peteg's blog 2004-04-09.autumn

With Dave C in Utrecht.

Hal Hartley: Henry Fool

His masterpiece, one of my favourites.

Footrot Flats

Absolutely bloody classic.

Casablanca

Hal Hartley: Trust

Less artificial than his more recent work, some cute dialogue and provocative exchanges. Another recommendation from Pete R..

Killer's Kiss

An old Kubrick. I distinctly remember seeing this one before, but don't recall when or where. It captures beautifully the glamorous halcyon New York City of the 50s.

Don's Party

Hadn't seen this since '99 or so, when I watched it at Dave's behest in Canberra. I'll have to see which else of Bruce Bereford's efforts are any good.

Highlander III

What do you do when you make a crap sequel? Remake the original, that's what. Pretty bad.

Citizen Kane

Lantana

While sifting through IMDB I discovered that John Clarke was the voice of Wal Footrot in Footrot Flats. There you go.

Gettin' Square

Thanks Dave. Paul Byrnes wrote a fair review (as always) in the Smage.

The Game

Directed by the guy who did Fight Club.

Hal Hartley: Ambition

Heat

A De Niro / Pacino headed all-star crime flick. Better than I remembered and a soundtrack that captures the mid-90s to boot. It includes the magical Always Forever Now by the Passengers (U2 and Brian Eno), and various other Eno efforts.

Rebel Without a Cause

Hal Hartley: Theory of Achievement

A short I couldn't find the point in.

Hal Hartley: Surviving Desire.

Cute. I like his contrivances.

Time after Time

Not bad. Malcom McDowell is decent.

Hal Hartley: No Such Thing

The Fifth Element

In the Osmosis bar, ground floor of the hostel in Glasgow.

Birth

With Andy and first-year friend at the Filmhouse in Edinburgh. Forgettable.

The Last Temptation of Christ

Great soundtrack by Peter Gabriel and some Indian musicians.

Hal Hartley: Simple Men

Pete R. recommended this to me many years ago. It feels like a rough sketch of an idea that is fully realised in Henry Fool, and is quite cute because of it.

First Daughter

With Kyle in the CS lunchroom. Mr Cranky sums it up well: "You know that impending terrorist attack they've been warning us about? I think this movie may be it."

The Lawnmower Man

With Kyle in the meeting room on level 5.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

With Kyle in the CS lunchroom while marking Functional Programming assignments. William Shatner fans should check out Shatner: Has Been. Incidentally this was the first Trek I ever saw, back on daytime TV in 1991 or so.

From Hell

Another Johnny Depp classic. With Kyle in the CS lunchroom in the evening.

The Right Stuff

With Grégoire (recently returned from China) and Kyle in the CS lunchroom.

Victims and Murderers

With Kyle, Marcin and Namrata, Todd. At Göteborg University, a Czech movie showing organised by the Slavic Language Department.

Young Guns

With Kyle in the CS lunchroom while marking Compiler Construction submissions.

Platoon

With Kyle in the CS lunchroom in the late evening.

Punch Drunk Love

With Kyle in the lunchroom. It was pretty bad but kitschy enough to keep me interested.

Planet of the Apes

The 2001 Marky-Mark knock-off, a complete mockery of the original.

Supersize Me

With Kyle, Philipp and Wojciech in the CS lunchroom, followed by a visit to Maccas on Avenyn with Kyle.

Coffee and Cigarettes

Equilibrium

With Grégoire, Kyle, Shane and Todd. Todd managed to arrange a connection from Kyle's laptop to the amplifier, meaning that I no longer have to bring my speakers from home.

Sisters

With Marcin, Shane and Todd at Göteborg University. A Russian movie screening organised by the Slavic Language Department. It's a cute little gangster flick.

Planet of the Apes

With Kyle. What a masterpiece.

Hell Boy

Welcome to Collinwood

Another William H. Macy mediocrity.

Fahrenheit 451

Total Recall

An Arnie classic with Kyle and Grégoire.

Miller's Crossing

Michael Moore: Roger and Me

Rambo: First Blood Part II

Twelve Angry Men

With Mum. This is great, I should look into other Henry Fonda movies.

Faster Pussycat: Kill! Kill!

With Kyle in the CS lunchroom.

Night On Earth

With Kyle, Grégoire, Marcin and wife and sister. Kyle's parents and brother came for the start but didn't stay long.

The Cooler

I have a soft spot for William H. Macy after his efforts in Magnolia. This is OK but nothing special.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

In the CS lunchroom. The former with Kyle, Marcin, Namrata and Marcin's sister Agnes, visiting from the US and a big Jack Nicholson fan. The latter with Kyle into the wee hours of Sunday morning.

David Lynch: Wild at Heart

Dare I say this is Nicolas Cage's finest movie?

Troy

In the CS lunchroom with Kyle. Was asleep for most of it.

The Last Samurai

Fahrenheit 9/11

With Delvin and Kai, at the Loews on Tremont St. Started 20.10, fire alarm went off at 21.40, everyone left the building, fire brigade / police turned up, seemingly false alarm, they resumed it sometime after 22.00.

Holes

With Lev, Della and Kai for free at the Hatch Shell open air. Featuring Patricia Arquette. A not-so-good western / desert / delinquent movie.

Bad Santa

Spiderman 2

Della, Lev, Kai and I went to the Loews at Fresh Pond Mall.

Batman

Boyz N the Hood

Ali G: Bling Bling

Fahrenheit 9/11 and Pumpkin

In the CS lunchroom in the evening with Harald, Kyle, Marcin and his wife.

David Lynch: Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted and Bubba Ho-tep

The former is a music video. The latter is the best thing Bruce Campbell has done since Evil Dead 3. Indeed, some creative marketroid could simply have re-badged it as Evil Dead 4.

Lolita and Sleepy Hollow

The former with Andreas, Grégoire, Kyle, the latter with Kyle.

Boogie Nights

Sleepers

With Danny, on LaserDisc.

Jackie Brown

With Danny in England, on LaserDisc.

Dr. Strangelove

With Kyle in the CS lunchroom.

The Terminator and Enter The Dragon

The former with Grégoire and Kyle, the latter with Kyle.

Live Forever

On Danny's recommendation? — No, of course not: the suggestion was 24 Hour Party People. Supposed to be about Britpop from the mid-90s and how it related to greater society at the time. They spent quite a bit of time on how this mob got bilked by Blair's New Labour and the whole "Cool Britannia" thing, and it focussed too much on Oasis. Damon Alban (from Blur) is one sour cow.

Fight Club

With Kyle and Mark S..

Top Gun

With Grégoire and Kyle in the CS lunchroom in the evening.

Black and White

Great performances by Robert Carlyle and David Ngoombujarra, slightly weird rhythm, very Adelaide. Josephine Byrnes makes an appearance (lead character from Brides of Christ), good to see.

Secret Window

With Kyle in the CS lunchroom.

The Big Lebowski

Four Rooms

Black Cat, White Cat and The Boondock Saints

The former with Andreas, Grégoire, Kyle, Shane and Todd, the latter with Kyle.

Don Juan De Marco

A very mediocre half-an-idea movie featuring Johnny Depp and a Marlon Brando who looks worse than in Apocalypse Now.

David Lynch's Hotel Room

A bit disappointing: a single-set three-act stage play made with his signature noir that is quite tedious to sit through. For my money it was a passive, non-confrontational variation on the Eraserhead theme.

The Big Hit and Labyrinth

The Killing and The Warriors

The former with Kyle and Grégoire in the CS lunchroom. Kyle and I stayed to watch the latter.

Ghosts ... of the Civil Dead and Edward Scissorhands

The former stars a very young Nick Cave. It reminded me strongly of Bad Boy Bubby. Curiously the star, David Field, plays Bob Hawke in The Day We Called It a Night, the last movie I remember seeing at The Ritz, and he's also in the very similar Everynight ... Everynight and sundry other Aussie classics.

Also watched Edward Scissorhands for the Johnny Depp factor. He's pretty good in this one, as is Wynona (for once).

Dirty Pretty Things

Very good, adventurous, featuring the girl from Amelie, excellent acting, slightly dodgy plotline.

Rabbit Proof Fence

Much better than I expected from Noyce's earlier stuff.

Dirty Harry

With Kyle in an attempt to figure out just what Marcin sees in Clint Eastwood. I am certain we failed.

Dark City

In the late evening with Kyle. Reminded me of Brazil.

Boogie Nights and The Transformers Movie

The former with Jan-Willem, Tobias, Kyle. The later with Kyle. Commonality: classic cheesy 80s song (You've got) The Touch, performed really badly by Marky-Mark in Boogie Nights.

Once Upon A Time in Mexico

Truly execrable. Johnny Depp (usually a plus), lots of pointless gore, an incomprehensible plot. Banderas simply rehashed every other role he's ever done: the omnipotent hero with perfect aim, timing and an infini-shooter. One can identify the bad guys by their inability to hit anything at all.

The Crow

With Kyle.

Once Were Warriors

He Died With A Felafel in His Hand

Thought it was better this time than when I first saw it at The Ritz.

Resident Evil and Spaceballs

With Anders, Grégoire, Kyle, Tobias, Marcin in the CS lunchroom.

Cube 2 and Cube

With Kyle, in the lunchroom in the late evening. The former is a pretty direct remake of the earlier movie, and was totally unimpressive.

The Breakfast Club and Reservoir Dogs

True Romance

Being There (featuring Peter Sellars, 1979)

With Andreas, Kyle, Grégoire, Marcin and his wife, and Nina and Anders.

Godfather Part II

The Godfather

With Grégoire and Kyle in the CS lunchroom.

Badlands

I had some hope it would be good as I quite enjoyed The Thin Red Line, but it isn't, and even Martin Sheen couldn't redeem it. Pass with a push.

Lost in Translation

With Grégoire and Kyle in the CS lunchroom.

Brazil

With Grégoire and Kyle in the CS lunchroom. There's a video projector up there now (recently installed, I believe), but the controls are in a locked cupboard and so we couldn't use it. We ended up borrowing another projector from Sibylle's office, and streaming it from gungnir (defunct) over the wireless network. Quite schmick, in the end. I found it vaguely amusing that Kyle couldn't convince his Apple PowerBook to play it, and quite strange that my laptop gave me so little grief — it's been a while since I've tried using the wireless card, and it never worked well at CSE.

21 Grams

At Times Square in NYC. The plot is way too thin, with Naomi Watts pulling out some incredibly histrionic overacting, reminding me of Nicole Kidman. I thought Sean Penn did a good simulation of Michael Douglas (as he was in Traffic and Wonder Boys), which was a big contrast to Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Benicio Del Toro looks more like Brad Pitt with each movie.

The Legend of Ron Jeremy

With Lev and Della on DVD. Classy stuff.