p e n g u i n d e v i l

It all becomes lost in the waves of memory despair… what have I watched? I rented Alfie, which was quite fine. The style though, for me, was more suited to a theater experience. Watching it at home, with Michael Caine talking at me the whole time, I got sort of distracted. But still pretty fun little Brit number. Seeing those funny lads makes me want to watch Quadrophenia again. More better, I went to see Capote. I must admit I am rather disappointed to see its current lame distribution. Something like 50 theaters? But it was good. Again, the casting was very good and being that I watched to kill a mockingbird not too long ago, I was delighted to see Harper and Truman portrayed as adults. Anyway, Truman isn’t the most sympathetic character, but there is definitely something sad and charming about him. I think that role was acted quite well, not like the parody it could easily have turned out to be. He was just as annoying as I expected him to be, but in a way that it just seemed like what he maybe was like. But all the roles were well acted and cast. The scenery was nice too, in a barren-kind of way.

I also watched American Psycho. I liked it. At time it seemed so 80’s to me (even in the film-making style) that it could easily have been made then. I didn’t find it particularly shocking but it was entertaining, just hard to look at. My god, the hair!

I also took in Kiss the Girls. That was alright. Not really a tense scary kind of movie and some of it seemed nonsensical (oh yeah, but I liked American Psycho?). But that seems to be the style with modern Hollywood “scary horror or crime” films. Must make them so overblown! I mean, does anyone actually like Saw? I thought it was lame when House of a Thousand Corpses ended by falling into a put of Nu-metal rock video lameness, but to have to endure that boring annoying crud over and over again in Saw was insulting. Especially to anyone who has any kind of penchant for horror movies.
Anyway though, I digress. Kiss the Girls was an alright film. Much better than Saw.

I also tried to watch Waking Ned Devine but I got distracted and ended up missing the last ten minutes. I still find it to be a charming little comedy. And man, I could look at that island and that village for hours.

I watched In the Mood for Love, which I also fell asleep at the end of. I think it is one of the most pleasing movies to watch. Tony Leung has the nicest suits. The colors are wonderful, the music is divine. Those scenes around the noodle bar just make me sink into the couch. Plus, it’s a great movie, one of the finest. Very well made, good plot, beautiful to look at!

Last night I risked the theater to see Junebug I thought it was pretty good and that most of the reviews I’ve read that were bad were misleading. I think I read one that implied that the movie was making fun of people from the south and complained that no one improved in it. Anyway, that’s certainly not what I thought. I thought it was a generous and real movie of different types of people coming together. Not one of those “families re-unite leads to a Disney moment” films or one of the “families reunites leads to drunken brawls” kind either. It was a pleasant homespun kind of movie. I particularly liked the character of Eugene.

Also, in terms of TV… Now that I’ve got cable… E! played a special on the Curse of Poltergeist. It was pretty interesting but then, as I was leaving for work this morning, they were playing a special on the Curse of the Exorcist! Man. I would miss that. I’ve been itching to watch The Exorcist again as soon as I get it back. Now I really want to watch it again. Too bad I missed the special.

Well yeah, it’s been a bit dry with the viewing lately. I did watch Out of the Past, it was rather good. Robert Mitchum is always good to see, another good job for him. Kirk Douglas’ role seemed a bit small, but maybe that’s because I don’t really like Kirk Douglas. Anyway, good noir. Good twisty plot, good Femme Fatales. Good action. The back and forth punches in the face out at the cabin, while almost a bit silly, is one of my favorite fight scenes yet. And the fishing pole as defensive weapon …

Anyway, very good. But then, so have been all of the films from the Film Noir Classic Collection, another incredible bargain that I would recommend to anyone who is a fan of the genre.

I haven’t recently watched much else, except for yet another failed viewing of The Raven (when am I going to give up on that dumb thing?) and then, last night at Bridget’s birthday party, I had my first exposure to The Andy Milonakis Show! Luckily I don’t have cable, or I’d be hooked! Pretty funny. Funny, funny… I mainly enjoyed the theme, the rappin’ at the old lady and the turrle parents over for tea. The show just oozes NYC and good-naturedness, plus, it’s pretty funny. Who’d have thunk it with MTV? Well, I guess they did have (and then kill) the wonderful Austin Stories a few years back…

Oh, who knows.. So I’ve been working our way through The Stand. I was hoping that it would inspire me to start reading the book, but its 6 hours of goodness just hasn’t had that effect yet. I imagine that even Molly Ringwald is a better actor than the chops that she shows here. But we are trying hard to keep on target. It looks very cheap, even by TV movie standards, the acting is lackluster, I dunno. It’s just not all that. But I will still, at some point, pick up the book.

I also went to see Oliver Twist. I liked it, I thought it looked very good. The 19th cent England on display didn’t look hokey or staged or melodramatic. I thought that it just look fairly realistic. I suspect that I benefited by not knowing the story or having anything to compare it with, I found it fairly engaging and not boring at all. My only negative comment about is was that I felt like every character was missing about 20 minutes of on screen time. It just seemed like everyone’s parts had been cut. Anyway, the theater I saw it in was a 5 row theater. Just reaffirming the notion that Polanski is still somewhat black-listed in the ol’ usa. I’ve thought that ever since Pirates opened almost at the 99 cent theaters, back in the day. Whoever is working to keep him off of the screens must have been quite dismayed by the success of the Pianist. They couldn’t keep that hidden too well after a point.

I also watched Fever Pitch. Which was pretty mild as a romantic comedy but, as someone who recently had their first bout of Baseball watching (during the Red Sox successful drive to the world series) the baseball part was fun to watch.

I also finally watched some Fassbinder. I put in Pioneers in Ingolstadt to get myself started. I liked it pretty well. I found the characters dry, yet engaging. Maybe seeming a bit stiff, but maybe that’s just the way they are. Not much else to say here, but I think I may try Love is Colder Than Death next… Or maybe Whitey. We’ll have to see.

And then, last evening… After a few false starts I finally started making progress with the bargain of the year, the Universal Hammer Horror Series. I’m watching it in order, even though the first two seemed the least interesting. I watched Brides of Dracula and then Curse of the Wolfman. I would say, if one is into these things, they were both decent. Brides was not one of the better ol’ Vampire movies around, but it looked good (I do so love those ol’ colors)and Peter Cushing is always worth watching. Curse, well, it also looked good. And I got a kick out of Oliver Reed, but I don’t think that I’ve even watched a werewolf films before (not an accident) and this one didn’t sway me to the cause. It was well past too long before the werewolf arrived (maybe that’s the curse part) and then, I dunno, it just didn’t click. But I would certainly say that even one with even a passing interest in Hammer Horror should pick up this set!

Yes, another busy evening to round up a quiet viewing week… But first things first! Matt and I watched Oldboy. I must say, it seemed different than I expected, yet better. I don’t really have any complaints. It was well done, well acted, well shot. Less violent than I had anticipated, but good looking violence! Though I would still recommended Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, this was a much stronger film, so I would not recommended seeing Oldboy first. The progression leads me towards anticipation for Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.
In the grand disappointment field, I rented (well, I should keep all of the blame myself), The Knack… and How to Get It. I thought, “A wacky 1960’s Black and White BritHip comedy from the man who brought us A Hard Days Night, how could we go wrong?” Well, wrong we went. I don’t know if it was his attempt at Experimental Film, but it was just all wrong. And boring to boot! Such fun potential it had… Anyway, I couldn’t finish it. Also, the HPL Film Festival is this weekend. I was so sure I was going, especially since I’ve missed the two previous years but…

I got the Six Feet Under 5th Season on DVD and i’ve been burning through those! I watched the last 7 episodes last night after work. I wasn’t as excited by the last episode as everyone seemed to be, but it was a good season, though some of the plotlines seemed to move along too quickly. All in all, I would have to say that though The Sopranos is my favorite series, Six Feet Under is just the stronger show. No badly done episodes, no badly done seasons. It’s just all so good.

On other subjects though, I’ve been trying out some of these podcasts. I kinda like Cine-schlock-a-rama, I read the website anyway but it’s fun to hear the guy. So much appreciation of all the right things. I also downloaded Ebert and Roper. I swear, Roper is just another one like Siskel. Seemingly no love for movies, just critiques about the technique or whatever. I guess it’s like good cop bad cop, but I never could stand Siskels weak whiny complaints about movies and I can’t stand Roper’s either. I like my movie critics to be fans, first and foremost.