EOM

Well, that's the end of it. The last of my vids. I was really impressed listneing to a podcast Q&A with writer Mark Frost (yes, that Mark Frost) when asked his discipline, replied "8am to 1pm, 6 days a week". Holee shit. That's 30 works a week. That's almost a paid job. I tried to work out if I could do anywhere near those hours. No even close. If I ever get back to the writing, am I even gonna be able to do one hour a day? With all of my addictions (speaking of, another resurfaced today. Long story. Wouldn't wanna bore you). Anyways, I'll get the vids out of the way:

The Thin Red Line
Quite liked this. A very spiritual movie. Either that or really pretentious. Didn't quite buy it. But it at least attempted something more introspective and less flag-waving than most war movies. Sterling cast btw.

City Of God
Easily the best of this batch of flicks. Hands down one of the best I've seen in a while. Tells a compelling story of the drug gangs in the slums of Rio with considerable panache. It's nice to find these lil' films, made by people you've never heard of, starring people you've never heard of. I know, it sounds impossible doesn't it? And the doco on the DVD is even more eye-popping, showing the movie is considerably glossier than the real thing. Doesn't change my opinion though.



Very Long Engagement
Entertaining. But it worries me than Jeunet is limited in his bag of tricks, retreading much of Amelie but without the laughs. Which reminds me, I should catch up with at some point some of his earlier flicks. Extras are considerable, but kinda boring.

Kundun
Another notch on my Scorsese belt. Again, a very spiritual movie that moves-at-a-snail's-pace. Yeegads! Again, nice to see a completely unknown cast (all non-professionals?), but only very occassionally do we see flashes of the Scorsese brilliance. Guess he should be commended for restraining himself?

Catch-22
Didn't know what to make of this one. Well made, kinda funny, but I didn't get it. The commentary by Mike Nichols and Steve Soderbergh kinda helps (commentary is good, but too many dead spots) and there are some great elements (like the cast and the photography) and this left me kind of ambivalent.

Also in brief...
caught up with Munich the other night. Again, I didn't really know what to make of this film. A great cast (nice to see two Aussies acting off each other), well shot, well made, can't hide the sloppy screenplay which meanders and quite frankly, doesn't really have much of a point. What's the use of the lead actor having a crisis half way through the third act? After watching the first twenty minutes of One Day In September, this film is rendered fairly insignificant. Ironically, it's still one of Spielberg's better films of the past twenty years.

Also...
some very important news for me. Having grown up on the first two Superman movies, I was heartened to hear we are finally going to see the discarded Richard Donner footage for Superman 2 even though he's not doing the editing. I don't know how much footage we haven't seen before there is, but isn't it kind of important and significant that this will probably be the last time we ever get to see anything new of Christopher Reeve's? I'll try and track down a cool photo.