Viewed January 28, 2006
Out West is a much stronger entry than the last couple of Arbuckle/Keaton shorts. A parody of westerns (naturally), it successfully tells its short tale without letting the jokes fall by the wayside.
Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle still hasn’t recaptured the positive nature that he displayed in The Butcher Boy, but he’s at […]
Viewed January 27, 2006
One of the things Ed Wood fans often say concerning Bela Lugosi is that you can’t claim Ed dragged Bela Lugosi down by putting him into films like Glen or Glenda (1954) and Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) when he had already made much worse films like Bela Lugosi Meets a […]
Viewed January 26, 2006
Roger Moore is, of course, known for his seven films portraying James Bond, from 1973’s Live and Let Die to 1985’s A View To A Kill. But that doesn’t mean that’s all he did during those years. Moore appeared in over fifteen films during his stretch as Bond, most of […]
Viewed January 25, 2006
Well, I sat down to watch the Roger Moore film Gold (1974) and was enjoying it when all of a sudden, the DVD stopped working. So there I was, halfway through a movie and no way to finish it. I decided to watch Dirty Pair: Affair of Nolandia because it […]
Viewed January 24, 2006
(sung to the tune of “Maria” from The Sound of Music)
She kills a guy, then starts to cry.
Her costume is all red.
She’s got some kind of ninja skills
And came back from the dead.
But in the end all she wants
Is to play mommy for some kid.
What kind of tough assassin is Elektra?
She’s got […]
Viewed January 23, 2006
With the release of the Disney / Pixar film Toy Story in 1995, the era of the computer generated animated film was born. Although films such as Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Aladdin (1992) had utilized computer imagry, it was Toy Story that proved that the technique could carry an […]
Viewed January 22, 2006
Carry On Cleo is considered to be one of the high points of the “Carry On” series. It certainly looks better than anything else so far. This is not only due to the fact that it is extremely well costumed, but because it was actually shot on the sets built […]
Viewed January 21, 2006
Coney Island is a much stronger entry in the Arbuckle / Keaton canon than the previous lightweight, The Rough House, but still lacks the cohesion that marked their first collaboration, The Butcher Boy.
For one thing, Arbuckle comes off as less sympathetic here than in the earlier film. In The Butcher Boy, […]
Viewed January 20, 2006
I have to admit that I’ve never really “gotten” Wallace & Gromit. Not that I haven’t found their previous shorts funny, just that they never really grabbed me. I still haven’t seen Chicken Run (2000), Aardman Animations’ previous feature which is supposed to be quite good, so I went into this […]
Viewed January 19, 2006
Apparently, playing Bobby Darin on screen was a long-standing dream of Kevin Spacey’s. He finally realized this ambition with his turn as actor/director/co-scripter on Beyond The Sea. I must admit that my love of Darin’s music combined with a relative malaise concerning Spacey’s recent work made me more than a […]
Viewed January 18, 2006
The tale of Sweeney Todd, the barber who killed his customers and baked them into pies, dates back to the 1800s, when stories began to appear in various publications. He caught the attention of the public and would have still been a popular figure at the time it was first […]
Viewed January 17, 2006
Center Stage tells the story of Ruan Ling-yu, a Chinese silent film star who commited suicide at the age of 24 after pressure from the local media threatened to destroy her life.
The structure of Center Stage is somewhat odd. The film takes a partial documentary approach, by using footage of the […]
Viewed January 16, 2006
Now THAT’S a “Carry On”!
While the last film in the series, Carry On Jack (1963) was good on its own merits, I didn’t feel it had the proper atmosphere for a “Carry On” film. Carry On Spying is much more on target, due primarily to two people: Kenneth Williams and Barbara […]
Viewed January 15, 2006
So I was all set to watch The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001), when I stopped the film about five minutes in and noticed that a movie was starting on my local PBS station. That film, Mr. Moto’s Last Warning, was instantly more engaging than Scorpion (which I will finish […]
Viewed January 14, 2006
After watching The Butcher Boy (1917) last week, I was really in the mood to keep going through the Arbuckle/Keaton canon, so I decided to institute (at least for the time being) “Silent Short Saturday”. So, unless something more important comes along, I’ll watch one of these shorts (in chronological […]
Viewed January 13, 2006
Okay, so I’ve been on a bit of a “Kong” kick this past week. After watching the new King Kong (2005) in theaters and the original on DVD, I was in the mood for more giant gorilla antics, so I also watched the two classic follow-up pictures. (I’ll save King […]
Viewed January 12, 2006
What do you do when you’ve just produced a groundbreaking film that captivates audiences and inspires a generation of filmmakers? Obviously, you pump out a quickie sequel using the same sets, models and as many actors as you can round up. So when RKO and producer / director Merian […]
Viewed January 11, 2006
Since I will be writing a full-blown review of King Kong for theLogBook.com, I’m going to just state a few observations about Peter Jackson’s $200M remake.
If Peter Jackson loves the original King Kong (1933) so much, why did he feel the need to change it’s fundamental theme and why does he portray […]
Viewed January 10, 2006
Bowing to pressure from various sources to “watch some good movies” for a change, I decided to watch Sofia Coppola’s Academy Award-winning Lost In Translation starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson as Americans abroad in Japan who connect with each other despite differences in age and circumstances.
Well, I can’t see what all […]
Viewed January 9, 2006
Okay, so I needed to place an order with HKFlix.com and they have a deal where you get free shipping if you spend $49. So after adding the couple of items I needed, I filled up on every $1-$4 DVD I could find that looked even moderately interesting. Three of […]
Viewed January 8, 2006
Beast from Haunted Cave has a classic Roger Corman backstory. Apparently, Corman was busy preparing for a war film, Ski Troop Attack (1960) to be shot in South Dakota. He figured that since he was going to be on location anyway, why not make another picture and double the output? […]
Viewed January 7, 2006
I’ve got a shocking admission to make. Before watching Die Another Day, I had never seen any of the Pierce Brosnan 007 films. Now, this is not something I can justify, since I am a big fan of the Bond films (and Bond in general), I’ve seen all the other […]
Viewed January 6, 2006
The Butcher Boy stars silent screen legend Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and marks the screen debut of Buster Keaton, who would eventually far eclipse his friend in both popularity and influence. Already a popular vaudville star when he met Arbuckle, Keaton became immediately fascinated with the world of film and agreed […]
Viewed January 5, 2006
Tenchi Forever (also known as Tenchi Muyo In Love 2 ) is the third of three theatrical films based on the Tenchi Muyo series.
What makes Tenchi Forever a bit odd (and made it a little difficult for me to get into) is that its tone is radically different than the […]
Viewed January 4, 2006
Carry On Jack is the eighth in the classic “Carry On” series of British comedies. Known for their wacky humor and bawdy jokes, the “Carry On” series ran from 1958 to 1978 and spanned 29 films (plus one more in 1992). The main draw of the series was the regular […]
Viewed January 3, 2006
Okay, Alone in the Dark is a bad movie. It has a ridiculously convoluted plot, a lot of the acting is sub-par and none of it really comes together in the end.
That being said, I’ve certainly seen worse movies. I’ve sat through The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961), for heaven’s […]
Viewed January 2, 2006
In many ways, The Princess Blade is a typical Japanese action film. It’s got swords, acts of vengeance, betrayal, an old guy with secrets to tell, unrequited love, the death of innocents and lots and lots of blood.
Still, it’s a very stylish film. Based on the classic Japanese comic “Lady […]
Viewed on January 1, 2006
If Unbreakable suffers from anything, it is that despite the convoluted nature of writer/director M. Night Shyamalan’s storytelling, the film is very direct. It is about being a super hero and it never tries to hide that fact. But that is also one of its greatest strengths. From […]
Welcome, one and all to the “365 Films A Year!” project.
The big idea: I will watch a movie I have never seen before every day in 2006. And I will comment on them here, allowing anyone interested to follow my progress, read my thoughts and contribute their own.
The genesis of this concept comes from […]