I liked the look of it and the relationships between the trio of friends. The film owes a great deal to its score. But somehow I couldn't get into it, I could just feel the machinery grinding in every scene. It's just one triumph for Harry after another and at no point is there any real peril: no matter what evil seems about to fall, you know Harry is going to pull it off or get rescued at the last second and none of the specifics of working out the conflicts interested me much.

This week I watched Ebert & Roeper's show summing up their favorite films of the year. Ebert really gave Hollywood a slap in the face. Here's a year of big films like Pearl Harbor, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings and Ebert's pick for best film is Monsters' Ball, a small film where 2 people mainly drive around and talk with each other. Most of his other pics like Mullholland Drive or Ghost World or Waking Life were indie flicks that came in below the radar.

Hollywood can spend $100 million and lay on the special effects but it just refuses to get away from predictable formulas and moral bromides.

The Majestic with Jim Carrey. Yawn, yawn, yawn. Should have listened to the critics.
This was NOT Capraesque. Capra’s films had heart and soul. This movie was DULL and
slow. I’m a wuss for Kleenex flicks, but I didn’t shed a tear except for the time I wasted.
I did enjoy Carrey in a non comedic, straight role, but the pacing and editing of this film
flattened any emotive possibilities. (And this from the director of Shawshank Redemption
and The Green Mile????) I also felt the score lacked power and feeling.

A Beautiful Mind. Finally, I watched a decent movie in the year 2001. Watch Russell
Crowe in L.A. Confidential with his muscular, visceral body language and contrast it to
the internal, reclusive, mentally ill man he plays in A Beautiful Mind. AMAZING!!! His
performance is worth the price of admission. This is an Oscar performance. Ron Howard
pulled stellar performances from the whole cast. However, the one weak aspect of this
movie was a rather dull, derivative score by Horner. I was hoping he’d come up with
another theme as memorable as The Ludlows, but I didn’t hear anything that caught my
attention. Still have to see LOTR.

Both critics had A Beautiful Mind on their list of 10 for the year. As a rule I hate Ron Howard movies, but this might be serious enough to stomach.

It amazes me how good Crowe can be in movies and what a nimble-head he appears to be off camera. Even in films that are kinda dull, like The Insider, he's amazing.

Everyone--Just caught another movie, Remorques (aka Stormy Waters), a french film from 1940 starring Jean Gabin and Michele Morgan.

Up until a few days ago, this was the only Gilliam film I had never seen. As an enormous fan, perhaps my expectations were too high. I still maintain, as I always have, that the man does not make bad movies. This, however, was pretty close.

The film's problems do not lie in it's sense of humor. There are some genuinely very funny moments in this film. The performances are also fine across the board, with Max Wall as King Bruno the Questionable a real highlight.

What ultimately leads the film to its demise is that the plot simply isn't very engaging. The audience is given very little reason to care for Palin's lead, and very little reason to care about the monster ravaging the country. By the time the story actually begins to pick up momentum the film is half finished. Once you get to the 50-minute mark, things aree much easier. But getting there just isn't as fun as it should be.

The finale is satisfying, with the Jabberwock itself looking very impressive considering the time and the budget.

Going through a number of comments I have seen online, it appears that many people are disappointed with the film when they first see, but after repeat viewings find themselves enjoying it more. Since I now own the DVD, perhaps it will be the same with me. But I expect it will be a while before I watch it again.

Not a bad film, but nowhere near the standards Gilliam set (and has since consistently lived up to) in his follow-up, Time Bandits.

Now, I thought that the plotline was irresistable, and was looking forward to some wacky surrealism, but it turned out to be mind-bogglingly witless, and totally lacking in any kind of charm. This really needed a Jeunet touch, but what it got was closer to POLICE ACADEMY. Weak, supposedly ironic, potshots are fired in all directions and miss their target by miles.

You know, a lot of time obviously went into the special effects here, and indeed I'm sure those Busby Berkeley bug routines were a real labour of love for some poor guy, so all the more depressing to see the whole thing fall so completely flat on its face.

Tokyo Olympiad--One of my all-time favorite films and scores (by Toshiro Mayuzumi)playing in 35mm scope was the reason for making the trip. I've seen this film many, many times and it never fails to stir me. The opening sequence that details the torch running symbolizes civilization and world acceptance returning to Japan after WWII. The rest is a celebration of the new Japan and the athletic spirit. The film concentrates on the expressions and struggles of the athletes over the events themselves.

Alone on the Pacific--Based on a true story of a Japanese kid who crossed the Pacific in a small yacht. Glorious scope Technicolor visuals of ocean and fog and typhoons, intercut with the backstory of his family and friends trying to stop him from making the trip. Like TO, it's a celebration of the new Japan, which must defy some of the traditional culture to succeed in new ways. Had a score by both Yasushi Akutagawa and Toru Takemitsu.

The Men of Tohoku--Odd film about poor village where only the elder sons can marry and hold land. The younger sons become slave labor and can have no sex as a form of population control. One guy can't take it any longer and leaves, again in defiance of the old traditions.

Sumo Do, Sumo Don't--from the director of Shall We Dance? a feel-good movie about an underdog student sumo group that pulls it together to become champions. Light, predictable stuff that gives you just what you want but a lot of it was very funny which made up for the cuteness of it all.

But I still think that both new versions are great movies. It's a fine line to walk making a film both fun (but not too stupidly teen-based) and genuinely frightening (and not too gratuitously violent), but THIRTEEN GHOSTS does it pretty well. However, H ON HAUNTED H did it even better.

John Frizzell has a few moments of glory, with some repeating phrases that get the nerves jangling, but on the whole his score isn't that memorable. I only say that 'cos I don't remember it.

IMPOSTOR
There's a potentially good film in here somewhere, but it's buried under so much crud and tripe that there's not enough to enjoy. Compelling story; wonderful cast; decent script (aside from a few poor one-liners); interesting, somewhat Brazil-ian use of signs. All of it ruined by director and editor, who produce such garbage that in the end it looks like they were going for Michael Bay on a Blair Witch budget. Mark Isham's score could make a potentially enjoyable album, but (exactly the opposite of usual for him) it was far too overbearing in the film. In fact, sound design is another of the films problems: there's always way too much going on in the soundtrack to concentrate.

GOSFORD PARK
I don't understand the rave reviews. Granted, this film does have many things going for it. The characters all seem like real people and not just tools of the plot; Altman does a very good job of juggling the thirty-something characters; the upstairs/downstairs class study that all the critics rave about is well-handled. None of these things, however, outweigh the unimaginative script, poor pacing, and infuriating anti-resolution of the story. That they never give us a clear answer as to who really killed Michael Gambon's character is a good, intriguing choice; that they don't resolve a single one of the film's other many subplots is only frustrating. And one other thing... Altman does indeed do a great job of juggling the many characters, but it begs this question: what's the point? Half of these characters simply show up and do nothing. Patrick Doyle turns in a fine score; I'll probably pick up the album some time soon.

IN THE BEDROOM
Powerful, intelligent, extraordinarily well-scripted and well-acted, and very moving without resorting to the melodrama that Hollywood tends to lean on. There is nothing to complain about here, and pointing out all the good things would only get redundant.

BLACK HAWK DOWN
One of the best action movies I have ever seen. But that's all it is: an action movie. The acting is fine, the use of color amazing, the action sequences among the most memorable, realistic, and powerful ever shot. But somewhow, it just doesn't click with me.

A BEAUTIFUL MIND
Like In the Bedroom, there is nothing to complain about. (Exception: one scene in which Russell Crowe wears a tight T-shirt pulled me out of the film; we never have any indication that Nash has been body-building, but Crowe quite obviously has. But I digress.) I was very angry Crowe got the Oscar for Gladiator, but I say give it to him again anyway. His performance is extraordinary. This a very good film, all the more impressive because it can from the pen of Akiva Goldsman, fashioner of such Hollywood classics as Batman and Robin and Lost in Space. Shows the just because you happen to write a lot of bad movies, it doesn't make you a bad writer. Sort of makes me all that more hopeful of John Logan. I'm digressing again. Anyway, see the film and fall under its spell. Beautiful.

Deux Hommes Dans Manhattan (1959) Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville

I love Melville: La Silence De La Mer, Les Enfants Terribles, Bob Le Flambeur, Le Doulos, Leon Morin Pretre, Le Samourai, Les Armee Des Ombres, Le Cercle Rouge, Un Flic.

Each an absolutely amazing film. I'm missing a few but they aren't available in the US. Deux Hommes was released on video in the UK. My copy is a transfer to NTSC.

Melville himself didn't think Deux Hommes worked. Boy was he wrong. This is a real delightful gem.

Story of two sleezy but incredibly resourceful journalists looking for a missing UN ambassador and what happens after they find him has one great scene after another, all of it secondary to the characters. It feels like a masterpiece Peter Gunn episode: batchelor pad jazz playing as they drive around from informant to the next, most of them hot chicks.

The score is by Martial Solal, who also scored Breathless the same year.

Because of this short, Karina always says she and Godard did 7 1/2 films together.

Just as in sketches Godard directed for RoGoPag and 7 Deadly Sins, this is just an excuse for a joke or two rather than anything deep.

This sketch, Anticipation, seems like a continuation of Alphaville. Set in the future, a man visiting Earth from Galaxy 4 finds that specialization has taken over: he meets a prostitute who will have sex but won't talk and another who recites love poetry but won't have sex. Ever resourceful, he commits the "revolutionary" act of getting a girl to combine the two, returning humanity to this cold futuristic world.

Short and sweet, though nothing major. The "futuristic" modern electronic score was by Michel Legrand!

And another thing: Howard Shore was average. Again, months of research, a year of writing, and you can STILL tell that BRAVEHEART was used on the temp-track! Add to that the corny presence of Enya and the crashing battle music and the end result is tired and predictable in the extreme. Oh, except for the that good bit when they sail between the big statues!

I remember when STAR WARS first came out and, amidst all the hype, my dear old grandmother remarked that it would be "one of those silly, noisy things." And I thought then, "Poor thing just doesn't get it." Now I know what it's like to feel old and out of touch.

Back by popular demand (ho, nary a whisper), are the pedantic cast and credits! No fast-forwarding them please, even if you have already learned them by heart.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (New Zealand/ USA 2001)

Directed by Peter Jackson
Screenplay by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, from the books by J.R.R. Tolkien
Photography by Andrew Lesnie
Music by Howard Shore