About Me

Name:Emmett of the Unblinking Eye
Biography
Loading...

Create Your Own Blog Find Other Townhall Blogs

Comments

Blog Roll

Finding "First Snow" Is Worth The Effort

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Thursday, April 05, 2007 12:18:34 PM
Caught a screening of First Snow late last night, primarily because I think that Guy Pearce (best known for Memento and LA Confidential, and who should be better known for the magnificent The Proposition) is one of the finest and most versatile actors working in film today, and J.K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson in the Spiderman series) is one of the finest supporting actors.  And neither disappolinted.

Pearce plays a driven small-time flooring salesman in New Mexico with a secret, sordid past and a passion for Wurlitzer juke boxes.  When his car breaks down in the middle of the desert, he finds his way to a roadside fortune teller (Simmons) who will tell his fortune for $10.00 ("It's what you can afford").  After a few innocuous predictions, Simmons seizes up, ends the session, and refunds his money -- but refuses to tell Pearce what he saw.  When the innocuous predictions prove true, Pearce finds Simmons again, and forces him to admit what he saw -- that Pearce would not see the first snowfall ("Guess I'd better move to Florida").  From that prediction Pearce's life begins to spiral downward to an ambiguous and, unfortunately, largely unsatisfying end.

Although flawed, First Snow is well worth finding if it comes to you area.  Pearce is simply marvelous, and the understated performances of Simmons and Jackie Burroughs as the mother of Pearce's former partner (Shea Whigham) make the ride worthwhile.  Highly recommended if you want to get away from the current spate of action/slasher films. 
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

"The Reaping" Has Shocks But No Sense

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Wednesday, April 04, 2007 1:32:18 PM
One of my favorite Warner Bros. Cartoons has two mice who break intoa cheese factory and absolutely gorge themselves.  In fact, they eat so much that they can't look at a piece of cheese again, and figure that they have nothing else to live for, so they decide to sacrifice themselves to Sylvester the cat.  Sylvester, in turn, can't believe that they really want him to eat them, that they must be poisoned, and that if he can't eat mice, he has nothing left to live for.  So he tries to feed himself to the bulldog.  This, of course, confuses the bulldog, who proceeds to pull out his old tape adding machine.  "Let's see", says the bulldog, "Mice won't eat cheese", and he pulls the handle (kerchunk).  "Mice want cat to eat them" (kerchunk).  "Cat won't eat mice" (kerchunk).  "Cat wants dog to eat him" (kerchunk).  So the bulldog pulls out the tape, looks at what's on it, looks at the audience and says "It just don't add up!"

Which brings us to The Reaping.  Now, Hilary Swank does her ususal professional acting job playing a former Christian missionary/pastor who has lost her faith and now spends her LSU professorship debunking claims of miracles.  However, when the representative of the small back-bayou town of Haven (well played by David Morrissey) comes to her to investigate a river that has apparently turned to blood, things start getting a little creepy.  As the perceived plagues escalate, the town seeks to blame a backwoods 12 year old (played by Dakota Fanning wannabe AnnaSophia Robb) whose older brother has been mysteriously killed.

And this is where things get both creepy and muddled.  I don't want to give away the plot, but by the end of the movie it is pretty clear that if one character had actually opened her yap and told Ms. Swank what in the world was going on, rather than simply standing and staring for 7/8ths of the movie, all would have been revealed.  And it sure would have helped me out, because I'm still a little perplexed as to who, exactly, are the bad guys and what, exactly, Ms. Robb was supposed to be.

But their is no question that despite its considerable scritpign flaws, The Reaping is blessed with decent acting, has its fair share of scares and some very good special effects, but never seems to make it to the realm of the truly frightening. 
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Top 100 American Movies of All Times

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, February 02, 2007 7:18:21 PM
In case you've forgotten what was on the list, it is reprinted below:

100.   Sergeant York (1941)
99.     Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
98.     Rocky (1976)
97.     Sons of the Desert (1933)
96.     Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
95.     The Wild One (1953)
94.     The Bank Dick (1940)
93.     Destry Rides Again (1939)
92.     The Quiet Man (1952)
91.     American Graffiti (1973)
90.     Apocalypse Now(1979)
89.     Chariots of Fire (1981)
88.     Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
87.     In the Heat of the Night (1967)
86.     Night of the Living Dead (1968)
85.     Unforgiven (1992)
84.     The War of the Worlds (1953)
83.     Breaking Away (1979)
82.     The Producers (1967)
81.     From Here to Eternity (1953)
80.     Cool Hand Luke (1967)
79.     Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
78.     National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
77.     Top Hat (1935)
76.     The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
75.     The Last Picture Show  (1971)
74.     Five Easy Pieces (1970)
73.     Bullitt (1968)
72.     Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
71.     Vertigo (1958)
70.     Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
69.     Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
68.     Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
67.     North by Northwest (1959)
66.     An American in Paris (1951)
65.     My Fair Lady (1964)
64.     Modern Times (1936)
63.     One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
62.     A Night at the Opera (1935)
61.     Rear Window (1954)
60.     Singin' in the Rain (1952)
59.     The Deer Hunter (1978)
58.     Duck Soup (1933)
57.     Sullivan's Travels (1941)
56.     The Sound of Music (1965)
55.     The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
54.     The Graduate (1967)
53.     To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
52.     The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
51.     Goodfellas (1990)
50.     Spartacus (1960)
49.     Frankenstein (1931)
48.     LA Confidential (1997)
47.     On the Waterfront (1954)
46.     Taxi Driver (1976)
45.     Ben-hur (1959)
44.     Alien (1979)/ Aliens
43.     The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
42      A Clockwork Orange (1971)
41.     Jaws (1975)
40.     It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
39.     The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
38.     2001: a Space Odyssey (1968)
37.     Patton (1970)
36.     The Exorcist (1973)
35.     The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
34.     Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
33.     Bringing up Baby (1938)
32.     My Darling Clementine (1946)
31.     Double Indemnity (1944)
30.     Field of Dreams (1989)
29.     Some like it Hot (1959)
28.     In Cold Blood (1967)
27.     The Maltese Falcon (1941)
26.     Sunset Boulevard (1950)
25.    12 Angry Men (1957)
24.     Blade Runner (1982)
23.     The Wild Bunch (1969)
22.     Schindler's List (1993)
21.     Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
20.     Young Frankenstein (1974)
19.     The Wizard of Oz (1939)
18.     The Searchers (1956)
17.     King Kong (1933)
16.     Gone with the Wind (1939)
15.     The Philadelphia Story (1940)
14.     The African Queen (1951)
13.     Psycho (1960)
12.     Paths of Glory (1957)
11.     Chinatown (1974)
10.     Stagecoach (1939)
9.       The Star Wars Trilogy [Star Wars (1977)/Return of the Jedi (1983)/The Empire Strikes Back (1980)]
8.       Dr. Strangelove (1964)
7.       High Noon (1952)
6.       Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
5.       It Happened One Night (1934)
4.       Raging Bull (1980)
3.       Citizen Kane (1941)
2.       Casablanca (1942)
1.        The Godfather (1972)/ The Godfather Part Ii (1974)

So there you go.  So tune in tomorrow on your local station or on the Internet at 5:00 p.m. PST and listen to my review of The Messengers.  Or maybe Because I Said So.  Nothing else new is out, and I don't know which one I'll find less revolting.

And if you'd like the list in alphabetical order:

25. 12 Angry Men (1957)
38. 2001: a Space Odyssey (1968)
62. A Night at the Opera (1935)
42 A Clockwork Orange (1971)
44. Alien (1979)/ Aliens
91. American Graffiti (1973)
66. An American in Paris (1951)
90. Apocalypse Now(1979)
45. Ben-hur (1959)
24. Blade Runner (1982)
72. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
83. Breaking Away (1979)
33. Bringing up Baby (1938)
73. Bullitt (1968)
70. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
2. Casablanca (1942)
89.  Chariots of Fire (1981)
11. Chinatown (1974)
3. Citizen Kane (1941)
68. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
80. Cool Hand Luke (1967)
93. Destry Rides Again (1939)
31. Double Indemnity (1944)
8. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
58. Duck Soup(1933)
30. Field of Dreams (1989)
74. Five Easy Pieces (1970)
49. Frankenstein
81. From Here to Eternity (1953)
16. Gone with the Wind (1939)
51. Goodfellas (1990)
7. High Noon (1952)
28. In Cold Blood (1967)
87. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
79. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
5. It Happened One Night (1934)
40. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
41. Jaws (1975)
75. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
17. King Kong (1933)
48 LA Confidential
6. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
88. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
64. Modern Times (1936)
21. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
34. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
32. My Darling Clementine (1946)
65. My Fair Lady (1964)
78. National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
86. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
67. North by Northwest (1959)
47. On the Waterfront (1954)
63. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
12. Paths of Glory (1957)
37. Patton (1970)
13. Psycho (1960)
4. Raging Bull (1980)
99. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
61. Rear Window (1954)
98. Rocky (1976)
22. Schindler's List (1993)
100. Sergeant York (1941)
60. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
96. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
29. Some like it Hot (1959)
97. Sons of the Desert (1933)
50. Spartacus (1960)
10. Stagecoach (1939)
9. Star Wars (1977)/return of the Jedi (1983)/the Empire Strikes Back (1980)
57. Sullivan's Travels (1941)
26. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
46. Taxi Driver (1976)
18. The Searchers (1956)
82. The Producers (1967)
54. The Graduate (1967)
1. The Godfather (1972)/ the Godfather Part Ii (1974)
36. The Exorcist (1973)
23. The Wild Bunch (1969)
39. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
94. The Bank Dick (1940)
27.   The Maltese Falcon (1941)
59. The Deer Hunter (1978)
92. The Quiet Man (1952)
56. The Sound of Music (1965)
19. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
55. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
52. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
84. The War of the Worlds (1953)
95. The Defiant Ones (1958)
14. The African Queen (1951)
35. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
15. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
76. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
43. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
53. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
77. Top Hat (1935)
85. Unforgiven (1992)
71. Vertigo (1958)
69. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
20. Young Frankenstein (1974)
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (1) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Top 100 Movies of All Time -- The Top 25!!

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, January 26, 2007 8:54:11 PM
You've waited for four weeks -- or at least I've been waiting for four weeks -- for the Top 25 Movies of All Time.  So read 'em and weep:

25.    12 Angry Men (1957)
24.     Blade Runner (1982)
23.     The Wild Bunch (1969)
22.     Schindler's List (1993)
21.     Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
20.     Young Frankenstein (1974)
19.     The Wizard of Oz (1939)
18.     The Searchers (1956)
17.     King Kong (1933)
16.     Gone with the Wind (1939)
15.     The Philadelphia Story (1940)
14.     The African Queen (1951)
13.     Psycho (1960)
12.     Paths of Glory (1957)
11.     Chinatown (1974)
10.     Stagecoach (1939)
9.       The Star Wars Trilogy [Star Wars (1977)/Return of the Jedi (1983)/The Empire Strikes Back (1980)]
8.       Dr. Strangelove (1964)
7.       High Noon (1952)
6.       Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
5.       It Happened One Night (1934)
4.       Raging Bull (1980)
3.       Citizen Kane (1941)
2.       Casablanca (1942)
1.        The Godfather (1972)/ The Godfather Part Ii (1974)

Complaints?  Comments?  Major, serioius ommissions?   Let me know.
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (15) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

My Picks for the Oscars -- Best Actor and Actress

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Monday, January 22, 2007 5:20:52 PM
 Best Actor and Best Actress are always a crap shoot (but not as much as the Supporting categories), mainly because nobody knows nothing, and most rely on the prior nominations from the Screen Actors Guild or the dreaded Golden Globes.  So it's pretty much guesswork -- except for the winners.

So the nominees for Best Actor will be:

Leonardo DiCaprio for Blood Diamond
Will Smith for The Pursuit of Happyness
Peter O'Toole for Venus
Sacha Baron Cohen in the excremental but extremely funny Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan

And the absolute, dead bang, positive winner is:  Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland.

Who should be in there?  Lop off Cohen, and insert Ryan Gosling for Half Nelson.

And for Best Actress:

Judi Dench for Notes on a Scandal
Kate Winslet for Little Children
Meryl Streep (the winner in any other year) for The Devil Wears Prada
Maggie Gyllenhaal for Sherrybaby

And the other absolute, dead bang, positive winner is:  Helen Mirren for The Queen
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

My Picks for the Oscars -- Best Director

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Monday, January 22, 2007 4:29:54 PM
For Best Director (and here's where the Academy gets weird, because the nominees for Best Director should match up to the Best Picture nominees, but usually don't):

Clint Eastwood for Letters from Iwo Jima (too Republican a director and won too recently (Million Dollar Baby))
Alejandro González Iñárritu for Babel (too self-important for words)
Bill Condon for Dreamgirls (a popular favorite, but a mediocre movie)
Stephen Frears for The Queen (great performance, but....)

And the winner:  Martin Scorsese for The Departed

And who should be nominated:

Martin Scorsese for The Departed
Clint Eastwood for Letters from Iwo Jima
Guillermo del Toro for Pan's Labyrinth
Paul Greengrass for United 93
Mel Gibson for Apocalypto (not a chance in Hades).

Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

My Picks for the Oscars -- Best Picture

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Monday, January 22, 2007 4:21:09 PM
Oscar nominations are set to be announced tomorrow at (yawn) 5:30 am PST, and I'll probably be on the Hewitt Show that afternoon to discuss/analyze them.  Unless they get bound up with somethign unimportant, like the State of the Union Address.  So before then, I thought that I'd tell you what the top five categores are going to be -- and what they should be.

For Best Picture, the nominees will be:

Babel (a dreadful, vastly-overrated, boring movie, but much much too IMPORTANT not to be nominated)
Dreamgirls (ditto)
Little Miss Sunshine (my outside shot and personal favorite)
The Queen (a great performance by Helen Mirren, and a decent movie)

And the eventual winner:  The Departed

What should be nominated:

The Departed
Letters from Iwo Jima (not a Republican movie, but directed by one)
Little Miss Sunshine
Pan's Labyrinth (too good, and directed by the guy who did Hellboy)
United 93 (too honest to be nominated)

And if you don't think Pan's Labyrinth should be nominated because it's in Spanish, then I'd substitute Apocalypto.  Oh, wait....
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Top 100 American Movies - 26 through 50

Posted by Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, January 19, 2007 9:26:55 PM
50.     Spartacus (1960)
49.     Frankenstein (1931)
48.     LA Confidential (1997)
47.     On the Waterfront (1954)
46.     Taxi Driver (1976)
45.