MY WEEK IN FILM: OCTOBER 31 - NOVEMBER 6
So for some reason, I've chosen as my POST-BOOK project, the watching of all of Danny Boyle's films. I figure he already has two movies on my list (Trainspotting and 127 Hours), with 28 Days Later being a near third and Steve Jobs being a strong candidate to go in at the end of the year....so why not...Plus it's a really small list, which is nice coming off of a really big one.
THE LIST
1.
2.
3.
4. The Beach
5.
6. Millions
7. Sunshine
8. Slumdog Millionaire
9.
10. Trance
11.
**he also has a short film called Alien Love Triangle and a few TV movies, that probably aired in England. I'll give a shot at finding them, but if not, I won't hold it against myself.
**I've seen both The Beach and Slumdog Millionaire, but it's been too long for both, so we'll consider them unseen and redo them. This means that the first full length review you'll probably get is Slumdog Millionaire, as it was in another edition of THE BOOK.
SHALLOW GRAVE (1994 - Danny Boyle) 6.5/10
A '6.5' is probably too harsh, but I REALLY expected to like this more - one of the reasons it was the first movie put on my queue, POST-BOOK. After a few days of stewing on it, I'd probably up it to somewhere in the '7' range, but I still could have done with a little less comedy here. I also really didn't understand the motivations of Christopher Eccleston's character. The guy goes completely mad and it's never really, flat out explained why. Sure, he's all upset about killing a man, but to go as mad as he does - it seemed unmotivated and out of place to me.
A LIFE LESS ORDINARY (1997 - Danny Boyle) 3.5/10
Oh, good lord, what dreck this was! While watching Shallow Grave, I had the thought: IF Danny Boyle were a genre of music, he'd be a punk rock band. Edgy, quick edits, grimy settings... A Life Less Ordinary was not a punk rock movie. It was sheer Hollywood - a romantic comedy for God's sake. A bit more violence, a grittier setting and this COULD have been something to talk about, but I don't even know if that would have helped. I hated nearly everything about this, from the cliches to the happy ending. But hey, Cameron Diaz looks drop dead gorgeous in this, so there's that. Plus Delroy Lindo's in there, so it can't be all bad, right? RIGHT?! I sincerely hope this is Boyle's worst.
One other film this week...
99 RIVER STREET (1953 - Phil Karlson) 7.5/10
Really good noir that I DVR'd off of TCM in July and it's been sitting there ever since. The movie tells of an ex-boxer who had to retire due to a bum eye. He becomes a cab driver and things get intense when he finds out his wife is cheating on him with a jewel thief. The ex-boxer is John Payne, who is wonderful here and the (soon to be) ex-wife is Peggie Castle, who looks fabulous here. What is it about noirs with boxers or ex-boxers that always seem to be really good? I have The Set-Up on DVD as part of a Film Noir Collection I bought - maybe I need to dig that out.
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| Peggie Castle (1927 - 1973) - Worked alongside John Payne in 99 River Street (1953) and also starred in the classic television show Lawman.
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AT HOME FROM NETFLIX
Stolen Kisses (1968 - Francois Truffaut)
The Beach (2000 - Danny Boyle)
Dead Ringers (1988 - David Cronenberg)
Memories of Murder (2003 - Joon-ho Bong)
The Unfaithful Wife (1969 - Claude Chabrol)
Pauline at the Beach (1983 - Eric Rohmer)
The beauty part is that I only have a four DVD plan from Netflix, but for some reason they always send me more than four. I'm not complaining....
**I'm actually looking at completing a couple of other lists. Right now, over at iCheck, I have four GOLD awards: 1001 MYMSBYD, Taschen 100 All-Time Favorite Movies, Leonard Maltin's 100 Must See Films of the 20th Century and the AFI 100 Years...100 Movies. For the latter, I'm only missing Sophie's Choice, so I'd like to watch that soon, so that I can get my first PLATINUM!
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For the inaugural edition of MY WEEK IN FILM, I actually have two really great, recent blog posts that I'd recommend. One is movie related, the other is about music.
A MYTHICAL MONKEY WRITES ABOUT the MOVIES takes a look at a possible BEATLES: BLACK ALBUM this week?! See what that's all about, as I think it's a pretty brilliant idea and something we can all play along with at home.
And
Karen over at SHADOWS AND SATIN is hosting NOIRVEMBER, a month long celebration of all things NOIR! You can click HERE to go to DAY 1, but don't forget to read all the great posts that she's put up since 11/1, including today's entry - An entire post dedicated to the beautiful Gene Tierney.
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| If ever there was an authority on film noir, it is the incomparable Karen Burroughs Hansberry |
GOING THROUGH MY HEAD
Some things that I happened upon this week...
Does Apple make the most tear inducing commercials ever? Between the original Think Different Ad, shown above and the Christmas commercial from 2013, I'm sporting some salty cheeks...
Still reading this...
...and loving it.
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Started watching this, this morning...
...and it seems to be tickling my fancy. I've realized that I'm definitely more of a comedy guy when it comes to TV. I watched the first few episodes of Daredevil on Netflix a few weeks back and I have absolutely no desire to seek out the next ep. Ditto with the original Law & Order which my wife and I started months ago, quit and then I tried to get back into it this week, to no avail. Add Fargo to the list too, as all but the pilot has been on my DVR for nearly a month now.
However, here's one drama I may have to try really hard to get into, considering I read some of the source material...
I kinda feel like this should really have been on HBO though, considering it's pretty graphic and vulgar. Here's hoping it does the graphic novel justice.
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LOOKING FOR GUEST CONTRIBUTORS
If you're a writer, aspiring blogger or even none of the above, but you just want to write a little something about movies, music, TV...anything, drop me an email at adduvall84@gmail.com and let me know what your poison is. I'm just looking for people to do a paragraph or two every week or so, that I'd post in the weekly MY WEEK IN FILM post (which is more than just film chat, clearly).
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Well...what do you think? I'll be tweaking the formula a bit, but this is, for the most part, what I had in mind. Just a random sampling of anything I want to throw at you and hopefully some conversation starters. See you next week!
November 7, 2015 3:52pm
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