Lady Vengeance

I was let down by Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy, but this one more than makes up for it.  It’s SO much better that I can’t understand why it’s Oldboy that gets all the hype.  The film is visually delectable, with oodles of striking images and clever effects.  The story is rich and multi-faceted, without needing to resort to convoluted plot twists or cheap thrills.  It’s funny, moving, tense, engaging and often heartbreakingly beautiful.  I loved it, and I might even give Oldboy another chance.  Rating: 9

IMDb

La Guerre Est Finie

Resnais creates a similar hazy, poetic world as in Last Year at Marienbad and Hiroshima Mon Amour, but inside it is a fairly conventional, and rather dull, story.  The flashes of memory (or in some cases, imagination), internal dialogue, and odd close-ups are somewhat intriguing, unfortunately it’s not enough to elevate this film above average.  Things do pick up at the end, however, it’s just the first hour that’s rough going.  Rating: 6

IMDb

Everyone Says I Love You

I guess Woody Allen’s earned the right to indulge in this kind of thing if he wants to, but it’s pretty weak.  The musical sequences are mostly lifeless and forced, made worse by a cast with little talent for song and dance.  With a couple of exceptions (“Hooray for Captain Spaulding” sung by a troupe of French Grouchos), they’re not very fun, and I found myself getting annoyed that they kept interrupting the story.  Natasha Lyonne is also a horrible actress, especially in her narration.  For anyone else, this would be a 6, but since I expect a little better from Woody… Rating: 5

IMDb

Nightmare Alley

Speaking of film noir, this one is excellent.  It covers a lot more plot development than is typical for the genre, with the story going in new directions every 15-20 minutes or so.  The characters are really strong and all the hustling is quite interesting.  Very well done.  Rating: 9

IMDb

Brick

Kind of revels in the cleverness of its concept a little too much (A film noir, but with high school kids! Teenagers, talking like an old movie! Wow!) without actually doing anything terribly clever with it… but otherwise quite enjoyable.  I’d watch it again.  Rating: 8

IMDb

Abhijaan

The story of a taxi driver struggling to maintain his integrity and still make a living.  The film touches on a lot of interesting issues, although I probably didn’t get the full implications of the caste/religious differences (I think I got the gist of it, though).  However, it’s a bit too blunt and for a Satyajit Ray film it seems to lack his special touch.  Ray regular Soumitra Chatterjee is in fine form though, playing against type instead of his usual educated sophisticate.  A good movie, but not one of Ray’s best.  Rating: 7

IMDb

Return of the Jedi (rewatch)

I hate it a little more each time I see it.  Only the third act is any good, and even then you’ve got to get through all the horrible Ewok slapstick and jokes.  Rating: 5

IMDb

The Empire Strikes Back (rewatch)

One reason why ESB is the best of the series is because it had the coolest toys.  The Hoth battle station, snowspeeders, snowtroopers, taun tauns, AT-AT walkers, the little Cloud City car, Boba Fett (and the Slave 1), IG-88, Lobot, the imperial probe droid… all that stuff was badass.  Even the medical droid was cool.  I have to admit that while watching these older versions, I feel a longing for the improved special effects of the special editions.  Not the added/changed bits of the stories, just the newer effects.  Oh well, maybe some future video format will allow us to build our own “fan edits” quickly and easily.  Rating: 10

IMDb

Star Wars (rewatch)

Nice to have the unaltered, warts and all, Han-shoots-first original Star Wars on an official DVD, even if it is non-anamorphic.  You could nitpick this movie to death if you wanted to (isn’t it a bit odd that Luke seems to mourn the loss of a man who, until the day before, was just a crazy old hermit more than he mourns the loss of the aunt and uncle who raised him?) but that’s just spoiling the fun for yourself.  Still a terrific flick, and one I hope to show to my own kids one day.  Rating: 9 

IMDb

Silent Hill (rewatch)

Fuck the haters, I still dig this movie.  It’s relentless in its bleak mood, which I haven’t quite decided is a good thing or a bad thing.  It seems like the best horror films — The Shining, Halloween, The Exorcist, etc. — have their moments of humor.  There’s not one light-hearted second in Silent Hill. The feeling of dread never lets up, which (like most everything about the movie) is just like the games.  I just loved the creepy world of the games so much, it’s great to be able to revisit it again.  Fun fact: you can freeze-frame the DVD and see a news clipping that refers to “Harold J. Knowles” and “Gans County”.  Rating: 8

IMDb