I don't know, but if you populate a movie with characters who are not likable or sympathetic and then pile misery upon tragedy on them for two draggy hours, there's only so much one can take before it starts grating on your nerves. And it wasn't just me...everyone in the theater was busting out laughing at the most inappropriate times. Maybe I was just in a weird place that day (I did see the film on an especially cold, dreary day and had to walk home in the bitter chill, so maybe that colored my poisonous opinion of it), but that's one of the films I can honestly say I DESPISED over the last fifteen years (at least since I started deliberately rating and keeping track of my movie watching in 1999). Just because something actually happened that way doesn't make it good cinema.

Monterey Jack wrote:Just because something actually happened that way doesn't make it good cinema.

No, but the way you make it seem, it's like they concocted a script that you found laughable ("pile tragedy upon tragedy" as you put it), when in fact the guy's life actually was that way and that really IS what happened.

Maybe they should have just watered it down, or turned it into some uber-happy, feel-good movie that would've been more palatable for viewers...but that's not the reality of what happened or how harsh living conditions were in Ireland at that time.

And it wasn't just me...everyone in the theater was busting out laughing at the most inappropriate times.

Well, the only thing I can say to that reaction is WTF and I'm glad I wasn't in that screening.

Overall, I admit that the movie did not capture the humor of McCourt's memoir -- Parker really just kept it straight and missed some of the nuances of the book, which many felt was one of the finest books of its time -- and I can see where viewers unfamiliar with the story would become restless and/or tired of the countless bad things that happened...yet I did think it was well acted, crafted, shot and scored despite that. Yet if you're not prepared for it, it IS a tough view, and it's not for everyone.

The book was much more, seeing as he brought humor and insight into all the terrible things that happened, balancing out the whole account. It's a first-person memoir and it's spectacular, one of the most moving books I've ever read -- and Parker didn't really approach its power from a cinematic perspective. Granted it was a tough chore given McCourt's prose and perspective -- but another filmmaker might've been able to do a better job with it.

A couple Jimmy Stewart films I'd never seen before!

The FBI Story (1959) 6 of 10
-Starts off with a gripping and fascinating ten minutes dramatizing the bombing of an airplane with a creepy turn by Nick Adams as the bomber. Ends with a fascinating chase and arrest of a communist spy that offers some rare color interior views of old Yankee Stadium. In between.....eh. Much too much by the numbers soap opera of Jimmy Stewart's FBI career from the mid-20s to 50s and his family problems over the years too. The two and a half hour running time of the film is simply not justified IMO.

Call Northside 777 (1948) 6.5 of 10
-This "docu-drama" noir film based on a true story with all the names changed is better but IMO drags a bit too long at 111 minutes and also suffers from a climax that has been recycled many times again and again over the years based on a photographic enlargement. Worse, I suspect this film is the reason why many people were brought up wrongly believing that the more you enlarge a picture the more you can bring out minute details that simply would remain a giant blur if you kept blowing up the image to that size.

Robocop (1987): 10/10

Still Paul Verhoeven's best American film. Ahhhh, the days when comic-book action movies had stop-motion animation, gratuitous violence, interesting subtexts and stirring Basil Poledouris music. I'd buy that for a dollar!

THE MUPPETS 9/10

Wow, what a trip. Not just a nostalgic blast but one of the best Muppet movies period, filled with laughs, really terrific songs, a knowing sense of humor but no snarky, sarcastic innuendos. Jason Segel deserves all the credit for getting this long-belated revival off the ground and the film satisfies on so many levels. One of my favorites of the year.

Happy Thanksgiving

Plymouth Adventure (1952) 6.5 of 10. Impressive MGM epic for the day but the human drama of the story of the Pilgrims and Mayflower never quite comes alive. I love the Rozsa score.

Looking forward to The Muppets, although debating whether to see that or Hugo this weekend. All depends on how the train and theater schedules mesh.

Dirty Harry

I saw this film years ago on TV, but never in widescreen (much less on a format like Blu-ray).

It's still a remarkable film. On a surface it is an exploitation film, but is very introspective, character-driven and makes more than a few astute observations about the flaws in our (particularly California's) justice system. Lalo Schifrin's score is one of his best, combing jazz styles with some striking avant garde techniques.

The character of Harry Callahan is also unlike anything you'd see today -- a jaded, ruthless, borderline bigot who doesn't hesitate to step on a criminal's open wound to make him talk. Could you imagine Brad Pitt, Leonardo DeCapprio, George Clooney, et al tarnishing their goody-two-shoes, PC screen personae playing such a character? I couldn't.

I was also struck by the use of nudity in the film -- not in the sense of it being titillating, but more in its disturbing candor. Again you'd never see this in a movie today (which is ironic since the nudity in Dirty Harry is much-less "sexist" than anything in Sucker Punch).

AndyDursin wrote:THE MUPPETS 9/10

Wow, what a trip. Not just a nostalgic blast but one of the best Muppet movies period, filled with laughs, really terrific songs, a knowing sense of humor but no snarky, sarcastic innuendos. Jason Segel deserves all the credit for getting this long-belated revival off the ground and the film satisfies on so many levels. One of my favorites of the year.

Happy Thanksgiving

This is great to hear. This has my enthusiastic support.

Tried to see THE DESCENDANTS tonight -- and it was sold out!

Figures in a big multiplex that they would put one of the only movies for adults on 1 small screen! There were dozens of us non-teenagers walking out ticked off (and we were there several minutes ahead of the start time). Granted it's a busy day for movie theaters but you'd have thought they would have put the picture in a larger auditorium.

Might be a message to Hollywood that it's time to make something more than TWILIGHT for the teens and these ridiculous amounts of kid-movies...there are a ton of them playing right now (Muppets, Happy Feet 2, Arthur Christmas, Hugo, Puss in Boots)...I mean ENOUGH ALREADY. Other people want to go to the movies too!

AndyDursin wrote:I mean ENOUGH ALREADY. Other people want to go to the movies too!

Yes, but you don't buy action figures or other tie-in merchandising! There's no money to be made off you!

-The Muppets: 8.5/10

Charming, funny and all-around delightful, with thankfully no crass "reimagining" of the characters. All of the kids and adults in the audience (my theater was packed) were clearly have a great time, and the good vibes were infectious. Maniacal laaaaaaaaaaaaaugh!

-It's A Wonderful Life (1946): 10/10

Yes, I finally watched this film for the first time today. Like Citizen Kane, watching this after decades' worth of pop-culture references and parodies was kind of a surreal experience (I kept thinking, "So that's where that line came from...!" over and over), and yet its brilliance still shone through. My local multiplex was showing it for free on the big screen this morning, so I was finally able to cross this off the "shoulda seen it years ago" list. James Stewart is excellent, cutting through the potential treacle with his aching lead performance. Truly great filmmaking.

North By Northwest (1959 Blu-Ray. 9 of 10

-I found the Blu-Ray at Barnes and Noble for more than 50% off and grabbed it. It was fascinating to freeze-frame and study a lot of things in minute detail in this high resolution, especially advertising signs and pamphlets in Grand Central Station, or train board announcements. But I think what I got the biggest kick out of was freeze-framing the newspaper front pages for first, the Washington paper's headline showing Grant holding the murder knife over the body. The usual procedure is to not bother with a dummy article under the headline, but in this case the MGM department went the extra mile and wrote an entire paragraph story for the front page (which an uncredited Lawrence Dobkin then recites before the team of intelligence analysts). I could also with crystal clarity read the full text of the other articles on the page dealing with an airline strike and Nixon meeting with British diplomats which was fun to do.

OTOH, the dummy Chicago newspaper that we see with the headline about the crop dusting plane "accident" had no dummy text underneath the headline. The entire article was about the Anglican Church having a conference on birth control!

THE DESCENDANTS 9/10

Alexander Payne's latest is a beautifully stated, eloquently acted family drama with just dashes of humor. Phedon Papamichaels' gorgeous cinematography of the Hawaiian locales, the poignant score and best of all, great performances from George Clooney and Shailene Woodley (marvelous as his eldest daughter) bring home a somewhat downbeat tale of a father trying to figure out who his wife was as she lays in bed, dying and in a coma. There's an enormous amount of humanity in the film -- however, I would recommend seeing this not in a theater or with a large audience as the film's quiet, introspective, moody tone isn't going to be for anyone.

We happened to see the film yesterday at 2 in the afternoon -- on a Wednesday -- and it ended up being sold out. Joanne and I were the youngest in the audience by a good 2, if not 3, decades and as I found it later it was "Senior Wednesday" at Showcase where the elderly get discounted tickets. Needless to say, it was a painful experience as some 80 year old woman behind me snored through a good portion of it. Another guy was snoring two rows down. The guy next to us at first refused to move over so Joanne and I could sit together. Someone's cell phone went off. Another woman who was hard of hearing didn't understand the plot and had it described by another elderly woman who thought she was whispering but everyone could hear everything she was saying. Then of course the woman in back of us, who someone at one point suggested "go home," woke up at the end to see Clooney's wife still laying in a coma, and actually said "she's still sleeping!"

That I enjoyed the film so much even in far from optimal viewing conditions (there was no way out, nowhere else to sit, and as much as I wanted to yell at them, the woman is 85) speaks volumes about the film. However, it's probably a picture that will lend itself best to quiet, personal viewing in the confines of one's home. The audience's "shared experience" almost ruined it for me.

Miracle On 34th Street (1947) 9 of 10
=Time to break out the Christmas classics! It's so fascinating to see this movie again not just because it's an enduring Christmas classic, but because it provides a look at the vanished world of New York in the late 1940s, a much simpler and more innocent time than the world we find ourselves in now.

=Some new thoughts after this latest viewing. I noticed for the first time that the film's slimy villain, the store psychologist Mr. Sawyer bears more than a passing resemblance to Adolf Hitler! It's as if they consciously cast someone who from the get-go would telegraph to the audience that this was going to be the guy we'd want to boo (and I can just picture the audience applauding when Mr. Macy gives him that "You're fired!" line!)

=People I notice always seem puzzled by the film's last line. "Maybe I didn't do such a wonderful thing after all!" I admit even it took me a number of viewings before it finally clicked. All along, Fred's been patting himself on the back for his legal skills, and now he realizes that he's not so "wonderful" as a lawyer after all. He won because Kris really is Santa! John Payne's delivery I think at times where he seems so bewildered seems to leave some people at imdb thinking there's something more ominous in the meaning of the line!

=I also as a history teacher laugh at the film's goof with the "Who was the Vice President under John Quincy Adams?" line. The answer Kris gives, Daniel D. Tompkins, is incorrect, that was the VP under the previous president, James Monroe! When Lux Radio Theater adapted the film for broadcast several years later with Edmund Gwenn and Maureen O'Hara recreating their roles, the line was corrected to the accurate President!