Rightie movie reviews, courtesy of this fluffhead, via Shakespeare’s Sister …
Get this synopsis of “Good Night & Good Luck” —
“A film portraying as noble the efforts of journalists to demonize and “take down” a US Senator whose anti-communist policies they did not like.”
Jebus. She’s talking about Edward R. Murrow’s takedown of Joe McCarthy for pity’s sake. Holy bleep. Talk about utterly depraved historical revisionism! I’d like to rub the fluffhead’s nose in a few history books. But she’s a rightie, so she can’t read. Never mind.
Here’s her comment on “A History of Violence” … “The demonization of the average mid-western American man as someone who is no hero, but a cold-blooded killer at heart.” I don’t think that’s what the director was going for; at least, that’s not what I took away from it. The main character wasn’t an “average mid-western” American man, in any event. Perhaps La Fluff didn’t see the film for herself and is just going by what other people have told her. Not smart.
Meanwhile, Steve M. has some comments on the favorite films of conservative college students. Some of the films that made the list are, um, a surprise.
I understand audiences are down in theaters, but I think that has more to do with theaters than with the films. I’ve gotten picky about which theaters I give my business to; messy theaters that don’t enforce good audience etiquette should go out of business. There’s a multiplex about a mile away from my home that I’ve avoided ever since some woman sitting near me talked loudly on a cell phone during “Return of the King.” There are plenty of other theaters that have not-sticky seats and audiences that behave.
For many years I’ve heard people complain there used to be more good movies; I think that’s because we only remember the good ones. Are films getting more depraved? I seem to remember more explicit sex and violence in the 1970s, but maybe I was hanging out with a bad crowd then. (Anybody else remember “El Topo”? Was that sick, or what?)
I don’t see every film that comes along, but of the films I’ve seen in theaters this year I believe my faves were “Batman Begins” and “Good Night & Good Luck.” I also liked “Kingdom of Heaven,” but I understand I am the only person in America who did.
Add your own film reviews here.
naw maha, you aren’t alone in your appreciation of “Kingdom of Heaven”. If you check on IMDB.com you’ll see that it has a viewer rating of 6.9 out of 10, which for IMDB is a ringing endorsement!
peace
I liked ‘El Topo’, although I think ‘The Holy Mountain’ is easier to follow.
VKW: You liked El Topo? Do the authorities know about you?
Are films getting more depraved?
Yes..Did you see the Passion of Christ? You can’t get more depraved than to watch someone get beaten to a pulp for two hours… and coming away from the movie saying it was good.
Did you see the Passion of Christ?
No, never did.
I didn’t either…but I have it on good authority that it was so grossly brutal that Jeffery Dahmer would have covered his eyes.
I also adored Kingdom of Heaven. It was an absolutely spellbinding movie that happened to be trapped underneath a mediocre movie. Honestly, while he was beautiful to look at, Orlando Bloom just couldn’t carry the movie, especially not with every single other man in the movie stealing scenes from under him.
Ah, Tammy Bruce. Everyone should be sure to read the whole screed. Watching even ten minutes of La Bruce is worse than even the full length El Topo; man, if any torture has a chance of ever working, force exposure to the entire movie might just be it.
A layered film like “A History Of Violence” is completely beyond the ken of that itzy bitzy Tammy brain. That’s why she hates it. She started out on the left, nominally speaking, found she didn’t fit in, and besides the work is less intense and the pay much better on the right so she refashioned herself.
Obscure film recommendation: “Since Otar Left” Story of women on their own in post Soviet Georgia – written and directed by a fairly young French documentarian; some to whom I’ve recommended it found it to start slowly, but were all glad they stayed with it; wonderful acting, especially by a woman in her nineties who started her acting career at age 86.
Excellent comment over at PA yesterday – took a while before Shortstop and grape_crush picked it up – Did they use Freddy Moyel for the “Director’s Cut”?
Would like to see Kevin use you as a guest commentator – Probably the typewriter thing he gets snippy about.
“Honestly, while he was beautiful to look at, Orlando Bloom just couldn’t carry the movie, especially not with every single other man in the movie stealing scenes from under him.”
There’s a lot to be said for beautiful to look at, so I didn’t mind Orlando. And I’ll watch Liam Neeson do anything.
Movies are like other aspects of popular culture and tend to reflect both what is best and worst of their times. “Kingdom of Heaven” was probably underapreciated because it tried to be somewhat nuanced and American audiences want black and white (Zulu is the ultimate black and white confrontation). “Syriana” will probably suffer the same fate – empathy with foreigners not being something easily sold in our plastic multiplexes.