(1957) dir. Terence Fisher
viewed: 01/27/07
I got the notion to see this film when there was a misprint in an advertisement for Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) showed up on my My Yahoo page. I had thought, “Wow, that would be great to see!” but then I realized that it had to be a misprint [...]
Archive of entries posted on January 2007
The Curse of Frankenstein
Thieves Like Us
(1974) dir. Robert Altman
viewed: 01/24/07 at the Castro Theatre, SF, CA
I’d seen this movie years and years ago on cable. I’d stumbled on it largely because the title of the film was used for a New Order song, so I thought it would be worth investigating. I don’t know that I even knew who Robert Altman [...]
Arthur and the Invisibles
(2006) dir. Luc Besson
viewed:01/20/07 at the AMC Loews Metreon 16
Rancid.
Insipid.
Whatever Luc Besson has had in his resume for street-cred, something that has not had any back-up apparently in years and years, is utterly and completely non-existent in this incredibly awful children’s film.
Part live-action and part-digital animation, the movie strives pretty pathetically to evoke that “classic” [...]
Slither
(1973) dir. Howard Zieff
viewed: 01/19/07
A strange, off-beat comedy loaned and recommended to me by a friend, Slither (1973) leans more to the odd and subtle than the broad side of comedy. James Caan, in a subdued role as a small time crook just out of prison, is more light and amusing, hardly the tough that [...]
Pickpocket
(1959) dir. Robert Bresson
viewed: 01/16/07
I had never seen a Robert Bresson film before catching a double feature at the Castro last year. Both Au hasard Balthazar (1966) and Mouchette (1967) were amazing films, serious downers while also transcendental. Transcendental is a word that is often used to describe Bresson’s work, and it’s kind of easy to see why. [...]
Children of Men
(2006) dir. Alfonso Cuarón
viewed: 01/15/07 at Century San Francisco Center
Children of Men is less Science Fiction (though it takes place in the year 2027) and more Social Fiction. It’s certainly less about technology and science and much more about the direction that humanity might take in the coming years. Directed by Alfonso Cuarón who is [...]
Pickup on South Street
(1953) dir. Samuel Fuller
viewed: 01/14/07
Samuel Fuller’s Pickup on South Street is probably one of the most straight-forward of his films that I have ever seen, a polished, rich film noir, featuring some great performances from Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, and Thelma Ritter. Ostensibly, a portrait of the life of a pickpocket, a low-level criminal [...]
The Bank Dick
(1940) dir. Edward F. Cline
viewed: 01/12/07
W. C. Fields is definitely very funny, I think for his classic voice and delivery and especially his hilarious one-liners, of which there are quite a few in this film. The Bank Dick, however, didn’t strike me as overly brilliant. Featuring Shemp Howard of The Three Stooges as a bartender, the [...]
Crank
(2006) dir. Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
viewed: 01/09/07
This movie is either pure trash or pure genius. Okay, that’s one way of looking at it. It’s actually neither, but it’s also a combination of the two. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Neva Chonin summed this film up by describing it thusly: “Cross D.O.A. (1950) with Speed (1994), add [...]
Casino Royale
(2006) dir. Martin Campbell
viewed: 01/06/07 at the Balboa Theater, SF, CA
Surprisingly gritty yet slick entertainment, I have to say.
I have never been a true James Bond aficianado, though if I ever got around to reading Ian Fleming, that could change, I suppose. I, like so many others, have always preferred the Sean Connery films to [...]
