Friday, May 20, 2005
CSI Tarantion Style
Last night was the season ending episode of C.S.I. I actually watched it live, something I almost never do with network television. I also have watched only a couple of C.S.I. episodes this season. I still watch every episode but this is the first causality in my cutting back in watching television when I have the ability to watch an entire season on dvd over the summer.
The finale was directed by and story by Quentin Tarantino. While his early forays into television have been a mixed bag, his ER directed episode seemed forced and his appearance on Margaret Cho’s old show as embarrassing, I though this might actually work. His style of interesting camera movements, lots of blood, and intense violence seemed tailor made for the show. Even the pop reference wouldn’t seem out of place with the relatively geeky characters that populate the show.
Well not only was I not disappointed but it exceeded expectations. This is about as intense a since episode of a network television show can get. Nick Stokes was kidnapped and buried alive in a coffin with a finite amount of oxygen. The criminal provided the C.S.I. team with a video link that they could watch Nick suffer. The race against time had the same feel that Silence of the Lambs had in it race against the clock construct. The show also tapped into a couple of primal fears for the audience members. The Closter phobia of being buried alive is a classic but then add to that of fire ants crawling all over you and not being able to get them off and that took things to the next level.
Only one Tarantino touch didn’t quite work, that was Nick’s dream sequence after his death. But the pop culture references were very nice. I enjoyed the Dukes of Hazzards game but Grissom’s having a honorary ownership of Trigger was a classic. He has to be the biggest grown up geeky character in television history.
I think even fans of the show would enjoy this as a one-off episode and it is well worth looking for in repeats or on DVD.
The finale was directed by and story by Quentin Tarantino. While his early forays into television have been a mixed bag, his ER directed episode seemed forced and his appearance on Margaret Cho’s old show as embarrassing, I though this might actually work. His style of interesting camera movements, lots of blood, and intense violence seemed tailor made for the show. Even the pop reference wouldn’t seem out of place with the relatively geeky characters that populate the show.
Well not only was I not disappointed but it exceeded expectations. This is about as intense a since episode of a network television show can get. Nick Stokes was kidnapped and buried alive in a coffin with a finite amount of oxygen. The criminal provided the C.S.I. team with a video link that they could watch Nick suffer. The race against time had the same feel that Silence of the Lambs had in it race against the clock construct. The show also tapped into a couple of primal fears for the audience members. The Closter phobia of being buried alive is a classic but then add to that of fire ants crawling all over you and not being able to get them off and that took things to the next level.
Only one Tarantino touch didn’t quite work, that was Nick’s dream sequence after his death. But the pop culture references were very nice. I enjoyed the Dukes of Hazzards game but Grissom’s having a honorary ownership of Trigger was a classic. He has to be the biggest grown up geeky character in television history.
I think even fans of the show would enjoy this as a one-off episode and it is well worth looking for in repeats or on DVD.
Thursday, May 19, 2005
FC Dallas - my first game of the year.
Outside of movies I do have some other interests. A big one is a love of sports. Some of the sports I enjoy are off the mainstream choices. Last night instead on watching the Mavericks, as most Dallas sports fans would, I took in the FC Dallas game.
This was my first game to see in awhile. I was wearing my Spurs kit and on the walk from the parking lot I guy yelled at me “Spurs! There is the only other Spurs fan in DFW!” I ended up standing behind the group he was with, The Inferno Fans. It reminded me of being with the Raggies at Olsen Field. This is the group that played drums and constantly yells things throughout the game. Some of their taunts are pretty creative:
This was my first game to see in awhile. I was wearing my Spurs kit and on the walk from the parking lot I guy yelled at me “Spurs! There is the only other Spurs fan in DFW!” I ended up standing behind the group he was with, The Inferno Fans. It reminded me of being with the Raggies at Olsen Field. This is the group that played drums and constantly yells things throughout the game. Some of their taunts are pretty creative:
- When an opponent is lying dead on the turf they do a ten-count like in boxing
- When the opponent jumped up looking like they weren't touched, "Call Benny Hinn. It's a miracle"
- Directed toward the ref, "I'm blind, I'm deaf, I want to be a ref"
- At a player with a bad fro, "Michelle Akers called. She wants her hair back"
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Channel Z
There is a documentary currently playing on IFC right now that is a can’t miss for film lovers. It is Z Channel: A Magnificence Obsession directed by Xan Cassavetes, the daughter of John. As an in-depth study of the small Los Angeles cable channel, it is lacking, but this probably wasn’t its goal. It excels as a look back to the early days of cable television and to the cinema of the 70s and 80s. Both were less structured than they are now with studios more apt to be creative, foreign films not as marginalized as they are today, and cable channels more apt to show a hodgepodge of programming genres to fill air time.
While the Z Channel was limited to Los Angeles, we saw something of the same thing in Dallas with over the air movie channels. When cable began to move into the area in the late 70s every city wanted the decision on cable. This lead to each city being served by a different cable company a delay of years for some people to get service. In this delay movie channels moved in. They would attach a microwave antenna to your house and with a decoder box you could watch uncut films after the local UHF stations went off the air at 7:00pm. This is how the channels 21, 27, and 33 got their start. Three different movie channels provided service: ON, PreView, and the one we had VEU.
In June 1981 VEU drastically changed their format from a first run only channel to a wonderful mix of classics, foreign films, cult films, and new releases. Coincidentally this is around the same time that Jerry Harvey began programming the Z Channel. If VEU was not associated with the Z Channel then it was a direct copy that I am very thankful for and where I discovered my love of film. Each month VEU would highlight a different genre, director, or country. The monthly programming guides included long essays on each film as to why they were important or would even say this film is horrible but it is a fun watch so enjoy this guilty pleasure. Another feature was each night at 11:00pm was Night Owl Theater. This would show either a mix of soft porn films, which while pretty to look at I found fairly boring; or cult films, these I would try and stay up as late as possible to see. Because of falling asleep I remember seeing the beginnings of many films. Some of these are still hard to find and I have yet to see the entire film.
The monthly highlights were a treat and have resulted in some of my all time film favorites. Some that I remember were:
While the Z Channel was limited to Los Angeles, we saw something of the same thing in Dallas with over the air movie channels. When cable began to move into the area in the late 70s every city wanted the decision on cable. This lead to each city being served by a different cable company a delay of years for some people to get service. In this delay movie channels moved in. They would attach a microwave antenna to your house and with a decoder box you could watch uncut films after the local UHF stations went off the air at 7:00pm. This is how the channels 21, 27, and 33 got their start. Three different movie channels provided service: ON, PreView, and the one we had VEU.
In June 1981 VEU drastically changed their format from a first run only channel to a wonderful mix of classics, foreign films, cult films, and new releases. Coincidentally this is around the same time that Jerry Harvey began programming the Z Channel. If VEU was not associated with the Z Channel then it was a direct copy that I am very thankful for and where I discovered my love of film. Each month VEU would highlight a different genre, director, or country. The monthly programming guides included long essays on each film as to why they were important or would even say this film is horrible but it is a fun watch so enjoy this guilty pleasure. Another feature was each night at 11:00pm was Night Owl Theater. This would show either a mix of soft porn films, which while pretty to look at I found fairly boring; or cult films, these I would try and stay up as late as possible to see. Because of falling asleep I remember seeing the beginnings of many films. Some of these are still hard to find and I have yet to see the entire film.
The monthly highlights were a treat and have resulted in some of my all time film favorites. Some that I remember were:
- Stanley Kubrick – built around the premiere month of The Shining I also saw 2001, A Clockwork Orange, and Barry Lyndon.
- Martin Scorsese – in the premiere month of Raging Bull they also showed Taxi Driver and The Last Waltz.
- Francois Trauffaut – I think I only saw 400 Blows in its entirety but I watched parts of The Wild Child, Jules and Jim, Story of Adele H, and Day for Night.
- Francis Ford Coppola – Apolocapyse Now, The Godfathers I & II, and the Conversation.
- Werner Herzog – Fitzcarraldo, and parts of Aguirre and Nosferatu.
- Akira Kurosawa – Kagamusha and parts of The Seven Samuri, and Rashomon.
- Brazil – a personal favorite: Pixote, Bye Bye Brazil, and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.
- Australia – this was another personal favorite. Australia was the country of the moment and we seemed to get them all. Some are still not on dvd. Breaker Morrant, Odd Angry Shot, The Club, Sunday Too Far Away, & Mad Max (before The Road Warrior).
The other treat was seeing these wonderful cult or hard to find films. Many of these played during Night Owl Theater. There were many I was exposed too, even more if I counted the partially seen films, but some of the ones I saw in their entirety that still stick with me to this day were: Straw Dogs, The Music Lovers, The Ruling Class, Cockfighter, Out of Season, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Duellists, Blue Collar, The Silent Partner, Soldier of Orange, Loophole, Return of the Secaucus 7, The Stunt Man, The Tin Drum, American Pop, and Smithereens.
VEU encountered much the same fate as the original Z Channel. Around 1985 cable saturation was enough to run all of these movie channels out of business. We got cable in April 1984 so my watching of VEU was only for slightly over 3 years. But at the time cable was daring enough to where I didn’t mind the loss of the movie channel. I heavily watched A&E, USA, and Bravo. The current formats are totally different then the generic fare they now show. Brave was much like IFC it showed uncut arts and movies. I watched many French and Australian films on this channel in the summer before I left for college. They also showed the entire 14 hours of Berlin Alexanderplatz but I was only able to catch a few parts. USA had the greatest show in cable history: Night Flight on Friday and Saturday nights. They would show cult films, underground videos, music, and concerts every weekend. Night Flight went off the air in the spring of 1987.
This is really a long missed age of cable television. At the time we had about 40 channels and could always find something interesting to watch. Today I have about 200 channels of digital cable and find myself watching Netflix, TCM, or IFC more than anything.
Labels: FilmReview
Monday, May 16, 2005
Crash: Am I the only person who didn't love this film?
It looks like every year there is one film where my views go against public sentiment. I feel so isolated in my counter views that to convince myself that I’m not wrong I overanalyze my thoughts. Last year seemed to be one of the few that hated Millions Dollar Baby. This year it is another Paul Haggis written film: Crash. While I don’t hate Crash, I find much in the film to like and enjoy, it is a very average film and not anywhere close to the greatness tag many people have already bestowed on it.
I’m usually a fan of sociological films containing characters from multiple backgrounds whose lives intersect at random. Nashville, Grand Canyon, Short Cuts, and Magnolia are some of my favorite films of all-time. These films had an epic quality that does justice to their characters. Crash is nothing more than the racism filled rants in the Spike Lee films expanded out to 105 minutes.
105 minutes is far too short a time for the stories in Crash to be presented. It is barely time to tell a light comedy with four characters but here Paul Haggis had decided to construct a sweeping drama with at least twelve major characters. As he showed in Million Dollar Baby, he is anything but subtle. With so little time to allot to each character, each one must immediately spew out racial epitaphs on seeing a member of another group. Only Ryan Phillippe’s cop and Michael Peña's locksmith are not infected with all consuming hate. They are saddled with the other one-dimensional problem: white-guilt. They are so driven to see the good in people that they do some very stupid things.
I don’t want to sound like I hated Crash. I enjoyed my time while watching the film and would actually recommend it to people. The acting is almost uniformly good. Except for Brendan Fraser, who looked like he was sleepwalking through his part, everyone did more than what they could with their parts. My personal favorites were Matt Dillon and Keith David in his one scene as the police lieutenant. Taken scene by scene the acting and writing make from some great individual scenes. However, once you add all of this together you have an average film that is well worth seeing but is beset with many problems.
I’m usually a fan of sociological films containing characters from multiple backgrounds whose lives intersect at random. Nashville, Grand Canyon, Short Cuts, and Magnolia are some of my favorite films of all-time. These films had an epic quality that does justice to their characters. Crash is nothing more than the racism filled rants in the Spike Lee films expanded out to 105 minutes.
105 minutes is far too short a time for the stories in Crash to be presented. It is barely time to tell a light comedy with four characters but here Paul Haggis had decided to construct a sweeping drama with at least twelve major characters. As he showed in Million Dollar Baby, he is anything but subtle. With so little time to allot to each character, each one must immediately spew out racial epitaphs on seeing a member of another group. Only Ryan Phillippe’s cop and Michael Peña's locksmith are not infected with all consuming hate. They are saddled with the other one-dimensional problem: white-guilt. They are so driven to see the good in people that they do some very stupid things.
I don’t want to sound like I hated Crash. I enjoyed my time while watching the film and would actually recommend it to people. The acting is almost uniformly good. Except for Brendan Fraser, who looked like he was sleepwalking through his part, everyone did more than what they could with their parts. My personal favorites were Matt Dillon and Keith David in his one scene as the police lieutenant. Taken scene by scene the acting and writing make from some great individual scenes. However, once you add all of this together you have an average film that is well worth seeing but is beset with many problems.
Labels: FilmReview
Friday, May 13, 2005
Why isn't the word Palindrome a Palindrome?
Last night I made it to the final showing of the week of Palindromes. (I’m still a little pissed that it only played a week here.) I really don’t know what to make of this film. I enjoyed the experience, which is more than I can say of Solondz’s last film Storytelling, but I don’t thing the film will stick with me.
Todd Solondz has a knack to make difficult films but other than throwing uncomfortable moments at the audience I really can’t see much point or have much emotional tie to this film. Part of the problem is having multiple actresses play the lead part. The jarring changes and the amateurish acting by some of the actresses only kept me emotionally disconnected form this film.
I did enjoy the scenes at Mama Sunshine a rather surreal religious freak show handicapped children. They have the cheery disposition of The Brady Bunch but sing and dance like The Partridge Family, complete with psychedelic bus. But past the surface I wonder what Solondz was saying with the key element of the film abortion then having this bizarre sequence with relatively happy kids overcoming birth defects.
I’ve read Solondz indicating what he was trying to do in the film. And while I can see admire his comments I really don’t care if it doesn’t translate to the screen. But I can’t really trash the film since it does kill 100 minutes without too much harm. Sadly that’s about all I ask of a mainstream film but still seem disappointed when that all an independent film delivers.
Todd Solondz has a knack to make difficult films but other than throwing uncomfortable moments at the audience I really can’t see much point or have much emotional tie to this film. Part of the problem is having multiple actresses play the lead part. The jarring changes and the amateurish acting by some of the actresses only kept me emotionally disconnected form this film.
I did enjoy the scenes at Mama Sunshine a rather surreal religious freak show handicapped children. They have the cheery disposition of The Brady Bunch but sing and dance like The Partridge Family, complete with psychedelic bus. But past the surface I wonder what Solondz was saying with the key element of the film abortion then having this bizarre sequence with relatively happy kids overcoming birth defects.
I’ve read Solondz indicating what he was trying to do in the film. And while I can see admire his comments I really don’t care if it doesn’t translate to the screen. But I can’t really trash the film since it does kill 100 minutes without too much harm. Sadly that’s about all I ask of a mainstream film but still seem disappointed when that all an independent film delivers.
Thursday, May 12, 2005
First Post
Here I am posing on a new blog site for the first time. So what to expect. Hopefully regular posts and hopefully it will evolve into something worthwild for people to look at and visit. There are probably more blogs than people on the earth right now so it's pretty hard to set one apart from the other.
But you can expect views on current events from all over the globe, movies I've seen, books I've read, television and sports. Probably a lot of writing on movies: films I've seen, thoughts about ideas in films, and anything else I want to spew about.
But you can expect views on current events from all over the globe, movies I've seen, books I've read, television and sports. Probably a lot of writing on movies: films I've seen, thoughts about ideas in films, and anything else I want to spew about.
