Jericho, my Butt! A very interesting film given some realities: this is successfully engineered to tap some cultural acupuncture point — and it does so after the first film provided valuable information about what audiences thought funny. The first film was uncentered by design: the idea with such things is to cheaply provide a model… Continue reading American Pie (2001)
Category: IMDB Comments
Comments made for the Internet Movie Database
American Pie (1999)
Slow Times at Ridgemont Sex jokes are never about sex, instead about class. It is possible to make a comedy that is sincerely about high schoolers, and because they are obsessed with sex, be about sex. ‘Ridgemont High.’ This has no sincerity or charm. It is aimed at the class it makes fun of. Posted… Continue reading American Pie (1999)
Along Came Polly (2004)
Safe The story in this movie revolves around the choice between safety and richness. Because it assumes we are stupid, it has two story lines to hammer the point home, the point that safety is the wrong choice. And then in the highest of ironies, the picture is fabricated and presented in a way that… Continue reading Along Came Polly (2004)
Ally (2002)
Mulsim Porn I’m interested in what makes Muslim porn different. It surely exists, but you won’t be finding much on IMBD. Porn is a special sort of film. I believe that film in general is where we do most of our experiments in how we reason about the world. Yes, even in popular film. Depending… Continue reading Ally (2002)
All the Real Girls (2003)
Diversions Warning, if you watch this on DVD, avoid the commentary at all costs. This is a case where the creators are inarticulate nitwits, but what they have created has a particularly intelligent design. Superficially, this is the simple formula: boy meets girl; boy loses girl; boy gets girl back. With this edition, the two… Continue reading All the Real Girls (2003)
All the King’s Men (2006)
Lucy in the Sky The critics hated it. The public stayed home. But I liked this. A lot. It is cinematic. Powerful cinema. And I am telling you I liked this with a bit of surprise on my part. That’s because it has two actors who often play this introspective game, where they let you… Continue reading All the King’s Men (2006)
All the King’s Men (1949)
Actors, Politicians As a film, this hasn’t aged well. The various elements, especially the acting, now seem dated and… well, lousy. In its day we overlooked all its shortcomings because it was grand and relevant and seemingly true. That political sweep still resonates. But I suspect that where the film reflected political reality, it and… Continue reading All the King’s Men (1949)
All About Eve (1950)
Fabrications I admit, I find the story of the Mankiewcz brothers to be one of the most interesting in all filmdom. Part of the allure is their experimentation in narrative perspectives and the nature of fabrication. Here, the fabrication is extra sweetly dimensional. We have a movie about movies, actresses portraying actresses with resonances among… Continue reading All About Eve (1950)
Alice in Wonderland (1972)
Words Without Misunderstanding I am an Alice obsessive. I recently saw the Depp/Burton project and was horrified at the opportunity missed. So I turned to this, surprised that I had not seen it before. This at least has a couple advantages. Though far less colorful and lacking imagination in the design, it conforms to the… Continue reading Alice in Wonderland (1972)
Adventures of Tintin (2011)
WETA Gold There are only three ways to turn on your mind. The third is too dangerous to even sketch. The most common is to allow it to do what it wants, tracing known pathways and presenting known patterns. All imagination comes home to rest. But then there is art, which in my book is… Continue reading Adventures of Tintin (2011)