http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Samurai_(TV_series)

Oh - the chief character name is Shintaro - the shows name is Samurai. I have never seen it - but given your appetite for film and TV - maybe you might be inclined to ferret it out and watch it.

I might just do that. I'm a fan of TV-based martial arts dramas. I love all the ones I mentioned.

058. Carnival of Souls



6/10

This is a really interesting movie. It falls flat on a lot of the acting and dialogue, but really stands out for several reasons; the weird overuse of weird organ music throughout and indeed the whole sound design, which is a little rough, but fits well with the tone of the movie; the look, movement and charisma of the leading lady, who isn't the most accomplished actress, but still gets across the weird nature of the character and her predicament; the cinematography is really very good, as is some of the editing - there's a great edit in particular where we see the heroine jerk and suddenly appear behind the wheel of a car.

Interesting, as I say, and a real mix. Good, bad and odd.

059. Seven Samurai



10/10

Here's the short version: Superb, one of the greatest movies of all time.

Here's the long version: This is a terrific film, and the version I saw at 3 hours, 26 minutes really shouldn't have a single moment removed, in my opinion. It moved at a good pace, never faultered in maintaining dramatic tension, and uses its sparse dialogue to get to the heart of the matter straight away, with feeling like monologuing or exposition. Almost every scene lodges itself in your memory as distinct - a sure sign of a very well-put together movie.

Of the 7, I think maybe 3 of the samurai characters were a little underdeveloped, though not to the level of just being a blank. That leaves 4 distinct and interesting characters though, the leader Kambei, the master swordsman Kyuzo, the 'fool' Kikuchiyo, and the Apprentice Katsushiro.

Kurosawa picked his characters well. Kyuzo is one extreme of the samurai, the dedicated master who cares only for his art (though even this extreme has a human side.... we see him laugh as hard as anyone at Kikuchiyo's antics on the horse, and smile sardonically as he wants to sleep and gets some hero worship from Katsushiro) and still as a rock, with Kikuchiyo at the other end - not too skilled, but brave, fearless, angry, emotional and funny, and scratching and twitching like a dog with a terrible flea infestation and a nervous disposition. Contrasting Kambei and his experience we get the Apprentice, who wants to learn and have glory, but lacking in any sort of knowledge about what needs to be done to actually fight the bandits or handle the villagers.

Like I say, the whole thing is a pleasure to watch, and there are a dozen+ standout scenes in the movie, but the personal standouts for me are:

- The intensity of Kambei when watching Kyuzo for the first time...you know this old experienced warrior is watching and appreciating a master at work
- Where the old farmer has lost the rice and gets scolded, and starts to pick up the rice thrown in anger, one grain at a time
- Kikuchiyo railing at the samurai about how the villagers are cowardly and murderous, but it is the samurai that made them that way
- Kikuchiyo sitting next to the bandit with the gun and bantering with him
- Kambei drawing arrows in the rain in the midst of battle
- The death of Kikuchiyo...he's so lively it's kind of stunning when he falls face-first into the dirt after getting the coward and lies so still. So Un-Hollywood, and so much more stunning and moving for it.

60. World's Greatest Dad

6/10

As I watched this, I thought I really didn't like it. It seemed disjointed, and I found virtually all the characters unlikeable or positively annoying. I cannot fault the movie on the acting, sound design or cinematography though, the problem I have is with the dialogue/story mechanics.

However, by the end, I did find much of the imagery stuck with me, along with the mood. Bits of it still annoy me, such as some of the characters and character dynamics seeming pointless with respect to the movie (for example, the girlfriend Ginger - who obviously had maturity/daddy issues, but to what point?), but it seemed there were 3 characters I did like, and 1 performance I greatly respected. The 3 characters I liked were Robin Williams' father, the friend of the repulsive son, and the elderly neighbour next door. They were essentially good, kind people, with their own weaknesses, who found some solace with each other.

The performance I admired was that of Daryl Sabara as the thoroughly unpleasant, unlikeable and frankly repellent son. It must be tough for a young actor to play such an irredeemably terrible person, a braggard, a foul-mouthed pervert whose aggressive, immature character holds zero charm. It was a terrific performance I think.

I'm not sure I can recommend it - Goldthwaite's other movie, God Bless America - is a ferocious, fun-ride that worked a lot better - but it didn't bore me. Annoyed me a little, but any film that has imagery and mood that sticks with you like this is one that's worth a little time to check out.

Book: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

10/10

Superlative, Holmes really works best in a short story form. These are all classic stories, and I've read this set many times.

I have forgotten - how prominently does Moriarty play in that work?

Does he even appear?

Where would you rate Moriarty in the pantheon of villians?

As you are doing a Star Trek - re-watch - do you recall the Next Generation take on Moriarty?

Moriarty isn't in it at all. Moriarty is top tier as a great nemesis for the good guy.

Not doing NextGen, don't know.

Yeah - I do not think I remember him when I read Doyle. I recall reading one with a trapdoor that hid the killer and, of course, the Hound of the Baskervilles. But, the only Moriarty iterations I have seen have been screen versions - TV/Movie and they were a long time ago.

Have you seen the recent Sherlock Holmes - Hollywood take with Jude Law and Rob Downey Jr.? I am an intermittant movie watcher - are they worth seeing?

Moriarty is a much more significant character in the movies and TV than the literature.

I like the Downey/Law version, but they are action movies at heart. The first one is the best one, and I thoroughly recommend the first one.

My favorite movie Holmes is Peter Cushing, then Rathbone, and Christopher Plummer in Murder By Decree.

061 The Lego Movie




4/5
Very fun movie with one insanely catchy tune that will lodge in your head like a brainspider. It's goofy and surreal, with plenty of jokes, some of which are at oldschool Lego expense, which is fine. Without spoiling however, I think this movie is not just working on a meta-level (big deal, a lot of kids movies do that, to keep the adults interested), but actually transcends this in the last act and becomes meta-meta-level (meta about meta-levelling).

Combine this is various butt-reference jokes, Batman, robo-pirate and similar, and you have something that the kids will enjoy, but so will the adults. In the screening I was in, you could hear the kids really laughing in places, but you could also hear the adults laughing just as heard in the same places.

Definitely recommended.

062. The Heat




If you're fine with a constant stream of profanities, which I am, then this is the movie for you.

I've always liked Bullock as a comedienne, and this pairing with McCarthy is pretty fun. It's not great, but it's pretty good and chugs along nicely with the odd overindulgent scene. The villains could be a bit stronger (I got some of them mixed up to be honest), but that's offset with McCarthy's great BAH-STAN family that cracks me up.

Enjoyable, lightweight profanity-bombing comedy.

Re: Lego Movie

I have not seen it but do you have to decide between whether it is

Movie as Product

or

Movie as Art

Of course you don't. It's what you think it is.

IMO, it's more art than product. There's a lot of creativity and ingenuity in it.

So its not taking the logical conclusion of product placement, infomercial and advertisement and merging them.

Rather it is an iteration of self-ironising Pop-Art?

well, yes, that's one way to look at it. For movies, the central concern for me is always first and foremost, does it entertain? And yes, this does.

All pop art is ironic imo.

063 The Wolf of Wall Street

8/10



The 3 hours just flies by for the most part, and even though it is baggy in places, the scenes that play out remain pretty entertaining. Leo is doing great work here, as is Jonah Hill, and it’s kind of fun watching these scumbags enjoy themselves at the expense off of the faceless schmucks they rip off (that side of the story is something you never see here).

There are a lot of very solid scenes, and many sales pep talks, but my favourite scene my far is the one involving the ‘lemmons’. I was laughing, wincing, gasping, laughing again, as Scorcese uses his director tricks to put us in Leo’s perspective, and then show us what actually happened. Terrific film-making.

I also hear there may be a 4-hour cut coming out on blu sometime. Sign me up, I’ll be buying that.

064 Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle



This was undemanding fun, watching the two guys going through a hellish night just for burgers, but learning a little about life. Neil Patrick Harris is particularly fun.

Have you seen Bad day at Black Rock 1955?
I watch an Australian review of it - and it looked good.

How would I go about seeing it?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047849/

Not seen it. Will watch.

065 Beowulf

2/5



This pitches up between real-life cinema and more cartoonish styles, and feels like the worse of both. The nearly-human animation feels unreal by its very nearly-ness, giving the whole thing of watching a cast acting through thick botox-poisoning. In contrast, the animation of Grendell seems oddly dated (it felt that way when it came out), and feels like a prototype cgi-rendering of the first version of Treebeard, or like someone asked the muppet guys to built a large model of a monster for stagework, and then someone converted that to CGI. It’s a very odd feeling. Another odd section is a sub-Austin Powers part where Beowulf fights naked, but his genitals are hidden by strategically placed items/people throughout several parts of a long scene.

It really doesn’t fly, except the final fight with the dragon. But at nearly two hours, this felt a long, unentertaining slog, only lightened by the obvious yarning of Beowulf, and the final fight with the dragon, which was quite enjoyable.

Looks like the only option is to buy it, like me

066 Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay 3.5/5



More goofy fun with the two guys trying to have fun, with some rather fine visual gags (I laughed really hard at least twice, and laughed pretty much throughout), and some really funny jokes riffing on racist idiots, stereotypes, and of course Neil Patrick Harris out of his mind.

067 Hooper

3/5



Easy going, fun, undemanding stuntman comedy with Burt Reynolds, interestingly touching on a man getting to the end of his career, and damaged from it. It has a few laughs and exciting scenes, but my favourite parts are the bar fight and the final jump.

068. Ghost Rider

7/10



watched this at the cinema when it first came out and rather enjoyed it, but wanted to check it again, at it seems to be kicked around a fair bit.

I enjoyed it just as much this time, but to break it down

- the good: the presentation of Ghost Rider is fantastic. The flaming skull the bike, the chain weapon. All great. And Sam Elliott. Good visual direction and sound design during the action.
- the bad: the villains were weak,
far too weedy for GR. The execution of the nonaction elements was poor. satan's CGI shadow.
- the odd: Cage's displaced acting and his obsession about monkey videos, jelly beans, and The Carpenter's.