Mondupdate

An extremely slow two weeks...

Movies from February 17th - March 2nd, 2009

1. A Wedding ’78

• Dir. Robert Altman
  
• Cinematography: Charles Rosher Jr.
  
• Rating: 4/4
  

A Wedding; the second best Altman film I have seen. Yet again he puts together an amazing ensemble and utilizes his fluid zooms and dollies, overlapping dialogue and humor that would make Kubrick laugh.

2. Rachel Getting Married ’08

• Dir. Jonathan Demme
  
• Cinematography: Declan Quinn
  
• Rating: 3.5/4
  

A great film shot all on digital which genuinely achieves the feel of a wedding. The lead singer of TV on the Radio is the groom which is funny considering his glasses could make Dick Cheney laugh out loud. The interesting thing is that although the wedding is ridiculous in content it seems extremely real. My only problem was that Anne Hathaway’s character gets a bit out of hand – though I’m assuming that was the point.

3. Dr. Strangelove ’64

• Dir. Kubrick
  
• Cinematography: Gilbert Taylor
  
• Rating: 3.5/4
  

This movie is funny, the use of handheld cameras is clever, the long takes add to the comedy, I wish I could have seen Kubrick laugh.


4. Hard Boiled ’92

• Dir. John Woo
  
• Cinematography: Wing-Hung Wong
  
• Rating: OOO.5/OOOO Bullet Hole
  

I wish American action movies had even half the amount of gore/excitement Hard Boiled does. I mean this movie is RIDICULOUS in action and TERRIBLE in dialogue and yet remains one of the best action movies I’ve ever seen. Pay attention to the long take in the hospital, it’ll tickle your feet as you feel the heat.

5. The Siege ’98

• Dir. Edward Zwick
  
• Cinematography: Roger Deakins
  
• Rating: 3.5/4
  

Nostradamus must have helped the writers of this film. Made three years before September 11th and portrays some of the most accurate events that took place afterwards. It's almost creepy.  So, like a good bottle of wine, it's one of the few movies that gets better with age.

6. Out of the Past ‘46

• Dir. Jacques Tourneur
  
• Cinematography: Nicholas Musuraca
  
• Rating: 3.5/4
  

My second time seeing this movie and it wasn’t nearly as good as the first. A prime example of developing a decent “noir palette” and discovering some films to lose their initial appeal. Robert Mitchum = Bruce Willis

7. The Last Boy Scout ‘91

• Dir. Tony Scott
  
• Cinematography: Ward Russel
  
• Rating: OOO/OOOO Bullet Holes
  

It was okay, basically another Die Hard movie except without terrorists – same persona though. Damian Wayans has a tattoo in the back of his neck which is pleasant and Bruce Willis does an Irish Jig at the end which bumped this sucker up to three bullet holes.

8. Choke ’08

• Dir. Clark Gregg
  
• Cinematography: Tim Orr
  
• Rating: 2/4
  

This movie is for all the hipsters who think Chuck Palanuk is an amazing author. Here’s my word of advice - the man needs balance. He combines every single ridiculous trait he can find (sex addict, Colonialist tour guide, a nihilist mother, a friend who compulsively masturbates) into a story that lacks any substance whatsoever. Maybe if he tried developing the characters and laid back a little on such trivialities there could be a pretty good story. Balance!

9. What Just Happened? ‘08

• Dir. Barry Levinson
  
• Cinematography:
  
• Rating: 1/4
  

This movie was god awful and I still don’t understand why it was made. The characters suck, the jokes are terrible (and the somewhat good ones are spoiled in the preview), the story is incoherent and Bruce Willis was a let down. Oh well

All in all an extremely slow week – but midterms usually do that so fark it.