Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

A little late here, huh?  Figured since I might see the third one this weekend I ought to watch the second one beforehand.  This wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d been led to believe.  Production quality is top-notch, there’s not too much downtime, it’s pretty fun.  It does seem to lack a certain spark and comes off a bit like a paint-by-numbers adventure flick, but it’s easy enough to just kick back and enjoy it.  As with the first film, the climax does drag on a bit too long.  Rating: 7

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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (rewatch)

Watching for the third time (fourth if you count the commentary track), this time in HD.  Looks great, but actually I was getting too wrapped in it to really pay attention to how sharp the picture was.  I still love this movie.  It’s really nuanced and beautiful (and let’s be honest: Kate Winslet is adorable).  I keep picking out little details… for the first time I noticed that when Mary is hauling all the patient files out to her car (to right the wrongs that Lacuna has done), the box says “CORRECTIONS – HEALTH”.  Little stuff like that is great.  I still have an issue in that I don’t 100% buy that Clementine would fall for Joel, but other than that I’m happy with it.  I think it’s probably a future classic.  Rating: 9

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Stalag 17

Wilder’s a great plotter of intriguing (and funny) situations, but a lot of the time when he attempts certain kinds of humor it does nothing for me.  I believe that Stalag 17 would be a much better movie without the Harry and Animal characters.  These two are constantly mugging and wisecracking and buffooning their way around the picture in a manner that simply doesn’t work.  Some of the lines from the other guys were real duds, too, but at least William Holden always manages to shine.  I really enjoyed the suspenseful aspects of this movie.  The comedy… not so much.  Rating: 7

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All or Nothing

A look at some British lower-middle class denizens of a shabby apartment complex struggling to get along with each other, but constantly stumbling over their pent-up hostility and inarticulateness.  The film is a bit condescending, but it does feel very authentic and provides some touching moments when people do manage to connect.  Leigh can’t seem to find his focus, and what starts out as a broader ensemble piece becomes rather narrow by the third act.  I wanted to see what happened to some of the other characters, particularly Maureen, who was the most likeable and level-headed of the lot.  Rating: 7

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49th Parallel

An occasionally absurd (why do six Nazi submariners speak English so fluently, and with no hint of an accent?) bit of propaganda, but an entertaining one.  The fact that this plays out as an adventure film from the perspective of the Nazis is novel, and it ends up being a pretty fun time, and fairly effective despite its ham-fistedness.  The low point is without a doubt Laurence Olivier’s vile attempt at a Quebecois accent.  Whether he’s hamming it up for comic effect or because that’s just how he acts, it’s an embarrassment.  The highlight is Niall MacGinnis as the one reluctant Nazi.  Rating: 7

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The Cooler

There’s a great many comments on iMDB from people who were bothered by the implausibility of the story… people who apparently can’t process something mythological happening when it’s grounded in a contemporary, non-fantasy setting.  I’m a fan of magic realism, and it suits this kind of morality fable.  The film didn’t really impress me on any level, and I doubt it will stay with me for long, but it was executed very well.  I liked the references to Lost Horizon.  The sex scenes were entirely gratuitous, however, and I could almost hear the director saying “Look what I can make these guys do!”.  This makes two movies where someone goes down on Maria Bello, which I’d bet is some kind of record outside of porn.  Rating: 7

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Terminal Station

This must be one of the lowest-profile titles in the Criterion Collection.  I’ve never seen it discussed anywhere, in fact I completely forgot it existed until I saw it on the library shelf.  My willingness to give anything on Criterion a fair chance does have a tendency to bite me in the ass on occasion, but that’s to be expected.  This isn’t as bad as Jubilee or Amarcord (or their upcoming release of Sweet Movie), but it’s pretty lousy.  Bad dialogue (Capote and Hecht’s influence is felt only fleetingly), bad acting and dubbing, and a truly obnoxious score.  Even some of the camerawork is out-of-focus, in a way that’s quite obviously a mistake (although there are a few nice shots).  The biggest sin is that I felt no chemistry between Montgomery Clift and Jennifer Jones whatsoever.  I really just wanted Clift to go away, he’s so clingy and pathetic.  I’m not a big fan of De Sica’s neorealist work, but here he’s clearly out of his element.

The one interesting thing about the film is the oppressiveness of the public space.  De Sica makes you hyper-aware of the other people milling about in the station and impresses upon you the lack of privacy during what ought to be private moments.  Selznick’s cut (apparently… I didn’t watch it) removes the constant cutaways to persons inconsequential to the story, and in doing so, eliminates the one unique and intriguing aspect of the film.  Heck, the main plot and characters were so banal that it would certainly have been a better movie if it was just about the various other characters in the station.  Get Tati to direct it, I bet it’d be grand!

Mostly the whole thing just made me want to watch Brief Encounter again, which is a vastly superior film… and coincidentally, another movie I might not have seen if not for my willingness to give any Criterion movie a go.  Rating: 4

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East of Eden

Very good.  The examination of good and bad is surprisingly complex, as are the characters.  The exception to this is Julie Harris as Adra, a character too uniformly perfect to be easily digestible, and in typical Hollywood leading lady fashion is often shot through a soft, glowing haze.  The cockeyed angles during the home scenes with the father were a bit much, too.  But I liked everything else.  Excellent dialogue, including a mighty fine monologue by Jo Van Fleet (who won the supporting actress Oscar for her performance).  James Dean impressed me a lot more with this role than in Rebel Without A Cause.  Rating: 8

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Wordplay

This won’t tell you everything you want to know about crosswords… there’s a narrowness that both helps and hinders the movie.  I would have liked a lot more about the history of crosswords and some of the more clever variations (there wasn’t anything about cryptic crosswords, which I enjoy a lot).  Instead the focus is primarily on Will Shortz and the annual championship event.  The championship does provide many of the best moments, including a more suspenseful climax than many other recent competition-based docs like Spellbound or Mad Hot Ballroom.  If not especially informative, the film is plenty of fun from start to finish, with celebrity interviews, quirky personalities, clever use of graphics, and of course the nail-biting finish.  Rating: 8

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Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors

I’ve never seen a film shot quite like this.  It reminded me a bit of Guy Maddin, which isn’t too surprising since there’s clearly some Soviet influence in Maddin’s work.  It has a similar feel of the old blended with the new.  I’m struggling to find the words to describe exactly what was unique about the cinematography — perhaps like a cinema vérité Eisenstein (or Tarkovsky) in color.  The camera is always finding dramatic angles, circling and whipping around suddenly to locate a new subject.  The muted color palette is quite striking (whether it’s muted by design or because of a faded print, I’m not certain… I’m also not sure if the aspect ratio is correct).  The editing is quick and dynamic.  As for the story, it’s not especially complex or original… a tragic love story, shades of “Romeo and Juliet”.  But it is moving, and the glimpses of folk culture (especially the music) and religious imagery are fascinating.  I’d love to see this properly restored on DVD.  Rating: 9

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