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Thursday, April 17, 2008
On "Juno"

The people who are of the opinion that this film is trying to be "too hip" are totally missing the point. Yes, Juno is too hip for her own good, but the whole point of this is to set up a parallel between her and Jason Bateman's character. Juno and Bateman are really on the same path and I think the whole point of the film is that Juno realizes just how frivolous her current path is. Yes, she could continue as she is on her "honest to blog" path but she realizes in the end that isn't how she want's to end up. She could follow the more childish path but unlike Bateman she has realized that that path will bring her nothing but heartbreak. No matter how "square" she may have found Garner's character to be in the beginning, she realizes that that kind of love is what is needed to raise a child in this world.

Posted by robbernard at 01:04 AM in Movies | Comments (0)



Friday, February 22, 2008
My top and bottom movies of 2007

Limited of course to the movies I've seen.

The Best of 2007:
1. Once
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Juno
4. No Country for Old Men
5. Charlie Wilson's War
6. Atonement
7. 3:10 to Yuma
8. Across the Universe
9. Michael Clayton
10. Paris, je t'aime

The Worst of 2007:
1. 28 Weeks Later
.
.
.
2. The Ex
3. License to Wed
4. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
5. Shrek the Third
6. Hot Rod
Posted by robbernard at 03:37 PM in Movies | Comments (0)
The 2007 Movies I've Seen

Once again it's time for the annual list of movies from the previous year which I've seen, timed with the Oscars to give me a chance to see the films that take some time to make their way to Ohio.

January 26Catch and Release
February 9The Lives of Others
February 16Bridge to Terabithia
February 16Breach
March 9300
March 30The Lookout
March 30Meet the Robinsons
April 6Grindhouse
April 20Hot Fuzz
May 4Paris, je t'aime
May 4Away From Her
May 4Spider-Man 3
May 1128 Weeks Later
May 11The Ex
May 16Once
May 18Shrek the Third
May 25Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
May 25Angel-A
June 1Knocked Up
June 8Surf's Up
June 8La Vie En Rose
June 8Ocean's Thirteen
June 15Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
June 221408
June 27Live Free or Die Hard
June 29Ratatouille
July 3The Transformers
July 3License to Wed
July 11Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
July 27The Simpsons Movie
August 3The Bourne Ultimatum
August 3Hot Rod
August 10Stardust
August 17Superbad
September 7Shoot 'Em Up
September 73:10 to Yuma
September 14Across the Universe
September 14In the Valley of Elah
September 14Eastern Promises
September 28The Kingdom
September 29The Darjeeling Limited
October 5Michael Clayton
October 12Elizabeth: The Golden Age
October 19Gone, Baby, Gone
October 26Dan in Real Life
November 2American Gangster
November 9No Country for Old Men
November 16Beowulf
November 21Enchanted
November 21The Mist
November 28The Savages
November 30He Was a Quiet Man
December 5Juno
December 7Atonement
December 7His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass
December 14I am Legend
December 21Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
December 21Charlie Wilson's War
December 21Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
December 26There Will Be Blood
That's 60.
2006 2005 2004
Posted by robbernard at 03:07 PM in Movies | Comments (0)



Tuesday, January 22, 2008
My 2008 Oscar Checklist

"X" marks the movies I've seen.

BEST PICTURE
X - "Atonement"
X - "Juno"
X - "Michael Clayton"
X - "No Country for Old Men"
X - "There Will Be Blood."

ACTOR
X - George Clooney - "Michael Clayton"
X - Daniel Day-Lewis - "There Will Be Blood"
X - Johnny Depp - "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
X - Tommy Lee Jones - "In the Valley of Elah"
X - Viggo Mortensen - "Eastern Promises"

BEST ACTRESS
X - Cate Blanchett - "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"
X - Julie Christie - "Away From Her"
X - Marion Cotillard - "La Vie en Rose"
X - Laura Linney - "The Savages"
X - Ellen Page - "Juno"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
   - Casey Affleck - "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
X - Javier Bardem - "No Country for Old Men"
   - Hal Holbrook - "Into the Wild"
X - Philip Seymour Hoffman - "Charlie Wilson's War"
X - Tom Wilkinson - "Michael Clayton"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
   - Cate Blanchett - "I'm Not There"
X - Ruby Dee - "American Gangster"
X - Saoirse Ronan - "Atonement"
X - Amy Ryan - "Gone Baby Gone"
X - Tilda Swinton - "Michael Clayton"

BEST DIRECTOR
X - Julian Schnabel - "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
X - Jason Reitman - "Juno"
X - Tony Gilroy - "Michael Clayton"
X - Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - "No Country for Old Men"
X - Paul Thomas Anderson - "There Will Be Blood"

BEST FOREIGN FILM
   - "Beaufort" - Israel
   - "The Counterfeiters" - Austria
   - "Katyn" - Poland
   - "Mongol" - Kazakhstan
   - "12" - Russia

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
X - Christopher Hampton - "Atonement"
X - Sarah Polley - "Away from Her"
X - Ronald Harwood - "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
X - Joel Coen & Ethan Coen - "No Country for Old Men"
X - Paul Thomas Anderson - "There Will Be Blood"

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
X - Diablo Cody - "Juno"
   - Nancy Oliver - "Lars and the Real Girl"
X - Tony Gilroy - "Michael Clayton"
X - Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava, and Jim Capobianco - "Ratatouille"
X - Tamara Jenkins - "The Savages"

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
   - "Persepolis"
X - "Ratatouille"
X - "Surf's Up"

BEST ART DIRECTION
X - "American Gangster"
X - "Atonement"
X - "The Golden Compass"
X - "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
X - "There Will Be Blood"

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
   - "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
X - "Atonement"
X - "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
X - "No Country for Old Men"
X - "There Will Be Blood"

BEST SOUND MIXING
X - "The Bourne Ultimatum"
X - "No Country for Old Men"
X - "Ratatouille"
X - "3:10 to Yuma"
X - "Transformers"

BEST SOUND EDITING
X - "The Bourne Ultimatum"
X - "No Country for Old Men"
X - "Ratatouille"
X - "There Will Be Blood"
X - "Transformers"

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
X - "Atonement" - Dario Marianelli
   - "The Kite Runner" - Alberto Iglesias
X - "Michael Clayton" - James Newton Howard
X - "Ratatouille" - Michael Giacchino
X - "3:10 to Yuma" - Marco Beltrami

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
X - "Falling Slowly" from "Once" - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
X - "Happy Working Song" from "Enchanted" - Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz
   - "Raise It Up" from "August Rush" - Nominees to be determined
X - "So Close" from "Enchanted" - Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz
X - "That's How You Know" from "Enchanted" - Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz

BEST COSTUME
X - "Across the Universe"
X - "Atonement"
X - "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"
X - "La Vie en Rose"
X - "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street"

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
   - "No End in Sight"
   - "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience"
   - "Sicko"
   - "Taxi to the Dark Side"
   - "War/Dance"

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
   - "Freeheld"
   - "La Corona (The Crown)"
   - "Salim Baba"
   - "Sari's Mother"

BEST FILM EDITING
X - "The Bourne Ultimatum"
X - "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
   - "Into the Wild"
X - "No Country for Old Men"
X - "There Will Be Blood"

BEST MAKEUP
X - "La Vie en Rose"
   - "Norbit"
X - "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
   - "I Met the Walrus"
   - "Madame Tutli-Putli"
   - "Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)"
   - "My Love (Moya Lyubov)"
   - "Peter & the Wolf"

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
   - "At Night"
   - "Il Supplente (The Substitute)"
   - "Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)"
   - "Tanghi Argentini"
   - "The Tonto Woman"

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
X - "The Golden Compass"
X - "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"
X - "Transformers"

Updates
--Added In the Valley of Elah
--Added Surf's Up
--Added Elizabeth: The Golden Age
--Added The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
--Added La Vie en Rose
--Added Away From Her
--Added The Savages
--Added Eastern Promises

Posted by robbernard at 09:31 AM in Movies | Comments (0)



Thursday, August 9, 2007
Just saw "Superbad". It's hilarious.

Best way I can describe it is that it's half American Pie, half 40 Year Old Virgin, and half Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle.

Posted by robbernard at 10:07 PM in Movies | Comments (0)



Saturday, May 12, 2007
28 Weeks Later

So I just saw 28 Weeks Later and... I... honestly... hated it.

And it's weird how the hatred has grown. Halfway through the movie it was "this is a great movie that, because of incompetent direction is just a good move". Then 3/4 of the way through it it was "this is a good movie that, because of incompetent direction is just an ok movie". Then leaving the theater it was "I... kinda... hated that...." Then by the time I got home it was "I haven't hated a movie this much since Million Dollar Baby".

Every bit of good directing in this movie was a direct ripoff from Danny Boyle's directing of the first movie. None of that good directing was used in the scenes featuring The Infected, those were 100% Fresnadillo crap.


------------SPOILERS BELOW------------


Then you've got the fact that the movie ends a good half hour too soon. The escaping group accomplish absolutely nothing. They fight the Infected a grand total of 4 times and aside from being monumentally, earth-shakingly, APOCALYPTICALLY stupid the people in the group itself do absolutely nothing! Sniper guy shoots one soldier and pushes a car. Medical Lady gets her head bashed in. At no point in the chase did you actually have a moment of jeopardy because the bleeping fight scenes were cut so that you had no bleeping clue what was going on. You couldn't even tell whether the bleeping Infected father had managed to break into the room with the thousand civilians and even if you assumed he did you still couldn't tell whether he was attacking his son or some other person. People in the escape party just randomly disappear. Suddenly the shots are being cut every 12 frames and when you come to you're missing 3 more people but because there was no way for you to see how they bit it you don't give a flying bleep. They needed another half hour or so just to make it seem like they had done something.

And then the kids... the kids are the bad guys in this movie and yet they never get their bleeping comeuppance! They are SOLELY responsible for every death that happened in this movie. The moment they bleeping left the bleeping safe zone they bleeping deserved to die, but no.... And they're not bleeping satisfied with being responsible for the deaths of fifteen-bleeping-thousand people, no, they go ahead and kill 5 BILLION! If anybody on that bloody island deserves to die it's these two but they bleeping live through it. I can deal with a downer ending where the good guys die, but nobody involved in this movie seemed to realize that these bleeping kids aren't the good guys and that they deserve every bleeping thing they got and tons more.


0/4

Posted by robbernard at 12:10 AM in Movies | Comments (0)



Friday, February 23, 2007
My top and bottom movies of 2006

Limited of course to the movies I've seen.

The Best of 2006:
1. Stranger Than Fiction
2. The Departed
3. V for Vendetta
4. The Queen
5. Dreamgirls
6. Children of Men
7. Pan’s Labyrinth
8. Thank You For Smoking
9. Letters from Iwo Jima
10. Brick
11. The Last Kiss

The Worst of 2006:
1. Pulse
2. Date Movie
3. Failure to Launch
4. Employee of the Month
5. Click
6. Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny
7. The Break Up
Posted by robbernard at 10:58 AM in Movies | Comments (0)
The 2006 movies I've seen

I give myself until Oscar time to close out the books on the previous year's movies. So, without further ado, this is the list of the 2006 movies I've seen sorted by release date.

February 17Date Movie
March 10Failure to Launch
March 17V for Vendetta
March 17Thank You For Smoking
March 24Lonesome Jim
March 24Inside Man
March 31Brick
April 7Lucky Number Slevin
April 28United 93
May 5Mission: Impossible III
May 19Over the Hedge
May 19The Da Vinci Code
May 26X-Men: The Last Stand
June 2The Break Up
June 9Cars
June 16The Lake House
June 23Click
June 28Superman Returns
July 7A Scanner Darkly
July 7Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
July 21Monster House
July 21Clerks II
July 26Little Miss Sunshine
July 28Scoop
August 4Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
August 11Pulse
August 11Half Nelson
August 18The Illusionist
September 15Jesus Camp
September 15The Last Kiss
September 30The Queen
October 6The Departed
October 6Employee of the Month
October 20Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D
October 20The Prestige
October 27Babel
November 3Borat
November 3Volver
November 10Stranger Than Fiction
November 17Casino Royale
November 22Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny
December 1The Nativity Story
December 8Blood Diamond
December 8Apocalypto
December 15Dreamgirls
December 15The Pursuit of Happyness
December 20Letters from Iwo Jima
December 20Rocky Balboa
December 25Children of Men
December 29Pan’s Labyrinth
That's 50 (If we're counting The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D.) I'm actually a little surprised that that's a bit less than last year and the year before.
Posted by robbernard at 10:49 AM in Movies | Comments (0)



Sunday, February 18, 2007
Saw Bridge to Teribithia today.

Really liked it.

Terrible, terrible job of marketing.

Worse marketing than even Serenity. With Serenity you just had no clue what it was about, with this movie they actually convince you it's something that it's not. From the commercials you would think it was The Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings. I'd read the book in 4th or 5th grade so I knew what it should be about but after seeing the commercials I was certain they had screwed it up. Were it not for the critics' ravings I wouldn't have even bothered with it.

Saddest movie I've seen in theaters since The Green Mile.

Posted by robbernard at 01:51 AM in Movies | Comments (0)



Monday, January 29, 2007
My 2007 Oscar Checklist

"X" marks the movies I've seen.

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

   - Forest Whitaker - "The Last King of Scotland"
   - Peter O'Toole - "Venus"
X - Will Smith - "The Pursuit of Happyness"
X - Leonardo DiCaprio - "Blood Diamond"
X - Ryan Gosling - "Half Nelson"

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

X - Eddie Murphy - "Dreamgirls"
   - Jackie Earle Haley - "Little Children"
X - Alan Arkin - "Little Miss Sunshine"
X - Mark Wahlberg - "The Departed"
X - Djimon Hounsou - "Blood Diamond"

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

X - Helen Mirren - "The Queen"
   - Judi Dench - "Notes on a Scandal"
   - Meryl Streep - "The Devil Wears Prada"
X - Penelope Cruz - "Volver"
   - Kate Winslet - "Little Children"

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

X - Jennifer Hudson - "Dreamgirls"
   - Cate Blanchett - "Notes on a Scandal"
X - Abigail Breslin - "Little Miss Sunshine"
X - Adriana Barraza - "Babel"
X - Rinko Kikuchi - "Babel"

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

X - "Cars"
   - "Happy Feet"
X - "Monster House"

ART DIRECTION

X - "Dreamgirls"
   - "The Good Shepherd"
X - "Pan's Labyrinth"
X - "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"
X - "The Prestige"

CINEMATOGRAPHY

   - "The Black Dahlia"
X - "Children of Men"
X - "The Illusionist"
X - "Pan's Labyrinth"
X - "The Prestige"

COSTUME DESIGN

   - "Curse of the Golden Flower"
   - "The Devil Wears Prada"
X - "Dreamgirls"
   - "Marie Antoinette"
X - "The Queen"

DIRECTING

X - Martin Scorsese - "The Departed"
X - Stephen Frears - "The Queen"
X - Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - "Babel"
X - Paul Greengrass - "United 93"
X - Clint Eastwood - "Letters From Iwo Jima"

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

   - "Deliver Us From Evil"
   - "An Inconvenient Truth"
   - "Iraq in Fragments"
X - "Jesus Camp"
   - "My Country, My Country"

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

   - "The Blood of Yingzhou District"
   - "Recycled Life"
   - "Rehearsing a Dream"
   - "Two Hands"

FILM EDITING

X - "Babel"
X - "Blood Diamond"
X - "Children of Men"
X - "The Departed"
X - "United 93"

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

   - 'Water' - Canada
   - 'The Lives of Others' - Germany
   - 'After the Wedding' - Denmark
   - 'Days of Glory (Indigenes)' - Algeria
X - 'Pan's Labyrinth' - Mexico

MAKEUP

X - "Apocalypto"
X - "Click"
X - "Pan's Labyrinth"

MUSIC (SCORE)

X - "Babel"
   - "The Good German"
   - "Notes on a Scandal"
X - "Pan's Labyrinth"
X - "The Queen"

MUSIC (SONG)

   - 'I Need to Wake Up' - "An Inconvenient Truth"
X - 'Love You I Do' - "Dreamgirls"
X - 'Our Town' - "Cars"
X - 'Patience' - "Dreamgirls"
X - 'Listen' - "Dreamgirls"

BEST PICTURE

X - "The Departed"
X - "The Queen"
X - "Little Miss Sunshine"
X - "Babel"
X - "Letters From Iwo Jima"

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

   - "The Danish Poet"
   - "Lifted"
   - "The Little Matchgirl"
   - "Maestro"
   - "No Time for Nuts"

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

   - "Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea)"
   - "Eramos Pocos (One Too Many)"
   - "Helmer & Son"
   - "The Saviour"
   - "West Bank Story"

SOUND MIXING

X - "Apocalypto"
X - "Blood Diamond"
   - "Flags of Our Fathers"
X - "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"
X - "Dreamgirls"

SOUND EDITING

X - "Apocalypto"
X - "Blood Diamond"
   - "Flags of Our Fathers"
X - "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"
X - "Letters From Iwo Jima"

VISUAL EFFECTS

X - "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"
   - "Poseidon"
X - "Superman Returns"

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

X - "Borat"
X - "Children of Men"
X - "The Departed"
   - "Little Children"
   - "Notes on a Scandal"

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

X - "Babel"
X - "Letters From Iwo Jima"
X - "Little Miss Sunshine"
X - "Pan's Labyrinth"
X - "The Queen"

--1/30/07 - Added Little Miss Sunshine
--2/03/07 - Added Babel
--2/11/07 - Added Jesus Camp
--2/11/07 - Added Dreamgirls
--2/17/07 - Added Blood Diamond

Posted by robbernard at 11:30 AM in Movies | Comments (0)



Monday, October 9, 2006
The Departed

I really can't recommend The Departed enough. Probably the best film I’ve seen in two and a half years.

The AMC Dublin Village 18 on the other hand... boy... Even though I saw the movie there I'm still not sure how you're supposed to get there.

Posted by robbernard at 12:50 AM in Movies | Comments (0)



Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Pulse

A little background... Pulse was one of the movies I was most looking forward to this year based on its trailer. That was back when it was scheduled for a March release. Then it got pushed back to August, and then I didn't end up seeing it in a first run theater. Today I finally got around to it on half-price day at the dollar theater.
...
And I don't know what to think.
...
It's a horror film so it's supposed to scare me/creep me out. It did that quite well. The scary parts got the adrenaline going and I left the theater... in a mood...

The problem is, the parts in between the scary parts aren't... good. The visual look is fine but the editing seems choppy, the dialogue stilted... (For the record, I don't blame the actors. I think the problems with this one were much farther up the chain of command.)

Sooooo...

As a horror movie it gets the job done. It's scary/creepy. But the ride to get there is very, very bumpy.


1 1/2 out of 4 stars.

Postscripts
1) I'd be quite interested to hear the story of how this got made, I get the feeling there's a winding story there.

2) The difference in quality between the trailer and the final film is quite striking. They could have stood to let whoever slapped together the trailer have a crack at the final film.

3) A half tank of gas will not get a pickup truck from Columbus, OH to the desert.

Posted by robbernard at 08:49 PM in Movies | Comments (0)



Monday, March 6, 2006
And now for the Oscars...

For the most part I can't complain about who won. I suppose I would have preferred that Terrence Howard had won best actor, but Hoffman was good too. None of the pictures nominated really seemed "Best Picture" worthy to me but I suppose Crash came the closest. I would have ranked them Crash > Good Night, and Good Luck > Capote > Munich > Brokeback.

Posted by robbernard at 10:31 AM in Movies | Comments (0)
The movies I've seen

With the Oscars being last night here's my annual "last year's movies I've seen" list, by release date.

January 19 Assault On Precinct 13
February 11 Hitch
February 18 Schultze Gets the Blues
February 18 Constantine
March 4 Gunner Palace
March 4 Jacket, The
March 4 Be Cool
March 11 Hostage
March 11 Millions
March 18 Melinda and Melinda
March 18 Ring 2, The
April 1 Sin City
April 8 Sahara
April 8 Kung Fu Hustle
April 8 Fever Pitch (2005)
April 22 Lot Like Love, A
April 22 Dallas 362
April 22 Interpreter, The
April 29 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , The
May 6 Crash (2005)
May 6 Kingdom of Heaven
May 13 Layer Cake
May 19 Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
May 27 Longest Yard, The (2005)
June 10 Mr. And Mrs. Smith
June 15 Batman Begins
June 24 March of the Penguins
June 24 Bewitched
June 29 War of the Worlds, The
July 8 Fantastic Four
July 15 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
July 15 Wedding Crashers, The
July 22 Hustle & Flow
July 22 Island, The (2005)
August 12 Grizzly Man
August 19 Red-Eye
August 19 40 Year-old Virgin, The
September 16 Lord of War
September 30 Capote
September 30 Serenity
October 7 Good Night and Good Luck
October 21 Stay
October 28 Weather Man, The
November 4 Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices
November 4 Jarhead
November 18 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
November 23 Syriana
November 29 Havoc
December 9 Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The
December 9 Brokeback Mountain
December 14 King Kong (2005)
December 21 Fun With Dick And Jane
December 23 Munich
December 28 Match Point
That's 54, a few less than last year.
Posted by robbernard at 10:26 AM in Movies | Comments (0)



Friday, September 30, 2005
Wow

I could not have asked for anything more from Serenity. Simply awesome.

Go see it or the *insert beloved item* gets it!

Posted by robbernard at 10:46 PM in Movies | Comments (0)



Wednesday, July 13, 2005
The Diet Coke of classic movie channels. Just one calorie, not classic enough.

The New York Supreme Court has ruled that AMC (which supposedly stands for "American Movie Classics") isn't classic enough.

It's sad to see how far AMC has fallen. It used to be a good channel but now it's filled with movies of dubious classicicity chopped all to hell with commercials.

Luckily Turner Classic Movies stepped up to take its place. (And isn't that ironic given Ted Turner's efforts to ruin classic movies?)

Posted by robbernard at 10:24 AM in Movies , TV | Comments (1)



Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Phantom of the Opera (the movie)

I saw Phantom of the Opera yesterday and I'll just say this... There wasn't anything wrong with it that couldn't have been fixed by eliminating Andrew Lloyd Webber and Joel Schumacher from the equation.

Posted by robbernard at 06:05 PM in Movies | Comments (1)



Saturday, April 2, 2005
Movie Review: Dallas 362

Just got out of Dallas 362, the film starring, written and directed by Scott Caan. It had its world theatrical premiere here at The Neon last night. I enjoyed it. The tone brought to mind Clerks and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. I'll flesh this out later but for now I have to get back into the theater, Gunner Palace is about to start.

The film stars Caan as Dallas. He and Shawn Hatosy's Rusty are two twenty-somethings living in California and basically waiting for their lives to make a turn either for the better or the worse. As things stand they're two hard-drinking guys who collect for a bookie and get into a LOT of bar fights. Dallas seems happy with this and is looking to make the move to full-blown criminal. Rusty on the other hand isn't so sure. Trying to work things out he starts seeing Bob, a therapist and the boyfriend of his mother (Kelly Lynch).

Dallas 362 is a snappily written coming-of-age story. It takes the growing rift between Dallas and Rusty seriously but doesn't get overly dramatic or bogged down in the woe-is-me-where-do-I-go-from-here aspects of it. Caan manages to get very solid performances out of his actors and the still-photo montages, which could easily be overused, work and add a great deal to the film stylistically.

Overall Dallas 362 is a very solid first feature from Scott Caan.


3 out of 4 stars.

Posted by robbernard at 05:19 PM in Movies | Comments (0)



Monday, February 28, 2005
And now that the Oscars are over, my personal Top 20 of '04

Selecting only from movies I've seen and ranked according to an arbitrary amalgamation of "Best", "Favorite" and "Most meaningful to me".

1.Garden State
2.Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3.Spider-Man 2
4.Closer
5.The Aviator
6.The Passion of the Christ
7.The Incredibles
8.Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
9.Hotel Rwanda
10.The Dreamers
11.Man on Fire
12.Saved!
13.Finding Neverland
14.Sideways
15.Ray
16.Shaun of the Dead
17.Kill Bill: Volume 2
18.Collateral
19.The Terminal
20.The Butterfly Effect

Posted by robbernard at 02:14 PM in Movies | Comments (1)
For the record...

The 2004 movies that I have seen, sorted by release date:

January 16Along Came Polly
January 23Butterfly Effect, The
February 6Dreamers, The
February 1350 First Dates
February 20Eurotrip
February 25Passion of the Christ, The
February 27Broken Lizard's Club Dread
March 5Hidalgo
March 12Spartan
March 12Secret Window
March 19Dawn of the Dead
March 19Taking Lives
March 19Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
March 26Jersey Girl
March 26Ladykillers, The
April 2Hellboy
April 9Whole Ten Yards, The
April 9Shade
April 9Alamo, The (2004)
April 9Ella Enchanted
April 9Girl Next Door, The (2004)
April 16Kill Bill: Volume 2
April 16Punisher, The
April 2313 Going On 30
April 23Man on Fire (2004)
April 30Mean Girls
April 30Godsend
May 19Shrek 2
May 28Saved!
June 4Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
June 18Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
June 18Terminal, The
June 23Fahrenheit 9/11
June 30Spider-Man 2
July 9Anchorman
July 16I, Robot
July 23Bourne Supremacy
July 28Garden State
July 30Village, The
July 30Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
July 30Manchurian Candidate, The (2004)
August 6Collateral
August 6Little Black Book
August 20Without a Paddle
August 27Jet Li's Hero
September 10Cellular
September 10Resident Evil: Apocalypse
September 17Wimbledon
September 17Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
September 24Shaun of the Dead
October 1Celsius 41.11
October 22Sideways
October 29Ray
November 5Incredibles, The
November 12Finding Neverland
November 26Very Long Engagement, A
December 3House of Flying Daggers
December 3Closer
December 15Million Dollar Baby
December 17Spanglish
December 17Aviator, The
December 22Hotel Rwanda
Total Movies 62

I think that's a complete list if my memory doesn't fail me and the list at The Numbers is right.

Posted by robbernard at 12:53 PM in Movies | Comments (2)
Post-Oscar thoughts

Well that pretty much sucked.

Why was there a cartoon character saying "Holy Sh*t Dude!" in the first 3 minutes?

Rock should have avoided the politics. His minute mocking President Bush immediately followed him saying he wouldn't mock President Bush. His John Kerry-Oprah thing brought back memories of Oprah... Uma... Uma... Oprah. Note to future hosts... Oprah is Oscar comedy death!

Giving out the awards at the back of the theater? Bad idea.

Bad directing of the show. Glitch after glitch after glitch.

Too much Beyonce. One song, fine. Two songs, maybe. Three songs? There's just no excuse for that.

Should Yo Yo Ma really be pulling attention away from the people who passed away? These people died but they have to make sure he gets recognition for performing something that could just as well have been done by the huge orchestra they already had on hand.

A glut of boring acceptance speeches. One laundry list of thank-yous after another. The closest they got to a good/memorable acceptance speech was Foxx and that simply pales in comparison to former winners.

Million Dollar Baby winning Best Picture was just a major disappointment. I didn't think any of the other 4 nominees were a clear winner, but I thought MDB had MAJOR screenplay problems in the last third of the movie.

Posted by robbernard at 12:37 AM in Movies | Comments (1)



Sunday, February 27, 2005
Oscars

It's hard for me to really root for anybody when the only noms my personal top two films of the year (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Garden State) picked up are Winslet's Best Actress nom and Eternal Sunshine's Screenplay nom.

Oh well...

Posted by robbernard at 09:28 PM in Movies | Comments (0)



Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Ok, this is just sad

Looked at the 2004 box office totals and it occurred to me that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Garden State combined made $9 million less than White Chicks.

That's just depressing.

Posted by robbernard at 12:25 PM in Movies | Comments (0)



Wednesday, February 16, 2005
My thoughts exactly

Orson Scott Card on Million Dollar Baby. If you've seen it or don't care about the spoilers read his whole section on it.

The summary:

So by all means, see it. Since it's probably going to win the Oscar for everybody who touched it, you should know what all the hooplah is about. And I guarantee you that you'll admire it and even, at times, be moved.

But please don't lose track of how shallow and stupid and pretentiously bad the script and story are.

--Uncle Orson Reviews Everything


Posted by robbernard at 01:38 AM in Movies | Comments (0)



Tuesday, February 1, 2005
Hotel Rwanda

Hotel Rwanda is an absolutely heart wrenching movie. You simply can't imagine that kind of hatred. About the only thing more heart wrenching is that in 10 years they'll be able to make almost the exact same movie about what's currently going on in the Sudan as the world fiddles.

Posted by robbernard at 07:32 PM in Movies | Comments (0)



Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Oscar thoughts...
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Don Cheadle - HOTEL RWANDA
Johnny Depp - FINDING NEVERLAND
Leonardo DiCaprio - THE AVIATOR
Clint Eastwood - MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Jamie Foxx - RAY

I suppose Foxx is the favorite here, but I wouldn't count anybody out. DiCaprio and Eastwood are probably the next most likely followed by Cheadle and Depp. Giamatti really deserves to be there too though.

And though I'd put him as the least likely of the 5 nominated to win, I have to wonder how Depp has managed to not win an Oscar yet. He's never Johnny Depp playing a character, he's just the character.

Jim Carrey was robbed for Eternal Sunshine.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Alan Alda - THE AVIATOR
Thomas Haden Church - SIDEWAYS
Jamie Foxx - COLLATERAL
Morgan Freeman - MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Clive Owen - CLOSER

Ok, I just don't think Foxx should win here. A) I think he really had the lead role in Collateral so putting him up in the supporting category is just an effort to get him two noms. B) I don't really think he gave a better performance in this role than just about anyone else could have.

Personally I'd give it to either Church or Owen, and I think I lean a little more towards Owen.

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Annette Bening - BEING JULIA
Catalina Sandino Moreno - MARIA FULL OF GRACE
Imelda Staunton - VERA DRAKE
Hilary Swank - MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Kate Winslet - ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

In my opinion it's a choice between Swank and Winslet and I'd give it to Winslet.
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Cate Blanchett - THE AVIATOR
Laura Linney - KINSEY
Virginia Madsen - SIDEWAYS
Sophie Okonedo - HOTEL RWANDA
Natalie Portman - CLOSER

Portman. Blanchett and Madsen seem to be the favorites though.
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

THE INCREDIBLES
SHARK TALE
SHREK 2

Shark Tale isn't actually in the race and I think The Incredibles beats Shrek 2 hands down.
ART DIRECTION

THE AVIATOR
FINDING NEVERLAND
LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT

Of the 5 I'd give it to Neverland, but Eternal Sunshine not getting at least a nom is just a joke.
CINEMATOGRAPHY

THE AVIATOR
HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT

Eternal Sunshine by a mile, but of these five I suppose I'd go with Aviator.
COSTUME DESIGN

THE AVIATOR
FINDING NEVERLAND
LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
RAY
TROY

I'll go with Neverland here.
DIRECTING

THE AVIATOR
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
RAY
SIDEWAYS
VERA DRAKE

It's probably a tossup between Marty and Clint. I suppose I'll go with The Aviator, but I'll fess up to not having had a chance to see Million Dollar Baby yet.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

BORN INTO BROTHELS
THE STORY OF THE WEEPING CAMEL
SUPER SIZE ME
TUPAC: RESURRECTION
TWIST OF FAITH

The race is probably between Super Size Me and Tupac, and I imagine it goes to Tupac.
FILM EDITING

THE AVIATOR
COLLATERAL
FINDING NEVERLAND
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
RAY

I'd give it to Aviator
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

AS IT IS IN HEAVEN
THE CHORUS
DOWNFALL
THE SEA INSIDE
YESTERDAY

A little surprised at the lack of House of Flying Daggers and A Very Long Engagement, but I have no idea whether there are release date issues or anything like that... I have no opinion of the 5 nominated. The Passion should have been allowed in this category though.
MAKEUP

LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
THE SEA INSIDE

I imagine The Passion gets it here.
MUSIC (SCORE)

FINDING NEVERLAND
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
THE VILLAGE

Eh, I'd give it to Neverland.
MUSIC (SONG)

"Accidentally In Love" - SHREK 2
"Al Otro Lado Del Río" - THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES
"Believe" - THE POLAR EXPRESS
"Learn To Be Lonely" - THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
"Look To Your Path (Vois Sur Ton Chemin)" - THE CHORUS

Pick one, I couldn't sing a note of any but Accidentally In Love and don't really think it should win.
SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

BIRTHDAY BOY
GOPHER BROKE
GUARD DOG
LORENZO
RYAN

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

EVERYTHING IN THIS COUNTRY MUST
LITTLE TERRORIST
7:35 IN THE MORNING
TWO CARS, ONE NIGHT
WASP

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

AUTISM IS A WORLD
THE CHILDREN OF LENINGRADSKY
HARDWOOD
MIGHTY TIMES: THE CHILDREN'S MARCH
SISTER ROSE'S PASSION

Yeah right, like anybody has a clue on these...
SOUND EDITING

THE INCREDIBLES
THE POLAR EXPRESS
SPIDER-MAN 2

I'd call it a toss-up between Incredibles and Spidey.
SOUND MIXING

THE AVIATOR
THE INCREDIBLES
THE POLAR EXPRESS
RAY
SPIDER-MAN 2

Ray's probably got a good shot at this one being so acoustically oriented.
VISUAL EFFECTS

HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
I, ROBOT
SPIDER-MAN 2

Spidey.
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

BEFORE SUNSET
FINDING NEVERLAND
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES
SIDEWAYS

Sideways probably has the edge here with Baby and Neverland following behind.
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

THE AVIATOR
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
HOTEL RWANDA
THE INCREDIBLES
VERA DRAKE

I'd probably narrow it down to either Eternal Sunshine or Hotel Rwanda.
BEST PICTURE

THE AVIATOR
FINDING NEVERLAND
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
RAY
SIDEWAYS

The big category... Ray doesn't belong there. Million Dollar Baby probably wins with Sideways and Aviator having shots.

Posted by robbernard at 11:51 AM in Movies | Comments (0)



Thursday, January 6, 2005
Oliver Stone's in denial

He's claiming Alexander flopped because of "raging fundamentalism in morality".

Hey, when Roger Ebert, a pretty liberal guy himself, can only muster two stars you've got problems other than the public oh-so-parochially sticking to their moral guns. (Boy, that last sentence can't decide whether it wants to be sarcastic or not...)

Posted by robbernard at 11:55 AM in Movies | Comments (1)



Tuesday, December 14, 2004
This is what you call a non-story

A man who was a student at Columbine High School when the shooting occurred died in Iraq Saturday.

It's sad that he died and all, but it should just barely be news in Littleton, CO, it certainly isn't big enough that it should be on the front page of CNN.

"Greg made us so proud, but he never wanted to be recognized for his actions," said the statement from his family. "Neither Columbine nor Iraq was to define him."

So what does the family do? They issue a statement to the press using Columbine and Iraq to define him. He never wanted to be defined that way and yet there he is on the front page of CNN only because he's a Columbine survivor that died in Iraq.

Posted by robbernard at 04:11 PM in Movies | Comments (0)



Friday, December 10, 2004
Movie Review: Closer

Mike Nichols' Closer is a heartbreaking film. It's a film filled with people doing stupid, hurtful things, but that's ok. Like House of Sand and Fog (and unlike John Q) the stupid decisions are completely believable. When people do stupid, irrational things simply because the writer thinks the plot needs more conflict it doesn't work. In Closer this isn't the case. Being an outside observer you want to just grab the characters by their shoulders, shake them and tell them to wise up before they screw things up even worse but the characters are making their messed up decisions because they're messed up people. Natalie Portman's Alice wants Jude Law's Dan to let her love him, but at the same time she can't open herself up to him. Julia Roberts' Anna wouldn't know what to do if she were happy and so she ends up sabotaging her relationships, including with her husband, Clive Owen's Larry. Everybody is hurting everybody else, nobody really has a real right to get too upset about what is being done to them, they're giving as good as they get.

The movie was adapted by Patrick Marber from his own play, and you can really tell that it evolved from the stage. In the entire film I believe there are seven speaking roles, the four main characters plus a taxi driver, a customs officer and a receptionist. (And none of the latter 3 have more than 1 line of dialogue.)

All in all the movie just works.


3 1/2 out of 4 stars.

Posted by robbernard at 08:25 PM in Movies | Comments (0)
Remakes

Seeing trailers and/or commercials for Flight of the Phoenix and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory got me thinking. So many movie remakes disappoint. (Please no comments on how Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a new adaptation of the book and not a remake.) Like cover songs, they rarely seem as good as the original.

I figure this is because only the good movies get remade. People just don't look at a crappy old movie and think "Hey, let's do that again." I think this instinct causes a lot of opportunities to be missed. We already have a good version of the good movies. Let's see if we can craft a good version of a crappy movie. I'd love to see a really good director try to rebuild on the foundation of Gigli and make a good movie. I think it could be achieved, it would be a total tear down, but I think it's doable. Now THAT would be an interesting remake.

Posted by robbernard at 03:57 PM in Movies | Comments (0)



Wednesday, December 8, 2004
Oh sweet Jesus... what the hell are they thinking?

Welcome to "How to screw up a film adaptation 101". Please take your seats. Today we have some special guests, the makers of the Doom movie.

Screenwriter Dave Callahan claims "everyone was keen to keep the game's atmosphere", though there are some "minor" changes done to the film's concept: The monsters have nothing to do with hell, the plot is not taking place on Mars and "space marines" are not well "space marines" as their outfits are more like SWAT team members.

The story follows eight marines, teleported into a command centre of a secret base on a remote planet. There, they learn that something strange is happening and soon monsters start to appear. The monsters aren't from hell, but rather people mutated by some nasty super-virus although the monsters look very similar to those in the game.

One character is a technician called "Pinky" who has a cybernetic wheelchair thanks to a bad teleporting accident. Pinky later mutates into something remotely resembling a creature from Doom 3. Producers claim that the film will be more of a horror than an action shooter.

--Dark Horizons

Posted by robbernard at 02:43 PM in Movies | Comments (2)



Sunday, December 5, 2004
The Fog of War

Watched Errol Morris' The Fog of War yesterday. A very good documentary, it's a travesty that this and Fahrenheit 9/11 are even considered to be in the same genre.

Posted by robbernard at 02:09 AM in Movies | Comments (1)



Thursday, November 11, 2004
The good and the bad

The good: Watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind tonight. Excellent, excellent movie, better the second time around.

The bad: That sinking feeling when "This film has been formatted to fit your screen" pops up and you realize you made a mistake at the video store. D'oh! Stupid Pan & Scan!!!

Posted by robbernard at 01:41 AM in Movies | Comments (0)



Saturday, October 30, 2004
Fahrenhype 9/11

Finally saw Fahrenhype 9/11 tonight. It's an excellent rebuttal to Fahrenheit 9/11. A better documentary than Fahrenheit, but that isn't hard, it has the advantage of actually, you know, documenting facts. You subtract from Fahrenheit what FahrenHYPE rebuts and you're pretty much just left with the credits. It exposes the lies and deceptions. It shows the people Moore hurt with his film. It's the movie that everyone who was hoodwinked bye Fahrenheit must see and the movie that those who weren't should see.

See if your video store has it, I know the local Family Video does.

Posted by robbernard at 01:30 AM in Movies , Politics/Government | Comments (0)



Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away

Wow. Yes, it's Japanese. Yes it's animation. But this is just a great, wonderfully imaginative, unimaginably creative, totally engrossing, uplifting, beautiful, sweet film which I completely recommend.

And there are a few elements of its style which probably would have freaked me out as a kid. None of the actions, or dialog, or situations are really scary, but the look is just odd enough to have thrown me. But that's probably just me, I had a very similar, though very much more intense, reaction to James and the Giant Peach (boy was that movie ever creepy).


4 out of 4 stars

Posted by robbernard at 05:10 AM in Movies | Comments (1)



Tuesday, August 3, 2004
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle

A very funny movie if you don't mind its brand of comedy. It's kind of in the same vein as Dude, Where's My Car? but a lot less weird and not nearly as stupid. I could have done without the boil guy and the bathroom stall bits, but all in all it's a very funny movie, especially towards the end.

It's a shame nobody's seeing it. At the 3:20 matinee today there were 10 people in the theater at the peak, and two of them were theater employees, three of them looked so young that I'm almost certain they snuck in and I was using a free ticket from accumulating so many points on my Regal Crown Club card.

On a quick trailer related note, Shaun of the Dead looked very funny and the Exorcist: The Beginning trailer seemed very out of place in front of Harold and Kumar.

Posted by robbernard at 06:53 PM in Movies | Comments (0)



Sunday, July 25, 2004
The Poles see F 9/11 as the propaganda it is
Michael Moore's contentious film Fahrenheit 9/11 has opened in Poland, with some film critics likening it to totalitarian propaganda.

Gazeta Wyborcza reviewer Jacek Szczerba called the film a "foul pamphlet".

He said it was too biased to be called a documentary and was similar to work by Nazi propaganda director Leni Riefenstahl.

But politicians opposed to Poland's involvement in the US-led occupation of Iraq have urged people to see the film.

"In criticising Moore, I have to admit that he has certain abilities - Leni Riefenstahl had them too," Mr Szczerba said in his review.

"Michael Moore will not convince Poles with his film," the Rzeczpospolita newspaper said in its review.
...
"People are very sensitive to aggressive propaganda, especially when it pretends to be an objective documentary or a work of art."

--BBC NEWS

Posted by robbernard at 05:28 PM in Movies | Comments (0)



Thursday, July 8, 2004
Lileks on FH911
Believing in Bush’s perfidy gives some people the same comfort and emotional nourishment others get from believing in Jesus. It validates them, cements their view of the world – venal, conspiratorial, run by capering chimps who are somehow ten times less intelligent than Usenet posters but somehow able to yank strings on a global scale. A commenter on a Fark thread called Bush “The Unelected Murder Monkey,” for heaven’s sake. Not all the opponents are unhinged, of course. Of course. There are many levels of opposition, from the serene and reasonable to the char-broiled nutburgers who haunt the comments sections of my favorite blogs. Or my favorite talk shows. Today I heard a caller describe how “Fahrenheit 9/11” affected him; now he believed that the Bush administration attacked the Taliban and Iraq because the Saudis wanted it. The host pointed out that the Saudis didn’t want it. The caller said “well, that’s your opinion.” Movies are facts, you see. Facts are just opinions.

Ooooh! You’re really spooked by F911, musta struck a nerve, eh? Scared that Chimpy McDeath is gonna go down? I love that: Moore’s on the cover of Entertainment Weekly and Time and who knows what else; he's the big magilla of the month. But respond to his assertions and you’re acting out of frantic panic. Right. I admit, I don’t like Mr. Moore; I don’t share his contempt for the American people, and I think he’s a dishonest polemicist.

--James Lileks - The Bleat


Oh, there's tons more there, go check it out.

Posted by robbernard at 12:22 PM in Movies | Comments (0)



Wednesday, July 7, 2004
A Bush-hater on Fahrenheit 9/11
The problem with Moore's approach isn't what he presents, or even what he believes. Although, I think his approach of just piling on whatever he thinks smokes like a gun is lazy and disservices any focused attack. My real problem with the approach is what he leaves out. It's obvious even to me--a guy who gets his political news from "Peanuts" reprints (and only the color ones on Sunday)--that he ignores all facts and evidence that might counter the argument he's determined to make. The result is propaganda for people who already agree with him, but won't change the minds of anyone whose mind you'd want to change. The people who disagree will continue to disagree, because Moore does nothing to counter their arguments. The movie would be a shitload more effective if it were focused on disproving conservative myths instead of creating a whole slew of liberal ones via implication.

That's what I'd like to see. A movie that doesn't pander to the NPR totebag crowds shuttling edamame home to their mud-compact homes in V-4 Saabs. One that has an answer every time the SUV-driving, fried-children-eating, baby-seal-beating Republicans say "But what about..." In stead we get a movie meant to make liberals feel good about themselves.

Now if I hear one more jackass say "Everyone should see this movie," I'm gonna kick him (or her) in the nuts. What they mean is, "Everyone should see this because I'm right and you should be forced to agree with me. Oh yeah, and I'm an asshole." Sure, everyone should see this, and everyone should read Bill O'Reilly's books too. You're a pompous ass if you think everyone should see it just because its what you believe. Only people who want to should see it. And they should see it as part of a much larger curriculum. You should know enough to make up your own mind, not let Michael Moore do it for you.

--The Filthy Critic

Posted by robbernard at 03:04 PM in Movies | Comments (0)



Friday, July 2, 2004
Spinsanity takes on Fahrenheit

Once again Spinsanity blows holes in one of Michael Moore's films.


[I]t appears to be free of the silly and obvious errors that have plagued Moore's past work, such as the claim in Stupid White Men that the Pentagon planned to spend $250 billion on the Joint Strike Fighter in 2001, a sum that represented over 80 percent of the total defense budget request for the year.

However, "Fahrenheit 9/11" is filled with a series of deceptive half-truths and carefully phrased insinuations that Moore does not adequately back up.
...
During a recent interview on "Late Show with David Letterman," the host identified the problems with the circumstantial argument of the film in a series of probing questions to Moore:

When you look at the film in total, are there things there - if I were smarter, could I refute some of these points? Shall I believe you that everything means exactly what it looks like? I mean, the presentation is overwhelming, but could a smarter man than me come in and say, "Yes, this happened, but it means nothing," "Yes, that happened but it means nothing"? But put together in a puzzle it creates one inarguable, compelling circumstance.

Moore's response to Letterman (after a joking aside) sums up the problem with his work. Despite proclamations that the film is satirical and represents his opinion, Moore still makes strong claims about its veracity:

You can't refute what's said in the film. It's all there, the facts are all there, the footage is all there.

Sadly, as with most of Moore's work, this is simply not true.

--Spinsanity

Posted by robbernard at 06:37 PM in Movies | Comments (0)
Just one more deception surrounding "Fahrenheit 9/11"

The commercials are currently touting it as the #1 movie in America. That's not true. According to the most recent numbers Moore's movie fell $37,092,604 short of being the #1 movie in America.

Posted by robbernard at 01:02 PM in Movies | Comments (0)
Penn & Teller

Just finished the first 5 episodes of Penn & Teller's Showtime series Bullsh!t. They're quite entertaining and straightforward at detecting BS; and just knowing that Penn is interviewed in Michael Moore Hates America has actually got me looking forward to that film more.

Posted by robbernard at 07:04 AM in Movies , TV | Comments (0)
Ya know...

...spending the two or so hours sitting through Fahrenheit 9/11 is sooooooooooo worth it when that liberal you're arguing with oh so arrogantly lays out the old "You obviously have not seen it. You're reading reports on it from blogs and your right-wing sources. See it and state your real opinions, like an ADULT" and you can smack him upside the head with the fact that you have seen it and are stating your own opinions. It's the trump card. They only lay out that line when you've beaten them into submission and the only way they can get out of it is to make you out as some right-wing automaton.

Note that I'm just saying the time spent seeing it is worth it, I never actually said anything about actually sending money Moore's way.

Posted by robbernard at 02:37 AM in Movies | Comments (0)
Fifty-six Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11

Dave Kopel has an excellent piece exposing 56 problems with Moore's film.

The first two:


2000 Election Night
Deceits 1-2

Fahrenheit 911 begins on election night 2000. We are first shown the Al Gore rocking on stage with famous musicians and a high-spirited crowd. The conspicuous sign on stage reads “Florida Victory.” Moore creates the impression that Gore was celebrating his victory in Florida.

Actually, the rally took place in the early hours of election day, before polls had even opened. Gore did campaign in Florida on election day, but went home to Tennessee to await the results. The “Florida Victory” sign reflected Gore’s hopes, not any actual election results. (“Gore Campaigns Into Election Day,” Associated Press, Nov. 7, 2000.)

The film shows CBS and CNN calling Florida for Al Gore. According to the narrator, “Then something called the Fox News Channel called the election in favor of the other guy….All of a sudden the other networks said, ‘Hey, if Fox said it, it must be true.’”

We then see NBC anchor Tom Brokaw stating, “All of us networks made a mistake and projected Florida in the Al Gore column. It was our mistake.”

Moore thus creates the false impression that the networks withdrew their claim about Gore winning Florida when they heard that Fox said that Bush won Florida.

In fact, the networks which called Florida for Gore did so early in the evening—before polls had even closed in the Florida panhandle, which is part of the Central Time Zone. NBC called Florida for Gore at 7:49:40 p.m., Eastern Time. This was 10 minutes before polls closed in the Florida panhandle. Thirty seconds later, CBS called Florida for Gore. And at 7:52 p.m., Fox called Florida for Gore. Moore never lets the audience know that Fox was among the networks which made the error of calling Florida for Gore prematurely. Then at 8:02 p.m., ABC called Florida for Gore. Only ABC had waited until the Florida polls were closed.

The premature calls probably cost Bush thousands of votes from the conservative panhandle, as discouraged last-minute voters heard that their state had already been decided, and many voters who were waiting in line left the polling place. In Florida, as elsewhere, voters who have arrived at the polling place before closing time often end up voting after closing time, because of long lines.

At 10:00 p.m., which network took the lead in retracting the premature Florida result? The first retracting network was CBS, not Fox.

Over four hours later, at 2:16 a.m., Fox projected Bush as the Florida winner, as did all the other networks by 2:20 a.m.

CBS had taken the lead in making the erroneous call for Gore, and had taken the lead in retracting that call. At 3:59 a.m., CBS also took the lead in retracting the Florida call for Bush. All the other networks, including Fox, followed the CBS lead within eight minutes. That the networks arrived at similar conclusions within a short period of time is not surprising, since they were all using the same data from the Voter News Service. (Linda Mason, Kathleen Francovic & Kathleen Hall Jamieson, “CBS News Coverage of Election Night 2000: Investigation, Analysis, Recommendations” (CBS News, Jan. 2001), pp. 12-25.)

Moore’s editing technique of the election night segment is typical of his style: all the video clips are real clips, and nothing he says is, formally speaking, false. But notice how he says, “Then something called the Fox News Channel called the election in favor of the other guy…” The impression created is that the Fox call of Florida for Bush came soon after the CBS/CNN calls of Florida for Gore, and that Fox caused the other networks to change (“All of a sudden the other networks said, ‘Hey, if Fox said it, it must be true.’”)

This is the essence of the Moore technique: cleverly blending half-truths to deceive the viewer.

--Dave Kopel


Thanks to Not Todd for the heads up.




Thursday, July 1, 2004
"Michael Moore Hates America"

Mike Wilson's new anti-Michael Moore and kinda anti-documentary documentary is nearing completion and is close to getting a distributor.

Meanwhile David Brooks in the NY Times lays out some of Moore's more damning anti-American quotes.


"[Americans] are possibly the dumbest people on the planet . . . in thrall to conniving, thieving smug [pieces of the human anatomy]," Moore intoned. "We