Hey, Here's something that caught my attention.

My wife and both enjoy martial arts films and so we went to see Jet Li's Hero when it came out. Now, if you haven't seen Hero, it's a great film but one with an unabashedly patriotic (Chinese patriotic) twist at the end - the Hero in question shows his true grit when he dies for the idea of a unified China rather than prolong the age of warring kingdoms.

So, skip forward a year or so and we just saw Li's latest movie, Fearless and, guess what, here we have a film (supposedly a true story) about a Mike-Tyson-type who brawls for money, then spends it on booze and friends, loses everything, finds it again and then shows his true grit by dying for the idea of a unified China.

Don't get me wrong, I loved both movies, but I'm struck by the idea that if you want to see a positive look at patriotism, it has to have subtitles.

Oh, and by the way, Fearless also has a wonderful moment at the end where it manages to avoid blaming the Japanese as a people for it's treatment of China, while still making a corrupt Japanese one of the colonial powers trying to undermine China.

Doh!

I forgot to mention, I remember growing we would have "drive-in" nights at the community pool, and what we saw were all the great old Disney films - the Shaggy Dogs, the wacky Professors, we loved them all.

These days, Disney makes "Touchstone" pictures that are usually R rated...

But if you don't go to movies to provide fodder for chic cocktail party chatter, whatever would be the purpose?
/sarcasm

RRRoark:

Don't hate me because I've never been invited to a chic cocktail party; hate Rula Lenska instead.

Actually, I was invited to one chic cocktail party, at Union Station in Los Angeles. It was a publisher party, and they rented out the entire joint.

Sachi was astonished when I told her I'd had eleven cocktails, because (she insisted) I acted exactly the same as when sober. I'm not sure whether that's good or bad. Forget I said anything and don't tell anyone.

Dafydd

Dafyyd, I stronly suggest you rent "The World's Fastest Indian." The best film of last year, and not a person saw it.

I have acquired a taste for Bollywood lately via netflix,

One nice thing I have a friend at work I sometimes loan the movies to he has 3 little girls and they love some of the films with the dancing and the costumes.

I don't have to worry about trying to remember if there is anything in a movie he and his wife might not want their little girls exposed to.

Usually nothing more racy than a kiss on the cheek. ;-)

I don't think my time was ill spent on that trade.

trade?
what did you trade for?

if you want movie violence, just watch atticus finch shoot a rabid dog.
today PETA would boycott the movie.

and that's my tirade.

You are so not the audience.

Svolich,

Dafydd and I saw the world fastest indian, in a theater.

We loved it.

"Monsoon Wedding" and "Akeela and the Bee" were the best two family films I've seen in a while.

Nikki Finke is in her mid-50s, so she is old enough to remember when.

Svolich:

Oh, we saw the World's Fastest Indian when it came out, and we both loved it.

I never say there are no good movies today; but the percentage among the dross is at its lowest ebb ever. We also liked the Spiderman movies, we really liked Batman Begins (consequently, we're certainly looking forward to the Prestige), we like anything Tim Allen is in, and we even somewhat liked the X-Men series, though that's only worth a video rental, as far we Sachi and I are concerned.

Our favorite movies recently (we have very similar tastes) were the three Lord of the Rings movies, for which we bought all the extended DVDs with the extra footage.

(I don't want to give the impression we only watch "comic-book" or fantasy movies... though we loved the Incredibles, too.)

But where are the strong, family dramas? I thought the Mel Gibson remake of Ransom was pretty good but couldn't touch the original. And Hollywood is incapable of making a swashbuckler anymore: I intensely disliked the most recent version of the Count of Monte Cristo, and I hated every second of Pirates of the Caribbean. I think the last good (American) swashbuckler was the Richard Lester version of the Seven Musketeers (three + four), or maybe the Oliver Reed version of the Prince and the Pauper, whichever came last (this one was originally titled Crossed Swords in the United States).

(There was a truly excellent swasher recently titled On Guard in English; but it was a French movie, le Bossu, "the hunchback," in the original. You really, really want to rent this movie and watch it. It's first rate.)

I haven't enjoyed a Western since Unforgiven, and that was fourteen years ago! But there have been a few good war movies recently, notably We Were Soldiers.

But consider, I'm talking about a sweep of time of many years... and I'm hard pressed to find more than thirty movies I even like from that stretch. But if I watch any random movie off of TCM -- and they truly are random, not cherry picked for the best -- I find I like about 75% of them, even what used to be called B-movies. Most of these were made before I was born.

That is such a sad indictment of contemporary Hollywood.

Dafydd

Cathy Seipp:

Nikki Finke is in her mid-50s, so she is old enough to remember when.

So what the heck was she doing from 1975 to 1995, and why won't she tell us anything about it in her bio?

If this were a period during which she was a journalist, isn't that an important part of her history? And why is she so puzzled about the success of a movie like the Santa Clause? It didn't stump me for a moment; I knew the movie would succeed at the BO the moment I watched it.

Of course, many people in their mid-50s grew up (physically) in the radicalized 60s, during "the revolution," when everything -- and I mean everything -- was supposed to change utterly, overturning all the "false truths" and transforming America into a Socialist paradise.

"Maybe I'll be there to shake your hand, maybe I'll be there to share in the land that they'll be giving away when we all come together, I'm talkin' 'bout together now!"

(I love the music from that era, especially acid rock like Country Joe, Iron Butterfly, the Syd Barrett era of Pink Floyd, and such; but I often have to wince at the lyrics...!)

Even those who eventually turned against it (like Michael Medved) are still mentally scarred from ingesting really bad logic during their formative years.

Dafydd

Wow, so YOU'RE the other people that saw it in a theater. There are only 6 of us, you know. ;)

Since it appears that our tastes are very similar, let me suggest a couple of forgotten gems. "Fandango" with Kevin Costner (his first screen appearance) and "Dangerous Beauty."

Generally I agree about Tim Allen - and since I have a 2 year old daughter, I'm sure the SC films are in my future. But I had the misfortune of paying to see "Zoom." It was as bad as I have ever seen, on the level of "Ishtar" though not as pretentious.

I'm probably going to see them both, Dafydd. I love Tim Allen (always have), so that's a no-brainer.

What caught my eye about the Borat film was the Cohen (or should I say Borat) press conference in Paris. 'Borat' expressed his happiness at visiting the 'minor nation' or France and said that the best thing in Paris was MacDonalds.

From some other thing's I've seen I'd say the Borat film probably isn't 'family' entertainment. He seems to have a peverse sense of humor

Even so I just HAVE to see that movie - I'm sure you can understand why... ;)

I suggest a look at Borat's mySpace, Dafydd. http://www.myspace.com/borat

There is a trailer there which I think shows what this is about. I suspect it's not for everyone - but i found it pretty funny.

I make a movie film -- please you come see November 3 -- if it not success -- I will be execute

Thanks for hissing in, . Now you can slither in with a comment, o wise. (sign out)

(If you haven't hissed a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Hang loose; don't shed your skin!)

URL:
Remember me unto the end of days? AyeNay!

Comments: (Sssselect text and bite a button to apply HTML tagssssss...)