination to sepia toning and absurdity by the truck load. Well-loved by both the critics and the fans, I guess I just didn't "get it." 1991, dir. Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet. With Dominique Pinon, Marie-Laure Dougnac, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Ticky Holgado, Anne-Marie Pisani, Silvie Laguna.
Desert Heat: This is a really bad martial arts movie (direct to video apparently), but saying "it's just a poor remake of 'Yojimbo'" misses out on some wonderfully sick and morbid humour. There have been many parodies of Mr. Miyagi (for those who don't recognize the name, "The Karate Kid"), but who better to to parody the role than Pat Morita? Under the direction of the same man who directed him the first time? (Although Avildsen was so embarassed by this one he's credited as "Danny Mulroon.") The movie's greatest weakness is its attempts to be a serious martial arts film. That's just boring (and the fighting isn't even good). But the twisted humour is just a scream. 1999, dir. John Avildsen. With Jean-Claude Van Damme, Pat Morita, Danny Trejo.
The Devil's Disciple: Written by George Bernard Shaw, a BBC TV production. The filming is ... iffy. But the performances are good, and the script pretty much puts away any further doubts. In 1777 America, Richard Dudgeon (Gwilym) returns home, disowned son of a religious and bitter mother, to find himself owner of the house on his father's death. Just in time to face the occupation of the British army. Dudgeon claims to be "the Devil's Disciple," although he may just be doing it because he's infuriated by the religious hypocrisy around him. The local preacher (Stewart) has a shot at befriending him. I enjoyed Shaw's script immensely. 1987, dir. David Jones. With Mike Gwilym, Patrick Stewart, Ian Richardson, Elizabeth Spriggs, Susan Wooldridge.
Diabolique: I've rarely seen a movie so over-the-top that it's boring, but this definitely manages. Stone plays cold and obnoxious, and doesn't manage to even do that particularly well. Adjani does weepy and weak. Palminteri tries for ferocious sexual animal or some such and just looks silly. The story has the wife and mistress of a brutal teacher teaming up to murder him, but strange things happen after the murder. Even if you can get past the bad acting, there are other major issues: who took the pictures of the wife and mistress moving the crate? All the major parties were occupied. And the ending, in which pretty much everyone dies and is revived a couple times, is just ludicrous. 1996, dir. Jeremiah S. Chechik. With Isabelle Adjani, Sharon Stone, Chazz Palminteri, Kathy Bates, Donal Logue.
Dick Tracy: Beatty's take on the classic comic. Painted in broad strokes in every respect, I found it more annoying than successful. The dialogue is broad, the characters are broadly drawn, all the bad guys wear tons of facial silicon, and the colours blaze of the screen. "Sin City" took a lot of clues from this one: use the facial modifications and colours in judicious quantities as highlights, not continuous overload. Oddly, I thought Madonna provided one of the better acting jobs in this sloppy mess (the list of people who embarrassed themselves in this one is long). It's an interesting movie and worth seeing, but it's not very good. 1990, dir. Warren Beatty. With Warren Beatty, Glenne Headly, Charlie Korsmo, Madonna, Mandy Patinkin, Paul Sorvino, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Dick Van Dyke.
The Dish: "Based on a true story." When the Americans went to the Moon, a radio telescope in the middle of a sheep paddock in Australia was used to transmit a significant part of possibly the most famous TV broadcast ever made as Armstrong walked on the Moon. This tells the story of the people and town associated with that telescope. Manages to convey a good part of the anxiety and excitement of the event. Enjoyable and sweet. 2000, dir. Rob Sitch. With Sam Neill, Billy Mitchell, Patrick Warburton, Roy Billing.
District B13: This has action that should make Tony Jaa and Jackie Chan sit up and taking note. The initial chase scene is fantastic. There's some good fights and action later, but nothing topped the initial chase. Worth seeing for that alone. 2004, dir. Pierre Morel. With David Belle, Cyril Raffaelli, Tony D'Amario, Bibi Naceri, Dany Verissimo.
Don Juan DeMarco: The story of a soon-to-retire psychiatrist (Brando) and his last patient, a young man who claims to be Don Juan (Depp). Depp is just about the only person who could have sold this story in the title role, and he's great. The tale he tells is absurd, funny, and romantic, and the script is sharply observant of the state of love and our view of reality today. This is a really wonderful movie. 1995, dir. Jeremy Leven. With Johnny Depp, Marlon Brando, Faye Dunaway,
Double Indemnity: If the interviews on the DVD are to be believed, this movie single-handedly launched the entire Film Noir genre. Certainly it's a very good movie. An insurance agent (MacMurray) falls for a married woman who convinces him to help her kill her husband after taking out a lot of insurance on him. The three leads are all excellent, and the story falls into place, and then back apart again, with style and an elegant inevitability. 1944, dir. Billy Wilder. With Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Jean Heather, Byron Barr.
Dragon Fist: Early Hong Kong Chan - before he developed a sense of humour and started directing his own movies. It looks initially like a standard "you killed my master" revenge tale, but turns out rather differently. Not that that's as much of a blessing as it sounds - the script is as useless as the acting. The martial arts are okay, but very traditional. 1979, dir. Lo Wei. With Jackie Chan.
Dralion: A DVD of Cirque du Soleil's show "Dralion." A wonderful acrobatic show, with the occasional rather odd cutting decision - ie. some fantastic acrobatics going on center stage, and they decide to show you the singer. Overall pretty good. 2000. Dir. David Mallet. Cirque du Soleil.
Dreadnaught: What the title has to do with anything, I don't know. Classicly bad Hong Kong chop sockey. I hoped for a bit more from Yuen Woo-ping and Yuen Biao, one of Jacky Chan's classmates. Biao is incredibly acrobatic and Woo-ping is the best fight choreographer in the business, but this movie doesn't do much. It's mildly humourous, but overall not even worth the rental. 1995. dir. Yuen Woo-ping. With Yuen Biao, Tak-Hing Kwan.
Driving Miss Daisy: A quiet little piece about some old people getting older ... Funny and enjoyable. Doesn't talk about racism much, and yet manages to say a fair bit about it. 1989. dir. Bruce Beresford. With Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman, Dan Ackroyd.
Due South Season 1 (TV): "Due South" is fine Canadian content about a Mountie (an RCMP officer, played by Gross) named Benton Fraser who works at the Canadian consulate in Chicago. He was described by a friend who reads Terry Pratchett as "a Canadian Corporal Carrot," a description so accurate it's given me nearly as much amusement as the series itself. Of course Fraser works at the consulate, but somehow we always see him hanging out with his cop buddy (Marciano) helping solve cases - usually by extreme attention to detail, and sometimes by sniffing, licking, or tracking. The ideas covered are quite varied, and they manage to keep the episodes fairly fresh and enjoyable. 1994-95. With Paul Gross, David Marciano, Gordon Pinsent.
Dummy: Let's be clear from the start: this is a Romantic Comedy. The outcome is completely inevitable, the only thing that makes it worth the journey is Brody's excellent performance. He plays a shy and rather emotionally battered 28 year old who quits his job and takes up ventriloquism - and begins to find his voice. The end credits are quick to assure us that Brody did all his own ventriloquism - I'm sure he did, he's just that way. Jovovich plays his misguided and flat out crazy friend "Fangora" with a great deal of energy but not a lot of talent, and Farmiga plays his incredibly sweet and charming love interest. 2002, dir. Greg Pritkin. With Adrien Brody, Milla Jovovich, Illeana Douglas, Vera Farmiga, Jessica Walter, Ron Leibman.

E

Eagle Eye: Works on our paranoia about the staggering level of observation that's possible in modern society, and what could happen if that was blatantly misused. LaBeouf and Monaghan both get orders from a mysterious woman who orders them to do illegal things - forcing them to do so with threats and physical coercion. A large number of expensive cars are totalled in the early car chase - and the action editing is so choppy and blurry you can't see a bit of this million dollar spectacle they've put on. So what was the point? Logic also falls by the wayside, a casualty of sloppy plotting. As usual LaBeouf's acting is like a beacon for viewers desperate for a moment of quality. Could have been a good movie, but blew it all on sloppiness and sensationalism. 2008, dir. D.J. Caruso. With Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Billy Bob Thornton, Rosario Dawson, Michael Chiklis, Anthony Mackie.
Earthsea: This is based on Ursula K. LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea and its sequel, The Tombs of Atuan. I've read the former about ten times, the latter perhaps four. It's kind of hard for me to look at this without thinking of the source material, and believe me, it doesn't hold up well. They didn't want it to be like Harry Potter-lite, or so the director said in the interview - and yet we have sorcerors throwing fireballs at evil soldiers, and horrible looking flying monsters, and a whole bunch of other stuff that didn't come out of LeGuin. Her stories are slow and contemplative, but they felt the need for action. So there are large elements from her story, but there are also huge sections that definitely weren't hers. The acting is uniformly mediocre and the story they end up with is fairly bad. Not much to recommend here. 2004, dir. Robert Lieberman. With Shawn Ashmore, Kristin Kreuk, Isabella Rossellini, Danny Glover, Sebastian Roché, Chris Gauthier.
East is East: Listed as a comedy, and highly regarded by the critics. I suppose there is a fair bit of humour, but the emotional content is intense and the humour is frequently quite black. Portrays a lower class Pakistani-English family living in England, with the Pakistani father trying to arrange marriages for his sons, who aren't interested. The ending is pretty mixed - rather more like real life than most movies. I liked it. 1999. dir. Damien O'Donnell. With Om Puri, Linda Bassett, Jimi Mistry, Archie Panjabi.
Eastern Promises: Cronenberg's follow-up to "A History of Violence" - the two movies share a lot in common. Not least of which is Mortensen. This time we're looking at a Russian crime family in London. Mortensen plays the driver, Cassels the irresponsible son to the ruthless father played by Mueller-Stahl. And Watts is a midwife in possession of the child of a very young - and dead - girl who has dubious ties to that family. While the story is significantly different than "A History of Violence," the feel is quite similar - the same sorts of questions about violence and loyalty, and this one is nearly as good (which means it's very good). 2007, dir. David Cronenberg. With Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mina E. Mina, Sinéad Cusack, Jerzy Skolimowski.
Easy Living: Madcap/slapstick comedy with poor working girl Mary Smith (Arthur) caught up with the extremely rich Ball family in the most ridiculous possible way. Typical of the Depression (and Preston Sturges, who wrote it), we have a poor girl suddenly thrown into the midst of wealth and romance. The product is silly but charming and funny, and Arthur, Arnold, and Milland are all very good. 1937, dir. Mitchell Leisen. With Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold, Ray Milland, Luis Alberni, Mary Nash.
Eat Drink Man Woman: About the lives of three Chinese women and their master chef father who has trouble communicating with them. Plays out across several months and all their lives get turned around in various ways. Food plays a central part. Very funny and a great view of a family. 1994. dir. Ang Lee.
EDtv: Similar to "The Truman Show," except that the main character is aware he's the center of a live 24 hour TV show. Very funny, well developed. 1999. dir. Ron Howard. With Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Hurley.
8 Mile: I didn't believe it when I heard it. The critics all said "Eminem can act." The movie sounded interesting, so I rented it to see for myself. And it's true: he can act. Perhaps only in this context, but he turns in a really good performance here. The story is somewhat autobiographical, although several elements have been changed. Don't discount his achievement because it's a portrayal of his own life: not as easy as it sounds. The "battles" he took part in coming up in the rap/hip hop world explain a lot about the way he writes. 2002. dir. Curtis Hanson. With Eminem, Kim Bassinger, Mekhi Phifer, Omar Miller.
84 Charing Cross Road: Bancroft plays Helene Hanff, an American writer in New York looking for out of print British books. She strikes up a business relationship and correspondence with Frank Doël in Great Britain, buying books on an irregular basis. The correspondence lasts 20 years, and through it we trace both their lives. A very quiet and charming film based on a true story. 1986. dir. David Jones. With Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins, Judy Dench, Mercedes Ruehl.
Elektra: Horrible reviews. I rented it because I knew I'd enjoy the pseudo-supernatural elements. But it is pretty bad ... 2005, dir. Rob Bowman. With Jennifer Garner, Goran Visnjic, Kirsten Prout, Terence Stamp.
Elizabeth: I'm told by those that have read about the history of Queen Elizabeth's reign that this is ... inaccurate. Period dramas like this are usually shot in a very straight-forward manner, but there's some use in this one of unconventional cinematography, including bleach-to-white and blurring, which feels a little out of place. But the performances are superb, and the story is excellent. Highly recommended. With Cate Blanchett, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffry Rush.
Elizabethtown: After creating a financial catastrophe of epic proportions, the main character (Bloom) is stopped from committing suicide by a phone call telling him of the death of his father. His visit to the titular hometown of his father introduces him to a talkative flight attendant (Dunst) and quirky family members. Has some embarassing moments (Sarandon tap dancing is right up there), but overall a bizarre and bizarrely enjoyable ride. Second time around I was more impressed: Dunst and Bloom are excellent. Dunst is both annoying and charming, as she is supposed to be. The movie is a mess, the characters are brilliant creations. dir. Cameron Crowe. With Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin.
Emma (A&E): An A&E product, this was made for TV. Despite that unpromising beginning, this is actually a superb production. The dialogue is great, it looks good, Beckinsale is very good, and she gets great support from the entire cast. I really enjoyed this one. 1996. dir. Diarmuid Lawrence. With Kate Beckinsale, Mark Strong, Prunella Scales, Olivia Williams, Samantha Morton.
Emma (McGrath): I expected to like this better than the A&E version, but was surprised to find it no better. The A&E version is very good, but I thought anything with Paltrow would come out ahead ... They're both good versions, but A&E's actually looks better and the performances and script are comparable. 1996. dir. Douglas McGrath. With Gwyneth Paltrow, Greta Scacchi, Alan Cumming, Jeremy Northam, Toni Collette.
The Emperor's New Groove