Archive for Movies
May 14, 2007 at 1:38 pm · Filed under Movies
Movie: 3/5
Chase: N/A
Even though Duel was excluded from the Hollywood Saloon car chase list that inspired this marathon because it was a feature length car chase, I wanted to see it because it was Spielberg’s first movie. The movie itself is entertaining but is packed with enough cheese (ah, voiceover, you’re a fickle mistress) that I found myself bored enough that I couldn’t rate it higher. This version of the movie runs 90 minutes, 16 minutes longer than the original 74 minute cut that was shown on TV. Spielberg expanded upon the original in order for it to be released overseas (apparently 90 minutes is/was the minimum). I wonder if I would’ve enjoyed the shorter cut better.
Visually, the film is stunning, especially when you consider the time he had to shoot it (10 days) and the budget (it was for TV after all). The shot of Dennis Weaver standing exasperated in the middle of the road, trying to make sense of the madness, is so iconic that it’s a wonder that it was probably cut away from to a dog food commercial. Spielberg talks at length in the extras about the cheats he used to accomplish the sense of speed on the truck which was, in reality, not all that fast. He did it so well that it never occured to me (except in the very few shots where it’s obviously sped up, something that Spielberg claims that was an unintentional result of a malfunctioning camera) that I was being misled. I just thought they souped up the vehicle for the film.
The aforementioned extras make this film required viewing. There’s no director’s commentary but instead there is a lengthy interview with the Spielberg of today discussing what Duel meant at that point in his career, what it took to make it and how it has informed nearly everything he’s done since. Particularly interesting is how the choice of never showing the driver of the truck and thus taking advantage of the fear of the unknown, an idea originating with screenwriter Richard Matheson, informed a lot of Spielberg’s later work, most notably Jaws. In fact, there’s a shot in the final moments of the film when the truck is destroyed (did you think it was going to end differently?) that directly inspired the death of Jaws, from the use of sound to the exact shots. Even Spielberg movies that would seem entirely unrelated to the unstoppable-killing-machine genre, like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark owe a lot to Duel.
There are a few other extras including another interview with Spielberg focusing on his reluctant early work in television that resulted from his being shunned as the youngest director ever contracted at a studio (by Sidney Sheinberg, the guy who wanted Brazil to have a happy ending and Back to the Future to be called Space Zombies from Pluto, a disaster that was narrowly avoided with the help of…Steven Spielberg) and an interview with the screenwriter Roberth Matheson that I didn’t make it all the way through since it’s revealed that not only is Dennis Weaver’s character cheesily named Mann, but in the original short story the movie was based on, the truck driver’s name was Keller. Ugh.
If you’re at all interested in how Spielberg became what he is today, pick up this DVD and watch the extras back to back with the movie. It’s well worth it.
May 13, 2007 at 11:57 pm · Filed under Linkdump, Movies
Rifftrax is the second-coming of MST3K. Produced by Mike Nelson and often featuring Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo, Professor Bobo, etc.) and Bill Corbett (Crow, Brain Guy, etc.), it’s DVD commentaries for awful contemporary movies such as Star Wars Episode 1 and not-awful (but certainly deserving of mocking) movies like Lord of the Rings.
I thought I had mentioned it before, but the reason I bring it up now is that they threw a curve ball: the Rifftrax for the new Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory features Mike Nelson and…Neil Patrick Harris?! Now that’s intriguing. I need a second Netflix queue just so I can rent these movies without shame.
May 11, 2007 at 3:58 pm · Filed under Linkdump, Movies
Bruce Willis, in a stunning PR move, is posting on Ain’t It Cool News’ talkback. All of Most of the black posts are him (the ones posted by Walter B), and yes, it is him. Even more impressive is that he hurt Michael Bay’s feelings.
Edit: Black posts indicate admins and there are other black posts in the thread. Walter B is Bruce Willis.
May 10, 2007 at 2:11 pm · Filed under Linkdump, Movies
The Long Take. I’ve seen a lot of them, but not enough that I feel good about myself.
May 1, 2007 at 8:18 pm · Filed under Movies
Bullitt (1968)
Movie: 5/10
I found myself, for the first time, searching for the function on the remote that would let me know how far I was into the movie. I was only 30 minutes into the 2 hour running time. The boredom was periodically relieved by something interesting happening onscreen, most notably the car chase, but quickly returned when something silly happened. (Apparently there’s only one Sunshine Cab in all of San Francisco?)
It wasn’t all bad. Steve McQueen was a badass and when he called “Bullshit!” on Robert Vaughn, I knew instantly that it was the first time it had been uttered in a mainstream movie. I appreciate what the performance and character meant at the time and can see their influence in countless films, for better or for worse.
Car chase: 7/10
I probably would’ve rated this an 8 had it not been for the silly ending. I’m sure it was novel for the time but I’ve seen too many car chases end at an exploding gas station for me to forgive what may have been the first. The hills of San Francisco make for the perfect setting as the danger of what’s coming around the corner is compounded by the danger of what’s coming up the hill. It didn’t have me on the edge of my seat but I certainly was entertained by it.
May 1, 2007 at 7:16 am · Filed under Linkdump, Movies
9 Minutes of Ratatouille on Disney.com
The third part of the previously mentioned Douglas Adams interview, post-radio, pre-book Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
April 29, 2007 at 7:35 pm · Filed under Movies
April 19, 2007 at 3:00 pm · Filed under Linkdump, Movies
Time has not been kind to the lady from Four Non-Blondes and neither was Quentin Tarantino.
April 18, 2007 at 11:05 am · Filed under Movies
The Hollywood Saloon, a film podcast that I listen to far less often than I should (mainly because their episodes tend to run over two hours) recently put out an episode dedicated entirely to car chases inspired by the amazing, breathtaking, pitstain-creating chase sequence from Death Proof.
I’ve set up my Netflix queue and I’ll be following along with their recommendations. Here’s what I’m looking at:
1) Bullitt (1968)
2-5) Duel (1971), Vanishing Point (1971), Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974)- these are not included in their definitive list because they are entire movies about the chase scene. Their criteria was that the chase scene be exactly that, a scene. I have not seen any of these movies and since both Vanishing Point and Dirty Mary Crazy Larry were mentioned in Death Proof, I’ll be including them.
6) The French Connection (1971) - I’ve seen it, but I think I’ll watch it again because I don’t think I was in the right mindset for it. I ended up not very impressed. Hopefully this will be corrected.
7) The Seven-Ups (1973)- never even heard of this one
8) Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)
9) The Driver (1978)
10) Blues Brothers - of course I’ve seen it. Won’t mind seeing it again.
11-12) Mad Max & Mad Max: The Road Warrior - Seen both, won’t mind seeing them again.
13) To Live and Die in LA (1985)
14) Running Scared (1986)
15) Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)
16) Ronin - rented this and fell asleep within the first 10 minutes. I’ll give it another try.
Notes:
-Short Time (1990) is unavailable on Netflix.
-The Italian Job (1969) is mentioned. I saw this very recently and don’t feel the need to watch it again. They note correctly that, although the setpieces are great, there’s no real jeopardy to the chase.
-In a darker time in my life, I saw The Rock (1996) in theaters. I don’t think I can do it again.
-Matrix Reloaded (2003). I hated The Matrix (1999) so much that unless someone tells me the car chase is so amazing it’s worth the pain and suffering, I’ll take a pass on this one.
-Bad Boys II (2003) - maybe I’m more forgiving of old, bad movies but I don’t think I can make it through this either.
-The Bourne Identity (2002) and The Bourne Supremacy - I’ve seen both very recently.
-I’m undecided about the order in which I’ll be watching these, but I’m leaning toward the chronological order that these were presented in the podcast. I’ll obviously have to rearrange the list to account for the asides that are included.
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