Lanning's Talk

The Heiress

Wealthy, but painfully shy woman is romanced by charming young man whose motives are questioned by her father. Extraordinary adaption of Henry James' novella Washington Square is cinematic perfection. Olivia de Havilland is electrifying in her character's metamorphosis and Ralph Richardson has a commanding presence as her domineering father. Spectacular production values complement this compelling drama that remains one of the best films of the 40s.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

again,another scorsese underrated gem.this,and that movie called after hours should be his classic,not that movie about a boxer,or some lunatic taxi driver,or a joe pesci-gone-mad-mafia-movie. maybe it's scorsese image of the maker of 'guy' movie that makes this movie gone overlooked by many.this is funny and inspiring !(at least for all the single mother out there,don't give up!).haha and i didn't realize there's Jodie Foster in this!

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

A brilliant animatedfeature which again i thik is more entertaining for the adults then kids as i thoroughly enjoyed it!
This anmated movie is, unny, witty, charming, iteresting and fulfills some peoples dreams of just food falling out of the sky a real good movie ad really worth a watch!
Flint Lockwood is a scientist thats inventions aren't so great and are mosty failures, with his dad forcing him to work in a sardine fish shop and flint trying to get the little city proper food instead of just sardines comes up with the solution and what seems like a good idea at the time with everyone happy turning the dull dark city into a happy colourful city turns to chaos with the food mutatng and becoming larger and the problem fr the whole world he must help to save the world and destroy the thing he created with the help of follow geek voiced by anna faris who brings the comedy to the show!
Real worth a watch!

Antichrist

James Berardinelli,one of my favorite film critics,can't decide whether to give this movie a 0 or 4 stars.well,after watching ANTICHRIST myself,i got the point. This is one of the most brilliant,and at the same time,the most pretentious filmaking i've ever seen.

the opening 5 minutes (the prologue,in which von trier tells it)is just beautiful. i've never been as captivated (at least,not since the opening of THE FALL) by the extraordinary cinematography (once again,Anthony Dod Mantle proves,that he and von trier is a match made in heaven).

But after the opening,here comes the pretentious side (which fortunately for ME,i find it rather Genius than pretentious). with a lot of disturbing scenes comes around,the slow moving paces of the revealing truth,.and (as usual) a 'more than meets the eyes' ending (i myself still can't find the meaning of that last shot,now please someone tell me!)

as much as it is von trier egotastic project,this is also Gainsbourg and Dafoe playground. there are no one else on screen(except for a brief scene that feature their son).and i'm glad that they really deliver.it is their performance that makes me goes to a rather favorable more than disgust it (and believe me,the line is very very thin)

so overall,regardless of all the controversy,i think antichrist is a pretentiousness at its most genius

Breaking the Waves

Von trier hit the spot again !loves Emily Watson,loves Stellan Skarsgaard,loves the soundtrack,and loves the powerful and dogmatic ending !

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Misfit scientist tries to solve his island's food problem by inventing a device that turns water into food. Silly, harmless family entertainment provides a few chuckles, but the story is rather jejune. Children under 12 will appreciate the colorful computer-animated 3D and ridiculousness of the story. At least the third feature from fledgling Sony Pictures Animation is an improvement over Open Season and Surf's Up. Mr. T is hilarious as the voice of Officer Earl Devereaux, the town's overactive athletic cop devoted to his son.

People I Know

What an underrated movie. The story is great and screenplay also, maybe they have pushed it a bit to far at one point but it doesnt fuck up the movie as only a little time gets spend on it. Al Pacino's performance isnt bad either, it's actually great, he puts off a terrific performance with his zombie look. Not all the performances where that great but this movie isnt really high-class either, its a movie you should look at when you dont want to watch a movie with all those hollywood cliché's.

Woodstock - 3 Days of Peace & Music

Sprawling, historically significant documentary about the concert that occurred on Max Yasgur's farm at Bethel, New York in August 1969. This chronicle does more to explain the 60s counterculture than perhaps any other record. Using split-screen techniques, director Michael Wadleigh, shows us performances, mixed with interviews of both the artists and attendees. The many logistical problems that occurred in putting on this show are ignored in favor of presenting an idyllic view of "3 Days of Peace & Music". Not particularly honest, but consistently entertaining, nonetheless.

Defiance

I did quite enjoy this movie, but it was a bit long and slow in places that really had to try hard to keep my attention! It is a nice portrayal of jewish brothers/family/jews that was heartwarming and interesting to watch and some real good action scenes and gun fights!
its about four jewish brothers who escape to the forest away from the germans eventually they start helping loads of jews and having to feed loads of mouths and through a struggle of starvation,winter and germans they fight to survive and this is a good true story that is interesting and exciting to watch!
Really worth a watch! Craig and Schreiber are fantastic to watch!

Good Morning, Vietnam

i dont know why i didnt want to watch this as this movie is brillaint , hilarious and robin williams does fantastic!!
i really did enjoy this movie, its funny, witty, enjoyable, explosive and has action, sadness and romance! this movie has everything!!
Robin wiliams plays a muched loved by many radio announcer that is brought into the vietnam war to try and brighten up the troops fighting out there, soon he starts realising not everythings fun and games and sees the reality that the troops lives are at stake when i bombing happens! His friendship between a vietnamess man is strain by his romance with the sister and also something hes hiding!!
A really creative and enjoyable movie to watch about the vietnam war and completely worth a watch!!

The Informant!

Bizarre account about rising corporate star, Mark Whitacre, who turns whistleblower against his employer, agribusiness giant ADM, for price fixing. Jazzy 60s game-show music underscores every scene into silly wackiness. Indeed it feels as if the film is set in that decade, when in fact it's taking place in the 90s. As the story progresses, the audience is kept guessing as to whether Mr. Whitacre is a hero or a fraud. Perhaps the filmmakers thought this ambiguity would enhance the comedic tone of the film. It doesn't. Comedy drama is confusing at times, and boring at others. Matt Damon does give an engaging performance, however.

The Search for John Gissing

"until you look in the dictionary and look up the word ok it means were fucked, ok fucked"

Hehe Alan Rickman !
I couldnt wait to get this, i imported it from america and even though it cost me loads it was so worth it!
It was funny, interesting and alan rickman looked so gorgeous!
The story was interesting and funny and really good probably better than what i thought !
It was about mike binder coming from chicago to replace john gissing but becuase john gissing finds out he messes about with him before they finally decide to join each other and fuck with the company!
A really good movie written from mike binder and really fun to watch!
Worth a watch! especially alan rickman gorgeously brilliant!
Alan Rickman at the end of the movie was fantastic at tap dancing, probably the most funniest and cutest thing to watch in my life!

Public Enemies

I was looking forward to this because I'm a fan of both Depp and Bale (and yes; I recognized David Wenham too!). All in all I liked the movie, but I also felt mildly disappointed. I had heard from people that "Public Enemies" is good, and maybe I expected too much.

The acting seemed a little stiff. Johnny Depp's Dillinger was charming, determined, and slightly obsessed with certain ideas (protecting and taking care of his own was one of them). For some reason he just didn't manage to be as smooth and charming as I expected him to be.

Christian Bale's Purvis was actually even worse; Bale isn't the smoothest of guys most of the time, but here it was as if someone had stuck a metal rod up along his spine. He had his moments, but they were too few.

All in all the characters were introduced very poorly and aside from the main faces, it was hard to keep up.

There were some extremely funny moments, most of them with Dillinger. The plot in and on itself was on the border of spinning out of control, though; it wasn't very smooth, there was no clear pace in it, and when you thought you would be allowed to breathe for a moment, that didn't last for very long. When you thought the movie was going to end, it just kept pushing forward. The end was bittersweet and simple, which I liked. Life tends to be that way, after all.

The soundtrack shone with its absence in most scenes. The gunfire, on the other hand, was almost disturbing; it was loud, and I'm sure it sounded pretty real, but for some reason it just felt like 'too much'.

The shaky style of camera work also added to the chaos of not knowing who was who and what was really going on. Faces and names kept flying along with the bullets, agendas were thrown into the mix and then not mentioned again for another hour, and in the end they had a very realistic yet somewhat confusing film.

So, looking at it like that, perhaps the story of the movie was very good, and all the other elements ate at it from the very beginning.

The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer

"Hi! Mellow greetings, yookie dookie!"


A 1947 comedy directed by Irving Reis and starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Shirley Temple.
It's a screwball farce with a zany, unrealistic plotline but it works mainly because of the strength of the cast. Cary Grant is hilarious, even more so because he's not afraid to make himself look like a complete idiot, flying in the face of his oh-so-suave, debonair persona. Of course, this makes it all the more laugh-inducing. Myrna Loy is brilliant, as usual. She's a natural comedienne. Shirley Temple is older here than most people would probably remember her, no longer with a head full of ringlets, and playing a 17-year-old girl. She does a nice job with the role. She's funny and doesn't seem to have any trouble keeping up with the other two very talented leads. The supporting cast also gives some stand-out performances.

It's interesting to see how teenagers were in 1947. The clothes, the slang (an example of that is in the quote above), the jitter bugs dancing in a malt shop... It's just all so fun to travel back in time to see.

Among the numerous funny scenes, one stands out in my mind in particular because it contains some great, silly dialogue and is delivered so well. Cary Grant engages in a little wordplay with some pretty funny results. Even if you don't see the entire movie, I still think that one scene is a must-see. (I tried to post a YouTube video of it here but it seems that's not allowed in Flixster reviews. If you're interested, click here to see the clip.)

Overall, it's a highly enjoyable, funny trip back in time to the days of bobby-soxers, jalopies, town picnics, and high school basketball players' unsettlingly tiny shorts. Recommended.

Amadeus

A magnificant oscar winning movie about music, envy, hate and love.
Not many people would watch a movie about classic composers, but this one is one of a kind, the best of its genre.

Directing: Milos Forman directed it with perfection, the way he directs the characters, with envy, with passion and ambition. Throughout the movie i felt diffrent because of the serious directing with also some pretty good comedy. A high-class directed film

Acting: I couldnt decide which of these gave a better performance F. Murray Abraham our Tom Hulce, they both did it excellent. I didnt really paid any attention to the supporting actors to be honest, but i still liked what i saw of it.

Music: As this is a movie about classic composers like Mozart and Salieri, its only obvious that the music is what makes this movie so perfect. I recommend this movie to anyone even if you dont like that kind of music.

The Player

wow.,a masterpiece that i didn't see coming! first of all,i really not into robert altman.his previous movies that i watched (SHORTCUTS, GOSFORD PARK) is just an OK for me.secondly,.when talking about altman,it looks like that everybody has in mind is M.A.S.H,or nashville,or Mccabe and mrs miller.i don't recall hearing THE PLAYER that much.,well,i haven't yet to seen those three movies,but at least,this one is supposedly on par,.movie couldn't get better than this.this is a perfect thriller,and also a perfect satire about the hollywood system.,add in the great performance of tim robbins,playing as the most jerkest protagonist i've ever seen,this is truly a gem.and having a great tracking opening shot didn't hurt either.oh and it got Jeremy Piven pre-Ari Gold (in a movie about hollywood??haha,what a coincidence!)

Copycat

Ive seen this a fair few times and still think its brilliant!
I Think its clever stylish, different, and exciting with a great cast and great performances especially from Sigourney weaver!
It keep me glued to my seat and though it did get a bit predictable it was still and really enjoyable and great thriller movie that is completely different to any movie ive seen before !
Sigourney weaver plays an acraphobic where shes frighten to go outside because of a previous frightfull experience but she then starts getting haressed by a murderer who has now turned to hurt her, so whilst under protection she try's to find out who it is !
A really good movie exciting thrilling and enjoyable completely worth a watch!

Stalingrad

This really did not feel like 3 hours, the gripping story (i admit that it was at times a bit 'disorganized'), the magnificant score, combined with the excellent cinematography, locations and acting made this movie really easy to watch. The 2nd WW intrest me allot so thats what made this movie even better for me. I dont think that many people will like this movie so much if they dont care about WWII but the saddening scenes sure are memorable. Also a very important thing is that its nice to see a WWII movie thru the eyes of the nazi's for once.

Death Becomes Her

Black comedy about Madeline Ashton, a fading actress who steals the fiancé of her longtime rival, Helen Sharp. Years later, Madeline feels compelled to try a miracle cure for aging, after seeing how well her nemesis has aged. At best, the film is a delightful romp, infused with satire and wit. At worst. it's a stridently hyperactive shell of a film, overshadowed by freakish special effects. The problem, is that the movie is both and the story constantly vacillates between these two extremes. Luckily there are enough inspired moments to recommend this well acted, albeit campy film.