Tag Archives: movies

Inglourious Basterds

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My thoughts on Quentin Tarantino’s new movie, Inglourious Basterds:

  • Mr.Tarantino makes movies for himself. He tells the story he wants to tell, the way he wants to tell it. If it runs two-and-a-half hours, that’s how long it runs.
  • He likes actors. He gives them lots of words to say and the time to say them. And plenty of business with their hands while they’re doing it.
  • He likes shoot-outs and doesn’t sanitize them. We see the blood and gore but it doesn’t feel gratuitous to me.
  • He must have a great music collection. The soundtrack for IB is fun and effective.
  • He respects his audience. IB has lots of scenes that are entirely in French or German, with sub-titles. If you’re not still sounding out the syllables, you’ can keep up.

Inglourious Basterds was a smart, funny movie that reminds us what Hitler and the Nazi’s were “really” like. And Brad Pitt was very good.

Oh my. It appears we need ANOTHER ending

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Young woman (college age) scours flea markets looking for digital cameras and the occasional memory card. She uses the more interesting photos in her art projects. She finds a little point and shoot and buys it, even though she can’t seem to call up any photos.

Later that afternoon she gets the camera to turn on and finds just two photos. One is an amazingly realistic image of the World Trade Center Towers in mid-collapse. The date and time (the following morning) appear in the lower right-hand corner.

Gruesome, but damned good Photo Shop work. She emails it to an art school friend who is equally impressed. Can’t see how it’s done and he can ALWAYS see how it’s done. Really bugs him.

The next morning the world changes forever. She goes back to her apartment and calls up the image on her laptop. The same image she see from her apartment window. Whoa.

The phone rings and it’s her friend from art school.

“What the fuck!? Where did you get that picture? Where did you get a fucking picture of something before it happened.

[later at friends apartment]

Young Woman wants to take the photo to the police. Hold on, says Friend. How can you explain having that photo. No way, have to think this through. Was that the only photo on the camera, asks Friend?

Young Woman pulls up the other image. It’s a store front with a selection of cameras displayed. One is circled in red. But nothing to indicate where the shop might be.

[We’ll fast-forward a bit and assume they see a street sign or address in the reflection or something like that]

They buy the camera and jump back in the car to take a look. Again, two photos. One a disaster (make it as big and as bad as you like) with date and time stamp for a week from that day.

They have to figure out where the disaster is going to take place and how to stop it. I’ll bet real screenwriters have a name for this kind keep-the-plot-moving writing. This sequence repeats a few times with the girls preventing some and not others.

The final camera only has one photo. Of the Friend shooting Young Woman in the head with a large handgun.

Regular readers know that this is where I stall out. No ending. No way to wrap things up. That, class is your assignment. To the comments!

PS: This is only a little like a story idea I posted a couple of years ago.

Watchmen: Great music, great special effects and garter belts

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I liked so many things about Watchmen, I’m not sure where to begin. Since it’s sure to be compared to other “super hero” films, I’ll start by saying it made Batman and Spiderman and X-Men and all the rest look like Saturday morning cartoons.

The movie critic for People Magazine called the dialogue stilted. I found it tongue-in-cheek David Mamet. A few of my favorite lines don’t do justice to the writing:

  • Hitler was a vegetarian. If you’re squeamish, leave him to me.
  • Only what can happen, does happen.
  • The existence of life is a highly overrated phenomenon.
  • I’m sorry, but you’re in the way of my revenge.
  • I’m not locked in here with you, you’re locked in here with me.
  • It’s too late. Always has been, always will be.
  • What happened to the American dream? It came true.

And the sex? One steamy scene was the hottest thing I’ve seen since Billy Bob did Halle in Monster’s Ball. And there were more garter belts than a 50’s porn movie. But it all worked.

There was lots of action. I thought the fight scenes were every bit as good as what we saw in The Matrix. And there was no shortage of gore. Very graphic. Like the language. This is the movie your mom didn’t want you to see but all the kids are talking about.

And the soundtrack alone was worth the six bucks. It opened with Nat King Cole’s Unforgettable and slid into Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changing. And before the nearly 3 hour film (2:40) was over, we hear Simon & Garfunkel, Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday, Leonard Cohen and Jimi Hendrix.

I spotted Matt Frewer (Max Headroom) in a small part but didn’t recognize Bill Crudup (Almost Famous) as Dr. Manhattan.

I really enjoyed this movie.

UPDATE: My friend Bob commented that he’s unfamiliar with David Mamet. Three of my favorites (he wrote the play/screenplay) are: The Verdict (Paul Newman); Glengarry Glen Ross (all-star cast); and House of Games. I just happen to like the way Mr. Mamet writes dialogue.

“We are the Arabs!”

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“In the 1980 film “The Formula,” George C. Scott plays a detective who uncovers a plot to kill anybody with knowledge of a secret Nazi formula for a synthetic fuel. The bad guy in the film is Adam Steiffel, the Chairman of Titan Oil, played by Marlon Brando. The two meet on Steiffel’s patio, where the oil mogul is enjoying breakfast, and the scene produces a couple of memorable lines in a case of art imitating life.

“You’re not in the oil business; you’re in the oil shortage business,” Scott says to Brando. An aide to Brando’s character races to the table with news of price activity by the Arab states, to which Brando’s character responds, “You idiot, we ARE the Arabs!”

— Terry Heaton

Slumdog Millionaire at the RagTag Cinema

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Slumdog Millionaire is the story of how an impoverished Indian teen became a contestant on the Hindi version of “Who Wants to be A Millionaire?” This is a love story and a good one. But that description sells it short. It’s just a great story, well-told. It’s based on the novel Q and A by Vikas Swarup. [Trailer]

We saw the film at the RagTag Cinema in Columbia. Our first time there. The “theater” had about 80 or 90 seats, most of which were unmatched office chairs (not the swivel kind). I’m guessing the screen was about 10 by 25 feet.

Before the film, a young man came out and made a few announcements about upcoming films. All very casual. Some folks were drinking wine, others had a beer. There’s a bar in the lobby.  [Quote from their website: “A theater without beer is just a museum.” – Bertolt Brecht]

And I didn’t see/hear one screaming child. This was a much better movie experience than we’re used to. I’m sure we’ll go again.

Another Bourne movie

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The three Jason Bourne films, starring Matt Damon, are near the top of my list. Sort of hoped they wouldn’t push their luck and try for a fourth. But since the first three grossed more than $1 billion, Universal Pictures has signed Damon and director Paul Greengrass for another one, scheduled for summer 2010 release.

MGM got the rights to The Matarese Circle, another Ludlum Cold War thriller with Denzel Washington, due to begin production next year. And Paramount has the rights to The Chancellor Mansuscript, with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Things Davezilla learned from movies

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Davezilla.com shares "Things I Learned from Movies, Part III." (I missed parts I and II). My favorites from this list of ten:

  • The first hot woman to appear onscreen in a spy movies is the double agent.
  • Heroes simply bleed less than criminals, who tend to bleed in arterial spray patterns, resembling a Jackson Pollock painting.
  • Virginity protects you from serial killers.

Wild Palms

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Wildpalms150“It’s the year 2007 in Los Angeles, Harry Wyckoff (James Belushi) is a patent attorney and family man. His wife Grace (Dana Delany) is a formidable suburban housewife and mom who also owns a chic Melrose Avenue boutique. Grace is the daughter of Tony and youthful Josie Ito (Angie Dickinson), a socialite radiant with charisma (and with an agenda of her own). Harry and Grace have two children: little Deirdre has been a slow developer, yet to speak a word, and elder son Coty (Ben Savage) — a television addict — has just got an acting job on a new sitcom, Church Windows, alongside fabu superstar and fashion icon Tabba Schwartzkopf (Bebe Neuwirth). However, Wyckoff is plagued by strange dreams — of himself being pursued by a rhinoceros, and visions of a strange tattoo of a palm tree.”

I saw this mini-series in 1993 and 2007 seemed a long way off.

A fun zealot with a beehive and sexy shoes

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Regular readers are familiar with my sputtering attempts at screenplays here. Never can come up with the third act. But Maureen Dowd can and does. Vice in Go-Go Boots, starring Sarah Palin.

“This chick flick, naturally, features a wild stroke of fate, when the two-year governor of an oversized igloo becomes commander in chief after the president-elect chokes on a pretzel on day one.

The movie ends with the former beauty queen shaking out her pinned-up hair, taking off her glasses, slipping on ruby red peep-toe platform heels that reveal a pink French-style pedicure, and facing down Vladimir Putin in an island in the Bering Strait. Putting away her breast pump, she points her rifle and informs him frostily that she has some expertise in Russia because it’s close to Alaska. “Back off, Commie dude,” she says. “I’m a much better shot than Cheney.”

Somewhere in the hills of Hollywood a starving scribe is clicking away on his MacBook. Look for a Labor Day release.