Trilogy Time – Vengeance

The SaintMar 17th, 2010Posted by The Saint on
1001 Movies

The Vengeance Trilogy is not a true trilogy in the sense that it tells a continuous story over three films. Instead it is a collection of three films by Park Chan-wook that all deal with revenge, violence and salvation.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)
Ryu is deaf-mute who works in a factory to support himself and his sister who needs a kidney transplant. As Ryu attempts to raise the money for the transplant by any means necessary, things start to go wrong. The story is one of doing what is necessary to make things right, even if that means bringing more violence into the world. The violence is raw and uncompromising, but is done through great storytelling and cinematography so you are pulled in and don’t want to look away.

Oldboy (2003)
Oh Dae-su is a everyday business man with a wife and daughter. One day he is kidnapped and locked in a run down hotel room. He has no contact with the outside world, except for a television in the room and a small slot in the door through which fried dumplings are delivered as meals. Fifteen years later he is set free, given a new suit, a cell phone and the diaries he kept while imprisoned. He beings his journey to find out who took 15 years from his life and get his payback. The story is a psychological journey that explores what happens to a man in dire situation and what it will cause him to do.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)
Lee Geum-ja is a newly released prisoner who was convicted of killing a young schoolboy when she was only 19. As she goes and meets a number of her former cellmates we learn that is innocent of the crime she was convicted of and gave a false confession. Though a series of flashbacks we are presented a better understanding of her evolution while in prison. This helps explain her actions since her release and how she goes forward with her plan to seek revenge.

I was introduced to trilogy the by first watching Oldboy two years ago and was blown away by the story and how it was all presented. It remains my favorite, but that may be in part because it was a purer experience and I went into the others ready to compare. I enjoyed Oldboy on many levels and really enjoyed the hallway fight scene and the chase scene towards the end.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance does not have all the twists and turns of Oldboy, it does what Park Chan-wook set out to do and present a story of escalating violence and murders. The film included some of the most bad-ass killings I have seen in a film as Chan-wook always has individual characters working for their end goal and they get creative as guns are rarely present.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance felt much different than the other two films. Revenge is presented in a much more emotional light. This is about more than just getting revenge. This is a calculated process that all fits into place in order to bring closure. The fade to black and white is an amazing effect. The change is so subtle at times you forget it is happening and are drawn into the scene. Then in the back of your mind, it represents the slow and deliberate way in which the mood changes.

Movie Marathon Bonanza

The SaintJan 9th, 2010Posted by The Saint on
1001 Movies

It all started last Saturday when I returned to Boston after a wonderful Christmas. I went online to catch up on the internet and stopped over at Netflix to see what movie would be coming next. To my great dismay, I saw that a large number of movies in my watch instantly queue would be expiring on the first of the year. This left me with no choice, I must watch them now. On Sunday the work began. Five days later, I had streamed 12 movies from Netflix. In addition, I watched two movies the old fashioned way. I then went home for the weekend and watched two more movies on Saturday. Seven days, 16 movies, let’s get started.

SUNDAY
The Legend of Drunken Master
This film is the non-sequel to Drunken Master as there is not much that links the two beyond the fact that it stars Jackie Chan and he does drunken boxing. I liked Drunken Master better as it is more of a pure martial arts film. Legend had much stronger action movie influences and does more group battles than one-on-one fights.

Dazed and Confused
All around awesome movie. Has a lot of actors in it before they got big. Tells a number of good stories about kids growing up in the 70s.

The TV Set
The story of writer/director trying to film his TV pilot and get it picked up by the network. It is a story of creativity, deaspiration and compromise.

MONDAY
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Good story of a woman who married for the wrong reason and is now looking for a way out. I wonder how this will turn out?

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
LOUD NOISES!! But seriously, it’s a really good adaptation of the play were a two couples spend an evening making each other feel extremely awkward and pissed off. Interesting note: When the play opened, people said they thought writer had purposely tried to write something that would be so offensive and lewd that it could not be filmed. The film was extremely faithful to the play and kept almost all of the original dialogue.

Eyes Wide Shut
An interesting journey through sexual exploration and guilt.

TUESDAY
Point Blank
A simple story but done very well. Walker is a thief who is double crossed by his partner and left for dead. While the world thinks he did, Walker did not die and is now on a mission to get his money.

Chariots of Fire
You’ve all heard the song, now you can see where it came from. While it was well done, the story did not grab me that strongly. It was only 2 hours but it felt longer. Also, the 1924 Olympics only had running events, there was no need for athletes in other disciplines.

Get Carter
Point Blank, but British. Instead of money, Jack Carter has returned home to investigate the events that lead to his brother’s death. While, Get Carter is less of an action movie than Point Blank, it leads with mystery of not knowing where this information will lead Carter once he finds it.

WEDNESDAY
Zach Galifianakis: Live at the Purple Onion
“I hate celebrities, all of them. I think that’s the poison … in this country is celebrita. [pause] I know the irony in saying that when there are five cameras on me.”

Good Night, and Good Luck
I had actually already seen this movie, but forgot. This is more of a comment on how many movies I watch and not the quality of the movie.

Ronin
The Italian Job except the double cross doesn’t happen at the beginning and Jean Reno is in it.

THURSDAY
The Karate Kid II
Just a fun film to watch despite the fact that there are no surprises throughout the plot. There were some really nice landscape shot after Mr. Miyagi’s dad dies. It’s kind of sad that Ali turned into a huge bitch between the end of the tournament and the start of the prom.

Up
I’m still amazed that Pixar had the balls to do what they did in the first 10 minutes of the movie. I saw it in 3D in theaters and Squirrel! …really enjoyed how they used it just to add depth and not as a gimmick. I think this helped a lot in making it still look phenomenal in 2d. I just realized that Russell is Asian.

FRIDAY
I drove to New Jersey and took the day off.

SATURDAY
This is Spinal Tap
You don’t need to do more than see the tag line to completely understand this movie. ‘Does for rock and roll what “The Sound of Music” did for hills.’

Avatar
Complaints: 1) The planet is called Pandora. 2) The mineral is called Unobtanium. You waited 10 years to start making the film and you couldn’t spend another 5 minutes to find something more subtle? Beyond that, I really enjoyed the movie. The plot is just Fern Gully plus Pocahontas, but the point of the film was not the plot. The opening scene where they are coming out of cryogenic sleep does a great job of setting the tone for live action 3D in cinematic setting.

Quarter of the Way There

The SaintNov 9th, 2009Posted by The Saint on
1001 Movies

I’ve been quite lately, but I’ve been keeping busy. Today I crossed over the quarter way mark in my quest to watch all 1001 movies. That’s right I called it a quest. Also, my name is Patrick and my favorite color is green. In just over 13 months I watched 137 movies from the list. That’s a movie from the list every 3.17 days. It kind of gets crazy when you acknowledge the fact that I have also watched a number of movies that weren’t on the list. Adding those in would likely bring the number below a movie every 2.5 days. The following is the list of movies from the list that I have watch with the year they were released. As I have seen over half of these within the last year, feel free to ask me about a movie and I will do my best to give you my take on it.

12 Angry Men (1957)
1900 (1976)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
39 Steps, The (1935)
400 Blows, The (1959)
42nd Street (1933)
8 1/2 (1963)
A Christmas Story (1983)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
A Dog’s Life (1962)
A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
A Man Escaped (1956)
A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
A One and a Two (2000)
A Passage to India (1984)
A Place in the Sun (1951)
A Room with a View (1986)
A Star Is Born (1954)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
A Touch of Zen (1969)
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Accidental Tourist, The (1988)
Ace in the Hole (1951)
Adam’s Rib (1949)
Adventure, The (1960)
Adventures of Robin Hood, The (1938)
Age Of Gold, The (1930)
Age of Innocence, The (1993)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1992)
Airplane! (1980)
Akira (1988)
Alice (1988)
Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
All That Jazz (1979)
All the President’s Men (1976)
Alphaville (1965)
Amadeus (1984)
Amelie (2001)
American Beauty (1999)
American Graffiti (1973)
Amores Perros (2000)
An Affair to Remember (1957)
An American in Paris (1951)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Animal Farm (1954)
Annie Hall (1977)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Audition (1999)
Babe (1995)
Back to the Future (1985)
Bad and the Beautiful, The (1952)
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Badlands (1973)
Bank Dick, The (1940)
Barren Lives (1963)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Batman (1989)
Battle of Algiers, The (1965)
Battle of San Pietro, The (1945)
Battleship Potemkin, The (1925)
Beat the Devil (1953)
Beau Travail (1999)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Being There (1979)
Ben-Hur (1959)
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Big (1988)
Big Sleep, The (1946)
Bird with The Crystal Plumage, The (1970)
Birds, The (1963)
Blade Runner (1982)
Blair Witch Project, The (1999)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Blowup (1966)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Boogie Nights (1997)
Boyz ‘n the Hood (1991)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Braveheart (1995)
Brazil (1985)
Breakfast Club, The (1985)
Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957)
Candy Man (1992)
Carrie (1976)
Casablanca (1942)
Casino (1995)
Chinatown (1974)
Citizen Kane (1941)
City of God (2002)
Clerks (1994)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Clueless (1995)
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Crumb (1994)
Crying Game, The (1992)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Day the Earth Stood Still, The (1951)
Deer Hunter, The (1978)
Deliverance (1972)
Die Hard (1988)
Dirty Harry (1971)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Dracula (1931)
Duck Soup (1933)
Dumbo (1941)
E.T.: The Extra-Terestrial (1982)
Easy Rider (1969)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Elephant Man, The (1980)
Eraserhead (1977)
Evil Dead, The (1982)
Exorcist, The (1973)
Fantasia (1940)
Fantastic Planet (1973)
Fargo (1996)
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1981)
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
Fight Club (1999)
Fly, The (1986)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Funny Games (1997)
Gandhi (1982)
Gangs of New York (2002)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Gimme Shelter (1970)
Gladiator (2000)
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
Glory (1989)
Godfather Part II, The (1974)
Godfather, The (1972)
Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The (1966)
Goodfellas (1990)
Graduate, The (1967)
Great Escape, The (1963)
Great Train Robbery, The (1903)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Halloween (1978)
Happiness (1998)
Independence Day (1996)
Jaws (1975)
Jungle Book, The (1967)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Life of Brian (1979)
Lion King, The (1994)
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001)
M (1931)
M*A*S*H (1970)
Mad Max (1979)
Magnolia (1999)
Man Bites Dog (1992)
Man Who Fell to Earth, The (1976)
Matrix, The (1999)
Meet the Parents (2000)
Memento (2000)
Metropolis (1927)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Muppet Movie, The (1979)
Naked Gun, The (1988)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
North by Northwest (1959)
Nosferatu, A Symphony of Terror(1922)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Once Upon a Time in America (1983)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Patton (1970)
Philadelphia (1993)
Pi (1998)
Pinocchio (1940)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Platoon (1986)
Pretty Woman (1990)
Princess Bride, The (1987)
Producers, The (1968)
Psycho (1960)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Raging Bull (1980)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Rain Man (1988)
Raising Arizona (1987)
Rashomon (1950)
Rear Window (1954)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Ring (1998)
Rocky (1976)
Rocky Horror Picture Show, The (1975)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Royal Tenenbaums, The (2001)
Rushmore (1998)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Scarface (1983)
Scarface: The Shame Of A Nation (1932)
Schindler’s List (1993)
Serpico (1973)
Seven (1995)
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
Seven Samurai, The (1954)
Shawshank Redemption, The (1994)
Shining, The (1980)
Silence of the Lambs, The (1991)
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
Sixth Sense, The (1999)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Sound of Music, The (1965)
Spirited Away (2001)
Star Wars (1977)
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The (1974)
There’s Something About Mary (1998)
Thing, The (1982)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Three Kings (1999)
Titanic (1997)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Top Gun (1986)
Toy Story (1995)
Traffic (2000)
Trainspotting (1996)
Unforgiven (1992)
Usual Suspects, The (1995)
Vertigo (1958)
West Side Story (1961)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Wizard of Oz, The (1939)
Young Frankenstein (1974)

General Update

The SaintJul 16th, 2009Posted by The Saint on
1001 Movies, General

Been kind of slacking on my movie list. I’ve slipped to a movie every 3.13, I was at about 3 even in May. But I still am making progress and am at 216. Most recently I watched All the President’s Men and Cool Hand Luke. Both were good, the latter being very much so. I’ve got Rosemary’s Baby and A Night at the Opera here from Netflix, so hopefully I get through both this weekend.

Tonight I watched Primer a second time, I still don’t know how everything pieces together quite yet. However, some one has documented it. Don’t read through it if you haven’t seen it, but you can look to confirm it’s confusing-ness. It’s very well done and the actors are the people actually making the movie too.

In other news, work is going well. The thing I’m working on is very likely about to become much larger and will keep me very busy. While working I’m making some good progress on my For Review folder of music. However most of the progress has been bands I’ve decided not to keep around. One of the non-ill-fated bands is Ozomatli. Think Flobots, but take the string instruments and replace them with Latin influences. I also have a place to live for the next year, so that’s good

Off the List

The SaintMay 14th, 2009Posted by The Saint on
1001 Movies

Since we last talked, I’ve been keeping busy. I have been doing all of the things I enjoy. Started playing poker again (and had a winning day), watching movies, playing video games, programing and hanging out with friends. I’m halfway through with my vacation and I plan on doing more of the same in the next two weeks. Everything, except the last thing I mentioned, is going to be taking a hit because I will be going on a trip that involves 6 planes, 2 4-hour car rides, 1 4-hour layover, a bunch of amusement parks and two weddings. The day after all this ends is my first day of work and the rest of my life.

Like I said, I’ve been watching movies, but have seen more off the list than on.
For the on category we have:
Crumb
The Thing
Ben-Hur
Angles with Dirty Faces
Happiness
Badlands
North by Northwest
Harold and Maude

For the off category we have:
Sukiyaki Western Django
Dial M for Murder
To Catch a Thief
Dan in Real Life
Star Trek
The Killing
Mean Creek
Dear Zachary
Synecdoche, New York

Ok, I thought it was much less balanced, but I didn’t lie to you. A lot of these were hard to watch. Not that I didn’t enjoy them, more that they were extremely emotional or twisted, or both.

Crumb – It is about the underground comic artist Robert Crumb, but ends up being depiction of all the mental disabilities of him and his brothers.

Happiness – Despite the title, there is not a single happy person in this movie, very twisted and dark.

Harold and Maude – A really great movie about an unlikely relationship between a 19 year old boy and 79 year old woman. The hardest part of this was that the film opens with a fake suicide by Harold that I didn’t know were fake at the time. Once things were explained and I had a better feel for the movie, I enjoyed it.

Dan in Real Life – This movie stars Steve Carell and Dane Cook, it is not a comedy. You need to know this before you start or else you will not enjoy this film and you should.


Mean Creek
– It’s Deliverance, except no banjo kid or squealing and everyone is younger then 18. What it lacks in original story it makes up for in performances and cinematography.

Dear Zachary – Wow, I still don’t even know what to say. A documentary about a woman who kills the father of her unborn child, flees to Canada, and how the legal system (mis)handles everything. Seriously hard to watch because just when you think you have gotten a handle on how messed up things are, something more comes. It is very well done and worth watching, just be ready.

On that note, we’ll turn back to me and talk about progress. I’m at 199 and chugging along. The first milestone of 250 will be just about in time for my birthday. I’ve also managed to bring the projected completion date into late 2015 instead of early 2016.

EDIT: I forgot about 8 1/2, which is on the list. So I guess I did lie, but it’s a lot of movies and hard to keep track of them all.

Some People Run, I Watch Movies

The SaintApr 21st, 2009Posted by The Saint on
1001 Movies

Classes ended a week ago. In that time I have watch an ungodly number of movies.

12 Monkeys
Beau Travail
A Scanner Darkly
RocknRolla
The Karate Kid
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Ultimate Avengers
The Exorcist
Layer Cake
The Maltese Falcon
Fahrenheit 451
This is England

Beau Travail, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Exorcist are the only movies from that group that helped me along my way towards 1001. Kind of surprised The Maltese Falcon wasn’t on the list, but then again, it wasn’t as good as Casablanca or Beat the Devil. Fahrenheit 451 was very good. Never read the book, but it is a very good story, so the movie worked well.

My favorite of the group is This is England. A 11 year old boy befriends a group of skinheads. Shaun had just lost his father in the Falklands War, and the gang fills this hole. Every part of the movie comes together well and you feel for the characters in it.

Beau Travail
My least favorite of the group, not saying it was very bad, just the least enjoyable for me. I can see why it is on the list because the cinematography and soundtrack were very well done. However, the entire story is very subtle and you get a feeling that nothing has happened when you are halfway through it. Much of this comes from the dullness of the soldiers’ post, but it was hard for me to get a feel on anyone beyond the 3 main characters.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Awesome. There is something about old-school horror movies that I really enjoy. These movies didn’t rely on huge budgets or lots of special effects to make you cringe. To me, having someone walk down a hallway, with eerie music, not knowing what is around the corner beats a person being tortured on camera any day. This is part of the reason I thought The Exorcist was not as good as Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The Exorcist used special effects, that were good at the time, but when you see them today, the same effect isn’t there.

Road to 1001: Kim Basinger Edition

The SaintFeb 16th, 2009Posted by The Saint on
1001 Movies

Batman (1989)
For the sake of full disclosure, this is only the fourth Batman movie I’ve seen all the way through. The others being Batman (1966), Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight. This was very different than the other two images of Batman that I have seen. Keaton produced an interesting picture of Bruce Wayne. Quite and collective for the most part, even seeming out of place at his own party. But let’s be honest, Nicholson stole the show. Playing the Joker who was ridiculous in all accounts and using all of the silly puns. This movie is one of the most colorful Tim Burton movies with out blatantly going colorful like the Edward Scissorhands suburb scenes. I was also intrigued by how exaggerated Gotham was, yet Wayne Manor was a regular English looking castle. I enjoyed it a lot, but I choose The Dark Knight.

L.A. Confidential
Kevin Spacey. Russell Crowe. Guy Pearce. James Cromwell. Kim Basinger. Danny DeVito. Seriously, how do you got all of those people into one movie? Just a classic representation of film noir(neo-noir if you want to split hairs). Very well done on all accounts. You start in one place where you think you know everything, but then you are moving along with the characters as you learn more about them as they learn more about the plot.

Road to 1001: Mockumentary Edition

The SaintFeb 3rd, 2009Posted by The Saint on
1001 Movies

Some time around September I decide I was going to watch all the movies on the 1001 movies you must see before you die list. On the initial pass, I had seen around 113 of the movies. It was mostly modern films, but I had seen a good spattering of classics. Since then, I’ve been putting in work and pushing through the list. I’m currently at 166 (yes that is a lot of movies, but last semester was very easy). I decided to start reviewing some of the movies on the list as I watch them. I’m not going to review all of them, but if I really enjoy one or feel like talking about it, I’ll put it up. So without further ado, I will start with a double-review in a special Mockumentary Edition.

This is Spinal Tap
Amazing. I don’t know how it took me this long to see this movie, I should have seen it years ago. This is Spinal Tap mockumentary that follows the fake metal band Spinal Tap around on their second US tour. Featuring the classic “This one goes to 11” scene, this movie hits every joke right on the nose.

Man Bites Dog
Very Good. In this black comedy, the camera crew follows around a serial killer as he goes through his day. The entire thing is shot in black and white which gives it a much older feel. As you might have guessed, there are some fairly graphic scenes through out the movie. However, I found that the comedic presentation softened to blow that the audience would have felt if this had been a horror movie. That being said, rape scenes are always hard to watch. An American remake would probably do fairly well if one was made today. You might need to make some alterations to some of the random conversation between the crew and the main character. However, those are just minor changes of little consequence if you keep the same feel of the characters interactions. In general, I would be fine if they just did it again in English to help out the people who are too lazy to read subtitles.

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