The Movie Thread

[mshray]

one of my cinematic blind spots is that I've never seen ANY of the spaghetti westerns. Bits and pieces here and there, but none of them all the way thru. I need to remedy that, I suppose.

I just recently picked up the Man With No Name trilogy on DVD, you can borrow it whenever we get together next month.

My favorite Clint line of all time is in For A Few Dollars More, the last line of the movie.  Clint the bounty hunter is piling up the bodies on his flat bed donkey cart, and counting outloud the running total of the bounties.  He pauses and scratches his head, indicating the total doesn't seem right, just as the remaining bad guy (who only received a flesh wound) draws a bead on him.  But of course he steps on a twig or something, and Clint shoots him down without even aiming.  Lee Van Cleef calls over from the other side of the road where the big shootout had taken place:

"Any trouble, boy?"
"No, old man. Thought I was having trouble with my adding. It's all right now."

[Tinka Cat]

I saw the animated feature "9" -- didn't like it.  Art is wonderful, good action, but the story was not satisfying.   it's fairly short, too,  I think 80 minutes.  (cue Woody Allen joke... Mike?)

[mshray]

I saw the animated feature "9" -- didn't like it.  Art is wonderful, good action, but the story was not satisfying.   it's fairly short, too,  I think 80 minutes.  (cue Woody Allen joke... Mike?)

we saw that as a fambly on Sunday.  Adrian & I liked it a lot, Christina & Gabriel not so much.

[Gazoo]

I saw the animated feature "9" -- didn't like it.  Art is wonderful, good action, but the story was not satisfying.   it's fairly short, too,  I think 80 minutes.  (cue Woody Allen joke... Mike?)

we saw that as a fambly on Sunday.  Adrian & I liked it a lot, Christina & Gabriel not so much.

My friend Andy was just raving about it the other night.

[mshray]

I saw the animated feature "9" -- didn't like it.  Art is wonderful, good action, but the story was not satisfying.   it's fairly short, too,  I think 80 minutes.  (cue Woody Allen joke... Mike?)

we saw that as a fambly on Sunday.  Adrian & I liked it a lot, Christina & Gabriel not so much.

My friend Andy was just raving about it the other night.

I'd say there may be some false expectations...to my mind this really ISN'T a kids movie, and it really IS a science fiction movie.

[Tinka Cat]

Cory McAbee (of The Billy Nayer Show) was at the Red Vic last night showing his latest film project, a faux space western called Stingray Sam.   (his quirky feature American Astronaut is not for everyone, but if you're a Billy Nayer Show fan, you would like it.   Actually, if you're a BNS fan, you've probably seen it already..)

http://stingraysam.com/

some good tunes available to listen, like Lullaby Song and a stomping ode to male-only reproduction called Fredward (Frederick and Edward had a son named Fredward, John and Mason had a son named Jason, Bob+Kurt=Burt, etc)

[RGMike]

I hadn't orig planned to see Zombieland; the commercials really played up the stupid and I thought "great -- another funny zombie movie".  But then it got lots of good reviews, so I saw it this afternoon -- it's *very* funny, unapologetically gross and at just under 85 minutes it's just long enuf. It's basically Shaun of the Dead on 'roids. Don't read anything else about it, just go.

[mshray]

Rod, (& anyone else who get's into hard SF), Pandorum is really good.  It's marketed as a horror flick, and does that rather well despite being set on an interstellar spaceship in the far future.  But really it plays like a good SF novella: You start off not knowing much & share significant suspense & dread with the main characters right on up to the end, when there are not one but two pretty big plot twists, one of which you could guess at if you are paying close attentention. 

I've been keeping an eye on Ben Foster ever since he was on Six Feet Under, and he was really good in a couple of under-rated (imho) flicks, Hostage & the remake of 3:10 to Yuma, but he was always a sketchy bad guy/bad boyfriend, and here he gets to be a pretty good thinking man's hero.  Dennis Quaid continues to do the fine-wine-better-with-age thing as well.

[Tinka Cat]

(a friend fwd'd this to me)

Rock movie clips presentations by Richie Unterberger

Wednesday, October 14
7pm-9pm
Park Branch of the San Francisco Public Library at 1833 Page Street
Richie Unterberger will devote an entire evening to rare films of the Beatles from throughout their career at the Park Branch of the San Francisco Public Library at 1833 Page Street. This is in conjunction with his book The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film. Admission is free.

Note that this is the last rare rock films event he'll be holding at the Park Branch for about a year, as the library will be closed for renovation for around a year starting at the end of October.

He's also doing these other events of rare rock films elsewhere in the Bay Area later in October:

Saturday, October 17
1pm-2:30pm
Willow Glen Branch Library at 1157 Minnesota Avenue in San Jose
He'll be showing rare clips from the era of performers at Woodstock in honor of the 40th anniversary of the festival. Included will be footage of Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Sly & the Family Stone, the Who, Country Joe & the Fish, Richie Havens, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jimi Hendrix, Sha Na Na, Melanie, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joan Baez, John Sebastian, and others. Admission is free.


Wednesday, October 21
7pm-8:30pm
Saratoga Library at 13650 Saratoga Avenue in Saratoga.
Unterberg will be discussing White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day at the Saratoga Library at 13650 Saratoga Avenue in Saratoga. Rare audiovisual material from throughout the Velvet Underground's career will be featured, and signed copies of the book will be available for purchase. Admission is free.

On Thursday, October 22
7pm-8:30pm
El Cerrito Library at 6510 Stockton Avenue in El Cerrito.
He'll again be discussing White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day, this time at the El Cerrito Library at 6510 Stockton Avenue in El Cerrito. Rare audiovisual material from throughout the Velvet Underground's career will likewise be featured, and signed copies of the book will be available for purchase. Admission is free.

[RGMike]

Oh. My. GAWD. Or perhaps I should say "Oy Vey!" -- Saw the new Coen Bros flick today, A Serious Man and LOVED it. One of their great ones, don't read anything about it, just GO.  Almost nobody you've heard of is in it, and it's all the better for that. 

It's getting some great reviews, but a sizable minority really hate it -- one critic called it "loathsome", and I'm totally gobsmaked how anyone could say that.

[Gazoo]

Rock movie clips presentations by Richie Unterberger

Saturday, October 17
1pm-2:30pm
Willow Glen Branch Library at 1157 Minnesota Avenue in San Jose
He'll be showing rare clips from the era of performers at Woodstock in honor of the 40th anniversary of the festival. Included will be footage of Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Sly & the Family Stone, the Who, Country Joe & the Fish, Richie Havens, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jimi Hendrix, Sha Na Na, Melanie, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joan Baez, John Sebastian, and others. Admission is free.

Oh, wow: Would anyone be up for going to this?  I'm really interested.

PS: Unterberger's one of the main writers for the All Music Guide, and I criticized his Monkees reviews in my paper defending them for the R&RHOF.  (He was dismissive of them.)

[RGMike]

Rock movie clips presentations by Richie Unterberger

Oh, wow: Would anyone be up for going to this?  I'm really interested.

PS: Unterberger's one of the main writers for the All Music Guide, and I criticized his Monkees reviews in my paper defending them for the R&RHOF.  (He was dismissive of them.)

ooo!  Bitch Fight!!  I'd show up to see you two in a rock-crit smackdown.  (Imagine if he says something bad about Grace Slick during the presentation!)

Speaking of JA, the new Coen Bros movie (see my post above) has the best use in a movie of "Somebody To Love" EVAH.

[ggould]

we saw this tonight, and while I think it's a bit long, it was definitely worth seeing.  For all the typical Mooreisms, it was definitely inspirational, if somewhat depressing, and I hope lots of people do see it.  Anyone else see it?

[RGMike]

we saw this tonight, and while I think it's a bit long, it was definitely worth seeing.  For all the typical Mooreisms, it was definitely inspirational, if somewhat depressing, and I hope lots of people do see it.  Anyone else see it?

Yes. Saw it and liked it -- I had read bad things, I suspect people went in expecting it to *only* be about the meltdown last year and reviewed it from that persepctive. But of course, Moore prsents the meltdown as just one of the many things he sees as wrong about the system.

[ggould]

we saw this tonight, and while I think it's a bit long, it was definitely worth seeing.  For all the typical Mooreisms, it was definitely inspirational, if somewhat depressing, and I hope lots of people do see it.  Anyone else see it?

Yes. Saw it and liked it -- I had read bad things, I suspect people went in expecting it to *only* be about the meltdown last year and reviewed it from that persepctive. But of course, Moore prsents the meltdown as just one of the many things he sees as wrong about the system.

I found myself educated about FDR at the end.  I didn't know about the '2nd bill of rights' and it just seems to fit the tragic history of our plutocracy quite well.