MyMovies: Recommend to Mom And Dad
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- DirectorGregory HoblitStarsDennis QuaidJim CaviezelShawn DoyleAn accidental cross-time radio link connects father and son across 30 years. The son tries to save his father's life, but then must fix the consequences.Rented on DVD from Netflix. Nicely acted all around, and a script that does a good job of sticking to most of the rules it sets up. (The exception: the first time Chief changes time, he remebers both timelines. Thenceforth, he only remembers one. I understand why it works dramatically, but it doesn't track.) Although fairly conventional in many ways, the cleverness of the idea (you can communicate back in time, but can't travel through time) and the sincerity of the emotions make it work.
DATE: 2002-05-04 - DirectorDavid FincherStarsJodie FosterKristen StewartForest WhitakerA divorced woman and her diabetic daughter take refuge in their newly-purchased house's safe room when three men break-in, searching for a missing fortune.Saw at the WGA. Taut, Hitchcockian suspense--another winner from David Fincher. A good example of an "infernal machine"--the players, their goals, and their perseonalities are all set up early on, and then everything plays out accordingly. My Dennis Miller coworkers had problems with the fact that the bad guys never thought of smashing the cameras, but I was willing to buy it--first, because they were panicking a little, and second, because it wasn't necessarily to their advantage to do so, since they needed to be able to communicate with Jodie Foster to lure her out of the room.
DATE: 2002-04-28 - DirectorJay RussellStarsFrankie MunizKevin BaconDiane LaneA shy boy grows up in 1940s Mississippi with the help of his beloved dog, Skip.Rented on DVD from Netflix. It's sometimes a little heavy-handed, especially in the voiceover. I can understand the temptation to include so much narration from the book, which is clearly very well written, but it ends up being too much--instead of showing or telling, the filmmakers show AND tell. And Skip hovers on the line between "believable dog" and "movie superdog," occasionally sliping over the edge. But it's still a very moving and charming film, and it had me in tears by the end; its acknowledgement of death, and its willingness to acknowledge the racial tensions of the small town (even in passing) give it an added depth.
DATE: 2002-04-27 - DirectorJohn DahlStarsSteve ZahnPaul WalkerLeelee SobieskiThree young people on a road trip from Colorado to New Jersey talk to a trucker on their CB radio, then must escape when he turns out to be a psychopathic killer.Rented on DVD from Netflix. Nasty and suspenseful--a classic B movie in the best sense of the word. I liked the claustrophobia of the first half a little more than the second half, but it was terrific all around.
DATE: 2002-04-25 - DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsBen AffleckGary SiniseCharlize TheronAfter assuming his dead cell-mate's identity to get with the other man's girlfriend, an ex-convict finds himself a reluctant participant in a casino heist.Rented on DVD from Netflix. Lots of fun. It certainly suffers from the "convulted plan that requires an exceptional ability to predict exactly how somebody will react" bug that infect "Arlington Road," but it's as though Krueger learned from the criticism of his earlier film--he does a pretty good job of explaining why it's not such a stretch as it seems. Terrific direction by John Frankenheimer, who's very good at getting actors to react believably in these extreme situations, uses scary music extremely effectly, and has terrific and interesting camera compositions.
DATE: 2002-04-17 - DirectorCharles Herman-WurmfeldStarsJennifer WestfeldtHeather JuergensenTovah FeldshuhA woman searching for the perfect man instead discovers the perfect woman.Saw at the WGA theater. Cute, and has some charm, and some funny lines (almost all of which, unfortunately, were contained in the trailer), but it rarely rises above the level of a pretty good sitcom. The one major exception is the scene in which Jessica's mom reveals she knows about Jessica's girlfriend--the acting is quite effective, and the writing, if not exactly understated, at least is understated at the one moment that counts. It will undoubtedly be popular, because it has the look and feel of a Smart New York City Romantic Comedy, without actually taxing the intelligence all that much. I would watch future projects of the writers and directors, because they have some natural talent. Their work is currently "Average, with potential"--but it's average nonetheless. Perhaps some day, when they're not sure what else to do with their characters, they'll learn to dig deeper, instead of just slapping another classic love song onto the sound track.
DATE: 2002-04-05 - DirectorWalter SallesStarsFernanda MontenegroVinícius de OliveiraMarília PêraThe emotive journey of a former schoolteacher who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.Saw on DVD from Netflix with Lauren. Very moving and appealing without being mawkish. Lauren pointed out the similarity to "The Bicycle Thief" in terms of the ever-present poverty, and it made her wonder why we don't have a Marshall plan for south and Central America. It reminded me more of "Notte di Cabiria," in that the poverty was so ever-present that it has almost ceased to bother its characters, whereas in The Bicycle Thief, you got the sense that people felt beaten down.
DATE: 2002-03-25 - DirectorRoland JofféStarsGérard DepardieuUma ThurmanTim RothVatel is the cook of Prince Condé. When the prince invites Louis XIV to hunt, he has to give lavish banquets in order to fall in his favor. But when Vatel falls in love with the king's mistress, love and duty come into conflict.Saw on VHS at the Hackmans. A fascinating glimpse into another world--it gave me a clearer picture of why the French revolted than I've ever had. Excellent acting, intelligent dialogue, and (as far as I could tell on VHS) impressive spectacle. I only wish I had liked the ending better.
DATE: 2002-03-23 - DirectorJoel CoenEthan CoenStarsTim RobbinsPaul NewmanJennifer Jason LeighA naive business graduate is installed as president of a manufacturing company as part of a stock scam.Rented on DVD from Hollywood express, watfched with Eric Ash. Wonderfully exuberant, and usually just the right amount over the top, although occasionally a little too far over the top. A great role for Jennifer Jason Leigh. Consistently visually dazzling. All in all, what makes it so much fun is that the Coen brothers (and co-author Sam Raimi) actually understand why and how the movies they're paying tribute to worked so well.
DATE: 2002-03-03 - DirectorAnthony HarveyStarsPeter O'TooleKatharine HepburnAnthony Hopkins1183 A.D.: King Henry II's three sons all want to inherit the throne, but he won't commit to a choice. When he allows his imprisoned wife Eleanor of Aquitaine out for a Christmas visit, they all variously plot to force him into a decision.Saw on DVD with Lauren. Had already seen in college, but Lauren is going to write a paper based on it for her negotiations class. The film is almost insanely well-written; the characters have such intense drives, and such complex, intelligent methods of pursuing them, that the film is almost exhausting. Remarkable acting (except, perhaps for Nigel Terry, whose John is from the Michael Crawford school of goofy naive youths.)
DATE: 2002-03-03 - DirectorMichael AptedStarsBruce BaldenJacqueline BassettSymon BasterfieldDirector Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a seven-year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.Saw on DVD from Netflix while I was resting up from giving platelets. Another wonderful documentary, with some jaw-dropping plot twists towards the end--not jaw dropping in the Fight Club twisting reality sense, but jaw dropping in the way life takes turns you would be utterly unable to predict. And, although I have only listened to about half of it, the commentary so far is one of the best I've heard--it's like getting an additional documentary on how this film series is made.
DATE: 2002-02-23 - DirectorMichael AptedStarsBruce BaldenJacqueline BassettSymon BasterfieldDirector Michael Apted interviews the same group of British-born adults after a seven-year wait as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.Checked out of Brentwood library on VHS. Remarkable. Obviously, there is slective editing, but it's fascinating how many people were able to predict, at age 7, what they would be doing decades later. Also a fascinating glimpse into the British class system. I agree with ROger Ebert that this is a perfect use of film art.
DATE: 2002-02-07 - DirectorRobert AltmanStarsMaggie SmithRyan PhillippeMichael GambonSet in the 1930s, a group of pretentious rich and famous get together for a weekend of relaxation at a hunting resort. But when a murder occurs, each one of these interesting characters becomes a suspect.Saw (for free w/WGA card) at Mann Westwood.Wonderfully directed--every character has a specific feeling about every other character, which makes the movie much richer, and makes it easier to keep trak of the sprawling cast. Excellent choice of which conversational snippets to overhear. As soon as they started tlking about the pregnant women in his lordship's factory, I knew Clive Owen was the son of one of them (and perhaps I was supposed ot realize this), and I figured out almost immediately that Wiseman's valet was an actore doing research--but the ultimate solution of the mystery was a total surprise.
DATE: 2002-01-28 - DirectorRidley ScottStarsJosh HartnettEwan McGregorTom SizemoreThe story of 160 elite U.S. soldiers who dropped into Mogadishu in October 1993 to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord, but found themselves in a desperate battle with a large force of heavily armed Somalis.Saw in NYC at Times Square Loews. (We were in town for Lauren PMI New York State internship test, staying with Justin and Julianne.) Very compelling. Reminded me of Kurasawa in its ability to present complex and messy situations ina way that made it clear how messy they were but was never confusing.
DATE: 2002-01-25 - DirectorFrancis VeberStarsThierry LhermitteJacques VilleretFrancis HusterA few friends have a weekly fools' dinner, where each brings a fool along. Pierre finds a champion fool for next dinner. Surprise.Rented on DVD from Netflix. Watched with Lauren. Consistently entertaining, although rarely laugh-out-loud funny. Nice performances all around--comically broad without ever quite descending into caricature. Also a good example of what one can do with a good script and a very limited setting
DATE: 2002-01-22 - DirectorOtto PremingerStarsJames StewartLee RemickBen GazzaraAn upstate Michigan lawyer defends a soldier who claims he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?Rented on DVD from Netflix. At the time, it must have seemed revolutionary--not just for the fact that it deals with rape, and features Jimmy Stewart saying the word "panties," but because it approaches a murder trial with such authority and detail. Nowadays, of course, we've seen this done a million times on everything from "LA Law" to "Perry Mason," but it's still rarely done as smoothly as this. I would have liked one more twist at the end, though... And those glasses Mrs. Manion wore never paid off.
DATE: 2002-01-20 - DirectorBarry LevinsonStarsAidan QuinnElizabeth PerkinsLeo FuchsA Polish-Jewish family comes to the U.S. at the beginning of the twentieth century. There, the family and their children try to make themselves a better future in the so-called promised land.Rented on DVD from Netflix,. watched over several nights with Lauren. Truly wonderful--charming characters, and the best visuals of any of Barry Levinson's movies. I felt the last ten minutes were a little outside the tonal range of the rest of the movie--they were bleak, rather than bittersweet, a little heavy handed, and leapt forward in time too much. Still, the rest of the movie was wonderful enough to compensate.
DATE: 2002-01-15 - DirectorJean-Pierre JeunetStarsAudrey TautouMathieu KassovitzRufusDespite being caught in her imaginative world, Amelie, a young waitress, decides to help people find happiness. Her quest to spread joy leads her on a journey where she finds true love.Saw at Kendall Square Cinemas with Lauren and Simcha. Absolutely brilliant in many parts, charming in most others. Only a few of the more straightforward narrative segments are a little more standard and slow. I really must see his other films. (And I can now probably convince Lauren to see "City of Lost Children" with me.)
DATE: 2002-01-04 - DirectorRobert LuketicStarsReese WitherspoonLuke WilsonSelma BlairElle Woods, a fashionable sorority queen, is dumped by her boyfriend. She decides to follow him to law school. While she is there, she figures out that there is more to her than just looks.Saw on VHS at Sagers' house in Reston. A cute and appealing movie.
DATE: 2000-12-21 - DirectorFederico FelliniStarsGiulietta MasinaFrançois PérierFranca MarziA waifish prostitute wanders the streets of Rome looking for true love but finds only heartbreak.Saw on DVD. The first Fellini film I've seen; I must see more. A wonderful, beautiful film--the last few moments are marvelous.
DATE: 2001-09-30 - DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneTakashi ShimuraKeiko TsushimaFarmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.Rented on DVD. Fantastic--the best Kurasawa I've seen. I've found Kurasawa's other stuff intellectually interesting but a little cold. "Seven Samurai" was just as interesting and much more absorbing. Perhaps I've simply grown used to his very Japanese way of expressing emotions--but I think it's more likely that the characters are a little more accessible.
- DirectorStephen DaldryStarsJamie BellJulie WaltersJean HeywoodA talented young boy becomes torn between his unexpected love of dance and the disintegration of his family.
- DirectorJonathan GlazerStarsRay WinstoneBen KingsleyIan McShaneBrutal gangster Don Logan recruits "retired" safecracker Gal for one last job, but it goes badly for both of them.
- DirectorCurtis HansonStarsMichael DouglasTobey MaguireFrances McDormandAn English Professor tries to deal with his wife leaving him, the arrival of his editor who has been waiting for his book for seven years, and the various problems that his friends and associates involve him in.
- DirectorKenneth LonerganStarsLaura LinneyMatthew BroderickAmy RyanA single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely seen younger brother returns to town.
- DirectorChris WeitzPaul WeitzStarsHugh GrantNicholas HoultToni ColletteWill, who attends single parent meetings to woo women, meets Marcus, a troubled 12-year-old boy. As they become friends, Will learns to be responsible while he helps Marcus with his studies.Saw at the WGA theater. A lesson that you can get away with sentimenet by balancing it with a precisely equal amount of nastiness. About A Boy is just a little sentimental, and just a little nasty, and the result is far more affecting than if they had laid on either emotion too heavily. I don't think I've seen another film that portrays quite this type of friendship--"Central Station" and "Captains Corageous" and others have portrayed the adult in the relationship as an unambiguous parental figure, but here, he just seems like an older friend. "Rushmore" is closest, but not exactly.
DATE: 2002-05-26 - DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsGeorge ClooneyBrad PittJulia RobertsDanny Ocean and his ten accomplices plan to rob three Las Vegas casinos simultaneously.Rented on DVD from Netflix. An ice cream sundae of a movie--delicious, but not exactly loaded in nutritional value. Directed and acted with energy where energy is the right choice, and understatement where understatement is better, it makes great entertainment. The script makes almost complete sense, although there are one or two gaps (why couldn't the Chinese acrobat just have carried the explosive bolts into the vault with him? Why bother with the whole suitcase thing?) Also, a heist that goes wrong is much more fun and suspenseful to watch than one that functions like clockwork. Here, any minor problems have no long-term consequences--the guy who recognizes Carl Reiner is simply dragged off; the Chinese acrobot deals with his injured hand simply by wrapping it in cotton; and when the cotton gets caught in the vault door, it causes no more than a few seconds of alarm. Still, great fun nonetheless.
DATE: 2002-05-26 - DirectorDoug LimanStarsFranka PotenteMatt DamonChris CooperA man is picked up by a fishing boat, bullet-riddled and suffering from amnesia, before racing to elude assassins and attempting to regain his memory.Saw at the WGA with Lauren. A well done movie, with very actual flaws, but with very little that is unique or interesting. When the car chase began, I found myself wondering what you can do to make a car chase seem different than the thousands that have come before it; when the chase ended, I still didn't have an answer.
DATE: 2002-07-06 - DirectorMira NairStarsNaseeruddin ShahLillete DubeyShefali ShahA stressed father, a bride-to-be with a secret, a smitten event planner, and relatives from around the world create much ado about the preparations for an arranged marriage in India.Saw at the Landmark Westisde Pavilion Cinemas with Lauren. A fascinating glimpse into another culture, with believable, complex, sympathetic characters, and no easy villians. I though the main plotline--the bride's unresolved feelings for her married ex-boyfriend--was resolved a little too early on, leaving only the subplots to be resolved, but other than that, a wonderful movie. In a uniformly strong cast, I thought Vijay Raaz, as the event planner, was a standout, bringing real depth to a role that could easily have been slapstick comic relief.
DATE: 2002-06-23 - DirectorJohn DahlStarsNicolas CageDennis HopperLara Flynn BoyleUpon arriving to a small town, a drifter is mistaken for a hitman, but when the real hitman arrives, complications ensue.Rented on DVD from Netflix. Unlike many noir, the characyers actions are convincingly motivated every step of the way--there's no cases of somebody doing something incredibly stupid just because the screenplay needs them to be in deeper trouble. (It was stupid of Nicolas Cage's character to stop for a drink in the bar with Lara Flynn Boyle so close to town, but after everything he'd been through, it was believable he'd want to take a breather.) The repeated shots of "Welcome to Red Rock" were funny. I did think it became a little more ordinary by the end, but it was a good ride for 90% of the movie.
DATE: 2002-06-15 - DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsBurt LancasterKirk DouglasFredric MarchUnited States military leaders plot to overthrow the President because he supports a nuclear disarmament treaty and they fear a Soviet sneak attack.Rented on DVD from Netflix. Written by Rod Serling and directed by John Frankenheimer, this is a movie made by two old TV pros; they're extremely skilled at generating a great deal of suspense with a minimum of sets or special effects, by focusing on interesting characters and a compelling story. Burt Lancaster is particularly impressive, but the cast is strong all around (with the exception of Edmond O'Brian's horribly ham-handed southern Senator, for which he inexplicably received an Oscar nomination). On the few occasions where a character is making a speech, it drags--but even the purely verbal scenes of characters arguing are exciting and suspenseful, thanks to the fact that the villains are just as intelligent and as passionate as the heroes.
DATE: 2002-06-13 - DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneMisa UeharaMinoru ChiakiLured by gold, two greedy peasants unknowingly escort a princess and her general across enemy lines.Rented on DVD from Netflix. I found the bickering peasants to be annoying rather than funny, but every scene in which Toshiro Mifune was on the screen was fantastic (especially when he was present and the peasants weren't.) Perhaps because it focused on the peasants, the ending was a little anticlimactic, but the plotting was great, and the visual storytelling and the non-peasant acting was topnotch. The Princess was a particularly vivid and interesting character, and she and Mifune had great chemistry.
DATE: 2002-06-09 - DirectorDan IrelandStarsJason IsaacsSofia MilosEmmy RossumPassionada is a romantic comedy about a Portuguese widow whose husband, a fisherman, died at sea. The widow's naive teenage daughter wants to be a professional gambler and she convinces her mother to date a British man who's new in town. The widow falls for the Brit, a professional gambler who pretends to be in the fishing business.
- DirectorFabián BielinskyStarsRicardo DarínGastón PaulsGraciela TenenbaumTwo con artists try to swindle a stamp collector by selling him a sheet of counterfeit rare stamps (the "nine queens").Rented on DVD from in-movies as part of the Jake Barnes challenge. very well acted and directed. I saw the final twist coming form a mile away. At exactly 19 minutes, 19 seconds into the movie (I checked), I thought, "OK, the more experienced con man is going to set up a fake con to get the younger one to put in his 50,000 in, and then he'll steal the 50,000--but the younger guy is actually luring him into it, in order to steal an even greater amount form the more experienced guy." Still, it managed to fool me on the details--I was totally suckered in by the movie's efforts to make us think that all the actors were in league with the older con, rather than the younger; I thought the younger con was just going to get a few people on his side. I enjoyed it, in any case, and I might have been completely surprised if people hadn't kept telling me about the twist ending.
DATE: 2003-05-13