Doppelganger (1993) - 0/5

Doppelganger (1993) - there's a reason you haven't heard of this. It's not good. Don't see it.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (book)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis - re-read after 13 years. Great! Very good read all around. Can't wait for the movie!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (book)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams - re-read after 8 years. Very entertaining and witty. Well written w/ good 'tangents.' Reminds me of Vonnegut's style in particular "Sirens of Titan."

Hitch (2005) - 2.5/5

Hitch (2005) - pretty good and funny - light and good

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) - .5/5

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) - doesn't hold up well over time

In Good Company (2004) - 2/5

In Good Company (2004) - cute and good parallels, unnecessary relationship bit w/ the daughter (don't want to give too much away here)

Dolce vita, La (1960) - 3.5/5

Dolce vita, La (1960) - I certainly can't do this movie justice in just about anything I say, but it does seem to be filled w/ great examples of how to live an empty life. Very powerful and poetic.

Matthew 3:1-5

Matthew 3:1-5

3"But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

Powerful stuff. Two points:

1. Beware practicing your righteousness before men. If you do, you have your reward. That's so powerful.

2. Verse 3 (above) - thoughts? I have some, but they are the obvious ones.

Matthew 5:44-45

verses

44 "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

I'm not sure I understand the relationship btwn 44-45a and 45b.

Maybe the point is, He's going to allow the good and evil ones to prosper
so only the ones that do good only b/c it's doing good will be sons of God???

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) - 3.5/5

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) - met my expectations and maybe exceeded them a bit. It was a tough job for Lucas to get everything done that needed to be btwn 2 and 4 and he did it well and interestingly. Not much in the area of annoying things like Ewoks or Jar-Jar. Pretty dark as it sd be.

The Complete List - ALL-TIME 100 Movies - TIME Magazine

The Complete List - ALL-TIME 100 Movies - TIME Magazine

American Movie: The Making of Northwestern (1999) - 4/5

American Movie: The Making of
Northwestern (1999) - funny and sad at times, you admire and pity him at the same time. One of the best parts is when he's thinking/talking about trying to get ahead and thinks that it's not a very Christian thing to do - to try to get ahead of others, but instead all be equal. Then he remembers, "I'm not a Christian."

National Treasure (2004) - 2/5

National Treasure (2004) - good action, good riddles

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace - 3/5

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace - More complex and dark compared to ep I.

To Have and Have Not (1944)

To Have and Have Not (1944) - great dialogue - Wm Faulkner, the chemistry is there, but I wasn't 'sold' on the story - just not as deep into the characters, I guess. Eddie was great (Pastor from Sgt. York).

Running Time (1997)

Running Time (1997)

real-time (seemingly) one continuous shot (in the vein of "Rope" - they even thank Alfred Hitchcock in the credits), b/w, heist, 70 mins, Bruce Campbell ("Groovy").

Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1926)

Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1926) "H.G. Wells called this German silent 'quite the silliest film'; Hitler was so impressed by the conception that many years later he tried (unsuccessfully) to persuade its director, Fritz Lang, to make Nazi movies ... One of the last examples of the imaginative—but often monstrous—grandeur of the Golden Period of the German film, Metropolis is a spectacular example of Expressionist design (grouped human beings are used architecturally), with moments of almost incredible beauty and power (the visionary sequence about the Tower of Babel), absurd ineptitudes (the lovesick hero in his preposterous knickerbockers), and oddities that defy analysis (the robot vamp's bizarre, lewd wink). It's a wonderful, stupefying folly." — Pauline Kael

"One of the great achievements in the silent era, a work so audacious in its vision and so angry in its message that it is, if anything, more powerful today than when it was made." — Roger Ebert

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Amazing - every bit of every scene is meaningful. Had I watched it w/o the (text) commentary, I wd not only have missed just about everything meaningful, but wd have probably been bored not realizing how much of it was over my head. W/ the commentary, it becomes so detailed and intricate that it's a poem.

I highly recommend this movie and highly recommend the commentary. This film, for me, needs someone explaining it to me. W/ it, amazing. W/o it, I'd be lost.

The mediator btwn the head and the hands must be the heart.

Matthew 2:12-15

Why does God tell Joseph to take his family to Egypt? I mean, for them to escape Herod, God cd have just hidden them locally or something. But the prophesy had to be fulfilled that "He called His son out of Egypt."

So was sending them to Egypt just to fulfill the prophesy? But that makes it sound like they are serving the prophesy. Or is it that the prophesy is in place so that when it is done (w/ good reason) by them, it is a sign that He is the Messiah???

La Strada (Federico Fellini, 1954) - 5/5

La Strada (Federico Fellini, 1954) "The theme of Federico Fellini's spiritual fable is that everyone has a purpose in the universe ... Even if one rejects the concepts of this movie, its mood and the details of scenes stay with one; a year or two later, a gesture or a situation suddenly brings it all back." — Pauline Kael

b/w, Gelsomina is great to just watch, a female Charlie Chaplan, tough road of life they are on, Gelsomina's joy of life is destroyed by Zampano's violence only when he destroys someone else (not when he hurts her). She loves him and he cd love her, but destroys them both.

Ink-Stained Wretch Movie List

Movie List

Stuff we've watched lately that you should see. Because I would never steer you wrong, would I?

(Everything here is available at my favorite video store, Videotheque. Support them, please.)

Northfork - The Polish Brothers are these twin brothers from Montana who make atmospheric indy films. I missed Twin Falls Idaho, but this one is pretty cool. Moves slowly and has all kinds of odd religious overtones, but Nick Nolte and James Woods are as good as I've seen either of them in a long time. And it's beautiful on a wide-screen TV. It nearly put June to sleep, though.

Whale Rider - I normally avoid anything where the word "inspirational" is used in the reviews featured in the ads, but this one got to me. A world you won't normally see--a Maori village in New Zealand--and an unlikely girl-heroine. Beautifully acted and nicely written, if slightly simplistic. I'm going to sit down and watch it with my 8 year-old girl soon.

I Capture the Castle - I'm a sucker for coming of age stories about writers, probably why I dug Thomas Wolfe so much in college. I just wish I had read this book back then (it was written in the late 40s). The movie is great. Good performances all around, nice writing, a great setting in an old castle (natch), and if you've ever struggled with the written word, this one will get your number. Along with Adaptation, last year was a good one for movies about writers (and I didn't even see The Hours).

The Man Without a Past - The funniest Finnish movie I've ever seen. I don't believe that the Finns are known for being funny, and the humor is dry and brittle like the landscape, but I dug it. A welder is mugged getting off a train in a strange city and wakes up with no memory of who he is. He falls in with an encampment of down-and-outers who live in converted shipping containers near a Harbor and gets a job working at the Salvation Army, where he turns the SA band into a blues band and falls in love with a stern matron of the Army. Don't know why I thought it was so funny, but sometimes it's like that. Again, June went to bed before it was over.

Beware of a Holy Whore - Fassbinder always cracks me up, and this is one of my faves, recently out on video. A depraved look at filmmaking, the way it really is on the set, with Eddie Constantine floating through this thing like a ghost and Lou Castel doing a great Fassbinder impression as the tyranic director.

Tunes of Glory - As a huge fan of The Horse's Mouth, I was really excited to see Criterion release this subsequent collaboration between Alec Guiness and director Ronald Neame. And what a strange, wonderful film this is, a battle of wills between a rough-and-tumble Scottish officer (played by Guiness against type) and an upper-crusty career officer (John Mills) for the hearts and minds of a battalion of old soldiers trying to make sense of the post-WWII world. The movie feels very modern, with two less-than-appealing lead characters and an extremely downbeat ending. Kind of like The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp meets Look Back in Anger.

People Will Talk - Get this one: Cary Grant as a pro-abortion gynecologist and medical school professor with a secret past and Hume Cronyn as the bitter fellow prof who tries to get Cary bounced from the school. And Walter Slezak and Jeanne Crain as his pal and love interest respectively. But the best part is Dr. Praetorius' (yes, that's Cary's name) assistant/pal/bodyguard named Shunderson, played by a Scottish actor named Finlay Currie. The guy has an amazing near-Tor Johnson vibe and gets to single-handedly thwart Hume's attempted HUAC-style investigation. And actually, after all the rest, that's what the movie really is, a reaction to the Hollywood blacklist, and a good one, at that. Joe Mankiewicz was a fricking genius.