Under the advisement of film enthusiast friends, I have watched many renowned films. Below are brief personal thoughts on some of them.
I have archived my film encapsulations by year: 2003, 2004, 2005.
The Warriors
Walter Hill
1979
Sweaty, leather vest-clad sinewy street gang boys "bop" their way across NYC to get back to their home turf (Coney Island) in this 70's B flick. The grime and grit of Escape from New York, idiotic dialog, way over-the-top characters, an omnipotent narrator, and a break-neck pace make for a unique, video game-like film-going experience. Warriors isn't good, but it's influential. It could very easily be the godfather of classic multi-player video games like Double Dragon and Streets of Rage.
Our Time Is Up
Rob Pearlstein
2004
Kevin Pollack plays a psychiatrist with OCD to a cast of kooky archetypal patients in this predictable but amusing little picture. When the good doctor discovers he only has a few weeks to live, his dull, passive, almost pointless counseling methods become extreme. His candor becomes brutally honest, to comedic effect. It's a cookie cutter scenario, but they make the most of it.
Rocky Balboa
Sylvester Stallone
2006
At 59 Stallone portrays an aging boxer fighting to stay in the game. This could be a metaphor for Stallone's own life/career. He has something compelling to express about old age, and he says it with conviction. There's a whole lot of heart boxed into this picture. It's a shame it's so poorly put together.
Brick
Rian Johnson
2005
This one feels like a reinterpretation of Chinatown through a 14-year-old Joel Coen. Youthful talent and energy abounds throughout the picture. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lucas Haas are stand-outs. And oddly enough, the editing is masterful.
Babel
Alejandro González Iñárritu
2006
Iñárritu makes emo movies. This one was tolerable because it was well crafted.
The Covenant
Renny Harlin
2006
Finally! A film for the 13-year-old boy without a nervous system.
Eragon
Stefen Fangmeier
2006
Ergon is: a dragon lore fantasy with an epic air, directed with the finesse of a special effects guru from Texas.
Garden State
Zach Braff
2004
Freshman filmmaker Braff manages to squeeze out a little indie gem with pop appeal on a $2 mil budget. How he managed to get Ian Holm, Peter Sarsgaard, and Natalie Portman to join the fray, I have no idea. But the contributions made Garden gold ... plated.
Lucky Number Slevin
Paul McGuigan
2006
Snappy dialogue, rehash-characters, gruesome violence, and a twist ending embellish an empty storyline.
The Last King of Scotland
Kevin Macdonald
2006
I feel sweaty, dirty, and the need for an AIDS test. Forrest Whitaker's sopping brow and bulging eyeball will be haunting my dreams for weeks to come. Thank you, Hollywood.
The Notebook
Nick Cassavetes
2004
Notebook is an aptly adapted storybook romance, and a testament to unconditional love. Have a tissue box handy. And restrain yourself from pushing your girlfriend off the bed.
Tom yum goong [The Protector]
Prachya Pinkaew
2005
A sub-par Ong-bak meets Dumbo.
The Fountain
Darren Aronofsky
2006
I could see how it would be difficult for someone to differentiate an Aronofsky film from crap. His dreamscapes always hover dangerously close to chaos, and usually involve a principal character whose mind is degenerating or entering an altered state. In the case of The Fountain it is Weisz' character Izzi that is experiencing dramatic changes. As her terminal illness worsens, and death nears, she bursts forth in pen with a creative fictional story. The story she writes (within the story) is centered around her husband in three different forms. The first is a representation of his past life as a Spanish conquistador sometime around the 16th Century on a quest to secure immortality from the Tree of Life buried deep within a Mayan forest for his beloved Queen Isabelle. The second is a depiction of her husband as a suffering soul in the Mayan underworld – Xibalba (“she-bal-bah”). The third depiction is a realistic, present day version of her husband Tom, a research scientist who is fighting desperately to find a cure for his wife's condition (she has an inoperable brain tumor). Every time Tom reads Izzi's manuscript, Aronofsky deftly weaves Izzi's stories with the ‘real’ story, and the three depictions of her husband Tom in three different time periods constantly alternate on-screen. As the plot progresses, Izzi’s condition becomes severe. Although she conjures up an ending to her story, she knows she will never have a chance to finish it. She shares her idea with Tom and asks him to finish it for her. With her passing the lines between the ‘present day’ Tom, the Spanish conquistador, and the soul trapped in Xibalba blur. All three depictions of the man become linked. Through Tom’s agony from the loss of his wife, his death as a conquistador, and the rebirth of his soul from the Mayan afterlife, we are able to perceive the continuity of life from the omniscient perspective. His final realization of peace, is achieved only through his resolution with death, and his perception of eternal life through his wife’s writings. In essence it’s a spiritual, wrapped in the cloak of a tragic romance. It’s gorgeous to look at, skillfully directed, and well cast. I believe it's Aronofsky's finest film to date and easily one of the best films of the year.
The Good Shepherd
Robert De Niro
2006
Damon gives a quiet, but haunting performance as a calculating, yet very human C.I.A. operative during the 50s and 60s. A laundry list of stellar talent parades through the picture like a secondary cast congo line. They all have great presence and delivery snappy lines, but everything culminates into mediocrity. Ultimately, accidental black humor sours the somber message of the film. Young men wrestling naked in mud is gay porn. When shown out of the context of a gay porn film, it becomes humor (SEE: Wet Hot American Summer). And the bride-to-be getting tossed out of the plane head-first like a rag doll reminded me of the old man being tossed out of the castle in The Emperor's New Groove. Perhaps I've just seen too many Tom & Jerry cartoons, but I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Perhaps I was punchy from the overly long runtime (2 hrs 40 mins), or perhaps it was the absurdity of the most pivotal plot development in the film - Edward Jr.'s whispers to a mistress mid-coitus result in the Bay of Pigs.
Oh, and I think Eddie Redmayne and Wil Wheaton would make a nice couple. Does that make me an asshole?
Jackass Number Two
Jeff Tremaine
2006
Jackass 2 made me physically curl up into a ball. My fetal position was either the result of some truly inspired gag that caused me to laugh so hard my body contorted itself or from some twisted, homoerotic, coprophilic daredevil stunt that made me so sick to my stomach I doubled over. As a carnival ride for the mind, this Jackass film may never be topped. Pure entertainment for the truly sick-at-heart.
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!
Hy Averback
1968
Peter Sellers is not quite able to make this one float. Averback relied more heavily upon situational comedy than Sellers' abilities as a performer. The result is a film that comes across as stifled, silly, and dated. I only recommend it for the hardcore Sellers fan.
Ice Age: The Meltdown
Carlos Saldanha
2006
Only a few minutes into this sequel, I realized that it wasn't going to be bogged down by the same melodramatic, brain-dead moralism of the first Ice Age film. The mood is immediately lighter, funnier and riskier than its predecessor. And the greater prominence of the prehistoric squirrel character Scrat was an immediate sign of improvement. Leguizamo once again ingeniously shapes his voice for lovable, dopey Sid, the sloth. And Romano and Leary reprise their voice roles well. The moral lessons are still there, but this time they're a subsequent virtue of the overall plot of the story, as they should be. The real genius lies with Scrat - a semi-silent character, whose grunts, grimaces, sobs, and war cries are "voiced" by the director of the original Ice Age film: Chris Wedge. Like a Harpo of the modern 3D animation world, or less devious, more cuddly version of Wile E. Coyote, Scrat says volumes without words. And in an age of noise his quiet, fruitless persistence is all the moralism and entertainment I'll ever need.
The Illusionist
Neil Burger
2006
Norton and Giamatti are brilliant as usual. Sewell is good, but far too likable to lend an air of poetic justice to his character's ultimate demise at the end of the story. On-again, off-again accents, a stale performance from Biel, and poor casting all around hold this adaptation back from reaching greatness. A European cast wouldn't have garnered the same box office dollars the executive producers were undoubtedly after, but may have given the picture a sense of authenticity and distinction it was lacking.
Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby
Adam McKay
2006
Another watch-worthy Will Ferrell laugh fest with great supporting perfs from Gary Cole of Office Space fame and the incomperable, hilarious, and deeply twisted Molly Shannon. If you are a native of North Carolina, it'll make you laugh until cheap beer dribbles out of your nose onto your sweat-stained wife beater. If you aren't from NC, ... it'll just make you laugh.
An Inconvenient Truth
Davis Guggenheim
2006
Truth is composed 90% of highly informative data and commentary on a growing global environmental crisis and 10% of schlocky Al Gore campaign promotion. I ignored the latter part and took away a lot from the experience.
The Aristocrats
Paul Provenza
2005
Aristocrats is a unique and highly entertaining reflection on a famous dirty joke. It's 89 minutes of candy for the filthy mind. I enjoyed it tremendously.
Good Night, and Good Luck.
George Clooney
2005
Good Night is the epitome of intelligent cinema. The story is based on fact and works as historical drama and social commentary. It is a writer's film with sharp perfs from a perfectly selected cast. The cinetog is appropriately stylized as a period picture, wrapped in gorgeous silver and drenched in parlor smoke. Clooney humbly focuses on direction and gives his talented cast room to work their magic.
Munich
Steven Spielberg
2005
Subdued tones and long shadows paint the sunken-eyed faces of the characters haunting Munich. At the beginning of the tale, the characters are humans, full of life. Spielberg shows the decay of their souls. The hunting and killing of people is a slow death of their selves. The writing, cinetog, and perfs are brilliant. The direction is risky, and the casting is questionable.
Brokeback Mountain
Ang Lee
2005
Lee's latest work is important - in a social context, beautifully shot, emotionally charged, well performed, but thin. One cannot sustain an audience for 134 minutes with a story "on the flea," to use Melville's words.
Simple Men
Hal Hartley
1992
Is it a "B" movie? Is it crap? Is it inspired? Captivating? Quirky? Genius? I say: all of the above and more. If this is cult cinema, sign me up for the funny tasting Koolaid and call me Xenu.
The New World
Terrence Malick
2006
Malick's latest opus is beautiful poetry, but the message, whatever it may be, is lost on me. He had to falter sooner or later, I suppose.
Ch'ing shaonien na cha [Rebels of the Neon God]
Tsai Ming-Liang
1992
Ming-Liang's first feature length film is not one of his stronger works, but is one of his more accessible. It fits well within his overall body of work, with its slow pace, minimal dialogue, and somber tones.
Accattone
Pier Passolini
1961
Stylistically, Passolini's first full length feature is a psuedo-cinema verite gunshot. But in the end, it's just a poor pimp's Ladri di biciclette, or a less interesting À bout de souffle.
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