misswonderly3

What a coincidence. I was just talking tonight to someone about National Treasure. We both saw it when it first came out, and were remembering it fondly. In fact, my family liked it so much we bought the DVD. As you say, hardly "one of the best films of all time", but how many movies are? I also found it entertaining, as well as funny and kind of sweet, somehow. Like a poor man's Raiders of the Lost Ark. (ok, a very poor man's !) I think this oddball little adventure film deserved more attention than it got. Also, it was one of the last movies poor old Nicholas Cage made before he lost his movie credibility with both critics and audiences. Too bad, he was such a good actor for a while.

..or even roll in it. Oh.... Maybe not.

Good points, all,Lawrence. I will just clarify, speaking for myself: there are many movies I like or even love that don't provide "clear answers". I'm not one of those people who has to have a neat and tidy ending with everything explained. Some of my favourite films have very ambiguous endings indeed, or are even incomprehensible all the way through. But I do think what you said about the "unlikable people", and the film's "ugliness", have a lot to do with my dislike of it.

His character was creepy. I hope no one thinks that, because Paul Dano is the only thing about There Will Be Blood that I liked, that means I liked the character he played. But his character, creepy and weird though he was, was interesting me. Plus, I disliked Daniel Day Lewis' character even more, so compared to him, Dano was someone I'd root for (not really though, he was kind of scary...) The above just shows how irrational sometimes our (or anyway, my) reactions to movies and actors and characters sometimes are. Sometimes I can't rationally explain why I like or dislike something, I just do. This, despite the fact that I'm usually a big proponent of people 'splaining why they feel the way they do about a film (good or bad.)

Lawrence is referring to There Will Be Blood. Lawrence, I think my hatred of TWBB is based not only on the hateability of the film (sometimes I make up words), but also on the inexplicable fact that so many people like it, Including a lot of critics. If I don't like a movie and it doesn't get much attention anyway, I just continue to dislike it and probably wouldn't watch it again. But a film I intensely dislike that everyone else seems to love, for some reason that ramps up my hatred of it. I think maybe I just feel left out : "how come everyone else thinks this is so great, and I think it's so horrible?" type of thing. Another movie that falls into that category for me is The Social Network. Some like it cold.

Couldn't agree with you more, Eugenia, baby. My problem with There Will Be Blood was not so much the violence (although the violence in the film, particularly the final scene, is particularly nasty) as my complete lack of ability to engage with the story or the main character. I don't care if a main character in a film isn't a "good" person; some of my favourite movies feature unheroic characters who do "bad" things (look at noir). My problem was that the main character wasn't interesting to me; there was nothing about him that I could connect with. Plus - I know this is blasphemy ! - I'm not a fan of Daniel Day Lewis. Never have been. I'm not saying he isn't a good actor; I just don't like him for some reason. As far as I was concerned, There Will Be Blood was an exercise in dreary horridness from beginning to end (except, as I said earlier, for Paul Dano.) ps: Funny thing is, another movie that came out around the same time as TWBB, No Country for Old Men, I liked a lot, even though there was at least as much if not more nasty violence in it. But unlike There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men had a few characters who were sympathetic. It had a much more interesting story, it had a lot of suspense, and it left me with something to think about ( besides think twice before grabbing a bag of money when you find it - but I still would !) It moved and entertained me, whereas TWBB was a chore for me to watch.

That brother is played by Paul Dano, an actor I like a lot. Everything he chooses to be in is interesting. Even a film I don't like - for instance, There Will be Blood - is watchable for me if Dano's in it. He's been in quite a few movies; probably the most well-known (after Little Miss Sunshine ) being 12 Years a Slave. But a funny little "indie" type film he's in that you might enjoy, speedy, is Ruby Sparks. Here's a pic of Paul Dano. Kind of odd-looking, not exactly Errol Flynn ( ! ) , but he's a good actor, and he certainly doesn't look like everybody else:

Any ideas as to why there's such a preoccupation with the macabre in Mexican cinema, Swithin? Or am I generalizing ...after all, there are loads of "macabre" and horrific movie themes in English language films, too.

I find it really interesting that there are all these horror and vampire movies from Mexico. Maybe they're really influenced by their Dia de Muertos. There are some 100% Mexican movies I have seen - by 100% I mean, not an American /Mexican collaboration. The "classic" ones I've seen are all made by one of my favourite directors, Luis Bunuel. Because I think of him as Spanish, I hadn't included him (in my own mind) as a Mexican filmmaker. I was unaware til I looked it up today, just how important Mexico was to this director. But actually, Bunuel spent many years in Mexico, and made some of his most famous movies there. In fact, he made tons of them there ! Some of them I've seen: Subida al Cielo ("Ascent to Heaven" also known as "Mexican Bus Ride") , La Ilusion Viaja en Tranvia ("Illusion Travels by Streetcar") - hmm, seems he was preoccupied with public transit for a while -- and El Angel Exterminador ("The Exterminating Angel"). These, along with many others directed by Bunuel, were written, produced, and filmed in Mexico. Bunuel doesn't seem to be alone in his exploration of surrealism or fantasy ( I know there's at least one poster here who objects to the over-use of the word "surrealism") or just plain strangeness in Mexican movies. A "magical realism" element seems to inhabit many of the worlds depicted in Mexican movies. However, I may be jumping to conclusions, because as I said earlier, I really haven't seen that many Mexican films. ps: My use of the phrase "just plain strangeness" was unfortunate; seems a bit oxymoronic, sorry about that. edit: Also, I must apologize to Lawrence, who earlier on this thread already wrote about Luis Bunuel and his connection to Mexico. I did read his post, but for some reason didn't quote him here in mine. But he said it first: "Luis Bunuel exiled himself to Mexico for a long time, and made a fine series of films there, such as Los Olvidados (1950), generally considered one of the greatest films ever made, as well as El Bruto(1953), El (1953), Wuthering Heights (1953), The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955), The Exterminating Angel (1962), and many more."

THE PORN IS GREEN A young Welsh miner with a skill for writing teams up with a lady school teacher. They plan to combine their talents to draw attention to the environmental damage coal mining is wreaking on the land. The young miner thinks the right way to get the townspeople's attention is to publish some soft core porn, make some fast money from it, and use the profits to retrofit the coal mine to ecologically clean standards. Dammit, Miss Moffatt, I'm having trouble with this porn I'm writing. I've got "He'd torn them all off till she was shorn of all her clothes", ..."torn", "shorn", "....what else rhymes with "porn" ?? Morgan, that's terrible. You've got to do better than that if we're going to sell enough of this stuff to make that coal mine a green one. based on an idea by darkblue; royalties pending ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Coming soon to an environmentally friendly theatre near you. Sequel in the making: The Ethanol Corn is Blue "Ethanol is actually not very green at all; and the preview I saw stunk" Greenpeace film critic " Actually, I thought both movies were corny as hell." Cornel Wilde Jr.

Vautrin, I was going to post something else, but your latest contribution made me want to hear the original. (Not that there's anything wrong with the Clash version, I love it.)

Oh wow, man. Pass me that blue tab. G.D., "balls to the wall" is right ! Those guys commit to that song ! That was fun, it's so deliciously psychedelic. Speaking of "delicious", whenever I hear the band Vanilla Fudge mentioned I always get a craving for the confection of the same name.

Sounds lame to me.

But what's all that got to do with your original post about The Artist, and your claim that it's the best film of the decade? (Not sure if that decade is 2010-2020, since it's just begun, but in any case, NOT anything at all about films of the 80s or 90s.) It's like you've wandered into a different thread.

Sounds like a forerunner of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

So do you understand Spanish enough to follow these movies?

I've been thinking, it's strange that we've never had a thread about this. It seems to me (although I could be wrong) that TCM has done a theme about Mexican cinema at some point, not sure when (if ever.) But I don't know if there was a corresponding thread about it here. Anyway, there's a few reasons I thought of this. Senor Trump's "Wall" suggestion, of course, got me thinking about Mexico. And the recent TCM airing of Touch of Evil and its depiction of that seedy corrupt Mexican border town. And I realized that almost all my impressions about Mexico and movies about that country were not based on actual Mexican movies, but American movies depicting Mexico and its citizens. In fact, I think my first movie experience of a Mexican was that bandit in The Treasure of Sierra Madre snarling, "Badges ! ? We don't need no stinking badges ! !" And then he steals Fred's boots. Then there's the sizzling hot black haired sexy senorita, swaying provocatively to some mariachi band, in distinct contrast to the white blonde American heroine; you can find her in any number of American westerns. So, two thoughts so far come to mind: First, not to be all politically correct, but I have to say my early impressions of Mexicans were formed by American movies rife with mostly negative stereotypes about their neighbours to the South. But please, I don't want this to be some kind of forum for arguments about racism against Hispanic people. My second thought was, damn, I don't think I've seen many genuinely Mexican movies. I looked it up (googling "Mexican films") and it turns out there are hundreds of them. A whole industry, and I'm barely aware of it. This despite the fact that I have seen many foreign films from other cultures (mostly European and Japanese.) All I can think of off-hand is the 1992 film directed by Alfonso Arau, Like Water for Chocolate. I've also seen a lot of American / Mexican collaborations, such as those between Roberto Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. Any comments or suggestions about Mexican movies?

YES ! Have you read the rest of this thread, rosebette ?

But the pure campiness of the '59 House on Haunted Hill is fun. I love the acid pit in the basement.

AGAINST ALL BODS (the expurgated version) When a washed-up football player accepts a shady offer to locate a shady gambler's runaway girlfriend, he tries to pretend he's turned into Jeff Bailey from Out of the Past. And for a while, it looks like he and the sexy runaway bimbo are going to succeed. But too many forces are working against them. Against them and their bods. After a tempestuous affair involving much passionate embracing on the beach, (attempting to imitate not so much Jeff and Kathie as Sergeant Warden and Karen ), the pair realize that they'll never measure up to their predecessors and that a mediocre ending is all they can hope for. "Darling, yours' is my favourite bod to be against." "What does that even mean? Oh, never mind, baby, I don't care." "This isn't half as much fun as what we were doing before." "Baby, I still don't care." "I preferred the uncensored version." New York Times "That's better." Moderator 1 Watch for the uncensored director's cut, coming soon.

So how come Tadzio survived? Or, now that I think of it, isn't there a scene that shows Tadzio and his family departing Venice? Obviously , due to the disease that was sweeping the city (cholera, I guess...how do you know that, have you read the book?) Full disclosure: it's been a number of years since I saw this film. (if it helps, I did see it twice. But even the second time was years ago.)

MultiEye, you must be one of the biggest Johnny Cash fans on these boards. You post his stuff a lot. And that's a good thing; who could not like the work of this American music icon? Here's one Johnny did late in his career; I love this song, it's a "traditional".They're almost always really great songs. Here's another version, this one by Jack White: There's something about this song that moves me; it feels like a musical ghost from a long time ago, and haunts me every time I hear it.

That is funny. Makes me want to see American Beauty again. Whatever happened to Mena Suvari, anyway?

Damn, "harmonic convergence" sounds way more mystical and interesting than "coincidence". I get them all the time. One example: I visited a good friend of mine back in early February. She and I email each other a lot, and a day or so before my visit, I'd been thinking of sending her a link to a song I love that I thought she would appreciate too. But I didn't get around to it. A few days later, I was visiting her, hanging out in her home, when I heard the very song I'd been thinking of sending her, floating out from her computer in her office. I'd said nothing about the song to her. What really makes this an "ooh, weird" moment is, this particular song is very obscure, not many people know about the musician or the song. (it was "Dimming of the Day" by Richard Thompson.)

Enjoy your vaction, Lorna. Are you planning to watch Cast Away ? Why am I pretty sure you are not?