Why This Is Hell

And this is impossible to discuss without giving away plot points.

( CXVI: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009) )

Totals: 116 - [Cinema: 36; DVD: 70; Television: 10]

Brief comments to catch up:

CII: The Parallax View (Alan J. Pakula, 1974)
1970s conspiracy thriller built around an assassination, and who saw what. Warren Beatty in the man watching his back.

CIII: Jennifer's Body (Karyn Kusama, 2009)
There's a great movie to be built around the tagline "She's evil, not high school evil", but this isn't it. Despite the Juno pedigree, this lacks the sharpness of that script, and just doesn't play enough with the conventions - nor make much sense.

CIV: C'era una volta il West (Once Upon A Time in the West, Sergio Leone, 1968
This doesn't quite have the sweep of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, and lacks Clint, but still a gripping, thrilling, amusing, western full of dialogue you'll be wanting to quote for days. A harmonica player and a desperado join forces to help a widow who is bullied by the buiders of the railroad. Tarantino should watch and note how to do it properly.

CV: The Card Player (Dario Argento, 2003)
From Argento as scriptwriter to Argento as director, scriptwriter and father of one of the cast. A giallo, perhaps, but in any case a horror thriller cast in the mode of Hostel and the Saw series (which it predates. A cop is forced to play online poker to save kidnapped blondes. Predictably total bollocks but fun.

CVI: The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976)
Eastwood clearly paid attention whilst doing the man with no name - not exactly a revisionist western, but a spin on The Searchers which shows more respect for native Americans than the white settlers. I really need to bone up on American Civil War iconography to follow the ins and outs of westerns.

CVII: Lenny (Bob Fosse, 1974)
Biopic of the Russell Brand of his day, one of those comedians who made Bill Hicks and Richard Pryor possible: Lenny Bruce, here played by Dustin Hoffman. The narrative leaps around, and aspires to documentary, but I'd say the ending was botched. In glorious black and white.

CVIII: Im Lauf der Zeit (Kings of the Road, Wim Wenders, 1976)
Wenders is one of those directors, like Greenaway, who was very big in the 1980s but has vanished from mind. I appear to be working through the boxset given what else I have on the to watch pile, and this is no bad thing. This is a road movie, in glorious black and white, and at times looks like a western - albeit one shot on the borders of East Germany. The plot, such as it is, concerns the travels of a cinema engineer and an estranged husband. It's an 18, which is a little harsh, but it does include male nudity, a major character taking a dump and a cameo masturbating. Probably ninety minutes too long, but indulge it.

CIX: Celia (Anne Turner, 1989)
Rewatch of a film both charming and disturbing - the story of nine year old Celia in Australia in the era of the red scare and the rabbit epidemic. Like Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson - what happened to him?), this takes us into a child's psyche. It was mismarketed as horror, but it is certainly disturbing.

CX: Red Eye (Wes Craven, 2005)
Effective but frankly barking thriller that is not exactly typical of the director's oeuvre. A hotel receptionist's father is held sort-of hostage to ensure her co-operation during a flight home. The criminals seem to have gone to far much trouble to achieve what they want - a carefully placed bomb would have diposed of the plot. Brian Cox collects another easy paycheck as yet another father possibly marked for death, and the principals are pleasant enough to watch.

CXI: Be Cool (F. Gary Gray, 2005)
Gruelish Elmore Leonard sequel where various gangsters, rappers and Russians fight over owed money, witnesses to an assassination and a disputed music contract. John Travolta treds water, James Woods offers an amusing cameo, and the best bits involve The Rock as a gay bodyguard. Ho hum.

Totals: 101 - [Cinema: 32; DVD: 69; Television: 10]

Meanwhile, back at the totals:

2913 / 4000 words. 73% done!

( XCIII: City that Never Sleeps (John H. Auer, 1953) )

( XCIV: Insomnia (Christopher Nolan, 2002) )

And did you see what I did with my choices?

( XCV: Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) )

( XCVI: The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980) )

( XCV: Sita Sings the Blues (Nina Paley, 2008) )

( XCVI: Animal Farm (Joy Batchelor and John Halas, 1954) )

( XCVII: Like It Is (Paul Oremland, 1998) )

( XCVIII: Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum, Volker Schlöndorff, 1979) )


Totals: 98 - [Cinema: 29; DVD: 62; Television: 7]

52 up!

( Silent Running (Douglas Trumbull, 1972) )

Totals: 52 - [Cinema: 15; DVD: 34; Television: 3]