john4films Reviews

Mondo Plympton (1997)

Real Animation History here. Plus, it's bizarre. And fun.

[8/10 · 4 March 2005]

This is a compilation of Bill Plympton animated shorts using his signature hand-drawn, color pencil technique of animation.

1) Your Face (1987) - his first Oscar-nominated animated short; a surreal exploration of the human face.

2) One of Those Days (1988) - about a very unlucky guy.

3) How to Kiss (1989) - This one is really about kissing. A comic pseudo-instructional piece.

4) 25 Ways to Quit Smoking (1989) - 25 tongue-in-cheek methods for ceasing the habit, if you survive the attempts.

5) Plymptoons (1990) - various animated spoofs and jokes.

6) Draw! (1993) - a western gunfight.

7) Nosehair (1994) - a man at war with a nosehair.

8) Eat (2001) - the restaurant blues; a 2001 Cannes Film Festival winner. Just don't lose it. Your lunch, that is.

9) Parking (2003) - the parking lot attendant with a 'grass' problem.

Mondo Plympton is highly recommended to animation and film history buffs or anyone else with a sense of the bizarre and an appreciation of the different.

XX/XY (2002)

OMG, another 20-something, self-absorbed, attempted-hip, convoluted relationship film

[1/10 · 8 January 2005]

Please have mercy on us. Another newbie, would-be writer-director, possibly just out of film school, dumps another one of these on us.

Lord love a duck. But not a turkey. Pa-leeeeze!!!!!! It seems like the massive hoard of wanna-bees graduating in mass from film schools in every state and small town think that they have to do a meaningful film about the human condition, which to them obviously means the romantic and sexual and relationship trials and tribulations and complications of, of course, themselves.

Apparently, they just don't realize that nobody cares about this except . . . themselves. Those younger than 20-something couldn't care less, and those older than that have already been through it and don't really care to watch for an hour and a half or more some newbie film school grad's self-absorbed, personal version of it. Even most other 20-somethings are yawning and watching other films that are professional and fun.

Oh, well, if you like it, you like it. I don't. I find it to be another example of why recent film schools grads seem to be able to do nothing else except something self-absorbed like this. Try getting some real life experience before attempting to make films for anyone except yourself. The fact that one of the characters is a wanna-bee film writer/filmmaker shows you the extremely limited range of life experience of the would-be writer/director of this self-absorbed and boring-to-anyone-else 20-something project.

Just another one on the massive pile. Should we just shoot these egotistical children constantly graduating from film school with nothing but fame and fortune and pretension in their limited imaginations? Or should we just wait until mommy and daddy's patience and/or money runs out and they end up in a tiny cubicle in an office, under constant stress, and continually whining and unhappy, 40 hours a week for the rest of their pompous lives? Oh, well, I won't worry about it. When mommy and daddy's money or patience runs out, reality will hit them in the head. Then, after years of struggling and suffering and hopelessness, maybe, just maybe, they'll finally have something to write about and film. But even then, they still might not have any talent.

Gawd, but this was boring. Boring story, boring characters, and poorly executed. And totally self-absorbed. Get years and years of life experience before you try again. Please. But you will still need talent, and I didn't see any here.

Sorry. For everyone involved in this supposed film and for everyone who tried to watch it. There are so many good films in the archives, and more added each year, that I don't recommend bothering to watch this one, unless you are this kid's parents. And then I highly recommend it, so that they will know to immediately cut this kid's free money off, so that he will be forced to get a job and deal with real life.

1 out of 10, and only because the actors tried real hard to produce their horrible acting. 0 out of 10 for the writing and directing. And I've worked in the film business for years, and the TV and the music industries, too. But even just as a film consumer, it was horrible.

The one reason that it is of any note at all is as a classic example of the phenomenon of recent film school graduate self-absorption and pretension to fame and fortune and talent.

Bullitt (1968)

Hello!!! jyoung-11 ??????? Have you ever heard of "The Great Escape", circa 1963????

[10/10 · 17 March 2004]

EXCUSE MEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT............Have you ever heard of "THE GREAT ESCAPE"???????????

EXCUSE ME....................BUT....................... I saw "The Great Escape" (1963), and............THAT was the defining, first and great moment in the undoubtable cinema stardom of Mr. Steve McQueen!!!!

"Bullitt" DID NOT MAKE Steve McQueen, but it certainly enhanced his career!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your lackadaisical and uninformed comment cannot be laid to rest and left to sit there unchallenged.

So, therefore, I must challenge you as to your uninformed comment about the film, "Bullitt".

I just have to challenge you.

Go watch "The Great Escape", particularly in the letterbox version.

And, then, try to re-create your comments about "Bullitt". I love Bullitt. It is an unbelievably great film in the history of cinema.

BUT............this film DID NOT make Steve McQueen's career OR establish him as a star of renown and permanence.

Bye for now,

John

P.S. Just watch "The Great Escape". You obviously missed it!

Dark Shadows (1944)

Early study of psychology and murder

[6/10 · 25 October 2002]

Short containing a psychology lesson with a whodunit crime story. Interesting because of the time in which it was made, 1944, when psychology wasn't given much credibility. Not a great film, but competent and historically interesting.

Water-Logged (1962)

Bruce Brown's Fifth Film

[10/10 · 18 August 2002]

Bruce Brown's fifth film is a compilation of his first four films, one made each year from 1958 to 1961. This is a must for Bruce Brown and surf fans, as well as an education for film fans. (I'm all of the above.) It contains some great surf shots, as well as a lot of humorous ones. Some truly beautiful waves, for those of you who appreciate those kinds of things. Actually, you don't have to be a surfer to be awed by some of these waves and breaks. Typical Bruce Brown narration and humor. Just a fun, enjoyable and beautiful film.

Surf Crazy (1959)

Bruce Brown's Second Film

[8/10 · 11 August 2002]

This is his second film. It's a little more polished than his first film, "Slippery When Wet". This film is pure fun. It takes me back to the more friendly, innocent, fun days of surfing, before every other idiot thought they were a surfer, before every wave was as crowded as a freeway at rush hour, and before all the localism and vandalism of the recent times.

This film is pure fun. It shows some of the big North Shore Hawaii waves. See how uncrowded it is out there? Pure Heaven!!! See how uncrowded even the beaches are? Unbelievable! This film was a little before my time, but I was in Hawaii surfing in the late 60s, and it was a very relaxed, very friendly, very liberating time. No localism or uptightness that was actually noticeable. Way less crowded waves. Other surfers were friendly and helpful. It was more like a brotherhood, because everyone had the same interest in common.

Beautiful days! Beautiful nights! Oh, for a time machine!!!

Slippery When Wet (1958)

Bruce Brown's First Film

[8/10 · 4 August 2002]

Bruce Brown's first film, about surfing, of course. This film was 8 years before Endless Summer was a huge hit. This documentary follows five surfers who trek to Oahu, Hawaii, and live on the cheap. It has a jazz score, rather than surf guitar, like Endless Summer has. It has not bad cinematography for an amateur, at that time, Bruce Brown and a 16mm camera. Although there is not a lot of attention to the lighting of faces, as in dramas (for example, no fill light), that doesn't detract at all from the film, because it is about surfing, not faces or acting or drama, and it is a documentary. It is a fun exploration of the surfing culture of those times, which was a lot more friendly than the surf nazis and vehicle vandalism and localism and territorialism of recent times.

I was actually living on Oahu, Hawaii the entire summer of 1967, at the age of 18 and 19 when Endless Summer finally got national release. I saw it for the first time in Honolulu with a beautiful, blonde from Connecticut, or was it Massachusetts, who was fascinated by surfing and surfers. Lucky me. And I mean gorgeous! She had a previous boyfriend who had died surfing the Pipeline. I worked at the Dole Pineapple cannery on the graveyard shift from 11pm to 7am. I was home, showered and in bed by 7:30am. I got up about noon, had a quick lunch, and immediately went surfing, usually at Waikiki, because the North Shore is dead in the summer. I would surf until sunset. Then I'd eat dinner, and if I was really tired take a nap, otherwise we'd party until we went to work driving forklifts in the empty can storage department at the Dole cannery. I did this Monday through Friday. There were 4 of us from Arizona. Yeah! Arizona surfers! Then Saturdays, we'd go body surfing and skin diving at Sandy beach. On Sundays, we'd tourist the island and go scuba diving. We had our tanks with us over there, as well as longboards.

So this film and Endless Summer and other Bruce Brown films are beautiful memories to me. And they really do mirror the laid-back, fun, polite, kind and helpful (and partying) personality of the surf culture and surfers of that time. Today, some of this atmosphere still exists, but there are some really jerk, punk, rude *@#^&%*? surfers out there now, unfortunately.

So, here's to the early, pure, fun, friendly surf culture, before everyone thought they were a surfer, and surfing became primarily about marketing "surf" clothes, and the waves became so crowded with rude jerks, that it is worse than LA rush hour on the freeways.

Oh, God, that was a beautiful summer!!!

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

The incredible Marlene Dietrich in a superb story with twists

[10/10 · 9 March 2002]

One of Dietrich's best, if not THE best. She really deserved an Oscar. And Charles Laughton . . . probably his best film as well. (At least Laughton was Nominated for an Oscar. Dietrich wasn't even nominated. A little jealousy in the Academy, or what? Yeah, you bet. What a shame the Oscars are so political and sometimes total BS.) It was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director, but not even a nomination for Dietrich? If that isn't BS, what is? Total jealousy in the Actors Guild. Really sore they weren't as natural and tremendous of an acting talent as Marlene. Obviously so.

Great story with some good plot twists. Thanks Agatha Christie! Agatha said that this was the best film ever made from her work. She's right!

I give it a 10. It's rated #183 out of the top 250 films by imdb users, a sometimes savvy bunch.