Yawn.
I don’t really care about any of the movies opening this week. Hero looks like the only interesting possibility. So I will suggest alternative movies to rent for each new movie appearing in Austin this week.
Also, aGLIFF opened in Austin this weekend, which is probably an improvement on most of the mainstream stuff in theaters right now.
Continue reading movies this week: support your local video store
Miscellaneous stuff that’s been kicking around and I keep forgetting to put somewhere else:
A small favor. If you like Thirties screwball comedy films, or maybe even if you don’t, please visit this page and sign the nice online petition to have Twentieth Century released on DVD. I don’t know how useful these petitions are but it can’t hurt, can it? (I had no idea the play was being revived on Broadway. I can’t imagine Alec Baldwin and Anne Heche creating a fraction of the style and passion and charming nastiness displayed by John Barrymore and Carole Lombard.)
Continue reading miscellany: petition big sleazy noir book sale
Now that it’s over I don’t mind talking about it, and I don’t even have to anthropomorphize the little bugger. Scotty, my ass, it was squamous cell carcinoma. Not as common a skin cancer as basal cell, but not as bad as a melanoma.
Here is what I thought would happen: I would go to the doctor’s office and get one local anasthetic injection, the doctor would remove the tiny bump and investigate it, he might have to go back in and take away an itsy-bitsy bit more, and then he’d close up the wound with maybe a couple of stitches and put a band-aid over it. In other words, nothing much more than the biopsy procedure, except they were going to get rid of the whole thing. The wound might be bigger than the biopsy wound so I’d have to use a regular band-aid instead of the little round kind. I would have to take some annoying painkillers for a day or two that would make me groggy, I’d sleep a lot, and then I’d be fine by the end of the weekend. I might not be able to work out that weekend, but I could stay home and spend my days watching movies on DVD.
I’m writing this on Wednesday night, earlier than usual. That way, if I end up looking like Vincent D’Onofrio in The Salton Sea after I leave the doctor’s office tomorrow, at least I won’t have to worry about this one thing.
August is traditionally a cinematically lackluster month. The real blockbusters start earlier in the summer. August is a time for the Films of Desperation: the pseudo-blockbusters that studios hope and pray you’ll go see because they’re new and hyped and you already saw all the good movies. Or else they’re hoping you’ll go see anything to get out of the nasty hot weather. Even the selection of movies at the Paramount isn’t as good as the lineup in June or July.
Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you can find a few good independent movies that couldn’t quite wait until the end of the year. Cross your fingers.
“Yesterday I looked in the mirror and saw a pimple. Its name is Agnes.”
—Paula Danziger, The Cat Ate My Gymsuit
William Goldman once wrote that all sequels are whore’s movies. I tend to agree with him for the most part — after all, how many sequels are made from box-office bombs? The bottom line obviously dictates whether or not to rehash the original material as a sequel. However, that doesn’t mean that all sequels are poor movies: The Godfather, Part II, Evil Dead 2 (and Army of Darkness), The Empire Strikes Back, and Aliens are all very good and entertaining sequels. Perhaps Mr. Goldman would call them courtesan movies.
Summertime is prime sequel-pimpin’ time, and this has been a better summer than most for enjoyable sequels. Spider-Man 2 was a lot of fun. I didn’t see Shrek 2 (I disliked the first one) but many people felt it was better than the original. The Bourne Supremacy is supposed to be a good solid action film.
I can tell you all about the movies I bought on DVD tonight at Fry’s. They were on sale and I had some extra money so I went crazy: Cold Comfort Farm, The Cat’s Meow, and The Truth about Charlie. Before you all fall over backwards with shock about the last one, let me explain that the Truth about Charlie DVD also have Charade on it and the consensus from various review sites is that this is the best transfer of Charade available, even better than the Criterion DVD. Also, much cheaper than the Criterion DVD. I almost bought Junior Bonner but I want to find out about the DVD quality first because I am picky that way. For the sake of Steve McQueen, I assure you.
You don’t want to hear about any of this, do you. You want to hear about new movies, movies that are premiering this week. No one wants to know all the sordid details of my DVD collection (which is actually a lot smaller than you would think). No one wants to hear about the later films of Bogdanovich and Schlesinger. That’s fine.
This is all procrastination because I feel like I don’t have much of anything to say about this week’s movies. It must be some kind of summer movie slump. Or maybe it’s because I’ve had to work on Math Stuff in the office, and Math Stuff makes me cranky and edgy and less likely to show much interest in new movies. Also, I can feel a headache approaching. But I will try my best.
I must say it has been difficult to follow in the footsteps of the creator of this type of entry. I feel rather like Dorothy Parker as she filled in temporarily as The New Yorker drama critic for Robert Benchley, while he was off in Hollywood for a few months. It seemed as though the minute he left town, the quality of plays plummeted, only to rise again when he returned. However, Ms. Parker at least knew that Mr. Benchley would eventually return and free her from her difficult task. And while we might reasonably debate the merits of Mr. Gallaga versus Mr. Benchley, Dorothy Parker could write me under the table, even when hungover and disappointed in love. Maybe especially then.
So I lag behind, intimidated by a standard of The Funny that I cannot quite reach, gathering up little bits and scraps of hints about movies that I have not yet seen, trying to form them into a brilliant pastiche, bursting with wit and cleverness and stylishness.
Out of Sight: 1998, dir. Steven Soderbergh. Seen on DVD (July 18).
I rented Out of Sight because I read the Elmore Leonard book while I was in Vegas and I wanted to see how well it was adapted. Would it be as good as Get Shorty? Or would I be terribly disappointed?
I was hoping I would like the movie because it had George Clooney in it, who is consistently entertaining, particularly when working with Steven Soderbergh (we won’t mention Solaris). I love Ocean’s Eleven. And Scott Frank, who adapted Get Shorty, also adapted this one.
Spider-Man 2: 2004, dir. Sam Raimi. Seen at Gateway (July 17).
It’s hard for me to start writing about Spider-Man 2 because I’m not sure what to say. It’s a summer blockbuster. It busted its blocks, or at least a couple of box-office records, quite capably. It was entertaining, occasionally clever and amusing, and didn’t treat the audience with contempt. I had a good time and if Sam Raimi directed a third Spider-Man movie, I’d be there.
Isn’t that enough of a review?