The Writer's Poke

The more movies I watch, the more I'm amazed at the number of movies that I somehow have never heard of. Movies come and go so quicky, and it seems like if they don't latch on and make an impression quickly, they are sometimes never discovered. The Golden Compass seems to be one of those forgotten films, even though it received a 4/4 rating from Roger Ebert when it was first released. (Maybe there's a reason some films are forgotten... see below.) The basic premise is pretty cool. We live in a multiverse, but there's no real way to "prove" it, let alone travel to parallel universes. In the movie, people's souls live in "spirit animals" that travel with them outside their bodies. The spirit animals of children have the ability to change, only locking into one specific form upon adulthood. Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) has a plan to prove the existence of parallel universes, and even to travel to one. The Powers That Be would rather this not happen. A...

This is one of those movies I've never heard of, but I caught enough of a trailer for the film when watching another film on DVD that I thought I'd give it a watch. It also stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who I just watched and enjoyed in Don Jon (2013), so I was curious to see what he was up to in an earlier work.  When I first started watching, I noticed the artificial sound to the dialogue. No one talks like that. It's sort of like 21st century high school kids talking like 1940s gangsters. So, I listened a little bit more. Were they speaking in some sort of high school or generational slang that I wasn't used to? No, I don't think that's it. I think it was an intentional choice made by writer/director to have these high school kids sound like 1940s gangsters.  This choice doesn't work for me. I think it's a gimmick, and I wonder what the film would be like if they just talked normally. I have a feeling that maybe the story wouldn't be strong enough t...

This is the answer to the $100 question on Slumdog Millionaire's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," and since I just re-watched that, I had to see what this movie is all about. Zanjeer isn't a person. It means "chain," and Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) is chained to a never-ending life of revenge, or so it would seem. In that respect, I've got to believe that Quentin Tarantino loves this film. So to confirm that, I just asked ChatGPT to tell me what Taratino has said about this movie; according to ChatGPT, Tarantino compared its cultural significance in India to the cultural significance Taxi Driver and Dirty Harry had in the United States. That does actually give some interesting context to how important this film is in Hindi film history. Tarantino also praised Amitabh Bachchan. Not a household name in the United States by any means, but IMDb lists about 250 film credits across his 50+ year career. And he's still active to this day. In some respects, this...

Joel (Jim Carrey) isn't impulsive, but as the film begins, he cuts work and writes in his diary about his sudden urge to visit the beach in winter. It's his first entry in two years and he notices ripped out pages. He doesn't remember ripping them out. Clementine (Kate Winslet) and Joel start chatting on the train to the beach. They're attracted to each other, and she feels like she's seen him before. She has blue hair and starts talking about her hair color obsessions. She doesn't stay one color for long. Joel listens, but there's some sort of awkward tension between them. Clementine almost gives up chatting with Joel, but then maybe she decides to try again. She comes on as aggressive; Joel is more passive. He wants to meet a woman, he writes in his diary, but he can't talk to women. He's better at sharing his thoughts in his diary. She gives him a punch goodbye, but then Joel decides to give her a ride and a second chance. Just an odd way to star...

Probably one of my favorite films: Although I've always liked this movie, this time viewing it, I watched it very closely. How did Phil (Bill Murray) originally act (selfishly), and what was the moment that he changed (selflessly)? We never know "why" he gets stuck or unstuck, but we do know that he's "in love" with Rita, actually able to show it -- when he confesses to being in love with her, his actions towards everyone else changes. Here's what I noticed he did in the first half of the movie (his time being selfish): He decided that there were no consequences. And so, He and his drunk buddies went on a car chase with the police. He punched Ned in the nose. He kissed the old B&B woman. He ate whatever he wanted. He learned about Nancy (while calling her Rita) when the kissed. He watched his favorite film 100 times, dressed up as a cowboy and got a woman to dress up as a barmaid. And after all that, he started to learn what Rita wanted in a man. He ...

Directed by Edgar Ulmer -- People on Sunday (1930) and Detour (1945) -- and starring Bela Lugosi (Vitus) and Boris Karloff (Poelzig). Not to mention featuring a black freakin' cat, a modern castle built on a mass grave filled with war dead and dynamite, and home to a crazed Satanic cult leader... this movie has it all. Maybe a little too much. It's like Peter (David Manners), the self-professed crappy writer, wrote it all in a fever dream. Even the ending makes fun of what we just watched, noting (in a newspaper review of Peter's latest novel) that none of it was believable. None of it was remotely realistic.  When Vitus sees a black cat, it triggers him. In no real way, to be honest, except to be overdramatic. This is another instance of the film jabbing at itself when Poelzig tells Vitus to "stop being so overdramatic." But Vitus and Poelzig have beef. It goes back to the War and to the fact that Virus spent the past 15 years in a prison -- a kind of Hotel Calif...

This movie maybe shouldn't be that good. But here are some of the "little things" that make it pretty special: "Does she bite?" "That costs extra." *** "Profession?" Looks. Laughs. "Yes." *** "Italian!" "Danish!" "German!" *** Camera shot of the woman in the swing. *** What it doesn't do so well -- The shots of the man in an ape suit, which is only slightly better or worse than the enlarged close-ups of the Ape's "chimpanzee face." Stuff like that takes me out of the movie, to be honest. So as much as I enjoyed a lot about this movie, it has a rating ceiling. Rating: 3/5 stars