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Reviews
Barfly (1987)
to all my friends...
One of my top 10 movies of all time. For anyone with a taste for Buchowski, or a taste for "wasting" your life away, this is a flick you just must see. The dialogue is great, the acting is fantastic, and the drinking is copious. And if that isn't enough, Frank Stallone shines!
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Orgasmically enjoyable soundtrack
The movie is good, but the soundtrack is semen-hopping fantastic! You'll need plenty of tissue paper for this one guys. From Big Rock Candy Mountains to In the Jailhouse Now, you'll experience one long excruciatingly-pleasurable climax. The line between pain and pleasure will increasingly become blurred as you listen to this enchanting early 20th Century folk-gospel hoe-down. Don't walk, run to your nearest record store. You'll never need another blow-up doll again!
Quills (2000)
Just not sensual enough
This movie could've used alot more sex. I mean hardcore, raunchy, Marquis de Sade-type sex. This movie was pure Disney. Must we always be forced to like the protagonist? The Marquis de Sade is a unique historical character, and Quills turned him into Ward Cleaver. I haven't been so tempted to walk out of a movie since I went to Look Who's Talking Too. God, it was boring. The only interesting scene in the movie was the necrophilia fantasy. It could've used alot more of that, and alot less of that hackneyed Cane character. Geoffrey Rush wasn't bad as the Marquis, but he didn't have much to work with.
The Minus Man (1999)
Odd, weird, and a bit strange
Minus Man advertised itself as a movie which would compel its viewers into deep and meaningful conversations about the meaning of the film. Surely, some viewers did engage in profound discussions about the meaning of the film, but I did not. That is not to say that I didn't enjoy the film. On the contrary, I enjoyed the movie immensely. I guess I liked the movie for a very simplistic reason. The environment, the feeling of the film was intriguing, a mixture of light and dark. The director kept me expectant from minute one until the credits. I guess the only reason this movie didn't get the highest marks from me is that the expectancy was never satisfied. However, for two hours I was glued to my seat, watching every scene with delight. You can't ask too much more than that.
Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1974)
Wunderbar
This is the third Werner Herzog film I have watched. The first two were Signs of Life and Aguirre: The Wrath of God. All for themselves and God against All is by far my favorite Herzog movie (and my favorite title). The exploration of Kaspar's primitive mind was fascinating and, at times, even humorous. I enjoyed Kaspar's disdain for the arrogant priests and scientists (but especially the priests!). Like every Werner Herzog movie I've seen thus far, the film does not progress at breakneck speed. This is definitely a turn-off to most movie-goers. I can relate. (Signs of Life had me checking my signs of life). However, I felt that the significant and often humorous dialogue more than made up for the admittedly slow pace.
Lebenszeichen (1968)
Herzog's Speeds: Slow, Slower, Slowest
I admire this film very much - however, I don't much like it. Herzog attempts to cause the audience to relate to the boredom suffered by three pathetic german troops stranded on the Greek island of Kos during WWII. Herzog succeeds too well. I was able to relate far too well to the main character slipping into madness from boredom. A beautiful, but utterly boring film. What more is there to say?
Le violon rouge (1998)
A good concept gone wrong
I was really looking forward to seeing this film, but was sorely disappointed when I finally saw it. I found the writing horribly trite, especially in the segment of the movie set in England. The dialogue between Pope and his lover was laughable. In fact, my friend, an Englishwoman herself, did laugh. Samuel L. Jackson capped off a poor movie with a poor performance in the final segment of the film. Then again, maybe it wasn't his acting so much as poor writing. I simply didn't care about him or his scheme. The only redeeming aspect of the movie was the segment which centered around Kaspar Weiss. The writing was much better in that segment, partly because Kaspar rarely talked. In the whole film, Kaspar was the only character I cared about. If you're looking for a film that progresses through several separate stories, check out A Night on Earth.
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
A few bright spots, but only a few.
While there were definitely some laugh-out-loud moments, the humor became tired very quickly. Don't get me wrong. I consider myself a connoisseur of toilet humor and am completely impervious to offense. However, that being said, I found that the penis-jokes were just plain overdone. The bright spots of the movie occurred when Mick Myers as Austin Powers was off-screen and Mike Myers as Dr. Evil was on. The interaction of Dr. Evil and his son, like the first movie, was priceless. How about we devote the entire next sequel (does anyone doubt that there will be one?) to the Evils, Mini-Me, and Fat Bastard?
My Rating - 5
Night on Earth (1991)
Five people, five stories
I think that the true beauty of this film is that it takes five characters, five taxi drivers, little different than any other people you'd be likely to meet (with the possible exception of Begnini's character and his sheep), and it shapes their experience into a coherent story, at times humorous, at times touching. I often wonder when I drive through the congested by-ways of our urban jungle what other such stories exist yet untold. We all have a story, often it just takes movies such as this one to remind us of that.
While all five stories are intriguing, I believe that they get progressively better throughout the movie. I was fairly indifferent about the Los Angeles story with Wynona Ryder, cheered by the New York story with Esposito, fascinated with the give and take of the driver and the blind woman in Paris, absolutely sick with laughter from Begnini's epic, sexual yarn in Rome, and touched to near tears by the beauty and sadness of the story in Helsinki. As dawn broke, and "a night on earth" ended, I felt that I had spent that night with them. I was emotionally spent.
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii (1972)
Floyd and Pompeii - two great tastes that go great together
For any Floyd fan, this is a must see! I must say that I was absolutely enthralled watching Gilmour play his guitar with grace and precision, while shirtless no-less. The setting of the amphitheater at Pompeii, the city that time remembered, was genius. The mystical beauty of the area only heightened the mystical beauty of the music. The interviews were understated yet somehow attention-grabbing. And who can complain about an opportunity to hear the Floyd working on a recording of a few tracks from the Dark Side?
The Seventh Victim (1943)
The Lord's Prayer
This was an excellent, dark film. The melodrama and the, at times, laughable dialogue made the movie even more enjoyable. There are however a few scenes which will allow you to suspend disbelief and, in so doing, make you forget that the film is 50 or so years old. I believe that the coup de grace of the film, the tasty tidbit that I'm going to take from the viewing experience and store in my memory vaults, must be the next to last scene. Don't worry, it's not important to the actual story. Anyway, just in case, I'm going to express the scene in a mathematical formula: Lord's Prayer + Satanists = shame.