The Irish Thug

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.

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.

That is all.

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.

Just watched the Battlestar Galactic mini series that leads into the first season. I was immediately happy with my decision to watch a four season show that I knew very little about, with the exception of nobody every saying something bad about it.

Stylistically it reminds me a lot of Firefly. Though, Firefly is more aggressive with the flares and un-steady-cam. They also both do a lot of space flying that utilizes zooming in on ships after they come on to screen. Other than that the shows are completely different as Battlestar stays very close to the space scifi feel and Firefly is all about the comedy and melding of genres and cultures.

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)

• Off
• Hey, can you turn on the air.
• Dude, I said turn on the air, I’m hot.
• About time, but can you turn it down a little.
• Can’t … move … too … much … wind. OOONNNN!!