Hi David!  My book blog is at http://jkholm.blogspot.com/

I usually wait until I've seen most of the Oscar contenders that come out late in the year and often don't arrive in theaters around here until Janurary and February but I don't get to go out to the movies as often, so I'm posting this preliminary list of my picks for the best movies of 2006. There are at least a dozen or so movies that I'd like to see that could potentially land a spot on the list so maybe in a few months I'll present a revised list.

Top 10

(as of 01-13-07)

 

1.         United 93

 

A devastating movie experience, one that I won't likely relive any time soon but one that I felt was absolutely necessary. Paul Greengrass'' documentary-like approach avoided politicizing the issue and simply told the story of what happened to the passengers on board United Flight 93. A must-see for all Americans.

 

2.         Cars

 

I was completely taken by surprise with Cars.  I didn't expect to enjoy it since I'm not a huge fan of automobile history or NASCAR, but Cars won me over.  Of course the animation is stunning (it is a PIXAR film, after all) but everything else is great, too.  The voice acting is wonderful and the plot (almost identical to Michael J. Fox’s 1991 film Doc Hollywood) handles the standard redemption arc nicely. 

 

3.         The Prestige

 

One of several movies that came out this year that dealt with the subject of magic, Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige tells a complex story of revenge, deceit and betrayal with lots of plot twists and great acting.  You have to pay attention to this one!  

 

4.         The Illusionist

 

The other magic-themed movie was more of a period romance.  Moody color-drained cinematography made The Illusionist look like a silent film.  The illusions are verey well done and rival those in The Prestige for the “wow” factor.  I love the orange tree trick.  Philip Glass’s music works well, too. 

 

5.         Brick

 

I’ve already written about Rian Johnson’s melding of film noir with high school melodrama.  More than just a clever idea, Brick takes the viewer into a self-created universe with its own rules and language. 

 

6.         Monster House

 

In a year filled with generic CGI-animated movies with talking animals, Monster House (as well as Cars) stood out as creative ways to tell a story with animation.  The way the story is told is reminiscent of those effects heavy adventures that Steven Spielberg produced in the 1980s like The Goonies and Young Sherlock Holmes.  The widescreen cinematography is excellent, as is the voice cast.  This deserves to be a Halloween viewing standard. 

 

7.         Little Miss Sunshine

 

An outstanding ensemble cast keeps you laughing even though this is one of those movies where, if the things that happen to this family were to happen to you, you’d be crying.  Some of the jokes are obvious but I still laughed. 

 

8.         For Your Consideration

 

Another funny movie from Christopher Guest and his band of improve actors.  This one satirizes the Oscar frenzy that grips Hollywood every year.  Is it wrong of me to suggest that Catherine O’Hara get a nomination for her performance?  Also, Jennifer Coolidge is hilarious.  She needs to be in more movies. 

 

 

9.         Thank You For Smoking

 

Funny satire of the pro-tobacco lobby.  Aaron Eckhart is outstanding as the spokesman. 

 

10.       Mission: Impossible III

 

Forget about the fact that Tom Cruise is in this.  It’s the action scenes that make this worth seeing. 

Well, it's October and I'm watching various horror-type movies both on DVD and on Turner Classic Movies.  Here are a couple of reviews.

Recent DVD reviews

 

Gojira               ***

1954

d. Ishiro Honda

 

I had seen the American version of the first Godzilla movie starring Raymond Burr several years ago but didn’t remember much about it.  Mostly I remembered murky cinematography.  A few weeks ago, however, I was listening to a podcast called Subject: Cinema presented by a couple in the Boston area who talk about a wide variety of movies.  One show was devoted entirely to Godzilla movies since one of the hosts is a huge fan of Japanese monster movies.  She was so passionate in defending this franchise that I thought I would revisit the first movie.  Luckily, the original Japanese version (without Raymond Burr) called Gojira was released on DVD in September.  Apparently, when the movie was edited for release in the U.S., 20 minutes were cut but the new DVD restores that footage. 

 

I was pleasantly surprised by Gojira.  Yes, Godzilla still looks like a man in a suit destroying a miniature set, but what makes the movie work is the setting and the consistent tone.  The film deliberately evokes Japanese fears about the aftermath of the atomic bomb that ended World War II.  Despite the science-fiction premise, the movie plays it straight and the grim tone gives the movie the right atmosphere.  If the movie had been set in New York, there probably wouldn’t be much to distinguish it from other 1950’s era monster movies.  I’m definitely curious about the other movies in the Godzilla series. 

 

 

 

The Curse of Frankenstein        ***

1957

d. Terence Fisher

 

This is the first entry in a long line of horror movies produced by Britain’s Hammer Films.  I haven’t seen very many of these, but I believe that many of them have vivid color cinematography (the better to show blood) and excellent sets and costumes.  In this version of Mary Shelley’s classic novel about a man playing God, Peter Cushing plays Baron Frankenstein, a talented scientist who goes too far when he tries to create life from death.  Christopher Lee plays the “Creature.”  Even with a running time of less than 90 minutes, the film seems a bit too leisurely paced but doesn’t drag.  The acting is good and the familiar story is told well. 

 

 

My wife gave birth to our first child on September 12 at 11:00 PM!  His name is Weston Graham and he weighed 7 lbs and 4 ozs.  He was 19.5 inches long.  We're all doing great.

Picures to follow.

Brick                            ***½

Rian Johnson’s first feature Brick features a loner who finds himself in a dark underworld of drugs and deception as he tries to unravel the mysterious death of his ex-girlfriend.  There are late-night rendezvous, femme fatales, dangerous drug lords, tough bodyguards and people who talk fast and use slang.  If you think this sounds like a film noir from the 1940’s, you’d be right, except that Brick is set in a modern day high school.  At times, it’s like watching high-schoolers play characters twice their age except that most high schools don’t have actors this good. 

 Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Brendan, a quiet teen who discovers the body of Emily, his ex-girlfriend near a storm drain.  In his quest to discover what happened to her, he finds himself getting beat up, losing sleep and not getting straight answers from everyone he questions.  The audience doesn’t get straight answers either, but that’s part of what makes Brick so intriguing.  The complex plot bears some similarities to noir classics like The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep, movies that entertain you through their characters and dialogue not with their easy to understand plots.  It takes 20 minutes or so to get used to the look and sound of Brick with all of the slang and complex plot, but eventually things begin to make more sense. 

 Johnson fills the movie with unusual camera angles and interesting compositions.  Many scenes have characters suddenly entering or leaving the frame.  Other shots remain still as we watch people run or walk for long distances. 

 Brick is worth watching for the outstanding cast and the deliberately murky story. 

 

Snakes on a Plane                                ***

 It’s ironic that the last time a movie caused such divisions between people who either wanted to see it or were adamant about not seeing it, was also about people on a plane.  Last time, it was United 93, the well-made but hard to watch docudrama about the passenger uprising onboard one of the planes hijacked on 9-11.  In that case, some people didn’t want to be reminded of the horrible events of that day.  In the case of Snakes on a Plane, some people don’t want to see it because, well, because it’s called Snakes on a Plane.

 I can’t believe how many people insisted on saying how STUPID this movie looks and how could ANYONE want to see a movie about SNAKES on a PLANE and what a complete WASTE of time and money this is!  Come on, this isn’t Citizen Kane, it’s a B-movie style horror/comedy/thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson.  The bottom line is, if you think you might be entertained by a movie in which poisonous snakes are set loose on a red-eye flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles, then you probably will. 

 For the most part, I was entertained.  The scenes of passengers and crew getting on the plane seemed straight out of a 70’s era disaster movie.  Even the hair and costumes of the flight attendants looked deliberately 70s-ish.  The director did a nice job of slowly building up to the expected onslaught of deadly snakes.  A few of the attacks were unnecessarily juvenile and disgusting but mostly it was fun.  I cringed and jumped along with the other people in the theater. 

 I was willing to suspend my disbelief and have fun with the movie.  Can snakes climb stairs?  Does it matter?  Unfortunately, the film makers ran out of the ideas near the end with a ridiculous (even for this move) finale as a person whose only flight experience was playing games on a PlayStation landed the plane.  I know it’s supposed to be silly, but it was a little TOO silly. 

Overall, though, Snakes on a Plane gave me exactly what I paid for and if you don’t know what that is, just read the movie’s title one more   time.

Movie Snapshots

 

The year is…1965

 

This edition (the first one) of Movie Snapshots focuses on 5 movies all released in the year 1965.  Every now and then, I plan on watching a variety of movies that were all released in the same year.  In order to get a good overview, I will watch a genuine classic, a foreign film, a turkey and a few random other movies.

 

The Sound of Music     ****

d. Robert Wise

 

What more can be said about this beloved classic?  Well, it’s still pretty long.  I actually fell asleep as the Von Trapp’s were escaping the Nazi’s, but then again, I’ve seen it before.  The songs are still memorable and the movie is still fun to watch.

 

The Collector               ***

d. William Wyler

 

Decent adaptation of John Fowles’ creepy novel about a man who kidnaps the woman of his dreams.  This must have been critically acclaimed when it first came out since it won acting awards at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for several Oscars.  Unfortunately, the film just covers the basics of the book’s plot and doesn’t go into much detail about what’s going on inside the character’s heads.  It’s still worth a look if you liked the book.

 

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold  ***

d. Martin Ritt

 

Spy movies were all the rage in the 60s but unlike the James Bond movies, this adaptation of a John LeCarre novel takes things very seriously.  As such, it’s not quite as entertaining.  Richard Burton is excellent as the cynical British agent who is forced to perform one last mission before he can retire and Claire Bloom is good as the woman he falls in love with.  The plot is kind of hard to follow and the ending is a downer. 

 

Red Beard                    **½

d. Akira Kurosawa

 

Rare misfire for acclaimed Japanese director Kurosawa.  This long (three hours) drama focuses on an arrogant young doctor who goes to work at a public clinic in rural Japan headed by a gruff but wise older doctor played by Toshiro Mifune.  The movie is episodic in nature and this is part of the problem.  Each segment tells the story of a particular patient but not all of them are engrossing.  Still, the widescreen cinematography is outstanding and when the movie works, Kurosawa proves that he is a master storyteller.  Only recommended for Kurosawa fans. 

 

Monster A Go-Go        *

(MST3K version ***½)

d. Bill Rebane

 

It’s hard to believe that in the same year moviegoers could treat themselves to The Sound of Music and Doctor Zhivago, this astoundingly awful movie might actually have been shown in a theater.  Thankfully, the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version is hilarious as Joel and the bots make fun of the terrible sound mix (an actor makes the sound of a phone offscreen at one point) and barely there plot. 

 

 

Check out my friend Sam's blog at www.philochristos.blogspot.com/

He waxes philsophical on theology, philosophy and bowmaking. 

I'm trying to decide what to learn on the piano.  Since I've started playing again, I've tried all sorts of pieces but haven't made very many commitments as to really learning something well.  Here's a sample of what I've played so far.

20th Century Music

I really like the music of Debussy.  His style of composing is distinctive and makes creative use of the various sounds a piano can make.  One of m y goals is to learn all of the Preludes from Book I.  I already learned La Cathedrale engloutie (The Sunken Cathedral) and Minstrels in college so it was fairly easy to re-learn them.  I've got a couple of new ones practiced fairly well, Danseuses de Delphes (Dancers of Delphi) and Les collines d'Anacapri (The Hills of Anacapri).  I love the sparkling sounds of Anacapri.  It's been a little difficult to learn but lots of fun to play.  I think the next one I'll learn will be the mysterious and ethereal  (and hard to pronounce in French) Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir.  There's plenty of other works by Debussy I'd like to play, including Gardens in the Rain and Golliwogg's Cake Walk. 

more later...