01/02/2003 Entry:
"More Round Up"

I think that I will start doing more shorter posts rather than less of these longer ones. However I will admit that I haven't seen much lately either. Hopefully that will all begin to change this weeknd.

Ocean's Eleven - Steven Soderbergh (2001)
Quite possibly the most pointless movie ever made. Still fun, and beautiful thanks to Soderbergh who acted as his own DP. Just pointless. Everyone here basically plays themself, except Julia Roberts who seems miscast and out of place. She doesn't even look particularly glamorous or anything (although maybe that was the point, given that she wasn't supposed to fit into Benedict's world.) I do have a soft spot for Vegas movies too, since its one of my favorite places and I like location spotting.

Adaptation - Spike Jonze (2002)
For the first hour or so I was relly enjoying the wackiness, even heading into the Donald section where most people lose it, because I was so into it conceptually. It was into the last reel that it really lost me, it seemed to spin off track after they left the swamp. Many people who have read The Orchid Thief say that the first half or so actually acts as a fnatastic representation of the book itself not only in terms of what happened but also as an accurate depiction of the book's tone and mood, and I believe it (although I have not read the book.) Frankly I wish they would have just kept Donald out of it and kept it going along that route (although I have no idea how they would have ended it.)

It's A Wonderful Life - Frank Capra (1946)
For those that don't live in Chicago, The Music Box is this beautiful old deco theatre with a gigantic main room that plays a lot of the arthouse stuff in town. Every Christmas they offer a double feature of It's A Wonderful Life and White Christmas with caroling in between, and every year a group of people I know gets together and skips White Christmas and goes for caroling and It's A Wonderful Life. Its really great fun, and the movie turns into a kind of Rocky Horror experience with eevryone cheering George, hsising Potter, and yelling HOT DOG! Of all the stuff you read about this film and Capra-corn, it seems to fly over everyone's head that the vast majority of this film is extremely dark, which is one of the things I love about it. I don't mind diving headlong into cornball territory when it is necessary to bring you out of diving headfirst into massive depression. I still get misty-eyed at the "Here's to my brother George" line too.

Sholay - Ramesh Sippy (1975)
The biggest grossing Indian film of all time, which played in a theatre in Bombay for five straight years. A lot of fun, but really my first experience with Bollywood cinema so I don't have a lot to compare it to. This could have easily been trimmed by at least an entire subplot without losing much. I won't say I got bored at any point, but it certainly wasn't the tightest thing I've ever seen. Very colorful and filled with action and three long dance numbers. About the only real problem I had with it was that the bad guys had an obnoxiously serious case of the "we can't aim for shit" syndrome. I mean, it was completely ridiculous at some point towards the end. And I seriously thought the final fight scene in this was an influence on Monty Python And The Holy Grail, and then was surprised to learn that they were both done the same year. Available on DVD, go see!

Replies: 4 comments

I envy you seeing IAWL on the big screen. I had a chance at that several years ago in Seattle and didn't jump on it when I should have. There's probably a theatre in L.A. that shows it, but I imagine it would be too long of a drive for me. Maybe next year. It has the reputation for being corny and overly sentimental, and the people who make those criticisms only seem to remember the final scenes. The scene in "Pottersville" when George's own mother doesn't recognize him is one of the most frightening things I've ever seen on film. As for myself, I can't seem to stop the tears from flowing when little George is getting his ears slapped back by old man Gower and cries out, "Don't hurt my sore ear again! Don't hurt my sore ear again!" Posted by stennie @ 01/04/2003 03:07 AM CST

I always thought the grave scene was the most horrifying, even though Capra makes the whole "old maid" thing the emotional lowpoint. That just seems corny in retrospect. My fiance Bethany always loses it in the same part you do. Posted by GDD @ 01/05/2003 08:44 PM CST

Since you have a soft spot for Vegas movies, how about posting a list of your top 10 favorite Vegas-related movies? Or are you against lists? Posted by skeeter meter @ 01/06/2003 02:33 AM CST

I am certainly not against lists, however a problem with Vegas movies is that they have a tendency to not be very good (like for instance Leaving Las Vegas, a filme I despise.) However, there have been some good ones, and these spring to mind: Casino Hard Eight CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (TV) The one segment in Swingers Posted by GDD @ 01/06/2003 07:56 AM CST