Oh Riots...

Hot Rod(dir. Akiva Schaffer)
The film is basically a feature-length Andy Samberg digital short except funnier and with some semblance of an actual plot. Will Arnett is amazing as the typical asshole boyfriend of the girl of our protagonist's dreams. The whole stepfather-stepson relationship was quite heartwarming and poignant and the bit with everybody marching that eventually turned ugly was hilarious. Isla Fisher was not as revolting to watch this time around probably because The Lookout actually had "good" acting and this didn't. It could have been the lighting as well. It's not going to go down as a comedy classic or anything, but this movie definitely had its moments.
**1/2 out of ****

Oh Songs of the 80's...

Big Black - Bad Penny
Big Black - Kerosene
Public Enemy - Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos
Sonic Youth - Teenage Riot
Sonic Youth - Shadow of a Doubt
Sonic Youth - Schizophrenia
Metallica - For Whom the Bell Tolls
Black Flag - TV Party
The Misfits - Last Caress
Bad Brains - Pay to Cum
Joy Division - Atmosphere
Joy Division - Disorder
The Pixies - Monkey Gone to Heaven
The Pixies - Gigantic

Oh Songs of the 90's...

Recently, I watched a VH1 special entitled Top 100 Songs of the 90's and most of it sucked. I had a tuna fish sandwich today and... Just kidding. Not about that special sucking, but it's VH1 so what do you expect? But much like great ideas turning out not so great, I've decided to take it upon myself and perhaps make a Top 100 of the 90's myself. Enough talking, let's do it!
Best Songs of the 90's(no ranking for now)
Cat Power - Nudes as the News
Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy
Tricky - Black Steel
Smog - Bathysphere
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Public Enemy - Welcome to the Terrordome
Wu-Tang Clan - Wu-Tang Ain't Nuthing ta Fuck Wit
The Notorious B.I.G. - Juicy
Pale Saints - Sight of You
The Cranberries - Dreams
Fugazi - Turnover
Fugazi - Glue Man
Aphex Twin - Fingerbib
Ride - Vapour Trail
My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes
Bush - Gylcerine
Sublime - Santeria
Weezer - El Scorcho
Green Day - When I Come Around
Alice In Chains - Rooster
Bjork - Hyper-Ballad
Rage Against the Machine - Bulls on Parade
Sepultura - Roots Bloody Roots
Liz Phair - Fuck and Run
Ani DiFranco - 32 Flavors
Ol' Dirty Bastard - Shimmy Shimmy Ya
The Smashing Pumpkins - Today
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

Some of the songs are pretty much filler and I'm probably going to slim this down to the bare essentials and hopefully, add some more.

Oh Sarah & Tom...

The Secret Life of Words(dir. Isabel Coixet)
For some reason, I just knew that Sarah Polley was bound to get naked in this even if it didn't make a whole lot of sense and was completely unnecessary. I think she is attractive so that's not the reason why I'm complaining. It just seems rather ridiculous that an actress of her talent has to get topless for really no reason. Yes, I understand why her character got topless, but there was easily another way to go about that. I mean the story takes place on a fucking oil rig and she's a nurse that tends to a patient played by Tim Robbins, who is both blind and has burn wounds, so if anyone was bound to get naked, it would have probably been him. The film seemed too self-satisfied for it's own good with it's plot that was fairly contrived and a little too dramatic, but the performances make this one go down as easily as it possibly could. While my little rant above probably makes me sound like I didn't like the movie much, I actually enjoyed it even if it does have some obvious flaws. The whole little girl voiceover stuff was a little odd and I don't entirely understand what they were trying to go with that and the film seems to pat itself on the back a little too much for exposing these atrocities in the Balkans with Julie Christie's monologues, but ultimately because of the performances, I have to recommend.
*** out of ****
Eyes Wide Shut(dir. Stanley Kubrick)
After watching There Will Be Blood with it's Kubrick-inspired shenanigans, I decided I wanted the real deal so I bumped this up in my queue. This film could have been titled Dr. Bill Harford's Misadventures in Trying to Get Laid. It basically plays out as a sexual fantasy that is never able to be fulfilled that eventually goes sour and then eventually concludes with the possibility of sex and essentially hope. Tom Cruise's character, Dr. Bill Harford, is much like Bogie's in The Big Sleep with women throwing themselves at him left and right, but unlike Bogart's character, he actually wants the sex yet there's always something that has to pop up to kill the mood. He's not attracted to all the women that throw themselves at him, however. There's one exception to the rule that happens to be the first broad he turns to when he needs some poontang to cope with his current situation and when her boyfriend picks up, he decides to go out and visit the local prostitute he ran into from the night before. She's not there, but her sexy roommate is there and she seems willing to go downtown with him and then she breaks the news to him that her roommate that she thinks he had sex with but didn't has received the results of her blood test that says she is HIV positive. Did I mention that this news followed the most erotically-charged scene in the movie that happened to expose zero skin whatsoever and that all of this is played for comedy? The difference between Kubrick and Paul Thomas Anderson is simply the fact that Kubrick knows how to handle the pitch-black comedy of his hero's exploits while still retaining a sense of sympathy for him despite essentially taunting him throughout the narrative while Anderson seems incapable of weaving elements of comedy and drama in a non-slipshod fashion. It's the difference between a master and a director still trying to master his craft. Kubrick is also smart enough to provide an ending that basically lets the audience in on the joke instead confound them by not allowing them to decipher whether he had his tongue firmly placed in cheek or not while filming it. I wouldn't call this film a masterpiece or anything, but it's still definitely one to watch. I highly recommend.
***1/2 out of ****

Oh John & Jack...

Rambo(dir. Sylvester Stallone)
The main problem this film has lies in it's viewpoint of it's violence. You aren't sure if it wants the audience to revile it or revel in it so it ends up really satisfying no one. For a film named Rambo, it surprisingly spends little time with him, which might be a blessing in disguise because all he really does is mope around(WAR HAS FUCKED ME UP) and kill some fools(BUT GOD I LOVE IT). All the goods bits are found in trailer and I recommend just watching that since it's pretty much a greatest hits for the film, but you will miss out the bloodbath of a finale where John basically takes out a whole fucking army, which sounds better than it really is. The film is just too humorless and serious to have fun with. It also never ends up being truly thrilling since the character development is minimal even for an action movie. Just rent a Johnnie To film or Live Free or Die Hard instead if you want some good modern action.
** out of ****
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest(dir. Gore Verbenski)
Too much Orlando Bloom and not enough Keira Knightley is the chief problem of this installment in the series. Orlando Bloom is perhaps the most boring "younger" actor working today so the fact of the film spends a good chunk of time following him is not exactly what one would call a good thing. The conclusion is about as cliffhanger-y as you can get and there's really no need to see this installment before delving into At World's End, a much better film that can stand on it's own mainly because of the hefty amount of time it spends with Knightley and the plot being pretty much a confusing mess anyways. This is still a mildly fun film to watch, however.
**1/2 out of ****

Oh Upcoming 2009 Releases...

March 13
The Lovely Bones(dir. Peter Jackson)

June 5
The Fast and the Furious 4(dir. Neal H. Moritz)
Vin Diesel + Paul Walker back 2gether again!

June 19
Year One(dir. Harold Ramis)
Ramis + Apatow = 2 Jews?

November 6
Fantastic Mr. Fox(dir. Wes Anderson)

Oh Quadriplegics & Gold...

He Was a Quiet Man(dir. Frank A. Cappelo)
The thing that irks me most about this film is the tone. It's cartoonish and exaggerated, but it's dealing with this serious subject of office shootings and people being paralyzed because of it so it's lack of sensitivity to the loss of life on-screen kind of disturbs me even if it's just fictional characters. The film is basically that whole epilogue to Taxi Driver where everybody thinks he's a hero extended to feature-length with a little dab of Million Dollar Baby "euthanize me!" nonsense as well. It's a watchable little flick, but along with it's tone, it's "twist" ending is also dumb so you could definitely put this in your "to forget" bin after you watch this sucker.
** out of ****
Exiled(dir. Johnnie To)
It's essentially a modern Chinese/Hong Kongese version of The Wild Bunch with a more honorable suicidal bloodbath for a finale. This is the best action film of last year mainly because it examines male comradery in a refreshing way with some kick ass action scenes thrown in here and there. It's not quite as good as To's best film(I've seen so far), PTU, but it's still definitely one a good one to watch.
*** out of ****

Oh 1974...

1974
1. A Woman Under the Influence(dir. John Cassavetes)
2. Young Frankenstein(dir. Mel Brooks)
3. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser(dir. Werner Herzog)
4. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia(dir. Sam Peckinpah)
5. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul(dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

Need to see/rewatch: Chinatown, The Godfather Part II, Blazing Saddles, Murder on the Orient Express, The Conversation, Death Wish, Caged Heat, Black Christmas, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Phantom of Liberty, Thieves Like Us, F for Fake, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, and more...

Oh One Legged Cowboys, Ballet, and Severed Heads...

3:10 to Yuma(dir. James Mangold)
I've never seen the original film so I can't compare the two. This is just a straight-forward modern western. It doesn't try to rewrite the rules of what a western should be and in a way comes off sort of bland and clichéd because of it. The film gets more lively in it's final 15 minutes and this is definitely the point where I became more interested in the film after a long period of disinterest. It's not going to blow your mind, but I still slightly recommend.
**1/2 out of ****
The Company(dir. Robert Altman)
It's basically a low-key version of Nashville that focuses on a Chicago ballet company instead of the Nashville country music scene. This is his most visually elegant film and it's one of his few films to be shot on digital. The gorgeous cinematography keeps you interested especially when it shows the ballet dance scenes that go on perhaps too long. I don't have an interest in ballet all that much so it's probably more my problem than the film's. The story is charming, but it frustratingly takes a backseat most of the time for the ballet. With my frustrations aside, I recommend.
*** out of ****
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia(dir. Sam Peckinpah)
It's a deranged near-masterpiece. It sort of gets silly with the whole talking to the head side of things, but for something this demented and strangely poetic, it's definitely a minor complaint. Warren Oates gives a hell of a performance in this. I might be underrating it, but I'd rather underrate something than overrate it. I highly recommend.
***1/2 out of ****

Oh DDL...

There Will Be Blood(dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
I have been wanting to see this movie since the teaser trailer came out in the middle of June, which I watched practically religiously along with every other trailer/TV spot afterwards, so to say my expectations for the film were monumental would be an understatement. I was seriously preparing for what I thought could possibly be the greatest film ever made and the extremely positive reviews only factored into my excitement to finally be able to see this film and then I saw it recently and it all came crashing down. I pretty much set myself up for disappointment from the get go, but man, that teaser trailer is incredible. The film as a whole relied on Daniel Day-Lewis' performance, which has been getting all sorts of accolades and is pretty much a lock for an Oscar, but I'm not convinced that it's a great performance. It's certainly a big, showy, and amusing performance and you have to give him credit for diving into this character so wholeheartedly, but the character is such a frustrating cipher that the film never really makes up it's mind about that his performance just feels evasive of truly going deeper into this character besides skimming the surface. He's basically all grimace. While his actions are perhaps scary to some, the film's horror film texture doesn't really work with his performance. Sure, he's supposed to be scary and sinister at given moments, but he's better at garnering laughs than garnering scares. The comedic side of this film doesn't get all that much attention from reviews. Much of the brunt of the comedy comes from Plainview's reaction to Eli Sunday and his religious ceremonies. I think it's pretty much impossible not to laugh at that freak show of a baptism in the film's final hour or even the ending, which has divided viewers and critics alike, but the film's view on religion is just too negative to have this whole capitalism vs. religion boxing match work all that well. Religion is being lead by Eli Sunday, who is simply ill equipped to handle Daniel Plainview's form of capitalism, and the picture as a whole doesn't really dwell on this aspect of it's story all that much, which makes it surprising to read all the reviews that go on and on about that aspect of the film. There's probably about six scenes with him and Eli including it's ending, which I assume is primarily the reason for all this talk. The ending works splendidly as comedy, but you get a sense that Anderson wants it to ring tragic somehow. The whole final hour or so seems to be setting up Plainview as this tragic figure, but does he really deserve our sympathy? Anderson splicing in a little bit of his memory of H.W. after seeing his son seems to suggest that Plainview realizes there's nothing he can do to change his relationship with his son so he ends up severing his ties with him as a way to evade being reminded of the guilt for abandoning him and then here comes Eli to be his personal punching bag once again. Their relationship is a little shallow and is not all that stimulating intellectually. Their "boxing match" never feels like one. There's no sense that they're trying to fuck each other over, it's in a way a symbiotic(or parasitic) relationship that sometimes have one of them slap the other like say the baptism scene or when Eli asks Daniel for money after his son's eardrums pop. Paul Dano is also not an actor that could really stand a chance to Day-Lewis' because of a certain lack of conviction with his character. The performance is almost tongue-in-cheek while Daniel Day-Lewis' skirts that fine line of parody throughout the entire film until finally going there in the film's outlandish ending, you never get a sense that Daniel Day-Lewis is laughing after performing a scene like you do with Dano. Then there's the film's direction, which has been receiving all sort of accolades as well. There's some definite great scenes in the film, one found in the midpoint of the film that is the centerpiece that is probably the greatest sequence Paul Thomas Anderson has ever directed along with the silent oil segment in the film's first 20 minutes, but after that midpoint much like a film by another Anderson, it starts to decline, but unlike that Anderson's film that felt totally controlled(perhaps painfully so), it starts to wan and become more messy and less focused. Even though the film has some great scenes in it's lengthy running time, it never really adds up to anything much because we never truly grow to understand the film's central character and his actions. You could say Anderson is challenging the viewer especially with it's ending, but that's the problem with the film. It's never all that challenging morally or intellectually. The film's basic message could be summed up as "capitalism can turn you into an unsympathetic prick that is capable of killing someone with a fucking bowling pin." There's an element in the plot that if it was further developed could have made this character more complex and sympathetic, but Anderson didn't know what quite to do with it since it goes nowhere. That element was his relationship with Eli's sister, Mary. Mary could be considered the saint of the picture since there's a certain martyr-ish quality to her character for marrying H.W. and embracing Daniel after his baptism, which is the most humanistic, beautiful, and fleeting moment in the film. You could easily picture that scene being more engaging if Daniel's relationship with her was further developed outside of him making sure that she doesn't get beat by her father, which mainly came from his love and feeling of obligation to his son as a parent. The film as a whole is packed with moments of brilliance that doesn't lead to anywhere all that poignant emotionally or intellectually. As you walk out of the theater, you start to feel cold and think of what it could have been more than how great those handful of scenes were. The controversial ending is really not all that controversial if you've seen films like The Wayward Cloud and Twentynine Palms that provided endings that were great jumping off points for discussion. This ending just comes across as amusing yet totally disposable. It's there for a good laugh, but to say it's thought-provoking would be a little much. It might become more profound with a rewatch, but for now, it's far from a masterpiece. It's a rather standard story of greed consuming an individual to the point that he starts to look less like a human and more like a monster. I slightly recommend.
**1/2 out of ****

Oh 1976...

1976
1. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie(dir. John Cassavetes)
2. Taxi Driver(dir. Martin Scorsese)
3. Harlan County, USA(dir. Barbara Kopple)
Network(dir. Sidney Lumet)

Need to see/rewatch: Assault on Precinct 13, The Tenant, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, Carrie, Mikey and Nicky, The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1900, Jeanne Dielman, Kings of the Road, Missouri Breaks, Silent Movie, The Man Who Fell to Earth, All the President's Men, Meat, Rocky, and more...

Dishonorable mentions: Welcome to L.A., and more...

Oh Oates and Carrandine...

The Shooting(dir. Monte Hellman)
I have never seen a film with expansive American desert as it's backdrop that felt so claustrophobic. The whole experience is one of disorientation with Hellman sometimes transitioning from a scene in an abrupt and perplexing manner. Much like the film's protagonist, the viewer has to always be on his/her toes since the journey is unexpected yet somehow feels entirely premeditated. The film's setting is really the star of the film and not Warren Oates, who still gives a good performance despite not being the star. It's shot in such a fashion that makes it so drab and unflattering that it makes all the recent films set in the desert look childish in comparison. The desert truly looks like purgatory, waiting to suffocate it's inhabitants. The editing of it's fatalistic ending is haunting in it's sun-drenched and off-beat rhythm. This is how you make an existential western. It's a masterpiece.
**** out of ****
Welcome to L.A.(dir. Alan Rudolph)
At first, it was sort of charming in it's romantic Altman-esque tapestry, but as it went along, you quickly realize how much of a master Altman was with juggling the characters and progressing the narratives in his films. The film just eventually became as aimless as its characters' love lives. Keith Carradine could be considered the main character and he essentially plays his womanizing character from Nashville in a less despicable manner with no mustache, just goatee. The whole film feels like a sub-par Nashville with characters that never feel wholly etched out and music that starts off fine but quickly becomes grating because of its repetitive sounding quality and it being overused past the point of tolerance. The film became repetitious and basically went nowhere. It has no idea what to do with it's vast repertoire of characters other than having them sometimes hook up with each other. It was bad.
*1/2 out of ****

Oh 1967...

1967
1. Titicut Follies(dir. Frederick Wiseman)
2. Branded to Kill(dir. Seijun Suzuki)
3. Mouchette(dir. Robert Bresson)
4. Le Samourai(dir. Jean-Pierre Melville)
5. Belle De Jour(dir. Luis Bunuel)
6. Point Blank(dir. John Boorman)
7. The Shooting(dir. Monte Hellman)
8. Bonnie and Clyde(dir. Arthur Penn)
9. The Dirty Dozen(dir. Robert Aldrich)

Need to see: Playtime, Weekend, Scattered Clouds, The Red and the White, Samurai Rebellion, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, The Young Girls of Rochefort, The Jungle Book(rewatch), Hombre, In the Heat of the Night, Who's That Knocking at My Door, A Man Vanishes, and more...

Dishonorable mentions: The Graduate, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and more...

Oh 1959...

1959
1. Shadows(dir. John Cassavetes)
2. Hiroshima, Mon Amour(dir. Alain Resnais)
3. Ride Lonesome(dir. Budd Boetticher)

Need to see: Room at the Top, Ben-Hur(?), Imitation of Life(Sirk), Some Like It Hot, Ballad of a Soldier, Pickpocket(rewatch), Anatomy of a Murder(rewatch), Fires on the Plain, The Crimson Kimono, The Sleeping Beauty(rewatch), The Savage Innocents, Rio Bravo, and more...

Dishonorable Mentions: North by Northwest, and more...

Oh 1964...

1964
1. Woman in the Dunes(dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara)
2. Pale Flower(dir. Masahiro Shinoda)
3. Dr. Strangelove(dir. Stanley Kubrick)
4. The Pawnbroker(dir. Sidney Lumet)
5. The Naked Kiss(dir. Samuel Fuller)
Band of Outsiders(dir. Jean-Luc Godard)

Need to see: I Am Cuba, Mary Poppins(rewatch), The Red Desert, Marnie, A Hard Day's Night, Blood and Black Lace, A Fistful of Dollars, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Onibaba, Kwaidan, Intentions of Murder, Goldfinger, Fail-Safe, and more...

Oh Bob Dylan and Some Japanese Composer...

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid[2005 cut](dir. Sam Peckinpah)
I wasn't a big fan of The Wild Bunch, which is the only film directed by Peckinpah I've had the pleasure to see. Much like Seven Samurai, a film I personally feel is overrated, it's overlong and contains a group of individuals that are never feel fully fleshed out even when all the time spent before their respective "showdown" is supposed to be time for "character development," but their characters never end up making a dent presence-wise so the time spent "developing" them mainly numbs the mind. This film, however, is simply incredible. It's the best revisionist western I've ever seen. I'd imagine seeing an earlier cut might change my mind about Peckinpah's genius with this film since this cut was made by people "following" Peckinpah's wishes even though they essentially overrode "his vision" and constructed, from what I've read, a tighter and better film. While The Wild Bunch was mainly an ugly vision of the old west, this is an elegiac vision filled with both beauty as well as ugliness, but mainly beauty. I dare anyone to watch Slim Pickens' character's death and not be moved by it's awe-inspiring poetry. The picture is nihilistic but in a more subtle and invigorating way than say No Country for Old Men. Both films focus on death, but this film's ability to make a peripheral character's death like Slim Pickens' seem monumentally tragic yet inevitable shows what's truly wrong with that film. I fucking love this.
**** out of ****
Pale Flower(dir. Masahiro Shinoda)
It doesn't come close to some of Seijun Suzuki's yakuza masterpieces, but that doesn't mean it's not invigorating and plus it doesn't even attempt to operate in the same realm as his films. It mainly plays ike Albert Camus' The Stranger with a hint of In a Lonely Place and Kiss Me Deadly set in Japan and with a yakuza instead of some French dude. I don't know why I was reminded of Kiss Me Deadly. Maybe all the car imagery? I guess In a Lonely Place is more apt with it's car imagery especially in concern with the whole speeding scene in this film reminding me of Bogart's character's speeding scene in that film except the one found here is more playful and harmless. This film is also nihilistic much like the picture above, but it's nihilism is viewed through the prism of a doomed and unfulfilled romance instead of a man trying to adapt to his harsh environment by basically selling his soul. It's not nearly as tragic as In a Lonely Place mainly because their romance never truly blossoms and disintegrates like the one found in that film, just the chance of it disintegrates. The main characters in this film and the one above both use killing almost as a form of spiritual suicide and subsequently a form of survival and coping. While the film above is more moving, it's hard to look at this film and label it as a minor work of any kind. Sure, it's not as intense and memorable as Double Suicide or the film above, but it still makes for a really good watch. I highly recommend.
***1/2 out of ****

Oh 1986...

1986
1. The Sacrifice(dir. Andrei Tarkovsky)
2. Down by Law(dir. Jim Jarmusch)
3. Mona Lisa(dir. Neil Jordan)
Aliens(dir. James Cameron)

Need to see: Summer, Vagabound, Hannah and Her Sister, Platoon(rewatch), A Room With a View, The Fly, Peggy Sue Got Married, The Color of Money, Ruthless People, Top Gun(rewatch)
Ferris Bueller's Day Off(rewatch), Trouble in Mind, Sid & Nancy, Something Wild, Blue Velvet, Heartbreak Ridge, Salvador, Manhunter, Shadows in Paradise, The Green Ray, Big Trouble in Little China, and more...

Oh 1988...

1988
1. Landscape in the Mist(dir. Theo Angelopoulos)(?)
2. The Naked Gun
Beetlejuice(dir. Tim Burton)
Wings of Desire(dir. Wim Wenders)

Need to see: Twins, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Rambo III, Alice, Dead Ringers, Bird, The Land Before Time(rewatch), Opening Night, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Thin Blue Line, Chocolat, Tetsuo, Grave of the Fireflies, Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Ariel, Akira(rewatch), King Lear(Godard), Ernest Saves Christmas(rewatch), The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Running on Empty, Mississippi Burning, Patty Hearst, Funny Farm, and more...

Oh 1989...

1989
1. Do the Right Thing(dir. Spike Lee)
Drugstore Cowboy(dir. Gus Van Sant)
Mystery Train(dir. Jim Jarmusch)

Need to see: My Left Foot, sex, lies, and videotape, Say Anthing..., Distant Voices/Still Lives, A Short Film About Love, Batman, Twins, Crimes & Misdemeanors(completely), Heathers, Causalities of War, Born on the 4th of July, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, The Little Mermaid(rewatch), Story of Women, The 'Burbs(rewatch), Leningrad Cowboys Go America, The Wizard, and more...

Oh 1996...

1996
1. Dead Man(dir. Jim Jarmusch)
2. Goodbye South, Goodbye(dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien)
Bottle Rocket(dir. Wes Anderson)
Swingers(dir. Doug Liman)

Need to see: Beavis and Butt-head Do America(rewatch), Bound, The Cable Guy, A Summer's Tale, Lone Star, Drifting Clouds, Trainspotting, D3: The Mighty Ducks(rewatch), Breaking the Waves, Irma Vep, Fargo(rewatch), Satantango, Secrets & Lies, Everyone Says I Love You, Kingpin(rewatch), Welcome to the Dollhouse, The White Balloon, Flirting With Disaster, From Dusk Till Dawn, Jingle All the Way(rewatch), Romeo + Juliet(rewatch), and more...

Next: 1997

Oh 1993...

1993
1. Short Cuts(dir. Robert Altman)
2. Naked(dir. Mike Leigh)
Groundhog Day(dir. Harold Ramis)

Need to see: The Puppet Master, The Blue Kite, Farewell My Concubine, Jurassic Park(rewatch), A Perfect World, The Piano, The Age of Innocence, Blue(Kieslowski), Dangerous Game, King of the Hill, In the Name of the Father, The Remains of the Day, What's Eating Gilbert Grape(rewatch), La Vie de Boheme, Riff-Raff, Army of Darkness, Carlito's Way, Cliffhanger, Cool Runnings(rewatch), Cop and a Half, The Fugitive, Hard Target, Last Action Hero, Romeo is Bleeding, So I Married an Ax Murderer(rewatch), True Romance, Wayne's World 2(rewatch), and more...

Oh 1990...

1990
1. King of New York(dir. Abel Ferrera)
2. Die Hard 2: Die Harder(dir. ?)
Damnation(dir. Bela Tarr)?
Metropolitan(dir. Whit Stillman)
Goodfellas(dir. Martin Scorsese)

Need to see: A Short Film About Killing, To Sleep With Anger, White Hunter, Black Heart, Wild at Heart, DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp(rewatch), The Godfather Part III, Jacob's Ladder, Jetsons: The Movie(rewatch), Kindergarten Cop(rewatch), The Match Factory Girl, Miller's Crossing, City of Sadness, Miami Blues, Sweetie, Nouvella Vague(Godard), Santa Sangre, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Predator 2, Q&A, The Rescuers Down Under(rewatch), Total Recall, Vincent & Theo, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(rewatch), and more...

Oh 1991...

1991
1. Trust(dir. Hal Hartley)
2. Days of Being Wild(dir. Wong Kar-Wai)
3. The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear(dir. David Zucker)
The Killer(dir. John Woo)
White Dog(dir. Samuel Fuller)
Terminator 2: Judgement Day(dir. James Cameron)

Need to see: The Double Life of Veronique, My Own Private Idaho, Point Break(rewatch), Barton Fink, Beauty and the Beast(rewatch), An Angel at My Table, La Belle Noiseuse, Ju Dou, Chameleon Street, The Silence of the Lambs, Naked Lunch, Cape Fear, The Vanishing, Poison, A Brighter Summer Day, And Life Goes On..., Lovers on the Bridge, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze(rewatch), Grand Canyon, City of Hope, Jungle Fever, and more...

Dishonorable mentions: LA Story, and more...

Oh 1995...

1995
1. Heat(dir. Michael Mann)
2. Lessons of Darkness(dir. Werner Herzog)
3. Clueless(dir. Amy Heckerling)
4. Dead Man(dir. Jim Jarmusch)
5. The Addiction(dir. Abel Ferrera)
Amateur(dir. Hal Hartley)
Fallen Angels(dir. Wong Kar-Wai)
Dead Man Walking(dir. Tim Robbins)

Need to see: Casino, The Bridges of Madison County, Toy Story(rewatch), Se7en, Waterworld, Cyclo, Underground, The Glass Shield, La Haine, Kids, Operation Dumbo Drop, The Quick and the Dead, Safe, Clockers, Exotica, and more...

Oh 1999...

1999
1. Show Me Love(dir. Lukas Moodysson)
2. Rushmore(dir. Wes Anderson)
3. The Limey(dir. Steven Soderbergh)
4. After Life(dir. Hirokazu Koreeda)
5. Eyes Wide Shut(dir. Stanley Kubrick)
Magnolia(dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Toy Story 2(dir. John Lasseter) need to rewatch

Need to see: The Insider, The Straight Story, Election, Boys Don't Cry, The Mission, Sleepy Hollow, Austin Powers(rewatch), Topsy-Turvy, Bringing Out the Dead, Beau Travail, All About My Mother, and more...

Oh 2000...

2000
1. Platform(dir. Jia Zhang Ke)
2. The Wind Will Carry Us(dir. Abbas Kiarostami)
3. George Washington(dir. David Gordon Green)
4. Wonderland(dir. Michael Winterbottom)
5. The Virgin Suicides(dir. Sofia Coppola)
6. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai(dir. Jim Jarmusch)

Need to see: The Circle, Yi Yi, Eureka, Mission to Mars, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Erin Brockovich, High Fidelity, In the Mood for Love(rewatch), Mission: Impossible II(rewatch), O Brother, Where Art Thou?(rewatch), Traffic, You Can Count on Me, Requiem For A Dream, The House of Mirth, Blackboards, The Yards, X-Men, Ratcatcher, Jesus' Son, Eureka, Before Night Falls, Dr. T & the Women(rewatch), American Psycho, and more...

Oh 2001...

2001
1. Mulholland Dr.(dir. David Lynch)
2. The Royal Tenenbaums(dir. Wes Anderson)
3. In the Bedroom(dir. Todd Field)
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring(dir. Peter Jackson)
Memento(dir. Christopher Nolan)

Oh 2002...

2002
1. Femme Fatale(dir. Brian De Palma)
2. What Time Is It There?(dir. Tsai Ming-Liang)
3. Punch-Drunk Love(dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. Morvern Callar(dir. Lynne Ramsay)
5. 24 Hour Party People(dir. Michael Winterbottom)
Ten(dir. Abbas Kiarostami)
Unknown Pleasures(dir. Jia Zhang Ke)
All About Lily Chou-Chou(dir. Shunji Iwai)

Need to see/rewatch: Spider, Far From Heaven, Trouble Every Day, The Truth About Charlie, Spirited Away, Minority Report, 'R Xmas, Panic Room, Gangs of New York, The Man Without a Past, Domestic Violence, Auto Focus, Narc, Pulse, The Son, Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary, Dark Blue, Insomnia, The Pianist, Talk to Her, xXx, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and more...

Oh 1992...

1992
1. Simple Men(dir. Hal Hartley)
2. Rebels of the Neon God(dir. Tsai Ming-Liang)
3. Close-Up(dir. Abbas Kiarostami)
4. The Player(dir. Robert Altman)
5. Hard-Boiled(dir. John Woo)
6. Light Sleeper(dir. Paul Schrader)
7. Unforgiven(dir. Clint Eastwood)
Howards End(dir. James Ivory)
Malcolm X(dir. Spike Lee)

Oh 1997...

1. The Sweet Hereafter(dir. Atom Egoyan)
2. Little Dieter Needs to Fly(dir. Werner Herzog)
3. The River(dir. Tsai Ming-Liang)
4. Life of Jesus(dir. Bruno Dumont)
5. Maborosi(dir. Hirokazu Koreeda)
Jackie Brown(dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Boogie Nights(dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Afterglow(dir. Alan Rudolph)
L.A. Confidential(dir. Curtis Hanson)
Air Force One(dir. Wolfgang Peterson)

Need to see/rewatch: Lost Highway, Kundun, Fireworks, The Eel, As Good as It Gets, The Apostle, Boogie Nights, Face/Off, Happy Together, Cyclo, Mother and Son, Career Girls, The Butcher Boy, The Mirror, Starship Troopers, L.A. Confidential, Wag the Dog, Irma Vep, Gabbeh, Donnie Brasco, Ulee's Gold, Titanic, Amistad, and more...

Oh 1998...

1998
1. Henry Fool(dir. Hal Hartley)
2. The Hole(dir. Tsai Ming-Liang)
3. Taste of Cherry(dir. Abbas Kiarostami)
4. Rushmore(dir. Wes Anderson)
5. The Flowers of Shanghai(dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
6. The Big Lebowski(dir. The Coen Brothers)
7. Buffalo '66(dir. Vincent Gallo)
Need to see/rewatch: The Thin Red Line, Fallen Angels, There's Something About Mary, The Eel, Beloved, Out of Sight, A Simple Plan, Fireworks, Elizabeth, Velvet Goldmine, The Idiots, Mother and Son, The Apostle, Public Housing, and more...

Oh 1994...

1994
1. Chungking Express(dir. Wong Kar-Wai)
2. Vive L'Amour(dir. Tsai Ming-Liang)
3. Barcelona(dir. Whit Stillman)
Hoop Dreams(dir. Steve James)
Speed(dir. Jan de Bont)
Pulp Fiction(dir. Quentin Tarnatino)
Amateur(dir. Hal Hartley)

Oh Upcoming 2008 Releases...

I've done a sort of most anticipating list for 2008 already, but I'll do it with Youtube videos of the trailers and possibly links to my reviews in case if I happen to see it so it'll be simultaneously be a checklist for me and a viewing guide for you(my make-believe audience). Here we go...

January 18
Cassandra's Dream(dir. Woody Allen)
It looks like something along the lines of a British Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, but hopefully, the Wood-man's film is much better than that overdramatic actor showcase.


Still Life(dir. Jia Zhang Ke)
Trailer's in German, but it'll have to do. Many claim this film is his best-to-date so I got to see it.


January 25
Rambo(dir. Sylvester Stallone)
New trailer sucks. I really need to see that throat getting ripped out.


4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days(dir. Cristian Mungiu)
It won the Palme d'Or and actually looks good. Enough said.

February 15
Diary of the Dead(dir. George A. Romero)
BRAINS!!!
Diary of the Dead - Exclusive Trailer

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February 29
Semi-Pro(dir. Kent Alterman)
Woody Harrelson has a great head of hair.


March 7
Paranoid Park(dir. Gus Van Sant)
This trailer's second half is pretty shitty, but it still looks like something worth seeing.


March 28
Stop Loss(dir. Kimberly Pierce)
It's a message movie from Hollywood that I actually want to see? Yeah, I didn't see that coming, either...


April 2
The Flight of the Red Balloon(dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
It's Hou Hsiao-Hsien, dawgz...


April 4
My Blueberry Nights(dir. Wong Kar-Wai)
Brief appearance by Chan Marshall(aka Cat Power) + Wong Kar-Wai = Must-See.

Had to include this picture as well.


April 11
The Brothers Bloom(dir. Rian Johnson)
Liked Brick well enough. Maybe, this will turn out well.

April 28
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guatanamo Bay(dir. Jon Hurwitz and Hay Schlossberg)
Neil Patrick Harris as... Neil Patrick Harris.


April 30
Mister Lonely(dir. Harmony Korine)
I thought the trailer to Gummo was amazing and saw a little bit of it on IFC. I didn't like what I saw so much. It felt like experimentation for the sake of experimentation instead of using this experimentation to create something dramatically engaging. This film, however, looks more narratively and dramatically focused compared to his other work so maybe it'll end up beeing good. I should probably watch his other movies completely before writing them off, but I don't really have all that much of an interest in seeing them and I actually want to see this one.

May 2
Iron Man(dir. John Favreau)
I just love the ridiculous and obvious use of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" in the trailer.


May 9
Speed Racer(dir. The Wachowski Siblings?)
I don't know why, but I'm actually looking forward to this candy-colored rainbow-fest of a movie.


July 18
The Dark Knight(dir. Christopher Nolan)
Batman > Every other superhero. That's not an opinion, that's a fact.

Had to put this poster on here as well.


July 25
Step Brothers(dir. Adam McKay)
Looks beautiful.


August 8
The Pineapple Express(dir. David Gordon Green)
Looks beautiful as well.


October 3
Where the Wild Things Are(dir. Spike Jonze)
Don't remember the story much, but this definitely looks promising.


Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist(dir. Peter Sollett)
I think I have a man crush for Michael Cera.


Some other movies with no set release date that will likely come out in 2008:
Adam Resurrected(dir. Paul Schrader)
Guerilla & The Argentine(dir. Steven Soderbergh)
Jack and Diane(dir. Bradley Rust Gray)
Lesbians and werewolves? Sign me up... twice.
Machete(dir. Robert Rodriguez)
Mammoth(dir. Lukas Moodysson)
Two Lovers(dir. James Gray)
The Box(dir. Richard Kelly)
The Untouchables: Capone Rising(dir. Brian De Palma)
Didn't like the original all that much, but I feel I've recently become a De Palma-phile so maybe I'll dig this.
Genova(dir. Michael Winterbottom)
Hopefully, he'll redeem himself after that piece of shit called A Mighty Heart.
Happy-Go-Lucky(dir. Mike Leigh)
The Mother of Tears(dir. Dario Argento)
Go Go Tales(dir. Abel Ferrara)
Burn After Reading(dir. The Coen Brothers)
Death of the Reel(dir. Guy Maddin)
Untitled Todd Field Project(dir. Todd Field)
Even If You Walk and Walk(dir. Hirokazu Koreeda)

Movies that will likely not come out in 2008, but if they do, will easily be some of my must-see upcoming films of the year:
Tree of Life(dir. Terrence Malick)
The Road(dir. John Hillcoat)
The Limits of Control(dir. Jim Jarmusch)
Something(dir. Lynne Ramsay)

Oh Amsterdam & Hong Kong & Cabo & Hong Kong Again...

Ocean's Twelve(dir. Steven Soderbergh)
I thought the first one was cool and suave and the third was dumb and clumsy. This is basically(and obviously) a stepping stone between those two films and essentially a combination of the two with more smugness and less fun. It's already convinced that it's bitching so why even bother to watch it? Ocean's Eleven was a near-masterpiece in my mind and Ocean's Thirteen was a fun albeit ridiculous movie, but this one fails to ooze the cool of the first one or be amusingly silly like the third one even when it has some ludicrous bits like Julia Robert's character posing as... wait for it... Julia Roberts. A bit like this is simply incomparable to the divine majesty of Casey Affleck's character heading a Zapata-esque revolution at a Mexican dice factory. It was ultimately watchable, but it was also incredibly disposable.
** out of ****
Election(dir. Johnnie To)
The comparisons to The Godfather are apt since this is a rather low-key film about Hong Kong mobsters or Triads. Those comparisons are not exactly what one might call flattering since this film does not contain a scene quite as memorable as the baptism found in that film, but it still has some inspired moments. All the killings are wonderfully intense yet light on the blood and gore, which is actually sort of refreshing. A gun is also never fired so Eastern Promises immediately came to mind while watching this film, but this came out before that film so no need to compare the two until I get to Triad Election. It's no PTU, but this film definitely oozes style. I recommend. NOTE: I didn't realize this was also released last year.
*** out of ****
The Heartbreak Kid(dir. The Farrelly Brothers)
I happen to consider Dumb and Dumber a comedy classic, but I can't say I was expecting much from this film. I was surprised to find it bearable given the negative critical reaction, but it's ultimately not worth the effort. The sex scenes and Ben Stiller's character illegally immigrating back in the country are easily the most inspired and funniest parts, but everything else is just basically dull. The film constant bending over to please it's audience becomes quickly tiresome since Stiller's character doesn't really deserve the happy ending he receives. It's not as bad or offensive as many critics will lead you to believe, but it's also not particularly good, either.
** out of ****
Triad Election(dir. Johnnie To)
Ultimate message to this film: a thirst for power and security makes you do some crazy and nasty shit. There's some Ms .45 style meat grinding up in this motherfucker. To takes who I essentially viewed as the moral center of Election and makes him probably the most depraved character in this film, making it perhaps a little bit less emotionally engaging in comparison. It's obvious with this, Election, and PTU that To is a master at mood lighting especially during a memorable scene where some of his characters are wearing masks too silly and innocent for their tough and dark demeanors. Since this film was released last year, comparisons to Eastern Promises must be made. If I had to pick between the two, I would probably pick Promises even if this is more aesthetically pleasing and moves at a quicker pace. None of characters are quite as interesting as Viggo's in Promises. I definitely prefer this ending over the one found in Election mainly because I dig satisfyingly inconclusive cuts to black and that ending was a little too cheery and maybe too tongue-in-cheek to be satisfying. Election, however, easily beats this and Promises in quality. I'm looking forward to the inevitable third film. I recommend.
*** out of ****
Double Take(or Reassessment):
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End(dir. Gore Verbinski)
I usually don't do this, but here's a film that has simply nagged at me and has refused to leave my mind. The more I think about it, the more I think it is a near-masterpiece of summer blockbuster film making and it's perhaps one of the few if not the only film from last year to have special effects that I actually consider to be special. Like I said in my original review, I mainly enjoyed the film because Keira Knightly was absolutely ravishing(perhaps too ravishing since she mysteriously never gets a smudge on her face throughout the whole film) and pirates are coolio, but there's a certain cinematic quality to the film that is seriously lacking in a lot of today's cinema. It's one of the few recent films to strive for spectacle and actually achieve it with it's breathtaking CGI-laden locales and set pieces. The plot is a complicated and incredibly fun mess with a sort of crazy logic to make the whole enterprise feel somehow painstakingly modulated. It's a film that clearly works in the realm of cinema instead of reality because , well, it's a movie based on an amusement park ride so when the film recalls the score from Once Upon a Time in the West, it does not come across as a smug referential gesture to cinema's past, but as an acknowledgment of it's own inherent cinematic-ness. I'd imagine watching this film again would lead me to lower my rating again since that grand sea battle really bogged down the pacing to practically a halt, but it's still intoxicating in it's borderline insane(ly fun) artistry.
***1/2 out of ****

Oh England & Davy Jones's Locker & Washington DC...

Atonement(dir. Joe Wright)
The production values are superb, but the emotional content is lacking. The characters never become developed enough to resemble anything other than characters in a movie and when the shit hits the fan for them, it's not all that tragic. That's not to say that this movie was a bore because the production values like the costumes and sets go a long way to make this as unpainful of an experience as possible, but once the ending rolls around, which reminded me of the series finale of Roseanne, you realize that you pretty much don't care what happens to any of these characters. It was just ultimately a disposable experience.
** out of ****
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End(dir. Gore Verbinski)
I didn't bother to see the second one, but I can't imagine having seen that film beforehand would have really changed my experience with this. The film starts off unusually bleak with people getting hung for piracy including a child and if you hung around for the post-credits scene, that scene starts to look even more relentlessly dark for a summer blockbuster. The film starts off on a surprising high note with that and for some reason, I was digging the whole musical aspect of it's beginning with that scene and the scene that followed, but it got shaky with it's rendezvous with Chow Yun-Fat's Singapore pirate captain mainly because he looks ridiculous and he's not all that sinister and it's ensuing action scene that was sloppily choreographed and shot. After that, however, the film quickly exposed two things that could be dubbed my critical kryptonite: pirates and a gorgeous Keira Knightley. These two things, however, were unable to prevent me from viewing it's epic sea battle as mind-numbingly long and once Knightley takes a backseat to some of the other actors like Orlando Bloom, the film suffers mainly because Bloom is a bland screen presence and the hallucination bits with Johnny Depp were pretty lame. Geoffrey Rush was particularly good in this for what the movie was, which is essentially a mindlessly fun pirate movie, but that sea battle really screwed up the film's pacing and took it to practically a halt in comparison to what preceded it. It felt unusually quick for a two hour and forty minute long movie, but that's probably because I dig pirates and Keira Knightley. Surprisingly, I thought the action sequences were the worst part about the movie. You'd expect a summer blockbuster to have some good ones, but this film had sequences that went on for far too long and were rather sloppy in execution. The characters aren't exactly deep or anything, but they were still entertaining along with the film as a whole. I slightly recommend.
**1/2 out of ****
The Walker(dir. Paul Schrader)
Paul Schrader is probably one of the most underrated directors ever. Sure, he has his flaws mainly stemming from his love for Pickpocket's ending and feeling the need to include it in every film he makes including this one, but he still remains an interesting one. This film can't compare to Mishima or Light Sleeper, but it still remains an intriguing character study even if it's not as intriguing as those films. Woody Harrelson's depiction of a gay socialite is a little stereotypical and Schrader's portrayal of homosexual love is surprisingly hands off. The couple only kiss once and it ends up being his 27th homage to the Pickpocket ending because he has them kiss through a wired fence looking thing in Carter's boyfriend's apartment. This film is disinterested in it's own mystery plot, but when it starts to put emphasis on it in order to move it's story along, it's usually for the worse since Schrader is unable to make this "grand" tale about corruption all that mysterious or thrilling. An on-foot chase also shows that Schrader is unable to direct a fairly traditional "exciting" scene and make it exciting. Thankfully, this film doesn't really dwell on such aspects all that much and instead focuses on it's character, who is interesting, but his problems with his deceased father are given perhaps too much time in the dialogue and makes him appear a little shallow in comparison to some of Schrader's other characters. Aside from these issues, I recommend.
*** out of ****

Oh Armageddon and Pregnancy...

Southland Tales(dir. Richard Kelly)
The film is undeniably a mess, but it's ambition is both dumbfounding and brilliant. The dialogue is rather juvenile and is often repeated to make it seem more "profound" than it really is. The film is basically INLAND EMPIRE mixed with Idiocracy. It doesn't quite have the sense of unease or spontaneity found in INLAND and it's future world is not as fully realized as the one found in Idiocracy, but it exceeds both in ambition or is at least on par with both. It's really growing on me, but I can understand how someone can think it's horrible since it mentions all these texts and events currently going on without really dwelling on them in any sort of intelligent way and it's either complicated as all hell or really just super simple. It drags here and there mainly because there's a portion in the middle that seems to be at a standstill narratively, but the ending quickly makes up for it in it's gonzo way. I recommend.
*** out of ****
Juno(dir. Jason Reitman)
I can't stand Juno, not the movie, the character. While watching this, the question comes up, "why does everybody love this character?" I'm not going to say it's totally Ellen Page's fault because her dialogue is easily the most overwritten out of the bunch with all it's hipster reference-ism and all that jazz and any character that deems Sonic Youth as just noise is bound to appear unlikeable to this viewer, but all the other characters are so damn likable in comparison that my annoyance with her just stands out so much more. The music was universally awful outside of the Cat Power song and even that was one of her shittier songs. I've read a lot of reviews that talked about how they were thinking about running out of the theater because of how excruciating since the beginning goes a little overboard with the quirk. I thought they were exaggerating until I saw it. The best way to describe it is if that beginning credit sequence was a living thing, I would have probably murdered. It was that excruciating in it's quirkiness, but the film, like most reviews have stated, got a lot better as it went along. I'd imagine if you love the character of Juno, you would love the movie as well, but I ended up sympathizing with Michael Cera's character more and when their romance blossoms, I was really just happy for him instead of Juno. It was decent.
**1/2 out of ****