I recently referenced Extras during a discussion with my sister to prove a point. She said I "don't like British humor and The Black Adder doesn't count" (Never mind that I have always been a huge fan of Monty Python, Faulty Towers, and Benny Hill.) I pointed out that she doesn't even know what Extras is. She did the womanly thing, twisting my argument so she could be mad at me for never telling her about Extras. She flipped out.
Anyway... The final episode of Extras was on tonight. My sister would have gone nuts if she were to have been introduced to the show with this one because it was more dramatic than comedic. That being said, it was brilliant. Somehow they managed to make a great show without using much of what made the entire series so good. Apart from the wit and sarcasm, each episode had a guest star who played hisself but with a wild alter-character like Orlando Bloom obsessed with every woman being obsessed with him or Patrick Stewart writing scripts where someone's clothes inevitabley fall off. In this one, Clive Owen's character wasn't very unusual, George Michael just played up his own lewd public acts, and Gordon Ramsey played Gordon Ramsey. But it was still a fine show and a perfect ending to the series.
Sean and I saw I am Legend tonight. We both came away from it thinking that it was good. However, I suspect neither of us would have given it even that good a review if we were not so jaded from bad movies in the last year or two. But at least we couldn't classify this one as bad. A few months ago, I allowed my friends to talk me into seeing Transformers even though I expected it to be absolutely terrible. I decided to see the train wreck with my own eyes so I would know for sure. I really should not doubt my instincts...it was a cg-turd. Then we were all looking forward to No County for Old Men. Sean and I agreed that the movie was missing something and disliked the ending. But Mike loved it and said he was definitely going to see it again. I tell ya, he must be a hopeless optimist.
Then there was The Departed. Everyone seems to have loved it and it won best picture and best director. I happen to not only think it was not worthy of the best picture Oscar (maybe it was, actually since I can't think of another right now) but its not even Scorsese's best. My favorite is Casino. But you don't have to agree with that. How about Raging Bull, The Color of Money, or Goodfellas just to name a few. Maybe everyone is jaded. There certainly aren't any great original scripts being produced.
Here are some examples of what I think are great movies. Its not a top best list, just some flicks for which current releases have made me nostalgic.
-- Rear Window -- From a time when movies told stories and the great ones had you interested in the characters and the outcome. There is no one like Hitchcock today because suspense has been completely replaced by horror. Without CG or gore, Hitchcock focused on Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly to show us fear and bravery in the face of it. Its interesting and exciting yet it could have actually happened.
-- Glengarry Glen Ross -- From the days when the independent movie genre was really hot. Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, and Alec Baldwin, just to name a few. Its one of the greatest casts ever. And the beauty is in its simplicity. Entirely driven by dialogue and shot in three settings (an office, a bar, and a diner), director David Mamet seemingly only had to sit back and let the magic happen. Its a great movie that I know many people have seen but few ever praise. But its worthly of all acclaim.
-- The Color of Money -- While I prefer its predecessor, The Hustler, The Color of Money is a better made movie. Tom Cruise wasn't yet openly crazy, Paul Newman revived the colorful Fast Eddie Felson, and Scorsese made it all look, sound, and feel huge. Most people think the main character was Cruise's Vincent but, as in The Hustler, it was about Fast Eddie and "character" like Bert Gordon said.
-- Heat (1995) -- This one had a huge budget and all-star cast so could have easily fallen short...but it didn't. There is plenty of action amid just enough character development. I think it was the first time Pacino and De Niro acted on screen together. Whether it was or not, their first scene in a diner is one of my favorites. And its a cool heist movie.
-- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly -- Great westerns come along once in a long while and there will never again be one like this. Clint Eastwood was so damn cool. Eli Wallach played a great double-crossing partner to "Blondie." Lee Van Cleef was the perfect bad guy gun slinger. Always great back then. If this movie were made today, it would surely be spoiled by high-speed camera moves and ridiculous CG scenery. But it was perfect without all that back in 1967.
There are many movies I love. These are just a few. And with all my bitching and the crap that is out there, I'm still hopeful. So I'll continue to waste $10.50 trying the find the next great film.
4 comments:
Now that's a blog!
I'll agree. And I have to comment on No Country For Old Men. Upon seeing it a second time, I noticed the following which makes it more...well, satisfying:
1. The entire film is wholly symbolic. If you try to interpret or analyze it on the surface, you will be at best unsatisfied and at worst confused.
2. The Anton Siguer character represents the Angel of Death and evil incarnate - no one can truly escape Death when it crosses your path. You might have a "coin-flip"'s chance of beating it but that's "as good a deal as you're going to get". Tommy Lee Jones's character even refers to him as a "ghost".
3. Speaking of TLJ, he represents ultimate good, and the vitality of life - the polar opposite of Siguer/Death. When he drinks the same milk that Siguer drank, he sits in the same position on the same couch, contemplating his dilemma - how can Good survive in a world of increasing Evil? He is planning to retire and basically give up the fight because he feels "overwhelmed". It's a commentary about how the modern world has become an evil place that's filled with death and it's becoming more and more difficult to avoid the Dark Side of the Force, so to speak.
3. Llewelyn Moss, who one would think is the hero of the movie, is actually not the hero at all. He represents the common man. We as people are not totally good or totally bad. Rather, we lean on one side or another. Llewelyn is basically good to start the movie but, like we all do, gets seduced by the temptings of money and greed - part of the domain of evil. This eventually leads him to cross paths with Death and the inevitable happens, he dies. We don't see exactly how he dies and it doesn't really matter. How he dies is not as important as the fact THAT he dies. Same thing with his wife. We don't even have evidence that Siguer kills her but at that point in the movie we just *know*. Again, it's not important how she dies. Just that Llewelyn brought her along down the path of Evil and she reluctantly followed, thereby ending in her Death. She had more lofty, more "good" aims in life and of all the people who Death crosses in the movie, she is the most upset. Not really even upset, but more disappointed. She's the only one who refuses to try to even cheat Death with the coin flip game.
4. If you take the movie at its surface meaning, then the ending sucks. It shows Siguer get into the car accident, walk away, and then Tommy Lee Jones rants about some dream or something with his wife and it cuts to black. What the hell?? But if you look at it symbolically, it ties the movie together perfectly. In a car accident that surely would have killed anyone else, Death of course cannot be killed and, although he's worse for wear, survives. The kids who give him the shirt are paid $100 and the last we hear of them is a disagreement about who should get the money - in other words, another example of Evil corrupting the common man. We never see it, but surely these kids are going to get into some sort of trouble and likely death that's tied to the greed of the money. Again, we don't need to see exactly how that happens - it's enough to know that it's going to happen. That's the message. Meanwhile, TLJ recounts a dream where he is alone in a cold mountain pass. He mentions his father, who he references in the beginning of the film when he talks about the previous generation of officers who didn't even have to carry guns because the world was less evil back then. His father rides by him carrying fire. He says that he knows that his father will ride ahead and make a warm campfire - a tiny island of good in an endless world of evil. And he knows that he will eventually get to that campfire. And then he wakes up. So the idea is that Good has decided to stop fighting Evil. Evil/Death has overwhelmed him and has just about taken over the world. All Good can hope to do is make it to a small safe haven and hide out for as long as the light of the fire will last. And that's the message of the movie...It's not uplifting and I guess you can still call it unsatisfying if you disagree and think the world is full of good people. But as a movie and as a story with a message, it's anything but unsatisfying. You just have to look at all the symbolism and none of the surface meaning. I suspect there are even more symbols in this movie that I still haven't noticed after two viewings.
Everything that steppin' said is exactly the point of the BOOK, which the movie closely follows. The ending is almost exactly matched to the book's end, and the storyline itselfand its characters are symbolic (as steppin' stated), which is why some people might not take the translation in the Hollywood sense.
Personally, I think No Country might be my favorite movie of the year. I think it was shot and told in a way that many people will underestimate.
Also...Arrested Development movie FTW
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