CITY OF GOD (2002, BRAZIL), THE CONSTANT GARDENER (2006)

Today’s ultra-concise review:
Fernando Meirelles’s City of God is one of the most depressing, depraved, violent and unpleasant movies I’ve seen in quite awhile. And one of the best.

Today’s ultra-concise review #2:
Fernando Meirelles’s The Constant Gardener is a thriller/romance/polemic that takes awhile to get into, but is well worth the effort.

And thank you to Emma Lee of awardingtheweb.com for choosing
1001: A Film Odyssey as receiving a top 50 movie review blog award!


PhD Programs
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2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)

I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this before.

ASHES AND DIAMONDS (1958, POLAND)

(June 10, 2010) I just finished reading The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. It is an enlightening book and I recommend it highly. This reading is why I’ve been delinquent on putting up my latest film essay entitled, “Socio-Economic problems in Post World War II Poland and the films of Andrzej Wajda.” Ashes and Diamonds, featuring the Polish James Dean (Zbigniew Cybulski), is of course Wajda’s most noted film, though he is still making films today. I’m going to look over the film once again and finish compiling sources, so I will have to get back to this blog later.

(June 17, 2010) Looking up what I can find on the Internets about the film Ashes and Diamonds. I was doing well when I was using this stack of movie magazines and books to the left of me, but when I started looking at online sources, I’d do all right for a while, but then I’d get sleepy. I guess I’ve been buring the candle at both ends too long. :-(

(June 24 2010) I’m sitting at my computer and am staring at the screen. I know I was going to right something about this movie, I forgot the name of it, I know it’s a Europe thing. When I went to watch it again, I realized it wasn’t in English and couldn’t follow the subtitles. I need to rest. I’m not sure why I have such a big stack of books here to my left, but they make a good place to put my Hardees Milk Shake. Thinking if I should get back to this movie thing. No, not write now. I know! I’ll play that game on Facebook. What’s it called? Tractor Land, that’s it. Looking now. Hey! I Got a knew cow!

(July one 2010)Spended two many time on Tractor Land. I was gonning to doo something else. Something about a movie. See emages of movie. Guy with glassses like JamsDEan has a gun. Aktor. Whatwas his name? Zgyskiii, I think. But Guns are bad. Drunk guy waz funnie.

(Jul 201) progris riport: Don no how ta turn on VDD player. Forgotted what I was going ta do anyhow. Rather go on internnet. Tractor Land. Nead to harvess my pigs. Too busie to right anymore. Insant massage comeing in. Forgetted a lot. No I was trubbled befor now I am happie. playin my game. Be my frien.

SPIRITED AWAY (2001, JAPAN)

I've been wondering what the critical consensus is on some of the movies I’ve looked at recently.

So where better to look than www.rottentomatoes.com, which gives films an up or down rating based on the opinions of a community of critics? Don’t answer that. It’s a rhetorical question. Anyway here are some of the ratings.

Citizen Kane 100% positive ratings.(Good thing there are no dissenters. They would probably be drummed out of the critics union.)
A Clockwork Orange 90% positive (Got mixed reviews when it first came out, but now, well you do the math.)
Annie Hall 98% positive (There are people that don’t like Annie Hall, but not many critics.)
Jean Luc-Godard’s Two or Three Things I Know About Her 93% positive (Considering how unusual this movie is, I’m surprised the percentage is that high.)
Chariots of Fire 86% positive (Still haven’t seen it, but will one of these days.)

But lets face it. It’s often more fun to look up reviews of bad movies.
Bio-Dome 5% positive. (I think the one critic who liked Bio-Dome really HAS been drummed out of the critics union.)
Battlefield Earth 3% (The three critics who liked this shows that you can usually find someone to like anything.)
Plan 9 From Outer Space 66%. (Talk about time being kind! Even the critics that pan it seem to have affection for it.)

Another fun thing I just found to do on Rotten Tomates is look up a film that people feel passionately about, like The Empire Strikes Back, and look for negative reviews. There is only one negative review for The Empire Strikes Back. Go there and look up the user comments. Let’s just say most of them aren’t in agreement with that particular reviewer and give their opinion in a most forceful manner. (Note: For the record, I have said nothing negative about The Empire Strikes Back. Love ya, Yoda!)

I’m getting off subject. What was my subject?

One question that comes to my mind is whether or not criticism even matters. This weeks 92% negative reviews for The Last Airbender haven’t prevented it from making 51.8 million dollars last weekend (Note: I have no idea what The Last Airbender is. What? It’s from M. Night Shyamalan? Thanks for telling me.)

Why do I bring this up? I was taking a look at the anime Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.

It got a whopping 97 % approval. And I’m sure the four out of 150 who didn’t like it aren’t really nice people anyway.

One of the most creative movies I’ve ever seen, but don’t take my word for it. Heed the words of professional critic Eleanor Ringel from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I quote Eleanor because she was the AJC critic I used to go to in the 70’s and 80’s. Eleanor, I’m glad you are still doing reviews and doing them in an actual newspaper to boot!

If Lewis Carroll were alive today, and making movies instead of writing books, "Spirited Away" is the movie he'd make. Not since he sent Alice tumbling down that rabbit hole has there been such a rapturous mix of whimsy and the surreal.-Eleanor Ringel.

Thanks for everything, Eleanor.