“The Philadelphia Story” (TCM/Satellite)

The Philadelphia Story is another screwball comedy of the “not very silent” era. It is basically the unrelated sequel to “Bringing up Baby”, and marked the start of Hepburn’s dominance of Hollywood for decades to come. It also co-starred Grant and Stewart. There seemed, as well, to be quite a few unresolved throwaway sub-plots. Bah.

This was my 198th. Starting to get numb to these flicks.

“American Gangster” (HBO/Satellite)

I realized after starting American Gangster that I’d seen it before. That isn’t to say that I’d seen this movie before, but this movie is the latest in a line of carbon copies of trueish life stories of various criminals. Several of which, I’ve seen in the process of watching the top 250 IMDB movies. “Scarface” comes to mind.

So rather than review it again, I’ll instead quote an actual entry into Roger Ebert’s answer column (a slightly more prolific and verbose movie reviewer than myself).

Q. Yo dude, u missed out on “Disaster Movie,” a hardcore laugh-ur-@zz-off movie! Y U not review this movie!? It was funny as #ell! Prolly the funniest movie of the summer! U never review these, wat up wit dat?
S.J. Stanczak, Chicago

A. Hey, bro, I wuz buzier than $#i+, @d they never shoed it b4 hand. I peeped in the IMDb and saw it zoomed to #1 as the low$ie$t flic of all time, wit @ lame-@zz UZer Rating of 1.3. U liked it? Wat up wit dat?

It is alway interesting to see the Benjamin Franklins of this world are still lurking. Those that can both subvert the institution and be a base pillar of it.

“Witness for the Prosecution” (TCM/Satellite)

Witness for the Prosecution

“The management of this theater suggests that for the greater entertainment of your friends who have not yet seen the picture you will not divulge to anyone the secret of the ending of Witness for the Prosecution.”

Not bad. Bit british.

“Anatomy of a Murder” (TCM/Satellite)

Anatomy of a Murder.

Haha, murder is funny. I’m just a country lawyer, not used to all your fancy murder.

From what I could tell, the bad guys won in this one. Meh.

“The Lady Vanishes” (TCM/Satellite)

The Lady Vanishes is an implausible little conspiracy tale about a lady vanishing on a train ride, and everyone on the train who saw her being bribed to pretend some other lady is her.

Amusing.

“There Will Be Blood” (DVD)

There Will Be Blood sounds like a promise. They should have said There Will Be Mud. It is a very dirty movie. There was some blood. There was much more mud. And dirt. And dust. And crude oil.

This is a modern period piece. And by this I mean, it tries very hard to immerse itself into the period, but is a product of its time (now), and will probably also age very oddly in the years to come.

“Stalag 17″ (MAX/Satellite)

Stalag 17 is “The Three Stooges” meets “Bridge on the River Kwai”. No really. Prisoners get killed, but guards get a face full of paint randomly. The later producers of Hogans Heroes were even sued by the producers of this film. “OMG, we thought of POW comedy first!” … It is hard to take this movie seriously when it refuses to do so itself!

It interestingly starts out with narration (by the main character) bemoaning the fact that most World War II movies up until that point were heroic depictions of combat, and none about the prisoners of war. Heh. Be careful what you wish for.

“The Pianist” (IFC/Satellite)

Roman Polanski won 3 Oscars for The Pianist, but of course he couldn’t show up and claim them in person. But lets not rant about that.

Sometimes I have trouble trying to keep all the holocaust films separate. And I haven’t even seen that many. The ones I can think of are: “Judgment at Nuremberg”, “Fatherland”, “Life is Beautiful”, “Conspiracy”, “The Grey Zone”, and “Twist of Fate”.

So, yes, another holocaust film.

“The Bridge on the River Kwai” (AMC/Satellite)

The Bridge on the River Kwai is a rather long color movie from 1957. Despite being a WWII movie it was quite surprisingly enjoyable, if drawn out.

A younger Alec Guinness plays Colonial Nicholson, a British POW who puts rules, discipline and order, over both victory and survival. He starts out willing to let all his officers and wounded die rather than let the Japanese violate the Genevea Convention. He even eventually takes pride in helping the enemy by finishing the bridge, “showing them what for”.

Jack Hawkins portrays Warden, a somewhat eccentric British officer and commando who loves to blow shit up. Hawkins is charged with the task of blowing up this bridge, preferrably when an important VIP is crossing it.

William Holden is Shears, a minor enlisted man captured, who donned a dead officer’s clothes for better treatment, and later escapes the Kwai bridge prison camp and makes it to civilization. He is enlisted (forced) to go back with Warden and some British commandos to blow up same bridge, when all he wants is a medical discharge.

Sessue Hayakawa plays Saito, the Japanese officer charged with the near impossible task of building the bridge on time, or commit seppuku in disgrace. He finds Nicholson’s refusal of letting officers do manual labor intolerable and attempts to break them, but finds himself broken by them, and then treated almost offendingly civilly by them in return, as they explain how to and where build the brige properly.

There is also a medical officer who goes around whining about how crazy everyone is. Anyway, shit happens and almost everyone is killed. The end.

“Spirited Away” (OVATION/Satellite)

Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi is one of the only two Anime on my to-do list. It reminded me very much of “Howl’s Moving Castle”, and “Princess Mononoke”, in this age of modern block buster anime movies. Despite this it was pretty good. Surrealistic. Bit unbelievable (yes, for anime, Chihiro it seemed could do no wrong, with lots of guessing). Lots of spirits and slime monsters. Lots of evil and good mixed together.

I like anime. Maybe not as much as the next otaku, but probably more than the average citizen. The first really good Anime I saw, and possibly still my favorite mindfuck ever, was the second Urusei Yatsura movie “Beautiful Dreamer”.

Lately I’ve been buying complete series off Amazon, just for kicks. I’ve also seen several on Adult Swim. “Death Note” was the only one that made me go and buy the whole manga. So, since you didn’t ask, what I’ve seen all of:

OVA/Movies

Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer
Rayearth
Eyes of M.A.R.S.
Ghost in the Shell
Cyber City OEDO 808
DNA Sights 999.9
Vampire Hunter D
The Wings of Honneamise
Armitage III: Dual-Matrix
Armitage III: Polymatrix
Howl’s Moving Castle
Akira
Princess Mononoke
Tokyo Godfathers
Metropolis
Paprika
Animatrix
Macross II: Lovers, Again
Macross Plus
Galaxy Express 999
Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa
Cowboy Bebop: Knocking on Heaven’s Door
Appleseed
Appleseed: Ex Machina
Inuyasha the Movie: Affections Touching Across Time
Inuyasha the Movie 2: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass
InuYasha the Movie 3: Swords of an Honorable Ruler
Patlabor: The Movie
Patlabor 2: The Movie
X
Karas
Steamboy
Read or Die
Shadow Skill
Shadow Skill: The Movie
3×3 Eyes
Birdie the Mightly
Black Magic M-66
Darkside Blues
Demon City Shinjuku
Ninja Scroll
Spirited Away

TV Series

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG
Cowby Bebop
Trinity Blood
Trigun
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Figure 17
Legend of Himiko
Magic Knight Rayearth
Planetes
Princess Princess
Rune Soldier
S-Cry-Ed
FLCL
Samurai Champloo
The Big O
Witch Hunter Robin
Wolf’s Rain
Inuyasha
Paranoia Agent
Super Milk-Chan
Fullmetal Alchemist
Ranma 1/2

Not seen all spinoff movies/OVA of all these TV series

Currently watching Scrapped Princess, and the Ranma OVA and Movies.

I was always a fan of hard sci-fi and hard fantasy, like Saberhagen’s Swords, and Berserker, and Niven’s Known Space, as well as Simmon’s Hyperion series. Anime is like a visual representation of that extreme sci-fantasy. A great look into the other worlds. Possible futures, possible pasts, possible presents, and impossible anythings. Nothing can make you laugh and cry at the same time like Trigun, or Fullmetal Alchemist.