Notorious

E:
Another Hitch classic. I had never seen this one in it's entirety but now that I have it shot up to my list of Hitchcock faves. The set-up takes a little while, but once it gets going - boy - Hitch was in fine form with this one.
Cary Grant is all suave, Ingrid Bergman is all sexy.
Rent it.

The Proposal

E:
I think Sandra Bullock is the kind of girl you can take home to Mom. She's really pretty, but not obnoxiously so. She's funny, but not obnoxious. She seems like a nice normal girl but a movie star version so it's easy to root for her.
This moobie is a standard romantic comedy. Boy and girl don't like each other but get thrown together for whatever reason and end up in love. As a twist they get torn apart, but one chases after the other and all ends well.
It doesn't stray too far from the formula.
If you like romantic comedies, if you like Sandy, I'm sure you'll like The Proposal.

Sabrina

E:
Man, that Billy Wilder made a lot of great moobies! I didn't realize this was part of his oeuvre. Made between Stalag 17 and The Seven Year Itch, Sabrina is a lighthearted film with a stellar cast: Humphrey Bogart, William Holden and Audrey Hepburn in her second major role. It's about a the chauffeur's daughter in love with the playboy son of the house. She leaves for school and comes home a woman.
I always like old movies where you can tell things never change. The rich younger brother with no responsibility. He charms the girls, he sleeps around a lot. The responsible older brother, the dad who cares about the family name, the young girl in love.
These are classic archetypical roles and yet here they're played so well and the script is so tight. Bogart is a badass even when he's in love. And so few of the modern actresses possess the glamour that Audrey brought to the screen.
Once again, the classics prove to be classic for a reason...
they're just so darn good.

Bruno

E:
Borat was such a huge breakout hit, Sasha Baron Cohen tries to strike gold twice here with the 2nd of 3 characters from his Da Ali G show. But it doesn't work so well here. A lot of people think it didn't work mainly because we already saw the schtick in Borat. Yeah, we did, but we could watch more of it if it weren't so mean-spirited this time around.
The biggest difference between the two films is this;
the humor in Borat was in finding how far people can be pushed, how much are they willing to accept from a foreigner when faced with cultural differences.
The attempt at humor in Bruno was in trying to push homosexuality in people's faces and seeing how much can they accept or how revolted they become. Baron Cohen simply turns up the gay until each person is uncomfortable whether they like it or not.
I'm no homophobe, but if a naked man crawled into my tent, I'd be pretty upset too.
The most humorous parts of the film center not on making people uncomfortable with homosexuality, but in pushing the boundaries of sensibility in other ways - the baby auditions for example. The lengths to which those parents are willing to go is funny, and Bruno didn't have to get naked to make it so.
Although, the focus group was pretty funny...

Year One

E:
For whatever reason, we added this to our Netflix queue. It was duuuumb. Jack Black and Michael Cera play a couple guys from caveman days apparently. They get kicked out of their tribe, then run into Cain and Abel, and whatever...
I don't think there was a single genuine laugh in the moobie.
I can't believe frickin Harold Ramis directed this. I mean... Caddyshack! Vacation! Groundhog Day! The guy wrote Animal House! Meatballs! He wrote frickin Ghostbusters!
And watching the special features, you'd think he had another classic on his hands.

Oh Harold...

Leave Her To Heaven

E:
A little back story as to how we ended up with this in our Netflix queue:
I've always been a big fan of the film noir genre (as I've mentioned before). This past summer, G & I watched Laura, a bona-fide film noir classic (great, great film - see my June 8 rebiew). After the film, we watched a documentary about the life of star Gene Tierney. Amongst the craziness of her CRAZY life, they mentioned this film Leave Her To Heaven. It got her an Oscar nomination (always ear catching), so we added it.
And good thing we did.
Another juicy old film in that classic Douglas Sirk melodrama mold. Directed by John Stahl, who also directed the original Magnificent Obsession in the 30's (not the Rock Hudson version), and Imitation of Life (G owns that one!), it's about two people who meet on a train and fall in love. Turns out she's not what he thinks she is, not in the least.
And that's all you're getting out of me as far as the plot.
Gene puts on a great show - turning from one person into another on a dime. Everyone else just has to stand back and watch her.
Definitely a fun one to watch.

The Taking of Pelham 123

E:
I like Travolta, I like Denzel. I like New York, I like the subway. The MTA let Tony Scott actually shoot down in the subways. It made for a grittier, more realistic look that's for sure. The moobie had a lot of potential. The set-up was good, the chemistry between the two main characters was palatable. Travolta gave it his all - doing his best to be a badass, but he's too jovial to pull it off completely. Denzel did his best to be an average guy, but he's too cool to pull that off completely too. And the end, after all of Tony Scott's crazy camera work and editing...eh, the end just didn't live up to the story's crescendo of action Tony led us though for an hour and a half.

The 39 Steps

E:
I'm a big Hitchcock fan. And in the spirit of full disclosure, G and I saw the Broadway play based on this Hitch moobie. We loved it so much we had to Netflix the DBD.
Hitchcock's filmography can be broken down into three broad phases: English silent moobies, English sound moobies and his Hollywood era. The Hollywood era being the longest and containing his most famous films. The 39 Steps was one of his English sound films.
Made in 1935, it's the story of an ordinary man thrown into extraordinary circumstances. At a vaudeville show, he crosses paths with a spy. She asks for his help, he finds her dead in the morning. Now on the run, he has to save himself and stop group of spies from stealing top-secret information.
It's a lot of fun. Especially after seeing the play. I recommend both.

The Namesake

E:
I had thought Mira Nair's film would be focused more specifically about a man's identity crisis. But it's about his entire story from beginning to modern day. How his parents met, how he was first born, how he grew up and THEN about his identity crisis.
No real new territory here. It's about Indian roots, we've seen moobies about Indian culture. I think the only cinematic revelation is the fact that Indian women can be selfish bitches too.
It was alright.

The Misfits

E:
Marilyn's last film she completed. Clark Gable's last film too. Marilyn was such a wreck on set - late, forgetting her lines, unstable behavior (her marriage to Arthur Miller was coming to its end) - Gable hated working with her. He's quoted as saying, "I'm glad this picture's finished. She damn near gave me a heart attack." Gable died 10 days after filming wrapped.
The moobie centers around a group of people who have very little in common but end up together as a group of friends. Marilyn's Roslyn falls for Gable as a cowboy named Gay (short for Gaylord, no less - interesting how the English language evolves). Together with an older landlady Isabelle and mechanic Guido they meet up with another cowboy Perce. To make some money, the men go out "Mustanging," wrangling horses to sell for slaughter.
The first half of the moobie was actually pretty boring. It seemingly lacked focus and pacing. But the second half is absolutely compelling. Unfortunately, without the first half, the second half would make no sense. If the beginning were better, this one would be a classic.

He's Just Not That Into You

E:
An ensemble moobie headed by Ginnifer Goodwin of Ed and Big Love fame, it's supposed to be about connections and missed connections in modern dating. But so many of the characters are either nondescript, unsympathetic or downright unlikeable. There's a fair amount of promise in the set-up, but too many characters with nebulous trajectories muddy the overall picture and too many cliches make the others too easy to read.
And, of course in this moobie world they're all interconnected. In a city of more than 600,000 people (it takes place in Baltimore) does anyone expect these few to really be connected by the dots?

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

E:
After swimming in Hollywood in more than 10 small and uncredited roles, 1953 was Marilyn's breakout year. Niagara and this moobie. Still unsure of this contract player, the studio gave her second billing below Jane Russell. But she didn't care. When told she was not the star of the film she replied, "Well whatever I am, I'm still the blonde."
It's a cute film. The girls have great chemistry and apparently got along very well behind the scenes too. Jane Russell is awesome with Howard Hawks' trademark dialogue. Marilyn does alright with it too, but it's her vixen schtick that steals this show as she lays down her patented litmus test of female sexuality for decades to follow.
The "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" showpiece number is pretty amazing. S&M bondage girls tied up in the chandeliers, Marilyn shaking her moneymaker -"Tiffany's! Cartier!" It's priceless.
And Jane Russell getting knocked into the pool is a fun gaffe. We rewound it a few times to watch it in slow motion.
:p

The Class

E:
Some of my favorite moobies were Palme d'Or Winners at the Cannes Film Festival: Black Orpheus, The Conversation, Blow-Up, Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now, The Piano, Pulp Fiction, Dancer in the Dark, Elephant. But in the past few years, the jury hasn't picked so well. Is it the lack of films to choose from? Is it merely a reflection of the ebb and flow of films out there? Every decade has an amazing selection of winners - Black Orpheus won in 1959, even the 80s had The Mission and Wild at Heart. And the 00s started with the brutal Dancer in the Dark.
But The Child - it was ah-ight. 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days - it was ah-ight. And The Class - it was ah-ight.
It's about a teacher putting up with the adolescent madness of a room full of punk-ass kids. If you want to endure that for a couple hours - watch this film.

Some Like It Hot

E:
OK. Here's the deal. When it comes down to it, classics tend to be classics because they're really good. Some Like It Hot is really, REALLY good! Marilyn Monroe's second film with one of my all-time favorite directors Billy Wilder (after The Seven Year Itch four years earlier), she really gets to stretch her comedic chops in a film that's filled to the brim with slapstick comedy, great one liners and awesome performances by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. Lemmon was nominated for an academy award for this - that''s how good he was. An Oscar nom for a comedy!
The film follows two down-on-their-luck musicians during the depression. After escaping from a mob boss, they pose as women to join an all women's band on the way to perform in Florida. As a side note, much of the Florida resort scenes were shot at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego where I grew up. I saw frames pictures of behind-the-scenes lining the halls years before I ever saw the moobie.
Among the women in the band, they meet the voluptuous singer/ukulele player Kandy Kane (Kowalczyk) played by Monroe to a tee. Curtis' Joe disguised as Josephine takes on yet another disguise to woo Kandy Kane under false pretenses. And Lemmon's Jerry disguised as Daphne takes one for the team and ends up spending some one-on-one time with an old timer to give Joe/Josephine/Junior the opportunity to get Kandy.
Madcap, screwball, slapstick at it's best - this moobie deserves to be on everyone's list.

Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance

E:
After making the highly successful Joint Security Area, Chan-wook Park gained some financial and creative freedom. Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance is the result. The first of his so-called Revenge Trilogy (Oldboy being the best of the three), it's about two men who need to take revenge - on each other.
The first act is hard to follow, perhaps because I don't speak Korean. Some time jumping. Some events hard to attach to which characters. But if you stick with it, this hard-hitting moobie pays off in spades.
I can't really give away too much, except that the young man with the green hair is deaf and he has a sister and a girlfriend. At first I thought it was only one girl. Maybe this one bit of information will help you get through the first act a little easier.
Regardless...watch it! Watch the whole trilogy! (saving Oldboy as the finale)

I Love You, Man

E:
That crew of people all making comedies together need some new blood. That's not to say I didn't like this film. Paul Rudd plays the main character Peter who, upon engagement realizes he has no one to stand up as his best man...so he goes out looking for one. He finds the rascally ne'er do well Sydney Fife and hilarity ensues. Sydney helps Peter find the inner guy and fiance Zooey (the gorgeous Rashida Jones, Harvard graduated daughter of Quincy Jones & Peggy Lipton) learns to share him.
Like, I said - it was enjoyable, mild-mannered comedy. Nothing laugh-out-loud gut busting...even with Lou Ferigno in the moobie. We all know, when Lou's in the mix they're gunning for laughs.
As much as I like the entire crew I just wonder whether ALL the comedies have to include Rudd, or Segal or Rogen or Hill?
The Hangover - for which I DID gut-bust - proves that the answer is no.

Shadow Of A Doubt

E:
A wartime film noir, Hitchcock's favorite of his own moobies, Joseph Cotten...what could go wrong?
Sigh. I wasn't that into it.
I'm a huge fan of film noir. I've always loved the chiarascuro lighting, the suits, the hard-boiled attitudes, the femme fatale. This film turns all that on its head and sets the drama in the suburbs. A dangerous man on the run - he runs to his family. They don't know what he's really about - but his favorite niece is starting to get the clue.
Supposedly Hitch loved this one because he liked the idea that there's no place to hide, not even in the mild-mannered suburbs. Surprisingly this moobie doesn't stand the test of time as well as so many of his others. I know that a lot of the cinematic story tricks we today find cliche were once innovative, and I know that Hitch was one of the best innovators around. But the tricks in Shadow Of A Doubt have been used so often since 1943, they're impossible to overlook.
If you're going to choose a Hitchcock film, there are plenty of others to choose from. It's important to know his stuff, but this one is no longer one of his best.

New In Town

E:
I can't believe I let G talk me into watching this...
cliche city/country conflict, predictable storyline, Harry Connick, Jr. can't act, Renee Zellweger's character was too much of a bitch to care whether or not she accomplishes anything...
They spent how much money making and marketing this thing?
And...why?

In The Heat Of The Night

E:
The Oscar race 1967. The turn of the tide. Moobies were different before then; they weren't the same after. 5 moobies from 5 different corners of the cinematic world. A collection that signaled the end of an era.
Arthur Penn's Bonnie And Clyde was so fresh, so hard hitting, so...cool! The Graduate - satirizing the bourgeoisie. Doctor Dolittle - a tepid studio musical, the lone holdover. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner - a soft approach to America's bubbling racial turmoil (also starring Sidney by the way). And In The Heat Of The Night - a much harder take.
A man is found murdered in a small Mississippi town. The white sheriff and his deputies arrest a black man only because he's unfamiliar and he's at the train station. They figure he's looking to escape. Turns out he's a big city detective and he's much better equipped to handle the murder case than the rest of them combined. Of course none of these white men want to admit that a black man could be better than any of them, but the sheriff has to swallow his pride and begrudgingly acccept his help.
It's a great moobie.
First of all, Sidney Poitier was amazing. He should have been nominated for his work and the fact that he wasn't speaks to the fact that although the academy was ready to address the issue of racial tension, it wasn't ready to embrace it. Sidney portrayed Mister Tibbs with such subtlety and fire and cool all at the same time, and Rod Steiger's Sheriff Gillespie was the perfect counterpoint. Conflicted and proud, he finally comes to respect Tibbs as they work together to solve the murder.

The Academy Award Ceremony was postponed that year due to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination.

G:
I finally saw the scene where he says "They call me MR. TIBBS" whooo hoo! nice. Oh, and when he slapped the rich white man, guuuuuuurl. This one is worth watching.

I've Loved You So Long

E:
Kristin Scott Thomas, she of the big doe eyes and high cheeks bones. Screen debuted in a Prince vehicle of all things. Hit her stride with the weddings and the funerals moobie, and rode the zeitgeist of The English Patient (whether you like it or not). She's still around, just not around our neighborhood.
Since Gosford Park, she's mainly stayed at home and made French films. This latest, after the phenomenal Tell No One, validates Kristin as an acting presence to be reckoned with.
She plays a woman re-entering a public life after 15 years in prison. Her sister holding her hand as she takes her first steps, as they rekindle their relationship, learning about each other, learning about their pasts.
She had become a closed book after all those years alone in prison, now she has the chance to slowly unfold. The people she meets on her journey back into society are as varied as her reactions are not. But she learns to let them in as they learn about her time locked up and the reasons behind it.
The moobie crescendos to an emotional breakthrough with her sister. And the hope that our beloved Kristin will have a life filled with the promise of her second chance.