My Favorite Movies

Hands down, my #1 favourite film since the day I saw it nearly 9 years ago.

Nothing even comes close to matching the scale, depth, thrill and raw emotion of this movie. It almost transcends the film-watching experience and becomes something else.

The narrative of this movie almost defies description. It's also a brutal attack on it's audience and a delibrate FU to all the established Evangelion fans.

The more I say about it, the further away it gets. Simply put, this movie is an experience, one I don't honestly think I'll have again in my lifetime.

-07/01/08

"I wanted to put a bullet between the eyes of every Panda that wouldn't screw to save it's species.... to breathe smoke... to destroy something beautiful."

I can only imagine what it must be like to have not watched Fight Club by now (in 2007) because you must have heard so much about it that in finally seeing it, I envisage you walking away disappointed, like the way I felt when I first saw Citizen Kane or Raging Bull (eh? is that it? What's the big deal?) ~ And only later coming to appreciate the movie on its own merit, beyond the hype.

Nevertheless, the hype is there for a reason, and Fight Club is THE film for the Y generation (not a tag I enthusiastically self-apply, but for purposes of discussion... shrug).

More than anything else, Fight Club was a movie you had to SHOW people. When it first came out in 99, I ended up initially seeing it by myself, none of my friends were really grabbed by it. However, word of mouth slowly spread, I ended up seeing it 4 more times at the cinema, and many times since on DVD, including watching it projected on a concrete wall in an underground chamber (which was the ultimate way to see it -and that's currently the last time I watched it).

And if I haven't made it explicitly clear by now, I think this film is brilliant, by the way. A true masterpiece. I give it a perfect rating, because I simply can't conceive of it any other way. I think you watch this film with awareness that you're watching one of the greatest movies of all time, which is why I mention it in same breath as Citizen Kane or Raging Bull.

As to it's content? Well... one way or another it deals with masculinity, but I'll leave that to other people to disseminate. Masculinity is a BIG topic, and weather you're a man or a woman, it's impossible to comment on masculinity from any viewpoint not relative to your own experience of it.

Which might be stating the obvious, but I've read a lot of stuff here where people have dived right in and perhaps illuminated more about themselves than the movie. I'm here to talk about movies, not me. (I have blogs elsewhere for that sort of thing).

...Suffice to say, it will -at least, it really fucking should- give you plenty to talk about afterwards. That's the finest thing a film can aspire to.

'I asked god "Why me?" and he said 'Because you're on TV dummy" '.

I'm yet to see a Sidney Lumet film I don't like, but this in particular is one of my all time favourite films.

Without a doubt one of the finest films to come from Hollywood's golden age -the 1970s. Right up there with Taxi Driver, the Godfather, Chinatown, French Connection etc

The speeches that Peter Finch has in this film are amazing. A superb cast (of course, being a child of the 1980s I didn't appreciate that when I first saw it... who is William Holden?).

An American classic, made in the decade of the anti hero and the great cynical post-Nixon era -released the year before Star Wars came out.

Network is no relic of the 70s though, and it's viscous caricature of television programming is even more relevant now than ever in 2007.

Network is pervaded with the blackest of black humour. The only film I've seen comparable to it in tone is "Robocop".

I don't mind a good blockbuster and happily admit that, but I watch a film like this today and wonder what might have been had the world not gone crazy for blockbusters, and paid more attention to great stories like this.

If you haven't seen Network, you really are missing out ~ that might be a turn of phrase that gets used all too often, but I really can find no better way to articulate the sentiment.

I'm as mad as Hell... and... you have to see this film.

-07/01/08

I was watching the special features on the "2001" DVD the other day, which discussed how that now-gigantic icon of science fiction cinema was completely canned when it came out, and I couldn't help but think back to Matrix 2, and hope that, maybe someday, people will go back and rediscover this film for the brilliant piece of work it is and stop picking at it for what it isn't.

As it is, I can't see much point in trying to mount a defence for it here, so I'm just going to rant instead:

"99% of test subjects accepted the test program if given a choice, even if it was presented to them at a near unconscious level."

...so the man said. And no small irony so many folks hate this movie. When it comes to sci-fi action films, we want easily-digestible melodrama, and a clearly delineated plot, good and evil characters we can live through vicariously playing out classic mythic hero stuff (ala the first Matrix film or Star Wars IV).

To be sure, I also believe in the primal value of those stories. No one wants to hear those concepts challenged or deconstructed, which is exactly what Reloaded ends up doing. Most people don't want to see their hero confronted with -choices- just stick with bad guys in black or monsters, thanks.

I think this film throws down a challenge to the viewer like no other movie before or since, and really questions the whole nature of what a saviour/hero is. Neo's journey forms a legitimate, serious attack if not condemnation on the individual and free will, and it's amazing to see it in a mainstream film of this proportion.

Your saviour from film 1 is really a slave to making choices, his rebellion co-opted to actually support the very system he seeks to destroy. And endless futile cycle of self-inflicted suffering, with only the dimmest awareness that we as human being actually -like- the world the way it is, and have chosen it, and that the bad guys are just doing what we wanted them to. Bummer.

Even if you do understand all this, you don't want to hear that, you just want the good guy to win, I know I know.

People complain about this being a mindless and vapid action movie lacking the heart of its predecessor, while refusing to even try connecting the dots, or exploring the rich interpretative tapestry the film offers. In reality this film has far more merit, heart and content than Matrix 1 (which really only serves to set things up for #2, and follows a very standard narrative structure.

The ideas in this film, and the way they are integrated into virtually every single scene of the movie frame by frame, every line of dialogue has double or treble meanings, it's structural elegance (beginning with the clock turning over, ending with the upside-down neo) -it hit me like a thunderclap.

A lot of this is admittedly pinned on the Architect's scene, but this is an amazing piece of work. It's truly incredible that the Wachowski Brothers managed to bring so many ideas into that one focal point. From Dostoyevsky's underground man, to the Buddhist samsara cycle, the garden of Eden, the failures of political revolution in 20th century politics, to scientific and technological analogy, all as one united and analogous commentary on the human condition. Right in front of you, if you had any interest in seeing it.

It's appallingly ironic that the film that will probably go down in history as one of the worst excesses of Hollywood garbage, is in reality, one of it's most intellectually accomplished you're ever likely to see this century.

You just have to get off your proverbial arse and pay attention to the ideas being discussed. It's all right there.

It also helps if you've read any of: 1984, Notes From Underground, Brave New World, or anything concerned with philosophy or religions of the world. But hey, that's just asking a bit too much now isn't it.

Does the film have flaws? My god yes (the same that were certainly there in matrix 1, and later caved in matrix 3), weak performances, paper-thin characters, self indulgent stylisations, absolutely.

But you're not here to watch Brokeback Mountain or Raging Bull. You're here for a bizarre and unique combination of action and intellect. The mythic hero story has seeped into our culture, and is very important this, I guess in mounting a critique on that, you're bound to upset (if you don't just confuse) more than a few moviegoers out there. This is a film that is concerned with ideas, not drama. Philosophical discussion, not reasserting the same old archetypes.

And yeah, that's not everyone's cup of tea, sure. But that does not make the film a failure, it just means it not for you. Perhaps you should stick with Kill Bill, Terminator 3 or Pirates, and other less-challenging watches from 2003.

-09/01/08

A decade on, still a brilliant film, the first DVD I ever bought.

I don't know how relevant the film will become, it raises some interesting (and downright scary) social issues as possibilities, and is often compared to Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" but I think that's very superficial, and does both stories a real dis-service.

Huxley's work was twinly concerned with the spiralling-out-of-control, Freudian-inspired hedonism and the rise of socialism of the time, emerging and frightening trends in the late 1920s, but now just part of the world and culture we live in.

In the same way, I see the concerns of thee film dating over time, but that's not to diminish it.

What will last is it's themes, overcoming social barriers and struggling on a personal individual level to overcome odds, achieve the impossible, and in the process defeating social oppression/discrimination. Relevant in every time and society.

On these more basic thematic grounds, the film will continue to be inspiring, unsettling, intelligent etc..

And whereas genetic engineering is topical in the early 21st century, I think it is less likely to be on people minds in the next few decades, as it inevitably becomes more accepted (I don't say this is a good or bad thing, just a technological force you cannot stop).

Gattaca is a beautiful film, still makes me cry every time I watch it. I also have to mention the score in particular, Michael Nyman is amazing. The music is the most powerful aspect of the movie, truly sonorous and touching.

This is the type of science fiction movie I would like to see more of, something completely aside form the simplistic Star Wars-type stuff we see so often.

-09/01/2008

Of all the movies on my (increasingly long) favourites list, Koyaanisqatsi is one of the few I don't have on DVD, but still remains in the top 10. There's a good reason I probably will never get around to the purchase, but place the movie so highly:

Because this is an utterly cinematic experience.

A 'pure' experience sound and image, not a documentary as such, no narrative, (although I think it's fair to say it does have a binding theme and set of progressive sequences -maybe). Watching this film for me had the feeling of being at a concert -not just because of its magnificent Philip Glass soundtrack, but also because striped of any narrative the film does demand a higher level of engagement from you to keep watching, or on the other hand, I've also found on a second watching it can be experienced another way, by simply allowing your mind to drift off as you watch the imagery.

Although I think Baraka is better known out there with the public, I think Koyaanisqatsi still stands superior, the content selected and arranged much more coherently than Baraka. (Not to denigrate that film however - it's still the most useful handle I can give people on the sqatsi films when they ask about them; "you know Baraka? Yeah it's like that -but from the 80s".

I would encourage the initiate viewer to see this film in cinemas (with an audience too) if even remotely possible. It needs to be big and loud, -not to make it sound like Transformers or Armageddon, mind you, only that it belongs on a big screen, with a great sound setup.

Nevertheless, as home theatre setups become more and more grandiose and affordable, I think I will revisit this as a DVD experience soon. Meanwhile I continue listening to Glass' profound musical arrangements on CD. By turns hypnotic and haunting, thundering and anxious, triumphant then morose. Great, truly great music to be driving to, whether speeding down a freeway or stuck in traffic. Recommended.

The environmental message in this movie and the polemic tone of Koyaanisqatsi (and also its 2 sequels) remain some of the most accomplished cinema since photography was invented.

-11/01/08

"See my friend in this world there are 2 types of people, those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig."

Here's the thing about The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, and director Sergio Leonie's films as a whole: I believe most great films stand outside of time, therefore standing the test of time. While all movies carry the unique imprints of their birthplace, look at titles that typically show up on a '100 greatest movie of all time' lists, and you'll most often find films that broke new ground, influences other who came after them, by adding something perhaps technical revolutionary, like the incorporation of steady cam, the use of CGI etc, or stylistic revolutionary that influences generations of filmmakers from then on.

Truly great films or filmmakers produce work utterly impossible for their community to ignore (even if it takes years for their genius to be recognised). Sergio Leonie, and "the Good the Bad the Ugly" would be my exacting definition of this. Sergio Leonie is about style, but not just that he has a unique style, rather that he created movies so different to anything that had come before, on so many levels, that Leonie one could argue he virtually invented the idea that a director could have 'style' as something used in a movie.

Ok, some big statements I'm making here, and out of context, some of this might sound unjustified. Having discovered the Dollars trilogy only in the last 5 years, I've since (retroactively) been amazed at just how many movies, and types of movies owe a debt to Leonie, and the dollars trilogy.

In some cases it is inferred: you can clearly see this influence in the work of action directors like James Cameron, Walter Hill and the Wachowski brothers -from the action hero archetypes, Client Eastwood steely portrayal of the tough-guy-of-few-words creating a new type of protagonist in the 1960s that is still with us today.
Beyond what a film buff like me might read into or recognise as originating from a Leonie film though, there is seemingly no end of film makers who cite his work as a direct influence, George Lucas to John Carpenter, Quentin Tarintino, Clint Eastwood himself, to name a few, Lucas claims that Bobba Fett was basically a riff on Eastwood man with no name (and I still can't help but think each time I watch The Good.. that George Lucas should have used Eli Wallach's character of Tucco as his basis for Jar Jar Binks ~ that would have been great!).

The Good the Bad the Ugly is the final part of what is referred to as the Dollars trilogy (the other instalments being "A Fistful of Dollars" and "For A Few Dollars More"), and also my favourite of the three, for many reasons.

It definitely has the most epic quality and best production values of the 3, but I think also the best pacing (despite it's 3-hour length) and balance of characterisation, humour, plot-reversals and action. Also I think the morality (or lack there of) presented in the 6 great Leonie films is best realised in Good the Bad the Ugly. With the back-drop of carnage of the American Civil War, the oppurtunistic and uncaring natures of his main characters work most effectively. Conversely, I think it also the most -fun- of Leonie's films too.

If there's any one thing I took away from watching this film, it is the starkness of the entire thing. Beginning from the films very title onwards, the story, through the characters dialogue and motivations, the simplicity of the story's through line (although there's many twists and turns, it is essentially about three men trying to find a treasure box). However it is the starkness of visuals and music that truly make this a memorable film. Leonie use of extreme close ups and wide vistas, slow long shots with gradual reveals of the scene, married against Morricone's amazing score make this film a true delight. In particular 'the ecstasy of gold' music remains my favourite all time piece of music.

With The Good The Bad The Ugly, Leonie built on his stylistic invention from the first 2 dollars films, reinventing the Western genre and placed his stamp on all Westerns and action films that would follow. And as imitated and parodied as this film has been over the last 40 years, it still retains it ability to impress, inspire, but above all entertain.

-13/01/08

It really was surprising just how good this film is. The last Will Smith sci-fi effort I saw a few years back, (and a pox upon it -it remains nameless!) left me wanting to hurt people, I hated it so much.

THIS is a very different animal. Definitely well and clear above your typical Hollywood special effects film.

I saw the trailer and said to myself, if this film will work for me at all, it will touch upon the same material as 'cast away', however briefly, before turning into another bloated Hollywood action fest.

But my (admittedly low) expectations were greatly surpassed.

"I am Legend" is a great piece of science fiction.
My only criticism of the film, is purely technical; would have preferred actors in prosthetics to CG zombies.

This is otherwise an extremely well made film, well-paced, emotional, and intelligent.

In an age where it seems ever film I watch is 40 minutes too long, and can see every twist and development coming that far in advance, the story kept me genuinely interested, invested in the emotional life of the protagonist. I was scared, amused and engrossed in all the right places.

There is an awful lot of craft that has been put into this. Go see it folks.

-07/01/08