Movies

Commune (2005) A Donna movie. Documentary about the archetypal hippie commune, Black Bear Ranch. I dislike hippies and all they stand for except female nudity. If you need to see a movie about this sort of thing this is probably as good as any. As a lover of solitude and order, I found it kind of horrible. 6/10

Recent Viewing

The Egg and I (1947), Ma and Pa Kettle (1949), Ma and Pa Kettle Go To Town (1950) We both read The Egg and I a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it - it's full of fun and crazy stuff, and lots of amazing food stories. We both still recommend the book. The movie was, apart from a few high points, rather contrived and ultimately disappointing - the earthiness of the original couldn't possibly be conveyed onscreen at that time. The spinoff, also known as The Further Adventures of etc., was even more contrived and tiring. Strangely, the third movie was a lot funnier and more enjoyable even though they spend most of it in New York. If you have to see any of them, see that one.

Movies

Big Man Japan (2009) Depicts the pathetic life of an inept and cowardly superhero, the last and least of an illustrious line, who is enlarged by electricity to combat the few rare monsters that still occasionally plague Japan. The deliberately slow pace can be tiring, but there are moments of jaw-dropping and exorbitant weirdness. Extremely well presented, and unique. 9/10

Movies

The General Died At Dawn (1936) Gary Cooper and Madeleine Carroll in a muddle of oriental intrigue. Odd, uneven, with some directorial and editorial choices that made me exclaim in puzzlement. Akim Tamiroff is wasted in a faux-asian role, William Frawley is thrown away as a reprehensible unappealing boozer, but Philip Ahn is convincingly reptilian and threatening. Really not worth it. 4/10

Recent Viewing

Peter Ibbetson (1935) Gary Cooper stars in what starts off as a kind of schlocky costume romance of long-lost love, which suddenly turns convincingly romantic and then takes a strange turn into weird mysticism when the permanently separated lovers reunite in shared lucid dreams. Ended up being far stranger than I ever imagined, and thus far more satisfying. Cooper seems uncomfortable in costume until he is chained and paralyzed in a prison cell and Donald Meek should not have tried to do that accent. 7/10

The Great Moment (1944) Watched with Donna on the recommendation of one of her friends. Preston Sturges oddity, ostensibly depicting the discovery of anesthesia. Joel McCrea does not end up a mad slasher like Karloff did in his film on the same subject, and this one similarly embroiders upon the historical fact of the matter. Able support from Sturges regular William Demarest, and universal favorite Franklin Pangborn sports remarkable facial hair. Maybe a little more eccentric than it really needed to be. Something about Sturges does not connect with me. Unique, and mostly interesting. 6/10

Sleep Dealer (2008) Mexican cyberpunk? Yes, and one of the few genuinely intelligent and well-made Science Fiction movies I have seen in recent years. Takes the migrant worker phenomenon into the near future where people with bootleg neural nodes go to labor factories and plug in to operate work robots somewhere else in the world, or upload their memories to a youtube-like website which offers them up for sale. Actually has enough ideas in it for a full movie, rather than becoming an extended chase scene half-way through. The situations are complex and compelling, the characters are appealing, and the details are handled with brains and wit. Highly recommended. 10/10

Movies

Donovan's Brain (1953) Watched on TV with Donna. The daddy of all "brain in a tank" movies. Considering the premise - a disembodied brain telepathically controlling a man at a distance - it's intelligently written and quite entertaining. Nancy Davis is remarkably unappealing, but her role was not very demanding. It was fun to see a monster movie in which the monster is a capitalist. 7/10

Movies

The other night: Design For Living (1933) Noel Coward, Ben Hecht and Ernst Lubitsch poured into one big shaker and decanted as a scintillating cocktail that should have brought on screen censorship that very moment. Gary Cooper has youthful charm, Frederick March is a genuine actor, and Miriam Hopkins is a lambent flame. Bright, witty, charming, sexy. World's sexiest wedding gown. I didn't mind that Franklin Pangborn only had two lines once I saw Hopkins in her final skin-tight glittering gown which surpasses mere lingerie for its spectacular toothsomeness. Edward Everett Horton provides comedy input throughout. A big big 10/10!