Keeping Track (May 24, 2012)
by HELEN GEIB
Last Week at the Movies
The Raven
The Avengers (2d viewing)
Bernie
Last Week at Home
Maybe- Korean indie that might have worked as a short film
500 Days of Summer- at a party to celebrate the film club’s 500th event
Near Dark- starting a Kathryn Bigelow retrospective in the film club
The Big Swindle- Korean con game movie with a cool flashback structure
Lifting King Kong- remarkably weepy sports drama
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three- loved the final shot of Matthau’s Lt. Garber
Killer Elite- draws interesting institutional parallels between “good” and “bad” guys
Once Upon a Time (2008)- lighthearted adventure set in Seoul in the last days of the Japanese occupation
New in Theaters This Weekend
MIB 3 and Chernobyl Diaries. It works out well for me that I don’t want to see either of these, as Memorial Day weekend means Cinevent.
What have you been watching? What are you looking forward to?
I’m glad you finally got around to seeing the original ‘Taking of Pelham 1-2-3′. I take it you liked this version better than the remake?
I enjoyed The Avengers at the theater. It was better that I expected when I first heard it was coming.
At home I caught Let The Bullets Fly. It too was better than expected, but then I only knew what the Netflix blurb had to say.
I also watched The Decendants. I’ve been down on George Clooney lately, but I think he did OK in this one.
I’ve been hearing many people complain about Clooney but I have never had a problem with him. He’s never disappointed me. I don’t think he’s capable of delivering a bad performance; like Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, etc. He truly is the Cary Grant of his generation.
@Richard, which did you find to be a worse film: Tony Scott’s The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3 or his followup Unstoppable? I find them both to be complete trash.
I preferred the original “Taking of Pelham” but not by all that wide a margin.
PLOT In the first film, the villain’s motivation and plan were straightforward and credible. In the remake, they were convoluted and not credible. Advantage: original.
CHARACTERS AND NARRATIVE FOCUS The script in the first film confused New York attitude with characterization. Matthau drew a great character sketch but the movie’s overall 1970s in-your-face-ness was wearying. Washington’s hero character, who is original to the second film, is substantive and developed, and the main focus of the story. Slight advantage to: remake.
SETTING New York streets and subway tunnels in both films. Advantage: draw.
lol
Another draw: as much as I dislike the ’70s aesthetics, I hate Tony Scott’s cinematography (that goes for most of his career). The first shot of the film (the remake) is of a subway train and its shot in sight slow motion; you know the kind, when you angle the lens 45 or 90 degrees and everything has that slow motion, motion trail, after image look to it. It’s ugly and pointless. Much like almost every shot in a Tony Scott film.
I utterly hate his films on a cinematographical level but I also hate his stories. Unstoppable is based on a true story and seeing that I didn’t hear a news story about a city being leveled I figured out, right from the start that everything will be okay. Plus, a ghost started the whole chain of events.
Man on Fire is one of my most hated films and Domino is an abomination.
I like Enemy of the State, The Last Boyscout, and Spy Game but his only actual good films are True Romance, Crimson Tide, and Deja Vu.
Sorry for going on a Tony Scott rant, I really hate his work and I can’t figure out how he and Ridley are related.
Last/This Week at Home
Lady Killer -hilarious and awesome James Cagney screwball comedy. It’s always a pleasure to watch him drag a woman across his apartment by her hair and kick her out the door when she refuses to leave.
The Grey -amazing film. Powerful, well shot, terrifically acted film about the will to survive and a terrific meditation on life and death. A must watch.
Crank: High Voltage -love it. I’ve watched it many times and it terrific entertainment. It’s easily the second-best video game movie ever made that’s not based on a video game. The best is obviously Scott Pilgrim vs the World.
Punisher: War Zone -the first time that I watched it I hated it. But after listening to the director talk about it for an hour on a podcast has changed my mind entirely. On second viewing it’s an hilarious piece of entertainment that draws directly from the comics, aesthetically and thematically.
Take the Money and Run – hilarious mockumentary about a career criminal (Woody Allen). Very funny stuff. Especially the scene where he tries to rob a bank and the note that he delivers the teller is misspelled. Then the entire bank crew argue about the spelling and the overall message of the note until the cops arrive.
Merry Anderson -classic Danny Kaye.
@Nir I agree that I am not a big fan of Tony Scott either. I have not seen ‘Unstoppable’. I thought his remake of ‘Taking of Pelham’ was okay, but paled badly to the original. I thought the editing was too frenzied. Travolta hams it up too much as the bad guy and Washinton is a boring protagonist compared to Matthau.
You don’t mention anything about ‘Top Gun’. That was one of Scott’s first movies. I hear there are plans to come out with a ‘Top Gun 2′.
‘The Hunger’ which is Tony Scott’s first movie is a real dud. I thought any movie that had Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie as vampire lovers would have to at the very least be interesing, but it ended up being really boring instead.
@Richard, I didn’t mention Top Gun or Days of Thunder because neither is worth mentioning. :OÞ