The Irish Thug

Atlantic City

The city is dieing. Prohibition has been over for decades and the mobsters that gave life have left. What they left behind was a number of deteriorating hotels, boardwalks and society. There is also Lou. He used to work withe the guys that ran the town. But now he is just an old man living in a building that is waiting to be torn down, looking out his window. Through that window is Sally. Sally came to Atlantic City to get her life together by becoming a dealer at one of the new casinos that just opened up. What will the future hold in a city that looks so grim?

Atlantic City has the honor of being one of the few films to be nominated for the big five (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay), but not win any of them. Burt Lancaster plays the role of Lou well. He seems to genuinely enjoy the excitement that has come into his life and remember the days of old. Susan Sarandon seemed a little awkward at time. However, this could be attributed to the fact that Sally did not belong in Atlantic City. Sally saw this place has her gateway to the future, but it was not the place for her.

Paris, Texas
Wandering through the deserts of Texas, a man has lost his way. Will being reunited with his brother after 4 years help him on his way? Harry Dean Stanton plays Travis in his long slow journey of rediscovery.

Clocking in at almost 2 and a half hours, the slow paces seems intimidating at first. But as Travis begins to open up and you learn more about his past, you are pulled in. You need to see what the resolution will be. I’m not go into details about the end of the film, but I think the climax is done very well. It does exactly what it needs to do and I don’t think there could be a better way to handle it.

Last night I finished watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer. To put it bluntly, this show is in my top 5 list of TV shows.

This show completely deserves the praise and recognition is has. Some people still brush off this show. Twilight isn’t helping the situation either. I know the concept of a teenage girl that world’s best hope for saving the world from evil seems cheesy. Joss Whedon is able to produce a show that can pull in a wide audience by not being a serious drama and having a “monster of the week” formula in the onset. But, then it does things that catch you off guard and surprise you. I say this both as plot points and cinematic presentation. Buffy is able to have episodes that are musicals, dream sequences and have no talking for 30 minutes without feeling out of place. Before starting Buffy, I was already sold on Whedon, but this is his master piece.

I haven’t talked about it much, but the reason I started watching Buffy was because of Evan. Through the course of that year we had been watching The Wire and Dollhouse and talking intently about both. At one point he said I would be better off if I started watching Buffy instead of Dollhouse, as it was better. The week after I tried to watch another episode of The Wire, it was too much. I needed to do something that was lighter, but still meant something. Buffy The Vampire Slayer was that thing. It is another thing to add to the list of things he introduced me to and I am grateful of.

For no particular reason, I didn’t make this post earlier. But, now it will have a second part.

Nosferatu the Vampyre
A remake of the original Nosferatu by Werner Herzog. The remake was very faithful to the original. A number of the scene could have easily been shot for shot remakes of the source material. The beginning of the film is very unsettling and kind of hard to watch. I say this from a film perspective, not from a horror perspective (I will expand on this later). However, once Jonathan makes it to Transylvania and meets Dracula things get much better, becoming creepy and unsettling from a horror perspective. Klaus Kinski joins Herzog again (Aguirre: The Wrath of God) to play Dracula and does a great job of it. These two work together very well to produce characters that draw you in and see something that is out there.

After finishing the film, as I do with all the movies on the list, I went to Wikipedia to read up on the film. This lets me learn fun facts about the production and read some input on why the film was added to the list. The fact I learned this time directly related to why the start of the film felt very stiff and uneasy.

At the request of distributor 20th Century Fox, Herzog produced two versions of the movie simultaneously, to appeal to western audiences. Scenes with dialogue were filmed twice, in German and in English, meaning that the actor’s own voices (as opposed to dubbed dialogue by voice actors) could be included in the English version of the film. However, many consider the performances in the German language version to be superior, as Kinski and Ganz could act more confidently in their native language.

The beginning of the film contained most of the dialogue and felt poorly acted. However, coinciding with the arrival of Dracula, the dialogue becomes a second player to the visuals and the acting improves.

We all know that I watch too many movies and should get out more. But lets try and quantify this.

(As usual) 2010 had 365 days. In that time, I watched 173 movies. This means I watched a movie every 2.1 days. Of those 173 movies, 45 of them brought me closer to me goal and 12 of them were released this year.

Here is the list of all the movies I watched in 2010. The ratings are on a 5 point scale with no half points (I don’t agree with it, but it’s what Netflix provides). Within the rating group the movies are alphabetical. List movies are in bold and movies released in 2010 are italicized.

5

(500) Days of Summer (2009)
A Prophet (2010)
A Single Man (2009)
African Queen, The (1951)
Amelie (2001)
An Education (2008)
Apartment, The (1960)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Black Swan (2010)
Blindness (2008)
Blue (1993)
Brothers Bloom, The (2008)
Cashback (2006)
Chasing Amy (1997)
Cold Souls (2008)
District 9 (2009)
Doubt (2008)
Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)
Fall, The (2006)
Gilda (1946)
Great Dictator, The (1940)
Great Muppet Caper, The (1981)
Host, The (2006)
Inception (2010)
Ink (2009)
It Might Get Loud (2008)
Jaws (1975)
Malcolm X (1992)
Man on Fire (2004)
Memories of Murder (2003)
On the Waterfront (1954)
Pixar Short Films: Vol. 1 (2007)
Scent of a Woman (1992)
Social Network, The (2010)
Special (2006)
Spun (2002)
Street Fight (2005)
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Third Man, The (1949)
Timecrimes (2007)
Touch of Evil (1958)

4

21 Grams (2003)
All About My Mother (1999)
Angel Face (1952)
Artists and Models (1955)
Ascent, The (1977)
Ashes and Diamonds (1958)
Asphalt Jungle, The (1950)
Awful Truth, The (1937)
Babel (2006)
Better Luck Tomorrow (2003)
Big Fan (2009)
Blast of Silence (1961)
Blow (2001)
Boys on the Side (1995)
Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)
But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)
Caché (2005)
Champion (2005)
Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) (2000)
Crazy Heart (2009)
Days of Thunder (1990)
Don’t Look Now (1973)
Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill (1999)
Empire Records (1995)
Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
Europa Europa (1990)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Following (1998)
Frozen River (2008)
Gold Rush, The (1925)
Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)
Harvey (1950)
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The (2009)
In the Loop (2009)
In the Mood for Love (2001)
Interview with the Vampire (1994)
Into the Wild (2007)
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Irreversible (2002)
Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)
La Strada (1954)
Labyrinth (1986)
Lady from Shanghai, The (1948)
Laura (1944)
Man Who Knew Too Much, The (1956)
Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)
Mean Girls (2004)
Mighty Ducks, The (1992)
Muppet Movie, The (1979)
Notorious (1946)
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)
Please Vote For Me (2007)
Poltergeist (1982)
Puffy Chair, The (2005)
Red (1994)
Red Shoes, The (1948)
Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)
Run Lola Run (1998)
Salton Sea, The (2002)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Seven Year Itch, The (1955)
Seventh Seal, The (1957)
Shutter Island (2010)
Sling Blade (1996)
Stranger, The (1946)
Swimming Pool (2003)
Syndromes and a Century (2006)
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Thirst (2009)
To Be or Not To Be (1942)
Top Secret! (1984)
True Lies (1994)
Virgin Spring, The (1960)
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Whip It (2009)
White (1994)
Youth of the Beast (1963)
Zach Galifianakis: Live at the Purple Onion (2006)

3

A-Team, The (2010)
Amarcord (1974)
Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2008)
Ariel (1988)
Baghead (2008)
Beautiful Losers (2008)
Bodyguard, The (1992)
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (2009)
Carlito’s Way (1993)
Closet, The (2000)
Count of Monte Cristo, The (2002)
Death of a President (2006)
Fletch (1985)
Game, The (1997)
Gangs of New York (2002)
Grand, The(2007)
Hellraiser (1987)
Invictus (2009)
Latter Days (2004)
Life After People (2008)
Machete (2010)
Minus Man, The (1999)
Monster (2003)
Paranormal Activity (2007)
Performance (1970)
Pickpocket (1959)
Red Dawn (1984)
Repulsion (1965)
Ridicule (1996)
Risky Business (1983)
Russian Ark (2002)
Sex Is Comedy (2002)
Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
Slacker (1991)
Timecop (1994)
To Be or Not To Be (1983)
Touchez Pas au Grisbi (1954)
Warriors, The (1979)
Wordplay (2006)

2

Drag Me to Hell (2009)
Even Dwarfs Started Small (1971)
Hamlet 2 (2008)
Hard Boiled (1992)
Knightriders (1981)
Ponyo (2008)
Quiet City (2007)
Unstoppable (2010)

1
Betty Blue (1986)
Gerry (2002)

The Jerk
There is something special about a movie that starts with a homeless white man describing how he was “born a poor black child.” The movie is a heartwarming tale of a complete idiot who heads out into the world to see what it is like. Despite the name of the movie, Steve Martin’s character really does have the best intentions in everything he does. When he finds out what his special purpose is, he writes his family to tell them how good it made him feel and how he intends to do it a lot. At first I thought that gag of Navin not understanding what was happening around him would get tired, but it managed to prove me wrong scene after scene.

With the start of the new year, I’ve deiced to be more thorough with all of the movies I watch. At minimum, I want to write something for each of the movies that get me closer to 1001 goal. Once I make a habit, there are bound to be other reviews as well.

For those keeping track, all one of you, as of this review, I’m at 325. This fall I slacked off and fallen to a movie from the list every 4 days. This was mostly due to class and The Sopranos. There was also a wave of non-list movies, but the pendulum is about to swing back in the other direction.

Gone With the Wind
A picture of the South spanning from just before the Civil war through Reconstruction. We watch as southern high society deals with the changes of the times and the people they interact with.

This is classic Hollywood. The movie is almost 4 hours, but does not drag. The back and forth between Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler always keeps you waiting to see where they will go. The colors jump out and grab you because of all the scenes with fancy dresses and ornately decorated rooms.