Category: Movies

I went with my friend Gary tonight to see A Scanner Darkly, the animated adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s 1977 novel. The film was directed by Richard Linklater, and was made with the same rotoscoping process used in Linklater’s film Waking Life. Whether or not you’re a fan of Dick’s writing, this is a film worth seeing, both for its wonderful acting and insightful commentary on American society.

Standouts in the cast include Keanu Reeves — no, that’s not a misprint — as the protagonist and Robert Downey, Jr. as one of his cohorts. The film is playing at several locations here in Rochester, including one of our independent theaters, the Little Theatre on East Ave.

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My friend Jeff Vrabel sent me two links today. Both were spoof movie trailers based on Brokeback Mountain. A little digging turned up quite a few more spoof movie trailers on everything from Titanic to Psycho. Here’s a sampling. Enjoy!

• Brokeback To The Future
• Top Gun 2: Brokeback Squadron
• The Shining
• Titanic (as a horror film)
• Psycho: The Love Story
• Eternal Darkness (of the Spotless Mind)
• Gandhi: Holy Cow! (For this one, you need the username holy and the password cow
• The (Ap)parent Trap (When you follow the link, click on the name Paul Lacalandra, then select the movie “Ordinary Girls”)
• Cabin Fever (It may help to know that in the real film, the group of friends is trapped in the woods and killed one at a time by a flesh-eating virus)

If you haven’t seen the original 1933 version of King Kong, run down to your local video emporium and pick up the new 2-DVD Special Edition, released earlier this year.

First and most importantly, the newly restored Kong looks fantastic. Many lost or censored scenes have been added back in — and they’ve been taken from a recently discovered UK print of the film, rather than from grainy 16mm reprints. The music has been remastered, and it’s wonderful, although still in mono.

I was really amazed by how much I got into this movie. I have to come clean: I’d never seen the original in its entirety. I’d seen bits and pieces here and there — I think it’s just about impossible not to have seen the Empire State Building sequence at some point in your life — but never the whole thing. And here comes an understatement: It’s a great movie. A little hammy where the acting is concerned, but I actually find that a plus, not a minus. After all, this was a monster movie made in 1932. It’s supposed to be hammy!

The second DVD contains two documentaries — one about director Marion C. Cooper, and another 2.5-hour documentary about the making of the film, produced by Peter Jackson, who directed the new King Kong movie and a little indie fantasy trilogy called Lord of the Rings. Perhaps you’ve heard of him. This latter documentary contains all the standard “making of” stuff, plus the kind of detail and extra effort only found when fans talk about their favorite films. The coolest bit? Peter Jackson and the WETA Digital crew use 1932 technology and stop-motion animation to recreate the classic lost “Spider Pit” scene, removed from the original film because it was too shocking.

Two documentaries, one classic film. This set should be in everyone’s collection.

I just finished watching Sidney Lumet’s brilliant film adaptation of 12 Angry Men. I’ve seen it a half-dozen times, and it captivates and inspires me every single time.

There are moments in the film where the acting is so perfect that I find myself laughing out loud with joy. Then there are scenes so intense that I realize I’m holding my breath. For me, though, the most beautiful scene in the film is the very last one, when Davis (Henry Fonda) and McCardle (Joseph Sweeney) introduce themselves on the courthouse steps after the trial. There’s something so human and so connected in that scene that it floors me every single time.

If you haven’t seen it, see it. If you have, see it again.