8/10
Good movie. Flawed, but good. And Russell Crowe was great (how he lost Best Actor to Denzel Washington for Training Day is absolutely incomprehensible). The movie is too long though and the pacing is stilted, particularly in the first hour which can be something of a chore to get through. There are also a few detours into unbearably mawkish moments that are pure Oscar baiting, but once it picks up, its hard not to be fascinated.
5/10
The second film of Matthew Barney's five-film Cremaster Cycle, I liked the first one (Cremaster 4...don't ask) better but neither blew me away. Cremaster 1 is even more tedious and less engaging. I wouldn't recommend it but I'm trying to watch all five so yeah.
8/10
Tough to give a score on a 10 minute short from over a hundred years ago but this one was quite neat, and especially cool to see some of the costumes and effects used back in the 1900's (impressive for their time). You can watch it for free on The Auteurs, the print is pretty damaged but it's worth it.
7/10
Paradjanov's final completed film, more conventional still but with enough gorgeous costumes to keep one interested. Dedicated to his good friend Andrei Tarkovsky, too.
7/10
Another Paradjanov completed after his release from prison, this one is more conventional and less exciting than the previous two I watched, but still enjoyable.
7.5/10
More like a series of wonderful-looking "tableaus" from Sergei Paradjanov, there's quite a lot of eye candy to behold here. As a film I was expecting something a bit less...avant-garde so I think I'd enjoy it more with a second viewing.
4/10
"Presented" and produced by Quentin Tarantino, featuring Michael Madsen, Vinnie Jones, Dennis Hopper and David Carradine...a throwback to grindhouse biker flicks of the 70's combining elements of my favorite genres, Spaghetti Westerns and road movies...couldn't be all bad, could it? Well, yeah. I didn't hate it as much as others seemed to but it was definitely not good, the main reason for this being writer/director/star Larry Bishop. As director, he's passable, though in full Tarantino worship mode. It's his failings as writer and actor that make this movie a real stinker. Some of the dialogue is so bad you can't even laugh, only cringe (an exchange involving the word "fire" as wordplay is particularly atrocious) and Bishop has seemingly cast himself as the lead to put himself in the position to grope as many half-naked women as possible (and it should be noted that all women in the film are portrayed as dick-worshipping, sex-obsessed half-wits, which at least explains why so many of these gorgeous twenty-something women appear so eager to get it on with a pushing-60 Larry Bishop). If you're a fan of the genres it blatantly rips off (or pays homage to, if you want to be generous) it's a bit easier to stomach, but not by much. There's a reason why with all the big names attached, you've probably never heard of Hell Ride...best to keep it that way.
9/10
Wow, this one knocked my socks off. It's always fun to see a movie that feels like it comes from another planet. This 1964 film from Sergei Paradjanov about a Ukranian Hutsul named Ivan is an absolute revelation. The camera work, incredible colors and costume, and unbelievable soundtrack are what puts this film over the top. The plot is linear enough (Ivan falls in love with the daughter of his father's murderer, she dies, his subsequent life is detailed) but the movie as a whole is so much more and I could never do it justice with a description so just go see it if you can.
4/10
Well as far as Burton-helmed remakes go, it's still better than Planet of the Apes and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, but not by a whole lot. A(nother) 3D and CGI-infested film where more time and energy has been spent on animation and makeup than on making a movie that is actually interesting, entertaining, and heartfelt. The Pixar business model is still somehow lost on so many.
Burton's Alice isn't a particularly terrible film, just an incredibly uninteresting one where the audience is never for a second given any reason to care about anything that occurs. The acting is probably its best strength (aside from the visuals): Crispen Glover is great, Depp and Bonham-Carter are very good, and Alice (forgot her name) is functional. Anne Hathaway was the only one I didn't really care for.
8.5/10
I've only seen two other Pixar movies (Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo) but this one as my favorite...the movie manages to be genuinely funny, heartwarming, and entertaining and it does it all with more honesty than most live-action Hollywood movies I've seen this year. It was just a lot of fun.
7/10
The Russian film from 2003, not the Sarah Michelle Gellar one from 2006. I watched this primarily because of its extensive comparisons to Tarkovsky but I think they're only there superficially. The direction is stoic and the film is visually exquisite but I don't think it comes close to the allegorical levels Tarkovsky usually works on. The story, about the father of two young boys coming back into their lives for the first time in 12 years and taking them on a trip apparently designed to test their manhood, is interesting but I didn't walk away feeling blown away like many people seemed to. It was never boring, but I was left wanting more I guess.
