On the upside, it’s Friday. On the downside we’re living in the Oscar calendar shadow when studios dump the turkeys that they can’t afford to cut up and burn, as much as they might want to. Weirdly enough The Lives of Others looks pretty good, so I may break out of my beer-and-a-Blockbuster-DVD funk* long enough to see it.
(*) Kandahar – Disturbing, moving. The Return – morose life-is-pain europhilosophizing. The Descent – scary as hell until the easy-to-kill vampire people show up. The Matador – I forget why the hell I rented that. Egh. Rififi – Why keep making heist movies after Jules Dassin made this? It’s that good. I agree with John about Little Miss Sunshine, although it seems a little effervescent for a Best Picture nod. Etc.
feral1
Just saw the descent last week. Very good. Very scary. When the women crawl through that narrow tunnel and one gets stuck. Wooh. I’ve rarely felt a more visceral uncomfortable physical reaction from watching a movie
srv
Boy, was that Gates conference about evidence of Iranian influence in Iraq quite convincing. After postponing the conference for a week to check that everything was ‘accurate’, he gets up and mumbles about ‘some serial numbers’. Wow. Just wow.
Man, it is quite clear to me that Darrell is right. The Iranians are behind everything going wrong in Iraq. We need to start bombing yesterday. That way they won’t be able to supply the Sunni insurgents with advanced IEDs to kill more of their Shia brethren.
It all makes sense to me know. I just have to suspend all sense of reality.
Gatchaman
Little Miss Sunshine has some moments, but overall was just OK I think. At best it tried to be a Wes Anderson* movie — but lacked the mood, wit, and charm.
I thought the acting was all top notch, but just lacked something deeper.
I have Descent in my Net Flix queue but may check out OnDemand for it. I don’t even remember the last 10 movies I saw — they all blend into the same boring montage.
*BEST American film maker today.
Pb
If the Iranians are too stupid to even file off the freaking serial numbers first, then they obviously deserve to be bombed!
ThymeZone
Question to the multitudes: Why are Administration officials falling all over themselves to poo-poo (sorry, Pooh) talk of war with Iran these days?
To say that I don’t trust them would be a gross understatement. Why are they dropping hostile hints on one hand and “don’t worry, be happy” hints on the other?
What is their game?
dreggas
TZ,
they are trying once again to lull the sheeple into complacency. Remember they also said there would be no war with Iraq and inspectors would have all the time they needed blah blah blah.
On topic, best movie I have seen recently…Queer Duck the movie.
Walker
As to the Descent, you need to see the original British ending (it was on YouTube, but Lion’s Gate pulled it). It radically changes the message of the movie.
tBone
Rent Idiocracy. Laugh, then despair at how plausible it is.
norbizness
Another heist movie worth watching: Le Cercle Rouge by Jean-Pierre Melville (with Yves Montand and Alain Delon). Unfortunately, it was made after Rififi, so no dice.
Tsulagi
It’s to lengthen their OIF wish list to Zombie Santa for Xmas 2008 and 9…
1. Stretch this FUBAR for two years to hand off. Then blame him/her. Surge helps.
2. If Congress withholds one dollar or passes non happy talk resolution, blame them.
3. Blame Iraqis for not being grateful or wanting to be New Detroit.
4. Recent addition to the list—Blame Iran.
Look for the list to grow from the leaders of personal responsibility and accountability.
Krista
Absolutely. That movie, while hysterical, also depressed me deeply.
YellowJournalism
What didn’t you like about The Matador, Tim? Was it the pacing? I thought the performances were excellent, but the movie was a little off and ended quite abruptly.
ImJohnGalt
The Lives of Others is phenomenal story-telling. My wife and I saw it last September at the Toronto International Film Festival and we *still* talk about it. She’s in the exhibition industry, so we see a *ton* of movies, and this one has stuck with us. I’m hard pressed to pick between this movie and Deepa Mehta’s “Water” for best foreign Oscar.
There was an interesting article recently about how the movie is undoing some of the retro-coolness young Germans ascribe to East Germany, which is a *good* thing.
Jake
Clint Eastwood hates America.
Unfortunately, game is the mot juste here. The C-i-C and his handler think war is a game, so fuck ups and confusion naturally follow. I think at this point it may be more sabre rattling a la North Korea (Don’t provoke me. I’m warning you, don’t provoke me. Hey! You tested a nuke, that’s provacative!*) The other more alarming thought is they don’t know what they’re going to do or they’re trying to “trick” Iran. (Pay no attention to those ACC steaming around your backyard!)
Sorry, one more:
*Sometimes Mr. Thesaurus is our friend.
mrmobi
Absolutely, Krista. Idiocracy is hilarious and somehow, sadly plausible. We rented it a couple of weeks ago and I still find myself giggling about it.
TZ, I wish I knew what their game is. Seems to me the only thing we could possibly do with Iran, militarily, is airstrikes. I envision some Generals saying, “no fucking way.”
Hey Juicers, since this is an open thread, let me brag about being a 59-year-old who ran 20 miles a couple of weeks ago. When I started running again back in June, I thought I’d try and do it for a whole year, and this has been the best stretch I’ve ever had, with no injuries.
I’m hoping to do the Marathon here in Chicago in October as my “farewell to the fifties” celebration.
ImJohnGalt
But sometimes Mr. Dictionary is a better one.
Jonathan
Marine Iraq veteran’s wedding picture.
He used to look like this.
ThymeZone
I am not posting any more today.
That has left me too upset.
Too angry.
Tom Hilton
Why Blockbuster instead of Netflix? Just curious. I wouldn’t go to Blockbuster if you paid me.
Tim F.
Well, I don’t live one block away from a Netflix. The net services have a great selection but I hate to wait.
Jonathan
Debating whether to join the intertubes debate.
Bubblegum Tate
I rented it a couple days ago and am still laughing about certain things.
sorta-spoiler alert
The president and his cabinet (and the House of Representin’), for example. The circular logic about using the Gatorade knockoff to water plants (“But it has electrolytes! And plants love electrolytes!”) The fact that damn near every chain food/drinkery ends up trafficking in handjobs. Ow! My Balls! The name “Beef Supreme.” Dax Sherpard’s repeated insistence that he likes money; also his annoyed, “Go away–I’m ‘bating!”
end sorta-spoilers
But it was somewhat depressing as well. Not a total downer, but the Darwinian flaw, while rendered hyperbolically for the sake of the movie, is hardly implausible and mostly comes about from culture as it is right now. Sad.
Jonathan
It’s far worse seeing it happen to your brothers in arms.
Dug Jay
Jules Dassin made another terrific heist movie in the mid-1960s, “Topkapi.” This later movie was played for laughs as well as suspense and is well worth a view when it plays again on Turner Classic Movies.
By the way, Dassin is still living and in reasonable health for someone in their mid-90s. He lunched on my boat near Capri several years ago and still displayed all the humor and wit that he did earlier in his life.
Catsy
2006 was an incredibly asstastic year for movies. Pan’s Labyrinth was pretty good, though.
Tom Hilton
Well, I don’t live one block away from a Netflix. The net services have a great selection but I hate to wait.
I live four blocks away from Blockbuster, and I resist.
Of course, apart from hating Blockbuster in particular, I also hate the whole video store experience. (Exception: Le Video, which is well worth the two-mile walk round trip.) I’m prone to video store Alzheimer’s, which the whole Netflix queue setup cures. And sure, you have to wait…but then you don’t have to leave the house to get a movie.
And Blockbuster’s selection sucks ass, while Netflix’s is quite good.
Jake
~owchie. Do I at least get credit for the other two?
cerebrocrat
I really liked The Return although I don’t disagree with your description. And I’ll second that on Le Cercle Rouge which is worth watching even after Rififi because of the awesome 70’s-Euro interiors.
Andrew
Movie notes:
(1) I have Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville sitting at home and it looks like a direct ancestor of the Paranoia RPG.
(2) The Guns of Navarone was a pretty decent WWII thiller and Gia Scala is a super-babe.
(3) Children of Men was the movie of the year.
DougJ
Should the media really be discussing the fact that our astronauts drive around dipaers, hunting their romantic rivals? Doesn’t that make us look weak? I can only guess what our enemies must be thinking about all of this.
dreggas
who knows, if we’re portrayed as being that bat-shit crazy they might leave us alone.
I still say see Queer Duck the movie it is freaking hysterical.
t. jasper parnell
archive.org has a trove of public domain films, including Fritz Lang’s M. Downloadable and not all that grainy.
DougJ
What if we invaded Iran with an elite squad of diaper-wearing astronauts? I’ve got to think that would frighten the mullahs.
Let’s put all the options on the table, as Joe Klein would say.
Tsulagi
Don’t forget the wigs and trenchcoats. They would be Bush’s ‘special’ forces.
DougJ
There’s nothing more humiliating to the Muslim mind than surrendering to a diaper-wearing woman, you know.
dreggas
We are the Judean People’s Front Crack Suicide Squad!
Suicide Squad ATTACK!
jake
There’s this:
And then there’s this.
I guess there are no secure phone lines into Iraq. ‘Cos, you know, I would have thought hashing this out ahead of time would be a good idea.
Yeah. Bellowing READY OR NOT, HERE WE COME for weeks on end isn’t the best statergery even for kids playing Hide-and-go-seek. But I forgot. The enemy only listens to dissent about the war coming from the US. Everything else, they change the channel.
Clap louder, fuck it up faster. Repeat until 2008.
Krista
Huzzah for you! That’s awesome, awesome, awesome! Can you recommend some good running shoes? I’ve been on the eternal quest, but every pair that I’ve tried has given me a lot of pain and pressure on the outside edges of my feet by the time I hit the 10-minute mark.
And Jonathan, I wish that Bush, Cheney, and every single other politician who cheerleaded this war would be made to have that veteran’s wedding picture right on their nightstand, so that it’s the last thing they see at night, and the first thing they see in the morning.
scarshapedstar
Well. As for the “What’s shooting down our choppers?” debate… the Chinook on Wednesday definitely appears to have been brought down by a missile.
demimondian
mrmobi — congrats! I’ll never be able to run distances again — my knees aren’t up to the impact — so I’m jealous.
Jonathan
Krista,
I agree.
And I would also add those in the MSM who did a lot of cheerleading and very little asking of questions.
“War is hell” –William Tecumseh Sherman
moonbiter
I saw The Lives of the Others (Das Leben der Anderen) last summer here in Germany. It’s an excellent film. It made me madder than hell at the talented bureaucratic clerk-types that enable repressive regimes, however.
Paul L.
Of course, this is the same court that found for Gore in 2000.
Florida Supreme Court: Man Must Pay Child Support For Kid That Isn’t His
Rome Again
Florida sucks in so many ways, I can’t even name them all. Trust me. They have no idea what they are doing.
I’m so glad I finally got out of that place.
erik
Not only do they continue to make heist movies after Rififi (and by default derivitive heist movies), but they’re gonna just quit the pretense and remake Rififi.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0475871/
lard lad
Lovers of heist movies like Rififi should take the time to check out the the hysterically funny Big Deal on Madonna Street, which takes the classic robbery genre created by Rififi and plays it as farce. Every “gang-that-can’t-shoot-straight” movie has ripped off this film, but the original is unbeatable. Featuring a great supporting performance by Italian comic giant Toto as a helpful safecracker too smart to get involved with this bunch of yahoos. The climactic gag that caps the gang’s big robbery may be the funniest single shot in the history of cinema.
Available in a gorgeous edition from the Good Guys at Criterion. Check it out.