Movies

Decoy Bride.
Way better than expected.
The mask of Zorro.
Forever strong
Kinky boots.
Footloose.
Crap (but I am seeing this while exercising, so...)
One for the money.
The Most Beautiful (Kurasawa) - skippable.
I live in fear (Kurasawa) - very good.
The dinner party (very french)
Live Free or Die Hard
Shooter
Collateral
The Holiday
Walk the Line
No Country for Old Men
The Italian Job
Just Like Heaven
Nanook of the North
The Bourne Supremacy
Hotel Rwanda
Y tu mamá también
Children of Men
A Fistful of Dollars
Family Guy: Vol. 1: Disc 1: Season1
A Man for All Seasons
Enchanted
The Notebook
The Sacrifice
The Bourne Ultimatum
Million Dollar Baby
The Bad Sleep Well
The Namesake
The Producers
Flags of Our Fathers
The Pursuit of Happyness
Tom Jones
Blood Diamond
Letters from Iwo Jima
Ugetsu
The Career of Nikos Dyzma
Black Hawk Down
Being There
Band of Brothers
Brideshead Revisited: Disc 1 (4-Disc Series)
Crash
Dersu Uzala
Garden State
Teddy Roosevelt: An American Lion
Raise the Red Lantern
Late Spring
The History Channel Presents: The War of 1812
Daria: The Movie: Is it Fall Yet?
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Children of Heaven
Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance
Band of Brothers: Disc 1 (6-Disc Series) Series Disc
Cold Mountain
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Heroes: Season 1
ZEuropa Europa
The 400 Blows
Joan of Arcadia: Season 2
Joan of Arcadia: Season 1
Tru Calling: Season 1: Disc 1
Oldboy
Samurai Rebellion
Colleteral
Juno
Crash
Late spring
Valley of the wolves
An anti-American Turkish movie about Iraq. It was so bad and ludicrous, that it was very funny.
Cold mountain.
400 blows
Simpsons (the movie)
Samurai Rebellion
sneakers
Stray dog
The Magnificent seven
snatch
ghost rider.
Pan's labyrinth
I'm a cyborg but thats ok.
Knocked up
Bungee jumping of their own
My sassy girl (korean)
The host (korean).
Volver (Almadovar), 02/27/07.
The departed
Dor, 07/02/10.
March of the penguins
little miss sunshine
Iqbal
Khosla Ka Ghosla - KKG.
A man buys land in Delhi, to discover he was cheated and he has to pay more money to get it. His osne is a software engineer thinkig about going to the US. Reasonably good.
Lord of war.
click
Sleepless in Seattle
The Devil Wears Prada
Collateral
The chronicles of raddick
The terminal.
Sin City
The crying game.
Heathers
Bus 174
Kind hearts and coronets (1949)
Bonnie and Clyde
The american president
24: Season 1, 2 and 3.
Munich
Water
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Slept well during it.
Thank you for smoking
Proof - I liked it to my surprise.
V is for Vendetta...
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Paradise now
Gigi
Facing windows (Italian movie)
Vodka Lemon (Russian movie?)
Brokeback Mountain
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Good Night, And Good Luck
The Squid and the Whale
The pelican file.
Ghost world
The africa queen.
Key Largo
Rhapsody in august (Kurasawa)
untouchable
Unbreakable
Hari-Bhari (Indian movie)
Serenity
Aliens
Field of dreams
A bizarre movie. With a strong encouragement to prefer fantasy to reality. So, so...
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Dances with wolves
The lost weekend.
Harold and Kumar goes to the white castle.
Theodora goes wild
My big, fat, greek wedding
Howl's moving castle
The bueaty and the beast - Diseny version
8 1/2 (1963)
Complicated and self referential, and overall interesting...
The running man
Nausicaa
Mars attacks
Kagamusha (Kuraswa movie).
Duets (7/7/05)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
shaolin soccer
Ikiru
Toy story II
Kung Fu Hustle
Amadeus
Liabeled lady
On the Waterfront (1954)
Destry rides again.
Charade
Night at the Opera, A (1935) 7.8/10
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Die Hard 2
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Robots
The Philadelphia Story
Stalag 17
Braveheart
The householder (1963). Indian movie
Not as good as the Apu trilogy, but still very nice.
The life of Emile Zola
Bad Education (2004) (by Almadovar) - 6
Mononoke-hime (1997) - Princess Mononoke
Lagan
The devil and miss jones.
My dog skip
In the Heat of the Night
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
The Day the Earth Stood Still, The
Sideways
Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda - Seveth horse of the son
Amusing, but not a master piece. A bit post modern.
Mr. & Ms. Iyer A movie about a tamil woman and a moslem traveling in a bus, and the women pretends that the man is her wife to save his life in a ethnic riots. Well done and interesting.
Kiki's delivery service
You can't take it with you
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
The Abyss
Adventures of Robin Hood, The (1938) 5
Outdated.
The incredibles (2004) 6
Funny, but not as funny as Team American.
Sling Blade (1996) 7.9/10
Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925) - The Battleship Potyomkin [Russian] Excellent movie, and very impressive. Great music.
Team America: World Police (2004)
Amores perros (2000) - Love's a Bitch [Mexican]. 10/10/04.
A very violent, but yet a good movie. Several stories connected together. A guy trying to get out of his lousy life by dog fighting, a model participating in a car accident, and a serial killer hired to kill a brother of a guy.
Henry V (1989), 10/9/04. 6.7
Well done and acted. Interesting and deep. Hard to understand because ofthe language but powerful and amusing.
Beijing Bicycle
The Manchurian Candidate
Intimate Stranges (2004)
Maria full of grace 6.5
A girl in columbia that becomes a drug mule (i.e., she brings drugs in to the US). Well made and interesting.
Maqbol, 5.5
Indian version of Macbeth. Not bad, but not briliant either.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, 5
Boring and predictable, and the special effects looks not yet there to me.
Festen (1998) - The Celebration [Denemark], 9/7/04. 7.2
An excellent and hard movie about a celebration of the father family 60th birthday, and a disucssion of the dauther suicide. Well made, and very touching. Well acted.
Die xue shuang xiong (1989) - Bloodshed of Two Heroes [Hong Kong]5
An action movie that is so packed with violence, and is taking it self so seriously that it is funny. The movie is also known as "the killer".
Grande illusion, La . 6.2
Somewhat disappointing.
The cooperation, 6
A documentary about cooperations and their rise, and their bad impact on economy and so on. Interesting, although a left wing liberal propoganda movie as expected.
Chunking Express
La dolce vita
Grave of the fireflies
All about my mother, by Pedro Almodovar.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The man who came to dinner. 6
I, Robot 6
Lost in Translation. 5.3
Fiddler on the roof, 6
Somewhat chiclhed, somewhat predictable, but the music compensate for that. And sad.
Immortal Battalion, 4.5
Cliched by now (About a battalion in WW II).
Midnight in the garden of good and evil. 5.5
An interesting movie as far as the general athmosphere (Savvanah, South Carolina) - about a rich guy murdering/killing his lover. But in the end of the movie, the Hollywood justice kicks in and ruined the movie for me. Direct by Clint Eastwood, but still a far cry from Hitchcock.
Supersize me. 5
Betty Blue, 6/25/04. 6
A french movie (37 le matin (1986)) which is pretty wild. At points very alive, but overall depressing. This movie leaves you with the feeling that either you are insane, or the actress is insane, or the actor is insane. What was really funny, was that there is a lot of nakedness in the movie, and it was censored. As such, whenever the actor turns completely naked towards the camera, there is a big spot appearing on his penis. Since, this happens all the time in the movie, this spot appears/disappears all the time from him or her. After a while it gets funny. Another strange thing si that there is a murder scene in the movie which is shown as is, but the showing the sex organs is being censored. Maybe those people got the wrong priorities...
The insider Interesting. Well acted.
Fahrenheit 9/11 Nothing too new in the movie. I found it interesting, but I am not too excited about Micheal Moore, since I think he sometimes go for cheap manipulations. Nevertheless, this was an interesting movie. I thought that showing the mother of the dead soldier was very good, since it game human face to the dead soldiers in Iraq. I also thought that his point about only (or almost only) poor kids serving in Iraq was well made. Worth seeing, but don't expect any big revelations.
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) (USA) 6
Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (1988) by Pedro Almodovar.
An interesting movie about several women in a very enrvous state because their friend dumped them, their boyfriend is a terrorist, and so on. Amusing, although not out right helriously funny. Not as good as talk to her.
Toy Story. 5.5
Donnie Darko (2001). 6.8
An intelligent and mentally unstable teenager, Donnie Darko, hear voices and see this rabbit called Frank. Frank saves his life, telling him to leave his bedroom, just before a big jet engine falls on his house. Donnie then do some other things that Frank tells him to do. Thought the movie, it is clear that Donnie getting more and more deranged, losing connection with reality. However, The main fear factor for me in the movie, was that Donnie would turn out to be like one of those people in Columbine - killing everybody around him. In particular, Donnie hears from Frank that time travel is possible, and he is possessed by this topic. In the end of the movie, Donnie is using this time travel to redeem himself.
The movie is very nicely done, and gives a very interesting view of society from a teenager point of view.
Last time I saq Paris. 5.4
Metropolis (1927) 8.0/10. 6
Hable con ella (2002) - Talk to Her, 05/29/04. 7
A disturbing but interesting movie. Two men meet in a hospital where their "girlfriends" are in coma. One is a nurse in the hospital, and he went and worked there, after his "girlfriend" came into coma, although he met here only very few times before. Ther other, is a journalist that met his girlfriend a few months before. In the end, it is hard to feel sympathy to the journalist, and one only feels disgust with the nurse guy.
The movie has one interesting scene, which is showing supposedly a silent movie, where a man drinks some potion that makes him shrink continuously, till he become tiny. Then there is a very interesting scene of how he is "making love" to his beloved.
This is a spanish movie, by Almodovar, and the sound track is nice, and the movie visually is very nice.
Coyote Ugly 5.5
Titan A.E. 5
It is amazing what one would watch when one is unable to sleep.
Shrek 2
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), 6
Picture Perfect, 5
A romantic comedy. As good and as bad as it gets.
Bend it like Beckham. 5.2
An interesting movie as far as showing different culture, but overall somewhat fake. Amusing, not more than that.
A Beautiful Mind. 6
Better than expected, concentrating on the human and not the science. Much better than Good Will Hunting, for example.
Mulholland Dr., 4.5
A stupid and silly movie, without real plot.
Lara Croft - Tomb Raider, 4.5
Speed
Cool Hand Luke <1967) 6.5
The General (1927) 7
A silent movie about the north in the civil war stealing a train engine from the south, and the south stealing it back. Amusing.
No Exit (Play) by Sartre. 7
A play with the famous line "Other people are hell",
Good bye, Lenin!
A very nice and touching movie, about a mother having an hart attack, and going into comma in east Germany, and waking up after the wall fell. To prevent her from shock, the son does not tell er that the wall fell, and he simulates the continuation of things like before. Well done.
Ladri di biciclette - The Bicycle Thief (1948<, 8
A great movie about a man working in Rome, and somebody stealing his bikes. And his desperate search for the bikes, which are the only way to keep is work, after he was unemployed for a very long time.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Arsenic and Old Lace, 7.8
A man (Kerry Grant) learns that his kindly old aunts and his sinister brother are all serial killers. Very funny.
The Straight Story 6.9
The story of a brother traveling on a lawn mower across the US to visit his brother that had a stroke. Touching and well made.
Spartacus, 5.5
Bla bla.
Glory (1989). 5.5
Cliched and predictable, but overall ok.
Rebecca (1940). 7
Hitchcock movie. Very enjoyable.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). 5.8
A movie about a people wiping out their memories of people they dont care about any more. Like their lovers, etc. Interesting idea. Performance is average.
Bandit Queen6
Asoka 5.5
Strangers on a Train (1951). 6
Whale rider, 4.5.
The General (1998). 5.503/14/04
A story about a Dublin master mind thief and his life.
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). 6
A reasonably acted western, if somewhat too long.
My briliant career. 5
Platoon. 6
The fog of war (2003). 6.8
Interesting.
The Triplets of Belleville. (2003). 6
Interesting animated movie.
L.A. Confidential (1997). 2/28/04. 7.5
Very well made action movie. About corruption in the LA police department. A lot of suspense, action and corrupt all the way through. Enjoyable.
City Lights (1931). 2/20/04. 6
Respiro (2003). 2/14/04. 6.5
Cidade de Deus [City of God] (2002). 2/15/04. 7.2
A very violent movie about fighting among gangs and kid gangs in a very poor neighborhood.
MASH (1970. 2/3/04.
Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1988) - Cinema Paradiso. 9
Best movie I saw in the last year. Great.
A bug's life.
Brazil
Pillow Talk, 12/07/03. 4.5
A somewhat embarrassing movie from the early sixties with Rock Hudson and Doris Day about the universal topic of boy meets a girl. A few minor jokes that are funny, but this did not age well
Mystic River (2003). 11/21/03. 6
A nice but somewhat flawed movie, about a murder, and three childhood friends, involved in it. One is the father of the killed child, which is a local gangster, one is a regular person that has trauma because he was kidnapped as a kid, and the third is a policeman.
The movie, by Clint Eastwood, is somewhat flawed because of the ending, which includes an unnecessary sex scene, and making things too explicit. Also, twisting the story to make it somewhat morally clean reduces the quality of this movie.
Double Indemnity (1944). 11/08/03. 7
A good murder story by an insurance agent that get tempted to write an insurance for a guy with double indemnity, and then kills him in the perfect murder for his wife. Reasonably well made, and worth watching.
Throne of Blood. 10/05/03. 7
A remake of Macbeth in Japanese settings by Kurosawa. Reasonbly well, although not up to his masterpieces.
Se7en [seven] (1995) 9/15/03. 6
An effective and reasonably made movie, about a serial killer which kill seven people for their seven deadly sins (envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, sloth, pride). The movie is well made, and except for not very convincing acting, is pretty interesting, if somewhat horrifying. Somewhat of the silence of the lambs.
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) 9/3/03. 6.5
A reasonably good movie, but not as good as the book. Nevertheless worth watching, and much better than standard movies from this times. A very amusing handling of the scene where the soldiers give some french girls food for sex.
The Lion in Winter (1968) 9/1/03. 5.5
A historical melodrama remotely accurate about Henry II and his sons fighting over to who would be the next after him. With the queen (Eleanor of Aquitaine). Not bad, but not as complex as the real history. Well acted but somewhat boring. For more info about the real history, see here.
Freaky Friday (2003) 8/30/03. 5.4
A semi amusing Disney movie about a mother and her teenager kid changing places.
Full Metal Jacket (1987) 8/28/03. 7 A Vietnam movie made by Kubrick. The first half is very amusing while the part in Vietnam itself is weaker. A very good depiction of how basic training works.
Gandhi (1982) 8/20/03. 6.5
A bit over melodramatic and a bit over simplified, still an interesting movie about Gandhi. I was a bit bothered by the leader warship in the movie.
7th Seal
American History X (1998). 8/18/03. 7
A movie about white supremacists. The movie is a bit simplistic, but nevertheless it is very powerful, and present the attractiveness of it very well. Very sad and in some ways very sophisticated. Interesting.
The story is a story of a white supremacist guy being released from jail after killing violently two guys that stole his car. His younger brother adore him, and he is worried that he would follow in his steps. Also, he became disillusioned with the white supremacist message during jail. As such, he comeback to a strange reality.
The Apu Trilogy - Part I - Pather Panchali. 8/16/03. 7.6
The story of the family of Apu. An interesting description of a poor family in a village in India. Impressive both technically and content wise.
Nowhere in Africa (2003) 8/10/03. 6
Paths of Glory (1957) 8/10/03. 7
First world war. The general staff of the french army decides, for political reasons, to attack an unassailable hill. The attack fails, and the general in charge, which is charge, which is a bit of a moron, picks three people from the unit to be executed for "cowardice" to improve the "moral" of the unit army. Everything works fine, except for the Colonel of the unit that sticks with his men, and does whatever he can to save the people.
The movie is very well made, and expose the complete luck of caring for life, even for their own soldiers that commanders on both sides had. The only problem with this movie is that it is a bit too righteous.
The Zig Zag Story, (1983) 8/10/03. 7.5
Very funny and hard to describe - a real treat.
Delicatessen

To Kill a Mockingbird

12 Angry Men (1957) 7/30/03, 6
An OK movie. About the group psychology of 12 juries in a murder movie.
Best Years of Our Lives (1946), 7/29/03. 6.6
A movie about people returning from world war II and their problems in getting readjusted to reality. Interesting and not too sentimental. Includes a guy that lost his hands, a guy with a wife that he knew only shortly before going to war, and a banker that finds it hard to go back to regular life.
The great escape, 7/26/03. 6
Predictable. Makes the war into a game which it is not. Also give a very simplified answers to hard questions. In the end a glorified failure.

The good, the bad and ugly, 7/26/03. 8
Excellent western. Funny and amusing.
Bowling for Colombine, 7/20/03. 7.5
A thought and interesting movie about the shooting in Columbine (in Little-rock near Denver). Interesting and insightful, but does not provide a closed form answer.
Reservoir Dogs, 7/15/03. 6.5
Somewhat similar to pulp fiction. A movie about criminals that just did a robbery that went wrong. Interesting.
Ben-Hur (1959), 7/12/03. 5.5
A fictional historic story that takes place in Israel during the time of Christ. There are some amusing references to Jesus, but the movie overall suffers from too much Christian evangelism,
Attack the gas station, 7/9/03. 7.9
A Korean movie about a gang attacking a gas station. Very funny.
Guns+talks, 7/3/03. 7
A Korean movie about 4 assassins which are a bit clueless. Funny and a bit weird.
Die Another Day, 12/08/02. 5.5
A standard James Bond. Nothing deep. The gadgets got a little bit out of control. For example, the "invisible" car....
Requiem for a dream, Darren Aronofsky. 10/10/02. 7
Well made, and well acted movie about drugs. The end of the movie is somewhat predictable, and when you come down to it, this movie is not very original in the statement it is trying to make. Jennifer Connelly acts well, but the best actress in this movie is by far Ellen Burstyn, acting a very human and emphatic character.
Barton Fink, Cohen Brothers. 10/9/02. 7.5
Well made and amusing. About an author that comes to Hollywood, and his life there. With a serial killer going around. Very unpredictable, funny, and well made.
Story-telling, Todd Solondz, 2002. 10/7/02-1. 7
Two stories, one about a student being "raped" by her literature professor. The second about a rich kid and his college application, etc.
Triumph of the will, (1934), 10/7/02, 6
A movie documenting the Nazi party congress at Nuremberg at Germany in 1934. The movie was done by the Nazis and received various awards.
Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, 8/23/02. 7.7 A small interesting movie, about fate, life in the big city, etc.
Best in show, 8/10/02. 6.7
A funny description of the weirdos that hung out in dog shows. Pretty funny, but it makes fun of stupidity, which is always easy.
Signs, 8/5/02. 5
The movie has presence, but it does not have a consistent story, and the movie drifts from the banal to the ridiculous. There are some frightening moments.
Lilo & Stitch, 7/14/02. 6
Not bad. The short animated movie shown before the movie was very good.
There is something about Mary, 7/14/02. 6.5
Not bad, in fact, better than expected. Some reasonably funny jokes, although the movies feels a lot like a sitcom. Another movie by Ben Stiller, the guy from Meet the Parents. Too bad there is nothing special about Cameron Diaz, the actress playing Mary. The end was, as expected, but had been much better if the last sixty seconds were cut. Oh well, don't get me started about the ends of American movies.
Minority Report, 6/30/02. 6.2
An adaption of a short story by Philip K. dick with Tom Cruise as the main character and Spielberg and the director. While PKD story had higher consistency, and more logical. The movie adaption, which is naturally completely different, is more adaptive and more flexible. The basic idea of using precogs to predict future crimes remains. The idea that of the three precogs used, one might be a minority, also remained. What was not clear why is such a report is being created (in the story, there is a very clear and logical reason - essentially, the first report predicting the murder of X by Y, is being read by Y, as such Y changes is mind not to murder X).
And of course, in the movie, there is a touching human story about the precog, X, Y and everybody else (including the person that invented the precog). So, the movie was OK, the story was more consistent, both are in the OK level, but not above it.
The Negotiator, 6/30/02. 7
A fast and effective thriller, about a negotiator (a person educated in handling kidnapings, and similar things), that becomes a kidnapper himself to prove his innocence, in the corrupt police department of Chicago.
Primary Colors, 6/30/02. 5.5
A spin-off of the Clinton era. A president like Clinton and his rise to power. About infinite ambition, and the willingness to use whatever necessary to win, and inability of one key person to control his sexual drive. Sound familiar, isn't it? Emma Thomson plays "Hilary" pretty well. What remains unclear is what really motivates the president and his wife, a question left unanswered to this day (on the real Clintons this is)...
Clinton was probably a very good president, as far as hitory is concerned (although it si too early to judge). The political obsession with his sexual affairs was yet another indicator of the decadent and corrupt political system in the US.
Gattaga, 1997. 5/25/02. 7
We are in the not so far future. People are being born with genetic editing before birth, so that they would be perfect. Non perfect people geneticly, or not be hired to jobs, because, heck, why take the risk?
A normal born, Vincent, decides he want to be an astronaut. Unfortunately, his way is blocked because of genetics. He finds a (cripple) perfect born, and uses him as his cover story, giving his blood, and so on, as the samples needed to get him into the space program.
While the settings are interesting, the movie is far from perfect. For example, there is a good chance that we would be able to do in body DNA editing (speaking out of my ignorance on the topic, of course). Also, the movie does not account to the ingrained conservatism of the human society.
Get shorty, 1995. 5/25/02. 5
A Pulp Fiction rip-off. Not bad, but nothing much more than that.
Spiderman, 2002. 5/25/02. 4
Panic Room, 2002. 4/21/02. 6
Stagecoach 1939; dir. John Ford. 4/21/02. 4
A standard old boring western.
12 Monkeys, 1995; dir. Terry Gilliam. 4/11/02. 5.5
An SF movie with Bruce Willis, playing a guy sent from the future to figure out who had spread viruses that kill most of humanity. Somewhat similar to terminator and blade runner. The movie drags on for over 120 minutes, without having a real point. A bit dark, and not completely bad made, but the end is very disappointing, not because it is not positive, but because it is kind of pointless.
Fargo,1996; dir. Joel & Ethan Coen. 4/11/02. 7.5
A good movie about the Midwest, the simple life, greed, murder, and humanity. Frances McDormand plays a very human policewomen, trying to figure out a crime that gets out of control. A used car seller, decides to get money by faking the kidnapping of his wife, so that her father would pay him a million dollar (everything is going in Minnesota near Minneapolis). He contacts those pair of criminals that can be only be described as mentally unstable (especially one of them). From there on, it becomes blood bath, while this policewomen from nowhere, slowly figures out whats going on. A lot of nice human moments, some funny jokes, and a horror of violence without remorse. Somewhat Clockwork Orange as far as violence is concerned. A bit sad.
Do the Right Thing 1989; dir. Spike Lee. 3/24/02. 7.5
Two days in the street of a black neighborhood in NYC. Tell the story of how a guy is being killed by the police, and how the mob burns down a pizzeria. A very vague story morally, and there is no clear right or wrongs. Interesting, and the movie has a unique atmosphere around it. It is unclear what the director really thinks. In particular, the movie end with a quote of King against violence, and a quote of Malcolm X supporting violence in the name of self defense, but what self defense was there in the movie? So, the movie is interesting, but it might be morally inconsistent. It definitely has an interesting depiction of culture clash between the natives and the Korean grocery story (similar to the Silent Cry, by Oe), and the Italian pizzeria owner. If fact, the Pizzeria owner seems to be the only truely descent man there, maybe except for the half drank call the Mayor.
Red River 1948; dir. Howard Hawks. 3/24/02. 6
A long and never ending western. With a sugar on the top. Boring.
Sweet Smell of Success 1957; dir. Alexander Mackendrick. 3/24/02. 7.2
About what a person is willing to do to become successful. A famous journalist wants to keep his sister under his control. He gets somebody to be his cats paw and do the dirty dead. A well acted movie, but nothing too surprising.
A Room With a View 1986; dir. James Ivory. 3/23/02. 6.5
A standard 19-th century high society British story. A girl and a boy and whatever follows is predictable. The story is a bit stretched as the love story is not that credible. The movie is well acted, but thats about it.
Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981; dir. Steven Spielberg. 3/22/02. 7.
A fun action movie. Well made.
Reds 1981; dir. Warren Beatty. 3/21/02. 8
The story of a communist journalist and his wife during the early twenty century. In particular, during World War I, and the Russian revolution. The movie is interesting as a historical document, documenting the hysterical fear of communism in the US, and the naivety of the intellectuals about the communism. Having the perspective of history, makes this movie even more itneresting. It is a bit on the long side (190 minutes), but it is very well acted (notably Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton). The main person is Jack Reed author of "Ten Days That Shook the World" (might be interesting to read this).
Out of the Past 1947; dir. Jacques Tourneur. 3/17/02. 6
A standard movie about an investigator that is sent to find out a woman that ran away with money, and get mixed with her, and the Mafia boss which is her husband. You can imagine what follows. Ok - not more than that.
All That Jazz 1979; dir. Bob Fosse. 3/17/02. 6.5.
What Jazz? An itneresting view in death, from a point of view of a director that has heart problems and have time to reflect about his work, his womanizing, etc. A unique view, not necessarily too original or too deep. Interesting.
Groundhog day 1993; dir. Harold Ramis. 3/16/02. 8.
An unpretentious comedy about a guy repeatedly waking up in the same day again and again and his effort to try and escape from this day. The comedy is pretty funny, and the movie plays with the idea to its limits. Including for example the case that the hero goes and save the same kid again and again when it falls from a tree, and similar events. Small comedy, a lot of fun, and surprisingly little religious righteousness (like in example in the movie The Family Man).
Hud 1963; dir. Martin Ritt. 3/16/02. 6.5.
The story of a farm in Texas where a guy, named Hud, is in conflict with his father, and with the other people of the household. To complicate things, the cows in the farm are attacked by a decease, and the people have to decide what to do. The story concentrate around a 17 years old, and his admiration to Hud, and his disillusion with it as time passes. Movie well made, and well acted.
This Is Spinal Tap 1984; dir. Rob Reiner. 2/22/2002. 3
A movie making fun of the heavy rock culture, and its inherit stupidity of all t he people involved. Predictable and stupid.
Notorious 1946; dir. Alfred Hitchcock. 2/18/2002. 6
A standard Hitchcock movie. A pretty impressive performance by Ingrid Bergman however, but not enough to save this movie from being boring. It is amazing how much fast forward is able to kill suspense - ha, the director want us to see the man slowly climbing the stairs for 20 seconds while a music in the background prepares us to the worse, but in 4*fast forward, it takes 5 seconds and no brainwashing by the music. Ha, the wonders of technology.
Moonstruck 1987; dir. Norman Jewison. 2/13/2002. 7.
Pretty funny, and not mushy. A woman plans to get married for the second time, but falls in love with her fiancee's brother, which is a weirdo. Made with a lot of charm. The end is a bit mushy, but this is an American movie, what can you expect...
Hamlet 1948; dir. Laurence Olivier. 2/12/2002. 7.5.
A marvelous option to blast a classic. To make fun of the old and outdated. But, sadly, I liked it. In the end, it is not clear that Hamlet is the good guy. A bit ruthless, while playing the wounded intellectual. Well made. I should probably read Hamlet in the original carefully, with a dictionary...
The Piano 1993; dir. Jane Campion. 2/6/2002. 5.
Pretentious, violent, and a long stretch of imagination. Just fake.
Patton 1970; dir. Franklin Schaffner. 2/5/2002. 7.5
An interesting movie. The movie present Patton as he was - a somewhat strange person, with strange belief, and as a briliant general that understood war very well. And a person without nay ability to be diplomatic. Somewhat of a general worrying about fighting other generals than what is healthy. Interesting.
A Streetcar Named Desire 1951; dir. Elia Kazan. 2/4/2002. 4
Better named "Streetcar named disaster". A truely irritating movie, and boring and predictable, and after one hour of watching it, I gave up.
A Hard Day's Night 1964; dir. Richard Lester. 2/2/2002. 7
A movie by the Beatles. As a standard band movie, they look for any opportunity for starting to sing. Whats put this movie as better than similar movies, is that they make fun of themselves, of the their fans, and the movie as a bit of Marx brothers and a bit of a dream quality. So it si definitely interesting. It is interesting to see how much they were clear cut kids, to some extent.
I still find the fact that the beatles were so successful a bit strange. Why were they so successful? There were definitely better singers, and better bands than the beatles.
Zulu 1/27/02. 6
A movie about how the good british survive outnumbered against the bad bad bad Zulu in south africa. Yes. The british were such victims.
The Terminator 1984; dir. James Cameron. 1/27/02. 5
The Thin Man 1934; dir. W. S. Van Dyke. 1/27/02. 5.5
Not there yet. Some hints of the classical movies of the forties. Nothing too interesting - a complicated mysterious merder story, without too much opertunity to follow it or understand it.
Midnight Cowboy 1969; dir. John Schlesinger. 1/27/02. 6.2
A young Texan, decides to go to New-York to start his life from scratch. Having no abilities, he deteriorates into living in the gutter, and becoming a friend to another luckless person. A movie on the dark side of the American existence, and on the far side between self image and reality. Not bad.
Last Tango in Paris 1972; dir. Bernardo Bertolucci. 1/26/02. 7
A strange movie. Sometime pretentious, sometime interesting, sometime cliched. An American leaving in Paris, just lost his wife that suicided. He find a new lover, trying to have a love outside of the grim reality. Things are open ended, and a bit blurry.
The Quiet Man 1952; dir. John Ford. 1/17/02. 4
Silly. Stupid. And irritating.
Psycho 1960; dir. Alfred Hitchcock. 1/6/02. 6
A standard Hitchcock movie.
The Third Man 1949; dir. Carol Reed. 1/6/02. 7.5
A very good movie. All about friendship, and such friendship becomes void and null. The story is Vienna after the war, and a friend comes to visit his freidn Harry in Veinna. However, it turns out that Harry is daead and was a black market racketeer of the worst case, and Holly Martin finds himself torn between friendship, and basic human dignity. As he try to find out if Harry was killed or murdered.
Schindler's List 1993; dir. Steven Spielberg. 1/5/02
A well made movie. Nothing much new in it for me. From what I heard Oscar Schindler was a much more complicated person, and less clear cut white as described in the movie. So what, in a world were the competition was for being black or blacker he was unique.
It Happened One Night 1934; dir. Frank Capra. 1/3/02 - 6.5
The story, is well, a cliche by now. The plot is completely predictable. The acting is a bit contrived, and the special effect, heck, every third rate movie has better special effect. But I liked this movie nevertheless. Probably because it was the first. The story: a rich daughter escapes from her very rich father and try to get to her "husband". On the way, she meets a journalist that helps her, and surprise surprise, the fall involve. The rest is history. However, the movie has charm, and it is nice to see how they handle all the things considering the fact that they were so conservative (for example, how do you depict an unmarried couple sleeping in the same room?). A fun movie.
Modern Times 1936; dir. Chales Chaplin. 1/1/02 - 7
A classic. Some very nice scenes, especially when he is being swallowed by the machine, and also when he sings in the resturant.
Rebel Without a Cause 1955; dir. Nicholas Ray. 1/1/02 - 7
A rich kid is being rebellious without any reason. The movie try to be conservative while giving a realistic picture of whats going on. Somewhat similar in spirit to "Catcher in the rye". By now, this theme was used so many times, so it is like watching a cliche. Overall pretty good.
The Last Picture Show 1971; dir. Peter Bogdanovich. 12/30/01 - 5
A small texas town in the middle of nowhere with their own dark pathethic secrets. Picture is filmed in black and white. Very artistic, very nothing. The movie is buried in Nostalgia and the story of a soap opera. Somewhat similar to twin peaks. Oh well, it was on the list.
Jaws 1975; dir. Steven Spielberg. 12/30/01 - 6
A standard super make money fast movie for all the family. A "classic". Not worth watching except for its being famous.
The hidden fortress 1958; Akira Kurosawa, 12/30/01 - 7
In my hunt to extend my ignorance, I saw this movie. It is an amusing Kurosawa movie, without pretension, and trying to have some fun. Nothing is too deep. Supposedly, this movie was the influence for star-wars. I think this movie is slightly better. Make fun of greed and stupidity. A princess escapes her enemies that are hunting her down. She also moves a large amount of gold together with her. The movie is all about her escape.
Unforgiven 1992; Clint Eastwood. 12/27/01 - 8.1
Best western I saw in a long time. Well made, well acted. With no clear good guys or bad guys. The story: A whore is being cut up by two drunks. The local sheriff do nothing. The whores mad as hell, promise money for killing the two guys. A retired "gangster" is encouraged by a kid to go and help him kill the two idiots. The gangster (played by Clint Eastwood) has two kids but his wife is dead. The story is their travel for killing those two people, and the revenge of Clint Eastwood after his (third) partner is being killed.
The usual suspects 12/25/01 - 6.8
We all remember doctor Moriatee, the arch enemty of Sherlock Holmes. Beware, for a new deadly arch-criminal had risen from the ashes of Turkey: Keyser Soze. He, which we do not see in the movie, forces a gang of criminals from NY to stop a ship containing a huge amount of cocaine sent my a competing company. But in fact, there is no cocaine. The only porpuse of the raid is to kill the only person that ever saw Keyser Soze. The story is being told after the act, during the investigation of the only remaining criminal which is lame and stupid. By the end of the movie we know who is the real Kerser Soze. Unfortunately, I could see the end ocming from hte middle of the movie.
Overall an amusing movie, but nothing too deep.
The Hustler, 1961; dir. Robert Rossen. 12/25/01 - 7.5
A good, but a somewhat manipulative movie. The story of a rising pool player (Edie Felson) that meats for the first time a player that can match his ability. He loses, meet a strange girl, rebuild himself, and replay this player, winning, but discovering that the price of victory is by far too large. And victory is not eveything.
Touch Of Evil (1958) - 7.1.
Pulp Fiction - 7.
Network, 1976; dir. Sidney Lumet. 12/25/01 - 8
A very interesting movie, speaking about the slavery to ratings. Plot: A news anchor goes mad and starts to bubble various nonsense. The network which in the beginning tries to control him, discover that he is good for buisness and keep him on, turning the news show into a apocalyptic nonsense. The regular theme about multinationals replacing nationalism, and the end of nationalism and personal freedom.
Overall, this is very interesting, considering what really happend (as we know now, 25 years later). To begin with, they did not predict maybe the most important change, which is the proliferation of channels. This had in a sense completely removed the importance of a single show. The most widely showed in the first week of december 2001, was ER (with 18.2%) (following with "friends" 14.9%, and "Law and Order" 13.3%). Namely, nobody watches a single show naymore. Also, it is quite conceivable that in 10 years from now, even that would be considered to be ridiculously high (replay and tivo are going to make watching TV live almost a thing of the past) - especially if you would start to be able to see 1000 changles in your home, or better, be able to buy movies/programs on a viewer basis. The economics of TV are dramaticly changing, and it would be interesting to see whats going to happend.
They did observe that the slavery to ratings is going to be a major thing, but because of the offesting effect of cables, I think this is not that important. Overall a good movie, but somewhat predicable, after having Oprah and Springer shows around...
Rushmore, Wess Anderson. 12/22/01 - 7.2
A very interesting movie. All about the confusion of growing up, together with the boring life of a rich man, and a very creative student in a exclusive high school falling in love with one of the teachers, competing with the rich man for the teacher. And deciding to go for it. The movie has a presence and is very interesting. Currently it is to some extent more a collection of short sketches, so...
I think Wess Anderson has great promise, we will have to just wait and see if it is realized. In some sense, he has to grow up. I wonder if he can?
The movie script.
Beverly Hills Ninja. 12/22/01 - 5
A very silly movie, with somewhat amusing moments. A fat white male finds himself as a Ninja, trying to "save" a female in "distress", which is in fact related to money counterfeiting gang. Somewhat similar to the movie Tommy Boy.
Vanilla Sky, 2001, 12/18/01 - 4.5
An irritating rip off o P.K. Dick book (you can never tell which book, because it is usually just ideas). A guy is murdering his own girlfriend and strange things happend to him. Somewhat similar to Ubik, but without the clever undergoing theme, and without the nerve to go all the way. The movie is long, and the end is completely predictable (yes, he wakes up - yet again - after 500 times he wake up in the movie). Lame.
Fight club, David Ficher, 1999. 12/12/01 - 7.9
A very strange guy is starting a cult that involves a lot of violance. The regular thingy about the emptiness of the modern life and the revolution against it. The movie have a very violent ending, somewhat similar to what happend to the two towers 9/11/01. The movie has a strong presence, and is interesting, but is not as good as Clockwork Orange.
Ran, Akira Kurosawa, 1985. 11/5/01 - 8.5
A truely impressive movie. A japanesse remake of Lear. Is the hero really a hero or a butcher of innocent life? Can we just retire, and forget the world around us? Is there a god? Or do make this ourself? Is this hell, or paradise? Maybe, in the end, it just comes down to a simple twist of fate. In short, this is a truely complicated movie, and I dont have simple reaction. Impressive battle scenes and war. More in the butchery sense than in the glorifying sense.
Monsters, Inc, 2001. 11/3/01 - 5
A very nice 3d animation - a truely impressive fur. Except for that not so impressive, and the story is a bit redundant.
Spaceballs, 1987; dir. Mel Brooks. 10/27/01 - 7.5
Young Frankenstein, 1973; dir. Mel Brooks. 10/27/01 - 5.8
West Side Story 1961; dir. Robert Wise. 10/26/01 - 5
A musical - Romeo and Juliet in modern times in new-york city as a fight between the white and hispanic groups over the control of the streats of the neighberhood, with the inevitable love, and death of several participants. Predictable, songs are boring, and the dancing except for one or two places is just boring. In short BORING. But heck, it was on the list, and it is not longer on it.
The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957; dir. David Lean. 10/25/01 - 8
The story of a batellion of british soldiers that are prisoner of war under the Japanese in China, that are being used under hash settings to build a bridge. You have the regular settings of a commander of the camp unwilling to compromise with the british, and is willing to ignore reality, just for saving face, and the long and avoidable fight he have with the british of whether or not the officers would work or not. Of course, one of the soldiers escapes, and the british are planning to come back and ruin the bridge. Overall, an amusing movie, with funny moments, serious moments, and the inevitable statement about the stupidity of war.
The Apartment 1960; dir. Billy Wilder. 10/23/01 - 5
A guy is manouvered into giving his apartment key to everybody. He of course fall in love in one of the girls being brought into the apartment, and saves her when she tries to suicide. The story from this point on is completely predictable.
From Here to Eternity 1953; dir. Fred Zinnemann, 9/27/01 - 7
The life in a military camp just beofre the attack on perl harbour. On two people trying to get love, and failing in the face of reality. A big soup opera like gone with the wind, and a bit on the efailure of achieving heapiness. The movie is based on a strongly anti millitary story. It was watered down and the effect is visible.
The Deer Hunter 1978; dir. Michael Cimino. 9/22/01 - 8.5
A movie about god forsaken small town, and several coworkers, that some of them go to Vitnam. The movie has several very strong moments, and is somewhat slow. In particular, the first hour in the movie is really really slow. The move from the hart of america, to the Vietnameese game of Russian roulette, is quite effective. Unlike other movies, it is not judgmental about Vietnam. It accepts it as it is, and shut shows the horrible price involved. A very impressive movie in some parts, and very effective, but I do not really believe we can just forget about the folly that lead 59,202 americans die in Vietnam (10,000 died non-hostile deaths, I am sure that makes them feel better).
It is sad how rarely politicians pay for their mistakes. And even when they pay, their payment is so small compared to the real price of their mistake. I truely pray that we had learned something from history, but I am afriad we did not.
Spy kids 2001; - 5.5.
A somewhat childish kids "jame bond"-type movie. Silly but amusing, with the predicatble mad scientiest, and hyper doper special effects, and so on. Stupid but fun.
Nashville 1975; dir. Robert Altmam. 9/15/01 - 5.
A mood movie about nashville. Nothing much in the line of story. A lot people just looking for happiness. One singer get shot in the end of the movie, and a pathethic singer turned into streaptease performer. A statemetn about the wish of people to become somebodies, and/or stars. Oh well.
The Big Sleep 1946; Howard Hawks. 9/13/01 - 5.5.
A fast pacing detective movie which is so complicated that it is never clear who is again who, and whats goin on. Has some nice and amusing schenes. Bugard plays the Marlo the PI, and Backole is one of the sisters in the rich and strange family that pays for his services.
The Musketeer, Directory: Hyams. (2001) 9/7/01 - 5.
A remake of the classical story of the Musketeers. A turn off your brain fun movie. Have a lot of action which is redicilously similar to Hidden Dragon, Crouching Tiger. You will remember nothing from this movie a week after your saw it.
Apocalypse Now 1979; dir. Francis Ford Coppola 9/5/01 - 5.5.
Indiana Johns and the Holy Temple in Vietnam! Buy now! A completely ridiculous movie, with nice photography, good acting, and completely unbelievable story. The story: An American officer starts his own independent "kingdom" in Cambodia after he is being accused of dirty fighting in Vietnam (i.e., killing four people that he decides cooperate with the enemy). A special unit guy is sent to terminate him. The special unit guy is almost is wacky as the person he is sent to terminate. An enjoyable, but flawed movie.
There are real horrors in wars, but this movie is just not delivering as far as the story is concerned.
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Woody Allen (2001), 8/26/01 - 6.9.
A turn off your brain fun movie. A non standard Woody Allen movie with a somewhat neat idea (Of course stollen, see for example. Scanner Darkly by P.K. Dick) - a investigator has to "fight" himsef. Helen Hunt, unforunately, plays the intelligent female that make fun of W.C. Brigs (i.e., Woody Allen). The end, is of course, predictable.
Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese (1976). 8/26/01. 7
A somewhat pretentious, slow paced movie. Exposing the amazing facts that people are lonely, strange, and New York is (in certain places) Sodom and Gomorrah at night. This movie was probably interesting 20 years, today it is outdated. On the positive side, the photography and sound are quite nice. I also liked the end of the movie. (The story: A lonely person becomes a taxi driver in NY and search for meaning in his life. Famous line: "Are you speaking to me?".)
AI - Artificial Intelligence, Spilbertg. 6/29/01. 7.9
A reasonably good and interesting movie. Supposedly, the last movie the Kubrik wanted to produce. The movie has impresive special effects, and some nice jokes. On the negative side, there is nothing much new if you already saw Blade Runner. The movie drugs on and on towards the end, and would have benefits from some cuts. Furtheermore, the movie does not make much technlogical sense considering the current technology: (i) why would humans limit the number of children, (ii) where is the global network that everybody would be connected to?, and (iii) GPS?
The Wizard of Oz 1939; dir. Victor Fleming, 6/24/2001. 7.1.
Somewhat conservative and simplicial, but still have a lot of charm. A movie which has somewhat simplicial messages, but most of them are worthy. I liked the mockery of heroes, and doctors. Especially the ref to PhDs.
Hannah and Her Sisters 1986; dir. Woody Allen. 6/17/2001. 5.9.
After a while, some of Woody Allen movies become predictable and boring. The conclusion: "One should just enjoy the ride" is not exactly the most uriginal and deep observation about life.
The Wild Bunch 1969; dir. Sam Peckinpah. 6/17/2001. 6.5
A well made and acted western. Nevertheless, a standard one. Everybody dies. Violence is bad for you, etc, etc, etc. The regular stuff. A gang being setup by the railroad company escapse to mexico, where they are hired by some generalisimo to steal guns from an american train. They succeed in doing so, while all the time being hunted down by one of their previous comrades.
The Shawshank Redemption, 6/16/2001i. 7/10
A white banker is being accused and sent for two years for jail for killing his wife and her lover. This is the story of his life in the jail and his friendship with one of the black prisonners. While well acted (Tim Robbins, but especilally Morgan Freeman), the movie is good, but somewhat manipulative. Detailed are a bit streched, and the good are good, and the bad, are well, really bad. A bit of ambiguity and uncertainty would have greatly improved the movie.
Shrek, 5/18/2001. 7.7/10
A computerized animated movie - make fun of standard fairy-tales. Reasonably funny and amusing. Seventy minutes of fun. Not exactly ground breaking.
Remember the Titans, 5/16/2001. 7.3/10.
A sport movie and a black-white relations movie. Some good moments, and some good acting. A good, but somewhat predictable movie.
The Searchers 1956; dir. John Ford, 5/6/2001. 5.8/10
A standard western.
All About Eve 1950; dir. Joseph Mankiewicz, 5/5/2001. 7.5/10.
Reasonably well acted. The story of a manipulative and ambitious "nobody" (Eve Harington), trying (and succeeding) in becoming a famous actress. In the process inventing her own history, applying blackmail to get her way, etc. The regular sweet cute woman, which is in fact a monster (run away screaming!).
But in the end, Eve got her fame for being a good actress. Does it really matters how she got there? Shouldn't we blame also the people being manipulated for giving up to the manipulation? A lot of famous people had to invent themselves, and sometime reinvent themselves all the time, to remain famous.
The movie is a bit too long, and slightly predictable.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 1975; dir. Milos Forman, 5/1/2001. 7.5/10.
Interesting and in some sense funny. What is sanity? What is insanity? Was the nurse sane? Are insane people that bad? Or that good? Story: The usual spiral of events getting out of control. Interesting and surprising end. Worth the time to see it, despite the several dead minutes. Jack Nicholson as usual, playing the partially insane really well.
Momento, 2001. 8.9/10.
Aren't we all have only bounded memory, bound to repeat what we done before. A slaves to our palm pilots, our lists, and our calendars. And it is not different than how we function sometime. Interesting connection to Finite automata theory and finite memory.
This said, I am not sure the story is consistent. Can a person that forgets everything immediately do anything at all? Can one be intelligent without having just a little bit of short term memory?
BTW, the movie ends very open-ended , which is extremely non-American...
A very good movie.
Vertigo 1958; dir. Alfred Hitchcock. 6.2/10.
A bit too long in today standards. A little lack of believe in the viewer patience, with hints of whats going on. (worth seeing, but not a masterpiece). See the Rear window instead.

DVD collection

To watch...

In the name of the father.

Last modified: Sat Aug 10 00:21:36 CDT 2013