Stroszek
Werner Herzog 1977 West Germany (1st time; DVD)
Upon his release from jail, a Berlin crook moves to America with a woman and an old friend; once there, he fails to adapt to the new culture.
At once funny, surreal and poignant, and very unpredictable; the characters here all seem to be running away from things, with no real aim to run towards, and the film is less a critique of American society than of the human condition in general--they all go where the money is.

Capo, are you in the middle of a Herzog-athon? Good to see so many good ratings, I'd love to see all those films some time soon. Will you be rewatching Aguirre as well?

I'm watching the films of his I've not yet seen, but own. But I plan on revisiting Fitzcarraldo, Cobra Verde and two of his shorts too.

MI-3
I have not watched the first two parts and on my friend's recommendation, I decided to watch this on DLP screen which has an amazing video quality. But the movie turned out to be total crap, full of usual car chases, explosions and gun fight sequences. My $8.5 down the drain

Grandma's Boy ** 1/2

It was great to see Allen Covert get his own movie. He's been in a ton of Adam Sandler movies but this was the first I've seen where he played the lead role. I haven't laughed this much since The Wedding Crashers or The 40-Year-Old Virgin. I'll be purchasing this on Tuesday

American Beauty
1999; Mendes

Great film. It had been a while since I'd watched it. Currently #6 on my all time favorite list.

God, I think I've watched 2 films in the past month. Paris, Texas and Le Samourai.

This needs to change soon.

I get the same thing. I'm into this horrible trend now where I'll watch half a movie and tell myself I'll finish it the next day or something.

I watched the first half of Blade Runner maybe a week ago, and I'm hoping to get to the rest of it tonight. :rolleyes:

God I need to break up with my girlfriend and quit my job.

Godfather was on sky movies last night!

I thought it was funny the other day, apparently Goodfellas aired on some movie channel, and the next day in school I had at least 5 different people come up and tell me they watched it. I guess my obsession with the film is relatively well known.

Goodfellas is overrated. :p

Nanny McPhee **

I was hoping for a movie somewhat similar to Lemony Snickets A Series of Unfortunate Events. This movie reminded me of it and started off very good, but towards the end it just got too weird and it became too much for me

Haha, no.

What the hell's the matter with me? I totally forgot about watching Collateral 3 freakin' times in the past week.

Speaking of which, I need to revisit Collateral and get around to watching Eyes Wide Shut.

Johnny Got His Gun is almost downloaded too.

I was planning on re-visiting Eyes Wide Shut soon, after (re-)watching Barry Lyndon, at DVC's request.

:)

The Thin Blue Line ****

A great documentary about a man wrongly convicted in Dallas County for murdering a police officer. It is not only interesting throughout, in terms of suspense, but it also has a deep emotional impact during the viewing and afterwards. Highly recommended.

Munich ***

More enjoyable the 2nd time around. I didn't know future James Bond Daniel Craig was it in. I still think Geoffrey Rush and Eric Bana did very good jobs.

Last night.

Collateral - (Michael Mann;2004;USA)
A nihilistic contract killer and dawdling taxi driver change forever over the course of one night.
Seeing this for the nth time, I realize that while the ending could've been somewhat improved upon, that this has to be Mann's best film. I've been discussing with DVC how it was gettign better and better to me while he was going behind to me. In fact, weeks ago I lowered it to three recalling it's length, and soon I'll be revisiting it to solidify my decision, though I hope it'll be just as profound as my last viewing. This film however is Mann's most polished. It doesn't go on for too long at all and it manages to be perfectly developed from the characters to the story. Mann's entrancing direction revitalizes the Neo-Noir brings out Tom Cruise's best performance, oddly against type like Fonda's best role in Once Upon a Time in the West. Later today I'll revise my review on it so I can basically rant further on why I love this film so much. Everything is top notch, aside the slightly average cat/mouse decision, though Mann directs that very well as always.

I still rank Heat and Thief higher, but Collateral is a great film.

Hey DV,

I am not a huge Tom Cruise fan and never go see a movie just because he's in it. It happened to be on tv a few months ago and I watched it. I too, really enjoyed it. Kept me glued to the tv the whole time.

There was another one with Matt Damon that I liked similar. Just happened to watch it. I can't think of the name of it though.

TIS

Glad you liked it TIS, it's underrated, IMO. I'll be writing a revised review tonight on why I consider it Mann and Cruise's best.

As for Mann, these are my rankings.
1) Collateral
2) The Insider
3) Heat
4) Ali
5) Thief

Collateral is Mann's best film, and I didn't realize it until the 4th time I watched it. It's a lot deeper than people give it credit for.

There is an amazing piece of symbolism towards the end that I didn't even notice until the last time I watched it. It's what separates the film from other crime dramas.

My rankings for Mann go like this:

1. Collateral
2. The Insider
3. Heat

I'd be more excited for Miami Vice if they didn't play that fucking Jay-Z-Linkin Park song in the trailer.

The reason I lowered Heat was a length problem. Not huge but some scenes. Heat still has the best final image of any of his films.

DV,

That Matt Damon film I was trying to remember was "The Bourne Identity". Did you see it??? That's another one that I happened to catch (although I missed the beginning). I thought it was good as well.


TIS

Mann's work

1. Heat - 5 Stars (4th favorite of all time)
2. Thief - 4 Stars (16th favorite of all time)
3. Collateral - 4 Stars
4. Ali - 2.5 Stars
5. The Insider - 2.5 Stars (needs a rewatch)

NOTE: As for Cruise's performance, while Vincent is most definitely a great character, I enjoyed him as Frank T.J Mackey in Magnolia a bit more.

Breathless/About de souffle *
A french movie about a thief who murders a policeman and is on the run. He is in love with a girl, whom he tries to convince to come with him to Italy. Apart from some general philosophical perspective on man-woman relationship, I couldn't care less about the story or any of the characters. Pretty boring.

I'm always up for a discussion on Mann and his work. He's one of those reliable filmmakers whose work lingers in the memory. My favourite is Heat, probably.