Sunday, January 21, 2007

2006 MOVIE ROUND-UP (Updated)

So, for once, I’m trying to remember everything I saw that came out in a given year and recall what I thought about them. I flagged the ones I saw on DVD rather than theatrically and I'm sure I've forgotten soemthing. Here goes nothing for 2006:

Top 5 (Based on whether or not I would buy them the day they come out on video):

Children of Men - This edges out Pan's Labyrinth only because I got choked up a couple of times while watching it, which didn't happen during Pan. Essentially a message movie wrapped up in an action film, but the ideas are powerful and timely, and the filmmaking is jaw-dropping. I still can't figure out how they pulled of the chase scene shot from within the car, assuming that they didn't use any digital tweaking to merge shots.

Pan’s Labyrinth - Beautiful and heartbreaking. I've been wanting to see this for about two years now, ever since I first heard about it when Del Toro was doing publicity for Hellboy. It's a companion piece to one of my favorite movies, The Devil's Backbone. Both deal with the Spanish Civil War, and where Backbone approaches things via boys and comic books, Labyrinth comes via girls and fairy tales. And like a good unbowdlerized fairy tale, it is dark and violent. It lets you know from the first shot that it will not end well, but it still has the power to shock when the inevitable tragic events happen. And it's brilliantly designed so that you can argue the reality of the fantasy for hours.

Casino Royale - There exists, in my head, the idea of what the ideal James Bond movie should be. Nothing has quite matched it, but this comes the closest. It's not perfect, and the last thirty minutes do drag, but it's damn good and I can't wait to see where they go from here.

The Prestige - "Are you watching closely?" Hard to talk about if you haven't seen it (and I don't know that many who have), but it's a great cinematic puzzle from Christopher Nolan, and even if you figure out the major secret (It's pretty obvious) it's still a good show.

Tideland - An ugly, disturbing, nasty, nasty film about damaged people doing awful things to each other. I had the advantage of seeing a preview screening where Terry Gilliam was present to answer the question "What the hell were you thinking." And, well, I'm still thinking about it months later, which is more than I can say for some of the other things I saw last year.

And the rest...

Basic Instinct 2 (DVD) - Forgot about this one until I saw the Razzie nominations. It got too boring to finish, so I guess we didn't really see it, but we saw enough to know we didn't need to see more.

Borat - Wow, how'd that get an "R" rating. After watching Da ALi G Show a few years ago, I never thought I'd be able to sit through ninety minutes of Borat. And while it's not the funniest movie ever made, it's very funny and I found it suprisingly touching when Borat is sitting alone in the ice cream truck and reflects that the hooker was able to correctly pronounce his name. Cohen deserves best actor just for that scene (and for surviving the shoot).

Brick (DVD) - Cool little experiment - grafting film noir onto the high school movie. Worth a look and I'm not sure why it made Entertainment Weekly's worst of the year list. But then, I liked Tideland.

Cars - Pixar's first stumble, and it's still a good movie. I just don't care about cars.

The Da Vinci Code - Sucked. Worst thing I saw this year. Took an overrated book too seriously, drained any excitement out of it, and plopped it into theaters like it was something important. But it did actually make ome improvements over the book, like not having Langdon waste an entire chapter trying to decipher a code that's obviously just letters written backwards.

The Departed - Man, I like Scorsese. And I hope he finally gets the Oscar. But this is another one of those movies that I can recognize as being very good, but I just don't care about it. Didn't dislike anything about it, but I just didn't care.

The Descent (DVD) - Wasn't expecting this to be good. Very effective at building up tension and claustrophobia over the first hour, and then lets all hell break loose when the monsters show up (And that's a great reveal when they finally do). And I do not buy the theory that the goblins are all in the lead character's head. It just doesn't make sense.

Hostel (DVD) - Effectively nasty little thriller. I think Eli Roth has a good movie in him somewhere and that we're getting closer to it, but in the meantime, this'll do.

Idiocracy (DVD) - I didn't like this when we watched it last week and I saw why it got dumped into eight theaters and lasted a week. It's not good, but it has its moments, and after dealing with certain people this week, I can see how it would be plausible. Ah like munney.

Inside Man (DVD) - Nice little B-movie. Heist movies are cool and everything, but once it was over, I couldn't figure out why the calibre of people who were involved with making it were even interested in making it in the first place.

Little Miss Sunshine - Didn't care for it. Sorry. Great soundtrack, though.

Miami Vice - Saw both versions. Liked both versions. It's more effective on the big screen and I'd prefer a cut that starts where the theatrical cut does, but the rest of the movie is the director's cut.

Mission Impossible III - Worth watching to see Phillip Seymore Hoffman kick the crap out of Tom Cruise, but otherwise a waste of time.

Night at the Museum - Decent, unoffensive family film. Nothing more, nothing less. Now if they'd just let all the comedians in it do their adult material...

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest - We saw this with digital projection. That was nice. It filled the screen with music and pictures and color and action, none of which I can remember at all.

The Proposition (DVD) Gave up on it about halfway through. Between the incessant buzz on the soundtrack (It may have been a defective disc) and the pretentious Greek-chorus mumblings by Nick Cave (who I like), we just coudln't take it anymore. And it was supposed to be good. (And just how pretentious do you have to be to call something pretentious and then refer to Greek choruses, anyway?)

Silent Hill (DVD) - Wait, no, this was worse than The Da Vinci Code.

Slither (DVD) - Nice little throwback to 80s horror (I can't believe Night of the Creeps isn't on DVD).

Snakes on a Plane - Oh come on, it was fun.

Superman Returns - Disappointing. I think that about covers it.

Talladega Nights (DVD) - Transcendentally stupid. Wow. There is some truly funny stuff in here and a suprising number of best-actor nominees. I count three. It may go to four this Tuesday.

This Filthy World (DVD) - Ninety minutes of John Waters doing his live show. Funnier that Borat (or most of John's last few movies for that matter). I just wish I'd never found out about "blossoms."

V for Vendetta (DVD) - Not the worst thing ever made from an Alan Moore comic.

Monday, January 01, 2007

NYE MIXMANIA

Well, I'm not entirely sure this one came out the way I wanted it to. If nothing else, I've found that I really don't have much in the way of party music as evidenced by track 1:

1. "Famous Blue Raincoat" - Jonathan Coulton: It sets the time and possibly kills the mood, though it's not as heavy or creepy as Leonard Cohen's original. I originally started it with Iron and Wine and Calexico's cover of "All Tomorrow's Parties," but that just killed things before they even started.

2. "Wang Dang Doodle" - Hindu Love Gods: It's a party song, and a step up in tempo from track one.

3. "Til the End of Time" - DeVotchKa: I didn't really care for Little Miss Sunshine, but I love DeVotchKa and hope this at least gets an Oscar nom for best song.

4. "Numb/Encore" - Jay Z/Linkin Park: Now that I think about it, the only movie that came out in 2006 that I saw more than once was Miami Vice. Normally I really don't care for either artist on this mashup, but I thought it was brilliantly used in the opening of the theatrical cut of Vice.

5. "Little Red Corvette (single version)" - Prince: I wanted to use a Prince song, but wanted to use something other than "1999." I was going to use the "1999" b-side, but it was way too slow. So I went with "Little Red Corvette," which is at least on 1999.

6. "Tommy the Cat" - Primus with Tom Waits: Just to keep things funky.

7. "Common People" - Pulp: In retrospect, I probably should have used "Sorted for E's and Whizz," but I like this one and it's got a nice building up of energy in it.

8. "Party of Special Things to Do" - Captain Beefheart: Technically it's a party song and it's inclusion most likely shows why I don't have many parties. I almost used the White Strips cover, but it didn't quite work.

9. "The W.A.N.D (Live in Stockholm)" - The Flaming Lips: Cue the balloons and confetti cannons. I frakkin' love the siren on here and can't believe it's a bootleg.

10. "The Denial Twist" - The White Stripes: I actually meant to take this off, but forgot. Hope you like it.

11. "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" - Ramones: Goodbye C.B.G.B. (Not that I ever got a chance to go.)

12. "Maria's Party" - James: Another "technically it's a party song" song. Apparently it's a fairly accurate description a a party the band once went to.

13. "Moanin' at Midnight" - Howlin' Wolf: It's here for the midnight thing. Not sure if it fits, but it's Howlin' Wolf.

14. "If There's Such a Thing as Love" - The Magnetic Fields: Mainly here for the "clock is striking one" line to make people think we overshot midnight. Plus I like it.

15. "Venus in Furs" - DeVotchKa: So a Velvet Underground cover worked it's way in here anyway. Much more upbeat that the "All Tomorrow's Parties" one and any party is better with whips and leather (Can't wait for Maddy's second birthday next year).

16. "Fiesta" - The Pogues: You know, this really isn't one of my favorite Pogues songs, but it's great when they close their live show with it. And dammit, it's a party song.

17. "Doom's Day (Live on KEXP)" - Elvis Perkins, with Dr. Dog and The Cold War Kids: I hope Perkins gets more notice this year. Ash Wednesday is my favorite album on 2006 and because it's getting a proper label release an maybe it's wishful thinking, but I can see him opening for The White Stripes if they tour next year. Anyway, "Doom's Day" isn't on the album, but it's a lot of fun live, though if you like Dubyah, sorry.

18. "Disco 2000" - Nick Cave: I wanted to put one something slower just before the ball dropped, though if you want to argue that I dropped the ball quite a while back on here, I'm up for it.

19. "Countdown to New Years": and with a clumsy sounding edit we go into:

20. "Do You Realize?? (Live in Stockholm)" - The Flaming Lips: First time I ever heard The F'Lips was on New Year's Eve a few years back and they played this. And then I waited a year before getting more of their stuff.

So... Happy New Year and all that.