Fresh off of watching Chungking Express, I convinced SHR to watch this with me. That was a mistake. She didn't like it at all. I've got to admit that I didn't like it as much as I did when I saw it at Film Forum in 1998.
Then again, I didn't remember that much about it from 11 years ago. In fact, I remembered three things about it.
1. A lot of motorcycle riding through tunnels. 2. A really long female masturbation scene. 3. I was confused.
Upon reviewing this in 2020, I'd be surprised if I remember anything else other than these exact same three things.
I hadn't seen this movie in years but I wanted to make sure that SHR finally saw it. I loved this movie back in the mid 90's. It seemed so artsy and exotic to me back then. Like Breathless meets Blade Runner or something. I'm not sure how that even makes sense but I guess the California Dreamin' chick was so cute in an Asian Jean Seberg way to me and the fast paced neon lit world of Hong Kong reminded me of Blade Runner. I don't know. All I know was that I had barely seen any modern Asian cinema at the point that I saw this movie and it blew me away.
I was surprised by how much I remembered of parts of this and how much of it I had forgotten. Obviously, I had not forgotten the California Dreamin' sequences. She was just as cute as I remembered. I remembered the pineapple a day parts. But I had forgotten a lot of the first cop's story. No matter - it just added to my enjoyment upon reviewing.
I don't think SHR liked it as much as I did back in the day. But that is an impossible order. The movie hit me in the right way when I was in my early 20's. I greatly enjoyed it in 2009 for many reasons, chief of which I'm sure were for nostalgia. In general though, the movie more than holds up.
This movie just keeps piling on absurdity after absurdity. Some miss, but most hit. I didn't love it as much as some of my friends did but it sure as hell is better than Amy H's succinct review - "$5.75 per laugh." Ouch. Those are fighting words in some circles.
My favorite line is the random one where Zach Galifianakis is trying to remember the title of Three Men and a Baby and describes it as the movie with Ted Danson, Magnum PI, and that Jewish actor.
I also give this movie extra points for making it cool to wear a baby carrier.
On another note, SHR just picked up some baby sunglasses today. Sweet!
I had heard this movie was good for years so I finally got around to watching it. I should have waited even longer. It's not that great.
I mean, it's not bad or anything but it is super lightweight in a not that good kind of way. I'm all for light but this reminds me of the kind of movie that would have been on Bravo 4 times a day back in the mid 90's. Maybe if I was German, I would have thought that was uproariously funny. Instead, it was absurd in a eh kind of way.
The movie is about a guy who watches his very pro East Germany mom faint while he's being arrested in East Berlin on the night that the Berlin Wall fell. She falls into a coma and when she wakes up, she is in a fragile state. The doctor tells the son not to let his mom have any sudden surprises in her life because it might push her over the edge. So he spends the next three or so years trying to create a world for her that consists of the old world order.
Imagine the hijinks! Imagine the hilarity! How will the son explain the huge Coke sign on the building next door? One thing leads to another and ... eh, whatever.
I did like the Lenin statue being flown over the city though - very La Dolce Vita.
Watching this movie though made me realize that I need to see One, Two, Three again.
Part Dragnet (LA cops, Jack Webb had a small role), part The Naked City (gritty documentary style), part The Third Man (great climax in the sewers), this movie is a fun little diversion.
The crook is a smart dude. He listens to the police radio and he also changes up his crimes each time so the cops don't realize it is all the handiwork of one guy. But then he kills a cop and all hell breaks loose.
Directed by Alfred L. Werker but really Anthony Mann 1948 TCM
I was expecting to like this but not as much as I did. I loved it.
Let me count the ways.
- I love the talking dogs. Squirrel!
- Ed Asner was great.
- Russell was hilarious. Little mailman!
- A lot of the surreal flying aspects reminded me of Miyazaki films, in particular, this one.
- The colors were incredible. I was completely in awe the entire time. The 3D was great as well.
- Loved that the Lindbergh character ended up being the bad guy. Nazi!
- The opening Citizen Kane like montage but in reverse was breathtaking - some of the best filmmaking I've seen in years.
- The movie is so enthralling that you kind of forget at times just how sad and full of loneliness it is. Brilliant.
- There were also elements of this that reminded me of Maurice Sendak. And I've got to admit that it didn't occur to me until I listened to a Terry Gross interview with Pete Docter (the director) that the pulling of the house through the jungle was quite reminiscent of Fitzcarraldo.
- I loved every minute of this movie. From the newsreel footage to the montage of a marriage to the high rises rising up around his lonely house to the flight scenes to the pulling scenes to the battle scenes. I loved everything about it. This is a great movie.
Based on a true story of a pitcher who made a comeback after losing his leg in a hunting accident, this movie is one big corny mess. It was hard to slog all the way through and it took me many sittings. SHR didn't make it all the way through.
Sample line from the movie: Stewart hears a cow (he lives on a farm) while practicing with a baseball scout and he says, "Better go - it looks like we have another kind of squeeze play."
The movie takes place over many years. It begins with Stewart playing a young buck on the farm. SHR asserted that Stewart looked older than his mom. Not quite though. At the time of the movie's release, Stewart was 41 and the actress who played his mom was 48.
Wow. Simply wow. I'm so glad that I finally saw this movie. Bart has been telling me about it for years and now I've finally seen it. It is easily one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen. You must see this movie.
I first became enamored with Timothy Carey upon seeing him in The Killing and Paths of Glory. Apparently, he went on to be in Beach Blanket Bingo (what?), Head, and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. He truly is a one of a kind presence and has to be seen to be believed.
The movie begins with him playing an insurance salesman named Clarence who decides that insurance is pointless. He leaves his family and decrees ,"There's only one God, and that's Man." He promptly goes onto to start a rock band and eventually starts a political movement around his cult. His spastic concerts lead to suicides and riots. He starts referring to himself as God. He sleeps with 70-year-olds as well as 14-year-old groupies. He is a dirty man.
Carey starts wearing a clearly fake goatee to make things even stranger. His rock performances are like a cross between Elvis, Nicholas Cage from Wild at Heart, Ford Fairlane, Gene Vincent, Dean Carter, Ian Svenonius, and Jack White playing Elvis. And maybe a little Buster Keaton thrown in during quieter moments. Completely brilliant.
See this movie if this description appeals to you. You will not be disappointed. Thanks SHR for letting me know that this was on!
This has always been one of my favorite Buster Keaton movies. I saw it at Film Forum in the late 90's and have also shown it to my class a few times over the years. This year, a kid in my class brought it in because he is a big Buster Keaton fan. Nice.
Keaton plays a completely clueless richie rich who ends up stranded on a boat in the middle of the ocean with his standoffish crush. Some amazing sight gags ensue. In fact, one of my all time favorite Keaton gags is in this movie. It involves a scary painting tossed over the edge of the boat, a storm at sea, and a freaked out Keaton. I never grow tired of that scene.
This isn't a classic in the sense that a movie like The General is, but for pure silliness and fun, this movie is pretty great.
I saw this movie with my dad many many years ago. In my memories of it, the pool scenes with Jackie Gleason took up a much larger portion of the movie rather than just the beginning and end.
In fact, the first 1/3 is great. As is the last 1/3. The middle 1/3 drags a bit but I guess is necessary for full dramatic heft. The trifecta of Newman, Gleason, and George C. Scott really is quite impressive.
SHR and I were both struck by how much James Franco based his Daniel Desario character from Freaks and Geeks on Newman in this movie - in particular the Two Tracks speech he delivers after being accused of cheating on a math test.
SHR and I are contemplating renting The Color of Money now but are a little afraid.
Fresh off of watching Chungking Express, I convinced SHR to watch this with me. That was a mistake. She didn't like it at all. I've got to admit that I didn't like it as much as I did when I saw it at Film Forum in 1998.
