9,8,7,6,5,4,2, (- what happened to 3 - "just kidding" -) 1 - KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM ! We're off to October... Just fourteen days left for me to be 26 years young

I rented Memento. I was afraid that this would be a gimmicky movie,
but I found the whole process of filming the story backwards necessary
and stunning. Lord spare anyone the debilitating and tragic handicap
ruining the life of Guy Pierce. This murder mystery is really a tragedy,
and the pathos of the end makes you never want to uncurl from a
fetal position. Once viewed, you want to rewind and watch the first
5 minutes again to solidify what you “think” happened. Thanks
for a novel, unpredictable script.

Hearts Of Atlantis. Loved the novel and wanted to love the film, but it
left me cold. I never felt Hopkins, who is a master at outward calm
and inner turmoil, had his heart in this movie. (See Shadowlands instead.)
This is a Stand By Me wannabe. Stand By Me had the boys involved
in enough “learn from these events” to merit an authentic coming of age
change. Hearts Of Atlantis has little plot and only a few events treated
in a cursory manner. Read the book; it’s better. This could have
been a Shawshank, Stand By Me, or Green Mile, but it traded the
possibility of an in-depth story for lovely cinematography.

Nowadays I don't go to movies as often as I did many years ago - back then atleast twice a week - during the summer I saw only three movies... So, when I ultimately DO go - I go alone - and go to see "the whole package". That's the reason for this bizarre movie menu.

Starting with SHREK. Entertaining, funny, touching story - for us hermits - and simply swarming with details for those who know fairytales by heart. And yet, enough magic and more heart than in any recent Disney-product; I'm really keeping my both thumbs up for DreamWorks for these kinds of innovative productions. The only complaint about the movie was its little too many dialogues about the same things; scripters should remember that less is much more.
- - The score was indeed a pleasent surprise; I really didn't expect it to be so beautiful and magical. Time to time the contemporary sound of the songs clashed a little too much with the score - the music supervisors should really focus on these kinds of things a little bit more. However, most of the songs defended the basic element of the movie - about different approach to the land of fairytales.

Then A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.
...ummmmm, well... Now when I have seen it and heard Williams music with the visuals - I still HAVE to admit that both Spielberg and Williams have grown up "too much".
In my opinion Spielberg HAS succeeded in making his movie very "Kubrickian" - there is this stillness, sadness, and some very disturbing visuals (- which even myself consider a little too much for younger viewers -); yet the most "irritating" thing about this movie is that Spielberg has somehow lost his positive attitude towards life and his childlike belief in us humans...
I, personally, would have liked to end this movie to the bottom of the sea - the ferris wheel crashing into David's head, "killing him" and thus "releasing his soul to the place where dreams are born"...
- - But still, I cried, a lot...especially when David finally confronted the "living" Blue Fairy...and even during the reunion sequence with David and the mother... "Niagara Falls" really - so I have to admit, that although the movie isn't among the best of Spielberg, he surprisingly rediscovered his power to make me cry after a very long drought with his earlier movies like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, AMISTAD and even SCHINDLER'S LIST (- sorry, these just didn't "do it" for me).
- - The score works actually better within the movie than on its own. Actually that fact made me once again seriously wonder WHY on earth especially Williams does this to us; the soundtrack album is horribly sequenced if compared to the movie's narrative !! But, anyway, it's a very effective score with really emotional passages - my tears were the judge of that

A.I left me feeling, however, too empty - so I decided very fast to rush to a third movie...BRIDGET JONES DIARIES..!! I've wanted to see it mainly because two things: 1) Renee Zellweger & 2) the theme about singles (- I happen to be one of "them" also). And the movie turned out to be the highlight of the evening: Enormously enjoyable (because Bridget has very many same characters as me - don't ask which ones ), hilariously funny, yet philosophical and extremely touching with the very warmth I needed after the A.I. experience... BRIDGET really returned me onto this planet. - - PLUS, the movie had a gorgeous score by Patrick Doyle, and even the songs all seemed to be so appropriate. A real delight.

After all these a nightly rain even seemed to be unnaturally warm. Now my batteries seem to be reloaded with energy that I need with the manymany important things waiting for me this week. - - Isn't that what movies are for..?

Thanks for letting me share it with you, Graham (and others, too) ! And, Graham, I'm glad for being of help restoring your "faith in humanity" - we all need it time to time. That's what friends are for.

:O KEN

Graham, are you speaking of me, Timmer or yourself..?

However, I still prefer more the Gothic/Romantic horror stuff, like Hammer's classics.

In Burton's SLEEPY HOLLOW there was a major detail wrong which spoilt the overall impact even more - the screenplay !!! I waited this film very enthusiastically because I've always loved Washington Irving's original story of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". What a disappointment the movie was, because (once again) the Hollywood scripters destroyed a very promising original story by NOT using their imagination ENOUGH; when I heard the soundtrack (prior to seeing the movie) I pictured a magnificent new resolution to the original story - so you can picture MY disappointment when the movie's plot was what it was..! (Disney's animated version of "Sleepy Hollow" is SO much more better being quite faithful to the original story).

Gae, I do agree with you on the colors - and I even say that with SLEEPY HOLLOW Tim Burton wasn't exactly at his best...BEETLEJUICE, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS and THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS* were so MUCH MORE better in their simplistic story-telling style and visual style. (*Although I know that Burton didn't direct THE NIGHTMARE..)

Directed by Fritz Lang
Screenplay by Silvia Richards, from the story by Rufus King
Photography by Stanley Cortez
Music by Miklos Rozsa

Main Cast: Joan Bennett, Michael Redgrave, Anne Revere, Barbara O'Neil

Vaguely dorkish looking Michael Redgrave collects rooms (!) much the same way as other people collect Jerry Goldsmith CDs. His new wife wants to unlock room number 7, while at the same time opening the door to his mind. You see, he's a bit weird and has skeletons in his closet. Almost literally.

Very much a Hollywood melodrama of its time, Secret Beyond The Door seems to ride the psychoanalytical crest of the wave addressed in things like Spellbound, with more than a hint of Rebecca. Cue scenes of shadowy expressionistic corridors, though they aren't really taken advantage of visually.

It is all rather contrived, and the "secret" beyond the door isn't really worth bothering about, in fact on the whole I don't imagine audiences were much more excited by this back then than they are now with the pedestrian fodder on offer today.

But it is Fritz Lang, so one must be respectful. It's well-mannered, almost TOO mannered, solid (good) but also stolid (not so good).

Directed by Woody Allen
Screenplay by Woody Allen
Photography by Zhao Fei

Main Cast: Woody Allen, Helen Hunt, Dan Aykroyd, Charleze Theron, David Ogden Stiers

Jewel robberies are commited under the influence of a master hypnotist.

Sounds like the plot of an old 40s serial, and indeed the year 1940 is lovingly recreated, a nod to the Golden Age of Hollywood, though in colour.

Unfortunately I found it to be one of Woody's weaker efforts, wafer-thin and somewhat tiresome and repetitive. No razor-sharp dissection of character here, but it is still quite pleasing.

The soundtrack is of course full of the usual early jazz works of Duke Ellington etc, under the direction of Woody's inseparable collaborator Dick Hyman, who appears on screen in one scene.

Graham--Have to agree with you about Secret Beyond The Door. The Lang-Rozsa combination (just like the later very wonderful film Moonfleet) made it a must see in my book, but when I finally did see it, I was disappointed. It was an obvious attempt to do Spellbound meets Rebecca that couldn't reach the level of either of those. It has it's moments: the animated pool right after the credits, the two men fighting with knives over the girl in the market place and how that excites everyone, the idea of the collected rooms. This last is really fascinating--you build a large house and decorate a number of the rooms to resemble the rooms where famous murders took place kind of like a wax museum or diabolical theme park. Still, you can see a mile off that he's going to try to murder someone himself in one of those rooms (what else can you do with them in a movie) and the whole locked door/psychological secret metaphor is a bit much.

**SPOILER***

What I did find unique was that even though he tries to kill someone, because he's under a kind of temporary insanity, he gets cured and it all works out kind of happy at the end. You'd think he'd be jailed or institutionalized for life, but no.

I've seen a lot more news since Sept. 11th than anything else. I didn't see either Spartacus or Apocalypse Now Redux as planned and car trouble has kept me home. I hope nevertheless to get out to Ghost World, Iron Monkey, and Mullholland Drive. On TV or video I watched the following:

Kiss Me Deadly with the [weaker] alternate ending, Bava's Black Sabbath, SOS Eisberg (with a very interesting score by Paul Dessau), an episode [A Flash in the Sky] of the 60s TV series Men Into Space (with good scoring by David Rose, who I recently learned was once Judy Garland's husband), and The Source (a documentary on the Beat poets).

I've recorded a few things off TCM and AMC this month that I haven't watched yet like The Purple Plain, Omar Khyaam, and Pit and the Pendulum, that I hope I'll get to in the next week.

Lucía Y El Sexo (Spain 2001)

Directed by Julio Medem
Screenplay by Julio Medem
Photography by Kiko de la Rica
Music by Alberto Iglesias

Main Cast: Paz Vega, Tristán Ulloa, Najwa Nimri

Haven't figured out what this was about yet.

So anyway, what was I doing going to see a film called Lucía y el Sexo? Well, I didn't go just to see all the nakedness, no sir. I went because it's the new one from Julio Medem, and I liked all his previous work (La Ardilla Roja, Los Amantes del Circulo Polar...don't know how well-known these things are outside Spain).

All the themes and obsessions presented in his earlier films appear again here, you see he's always very elliptical and plays around with ideas of duality and reality/ unreality (I think), only this time with more tits.

Again, like Medem's other stuff, Lucía y el Sexo exerts a strange fascination, but it's also possibly his first really boring movie. That's my opinion, and also perhaps my fault. I didn't understand it either, too difficult for a lazy Sunday afternoon (which is DEFINITELY my fault!)

Directed by Emilio Martínez-Lázaro
Screenplay by Ignacio Martínez de Pisón, from his novel
Photography by Javier Salmones
Music by Roque Baños

Main Cast: Antonio Resines, Fernando Ramallo, Maribel Verdú, Míriam Díaz Aroca

Middle-aged wideboy widower in late Franco era Spain tries all kinds of money making schemes in order to make ends meet and hopefully gain the love and respect of his stroppy teenage son.

I found this quite hard to pigeonhole, which is probably a good thing in itself. Whatever, just beneath its brittle exterior lies a very soft centre. Dealing with the difficulties involved in finding mutual understanding it's a kind of generation-gap drama, but it's the father who is the misunderstood character here, not the problem child And so, whilst the movie does put across very well how awful some adults can seem to children with our transparent scheming and petty lies, it still treats the dad compassionately.

This is a good film, but it's probably about twenty minutes too long (there are a few superflous scenes and sub-plots), plus it is marred by an unconvincing and out-of-character ending (SPOILER! Who cares, you're never going to see this anyway! - Suddenly they get rich and become happy).

The weight of the film is carried by Antonio Resines as the father. A pitiful, deeply-flawed blustery windbag, a vulnerable misunderstood failure, but still a basically good man, this is an extraordinary performance.

Directed by Max Ophuls
Screenplay by Howard Koch, from a novel by Stefan Zweig
Photography by Franz Planer
Music by Daniele Amfitheatrof

Main Cast: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan

Vienna, about 1900. Young girl falls for her neighbour, a promising concert pianist. But he's feckless, and her largely unrequited love for him will last for years and have unimaginable consequences for them both.

Of course, I wouldn't watch this kind of women's nonsense, but I did and it was great. Probably one of the most affectingly tragic movies from Hollywood's golden age. My God, how our destinies are governed by a series of seemingly inconsequential twists of fate! Quite scarifying, and the sobering ideas of destiny and wasted lives lend the film a dramatic weight which lifts it well out of the simple marshmallow tearjerker genre.

Joan Fontaine does the shy hand-wringing part very well indeed, and to me her performance seemed quite "modern", in the sense that the way she delivered her lines seemed more naturalistic (overlapping dialogue, barely heard utterances, stammering) than was the norm back then.

Louis Jourdan, never one of my favourite actors, is also just right. He's bland, but anything heavier would have been wrong for such a basically frivolous character (at least at the start, though things change).

Music by Danny Amphiteater, soupy for sure but not too much so.

Joy Ride is kind of a combination of The Hitcher and Duel. Two guys
play a joke on a trucker and end up running for their lives as he exacts
his revenge. Very scary score by Beltrami. I was, as always, impressed
with Steve Zahn. He is an interesting character actor. Not a great movie,
but I was entertained for 2 hours, and the movie has some real “scares”
in places.

Last Castle. This was a remake of Cool Hand Luke, which was fresh in its
day, but this movie is full of clichés and is predictable. (When is Redford
ever NOT the hero?) The movie shamelessly manipulates our emotions, but
I still enjoyed the two hours. The USA needs a patriotic movie right
now. Even with a banal, predictable script, the acting by various prisoners
was excellent, and Goldsmith’s music delivers a haunting military theme and
some kick butt action music.

Riding In Cars With Boys. I was very disappointed in this movie. I
usually like Penny Marshall movies, but she over directed this lame
script. She tries to push every emotional button in her tear jerking
direction of the child actors. The story does a cursory job of
covering various incidences in the life of a girl who has big dreams
that are thwarted by her becoming pregnant at 15. The story is about her
struggle to go to college in spite of her obligations as a mother and
her problems with her loser husband. Steve Zahn as the husband
again delivers the best performance in the movie. Zimmer’s score
wasn’t too noticeable, just time passing music that didn’t seem to
stand out for me. I expected more comedy and pathos and was
delivered luke warm oatmeal.

NP The Jayhawkers’s Moross

Terrible music too. Some of those action scenes with the Ozzy Osborne/ Marilyn Manson types made me think I was watching an outdoor rock concert. And what about all those synthesized shock-horror blasts whenever a hand reaches out suddenly to grab someone? As a film composer, John Carpenter is his own worst enemy.

Ghosts Of Mars (USA 2001)

Directed by John Carpenter
Screenplay by Larry Sulkis and John Carpenter
Photography by Gary B. Kibbe
Music by John Carpenter

Directed by Herbert Ross
Screenplay by Neil Simon, from his play
Photography by David M. Walsh
Music by Claude Bolling

Main Cast: Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, Alan Alda, Jane Fonda, Walter Matthau, Elaine May, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby

On Oscar night, four very different groups of people arrive in California for very different reasons.

Portmanteau comedy. Walter Matthau has the best moments because of his amazing acting skills: here, as a man trying to cover up an embarrassing situation, he's so good it's almost scary. It's a side-splittingly hilarious performance, but it's also just on the verge of being heartbreaking. Even Basil Fawlty never had it so bad. The worst of the movie comes towards the end of the Pryor/ Cosby segments, when it degenerates into the crudest of cringe-making slapstick, with people falling over and breaking there limbs every two seconds. That was so bad I imagine that Neil Simon must have actually been trying to make some kind of intellectual point.

Between those two extremes California Suite is very uneven, hardly surprisingly. Well-performed and moderately entertaining it is also somewhat glib, and the witty ripostes become slightly tiresome, I suppose it must be difficult to write consistently funny dialogue that also rings true. Here, well, you can tell it's a script!