Movies, acronyms, stuff
Following the lead of mybodymycoffin, I'll try rating the movies I've seen recently and make it less a list and more an opinion as well. Anyway:
- Stalag 17/Billy Wilder (8/10) - I swear you can just tell by the acting in a film as to whether it's a Wilder pick or not. This was a good one, and Holden does a good job, but it's also kinda just the standard Wilder film, which in and of itself isn't a bad thing. I may have ranked it higher had I seen it sooner. My favorite by the guy is Sunset Blvd, BTW.
- The Graduate/Mike Nichols (8.5/10) - No, I hadn't seen The Graduate yet! Chalk it up there with Goodfellas, the LotR trilogy beyond the first film, and Titanic (the latter I will never see, BTW). Really enjoyed it, though I could have stood for less "Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme" around the middle of it. While the ending of the movie was ruined for me by pop culture and Wayne's World 2, what I liked about the ending is when he gets the girl, everything should be great and whatnot, and he gets this "WTF am I doing with my life!?!?" look he had at the beginning of and throughout the film with "Sounds of Silence" again playing. Regardless of the resolution in the film, it didn't solve the overall crisis the Hoffman character was having. It was subtle but effective.
- Who's Afraid of Virgina Wolfe/Mike Nichols (9/10) - A nearly flawless film with incredible acting and imaginative cinematography. I watched it before The Graduate to compare, and you can kinda see that it was the same director. Great example of American filmmaking, and maybe the best debut film by a director ever. I'd recommend it highly, especially if you like hearing two people argue with each other for 2 hours.
- Mafioso/Alberto Lattuada (6.5/10) - Decent 60's Italian comedy with some interesting camerawork but nothing all that standout about it. Good though.
- Steamboat Bill, Jr./Buster Keaton (8/10) - Features the infamous scene where the side of a house falls on Keaton with the window frame being the only thing that saves Keaton's life (seen here or here). One of his wives thought he had a deathwish, and watching this almost makes you believe it.
- Kid Brother/Ted Wilde (8/10) - A Harold Lloyd comedy, and one of the first to start featuring his the stunt acting he became famous for. He's not Chaplin or Keaton, but I like Lloyd and what he does with cinema.
- The Fallen Idol/Carol Reed (7/10) - I like Carol Reed. He's like the British version of Orson Wells. This was his first, and it was a decent film. I'm not sure if anything by him could top The Third Man, but this was decent.
Last update I forgot to mention Logan's Run, which I'd watched a few weeks ago. I'd seen it as a kid, but probably hadn't seen for close to 15 years. Enjoyed it, but I like my 70's dystopian genre.
Also saw Kick Ass at the theater with the lady a couple of weeks ago, which means it's her turn to pick the next movie we go to. I enjoyed it for what it was, but I didn't come away blown away or thinking it was a great film. It's a strange film when it's Nick Cage that holds it together. I appreciated the absurdity of it all, and the ridiculous factor, plus I like any film that features The Sparks' "This Town ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us", but still.
Things the son is really into right now:
- Dragon Warrior for the NES. He's really gotten into watching me play it, playing it himself, and pretending it with me in the yard, which I find so bizarre as it's just an RPG, and a rather slow one at that where you just push a to select whether you want to fight, run, cast a spell, or use and item. I think he likes the simple word factor of it, and it's helping me with his reading as well. Still, I don't think other kids have a reference point for "metal slime".
- I went shopping the other day and left him at my house with his Grandma, AKA my mom. When I got back, they had dug out an old radio from the junk room and were obviously listening to it. He greeted me at the door by shouting "THAT ONE GUITAR!!!" and making this *BAM* kind of sound. I immediately knew he had heard Foreigner's "Jukebox Hero", and it reeled him in like that. Now this godforsaken song is a staple of the mp3 player when we go for a ride, though we only listen to it once. Let this be a lesson to you, though, about how you must screen EVERYTHING your child comes in contact with. It just took a taste of Foreigner, and if this means having to hear "Cold as Ice", "I Wanna Know What Love Is", "Dirty White Boy", Head Games", "Hotblooded" or "Double Vision" for the next few years, I'm going to be very, very angry.
- Stalag 17/Billy Wilder (8/10) - I swear you can just tell by the acting in a film as to whether it's a Wilder pick or not. This was a good one, and Holden does a good job, but it's also kinda just the standard Wilder film, which in and of itself isn't a bad thing. I may have ranked it higher had I seen it sooner. My favorite by the guy is Sunset Blvd, BTW.
- The Graduate/Mike Nichols (8.5/10) - No, I hadn't seen The Graduate yet! Chalk it up there with Goodfellas, the LotR trilogy beyond the first film, and Titanic (the latter I will never see, BTW). Really enjoyed it, though I could have stood for less "Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme" around the middle of it. While the ending of the movie was ruined for me by pop culture and Wayne's World 2, what I liked about the ending is when he gets the girl, everything should be great and whatnot, and he gets this "WTF am I doing with my life!?!?" look he had at the beginning of and throughout the film with "Sounds of Silence" again playing. Regardless of the resolution in the film, it didn't solve the overall crisis the Hoffman character was having. It was subtle but effective.
- Who's Afraid of Virgina Wolfe/Mike Nichols (9/10) - A nearly flawless film with incredible acting and imaginative cinematography. I watched it before The Graduate to compare, and you can kinda see that it was the same director. Great example of American filmmaking, and maybe the best debut film by a director ever. I'd recommend it highly, especially if you like hearing two people argue with each other for 2 hours.
- Mafioso/Alberto Lattuada (6.5/10) - Decent 60's Italian comedy with some interesting camerawork but nothing all that standout about it. Good though.
- Steamboat Bill, Jr./Buster Keaton (8/10) - Features the infamous scene where the side of a house falls on Keaton with the window frame being the only thing that saves Keaton's life (seen here or here). One of his wives thought he had a deathwish, and watching this almost makes you believe it.
- Kid Brother/Ted Wilde (8/10) - A Harold Lloyd comedy, and one of the first to start featuring his the stunt acting he became famous for. He's not Chaplin or Keaton, but I like Lloyd and what he does with cinema.
- The Fallen Idol/Carol Reed (7/10) - I like Carol Reed. He's like the British version of Orson Wells. This was his first, and it was a decent film. I'm not sure if anything by him could top The Third Man, but this was decent.
Last update I forgot to mention Logan's Run, which I'd watched a few weeks ago. I'd seen it as a kid, but probably hadn't seen for close to 15 years. Enjoyed it, but I like my 70's dystopian genre.
Also saw Kick Ass at the theater with the lady a couple of weeks ago, which means it's her turn to pick the next movie we go to. I enjoyed it for what it was, but I didn't come away blown away or thinking it was a great film. It's a strange film when it's Nick Cage that holds it together. I appreciated the absurdity of it all, and the ridiculous factor, plus I like any film that features The Sparks' "This Town ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us", but still.
Things the son is really into right now:
- Dragon Warrior for the NES. He's really gotten into watching me play it, playing it himself, and pretending it with me in the yard, which I find so bizarre as it's just an RPG, and a rather slow one at that where you just push a to select whether you want to fight, run, cast a spell, or use and item. I think he likes the simple word factor of it, and it's helping me with his reading as well. Still, I don't think other kids have a reference point for "metal slime".
- I went shopping the other day and left him at my house with his Grandma, AKA my mom. When I got back, they had dug out an old radio from the junk room and were obviously listening to it. He greeted me at the door by shouting "THAT ONE GUITAR!!!" and making this *BAM* kind of sound. I immediately knew he had heard Foreigner's "Jukebox Hero", and it reeled him in like that. Now this godforsaken song is a staple of the mp3 player when we go for a ride, though we only listen to it once. Let this be a lesson to you, though, about how you must screen EVERYTHING your child comes in contact with. It just took a taste of Foreigner, and if this means having to hear "Cold as Ice", "I Wanna Know What Love Is", "Dirty White Boy", Head Games", "Hotblooded" or "Double Vision" for the next few years, I'm going to be very, very angry.