474. Hori, ma panenko/The Fireman's Ball (1967)

Running Time: 73 minutes
Directed By: Milos Forman
Written By: Milos Forman, Jaroslav Papousek, Ivan Passer, Vaclav Sasek
Main Cast: Jan Vostrcil, Josef Sebanek, Josef Valnoha, Frantisek Debelka, Josef Kolb

LAME BALL

If everything goes as planned, this time tomorrow I'll only have 100 films left to watch before saying sayonara to THE BOOK. I've made some minor adjustments so that my wife can join me in finishing up, with Alien & Aliens on tap for tonight and Shane & Memories of Underdevelopment lined up for tomorrow morning/early afternoon. Anyway, let's tackle the business at hand first and have a chat about The Fireman's Ball - Milos Forman's last film in his native Czechoslovakia before coming to Hollywood.

As you may have guessed, the film is about a fireman's ball - being thrown by a group of fireman, as they toast the retiring chairman of the fire department, who also has cancer. The film opens with the firemen passing around the gift they've picked out for him - a small, replica fire axe - each one admiring it, expressing that they're sure he'll like it. From the get go, everything goes wrong starting with a small fire being lit by one of the group accidentally setting fire to a paper banner. From there, the guests begin to arrive, including the chairman and the festivities are underway. It becomes apparent that valuable food items that were intended to be raffled off are turning up missing. A man and his mother watch the table like hawks, but somehow miss it when something else goes missing - be it a chocolate ball, a bottle of cognac or head cheese. Meanwhile, three of the firemen organize a beauty contest that will consist of eight women. The three go around, trying hard to find the most beautiful eight who have attended the ball, but somehow end up getting pressured into including eight not so beautiful candidates. With a thief on the prowl and eight (not so) beauties being paraded around, a fire breaks out at the nearby home of an elderly man, but by this time all of the firemen are fairly drunk and incompetent at putting out a blaze. When the man's home burns to the ground, the firemen decide to donate the valuable food stuffs to the old man, but by this time, they've all been stolen.

SPOILER ALERT!

I was looking forward to this one. Not only was it going to be a short and easy one to watch (which bodes well when one is due up by 5:00am), but it was directed by someone who's work I was already familiar with - Milos Forman. Let's not forget that it was Forman who directed one of my personal favorites in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and he also directed Amadeus, which I sweetened on when watching it for THE BOOK last year. So I was excited to see one of the film's that obviously put him on Hollywood's radar and see a film that would obviously be more close to the man's roots. However, I was really disappointed in this. It was supposed to be a comedy and there were certain moments that got maybe a grin out of me ("Mom, where the bottle of cognac?!) - but all in all, I barely laughed. I just didn't find the film that funny at all and even the ending, which I assume when the chairman opens the case and realizes that the axe has also been stolen, is supposed to be a big bust a gut moment, however I was simply not amused. Again, I plead culture clash. Is it possible that some of the jokiness of the film was lost in me because I just didn't get this brand of humor. Apparently the film is not only included because it's a good, Milos Forman comedy, but also because it has political ramifications too and was actually banned in Czechoslovakia for some time. Maybe I just wasn't in on the jokes, but I think most of the stuff just wasn't funny, meaning the film didn't stand the test of time. Old men ogling young girls, crawling around on the floor and trying to look up their dress, a man's house burning down and incompetent firemen unable to put it out because of too much sauce in their system - these things didn't tickle me and not because of they were low brow or anything, simply because I just didn't find them funny.

RATING: 4/10  I commend the effort and while I didn't laugh, the seventy-three minutes flew by and I tolerated this one pretty well, but anything more than a '4' would be overkill.

MOVIES WATCHED: 897
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 104

January 18, 2015  5:21pm

591. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Running Time: 133 minutes
Directed By: Milos Forman
Written By: Bo Goldman, Lawrence Hauben, from novel by Ken Kesey
Main Cast: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Will Sampson, Sydney Lassick, Brad Dourif
Click here to view the trailer

BREAKING OUT THE BIG GUNS

I'm ashamed to admit that it took me three days to watch this. I started it Friday night and got sucked in immediately. However, as the clock approached midnight and knowing I had to get up the next morning at 5:30, I decided to throw in the towel and hit the hay with an hour and fifteen minutes of movie to go. The next night, I tried to finish it, but with only five hours of sleep in my system, I tapped out at about twenty more minutes in. FINALLY, the next afternoon I knocked off the final forty-five minutes of this movie I'd seen dozens of times before. Actually, had I not seen it many times prior, I probably would've restarted it at some point instead of spreading it over so many sit downs. Anyway....lets get to it...

The film begins with Randall P. McMurphy (Nicholson) arriving at a state mental institution. He was previously serving time at a prison work farm, but wanting to have him evaluated he was sent here. We learn early that he was sent up for statutory rape ("She was fifteen going on thirty five, Doc", ....when you get that little red beaver right up there in front of you, I don't think it's crazy at all...") and that he's probably not really crazy, just trying to avoid the labor of the work farm. After the opening introduction to Mac, we meet the rest of the crew: a stuttering mama's boy Billy Bibbit (Dourif), the man-child Charlie Cheswick (Lasssick) and a giant deaf/mute Indian who Mac just calls Chief (Sampson). Early on, Mac butts heads with the head nurse on the ward he's assigned to, Nurse Ratched (Fletcher) (I always used to think it was Nurse Ratchet, like the tool). The feud between the two builds slow with Mac simply not wanting to take his meds, but heightens when Ratched won't allow him to watch the World Series. Some of the best scenes take place during group meetings, with the guys gathered in a circle along with Ratched, as they share feelings and goof off. Later, Mac learns that most of the men "committed" to the state hospital aren't committed at all, but simply voluntary cases. Along with this information, he learns that his normal prison sentence ending won't apply here; basically they can keep him as long as they feel it necessary to evaluate him. With this information coming to light, Mac starts thinking of escape.

SPOILER ALERT!

I wasn't supposed to watch OFOTCN yet. It was a movie I was actually saving to be the big grand finale of the whole project. It was one I'd seen many times, one I knew I liked and wanting to end on a high note, it was to featured at the end of everything with the tagline, "1001 Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". However, with it being the last movie I'd seen from THE BOOK AND knew that I really liked, I needed desperately to pull it out THIS season and spice things up. Sure, we've just done the Fassbinder flicks which I really dug, but other than those we've had a real "blah" line of films and after looking over everything I've watched I realized I still needed something to accompany "The French Connection", "The Conversation", "The Night of the Hunter", "A Man Escaped" and "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul" into the TOP 10 of the next TOP 20 and this was just what Nurse Ratched ordered. Now we have the start of a TOP 10 worth flaunting and while I realize that we're only at the halfway point and still have fifty-one films to go before I make that list, I just felt it necessary to pull out the big guns now, rather than later.

Anyway, yeah, I love this movie. Who doesn't, really? I don't knock anyone's tastes but is there anyone who doesn't like this movie? I mean, what's not to like? Remember when you're a teen and you start to really get into films? I remember when I did. I was a big movie fan all my life, but when I was really young (I'm talking 10 - 12 years old) I was way into comedies. I'd go the store and rent things like "Wayne's World" and Eddie Murphy movies. I'd see the classics - The Godfathers and the Scorsese's and the Spielberg's - but I'd never rent them. Then one day, you decide to take the plunge, to see The Godfather maybe and you realize everything you've heard was crap because this movie was crap. No I'm not calling The Godfather crap, my twelve - fourteen year old self is. Anyway, my point is, Cuckoo's Nest is different. It's a classic that is also really easy to love and really hard to dislike. It's the one time I think the whole world can agree that the Academy actually picked the right movie to give their awards to, as I don't know many who can't find SOMETHING to love about Cuckoo's Nest.

So many memorable scenes, probably too many to go over here. The group meetings are always a blast, the scene where the boys finally get to "watch the baseball game" is unforgettable, the scene where Mac teaches Chief how to play basketball is great and most of the scenes in between come together to make up a nearly flawless picture. The one thing I really didn't like about the movie was the scene where Mac escapes with everyone else and they go fishing. I would have preferred the action stay contained within the hospital, but you can't always get what you want and really even that scene is good and I guess put in place to continue to give the film a light and humorous quality, as opposed to a cooped up, claustrophobic one. I realized during this watching that after the big Christmas party where Mac pays off Scatman Crothers and brings a couple ladies into the joint, when they awake the next day, Mac never speaks another word in the film. Am I right? If he does, it's only during the commotion when he's strangling Nurse Ratched, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't talk then either. What a great touch and a testament to Nicholson as an actor. Look at the look on his face when Billy starts punching himself, almost a disgusted look. And the intensity when he attempts to murder the Nurse whom he's feuded with the entire film's duration. What a great feud between them too, which builds and builds and builds until that final culmination where Mac takes her neck between his palms.

Ya know, I've always wondered why Michael Douglas produced this, if there was a story behind it or something. THE BOOK has taught me that apparently this was a pet project of Kirk Douglas' and that by the time it came around to making it, he felt he was too old to play the part. Man, what a different movie this would've been if it had been made in the 60s with Kirk Douglas in place instead of Nicholson. It could've been just as good, but it also could've been worse. It could've been one that I would have never take to, as it seems I just can never settle into Kirk Douglas movies. You realize that we would have never even known of the Jack Nicholson version, that it wouldn't have existed and it's almost scary to think of how close we came to no Cuckoo's Nest starring Jack. It makes you wonder how many other films came close to being made, but fell through. One thing's for sure: It may have been worse and it may have been equal, but one thing's for sure, there's no way it could've been better than this.

RATING: 10/10  Honestly, I really didn't even think about that rating. It was just a '10', like water is wet and fire is hot. It's Cuckoo's Nest dammit and it's a great great movie and if you haven't seen it already, you simply MUST!

MOVIES WATCHED: 850
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 151

September 23, 2014  8:58am

710. AMADEUS (1984)

Running Time: 160 minutes
Directed By: Milos Forman
Written By: Peter Shaffer, from his play
Main Cast: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Ray Dotrice, Jeffrey Jones
Click here to view the trailer

"AND THE OSCAR GOES TO...": 1984

I know I've said that the intended plan was to move backwards through the 80s, but so many of these "short wait/long wait/very long wait" from Netflix keep coming available and I think I need to get them out of the way before Netflix ditches them altogether and places them on the "save" list. I know I was also supposed to come in with an update post yesterday, but I never got around to it. Hopefully, I'll get back to you guys later tonight or sometime this weekend. Anyway..."Amadeus".

So the film is about Wolfgang AMADEUS Mozart (Hulce), genius composer who lived in the 1700s and was composing music when he was barely out of diapers. However, we're being told this story by Antonio Salieri (Abraham), a second, less famous composer who lived and worked at around the same time as "Wolfie". The film picks up with Salieri, now an elderly man being held in an asylum, who babbles day in and out about how he was responsible for the death of Mozart. He is visited by a catholic priest, who gets the entire story told to him first hand and we're into flashback mode, as we pick up with Salieri working as the court composer for Emperor Joseph II (Jones) of Italy. From the time he hears his music, Salieri is astounded by Mozart's talent and travels to Vienna to meet the great composer. Once in Vienna, Salieri learns that Mozart, while a fantastic composer, is a foul mouthed, disrespectful buffoon and begins to wonder why THIS man was so deserving of his God given talent. Throughout the film, Salieri questions God, as to why he gave Mozart talent and why he has yet to fulfill Salieri's dreams. The two feud throughout the film's duration, with Salieri driving the rivalry and Mozart disregarding Salieri as any sort of competition or even a peer.

This is the second time I've seen "Amadeus" and I can still remember watching it for the first time. It was 2008, I think (or late 2007) and my wife and I were living in our first apartment. This was an early attempt (albeit a failed one) to expand my knowledge of film and see some so called classics that I'd missed over the years. My wife decided to join me, so we sat down one day and watched this. I remember it took us something like four or five hours, because we kept stopping it. Long story short, we hated the movie and just could NOT get into it. So, when Netflix changed the status of "Amadeus" from "short wait" to available and sent it off to me, I was kind of dreading it. I wondered if my tastes had changed enough to finally embrace this film for the Oscar winner it was. Well....the answer is no, I couldn't.

However, I can tell you that I liked it a lot more and that I managed to finish it off in short order, not taking the five hours that it previously took me and my wife. I think ultimately I'm just not at all interested in the subject matter here and it just ends up boring me more than it captivates me. I'll tell you that the cast, however, was brilliant and I really dug F. Murray Abraham here. I thought he turned in an absolutely memorable performance and complimented Tom Hulce's annoyingly giggling Mozart just fine. Other than that though, the story was slow, the opera scenes were too many and in the end, I think had they could've told a much more succinct and better film had they chopped off about forty minutes and presented a strict, two hour film. You certainly could've taken out a lot of the opera scenes, as they dragged anyway and were as boring as you'd expect opera scenes to be. Sorry, but I'm not an opera enthusiast and tend to resemble Woody Allen's Larry Lipton when it comes to fat ladies singing and stuff like that - "I can't listen to that much Wagner, ya know? I start to get the urge to conquer Poland".

Chalk it up to a "not up my alley" picture and call it a day. If you like it, that's great and I have no criticisms to make you change your minds (not that you should listen to me anyway, even when I do). It's something that's going to work for some and definitely not work for others. I've definitely seen worse, as far as boring movies go and the acting is top notch, so at least that's SOMETHING.

RATING: 5/10  I'll take the easy way out and call it right down the middle, with my opinion leaning toward the negative side of things.

MOVIES WATCHED: 785
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 216

January 24, 2014  10:43pm