Last summer I had a wonderful idea. I would watch 100 movies and then blog about them. Long story short, life intervened and I had to put the idea on the backburner.
So.
Here I am, thinking it would be a good idea to do it again. Thus without further ado, I welcome you to...
SUMMER OF 1000 MOVIES! (during which I will, in actuality, watch 100 movies.)
I'm thinking I will cheat a smidge and include Monsturd, which I have already blogged about, because, really, I can't think of a better movie to begin a list of 100 movies than one that 'stars' a human-sized poop monster. It was not good, in fact I'll give it a generous D-.
Watched David Fincher's Zodiac and was mildly entertained/disappointed. I've dug most of Fincher's work and I wanted to enjoy this as well, but mostly I just shrug at it. The biggest problem, I suppose, is that I already knew that the Zodiac Killer was never caught, so that element of tension fell flat. Also, I had read the book that the movie was based on, so there were really no surprises to be found. This film reminded me of a Ron Howard production: well assembled, technically sound, and no soul whatsoever. Robert Downey, Jr. was very good, as was the rest of the cast, but there was no spark for me. A well made disappointment receives a C+.
As a fan of Donnie Darko, (the original release, not the director's cut) I had high hopes for writer/director Richard Kelly's next movie, Southland Tales. Sure I had read about the production issues, how it flopped so bad at Cannes that Kelly had to return to the cutting room for a thousand years to fix it, but how bad could it be, really? Weeelll, it pains me to say it, because I wanted to like it, but it's maybe one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The story was convoluted, the plot (some nincompoopery about world domination, the fourth dimenison, politics) was insipid and just...not really there, the acting was mediocre at best. Here's how I see it: Remember Princess Bride? Then remember how Rob Reiner tried to recapture that vibe, the silly/serious, almost a parody of a parody style in North only to fail spectacularly? Now think of Repo Man (if you haven't seen it you should, and this comparison might be lost on you) and remember the sense of whimsy it had while being totally serious while being completely absurd while being (most importantly) fun and entertaining. Southland Tales tried to find a vibe like this and failed impressively. So, yeah I just compared The Princess Bride to Repo Man and North to Southland Tales. Shame on you Richard Kelly. You get a big fat F.
So, for the record, ths Summer of a Thousand Movies begins like this:
1. Monsturd D-
2. Zodiac C+
3. Southland Tales F
Please discuss. Thanks you.
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1 comment:
I'm with you Brad. Southland Tales was one of the most dissapointing film outings I've had in a very long time. Mostly because I expected so much from the man who penned such timeless lines like "somebody ought to write that bitch a letter". Southland Tales was so bad that I walked out of it after 45 minutes. I've only walked out of a few movies and "Dude Where's My Car" wasn't one of them, if that tells you anything. Although, in this particular case, my preternatural sense of film gratuity must have kept me around for the 50 foot woman upskirt shot near the end of the movie.
Anyway, I wholeheartedly agree with your assesment. But comparing anything to Repo Man is slightly unfair since it contains the sandbagging, all too aptly named Otto played by Emillio when he was in his prime.
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