Realistic Shmealistic Somewhere in the movie business there really are people who think that the more real a film is, the better. And I mean literally real. We’re not talking here about “Godfather” being the first mafia movie made by Italians, but a prison movie being made by cons whose only goal is to show… Continue reading Animal Factory (2000)
Tag: p2004
Comments first posted in 2004
An Extremely Goofy Movie (2000)
Three Goofs There are three things about this little cartoon that should get you up-out-of-your-chair mad. And not just huffing mad, but pounding walls mad. The first is elusive. Walt Disney created Goofy and indeed all of his characters with a single notion: that they would be extremely abstract entities. These were NOT people, and… Continue reading An Extremely Goofy Movie (2000)
Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980)
People Cat I am interested in genre mixing. It is a common thing, especially with various humor components. The gore branch of horror and the porn branch of the sex film try to be mixed here. I say gore rather than zombies because though zombies appear, the form is not that of a zombie flick.… Continue reading Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980)
Hero (2002)
Space Two things interesting about this project. First, the sad news, at least for the Chinese, that the Japanese have finally won. This is a Japanese film in all important respects: the theming by lush colour, the rather modern notion of benevolent conquest (genuinely originating in the Persians but only used since as justification for… Continue reading Hero (2002)
Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (1975)
Damaged Film, Damaged Viewers Movies touch life in fewer and more unexpected places than you think. Most movies are about other movies or society’s dreams rather than the real world. So films that reference major historical events are interesting beasts. Possibly apart from Vietnam, no war-related event has been more trammelled by films than the… Continue reading Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (1975)
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
Three Forces My gosh: how could this fail to please. It employs all three of the major forces in pandering film: cute children, a beautiful woman ennobled by adversity and finally: unlikely ‘interracial’ love (‘.. he pressed his earthy oriental skin…’). The scriptwriter’s task is to take these three forces and merge them into a… Continue reading The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
First Strike (1996)
Step by Step Watching Jackie movies is sometimes a real challenge, especially the English language ones. This barely qualifies as English, but is the best one. What he does with ordinary objects is absolutely amazing. There’s a classic ladder bit here. Ignore the plot — standard filler. Posted in 2004 Ted’s Evaluation — 3 of… Continue reading First Strike (1996)
21 Grams (2003)
Every Hair on your Head One of the key things a storyteller needs to decide is the tense of the story. Is it something that happened in the past, is happening now or will/could happen? Each of these bestows riches on a film and we have some masterpieces of each. Krzysztof Kieslowski explored these each… Continue reading 21 Grams (2003)