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The Blog Log
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Click to jump
to: Blog Log 2007, 2006 or 2005 |
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10/15 On Air: I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (10/17 @ 10/09 Reviews of The
Express and Beverly
Hills Chihuahua. 10/05 DVD Picks of
the Week! (New) Gus Van Sant’s latest contemplation about skate kids, crime and
punishment and justice resonates in 10/02 Review of Appaloosa. 09/28 DVD Picks of
the Week! (ReIssue) LA
Confidential, may barely be ten years old (1997) but it has the scope
and feel of a classic crime noir. (Out and Reviewed) Besides
seeing the lead actor free his willy, Forgetting
Sarah Marshall is forgetful. 09/27 Paul Newman, one of the
greatest 09/25 Review of Nights
in the Rodanthe. 09/22 DVD Picks of
the Week! (New) If you were
a fan of Dario Argento’s stylish should saga, Suspiria
(1977), then the final installment in the witch trilogy
(starring his daughter, Asia), Mother
of Tears, is for you—definitely an acquired taste. (ReIssues) The 09/19 Air Time For my NECN reviews of Igor, Lakeview
Terrace and Ghost Town, click
here. 09/15 On Air: I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (08/08 @ 09/14 DVD Picks of
the Week! (ReIssues) Risky
Business(1983) the movie
that made Tom Cruise a household name and that great sex scene with Rebecca
De Mornay—take note of the hip, pulsating sound
track by Tangerine Dream, they just don’t come like that any more. (Out and Reviewed) The Strangers and 88 Minutes. 09/12 Movie of the Week
to See! The Coen brother’s Burn After Reading
is a biting satire about egotistical CIA agents, still, you can catch Sam Peckinpah’s classic western, The
Wild Bunch (1969) at the Harvard
Film Archive, the top film on my all time list 09/09 Reviews of Appaloosa and Bangkok
Dangerous. 09/07 DVD Picks of
the Week! (ReIssues) Cool
Hand Luke(1967) Paul
Newman anchors the movie about a incorrigible con with a disarming smile and
bulldog tenacity. George Kennedy won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and Strother Martin could have too. So many classic moments,
out it on almost everyone’s top 100 lists. ..It was ten years ago the Coen brothers took a walk on the quirky side with The Big
Lebowski. Who knew that a slacker know as the
“Dude” and bowling could be so much fun? A neat, raunchy twosome would be Lebowski followed by the Kingpin (1996) by the Farrellys—bowling, brothers and bad situations equal lots
of laughs. (Out
and Reviewed) The
Forbidden Kingdom; Jet Li and Jackie Chan finally together. Great FX, but a
coo-coo story. 09/04 Movie of the Week
to See! Forty years ago Jirí Menzel told the story of a Czech village’s resistance
against the Nazi occupation with Closely
Watched Trains. The film was based on a novel by Bohumil
Hrabal and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign
Language Film. Now, after being absent for so long, due to turmoil in his
homeland, Menzel is back with I Served the King of 09/01 Must See! The films of Sam Peckinpah at the Harvard
Film Archive. This is the man whose seminal work; The Wild Bunch (1969) influenced the works of
Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. He is considered the godfather of the
action film, but please don’t think 08/30 DVD Picks of
the Week! (ReIssues) 08/28 Air Time For my NECN reviews of House Bunny, Traitor and Elegy, click
here. 08/27 Review of The House Bunny. 08/26 On Air: I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (08/08 @ 08/24 DVD Picks of
the Week! (Out and
Reviewed) What
Happens in Vegas, it should have just stayed there, and Prom Night. 08/22 Movie of the Week
to See! Ben Kingsley, may hold center court as
Philip Roth’s alter ego in Elegy, but it’s
Penelope Cruz who seals the film about power, sex and intellect. 08/21 Review of Elegy. 08/19 DVD Picks of
the Week! (Out and
Reviewed) Hannah
Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds
Concert Tour in Disney Digital 3-D, yup, it’s a mouthful. 08/14 Movie of the Week
to See! Ben Stiller’s send up of 08/13 Review of Fly Me
to the Moon. 08/12 Read It! Joshua Ferris’s The
Dinner Party published in the New
Yorker, is one of the best bits of short fiction I have read this year. 08/08 Air Time For my NECN reviews of Pineapple Express and Hell
Ride, click
here. 08/07 Movie of the Week
to See! Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, Super
Bad and Step Brothers) makes his
funniest movie yet with Pineapple
Express. Grind house fans will revel in Larry Biships,
biker turf war drama Hell Ride, produced by
Quentin Tarantino. It ain’t perfect, but it does
deliver the goods. 08/07 Review of Hell Ride. 08/05 On Air: I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (08/08 @ 07/24 Review of Step Brothers. 07/21 DVD Picks of
the Week! (ReIssue) High
and Low (1963), Akira Kurosawa’s
known for his samurai classics, but this hard boiled detective tale, is
propelled by simmering grit and swagger. Most of that’s because, Kurosawa
alter-ego, Toshiro Mifune, plays the wealthy
businessman trying to get back his kidnapped daughter. Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
William Hurt won an Oscar for his performance as a jailed sex offender trying
to bide time through fantasy. The late Raul Julia and Sonia Braga should have been recognized for their fine
performances as well. Before he won an Oscar, for Last King of Scotland, Forest
Whitaker served notice of his thespian prowess in Clint Eastwood’s bio-pic, Bird (1988), about legendary jazzman Charley
“Bird” Parker. The jazz soundtrack is haunting and hypnotic. 07/18 Movie of the Week
to See! Yes, The Dark
Knight is a worthy follow up to Batman
Begins. It’s darker, more muddled and Heath Ledger does steal the
show. For the next Batman, the need to make Christian Bale, not sound so much
like a constipated geriatric when in the bat suit. Still, the 1989 version
helmed by Tim Burton, remains the best Batman yet. 07/17 Reviews of Meet Dave and Space Chimps. 07/13 DVD Picks of
the Week (New) The Bank Job, a
classic British mob movie (think Get Carter and The Long Good Friday) based on true
events. It didn’t get a long look in the theater, which is disappointing as
it’s one of the better films of 2007 and a thespian break out for action
star, Jason Statham. (Out and
Reviewed) College Road Trip and Step
Up 2: The Streets, plus a review of the original, Step Up. (Recently
Rented and Recommend) Funny Games, Michael (Cache) Haneke’s home
invasion exercise, a remake of his 1997 foreign language film, is psychologically
chilling and cuts a lot deeper to the bone, than the more recent, The Strangers.
07/11 Air Time For my NECN reviews of Meet Dave, Journey
to the Center of the Earth-3D and Hell
Boy 2: The Golden Army, click
here. 07/10 Movie of the Week
to See! Hell Boy2: The
Golden Army director Guillermo del Toro’s sequel again rides the moxie
of it pleasantly complex anti-superhero (kudos again to Ron Perlman). It’s the superhero movie of the summer, so
far…paging the Dark Knight. Also if you
were moved by Werner Herzog’s quirky docu Grizzly Man, then just go see Encounters at the End of the Earth and be
thrown some wildly pontificating curveballs about the future of man. 07/08 I’m reading Michel Houellebecq’s controversial Elementary Particles, which is a
bit rambling, but engrossing (stay tuned for the verdict) nonetheless. What’s
stunned me is NY Times reporter, Emily
Eakin’s interview with the French author who
seems to be gunning to pass J. D. Salinger in the weirdness department. 07/07 On Air: I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (07/11 @ 07/06 DVD Picks of
the Week (New) Stop Loss, Iraq
films have bombed, but director Kimberly (Boys Don’t Cry) Peirce’s modern day Coming Home (and having to go away again), it
told with affect and power. (Out and
Reviewed) The Ruins, killer vines, yikes! 07/05 My super short short,
Date, which was
published in Tuesday Shorts
as Untitled,
has been posted in the Vault.
06/30 DVD Picks of the Week (New) City of Men is a potent follow up to City of God, both tell tales of
the complex anarchic social structure inside Brazil’s drug controlled
slums. (Reissue) Heathers (1989), the cult high
school suicide spoof featuring a young Christian Slater, Winona Ryder and Shannen Doherty was dark, disturbing and wickedly funny.
It’s a far cry from the past for director Michael Lehmann
who has distinguished himself with such recent bombs as Airheads (1994), Hudson Hawk
(1991) and 40
Days and 40 Nights (2002).
(Out and Reviewed) Fool’s
Gold and Rails
& Ties, the melodrama directed by Clint Eastwood’s
daughter, Alison and starring Mr. Six Degrees, Kevin Bacon. 06/28 ABC’s Person of
the Week this week deemed Brit, Sir Nicolas Winton the Schindler of Czech
children. There’s no denying the humanity and magnitude of his efforts,
though interestingly enough, the Brit evacuation policy was marred by a
degree of criticism. I discovered this only after seeing, and being touched
by, the profile, but then something about a film on the subject I thought I
had seen, tugged at the fringes of my brain, and then I found my write up on
the documentary, Into
the Arms of Strangers. They were harsh
and confusing times back then, Winston did what he could, going above board,
still, it’s leaves food for thought. 06/27 Movie of the Week
to See Wall-E, Finding
Nemo director Andrew Stanton, scores
again with this cute, yet cautionary tale about earth’s future eco-disaster
as told through a robot romance. It’s got something for everyone of all ages. 06/26 Review of Wanted. 06/22 DVD Picks of
the Week (New) Persepolis, the animated tale of an Iranian girl struggling
with her identity during the fall if the Shah, nearly made my top 10 for 2007, and In Bruges,
is a sly, noirish drama about hit men (including a
gay one) assigned to off one and other after pulling a job. (Out and Reviewed) Charlie
Bartlett, think prep school
screw up akin to Holden Caulfield. (Recently
Rented and Recommend) L’ Avventura
(1960) one of my favorites from Michelangelo Antonioni
along with Blow
Up (1966) and The Passenger (1975). Also was mesmerized by
one of Peter (Gallipoli
and Witness)
Weir’s early films, Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), about the disappearance
of several school girls. 06/20 Air Time For my NECN reviews of Mongol, The Love Guru and Get Smart click
here. 06/19 Reviews of The Happening
and Get Smart. 06/17 On Air I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (06/30 @ 06/09 Great Authors on Great Authors: hear Richard
Ford read John Cheever and T. C. Boyle do Tobias Wolfe’s Bullet in the Head,@ The New Yorker. 06/08 My super short short,
Date,
has been published at Tuesday
Shorts, a super cool site for fiction that is super short and super
sharp. The post is listed as Untitled,
I have since reedited the material and titled it, and will post it here later
on. 06/04 Review of Mother
of Tears. 06/01 DVD Picks of
the Week. (Reissue)
Make your day with the Dirty Harry
collection. Arguably the best series of films by guys for guys
. (Out and
Reviewed) Demi Moore and Michael Caine
give winning performances in the 60’s glass ceiling turned crime noir drama, Flawless, directed by British Vet, Michael Radford (Il postino). Also Will Ferrell hams up the bush
league basketball send up, Semi-Pro,
which with some balance could have been something more like Slap Shot
or Bull
Durham. 05/31 Read Tobias Wolfe’s great
short story A Bullet
in the Head on NPR’s website. 05/30 Air Time | ||