Tag Archives: 4/5

#248- Manhattan

Quick recap: Isaac (played by Woody Allen) is in love with his best friend’s mistress, a 17 year old girl and New York City.

Photography By Brian Hamill

Photography By Brian Hamill

Fun (?) fact: This is Woody Allen’s least favorite film, which is a very Woody Allen thing to admit.

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My thoughts: I didn’t think it was possible to loathe every character and still overall enjoy the film, but that’s Manhattan for you. My inner monologue while watching: ‘oh my god, these people are insufferable! Are they trying to be charming, because I just hate them more if so,’ followed by ‘I want to buy a plane ticket to New York City right away and walk around the city listening to Gershwin and maybe take in a few classic films.’ It was a roller coaster of emotions, let me tell you.

I think of myself as a rather open, nonjudgemental person but I just couldn’t get past the creepiness of Woody Allen’s character falling for a 17 year old. And not just any 17 year old, but one that actually looks 17, if not a little younger. Audiences loved this movie, but I’m curious if this was seen as something romantic or if other people cringed too. The other woman Isaac was in love with, played by Diane Keaton, is a step up in the age department but her character seemed too strong of a woman to enter into any relationship. The two of them fit much better than Tracy, the 17 year old, but both were so opinionated that there weren’t many ‘awwww’ moments. And anyway, in the end, Isaac went back to Tracy and begged her not to go to London and I went back to being weirded out all over again.

It sounds like the movie is awful, but it really isn’t and that’s why I’m so conflicted. What I did love was the way Allan captured New York and I loved Gershwin and I especially loved all of the snappy dialogue. Almost every line was quotable and I’m sure I missed some of the humor, although I tried to keep up. And really, although the characters were all awful people, they were awful together and that’s all that really matters. How do you think the show Friends lasted for so long?

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Final review: 4/5, although if I watched it again, I might bump it up to a 5.

Up next: Bob Le Flambeur

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#247- Rio Bravo

Quick recap: John Wayne plays Sheriff Chance, in charge of a small town that has been taken over by the Burdette brothers. The only people who can help him are a disabled guy, a recovering alcoholic and worst of all- a woman.

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Fun (?) fact: The set was built 7/8 scale so the characters could seem ‘larger than life’

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To celebrate his 18th birthday, John Wayne bought Ricky Nelson a pile of manure and then threw him into it, because that’s his thing?

My thoughts: I’m still not a huge fan of John Wayne, but boy was this a lot of fun to watch. It’s a Western that you don’t really have to think through. They even made the good guys wear white hats and the bad ones black ones! How much easier can you get? I guess maybe naming John Wayne’s character Goody McGood but that’s really unnecessary. Hilarious, but unnecessary.

There isn’t anything that stands out about Rio Bravo, which is maybe why I liked it so much. It’s not boring at all, which is saying something since the run time is almost 2 1/2 hours.It’s also not just an action movie from beginning to end. There was plenty of time to get to know the characters, of whom I especially liked Dude, played by Dean Martin. None of them were overly complicated or anything, because as mentioned before, all you need to know is who is bad and who is good. John Wayne was the star, but I think I liked his character the least. He was more good natured than Red River and definitely less murdery, so that was nice, but he was just some older guy doing his job. He seemed to genuinely care about Dude and Stumpy, but in a fatherly way, not like friendship.

Which is what makes the love story REALLY not work for me. At the time of filming, John Wayne was 51 while his love interest, played by Angie Dickinson was 26. It’s not that she looks all that young, but that John Wayne looked so old. If there is ever a time in your life that you need to think of something unsexy, might I suggest John Wayne making out? That’ll do that trick, guaranteed. The couple of songs also seemed out of place but considering Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson were cast, I guess they had to throw a bone to the audience.

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That’s one way to flirt? I guess?

Final review: 4/5. A badass female lead would’ve been nice but this was still a great movie

Up next: Possibly The Jerk

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#244- The Last Wave

Quick recap: A lawyer, David Burton, defends 5 Aborigines accused of murdering a man. During the trial, Burton starts to have nightmares and premonitions that make him go insane.

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When the guy who can supposedly turn into an owl looks at you like you are crazy, it’s time to reevaluate things

Fun (?) fact: Much of the movie is about crazy weather in Sydney, and there were actual freak storms happening during production. The crew decided to film in Adelaide, though, and had to recreate all of the heavy rain when they could’ve just stayed in Sydney.

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Also, it’s apparently normal to walk around in Australia with a cowboy hat on and no shirt.

My thoughts: I don’t lean one way or the other when it comes to procedural dramas. I’ve watched my fair share, but I’ve never read a John Grisham novel or seen a full episode of Law and Order. I thought The Last Wave would be similar to what I’m familiar with- a feel good story about wronged individuals, where we all learn a bit about ourselves in the process. I also don’t know much about the Aboriginal people, so I figured at the very least I would be educated a bit. A big fat NOPE this movie was. It was way more creepy than I thought it would be and took many dark turns I would never have imagined.

The movie starts with a really creepy sequence where it starts hailing in the middle of nowhere. There are children at a school and one of them gets hit in the head by the falling ice and the whole thing really unnerved me. It rains throughout the movie, but also frogs and petroleum fall out of the sky too. There were several scenes that freaked me out but for some reason, it was the weather I couldn’t stop thinking about. The premonitions were pretty creepy as well, especially one where one of the men is just standing in the house holding a rock dripping with blood.

I’m not really sure where the trial of the men fit into the story and I’m even more unsure of what happened at the end of the movie. Burton tries to prove that these Aborigines are ‘tribal’, meaning they follow ancient rituals and customs. His whole theory is that the man who died, died from a curse rather than being beaten to death. Yeah, the jury didn’t buy that either. But then it turns out that these men ARE actually tribal and have a sacred place in the sewage system, which is a little weird, tbh. Burton finds the place and then meets up with Charlie, who can turn into an owl. Charlie scares him and he kills Charlie with the same rock as in his dream! After murdering the guy, Burton wanders around the sewer for awhile, dropping tribal relics he stole in poop water. Dude is cursed upon cursed upon cursed at this point. He manages to find his way out and it takes him to the ocean where he either imagines a huge wave wiping out Sydney or there is an actual wave about to wipe out Sydney. A LAST WAVE, if you will.

Final review: 4/5. Much weirder than I expected but a bit ambiguous.

Up next: Foolish Wives

 

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#240- Run Lola Run

Quick recap: Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks before her boyfriend is found and killed by the mob.

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Run Lola run!

Fun (?) fact: There are many spirals in the film because director Tom Tykwer loves the movie Vertigo.

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My thoughts: I find it a little weird to 1) have two movies with Lola in the title on one list and 2) to have watched both films unintentionally so close to each other. Whereas the first Lola I watched a couple of weeks ago was sweet and sad, this Lola is spunky (you can tell because of the red hair) and much more resourceful than her counterpart. This Lola would laugh at the thought of sitting around waiting for her love to return. I highly doubt Other Lola did any running at all, and if she did,it certainly wasn’t to save anyone from being murdered. Get it together, Other Lola, or should I say Lesser Lola?

What the movie lacks in plot, it more than makes up for visually. There is so much to take in that it becomes overwhelming at times, and it was difficult for my mind to figure out what I was supposed to be paying attention to. There seem to be a lot of clues hidden throughout the movie, although I never could figure out what they meant.There are actually three different scenarios Lola goes through as she tries to find a way to save her boyfriend and I kept trying to figure out which was the ‘real’ scenario.In the end, I had to tell myself that this isn’t Memento and maybe I should stop analyzing what might not even exist. Run Lola Run works best if you think of it like a live action video game. With each ‘death’, the character learns what not to do and how to make it to the end successfully.

One aspect that I did manage to pick up on was how everyone’s lives intersected with each other in some way. Many of the meetings fall in to the ‘butterfly affect’ philosophy, with the idea that merely brushing into someone can drastically change the entire course of their life. The film also relies heavily on the concept of time- that being one second early or one second late can also have major consequences. It was interesting to see this played out, although I don’t think the idea itself is all that complicated. Many people attribute things happening to fate when really, it all boils down to being in the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time.

Final review: 4/5. The movie is a lot of fun and I recommend checking it out if you haven’t before.

Up next: Good Bye Lenin!

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