Owner: domeheid URL:http://domeheid.blogspot.com Join Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2006 17:29:05 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: My life as a MacGuffin: something you've never seen before, and are never likely to want to see again. The Walter Mitty years; and in between, some film reviews. Site statistics:Click here
The Producers (2005) - ickleReview (DVD) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Remake of the 1968 Mel Brooks movie musical about a flopping Broadway producer, Max Bialystock (Nathan Lane) and his accountant, Leo Bloom (Matthew Broderick of Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986); I could establish no relation to Joyce's Leopold Bloom), who run a scam to produce a deliberate flop show to maximize their profit from the investment money. They pick Franz Liebkind (Will Ferrell)'s Nazi paean, Springtime for Hitler, and hire gay-as-you-like director Roger DeBris (Gary Beach) and Swedish chorus girl/secretary/receptionist Ulla (Uma Thurman). The only problem is, with Hitler camped up, will audiences really take offence?At 129 minutes it's a little flabby and uncinematic. The exposition scene between Max and Leo is far too slow to develop and is not as funny as it thinks it is. Ferrell is brilliant as the tall lederhosened German with Nazi-saluting pigeons, and Thurman manages to be ridiculously sexy without being arousing.It's a fun film with some great choreography and pr Read more:Producers
Blogcritics redesign 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Blogcritics has improved its site design. It's still quite cluttered and text-heavy, but that's because there's so much material contributed by its 1,700 reviewers. The ads cheapen it a little, but I guess they're a necessity. On the whole, though, it looks so much better, especially with a slightly smaller font size. Arial looks mince when it's too big.I've contributed a few of my ickleReviews. Read more:redesign
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Bene... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Borat Sagdiyev is another character creation by Sacha Baron Cohen, who gave us Ali G. Borat is a TV presenter from Kazakhstan who is sent by the Ministry of Information to make a documentary about America
("US and A [...] the greatest country in the world").Along the way Baron Cohen in the character of Borat tries to be as offensive as possible to as many people as possible, including random New Yorkers walking the streets of Manhattan, veteran feminists, gays, blacks, Jews, women, college frat boys, polite dinner parties, a rodeo audience and, eventually, Pamela Anderson.It's much like his short sketches from Da Ali G Show strung together with a flaky plot. It's a road trip movie with Pamela Anderson as the spur to cross coast to coast in a second-hand ice-cream van with his producer Azamat Bagatov (Ken Davitian) in tow.There are many laughs in (or maybe at) this film, as well as a quite deflating poignant moment, but it needn't have tried to force a narrative out of it. Borat is m Read more:Borat
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Cricket sledging 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I suspect there may have been more F-words used in these gentlemanly exchanges at the crease. I like the one about the biscuit. Read more:Cricket
A room with a view 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The view from my bedroom window this afternoon at sundown.
Forrest Gump (1994) - ickleReview (TV) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) was a dumb, crippled kid from Greenbow, Alabama who grew up to be an all-American hero: college football star, Vietnam war hero, ping-pong player, shrimp boat captain, corporation owner, inspirational long-distance runner, und so weiter. It's a cross between Rain Man and Born on the Fourth of July. His life story is wonderfully implausible, narrated waiting on a bustop bench to whoever is sitting there, not always listening. His life-long sweatheart, Jenny (Robin Wright Penn), abused by her father as a child, struggles through life as a stripper, hippy, drug addict and waitress, never far from Forrest's thoughts, which are predominantly simple, sometimes profound, always endearing. The film is focalized through Forrest's low IQ of 75, told with a naivety that looks at the world anew and that shows but doesn't tell the (presumably smarter) audience what's going on: that Jenny's father is an alcoholic widower whose hugging and kissing of his daughters isn'
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006) - ickleReview (TV) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Spike Lee's two-part feature-length Storyville documentary about Hurricane Katrina, focusing on New Orleans and its largely black, underprivileged underclass. It follows the events in sequence through the hurricane, the rescue missions, the "refugee" crisis (although this is a word the victims took offence at, as if they were not citizens of their own country) and the diasporal aftermath, showing how the survivors are trying to rebuild their homes in a devastated city.It is often tremendously moving as the survivors tell their stories with real intimacy and - at times - humour. There is a great deal of hard feeling against FEMA and the incompetant Bush administration. One feels this is the reason why some leftists parts of the British press were so sceptical about the election of a stupid president in 2000: his foot-in-mouths are inconsequential in comparison to the uncaring bunch of cronies he appointed to his government.Nugget: it's amazing these people don't question their faith Read more:Requiem
Letter to Brezhnev (1985) - ickleReview (DVD) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Love story about two Scouse girls who meet a couple of Russian sailors out one night in Liverpool. One of them (Margi Clarke) is looking for a good, care-free time; the other, Elaine (Alexandra Pigg), wants romance. Sergei (Alfred Molina) and Peter (Peter Firth) duly oblige. However, the sailors have to go home the next day, which leaves Elaine, who has fallen in love with Peter, desolate.Had it ended here, it would have been a bonnie enough film, akin to Before Sunrise but without the eloquence. Yet it moves on to a second act in which Elaine, rather implausibly, writes to the Russian president to intercede in her situation: she wants to marry Peter but he is not allowed to leave the Soviet Union.The film looks dated with 80s fashion disasters around every pub pint. It is now a period piece for Thatcher's Britain. Pigg and Firth give the best performances, although Eileen Walsh is amusingly course as Elaine's mother.By no means a bad film - the first half is sweet - but the second i Read more:Letter
16 Blocks (2006) - ickleReview (DVD) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Bruce Willis police action thriller. The old man plays Jack Mosley, a broken, alcoholic cop who, after a long nightshift, has to escort a witness 16 blocks through New York City rushhour traffic to the courthouse before 10am when the jury expires. The prisoner/witness, Eddie (Mos Def) is a talkative baby-voiced crook who is going to testify against police curruption, affecting Jack's ex-partner Frank Nugent (David Morse) and other precinct colleagues who try to chase them down and prevent the testimony in a familiar good cop/bad cop routine.After a few twists, it all ends happily and everyone gets a slice of birthday cake. The alternate ending on the DVD is more complicated but more intriguing and implausible and would have lost more audiences.Nugget: pretty standard stuff. Read more:Blocks
Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) - ickleReview (DVD) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Woody Allen movie, which does exactly what it says on the tin. Larry Lipton (Allen) and his wife Carol (Diane Keaton) are invited in by their neighbours Lillian and Paul House (Lynn Cohen and Jerry Adler), who bore Larry silly with the husband's stamp collection. The next day, however, Lillian dies of a heart attack. Carol suspects murder, but Larry is doubtful; so Carol colludes instead their mutual friend Ted (Alan Alda, a regular Woody Allen actor), who is more drawn to the conspiracy theory. A light comedy, easy on the soundtrack, but with some beautiful footage of Manhattan
at night.Also featuring Anjelica Huston as Marcia Fox, a writer at Larry's publishing company who helps them piece together the plot when Larry also gets involved in the intrigue of the chase. There's a surprising cameo by Zach Braff (Scrubs, Garden State) as the Lipton's son, Nick.Nugget: an enjoyable, light-hearted comedy with an amusing performance by Allen as a nervous sidekick to Keaton. There's a bri Read more:Mystery
Scoop (2006) - ickleReview (cinema) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Woody Allen's second film shot in the UK is about Sondra (Scarlett Johansson), a doh-brained journalism student from America who is staying in England over the summer with her upper-class family friends. When she takes part in a magic trick in Splendini's stage show she receives a tip-off about a murder story from back-from-the-dead reporter Joe Strombel (Ian McShane). Splendini (Woody Allen), whose real name is Sid Waterman, accompanies Sondra on her precarious investigation of the lead, which brings them into contact with high-class businessman and politician Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman), a Lord's son, whom they are told is responsible for the unsolved serial Tarot Card Murders.As Match Point was a British remake of Crimes and Misdemeanors, so Scoop
is a refashioning of Manhattan Murder Mystery. It is an enjoyable, light film, taking itself less seriously than Match Point did, and thus with no jarring changes of tone, as happened when the earlier London film brutalized towards the
Casino Royale (2006) - ickleReview (cinema) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Daniel Craig's first Bond film - and possibly one of the franchise's best. Craig is a much harder, colder, more macho Bond than Brosnan, with no campness. Someone said perceptively about this film that it's what Bond would be like if it was real. The baddies in this one are small terrorist groups and the men who finance them. Bond has just been made a double-O agent. In the opening black and white sequence we see his first kill. For once his turn and shoot towards the camera for the opening credits actually means something. The stunts are grittier and more enthralling than usual, including Free Running (Parkours) specialists. I was impressed with the use of technology: the thought of Bond logging into MI6's secure database using M's username and password, the constant use of mobile phones, the tracking chip that is placed in Bond's forearm by his employers to keep track of him, and so on. The gadgets are ones that we all use - except, perhaps, for the DIY defibrilator that he kee Read more:Casino
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Phone Booth (2002) - ickleReview (DVD) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Colin Farrell plays Stu Shepard, a self-centred publicist in New York who is held hostage in a phone booth he has used to call his girlfriend (Katie Holmes), a young actress he's trying to take advantage of. He used a phone booth so that his wife (Radha Mitchell) wouldn't see the calls on his cell phone bill. The caller (Kiefer Sutherland) is holding him at gunpoint from an unseen window with a sighted sniper rifle. Short and sweet at 81 minutes, the tension builds in long takes as the caller exacts a conscience from Stu, enjoying his mind games and manipulation in the sight of TV news cameras, tourists, passers-by and a trigger-itching police presence.Farrell's performance is impressive. He's in almost every scene of the movie and has lots of dialogue. (But then so does any stage actor, so I don't think he should be singled out just because he could remember his lines.) The long takes build the tension. Joel Schumacher has made an entertaining film on a tight budget and 10-day sh Read more:Booth
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) - ickleReview (cinema) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 A devastating thresher of a film by Ken Loach about the early days of the IRA in rural Ireland, 1920. Damien (Cillian Murphy) is a young doctor about to move to the teaching hospitals in London, leaving the provincial life behind him. However, having witnessed the pointless brutality of the British Black and Tans regiment, he is compelled to stay behind in Ireland and joins the Irish Republican Army to drive out the British and establish a democratic Irish republic. Damien leads a small but determined militia against the British, ambushing them to acquire weapons. When caught, the British soldiers are ruthless in their torture and punishment of the Irish rebels.Paul Laverty's screenplay skilfully covers a number of issues relating to the rebellion: hatred of the cruel treatment by the British, a worker's desire for socialism, the impact of brother fighting against brother, the amateurish training of the Irish rebels, the in-fighting and disagreements about what they are fighting for Read more:Barley
Gosford Park (2001) - ickleReview (DVD) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Outstanding Robert Altman comic drama set in 1932. A shooting party takes place at an English country house. Servants make preparations belowstairs gossiping about their masters' squabbles above. A huge ensemble cast shines with innumerable layers of intrigue so subtly conveyed. The snobbish hierarchy of the aristocracy is mimicked if not outdone by the servants' stuffy conventions belowstairs. Wonderful performances by Helen Mirren as the perfect head servant Mrs Wilson, Maggie Smith as a wickedly snobbish old dame, Alan Bates as the butler, Jennings, and Richard E. Grant as a swaggering footman - amongst many other superb characters.Nugget: it's almost a shame there had to be a murder, so enthralling are the intertwining storylines of servants and masters.
Sleeper (1973) - ickleReview (video) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Woody Allen comedy sci-fi film set 200 years in the future. Woody has been cryogenically frozen after a routine operation went wrong. He is brought back to life illegally by scientists of the future and asked to identify a number of mysterious objects and photographs, including chattering teeth, Lenin, and Nixon, whose Watergate scandal has been erased from history. Allen is hunted as an alien and disguises himself as Diane Keaton's domestic help robot.Sleeper
is notably smoother than Allen's previous films Bananas (1971) and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* But Were Afraid to Ask (1972), but it still has the occasional abruptly cut scene. In the second half Allen and Keaton appear to be improvising and their anger is either supremely acteed or genuine between them.Nugget: the beginning of Allen's more accomplished, wittier period, but still slapsticky and with the familiar jazz score. Read more:video
Love and Death (1975) - ickleReview (video) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Woody Allen's comic epic about fighting in the Russian army against Napoleon. Allen plays the cowardly soldier, one of three brothers, who is in love with his cousin (Diane Keaton). Their philosophical debates about objectivity, subjectivity and epistemology are good craic. This is a bit like Take the Money and Run (1969) in the sense of its ranging, episodic plot, but it has more coherence.Nugget: amusing rip on costume dramas, war films and serious Soviet cinema, but Allen and Keaton are still the focus. It was not until the late 1970s that Allen started using a stronger supporting cast. Read more:video
Broadway Danny Rose (1984) - ickleReview (video) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Black and white Woody Allen comedy about a hard-working but unsuccessful showbiz agent, Danny
Rose (played by Allen), who takes a personal interest in his clients. His best client is an Italian nightclub crooner, Lou Canova (Nick Apollo Forte), who, despite being around since the 1950s, is benefitting from a nostalgia revival. Danny gets involved with Lou's lover, Tina (Mia Farrow), and is chased across town by the mob.The plot is framed by a bunch of old comics trading old stories about their colleague in a New York diner. (Allen would repeat this device with greater success in 2004's Melinda and Melinda.) The choice to shoot in black and white suits the nostalgic tone of the movie, but it is nowhere near as beautiful as Manhattan (1979).Nugget: not one of his best, but still watchable. Read more:video
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Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) - ickleReview (DVD) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Martin Scorsese film starring Ellen Burstyn as a widow, Alice, who has to find a way to earn a living for her 11-year-old son, Tommy (Alfred Lutter). She leaves her home in New Mexico to find work as a singer in Phoenix and then Tucson, Arizona with the aim of reaching her girlhood home in Monterey, California by then end of the summer. Numerous men make a pass at her, including Ben (Harvey Keitel) and David (Kris Kristofferson), but living out of motel rooms with a cheeky, bad-mouthed son is a hard way to find stability.Burstyn gives a powerful performance in a rare female lead and the sort of film one doesn't associate with Scorsese, who at times shows off unnecessarily with the camera. Tommy is a hilariously delinquent son, who meets Audrey (a very young Jodie Foster), a tomboy whose favourite word is "weird" and who leads him into trouble. Keitel's role is minor but impressive, and Kristofferson is dependable as charming nice-guy David.This is Sandy (my dad)'s favourite film and
Life Is Beautiful (aka La Vita è bella) (1997) - ickleReview (DVD) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Life is beautiful and so is this film. Roberto Benigni shines in this brilliant tragic comedy about Italian Jews in the Second World War. Benigni plays his usual crazy lovable character, a waiter who wins the affection of his wife-to-be with a series of charming coincidences. When his family is deported by the Nazi's to a Jewish concentration camp he keeps his son's spirits up by convincing him it's all just a game and that the winners will get a real tank at the end.Nugget: Benigni's performance is magical and sad. A masterpiece of the beauty of pathos. Read more:Beautiful
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Another new look 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I've finally given in to the temptations of Blogger's more versatile drag-and-drop template system and cleaned up my design in the process, removing much of the ugly guffage, which I had added in an unsuccessful attempt to increase my traffic. I couldn't quite get the font to look the same in the new set-up, so I have switched to Verdana. I hope it's an improvement. The last time I did this was almost two years ago.
Oxford Muse: self-portrait 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I wrote the following self-portrait for Oxford
Muse - a charitable organisation which is trying to create a human map of Oxford by writing portraits of the people who live here. Their website will explain in more detail if you're interested. Last Saturday night, while most people in college were revelling in the Back to School bop, I just sat down and started writing (prompted by a few questions) and created my self-portrait. Had I been in a different mood, it could have turned out quite different. It is quite long, but here goes anyhews:This is DogWhen I was a child, I used to be dependent on a stuffed toy called "Dog" - a much loved, but worn out Snoopy. He was always with me as a comforter. Without him I found it difficult to sleep, I felt alone and helpless without him. I remember one weekend when he was left behind in Dalmellington after my mum's yoga class. He was sitting on top of that piano, and I was crying my eyes out all weekend. I think someone must have made a special tr
Bad jokes, can't get enough of 'em 1970-01-01 00:59:59 A farmer's wife says to her husband, "I notice our bull procreated 200 times this year. I should be so lucky."The farmer replies, "Yes, honey, but that's not all with the same cow."Source (probably slightly misremembered): A Prairie Home Companion.
Another "Prairie Home Companion" joke 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Q: What did the elephant say to the naked man? A: It's cute, but can you really breathe through that thing?Source: A Prairie Home Companion
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Eulogies for Altman 1970-01-01 00:59:59 A Prairie Home Companion was director Robert Altman
's last film. He seemed to sense his own impending mortality. A number of lines in the film confront the prospect of death with an admirably uplifting philosophy. I don't always think of death as a bad thing. People elegize instead of eulogize; mourn instead of celebrate. True, I've never suffered the death of someone really close to me; but one day I will, and I hope I will be able to deal with it in proportion. Births are not a miracle (they happen every second); deaths are not a tragedy when a life has fulfilled its potential; and even potential cut short can be full of beauty in its own way because it will always remain a possibility rather than a failure. Death is the only certain thing about life.Thus in A Prairie Home Companion the angel/femme fatale (played by Virginia Madsen) says:"There is no tragedy in the death of an old man. Forgive him his shortcomings, and thank him for all his love and care."And when an old man dies
The penguin joke 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Two penguins are standing on an ice floe. The first penguin says, "You look like you're wearing a tuxedo."The second penguin says, "What makes you think I'm not?"Source: A Prairie Home Companion.
A Prairie Home Companion (2006) - ickleReview (cinema) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Robert Altman bids a folksy farewell to filmmaking and later life with a mix of real-life radio show, bad jokes, sweet singing, film noir weirdness and Mid-Western cookie characters. A Prairie Home Companion
is a smalltown bigheart radio variety show broadcast live from the [F. Scott] Fitzgerald Theater in St Paul, Minnesota (the hometown of the author of The Great Gatsby). This part-fiction film celebrates its final broadcast on WLT ("with lettuce and tomato") radio, so-called because it apparently started out in the back of a sandwich shop. Believe this story if you will, but there are many other myths to come about the show's origin, perpetuated by the wiley GK, the MC played by himself, Garrison Keillor, who wrote the screenplay.What strikes you immediately about this swansong is its simple beauty. The opening shot of a rural landscape at dusk, gradually roaming towards the gloaming with the crackle of a radio in the background, searching to find that satisfying, homely station. A
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