Here is another moment of shame. I consider myself a Jimmy Stewart fan. I love old movies. I have a degree in film. And, until tonight, I had never seen Frank Capra’s famous IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE.
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)’
This is by no means a new title to me. I consider THE ITALIAN JOB to be one of the premier caper films of the decade. I was looking for an old standby, and realized I hadn’t popped this in since picking it up on Blu Ray. So, here we go…
Oh FearNet. How I hate you so oft. I was all ready to come home and go to bed, and you tempted me with a high definition version of CHILD’S PLAY. I know I’d seen some of the original film on TV, but had never fully knocked that particular 80s horror staple off my list. You had me at hello FearNet, you had me at hello.
I have a special place for Dickens’ classic tale. The first plays I was involved with as a child were productions of A Christmas Carol by the Cumberland Company. The script had been fashioned by the theater’s artistic director and he had, smartly, mostly lifted the dialogue straight from the book. When I heard that Zemeckis did the same for his CGI film version, I was excited to see what would come of it.
There were several movies which came into my consciousness during my formative high school years which fed my desire to be a writer, or at least, to be involved in creative endeavors for as high of a percentage of my life as possible. These films include PULP FICTION, THE USUAL SUSPECTS, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, and certainly GOOD WILL HUNTING.
Milestone alert! This is my 100th unique movie of the year. It is my 101st movie watched this year (saw THE WRESTLER twice), and my 99th article (did that two-in-one FRIDAY THE 13th ranking). I wanted to watch an all-time favorite to mark my 1o0th movie. Thought about PRINCESS BRIDE and SHAWSHANK and ROGER RABBIT. But, ultimately, I decided on the movie which taught me several of my first swears: GHOST BUSTERS.
November was to be my foreign movie month. However, with the theater program starting back up, and with my 91 year old grandmother relocated to my apartment while some renovation work was done at my parents’ house, November instead became low-frequency movie month. But no worries, I have postponed foreign movie month until early in 2010. In the mean time, I caught a French horror film I’d been wanting to see on FearNet HD. SPOILERS BELOW
I went into this movie with fairly high expectations. I loved the trailers, loved the cast, and was hoping for a film which would meet and exceed all expectations. I came away feeling like this was a good, though not great, experience.
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS (2009)’
It’s been two weeks since I last saw a movie. Quite a long drought for me. I blame three things. First, my wife and I have been sick. Secondly, I started directing a show at the high school again, which severely eats into any free time I have. Thirdly, the Celtics season started. After a long day of work I can whip through a DVRd Celtics game in about an hour (or an hour and a quarter if it is a good game). I have trouble watching basketball in real time now. My reaction is usually “You mean I have to watch these free throws be shot in REAL TIME? Ridiculous.: Anyway, onto a film which will still be considered one of the first classics of the 21st century decades from now.
I’ve been seeing bits and pieces of the latest SAW film at the theater over the last week. It is laughable to witness what the series has become. They even attempt a hint of some deeper meaning and social commentary with allusions to the mortgage thieves and the insurance assheads. But in between these reasonable sequences are the most brutal non-purposeful scenes of torture and gory brutality which serve no purpose but to quench the bloody thirst of torture porn fans. I remember truly liking the first film, though I hadn’t seen it in some years. So I thought it was the proper time (just days before Halloween) to give it another visit.
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