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Ponyo Trailer

Hayao Miyazaki, suckers!

True Legend Trainer

Yuen Wo-Ping, suckers!

10 Best Picture Nominees?

And in other news… Really? Are they seriously going to 10 films?? It seems like a fast track to devaluing the "honor" of a nomination to me. It makes no sense. Are they thinking the traditional nomination $$ bump films get will spread out over another five films? It might, but it seems awfully desperate to cheapen their most prestigious event and honor to this degree in order to sell a few more movie tickets.

I could spend an hour coming up with goofy taglines for The International. Stuff along the lines of:

"A pulse-pounding thriller ripped from the pages of The Economist!"
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I've never actually liked Charlie Kaufman's work and his ambitious, impenetrable and surreal directorial debut, Synecdoche New York, soes nothing to change that fact. While I acknowledge his creativity and I appreciate the intellectualism and vision he brings to American cinema, I don't enjoy watching his films at all. There's something fundamentally unpleasant to me about his work. I don't connect with it at all, so it's usually a chore to work my way through his films.

Such was the case here. On paper I should have enjoyed this sprawling, surreal film, but in reality I was clock watching one-third of the way through. And what I saw sure didn't please me. This film plays significantly longer than its two hour running time. It's like watching acid slowly burn through a beautiful painting- ponderous and ugly.

I won't waste any more time on the film than that. If you're a fan of his work, then by all means check this film out. If, like me, you don't find his work appealing, steer clear.

I've been reading the 30 Days of Night comics from the very beginning. Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith's original mini-series is one of my favorite works of the decade and, while none of the follow-up series have quite matched that original brilliance it's been a great run of horror comics. Wonderfully scary.

With that in mind, it should be noted that my opinion of 30 Days of Night is probably worthless to most of you.
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Yes, between this that the Dark Knight, it's "better late than never" month here.

This will come as no surprise to many who know me, but for my money Slumdog Millionaire is a great movie and, for once, a worthy best picture winner. Boyle's direction is, as usual, phenomenal, it's well acted and the story, dramatically and structurally, is a joyous success.

I can hear a few of you thinking it, and yes, you're right, I was probably destined to like this movie- being both a long-time fan of Danny Boyle and, as an ex liked to point out, an "old softie" (and that was before I was actually old.)

That said, I think there's a lot to like here even for people not predisposed to dig a film like this. If you're even more behind the curve than me, check it out.

I hadn't seen Take the Money and Run in many years. Likely 20. It was a lot of fun revisiting it after such a long time.

Not surprisingly, it's still funny stuff.

I've always been a huge fan of Allen's early "funny" period. I'm a fan of most of his films up to and including 1989's Crimes and Misdemeanors, but I have a real soft spot for his early work. Allen going all-in on gags and jokes is a real joy to watch.

Actually, as an aside, if you've never read any of his prose, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's brilliantly funny stuff.

Hrm… This is making me want to revisit all those early films. That'd be a fun week.

So I finally saw The Dark Knight. It was really good.

With that out of the way I'm going to be a little geeky for a minute. While Heath Ledger was certainly good as the Joker within the confines of the role as defined in this film, I simply don't like this characterization.

I'm a comic book geek, so this is The Joker I like:

Maybe I'm old school, but I've spent 25 years reading Batman comics so I've got a pretty narrow image in my mind when I think "Joker." The gruesomely scarred, disturbingly made up, lizard tongued character Ledger played? Not so much in my range. The character worked for this film (an understatement), but for my money it really didn't even need to be the Joker. It could have been any depraved psycho.

Yes, I'm doing some geek style nitpicking. I'm a geek, sue me

Other than that? 15 flavors of awesome.

While I don't like its anti-urban message (especially directed, as it is, at New York, one of the greatest places in the world), there's no denying that the The Out-of-Towners is a wildly funny movie. Telling the story of George and Gwen Kellerman, the film traces the worst 24 hours a couple could ever hope to have in the Big Apple. Like Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (one of the funniest movies ever made), the relentless run of bad luck the couple experiences makes for an equally relentless series of laughs.

Beyond just the pure slapstick joy of the thing, the dialog, by Neil Simon, is razor sharp. the end result is a film balanced finely between brilliant, funny dialog and equally great physical and environmental comedy.

So, yeah, it's funny.

You Were Never Lovelier features Fred Astaire and RITA HAYWORTH, so it's pretty good. It's not the greatest of Astaire's movies for dance numbers (although they're still great,) but what it lacks in dance it makes up in pure charm. It's funny, well acted all around and the title song is one of Astaire's best.

And it's got Rita Hayworth.

So, yeah.

If you're unclear on the subject of Rita Hayworth, let me provide some visual aid.

Gone Baby Gone is an uneven, but still pretty good film.

I'm going to avoid comparing it to the novel, which I just read. Book v. film is never a fair comparison, so I'm going to skip it. Imagine all the typical book to film complaints. I'm making them. All of them.
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