Flipside Movie Emporium

[Michael Scrutchin]

[beltmann]

[Jim Harper]

[a35mmlife]

[mfritschel]

Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein, 1925) - Sure the movie acts as communist / revolutionary propaganda, but does not that further ad to its greatness. For what other greater purpose can art serve then to influence people into action or make a statement upon society and how it needs to change. Especially when the movie is done so well that one realizes that the movie is acting on more than just the plane of personal entertainment but rather making a point, and yet it can capture a person and really draw them into the story line.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unforunate Events (Siberling, 2004) - Jim Carrey was of course great in a role perfectly designed for him. The movie was slightly disturbing as it seemed to take so light heartedly the horrific events as they happened, and yet it treated death in such a fashion that it almost hindered the emotional attachment one should get from the film because it lacked such pathos.

Vera Drake (Leigh, 2004) - whlile Lemoney Snicket seemed to dance along the emotional plane and never really set down, Vera Drake dived right in and really brought us face to face with the different emotional spectrum the characters were facing and the connection with the characters was a very real one.

[beltmann]

6/13 ? 6/19

In preferential order:

Exterminating Angel (Bunuel, Mexico 1962)

Batman Begins (Nolan, USA 2005)

Oldboy (Park, South Korea 2003)

Howl?s Moving Castle (Miyazaki, Japan 2004)

Assault on Precinct 13 (Richet, USA 2005)

The Forgotten (Ruben, USA 2004)

She Hate Me (Lee, USA 2004)

Wimbledon (Loncraine, UK 2004)

Besotted (Hardman, USA 2002)

Ladder 49 (Russell, USA 2004)

Funny Lady (Ross, USA 1975)

Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters (Chin, Hong Kong 2002)

The Thief (Jones, USA 2004)

Wherever Two (Myette, USA 2005)

plus three shorts:

Knighty Knight Bugs (Freleng, USA 1958)

The Cat Concerto (Hanna and Barbera, USA 1946)

Writer?s Block (Jones, USA 2003)

I expected Howl's Moving Castle to be another engrossing phantasmagoria from Miyazaki, but I didn't expect to admire Oldboy, another complicated revenge thriller from Park Chan-Wook. I've never liked a Park picture before, but this one has a surprisingly rueful and elegiac tone. Unlike Tarantino and Rodriguez, Park creates a perverse, sinister universe in which something is always truly at stake--what starts as familiar Asian pulp eventually turns into some kind of cruel poetry.

Neither The Forgotten nor Assault on Precinct 13 were as bad I was led to believe?the first, despite being profoundly silly, offers at least one genuine jolt, and the new Precinct is an improvement upon Carpenter. The ambitious and entertaining cartoon She Hate Me, too, isn?t the train wreck most reviewers saw?were they just too lazy to engage with the movie?s satirical intentions?

Eric
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"When I was in Barcelona they showed pornography on regular television. I'm assuming it's the same way in Mexico since they also speak Spanish." - IMDb user comment

[Danny Baldwin]

6/1 - 6/19

I can finally post and get caught up on reviews now that school's out. This thread is a start, eh?

In preferential order:

Cinderella Man (Howard, 2005)

Howl's Moving Castle (Miyazaki, 2005)

The Wild Parrots of Telgraph Hill (Irving, 2005)

The Machinist (Anderson, 2005)

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Liman, 2005)

Mad Hot Ballroom (Agrelo, 2005)

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Kwapis, 2005)

Imaginary Heroes (Harris, 2005)

The Perfect Man (Rosman, 2005)

Batman Begins (Nolan, 2005)

Seed of Chucky (Mancini, 2004)

D.E.B.S. (Robinson, 2005)

I adored the first two movies on the list, the first for its ability to allow its protaganist to simply be a great guy sans manipulation, and the second for its visual prowess and unapparent complexity. The beauty of the Miyazaki movie is that childen can take it at face value as amazing, outlandish fantasy and those inclined can look into the writer/director's rich symbolism. I'm also giving Batman Begins another chance because, out of the desire to see it on opening day, I saw it when sleep-deprived from finals at school. I zoned out a lot of the time and really disliked it, mainly because I just didn't care about Bruce Wayne. I hope to catch it again sometime this week. I owe it to Nolan to try again.
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Danny Baldwin

View My Reviews

[xAndyx]

Equilibrium (2002)

I am told that this movie was not given much hype due to its "faint", if that, relation to the Matrix. However I think this movie puts the Matrix to shame, and provides great insight into what our world might one day become. I really found it fascinating that the film is quite the parallel to 1984, which I have just started reading for school next year.
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One day you will look behind you and you will see we three, and on that day, you will repent, and we will send you to whatever god you wish.

-The Boondock Saints

[beltmann]

I can't deny that Eraserhead is a skillful nightmare about the anxieties surrounding sex and parenthood, but I didn't really respond to it, perhaps because I don't share the same anxieties.

Eric
_________________
"When I was in Barcelona they showed pornography on regular television. I'm assuming it's the same way in Mexico since they also speak Spanish." - IMDb user comment

[Danny Baldwin]

[the night watchman]

[beltmann]

[beltmann]

A Dirty Shame (John Waters / USA / 2004)

Even though it's rated NC-17, this parody of hysterical movies like Reefer Madness is fairly harmless stuff--it's like spending 90 minutes with bawdy 14-year-olds with good timing. It's also one of the few John Waters movies I've been able to watch without hating myself in the morning.

Eric
_________________
"When I was in Barcelona they showed pornography on regular television. I'm assuming it's the same way in Mexico since they also speak Spanish." - IMDb user comment

[the night watchman]

[Michael Scrutchin]