walktheearth Blog by walktheearth

The sign of a great film

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Casablanca (1943)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

The Princess Bride (1987)

Seven (1995)

Black Snake Moan (2007)

I had an epiphany tonight while watching a movie. The mark of a truly great film is that it get the viewer invested in it and motivates them. Examples of this are Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. After watching this you can’t help but want to be a better American. It makes you believe in something. When the theme of the film is dark like Se7en, the connection you make with Brad Pitts character at the films climax can not be understated. You have to put yourself in his shoes, and it forces you to ask yourself questions you normally wouldn’t. A few other examples are: the gut wrenching feeling you get every time Bogey watches the plane take off in Casablanca (the definition of bittersweet), white knuckling the arm chair when the bolder almost flattens Indy. I still get goose bumps when I hear, “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” As a movie lover and a wanna be film maker, I have had this feeling many time watching independent movies and thinking, “I could make a movie like that”. David Lynch is a master of making incredibly complicated movies look easy. Wes Anderson is the same way. Tonight I had this same sensation watching the film Black Snake Moan. I will review this movie later, but by the time it was over I found myself thinking I should learn to play blues guitar. The movie is brilliantly shot, the story is formulaic in the “boy with problems meets girl with problems, and they somehow work it out and they both end as better people”. However writer / director Craig Brewer doesn’t follow convention. The story is raw, gritty, and exploitive. For a fair amount of the movie Ricci’s character is chained to Sam Jackson’s radiator. I will write it again. CHAINED TO THE RADIATOR! But that isn’t the focus of the film. It is not even a gimmick. The people in the movie find it unbelievable, but after an explanation and discussion with Ricci, they think that it might not be that bad of an idea. I highly recommend this movie for peole who love movies. The scene where Lazarus (Jackson) performs the Title song “Black Snake Moan” is one of the best scenes I have seen this year!

Posted Wednesday, June 27, 2007 3:15 AM by walktheearth | with 0 comments

Eraserhead vs. Pi

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Eraserhead (1977)

Pi (1998)

I just watched David Lynch's Eraserhead for the first time tonight. I found myself drawing many comparisons to Daren Aronofsky's Pi. There is the obvious link that they are both filmed in black and white. However the use of sound or noise to fill the empty void is in both films. The white out is in both. The sultry neighbor also present in both pieces. There is a unity in the grotequeness of the pictures with the dipection of the "baby" in Eraserhead being dicected, and the brain on the subway in PI. There is a drilling into the skull in each picture. A mechainacal devation in both.

I enjoyed Pi more, but have tremendous respect for the work of David Lynch and his first feature seems to have been apperciated (copied) by many of the top directors working today.

Posted Monday, June 25, 2007 12:07 AM by walktheearth | with 0 comments

Torcher Porn Meets Yuppie Scum

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American Psycho (2000)

American Psycho was a major let down for me. I thought Christian Bale's performance was over the top and the entire supporting cast was under the bottom. There is no explaination as to what drove Bale character to murdering all those people. There could have been some attempt to tie in the yuppie culture with murderous madness but it was lost by me. The gore looked fake, there was little suspence, and the the jokes fell flat. There were long discertations about 80's pop music (which I think were an attempt to capitolize on Tarintino's style) that were completely meaninglesd and did nothing to advance the film along. This movie was like Natural Born Killers meets Wallstreet but without Oliver Stone there to direct.

Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2007 1:06 PM by walktheearth | with 0 comments

agree to disagree

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Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

I have had an interesting experience with Pirates At Worlds End. I saw this movie with my wife who was a big fan of the first film. She also enjoyed the second until the end where she realized it was just a two and a half hour commercial for the third film. This turned me off to the second picture and I swore I would not cough up the 8 bucks to see the third.

However my friends all went to the movie and told me it was great, and they thought I (a known movie snob) would like it. This along with an interesting trailer made me curious enough to see Worlds End. I found this to be the worst installment of the “trilogy”.

The interesting part is when I spoke to my wife after the movie and my friends later the next day I expressed all my frustrations with the picture. They all agreed with me! They though the story was convoluted and confusing. They thought that the mini Captain Jacks on Deep’s shoulders was corny. We all found the humor childish and condescending. We all agreed that when the writers found themselves in a situation they couldn’t get out of they simply wrote a new story line or changed the current line by triple crossing a double cross. We all thought Keira Knightley was horrible and her motivational speech was pathetic. But having said or agreed with all this and more my friends and wife all agreed that they liked the movie.

I listened to Filmspotting and Adam and Sam both disliked the movie but it seemed as if they felt bad about giving it a nasty review. They tried to find way to say nice things about it. I have spoke to others who have seen this picture and many of them are in the same boat. What is it about this movie that makes it hard dislike? I stand by my guns and state that this is the worst movie I have seen this year. And I watched Banditas on DVD in February!

Posted Monday, June 11, 2007 12:50 AM by walktheearth | with 0 comments

Noir or Propaganda

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The Good German (2006)

Most of the reviews I have read about The Good German have stated that it is a film noir. True it does have many of the essenital elements of a noir. Single source lighting, seedy underbelly of urban evniroments and inhabitants, the femme fatal, etc. I found this movie to be more of a propaganda film with its uses of film stock from the period and heavily slanted / not so subliminal opinions of politics and the comparison of what was happining in 40's Berlin and what is taking place in current times.

An interesting note abot the noir issue is that American Noir was born out of the German Expressionist movement that started as a way for German directors to express thier political views in a "hidden" way during the first world war. Many of these directors imgrated to America during the second workd war. So for George Clooney to use this style for this film it is an interesting omage to the Gerere as well as the political ethos that gererated it.

Overall I was not wildly impressed with the film. I felt that Toby McGuire was miscast and Kate Blanchett seemed to be phoning it in. It's worth a rent. It is an interesting examination of how movies can be used to influance people, and the style of film making is not seen very often any more. Clooney poiltical views and mine are not that different, I only wish he would spend a little less time pluging them into his films and a litle more time developing his charecters.

Posted Sunday, June 10, 2007 11:11 AM by walktheearth | with 0 comments

A thin line.

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The Fountain (2006)

Darren Aronofsky walks a thin line. The line between artistic, and pertentious. The Fountain is a artistic masterpiece. The images and direction are excatally we I have come to expect from him. However in this film, more than in his prior 2 films, I found that the entertainment value was missing. Pi was clever, insightful, thought provoking but most improtantly the story was entertaining. I was interested in what happened to the charecters. A Requiem for a Dream was the same way. The Fountain had all the briliant vision and visions of the first two films, but there wasn't anything driving the plot forward. Perhaps it was the slow pace, or the jumps between times.

All that having been said I enjoyed the film. If you are a fan of Afronofsky's first two movies I think you would appericaite what he is doing in this picture. I just hope his next film is more accessable.

Posted Tuesday, June 05, 2007 11:56 AM by walktheearth | with 0 comments