chesterfilms Blog

the first popular release from the rankin-bass team. narrated by the great burl ives who also sings the famous title song and silver & gold. fantastic characters like hermey the elf who would rather be a dentist, yukon cornelius the self-proclaimed "greatest prospector in the north", the abominable snowmonster (a.k.a., "Bumble"), and all the misfit toys. nothing says childhood christmas like claymation.

i can't remember the first time I saw this special. I just remember always knowing about it. everything works so well. directed by chuck jones who is most famous for his work on the loony tunes shorts. you can see the similarity between some of his loony tunes from that period. especially from the roadrunner and coyote stuff. narrated and voiced by the iconic boris karloff, and the fantastically whimsical song lyrics and story by dr. seuss. it's a wonderfully redemptive story that always seems to stay relevant each year.

control is a biopic of ian curtis, singer for the late seventies band joy division. anton corbijn, who makes his feature film debut is best known for his photography and music videos. control is beautifully shot in black and white, and each shot is composed like much of corbijn's rock photography. this is anything but the feelgood movie of the summer. curtis was a troubled kid who suffered from epilepsy, and ultimately killed himself at the young age of 23. sam riley and samantha morton give fantastic performances as ian and deborah curtis. morton is especially good and is able to pull off playing a 17 year old (she is thirty). they give two of the best performances of the year. the film focuses more on curtis than on the band, but there are some great performance sequences, and they found actors who look exactly like the members of joy division. it's a downer, but a very good film.

I consider myself a film snob, but the truth is i love movies so much that i give most of anything a chance. when i heard they were making a movie based on the stephen king story "the mist", i was very apprehensive about it. i really like king's books, but many of his films have not turned out to be good adaptations. i loved shawshank redemption,misery, & the shining (kubrick's version), and the green mile, but not so much of the rest. hope sprung forth when i heard that frank darabont (shawshank & green mile) would be writing and directing. then i saw the trailer for the mist. i completely wrote it off, but like always i end up watching these things.

it's a story where a military experiment goes wrong. and a handful of towns people become trapped in a supermarket as a "mist" rolls in to town. they can't leave, because as soon as someone leaves the building, they are attacked by some unworldly creature. the set up was ok. the cast was doing a fine job, but then about 45 minutes into it it began to unravel. marcia gay harden plays an over the top, typical to king, religious crazy lady. horrible special effects, and changes from the original story started to upset me . Than two thirds through the film it became interesting and actually creepy things started happening. darabont is a good director, so his shots and performances are more interesting than a less experienced director. still, it kept a b-movie feel throughout the film.

the end of the film was completely unexpected, dark and unsettling. it was very different from the original story, but it was really ballsy. i'm giving it a 3 out of 5. not a bad film at all, but i'm not really excited about ever seeing it again.

although the 1994 remake is a charming, it lacks the magic of the original. with edmund gwenn as what may be the greatest santa in movie history, miracle's strength lays in it's cast. the beautiful maureen o'hara and the soft and sweet natalie wood. it's very inspirational and still holds up today.

it's not only my second favorite christmas movie, but it's one of my favorite movies of all time. it's almost cliché now, but the story of how one person can affect the lives of so many others is awesome to me. capra and stewart are at the top of their craft here. it's on every year. we have all seen it, but it never loses it's power. the final scene never fails to bring a tear to my eye.

i have never had much to say about michael bay. as one of hollywood's most profitable hacks, he continues to to bore me with nonstop action and has the ability to keep me utterly confused. with his constant use of 2 second cuts and shaky camera that is all the rage. anyway, today being december 7th and the 66th anniversary of the attack on pearl harbor, i thought it might be a good idea to take a look at what i like to consider a very irresponsible and exploitive sequence from mr. bays film.

lets just hope no one lets him direct 911. maybe he could do a pov of one of the planes hitting the building, or follow people down as the buildings collapse. i am not against historical films, or even recreating disasters, but there are respectable ways of doing it. i thought greengrass handled united 93 wonderfully, and even though i am not a huge fan of stone's world trade center, i felt he took care in his decisions.