Film Criticism

[dx23]

I just hope that the idiots that decided to put Ben & Ben in the first place were also sent packing, since all of this is their fault.

[Murdoch]

Eh, wake me up when they put John Waters as co-host, which will never happen.

[domino harvey]

Funniest Ebert pan in a while

[MichaelB]

That reminded me of one of my favourite IMDB reviews, of the immortal Arnie vehicle Commando. It's riddled with spoilers - I don't for one second imagine anyone cares, but just in case...:

Spoiler

Arnie is a tough ex-commando. Arnie has a daughter. Some bad guys kidnap the daughter, hoping to compel Arnie to assassinate a Latin American politician. Clearly, they don't know Arnie!

Why does the commando bigshot have to visit Arnie in a helicopter? Don't they have phones at Commando HQ? And why does he order his men to 'secure the area'? Why do the bad guys allow Arnie to run to the shed and get his gun?

Why does Arnie resort to his car, even after the engine has been disabled? How come the baddies, on a zigzag path down the hillside, keep getting ahead of Arnie, who is plummeting straight down? Why are all Latin Americans treacherous slimeballs?

How come Arnie can get into the hold of a commercial airliner just by walking through a door? Why doesn't anybody notice when he depressurises the plane? How come he is unhurt after hitting the marsh at 100mph? How did he know there would be a marsh?

How does Arnie get back into the passenger terminal? How did he obtain that car key? Did I miss something? When did it become night? Why isn't anyone hurt in the head-on collision with a telephone pole? Why doesn't Cindy mind when the stranger trashes her sports car? Why does she decide to throw in her lot with this violent, monosyllabic gorilla?

Why do the bad guys plot out their journey on a huge map, then leave it behind, open on the table, for Arnie to find? Why do they have a photo of their getaway plane hanging on the wall? How does Cindy know that the getaway plane is exactly this model?

How does Arnie get that bulldozer started? How does he survive the inadvertently-fired rocket? How come the cops neither search the car nor arrest Cindy? How come the plane is left fuelled-up and unlocked? How come not one of the thousands of machine-gun rounds fired at the plane manages to hit it? How come the bad guys on their hide-away island fail to notice the arrival of an unexpected seaplane?

Why is the dead body carried off the airliner without any police interest, along with the crowd of disembarking passengers? Why are total strangers permitted to inspect the corpse?

Why does Arnie blow up the entire township? What if his daughter was being held in one of these huts? How does he know which building to head for? Along with the string of murders he committed back on the mainland, how is he able to massacre 200-odd soldiers here, without any of them harming him? When his daughter starts yelling 'Daddy', how does she know it's him? How did Cindy become so proficient at flying the seaplane?

Apart from the one or two quibbles outlined above, I thought the film was almost satisfactory.

The author is Michael Coy from London.

[colinr0380]

Brilliant! =D>

To be fair though, every politican probably has similar unanswered questions lingering from their previous careers! (and coincidentally many likely involve "strings of murders committed back on the mainland" for which they were never caught!)

EDIT: It also makes Clinton's recent rescue mission to North Korea seem rather anti-climactic! ("One final question Mr Clinton...how exactly did Cindy know how to fly that sea plane? Was she given some Special-Ops training before the mission?")

[Mr Sausage]

Commando is one of those movies that actually gets better from asking those questions.

[psufootball07]

Rather insightful critique of Cache by a fellow student in my classes. He won the Frank Capra award for undergraduate film criticism for it and it is in Film International.

http://www.atypon-link.com/INT/doi/pdf/ ... iin.7.1.56" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[domino harvey]

Pull-quote of the century:

I’ve admired [Andy] Griffith ever since “No Time for Sergeants” (1958), but the one thing I must admit I’ve never wanted to do was regard his face while he’s enjoying oral sex from Seinfeld’s mom.

[Perkins Cobb]

Nah, I'm there. Andy's always had more range than they give him credit for.

[neal]

Pull-quote of the century:

I’ve admired [Andy] Griffith ever since “No Time for Sergeants” (1958), but the one thing I must admit I’ve never wanted to do was regard his face while he’s enjoying oral sex from Seinfeld’s mom.

Great quote.

[Antoine Doinel]

The trailer for the new At The Movies.

[King Prendergast]

The trailer for the new At The Movies.

"serious"

[Jeff]

The trailer for the new At The Movies.

"serious"

I love that! "At the Movies returns with serious reviews from serious journalists...voices you trust." They might has well have used the tagline "Join us this fall for the return of At the Movies. No more douchebags."

[RagingNoodles]

So did anyone here see At the Movies and do they have any thoughts on how it came off?

[swo17]

I thought it went fairly well. Scott seems a little less at home in front of the camera than Phillips, but his takedown of The Burning Plain was kind of inspired. Extract doesn't look quite as good to me as they made it out to be, but on the whole, their opinions seemed sound and genuine, they were relatable, and they had something of a rapport together. It's a little hard to judge based solely on their reviews of whatever movies happened to be coming out last week, but I think it's safe to say that it was the polar opposite of whatever it was that the Bens were doing.

[Kirkinson]

A.O. Scott is an ignoramus, says Chad Orzel, in a short extension of an older rant.

[Jeff]

Ebert's perspective on the changes at At the Movies since his departure.

[Matt]

Richard Brody just posted his best-of-the-decade list at The New Yorker. I'm thankful for it because it made me realize what nearly opposite tastes we have, which makes me feel better about deleting his blog from my RSS reader. One of these days I've got to find a film blog I can stand to read every day.

[domino harvey]

Oh my God, what the hell was that

[knives]

Domino, sometimes one just comes by you, you don't what it is, but you have to watch.

[Zumpano]

If Eddie Murphy had, say, directed “Norbit” in addition to starring in it, it would likely find a place on this list too.

:-k

[Cinetwist]

Richard Brody just posted his best-of-the-decade list at The New Yorker. I'm thankful for it because it made me realize what nearly opposite tastes we have, which makes me feel better about deleting his blog from my RSS reader. One of these days I've got to find a film blog I can stand to read every day.

Bill Krohn's review of Brody's Godard book is on my top 10 pieces of criticism of the decade. I like that he likes Two Lovers, but not much else.

Girish Shambu has by far the best film blog on the internet. It isn't updated daily or even weekly but the post are very thoughtful and the discussion in the comments is phenomenal. Anyone can contribute but there's loads of big names that post too.

[Perkins Cobb]

The world's worst film critic takes aim at Armond's batting average.

[Murdoch]

The world's worst film critic takes aim at Armond's batting average.

I like how this Mastracci guy gave Dark Knight a 15 out of 10. ](*,)

[domino harvey]

I hate to have to defend Brody's book every couple weeks, but I guess this is me chiming in to say that despite his lapses in taste (and bizarre Godard picks-- Notre Musique is infinitely better than his number one choice, but... yeah, that'll start that debate again) his Godard tome still withstands the bad press. However, would anyone have batted an eye if he named his list "The Only 26 Films I Have Seen This Decade"?