Category Archives: Movies
I never intended this blog to be a movie or TV review blog, but I’ve found myself posting about various films or TV shows I’ve really liked (or — in a few cases — really hated). I often get too lost in a story to see myself as a good reviewer or analyst (serious film critics often amaze me by what they pick up on), but storytelling is a favorite area of mine, and I do enjoy writing about it.
Hence forth, I plan to be more open to writing about movies and TV shows. I do enjoy sharing some of the little known gems I find, and — if nothing else — it’s nice to have a record of those and my reactions to them at the time. And (as always) I enjoy a good rant about the ones that pissed me off. I make no claim to being a particularly good critic; take any of these as just my 1/50th of a buck’s worth.
Today I want to share three critically acclaimed, utterly delightful, gems.
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30 Comments | tags: James Spader, Jim Jarmusch, John Hurt, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mia Wasikowska, Nick Hurran, Only Lovers Left Alive, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, Santa Claus, Secretary (movie), Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, vampires, Virtual Sexuality | posted in Movies
Here in January we’re almost equally distant from the previous professional baseball season (which ended in September) and from the coming one (which begins in April). Pitchers and Catchers report for Spring Training in mid-February, position players report later in the month. Spring Training games begin in March.
At various points in 2014, I picked up DVD copies of two (actually four) favorite baseball movies, plus one I’d never heard of, but found in a $4.99 bin somewhere. They’ve all been siting patiently waiting for me to watch them.
I thought: New Year’s Day sounds like the perfect time to do that!
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24 Comments | tags: Bleacher Bums, Bob Uecker, Bull Durham, Cleveland Indians, David S. Ward, Durham Bulls, Harry Doyle, Kevin Costner, Lysistrata, Major League, Margaret Whitton, Rene Russo, Ron Shelton, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Wild Thing | posted in Baseball, Movies
At this point in the season, various versions have already aired more than a few times, but tonight marks the first time for me to sit down and popcorn out on A Christmas Carol (by any other name). And sometime this week I’ll read the online version at Gutenberg. It’s one of my all-time favorite stories!
Today also marks the beginning of the one-week Christmas Countdown. Each day brings a short controversy-free, technology-free, gluten-free, fat-free, sugar-free, chemical-free free range Christmas post with a link back to a post from the Christmas Cycle in 2012. Considering the viewing schedule tonight, the link can only be to A Christmas Carol. (You can watch the Mr. Magoo version there!)
And each day, below the fold: Christmas Music!
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13 Comments | tags: A Christmas Carol, Ay Ay Ay It's Christmas, Bob Seger, Charles Dickens, Christmas, Christmas music, humor, Ricky Martin, Scrooge, The Little Drummer Boy | posted in Movies, Music
You, dear reader, might wonder about the #2 in today’s title. Obviously, it signifies a second, so you may wonder wither the first. That one wasn’t in the normal catalog, but in Brain Bubbles, and it is, in fact, misfiled due to my own historical lack of precision about what belongs in that catalog. Full-length articles about movies do not.
So today’s post, another meander through three (recommended) movies, two TV shows (one recommended, one not), and a commemoration of the end of a great (cable) TV show, goes in the main catalog where it belongs.
Truth be told, I just couldn’t come up with a better title.
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4 Comments | tags: Aaron Sorkin, Babylon 5, Castle (TV series), Forever (TV series), Johannes Vermeer, Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers, Saving Mr. Banks, State of Affairs (TV series), The Newsroom (TV series), Tim Jenison, Tim's Vermeer, Video Toaster, Walt Disney, Whatever Works, Woody Allen | posted in Movies, TV
I learned the lesson so long ago that video rental stores were still a thing. Sometimes the most interesting movies are the ones that sit — one lonely copy — forlornly on the rental shelves. They’re almost lost among the popular movies with their dozens of copies. (Let alone the Big Hits taking up entire shelf sections.)
Movies imitate real life in many ways. The content versus popularity equation is no exception. Often, popular means shallow and bland — by definition inoffensive. (Almost always, greater appeal means less flavor or spice. No surprises.)
But that lonely outlier can be an unexpected and delicious meal!
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9 Comments | tags: A Dangerous Method, Carl Jung, David Cronenberg, Helen Hunt, hysteria, Hysterical, iron lung, Keira Knightley, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Fassbender, Samuel Jackson, Sigmund Freud, The Sessions, vibrator, video rental stores, Viggo Mortensen | posted in Movies
If “we are what we eat,” then what about what we consume with our minds? If the food we eat becomes the substance of our muscles and bones, doesn’t the information we absorb become the substance of our thoughts and emotions? We understand that it’s not healthy to live on junk food alone; do we have a similar sense regarding our mental health?
I think a lot about the media content we absorb so casually day in and day out. In the last three or four decades, we seem to have come to an ugly, unfortunate place for entertainment dining. Our diet now is rich in violence and sexuality, and it’s served in a visceral emotional stew of force and conflict.
I think it’s disturbing, especially considering how few seem disturbed by it!
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14 Comments | tags: Ali Larter, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Brian Dennehy, CSI, F/X (movie), F/X2 (movie), Final Destination, movie violence, Quentin Tarantino, Sherlock Holmes, Total Recall, TV violence, violence, violence in movies | posted in Life, Movies, TV
For the record: I am not a fan of Steven Spielberg‘s movies. I do not like them on DVD; I do not like them in theater three. I do not like them on VHS; I do not like them — I said that, yes! And let me be clear: sometimes when I say I don’t like something, it means I’m neutral; I neither like nor dislike. But in this case, I do mean I actively dislike his movies.
I will readily agree that this, almost universally beloved, director-writer-producer is brilliant at his craft. He’s clearly one of the most successful directors in modern movie history. But I stand with a (very!) small number of critics who find his movies morally shallow and blatantly emotional. Even worse, they are peppered with what I call “Spielbergisms.”
It all started with the damned mashed potatoes.
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29 Comments | tags: Amy Madigan, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Dr. Strangelove, Field of Dreams, Indiana Jones, Minority Report, Philip K. Dick, Richard Dreyfuss, Spielbergism, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, Teri Garr | posted in Movies
Even as a kid monster movies didn’t really frighten me. I just was never that impressed by Dracula or Frankenstein (let alone a Werewolf — a mere dog). The Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Blob, the Thing, giant insects, Harryhausen animations, even zombies… All such obvious effects.
Slasher movies weren’t that big when I was a kid. Jason, Freddie, Chucky, they all came along later. The first Saw wasn’t until 2004. And again, on some level, just special effects. That’s actually part of what’s cool about the gory movies.
But ghost stories? Ghost stories definitely get under my skin!
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9 Comments | tags: 13 Ghosts, ghost glasses, ghost movies, ghost stories, ghosts, horror movies, Ju-on, Margaret Hamilton, The Grudge, The Ring, What Lies Beneath | posted in Brain Bubble, Movies
I thought Zack Snyder blew the doors off Watchmen. The movie does total justice to a classic graphic novel that I would have thought impossible to put on film. It turned out to be a work that doesn’t just honor the source material, it elevates it. I liked his version of 300 okay, and I thought Sucker Punch interesting (although it’s a rather strange movie).
Plus, I have a high regard for Christopher Nolan. I very much enjoyed Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, Inception and the first two Batman movies (as I’ve written before, I thought much less of the third one).
Snyder at the helm, Nolan as a producer and writer… I was really looking forward to Man of Steel.
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10 Comments | tags: Batman, Christopher Nolan, Christopher Reeve, Clark Kent, Lex Luther, movie violence, superheroes, Superman, Superman Returns, Zack Snyder | posted in Movies, Rant, Sci-Fi Saturday
I mentioned Stanley Kubrick‘s 2001: A Space Odyssey recently. It’s actually one of my favorite films, although by “favorite” I mean it makes my Top 25 Best Films list (or it would if I ever made one). I consider it a major landmark in the cinema landscape.
I’m not sure it makes my Top 25 Favorite Films list, but that’s only because there are so many others I love for reasons beyond their mere quality. It would probably make the Top 50 list, and I’m sure it’s in my Top 100. Some find it opaque or pointless, but to me it’s a visual tone poem that’s as beautiful as it is technically accomplished.
When I say that last part, people sometimes ask me what a visual tone poem is.
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3 Comments | tags: 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2001: A Space Trailer, Also sprach Zarathustra, Fantasia, Koyaanisqatsi, poetry, sound poem, Stanley Kubrick, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, tone poem, visual poetry | posted in Movies, Music, Sci-Fi Saturday
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