(1985) dir. Walter Murch
viewed: 09/26/08
Along with The Dark Crystal (1982), Labyrinth (1986), and The NeverEnding Story (1984), the Castro Theater had a mini-festival of fantasy films from the 1980’s that featured a lot of non-digital special effects, puppetry, animatronics, even stop-motion animation, in which 1985’s Return to Oz was featured. Reading about it, it sounded interesting. [...]
Archive of entries posted on September 2008
Return to Oz
The Haunting
(1963) dir. Robert Wise
viewed: 09/20/08
Another pretty great film from director Robert Wise (The Body Snatcher (1945), The House on Telegraph Hill (1951), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)). This, an atmospheric ghost story, shows more style and prowess in some ways, more visual play and shock value, with striking compositions, and some strange visual effects. Actually, the [...]
Another State of Mind
(1984) dir. Adam Small, Peter Stuart
viewed: 09/14/08
Youth Brigade, Social Distortion and Minor Threat. That’s what this little tour documentary has to offer. Shot entirely on video, following a 1982 DIY tour by Youth Brigade and Social Distortion, the film documents the early days of the more established American punk scene as it reaches out toward the [...]
Burn After Reading
(2008) dir. Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
viewed: 09/13/08 at AMC Bay Street 16, Emeryville, CA
The latest film from the Coen brothers is a comedy, a film that many are noting as a “lighter” follow-up to No Country for Old Men (2007), their heavier, though arguably no less dark, more “serious” film, for which they won Best Picture [...]
The Triplets of Belleville
(2003) dir. Sylvain Chomet
viewed: 09/13/08
I saw this film back four years ago and recalled liking it a great deal. So a few months ago, when an opportunity arose, I picked up a copy for my kids, hoping it would add to their repetoire. On an odd day of such opportunity, we watched it together, not [...]
Revolver
(2005) dir. Guy Ritchie
viewed: 09/10/08
Guy Ritchie, who was not so long ago a buzzing director of fun, silly English crime cpaers, namely Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and his best film Snatch. (2000), had a promising career. Then he married Madonna. Then he cast Madonna in his re-make of Lina Wertmüller’s Swept Away [...]
A Bucket of Blood
(1959) dir. Roger Corman
viewed: 09/08/09
I can’t really recall exactly why I ended up pushing A Bucket of Blood to the top of my queue exactly. Roger Corman’s wacky horror/comedy, a beatnik version of Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) in which great sculptural art turns out to be the clay-covered figures of the dead, the [...]
Rashômon
(1950) dir. Akira Kurosawa
viewed: 09/07/09
It’s always a bit daunting to try to write about the most important or significant films ever made, ones like Rashômon that have had such influence and impact, have attracted so much writing and critique, analysis and history. But then again, the whole point of my film diary is to write [...]
The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
(2003) dir. Takeshi Kitano
viewed: 09/07/08
This was the film that I had tried to see last week, an updating of the popular Zatoichi, the blind swordsmand character, a modern take on the samurai film by notable writer/director/actor Takeshi Kitano. Actually, last week due to a mistake on the Netflix shipping side, I ended up seeing Samaritan [...]
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger
(1977) dir. Sam Wanamaker
viewed: 09/05/08
With the kids back from England, I querried them on what to rent for Friday night movie night. Felix was pretty clear: Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. Or rather semi-clear: Sinbad and the Golden Eye. Eventually we worked it out.
The third and final Ray Harryhausen animation-effect Sinbad film after [...]
