Ahira's Hangar

Duchess wrote Quote:The Seven Samurai ~ another classic I had never seen. What a good movie! I think it might have been even longer than King Kong but it was so interesting that you didn't feel your butt going to sleep. A village of farmers are being reaved by bandits, so try to hire samarai to protect them, even though all they have to pay the hired ronin with is food. Absolutely wonderful film.

And the Western Classic Magnificent Seven, 1960 is such an obvious and shameless rip-off of this that John Sturges should have sent all his checks to Kurosawa. Furthermore, when one compares the scripts, there are whole sections where the US script is just a translation of the original Japanese. The Japanese version lacks the wonderful score written by Elmer Bernstein. During college at my school one of our Friday movie showings was MS and SS as a double bill, a enlightening way to compare the two movies.

taraswizard
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Now, that would have been interesting. I have never seen The Magnificent Seven, but perhaps one of these days I will get both from netflix back to back and spend a snowy weekend day watching them.

Tonight I watched Memoirs of a Geisha. I read the book a few years ago and I loved it. All of my friends who have read the book all loved it. I did not go see the film when it was in theaters as it got such crappy reviews. Well, I have to say that it was a beautiful movie visually. Falling leaves, falling cherry blossoms, etc. If I have a complaint it might well be that it followed the book a bit too closely, and never really took flight as a work of art in its own right.

I think it must be very difficult for directors to make movies from particularly beloved books. If they deviate from the plot too much, fans go ballistic on them for that. On the other hand, if they follow the book too closely, the result is often somewhat static, like with the first two Harry Potter movies, or with this film.

The thing is - what might be great in a book might not work at all in a film - and vice versa.

But it's late, and I am very tired, and I am not even making much sense to myself right now, so I'd better get to my nice warm bed. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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I too have seen Memoires of a geisha a movie I enjoyed on many levels. One point of a critical nature is the almost ahistorical nature of the film since most of the main action takes place in Japan of the 1930s and early 1940s, during this entire time Japan is at war in against the Chinese and later the British and the Americans; however, from watching this movie there's no inkling that this is the case. One is left to presume that this section of Japanese society was entirely isolated from the world at large.

To sum up the movie is Pretty woman done with more attractive Asian people and done with better actors and actresses. taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
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Buff_fans_Chicago http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/buffy_fans_chicago/<i>Edited by: taraswizard at: 4/7/06 6:25 pm
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Today I watched an animated family movie from master animator Miyazaki called My Neighbor Totoro. It was extremely charming.

A father and his two little daughters (the mother is in the hospital) move out to the countryside to live. There the two little girls meet forest spirits who become their friends.

This was just such a great movie for very small kids - no violence, no sexual innuendo, promoting close family and neighborly ties, and the artwork was just gorgeous. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
<i>Edited by: Duchess of Malfi at: 4/22/06 1:42 pm
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Last night Californiababy and I watched Super Size Me. We weren't sure whether to laugh, cry, or throw up.

A man wanted to prove that eating at McDonald's is unhealthy, so he ate three meals there a day for a month, and the movie documents the changes in his health. Let's just say that eating fast food for three meals a day for a month is probably not healthy.

It took him a month to gain that much weight, and over a year for him to take it off.

Plenty of sickening moments - the guy throwing up his first super sized meal (his girl friend was a vegan chef, so he was used to eating another sort of food altogether); another guy having a stomach operation; the one that got me was him finding this long long hair in his McDonald's sundae.

Enough to make you swear off fast food for at least a while, if notr forever. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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This morning I watched Kill Bill vol. 1. Super violent movies are not my cup of tea (to say the least). However, this violence laden film is so over-the-top that is was actually sort of funny. We're talking Monty Python and the Holy Grail fountains of spurting blood.

It was actually sort of stylish and fun.

Uma Thurman plays an assassin turned bride, whose assassin associates wipe out her entire wedding party and leave her for dead.

In these days of terrifying bridezillas, you would think that everyone would know never to mess with a bride at her wedding...

After spending a few years in a coma, the Bride wakes up, pissed off and ready for vengeance.

This film tells of the first stages of her revenge quest... ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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This morning I watched a little indie film a friend lent me, called Off the Map. It was a bit weird, but I did enjoy it.

It tells a coming of age story of an 11 year old girl who lives in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico.

Her father is clinically depressed and her mother is a free spirit who tends the garden in the nude. The family scrapes by on her dad's $5000/year veteran's pension. They grow or hunt most of their food and barter for things like dental care. They also do frequent scavenging runs to the local dump.

The film shows the changes in their lives after their finances are audited by an IRS auditor.

The movie is also a beautiful visual poem to New Mexico. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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The other day I watched the second part of Kill Bill. The pacing wasn't quite as well done as with part one, but there was still quite a bit to enjoy. I am not sure how spoilery I can be? But I suppose I can say that I especially enjoyed the scenes with the Bride training with a Chinese monk who was a martial arts expert and the entire last sequence of the movie, when she finally catches up with Bill. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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This morning I watched a movie lent me by a friend called In Her Shoes. It told the story of two sisters, one a workaholic and chronic overachiever, and the other one that has no respect for herself and lives by sponging off of others. As the film goes on, you realize that both have some pretty huge issues from the past to deal with. They do so with the help of a grandmother they never knew they had.

It was difficult watching the self-destructive tendencies of the one sister, and the enabling of the other sister before they started working out their problems, but it was still a fairly enjoyable movie when all is said and done. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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I watched an old romantic comedy today called French Kiss. A girl named Kate played by Meg Ryan is horrified when her fiance calls from his Paris trip, saying that he had fallen violently in love with a French goddess so she flies off to Paris in pursuit.

Her life is turned upside down as a result.

It was cute in parts, but Ryan has been in better romantic comedies, like When Harry Met Sally. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Duchess, well, glad you enjoyed the two movies. I, too, have problems with violence in movies; however, I believe the two films are classics (along with Pulp fiction and Jackie Brown) for lots of reasons. Regarding the issue of violence, I, as would most critical viewers of cinema, have concerns about gratuitous violence, and IMO the violence in KB is not gratuitous. (excessive does not equal gratuitous)

Here's an idea from a friend of mine, the two movies are actually two movies. Volume 1 is a bloody revenge movie told in the version of a Hong Kong chop socky movie, and volume 2 is a Western. taraswizard
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I did enjoy them, much more than I thought I would. I had put off watching them all of this time because I was worried that the violence would be too much.

You friend's theory makes sense. The pacing and content of the two movies are different enough that it is probably quite deliberate on the part of the director. I have not seen a "chop socky" movie, so I will not comment further out of ignorance.

The other day I watched Hotel Rwanda, which I thought was absolutely wonderful. That film, along with the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line would be the two best films I have seen in some time.

Also saw Pride and Prejudice, the one starring Keira Knightley. It was pretty good, considering that the film makers only had two hours to adopt the book. It is not as good as the classic BBC miniseries, but still an enjoyable effort. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Last night the kids and I watched The Fantastic Four. I had not watched it previously, because I thought that the trailers looked so cheezy when it first came out. I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't so bad, after all. Not up to Batman Begins or the Spider Man or X-Men movies, but not downright awful as so many super hero movies turn out to be. There were actually some funny bits, and the kids really loved the character of the Thing. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Additionally, FF (2005) version exceeds the Roger Corman FF movie from the early 1980s, which I understand is truly bloody awful. I'm told there are videos of it. taraswizard
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Lucky Number Slevin, Josh Hartnett and Bruce Willis. A good movie, a little to obvious copy of The Usual Suspects. A major difference is the reveal waits to nearly the end of TUS and in this movie the reveal comes about 2/3s way into it. Two mob bosses (Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley) are poised to have a crime land war between their gangs, but are they really playing someone else's game? If they are who's game is it, and why is it being played?

When did Bruce Willis become an actor, the lamo guy from the lamo sitcom with Sybil Shephard? The lamo guy from the Die Hard series, somewhere between then and now he got some acting chops. It's an OK flick. taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
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