Tiny Cat Warriors

Bullitt car chase fans - check this out

If, like me, you're a huge fan of the movie Bullitt, you could spend 10 minutes a lot worse ways than checking out this web page, which combines video from the chase scene with mapping software to show where each part of the extended chase scene takes place.  This, my friends, is the kind of stuff the internet was made for.

I don't know how many times I've watched Bullitt - let's just say a lot.  It's out on BluRay now, which makes the chase scene hugely more movie theate-like.  The chase scene is still, 41 years after the movie's release, hands down the best chase scene ever filmed.  Wikipedia has a good summary of both the movie and the chase scene, including a discussion of the logistics. 

For a class project for a film editing class I was taking recently, I took the chase scene(s) apart section by section - it was a masterful job of editing, especially given the technology of the time.  Frank Keller won the Academy Award for film editing that year for Bullitt.  Awesome job. 

Bonus Friday 5 - 5 Worst Movies I've Seen

I saw a list on aol of the 50 worst movies, most of which I haven't seen.  It seems as though any list of worst movies would tend toward more recent movies, if only because no one remembers the real stinkers they've seen long ago - a bad movie from the 50s has to be really bad to make a list in 2008 simply because it's unlikely to have been viewed recently (who shows bad movies at art house runs?) and to have been remembered for a number of years, it has to have been really really bad (i.e, Plan 9 from Outer Space).

I've made a list of, at least this morning, what I think are the worst movies I've ever seen.  I've limited the selection to movies that I've actually seen and actually seen all the way through (one of the perils of preferring to sit in the middle of the middle row at the movie theater - it's not easy to leave).  

5. Biodome - this Pauly Shore vehicle was pretty much a one joke movie actually, if it had had one joke that would have been a major improvement.  It's probably better viewed as a cry for help from Paulie Shore.  Rather than waste two hours on this crapfest, you'll laugh more if you buy a German fratboy a couple beers and ask to hear the latest coprophilia jokes from Berlin.

4. Waterworld/The Postman - I know it's not fair to combine two movies, but these Kevin Costner messes really scream out to be viewed together.  Er..... or more properly to be avoided together.  One takes place entirely at sea, the other takes place in what looks like the worst parts of rainy rural Oregon.  In both cases the movies feature stunning (and I mean that in the pole-axed sort of way) examples of Costner's thespian chops.  Worse, Costner had a hand in the the production of both movies, ensuring plot lines that cannot be followed, no continuity and awful awful dialog.  All wrapped up in two 3 hour movies.  If Costner really wants to fuck the movie audience, at some point he'll complete the trilogy.

3. Tremors - your basic monster movie about something that's way too big to be munching on what it's supposed to eat and turns to...... you guessed it...... human flesh.  A 1990 movie with Kevin Bacon (at what is undoubtedly the low point of his career), Fred Ward and Reba McEntire as potential snacks for earthworms run amuck.  Let's pray Bacon's career stays interesting enough that he doesn't decide to make a sequel.

2. Plan 9 From Outer Space - The making of this movie was covered brilliantly in the Johnny Depp movie Ed Wood a few years ago.  Plan 9 is worth seeing simply because it's so bad.  No plot, special effects that a 4 year old wouldn't believe (flying saucer done using a spinning upside down tin pie plate hanging from very visible fishing line), the actor playing a major character dying partway through the story - this movie just about has it all.  It's so bad it's camp - and was even in the 1960s - less than 10 years after it was made.  Things usually don't become camp for a couple of decades - witness the popularity of the Ashton Kutcher tv show about the 80s - who'd have thought in 1995 that disco would be so out it's cool?

1. Gigli - Gotta go with this Jennifer Lopez/Ben Affleck mess as the worst I've ever sat through.  Affleck does his usual acting job in this performance, which is to say he's God-awful terrible.  He's basically playing himself, which is not entertaining, and he can't even do a convincing job of that.  Affleck is without a doubt the worst actor of his generation (limiting the selection to only actors who've starred in one or more movies) and this is the inverted pinnacle of his craft.  Lopez ain't much better, but everyone knew up front she was going to be a bad actress - narcissistic and dumb as a stump don't really lend themselves to being good at acting (Jessica Simpson has clearly picked up the torch from Lopez on that front, at least lately).  If the script did have a plot, no one told the director, Affleck or Lopez what it was.  The reason I picked this one for number 1 is that it's the only movie I can recall that I really really wanted to leave after about 20 minutes - other movies I usually think, "Eh...2 hours, I've wasted 2 hours on dumber stuff that this."  Not so with Gigli - it's nearly coyote bad - you'll chew off a leg to get away.  If Affleck and Lopez want to prove their disdain for American movie audiences, they'll make a sequel.

Friday Five - movies to think about

I haven’t done a Friday Five listing in a while, so here’s one, prompted by a viewing of Fight Club yesterday (for some reason I’m just not into watching football on Thanksgiving).  Here’s a listing of movies with interesting premises or interesting central themes - these are the movies I found myself thinking about 3 days or a week after I saw them.  These are not in any particular order.

1. Fight Club - the movie was almost universally panned when it was released, owing, in my opinion, to a terrible marketing campaign by the studio.  As a gratuitously violent movie, it’s a failure; however as a commentary on materialism in American culture and for a great script, it’s damned good and worth seeing a couple of times, if only to pick up on the clues you missed about the ending that are strewn throughout the movie.

2. The Godfather - Godfather #1 of course.  Always worth re-watching.  Over the years my buddy Steve and I have agreed that the movie is really about Michael, not Brando & that the scene that is the centerpiece of the movie is the scene with Michael, Sonny and the other gang members where Michael first raises the idea of killing the Sterling Hayden corrupt cop character.

3. The Conversation - another Coppola movie.  Interesting meditation on how what you do can impact your own life.  Hackman was outstanding in this movie.

4. Love Actually - I’ll just say it’s a guilty pleasure and leave it at that.

5. Rear Window - while this Hitchcock movie works perfectly fine as a mystery story, it’s also got a deeper, secondary theme of voyeurism.  Hitchcock was absolutely at the top of his game when he made this.  Grace Kelly never looked better in any other movie - Hitchcock loved his blondes and the camera was never kinder to any of this blonde leading ladies.  One of the opening scenes is a complete masterpiece all by itself - the shot where the camera pans around Jimmy Stewart’s apartment, showing the photos, mementos and his equipment.  One problem in storytelling in a confined format (like a two hour movie) is figuring out how to introduce the backstory the reader/viewer needs to hit the ground running in terms of understanding the story.  In that shot, Hitchcock tells the viewer all they need to know, all without any words.  Amazing.  The scenes where Kelly and Stewart are watching and discussing the neighbors seen through the rear windows are the core of the secondary story - the brief glimpses that are the overlapping parts of everyone’s lives.

6. Bonus item - Peformance - Hugely interesting although not especially good movie starring Mick Jagger and Anita Pallenberg.  Definite 60s film with an interesting story that in the hands of another director in another time, might have been a really good film. As it is, it’s interesting in a can’t-take-your-eyes-off-of-it kind of way.  The making of the movie was so disturbing that James Fox didn’t act again for years. It was pretty much a low point in Rolling Stones history - Anita Pallenberg was Keith Richards’ girlfriend/common law wife.  The love scenes between Pallenberg & Jagger - well, they’re not acting.  Outtakes of the scenes were entered in a porn film festival in Europe.  Banned from the set, Richards spent the nights the filming was occurring sitting in a car outside the set. 

Casino Royale

Casino Royale is out on DVD today - you should get it.

The Lake House

I'd forgotten about this film but just noticed it's coming out on DVD this week.  We saw it in the theaters and both thought it was excellent.  Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves weren't stretching at all in their parts on this (I'm not sure Keanu Reeves can ever play anyone but himself), but the storyline was good with only a minor logic glitch (just don't think too much about trying to pin the plot logic down exactly and enjoy it for what it is: a guy-safe chick movie).

Friday list

I'll probably do Friday lists, if only because it will make me think of lists of things I like.  The inaugural list is 15 favorite movies. I'm defining favorite (as opposed to a listing of best movies) as the movies I'll watch pretty much anytime I happen across them on TV.  Some actually belong on a real list of best movies (some of them made the AFI Best 100 Movies of All Time list) and others are a guilty pleasure.

1. The Godfather - of course I'm talking about Part I.  Brando at his best, although the story's really about Michael.
2. Casablanca - classic war-time chick movie, but it suckers me in every time it's on TV.  "My health.  I came for the waters." "Waters? What waters?  We're in the desert?" "I was misinformed." 
3. Fight Club - IMHO, very underrated.  When released, the writing (and the point) got lost in the arguing over whether the violence was gratuitous and the discussion of Pitt's abs.
4. Jaws - I'm not even sure I like the movie, but I watch it every damn time it's on.  Robert Shaw's discussion of the Indianapolis tragedy is mesmerizing.
5. HIgh Fidelity - great music, John Cuzak is great and Jack Black is awesome.  PM and I were talking the other day and we both agreed that it's the first movie we remember Jack Black being in - he chewed up a lot of scenery.
6. Caddyshack - what can I say.  Quintessential guy movie.  A guilty pleasure.
7. Pulp Fiction - another guilty pleasure.  Ving Rhames has never been better, neither has Bruce Willis.  The dialog in the scene in the bedroom when Vincent is buying the drugs is hilarious - the drug dealer is clearly just another sales guy.
8. Patton - awesome movie.  It's interesting to do a Band of Brothers view-fest over a weekend and pop this in the DVD player immediately after.
9. Dr. Strangelove - this movie works on so many levels.  One of Kubrick's best.
10. Rear Window - my favorite Hitchcock movie.  Hitchcock was at the top of his game with this movie - the opening scene panning across the objects in Jimmy Stewart's apartment tells you wordlessly everything you need to know about his character.  And Grace Kelly never looked better than in Hitchcock's movies.
11. Chinatown - as flawed as Polanski is personally, this is a great great movie.  Maybe because of Polanski's flaws.
12. The Searchers - never fails to hold my interest even though it's a long very long movie.
13. Casino - Sharon Stone's best acting to date.  Maybe her only good acting to date.  And DeNiro is well, DeNiro.
14. Vertigo - Hitchcock does for Kim Novak what he did for Grace Kelly in Rear Window.  Great outside shots of a 1950s downtown San Francisco and environs.
15. The Illusionist - PM and I just saw this movie on Tuesday and I'm highly confident it will move into the "can't stop watching when it's on TV" category for me once it hits pay cable.  Ed Norton (originally from Baltimore PM informs me), is amazing in this.  I haven't seen his performance here listed in articles with early handicapping of the Oscar's race - if he doesn't get nominated it'll be a travesty.  Super plot - I won't do any spoilers here, but remember what the title of the movie is.