this episode:
American Gangster, conversations on select topics (fall movies, recent viewings, Splice images, etc), Canadian Sci-fi and of course DVD picks and tangents.
Unwrap the complete Show Notes by clicking on this link…
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These are the show notes for Cinecast Episode #67
Intro music: :00 - 3:34
Opening remarks: :22 - 3:39
“American Gangster”: 3:40 - 27:00
“Silip” and “Lars and the Real Girl”: 27:01 - 41:29
Long tangent on Fall movies: 41:29 - 54:32
Upcoming Splice film and its stills: 54:33 - 1:02:23
Kurt’s List of Top 5 Canadian Sci-fi horror: 1:02:24 - 1:19:52
DVD picks: 1:19:53 - 1:34:19
Kurt’s Screener - The Vanishing: 1:34:20 - 1:40:01
Closing remarks: 1:40:02 - 1:41:17
Outro music: 1:38:45 - 1:42:45
Bumper Music by “Sea Wolf” and “Pearl Jam”
New Movie Club Podcast:
Check out our newest podcast with the guys from FilmJunk.com and Marina from MadAboutMovies.net. You can stream or download the show RIGHT HERE. This month we discuss Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai and Todd Field’s Little Children.
Be prepared! Next week we dig into: Gimme Shelter and Duck You Sucker
American Gangster:
Movies we saw this week:
Silip - Kurt’s review
Lars and the Real Girl - Andrew’s review
Fall Films:
Juno
Into the Wild
No Country for Old Men
Lions for Lambs
Michael Clayton
Fred Claus
Fred Claus original teaser (great):
Posters (shit):
Feature: movies I won’t see based on the still
Splice:
Kurt’s Top 5 Canadian Sci-Fi Films:
Cube
Screamers
Videodrome
Fido
Last Night
- - honorable mention: Johnny Mnemonic, Blood and Donuts
DVD Picks of the Week:
ANDREW - Pixar Short Films:
KURT - Ratatouille:
Television DVD Picks of the Week:
ANDREW - Seinfeld (complete series):
KURT - Flight of the Concords:
Homework:
Find Blood and Donuts and let us know about it.
Comments or questions?
Leave comments by clicking on the comments below - you can even leave AUDIO comments!
feedback@moviepatron.com (general)
andrew@moviepatron.com
kurt@moviepatron.com
- - Kurt’s BLOG - this week’s screener: The Vanishing
Fidelio
Erroratum:
The dangers of doing a ‘live’ show without prep:
1) Homework Assignment of finding Blood & Donuts is actually quite easy, there are bootleg DVDs on eBay for about $8.
2) In all my talk about The Vanishing (having just watched it last night when the last time was several years ago) I really forgot to mention how much time the film spends with another fairly important character. Also that it is his girlfriend that goes to get the Soda and not him!! Details.
Futhermore, in the show notes, that Top 5 is not in any particular order, lest someone assume that I’m putting a pleasant and light diversion like FIDO higher than a bona fide masterpiece like Videodrome!
Cheers.
this has nothing to do with anything, but i just watched A Series of Unfortunate Events, and it was mediocre…
but the end credits sequence.
wow. upstages the entire movie before it, worth renting just to watch the final animations.
Well, you’re half right. It has nothing to do with anything, except movies. You wanna talk movies? This is the place. Who gives a shit if we covered it in the show. Still, don’t know how you came up with that and decided to post it here.
Anyway, I saw that movie a few years ago. Mediocre? I’d say LESS than mediocre. Can’t say I remember the closing credits though. I probably turned it off immediately as I was fed up with the film. What specifically was so great about them?
Only 1 hour 40 min?? You guys are slacking off.
I’m currently preparing myself for your latest podcast.
Just for the hell of it, here are the last bunch o’films I’ve seen:
Disturbia B
Oldboy B
Lilya-4-Ever B+
Below C
Spiderman 3 D
Hot Fuzz C
Bully D+
Borat B-
Sunshine C
Flags Of Our Fathers C
Letters From Iwo Jima C
Reign Over Me C
The World’s Fastest Indian B-
Up next: The Machinist
Wow. Other than probably Oldboy (A) and Sunshine (B), we pretty much agree spot on -however a B for Disturbia is a bit high I think, although I could be convinced otherwise. It had a lot potentially going for it, it just didn’t exploit it properly.
“Never saw Bully” or “Lilya-4-Ever” though.
Spider-Man 3? Considering what it could’ve/should’ve been, relatively speaking, it is the worst movie I’ve seen this year.
The Eastwood bookends didn’t interest me as much as they did the “official” critics. And I normally love Eastwood’s efforts.
The World’s Fastest Indian - something strangely captivated me about that film. I don’t particularly care for Hopkins lately, but I think a B- is about right. Though it seems like it should be a C- film.
Yeah, the homework was not as difficult as I thought it would be! Still, I’m looking forward to seeing it. Should be fun with the vampire-movie-loving-buddies.
Kudos on the top 5 Canadian sci-fi list and particularly the inclusion of “Last Night”. Bonus points for Kurt! Extra brownie points for bringing up “Johnny Mnemonic” a movie which is one of my great guilty pleasures.
TheSnowLeopard - “Letters From Iwo Jima” only got a C. Wow, that’s some rough scaling. I loved that film. It was even on my top ten for last year! As for “The Machinist”, there’s another one I love. Disturbing as hell, as much for what happens in the film as for Bale’s physicality. Creepy.
“Series of Unfortunate Events” - don’t remember much about this other than liking the look of the film. That was about it.
Another great show!
“What specifically was so great about them?”
i doubt youtube could capture the quality of the drawings and the depth of the layers, but i guess i could just show you. the background music is by Thomas Newman, of “Little Children”, “Six Feet Under” etc fame.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUx8Jf8F7Ks
yes, watching that link, you cant see the layers of depth, but you get a sense of the animation style. anyways, the way i feel about these end credits is the way you (or was it Kurt?) feels about the Dawn of the Dead opening credits.
Dang. A ‘C’ for both Letters from Iwo Jima and Hot Fuzz? Two A+s in my book. Harsh that they get the same score as Reign Over Me from ya.
I haven’t had a chance to listen to the show yet, but those Splice photos are just fucked up.
I’m so right there with you on the End Credits for Lemony Snickets…I actually quite enjoyed the vibe of the movie…sort of like a twilight zone episode mixed with the three stooges mixed with “Read All About it” (obsucre Canadian TV show from the early 80s. I liked its weird vibe.
See also end credits to Ratatouille, Smoking Aces, Bourne Supremacy…there were a few more of these, I’m mildly miffed that studios have been pushing these great credit sequences to the back of the films when they set the mood for the upcoming movie (think of the overtures from King Kong (1933), PunchDrunk Love and Dancer in the Dark! Superb!)
Anyway, I’m a big fan of opening credits (see RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR and VACANCY for great examples!)
I so want to see Helvetica, a DVD which would have been my pick of the week if it hadn’t got pushed at the last minute to a few weeks later!
Further more, I’m a fan of all things Moodyson (Lilya-4-Ever). There was a box set of his films that was (no joke) retailing for 14 British Pounds (PAL, R2 of course) but 4 of his movies for that price is a steal! I’m still looking forward to both his uber-art-mind-fuck CONTAINER and the big budget film he has coming out in a few months or so.
Marina - “Bonus points for Kurt! Extra brownie points for bringing up “Johnny Mnemonic” a movie which is one of my great guilty pleasures.” — You know you love me! ha! Now go rent Prom Night with Michael Ironside!
And on that note, Goon you should really love teh Micheal Ironside action in THE MACHINIST! Furthermore be on the lookout for another great low-key Filmax (spanish companY) movie called “THE BACKWOODS” starring Gary Oldman and Paddy Considine…it rocks.
That is all. (for now)
Could I be any luckier with choice in a co-host with such vast, odd-ball knowledge? Now if only he would master the art of being a stand up comedian…
Kurt, I have a copy of Backwoods sitting right here just begging me to watch it (unfortunately, it’ll have to wait until another day). I’ve heard some REAL mixed things on it, but since Gary Oldman is one of my ultimo raging super-duper man-crushes and I’ve taking quite the liking to Paddy Considine as well, I’m feeling pretty confident that I’ll enjoy it.
not to mention the nakedness of Virginie Ledoyen (8 Women, The Beach). I have a copy of the film without subtitles (1/3 of the film is in Spanish), but some things just translate well, you know…
I think it’s laudable that Eastwood wants to bring moral complexity to genre pics like the Western, Crime drama and the sports movie, but while they are intelligent and heartfelt, I can only admire them rather than love, and in some cases, even like them.
I hated Mystic River. Million Dollar Baby was OK but Flags and Iwo Jima bored me. I don’t know why Eastwood chose to revisit this particular battle in WWII (maybe as another revisonist genre pic in response to John Wayne’s patriotic Sands Of Iwo Jima) but he has nothing new to say. War is hell? Check. The enemy are human too? Check.
Iwo Jima isn’t helped by the main protagonist (Saigo) looking like a 16 year old boy, so I didn’t buy his back story at all.
Clint Eastwood’s later, serious films are almost virtuous in their attempt to explore complex thematic material, but they strain under the weight of their Important Themes and become plodding, earnest and oh so worthy. Does anyone think the exploration of heroism in Flags is subtle?
Saving Private Ryan remains the definitive WWII movie for me because I found it so harrowing and moving.
Unforgiven is Eastwood’s best for me. It gets a solid A.
But then I’ve always preferred his early 70’s movies anyway (Play Misty For Me, Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet).
Agreed on Letters Iwo Jima. Letters is edited together so sloppily and the characters didn’t interest me in the slightest. The time traveling back and forth between the war and after the war and to the present then back to the war seemed convoluted and unnecessary.
Iwo was a bit better and much more harrowing, but I was so damn HUNGRY (literally) during that screening that all I could think about was leaving the theater to eat pasta rather than the image on screen - so I’m biased there.
Still, I agree that SPRyan is the definitive in WWII action and storytelling. GREAT characters, nice simple idea for a story, incredible action unlike anything I;d ever seen (or have seen since). It was the fist war/action movie that had a dramatic impact on me. All the rest are just movies. SPRyan seemed REAL. It had a huge impact on me and I came home from the theater with a completely new respect for my grandfather and war fare in general. An amazing film. I’ll never forget the experience.
Other than the opening scene, Saving Private Ryan is a pile of sappy goo. Not a Fan (despite some great character actors - Nathan Fillion, Vin Diesel, Jeremy Davies, Barry Pepper, etc.
The Definitive WWII film is easily THE BIG RED ONE from Sam Fuller (which stars the really oddball cast of Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine and Lee Marvin). It doesn’t have 1/50th of the budget of Spielberg’s film, but it’s got 10 times the grit.
And a big shout out to Eastwoods “THE GAUNTLET” now that was a fun film. Probably still holds the ‘number of bullets fired’ even after John Woo came along.
Cheers.
I initially thought the same about Saving Private Ryan, but at some point in the last year I got on a big war movie roll and I softed to it.
notes from listening to the show (still only about an hour and change in) -
a friend of mine worked on Cube 2, and i havent seen that or the original
Last Night is fantastic, Ginger Snaps is great (i thought the second was forced crap), Johnny Mnemonic is actually kind of boring save a few crazy moments (”I WANT ROOM SERVICE!”).. i have some of my own guilty pleasure with Canadian movies, specifically Burns’ “Kitchen Party” and “Waydowntown” - two movies with shitty dvd releases that dont have much with production values that overall i found entertaining and watched on VHS back in the day quite a bit during college.
re: banned Canadian movies, I was just at Blockbuster and they have “Fat Girl” there to rent. I remember the problems when it got released but i dont think its an issue anymore.
I dont think theres anything on the Pixar shorts dvd that isnt out already. I’m not a fan of “cars” either but would buy it for less than 10 bucks for the sake of the excellent One Man Band short on there. and actually the “cars” extra short is not that bad.
I bought too much stuff on DVD this week - Ratatouille, the Colbert Report DVD, Flight of the Conchords s1, Sicko (decent special features - all deleted scenes) and today I noticed the Sesame Street Old School vol 2 set was out. I’m kind of a Jim Henson geek, I dont buy the dozens of Sesame releases obviously but good work went into these “old school” sets which are a good combo of retro memories and genuine appreciation of the heights children television can reach.
I’m one of the few defenders of Lady in the Water, its complicated, and you’d have to dive into the film junk archives to hear why, or listen to Jays’ ‘film junk defense force’ segment.
Oh, I think Ginger Snaps 2 has it’s moments, it certainly one of the most ‘kinetic’ Canadian movies ever made (actually Bon Cop probably takes the cake, but still GS2 is a joy nonetheless).
I’m a massive booster of WAYDOWNTOWN which is a minor Canadian Masterpiece and should have gotten way more exposure and such. I’m sure the folks from Calgary like the love-in the film has for its +15 connection system! I’ve somehow never managed never to catch Kitchen Party (The film with launched Scott Speedman’s so-so career, see Wierdsville though, it’s not bad).
Disagree on Johnny Nmenonic, it’s a guilty pleasure full of tasty treats from start to finish.
Despite Andrew hounding me, I’ve still not managed to catch LADY IN THE WATER, part of me wants to for the Shadenfraude of the thing…
Watched Ratatouille DVD. The ‘history lesson’ short film on the disc is absolutely fabulous and almost worth buying the disc for alone! It’s great! Check it out.
Thanks for the tidbit on Fat Girl. I’m not a Brelliat fan, but its good to see one fewer banned film in Canada.
The Big Red One is very good. A long time since I’ve seen it, though I do remember the scene with the child on the soldier’s shoulders. Unforgettable.
well if you ever bite on LITW listen to our podcast about it first and see if anything we note about it gets noticed at all by you
also of Canadian note to me that isnt obvious stuff like Hard Core Logo, FUBAR or Its All Gone Pete Tong would be The Red Violin, a pretty arty movie if there ever was one, but it has a good pace that changes stories fast enough that even those put off by arty movies should be able to follow pretty easy.
I was just about to add Silip to my Xmas list then I looked at the cover… It says Asian Erotica, Raw and Untamed. I think I’ll hold off on that and order it myself.
Yea, you might not want to watch Silip with the in-laws after christmas dinner. Still though, it’s a fabulous art-film that really does deserve more recognition.
And Goon, I’m a big fan of The Red Violin (great small role for Colm Feore in that one (and Mr. Sam Jackson too). François Girard’s new film “SILK” which stars Michael Pitt, Alfred Molina and Kiera Knightly apparently stinks though (It was not well received at TIFF). That’s a shame.
Couldn’t disagree more with you about SPRyan. Every scene in that film is riveting. Every scene.
The 30 minutes the characters spend in that village with Paul Giamatti and Ted Danson is terrific. The showdown with about 30 Nazis, the sniper, the little girl, the letters to loved ones back home.
Then you’ve got the next battle out in the field - the one they could’ve avoided. Capt Miller chooses to attack and then the question of whether that was a mistake or not.
Of course the entire ending battle is nearly as interesting as the first. The editing and choreography of that 35 minutes or so is ridiculously cool. The knife slowly entering Goldberg’s chest was thrilling. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of movie have the two guys fighting over a knife like an arm wrestling contest. Nothing ever happens because inevitably one guy kicks the other or whatever and I alwasy thought those scenes were stupid. Here, I realized that wow, if that were to really happen, this is how it might play out.
But again, the main point of the movie for me was that it was the first movie to make war real. It shook my senses and it was Spielberg saying, “Look, war is hell. It is not Robert Mitchum and John Wayne looking cool and guys falling into the water when they get shot. It is hell and we’re gonna show you why.” I could picture myself there and it frightened me to death. It is soul shattering through and through to the end.
yeah, I thought “sappy goo” was very harsh for Saving Private Ryan.
I think the final battle at the bridge is better than the opening landing sequence. The movie achieves greatness at that point.
(SPOILER)The most shocking part of the knife fight is Goldberg, realising that he cannot overpower his opponent, cries out “No, wait..wait…” before he is stabbed. Heartbreaking.
Well, I’ll certainly give you the Knife scene may possibly be the harshest most quietly brutal think Spielberg has ever filmed. That scene is fantastic!
Nope, Matt Damon, Tom Hanks do very little for me, and the overall story concept and much of the middle part of the film seem overly emotionally manipulative (something Spielberg is often guilty of). I’ve seen the film twice, and that was (unfortunately for me) one time too many.
Andrew:
We should make a list of films we strongly disagree on and fight it out on a show some day.
Saving Private Ryan
Alien 3
Alien 4
Cars
Any more? I’m sure there is lots…
Always fun to disagree on things, it keeps things lively.
(And now, I’m off to see “P2″ despite (or in spite of) a 37% on Rotten Tomatoes)
Hulk
Not sure what you mean by “emotionally manipulative.” The film maker trying to get you feel a specific way? Yeah, don’t they all? The ways in which Spielberg does it here is completely believable and real.
The only scene that might be a bit ham-handed is the scene in the church where Ribisi talks about his mother. It’s completely irrelevant excpet for the fact that…
spoiler…
spoiler…
He dies in the next scene. I’m not sure what you’re looking for with SPR. I don’t think it’s supposed to be anything more than a realistic war story about the men who saved the world. It’s got messages about being a good person and comraderie and bravery and cowardice etc. But really, it’s just an incredibly well shot film about war and the realistic way in which people would behave in said war. It’s a film that has never been done before and every historic war movie from here on out will inevitably be compared to (i.e. Flags and Iwo Jima).
Why not discuss some of those movies in the Movie Club Podcast?
I don’t wanna hear meek consensus
and dull reverance 
.
I WANT
and 
and 
and 
!!!!
Well, I’m not going to go out of my way to court controversy (two people grinding against one another for the sake of isn’t my idea of quality podcasting), yet if disagreement happens naturally then it happens. The Movie Club is aiming at older somewhat off the beaten path flicks (thus far) that isn’t too genre-y (i.e. it’s doubtful that We’d do an aliens flick, yet talk around the campfire is aiming at Escape From New York)…we’ll see how it goes.
Andrew said, “It’s a film that has never been done before”
Maybe stylisticly (opening and closing scene), but ‘the way people behave in war and the celebration/story of the guys who fought to save the world. The story has been done a thousand times over. So I’d hardly praise SPR on its originality in story/content (again, outside of the kinetic visual style). No it was too heavy on the ‘lets everyone feel good about the sacrifices made’ and not realistic enough in terms of how in general people get quite nasty in stressful situations…at least thats how I see it.
My types of war films are much more along the lines of The Thin Red Line (hundreds of times more interesting than SPR), Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, Casualties of War, and The Big Red One.
While I love The Thin Red Line, the last 20 minutes is gruelling and nearly unwatchable.
Full Metal Jacket - you know me and Kubrick (we’re bed buddies), but that film relly goes downhill after we leave bootcamp.
Apocalypse Now - It’s been a while. I really need to see it again. Got a little too “out there” near the end with Brando. Far from realism in war.
Casualties of War - again, showing American soldiers as vicious creeps (which they are not). Hollywod loves to show our soldiers as either miscreants or crazy. They do it ALL the time. Knowing several American current soldiers and vets, I can tell you they’re pretty normal and have families etc. Sure there are one or two nutcases out there, but that’s far from the reality of who our tropps are.
Haven’t seen The Big Red One.
SPR is completely believable on a personal level. I can relate to the characters. I cannot relate to any of the characters in these other films. These other stories are just that… stories.
Though I would give a big shout out to Three Kings (not realy a war movie though) and Jarhead (even though it was boring as all hell).
Geez…I was joking.
I liked both Three Kings and Jar Head, also, I like the 2nd half of Full Metal Jacket. A) It shows the focus (and how that can get out of hand) of Boot Camp and B) how utterly non-nonsensical the actual war-theater is…Yes, that is by design and better for it!
Also, the batshit craziness of Apocalypse Now is definitely going for the similar vibe to the 2nd half of Full Metal Jacket, and I like that in a war movie.
And I’m sure some (many) of American Soldiers are absolute Creeps. The same statistical portion of the population of any culture or sub-group. People tend to make movies out of the extremes, not the middle of the distribution!
Snowleopard: Text is tough to read some times to get tone (either mine or yours!)
Cheers!
You really have to check out Tae Guk Gi: Brotherhood of War Andrew (and anyone else who hasn’t seen it also)I think its a far superior war movie than SPR…
But then again I’ve got a thing for non Hollywood flicks so I might be a bit biased but even if you don’t like it better than SPR I’m sure you’ll really enjoy it.
I haven’t seen Taegukgi, but I have heard others give it a positive review. I do have the soundtrack though: great score by Dong-jun Lee.
The Machinist: B
Once I got past Christian Bale’s grotesque appearance and the slow start, this is a pretty gripping psychological thriller, even if the final revelation is disappointing, given the impressive build up of mood and atmosphere and Bale’s brave performance.
I don’t think the Machinist was going for ‘big-reveal-surprise’ - It barely even makes an attempt to hide things. I think it was all about just looking at Bale’s characters ‘tell-tale heart’ guilt and such. It does a fine job of things. And I liked the factory setting much of the film takes place in. It is not a classic or anything, but a very solid film. I’m really looking forward to Brad Anderson’s “Dead-Calm-On-A-Train” flick with Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Eduardo Noriega and Woody Harleson, “TRANSSIBERIAN” hopefully in theatres early in the new year.
I agree, but any film that spends most of it’s running time as a puzzle will have that moment when the ‘big picture’ is revealed to, or discovered by, the audience, and any director or writer will expect the audience to get some emotional or cerebral kick at that point when the meaning of all the clues is understood.
That didn’t happen for me. It’s a minor complaint but enough to take the edge of the film.
Kurt - Oh crap! My secret is out!
Just don’t tell your wife or my hubby and it’ll all be ok.