Christopher Guest is the master of the mockumentary. There isn’t anyone else who is close. A Mighty Wind is the first of three mock docs written and directed by Guest on my list. This Is Spinal Tap is actually not one of them. It just missed. Maybe what puts it a notch below the three that did is it was only written by Guest. Rob Reiner directed it. I don’t want to take anything away from Reiner, he’s done some great work; Guest just gets it more than anyone else. Anyway, to the movie…
A Mighty Wind is the story about a beloved folk music promoter from the 60’s who passed away and his children (mostly his son played neurotically brilliant by Bob Balaban) want to put on a memorial concert for him starring a few of the acts that he helped make (relatively) famous. All of these groups have obviously disbanded since their hey day of the mid 60’s so this mockumentary gives a brief history of each group, what they are currently doing, their reunions, first rehearsals in years and at last the big performance. I was not around yet when the groups that these pseudo groups are mimicking, but from old TV shows and documentaries I have seen they all seem like dead on impersonations.
The three groups are The Folksmen, The New Main Street Singers and the headliners Mitch and Mickey. The Folksmen include the three main actors who played Spinal Tap making it a reunion in reality as well as in the movie. The New Main Street Singers are a hilariously cheesy tribute band for the original Main Street Singers. They probably brought me the biggest laughs of the movie, especially because they are managed by a has-been TV personality who never really was played by one of the funniest people on Earth, Fred Willard. I can go on about him, but will have plenty of time to do that in future reviews. Mitch, played by Eugene Levy and Mickey, played by Catherine O’Hara were once young lovers who had a couple of hit records together. Their relationship ended badly and left Mitch a confused and depressed shadow of his formal self. (Check these links for a few clips from the movie)
While utterly hilarious and filled with great original music, I think what keeps this from being quite as good as Guest’s initial mock docs is that it isn’t quite as mean to its characters. The laughs are a tad more good natured. Also the movie revolves maybe a little too much on the relationship between Mitch and Mickey whose story is a little more sad than funny. There is actually some drama there which at points kills the good mood. That’s not to say they aren’t interesting or funny. Levy especially has some moments that will have you on the floor. Some of their parts just give you too long of a break between laughs. None the less, the ensemble cast filled with Guest’s regulars are all pitch perfect hysterical and overall you will have hard time finding a movie that makes you laugh this hard and this often… Unless you keep reading of course; because I do have some more for you as the list keeps going.
Something else to look out for. The final performance which is televised on a fictional public access channel is a spot on parody of the reunion concerts for old doo-wop and hippie groups from the sixties that currently air on PBS. If you ever happen to run across one of these shows while flipping through the channels you should stop and check it out. Not a lot of things that make me laugh harder than seeing these old bands singing songs about their long hair, smoking weed and fighting the man.
It’s a movie that you’ve all seen. There really isn’t anything I can tell you here that you don’t already know. Raiders of the Lost Ark is just fun. I think of it as sort of a B action movie made with A list talent. Spielberg has never been one of my favorite directors, but you can’t deny his ability to give you a good time at the theaters. Temple of Doom was actually my favorite of the series for a long time, but I think that quality wise, Raiders was the best. I haven’t seen the new one, I heard it was terrible. I guess I may eventually grab it on Netflix or something. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with Connery is a little over-rated. I mean it was fine, but nothing special. They probably really should have made it his last crusade considering how bad this last one was supposed to be. Anyway, that’s all I am going to say on this one. Great movie and the most boring post I think I have ever written on this site.
I am not a fan of Robin Williams. In fact, his shtick really gets under my skin. Even though he goes in to a couple of typical “Robin Williams” moments in this movie; he doesn’t do it enough to ruin The Fisher King. Terry Gilliam has proven that he is one of the masters of the modern fairy tale or just the flat out weird and he nails this one.
Jeff Bridges plays a Howard Stern like shock jock whose cruelty leads to one of listeners shooting up a restaurant and killing a woman. This leads Bridge’s character to depression and alcoholism. Williams plays Parry, a homeless man who saves Bridges from some thugs while he is on one of his benders. Parry has obviously lost his mind as he is on a search for the Holy Grail in New York City. The two become friends and Bridges joins him on his quest for the Grail.
There is a little bit of everything in this movie. Violence, romance, an elaborate dance sequence in Grand Central Station and some sort of evil knight on horse back that is trying to kill Parry. I call this a modern day fairy tale because it sort of weaves in and out of reality and fantasy even though most of the fantasy is probably just taking place in Parry’s imagination. There are beautiful shots of New York City throughout and it’s a great escapism movie. I highly recommend it even if Robin Williams tries to ruin it at times.
In 1970 Mike Nichols and Buck Henry followed The Graduate with an adaptation of the classic Joseph Heller novel, Catch-22. At the time, it 
wasn’t all that well received. In fact, the reviews were mostly mediocre or negative. I think the expectations were so great and the book has such an enormous following that the film was almost destined to fail. I tend to think time has been kind to it and Nichols deserves credit for biting off maybe more than he could chew but stuffing his face with it anyway and breaking it down just enough to swallow. I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone else, but it’s the only I can really think to describe it.
I actually never read the book. Maybe this is a better movie for those who haven’t, I don’t know. Catch-22 takes place mostly on a base during World War 2. It starts off as more of a satire or dark comedy about the 
ridiculousness and insanity of war but eventually shifts in to the dark realities of it. Alan Arkin plays Captain John Yossarian who desperately wants out of the war because as he says, “Those bastards are trying to kill me.” Those bastards that he is referring to of course are the Germans. Arkin is great in the daunting task of recreating a legendary literary character in to a great movie one. The all star supporting cast does well here too. I’m not going to bother listing them all, but if you click on the title you can see a list.
Everything about this movie is big; the budget, the cast and the cinematography. It is a great movie to look at. Catch-22 came out at right about the same time as MASH. Both movies are basically trying to say the same thing. While I think MASH is a better movie and probably a little more coherent, 22 is damn good and probably deserves another look from people who didn’t give it a fair shake the first time or a first look from people who skipped it.
There probably should be more foreign language movies on my list. I have seen a ton that I really like, but I think that I am such a slow reader that it hinders my experience a little bit. Also, I am about to go back and watch and re-watch some of the classics. I’ve seen most of the major Bergman and Kurosawa movies, but I haven’t seen enough of Fellini and Truffaut. Anyway, there are a few that did make my list and the funny thing is two of them are from South America. I don’t know why that’s funny; maybe it’s because I was just name dropping directors that movie snobs name drop from the other side of one of the ponds.
The Motorcycle Diaries is the story of a road trip Ernesto Guevara (before he became Che) goes on with his friend Alberto from Argentina to Peru in the early 1950’s. What was initially supposed to be a wild trip for the two young med school students to sew their oats became a time of realization and self exploration, most notably for Guevara. Along the journey they see poverty and oppressive governments along South America and this according to the actual diaries in which the film was based; is what would turn Ernesto Guevara in to Ernesto Che Guevara. Read the rest of this entry »
After a brutal performance that was so bad it actually ruined the otherwise 
great Godfather Part 3 for some people; Sophia Coppola solidified that she is a very talented writer and director with Lost in Translation. This was her follow up to the surprisingly good Virgin Suicides and she showed growth and development in every way. I usually don’t expect much from the offspring of great artists, but Sophia did Daddy proud. Not to be lost in my gushing over Sophia here are the spectacular performances by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. Murray resurrected his career with an outstanding performance in Rushmore and showed that it was no fluke in this movie. He’s always been hilarious, but as he’s gotten older he’s been able to add layers to the roles he plays that weren’t there before. Johansson toiled around as a child actress for years in movies like North and Home Alone 3 before scoring a nice part in the underrated Ghost World which is probably eventually landed her this role. Read the rest of this entry »
When We Were Kings is not a great documentary because the director did anything different or special. There are no gimmicks; it’s a straight forward documentary. What makes it so great is the subject matter, the footage and the personalities involved. This is of course the story of the Rumble in the Jungle, Muhammad Ali vs. George Forman in 1974. Ali had recently taken a beating from Joe Frazier. In turn, Forman put a huge beating on Frazier. Ali wasn’t given much of a chance. Forman was younger and much stronger. That didn’t seem to matter to the fans in Zaire where the fight took place. Forman was the overwhelming favorite, but Ali was the overwhelming fan favorite and it may have taken a toll on Forman. Read the rest of this entry »
This is the first of two movies that George Clooney directed to make my list. 
Considering that he’s only directed three all together, I think his track record is pretty good so far. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was based off of the book written by the main character Chuck Barris. Considering that and the fact that it was adapted for the screen by Charlie Kaufman there is no doubt that it’s going to be filled with plenty of weirdness.
If you don’t know anything about or never heard of Chuck Barris, he’s the guy who created The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game and The Gong Show. Yeah, he’s partly to thank for all of the lame reality crap that turds all over your television screen night in and night out. He’s well aware that what he made was mindless garbage; he even says so in his book. Maybe that’s why he also says in his book that aside from being a game show host/ creator, he was also an assassin for the CIA. Yeah, he seriously made that claim. He says that while he chaperoned couples that won on the dating game on trips to such random places as Helsinki and West Berlin he let the couples do their thing while he was actually on an assignment. According to him, he assassinated 33 people. Is this all actually true? Probably not. Does it matter? Definitely not. Half of the fun of this story is the whole what the fuck aspect of it. Barris obviously didn’t think much of himself or his accomplishments in real life so he felt it was necessary to include his imaginary life in to autobiography.
You would never guess that this film was made by a first time director, and George Clooney of all people. The story is sort of half autobiographical and half fantasy and Clooney does a great job of adding that surreal element to it. Some people may be turned off by the way Clooney plays with color, focus and angles; but I think it adds to this mind goof of a story. Not to get lost in all of this talk about Barris and Clooney is the performance of Sam Rockwell as Barris. If you have seen Barris on TV, you’ll notice the great job he has done in capturing him. If you haven’t, you can just take this as a job well done on an interesting character. Rockwell has gotten some good roles since this movie, but I often wonder why he doesn’t get more. Maybe he’s just better as a character actor than a leading man, but none the less he is always good. Drew Barrymore does fine as his hippie girlfriend that he doesn’t deserve. Julia Roberts takes on a small role here as a spy and mistress of Barris. She’s ok, but to be honest I can’t really stand her in almost anything she does. She has this sort of, I’m a sassy bad ass actress attitude in so many of her more recent roles and it really gets under my skin. She’s not in enough of the movie to do any damage so I guess it’s not even worth mentioning. This is a fun and funny movie and gets a lot darker than you might expect it to. Well worth the rent.
So I am obviously trying to get through the top 100 movie list at a little bit of a faster pace. Anyway, just wanted to make sure that you know this site hasn’t turned in to a movie only site, I just want to get some of these out of the way so it’s not five years before I get the countdown finished. On with the movie…
So this entry is for the original 1962, Frank Sinatra version of The Manchurian Candidate and not the 2004 version with Denzel. I haven’t seen the new version and probably never will. In fact, I plan to watch the original again sometime soon and am choosing to ignore the new one. I have noticed that remakes are seldom as good as the original; and with a movie as good as this why did they even bother? Read the rest of this entry »
I absolutely love old private detective movies and this is the first one of 
many on my list. The plot of this movie is so convoluted and confusing that I’m not going to go too deep in to it, but it really doesn’t matter. The Big Sleep has it all; the world weary private eye, the two faced femme fetale, the thuggish brutes, the out of nowhere plot twists and lots of people getting randomly offed. This is classic film noir. Everything happens in dark shadows, no one can be trusted and the world weary detective is none other than Phillip Marlowe who is played by none other than Humphrey Bogart. Marlowe’s main love interest in the movie was played by his real life wife Lauren Bacall and the chemistry between the two has become legendary. The movie was directed by the great Howard Hawks. Read the rest of this entry »