![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amediaTaking a short break from grading to catch up on describing some movies we've watched over the last few weeks!
Finding Amanda was another free movie from Jaman. Like Game 6, it was about a dramatist, this time a TV scriptwriter rather than a playwright. The movie stars Matthew Broderick as a partially-recovered alcoholic, in denial about his gambling addiction, who goes to Las Vegas to try to rescue his niece from prostitution. I found it hard to get into; the characters did a lot of stupid things that just made me want to slap them. It had some memorable lines, though, such as this nugget of wisdom from a stripper: “Honey, nothing on this planet that has a penis attached is ever nice.” The best character was the sleazy guest services manager at the hotel where Broderick’s character stays, played with gusto by an actor named Steve Coogan.
A Force of One was an agreeably mindless Chuck Norris karate movie with Jennifer O’Neill.
Memories was an anime anthology brought together by Katsuhiro Otomo (best known for the groundbreaking manga & anime Akira). The first story, “Magnetic Rose,” was about a space salvage crew that answers a distress call and finds something unexpected. I thought it suffered from a number of clichés but at least one scene did pack a genuine emotional wallop. The animation was very beautiful in places and the soundtrack was operatic, featuring “Un bel di” and other music. The second piece, “Stink Bomb,” about a clueless salaryman who causes unimaginable chaos and destruction, would have been a hilarious parody of disaster movies if it had been about half as long as it was. It dragged on for about half an hour trying to milk its one joke long past its useful life. The third piece, “Cannon Fodder,” was by far our favorite. We didn’t know it was the one that Otomo did himself, so we weren’t influenced by that in liking it the best. In a striking and original animation style, it depicted a day-in-the-life of a family in a bleak, totalitarian society that looked like a cross between Victorian steampunk and 1984.
The Men was a movie we had taped off of AMC years ago - before they started putting commercials in. It was Marlon Brando's first movie, but we had actually taped it because a very young Jack Webb was in it. Most of the movie takes place in a veterans' hospital for paraplegics just after WWII, and follows the struggles of the main character and his fiancee to adapt to his situation.
I didn't actually like the two lead characters very much. Brando was playing an intense, brooding, angry young man (what a surprise) who was sympathetic but barely likeable. Teresa Wright, who played his fiancee, was inconsistently written and came off as insipid despite some promising moments. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the movie a lot for other reasons. The camaraderie that developed among the men in the ward, and the contrasts among their different methods of coping, was very good. Jack Webb was surprisingly good portraying a character very unlike Joe Friday. The doctor in charge was a well-played and interesting character; the individual approaches he took to each patient demonstrated both compassion and toughness. His scenes reminded me of Captain Newman, M.D. (a movie about an Army pschiatrist, based on stories by Leo Rosten). I did not recognize the actor who played him - Everett Sloane - but I hope to see more of his work.
During our discussion of the movie, TODS pointed out that this movie does not have a conventional romance, since it follows the relationship issues past the wedding; nor is it a traditional war movie, since most of it takes place after the end of the war. I agreed and, continuing this theme, observed that it is also unconventional in that both the romance and the war scenes begin in medias res; the couple is already engaged before the movie begins, and the combat scene that opens the movie is already ongoing before the movie begins. So it is unconventional at both ends in both genres.
Finding Amanda was another free movie from Jaman. Like Game 6, it was about a dramatist, this time a TV scriptwriter rather than a playwright. The movie stars Matthew Broderick as a partially-recovered alcoholic, in denial about his gambling addiction, who goes to Las Vegas to try to rescue his niece from prostitution. I found it hard to get into; the characters did a lot of stupid things that just made me want to slap them. It had some memorable lines, though, such as this nugget of wisdom from a stripper: “Honey, nothing on this planet that has a penis attached is ever nice.” The best character was the sleazy guest services manager at the hotel where Broderick’s character stays, played with gusto by an actor named Steve Coogan.
A Force of One was an agreeably mindless Chuck Norris karate movie with Jennifer O’Neill.
Memories was an anime anthology brought together by Katsuhiro Otomo (best known for the groundbreaking manga & anime Akira). The first story, “Magnetic Rose,” was about a space salvage crew that answers a distress call and finds something unexpected. I thought it suffered from a number of clichés but at least one scene did pack a genuine emotional wallop. The animation was very beautiful in places and the soundtrack was operatic, featuring “Un bel di” and other music. The second piece, “Stink Bomb,” about a clueless salaryman who causes unimaginable chaos and destruction, would have been a hilarious parody of disaster movies if it had been about half as long as it was. It dragged on for about half an hour trying to milk its one joke long past its useful life. The third piece, “Cannon Fodder,” was by far our favorite. We didn’t know it was the one that Otomo did himself, so we weren’t influenced by that in liking it the best. In a striking and original animation style, it depicted a day-in-the-life of a family in a bleak, totalitarian society that looked like a cross between Victorian steampunk and 1984.
The Men was a movie we had taped off of AMC years ago - before they started putting commercials in. It was Marlon Brando's first movie, but we had actually taped it because a very young Jack Webb was in it. Most of the movie takes place in a veterans' hospital for paraplegics just after WWII, and follows the struggles of the main character and his fiancee to adapt to his situation.
I didn't actually like the two lead characters very much. Brando was playing an intense, brooding, angry young man (what a surprise) who was sympathetic but barely likeable. Teresa Wright, who played his fiancee, was inconsistently written and came off as insipid despite some promising moments. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the movie a lot for other reasons. The camaraderie that developed among the men in the ward, and the contrasts among their different methods of coping, was very good. Jack Webb was surprisingly good portraying a character very unlike Joe Friday. The doctor in charge was a well-played and interesting character; the individual approaches he took to each patient demonstrated both compassion and toughness. His scenes reminded me of Captain Newman, M.D. (a movie about an Army pschiatrist, based on stories by Leo Rosten). I did not recognize the actor who played him - Everett Sloane - but I hope to see more of his work.
During our discussion of the movie, TODS pointed out that this movie does not have a conventional romance, since it follows the relationship issues past the wedding; nor is it a traditional war movie, since most of it takes place after the end of the war. I agreed and, continuing this theme, observed that it is also unconventional in that both the romance and the war scenes begin in medias res; the couple is already engaged before the movie begins, and the combat scene that opens the movie is already ongoing before the movie begins. So it is unconventional at both ends in both genres.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-05-18 05:20 pm (UTC)Jack Webb was a versatile man. He is outright ebullient and engaging in "Sunset Boulevard". Harry Morgan used to talk about how he and Webb had to redo so many scenes since they both were natural cut-ups and they had to play their parts with such gravity.
I enjoyed your reference to Captain Newman. Once again Gregory Peck portrayed a man who charts his own course. Yes, that was an excellent book. I read it so long ago.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-31 11:03 pm (UTC)Harry Morgan used to talk about how he and Webb had to redo so many scenes since they both were natural cut-ups and they had to play their parts with such gravity.
That is amazing! And great to hear about.