Night Owl

2007

Holiday Affair

Viewed: 23 December 2007
Directed by: Don Hartman
Listed in: Movies, Other, Television

Robert Mitchum curry favors and buys expensive toy trains for single mother Janet Leigh who still pines for her lost WWII husband. Mitchum speaks frank truths and talks Leigh out of a potential loveless second marriage. Mitchum and Leigh marry and get the house in the suburbs, abandoning NYC to chaos and despression.


The Departed

Viewed: 26 November 2007
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Listed in: Movies, Library

Non-stop quick-cutting scenes of massholes, with for the most part bad accents, yelling at each other. Then the last 45 minutes hits you in the gut. In a good way.


Dan In Real Life

Viewed: 24 November 2007
Directed by: Peter Hedges
Listed in: Movies, Cinema

Funny but as formulaic and predictable as one would expect.


Adaptation

Viewed: 09 November 2007
Directed by: Spike Jonze
Listed in: Movies, Owned

Awesome as always. Having since the last viewing listened to the Orchard Thief on random, and read books with chapters on both orchards and Florida history, and pretty much memorized this movie, I have a strange collection of random Florida and flower trivia in my head with no way of knowing it's provenance.


The Darjeeling Limited

Viewed: 06 November 2007
Directed by: Wes Anderson
Listed in: Movies, Cinema

Wes Anderson should do more with trains. His meticulous whimsy combined with compartments, dining cars and vernacular art styles is eye candy. The film played as I expected, through better.


Being There

Viewed: 15 September 2007
Directed by: Hal Ashby
Listed in: Movies, Other

I'm not quite sure what the point of it was, people are too sophisticated? Perceptions can be humorously wrong? Chance is Jesus? Peter Sellers was quite good.


Jesus Camp

Viewed: 27 July 2007
Directed by: Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing
Listed in: Movies, Other

Depressing. A generation of kids brainwashed into obedience.


Idiocracy

Viewed: 15 July 2007
Directed by: Mike Judge
Listed in: Movies, Other

Parts where very funny (the fox news anchor, a shirtless muscleman was spot on) but I was hoping for more of a push of existing trends. Something like corporate logos with excessive swooshes, gradients and dropshadows that were refreshed every hour. Or television screens that were impractically beyond the size of a room. But instead I got a few laughs and a mediocre plot that was slow, obvious and boring. What I wanted was something smarter.


Cinema Paradiso

Viewed: 26 June 2007
Directed by: Giuseppe Tornatore
Listed in: Movies, Library

A film director is forced into breaking his heart for the cinema, no wonder directors and critics love it. Though there is much to be loved about it.


Knocked Up

Viewed: 25 June 2007
Directed by: Judd Apatow
Listed in: Movies, Cinema

Like a giant Judd Apatow reunion party. Very funny throughout, if not predicable and something of a cop-out near the end.


Happy Feet

Viewed: 09 June 2007
Directed by: George Miller
Listed in: Movies, Other

Penguins reject God and embrace man all to the tune of music I don't like.


Pans Labyrinth

Viewed: 28 May 2007
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Listed in: Movies, Other

Not entirely what I expected.


Borat

Viewed: 25 May 2007
Directed by: Larry Charles
Listed in: Movies, Other

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, was somewht disappointing, I suppose it was hyped too much. I did however love the bear.


Ill Sleep When Im Dead

Viewed: 07 May 2007
Directed by: Mike Hodges
Listed in: Movies, Library

I think I get what I'll Sleep When I'm Dead was trying to do. It was a vengeance film, but it implied most of the story leaving out the normal detritus of the genre. But it didn't use the extra space. It was extremely slow, with little movement and wooden, expressionless acting. There is a payoff in the last the 20 minutes, but it wasn't worth the first 80.


The Lives Of Others

Viewed: 21 April 2007
Directed by: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Listed in: Movies, Cinema

A complex and excellent view into the life under the DDR.


Who Killed The Electric Car

Viewed: 15 April 2007
Directed by: Chris Paine
Listed in: Movies, Other

Good documentary, that falls into some standard clichés, but leaves you wondering about the internal and external conspiracies that ultimately doomed electric cars from the big automakers. Makes me root for Tesla even more.


Bride And Prejudice

Viewed: 17 February 2007
Directed by: Gurinder Chadha
Listed in: Movies, Other

As droll and mediocre as I would expect from Chadha, through her honeymoon with montages has ended. Also I can fault a movie that features dancing Naveen Andrews only so much.

Dance Sayid Dance!


The Cook The Thief His Wife And Her Lover

Viewed: 16 February 2007
Directed by: Peter Greenaway
Listed in: Movies, Other

Australians English are brutish.


Children Of Men

Viewed: 10 February 2007
Directed by: Alfonso Cuarón
Listed in: Movies, Cinema

Excellent, incredible intense.


When Harry Met Sally

Viewed: 26 January 2007
Directed by: Rob Reiner
Listed in: Movies, Other

Very well written


Children Of Heaven

Viewed: 21 January 2007
Directed by: Majid Majidi
Listed in: Movies, Other

Cute and light, the story of two Irain children forced to share a pair of shoes.


1296 quick reviews and impressions of every movie I've watched since 2002.

All Films
Recent Entries
This Year