Saturday, October 29, 2005

Film Forum

The summer movie season was, as I'm sure we'll all remember, one of the greatest in the history of cinema. It was filled with such stunningly fresh and mind-blowingly original fare like Bewitched, Herbie: Fully Loaded, The Dukes of Hazzard, The Honeymooners and, of course, the artistic achievement that was the mouthbreathing remake of The Longest Yard. (On second thought, when Hollywood actually went with an original idea this summer, it wound up offering us golden masterpieces like Vin Diesel in The Pacifier. Maybe all the retreads weren't so bad after all....)

Anyway, fall's here, and that means that Tinseltown is putting the twist-cap back on the cheap stuff and uncorking a couple bottles of the special reserve. I just saw Good Night and Good Luck this week, and I'm happy to report it's phenomenal. David Strathairn is terrific as Ed Murrow, and the supporting cast features tons of great performances (especially Frank Langella as the CBS honcho). And, needless to say, the movie's theme about the media's need to find its spine and stand up to fear-mongering is just a little bit timely.

Not only was the movie great, but the previews -- always the best part of the movie experience -- showed a lot of great stuff coming down the pike, movies with that rare combination of a good script, a good director and a great cast. There's another Clooney effort coming out, Syriana, with another timely plot centered on oil and terrorism. The Sam Mendes adaption of Anthony Swofford's Jarhead looks terrific, as does the Johnny Cash bio Walk the Line. I haven't seen Capote yet, so add that to the list, too. I'm even looking forward to the triumphant return of Funny Val Kilmer in the increasingly hyped Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. All said, with Oscar season fast approaching, there are a lot of good flicks coming out.

Anything out there I've missed? Anything you're amped up to see?

Discuss.

6 comments:

Mrs_Thrillhous said...

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe looks awesome. I've gotta pencil in a re-read before Xmas.

Might see Jarhead and Derailed, due to a friend liking Jake and Clive. And we like horror junk like Saw 2. I like Keira Knightley, so, eventually, Pride & Prejudice. I hope it keeps the spirit of the book.

I hate to be reluctant about Aeon Flux cuz the show was good, but Charlize is icky. Lots of screen time for Jonny Lee Miller would make up for it!

Isaac Carmichael said...

I hate to be a spoiler, but if you're upset about someone revealing the ending of "The Pacifier", then I have no pity for you anyway.

It turns out the secret code is the lullabye he used to sing to the baby...it's kind of obvious if you think about it...

Otto Man said...

Damn you, Sideshow Bob! This is worse than the time you told me Darth Vader was really Luke's father.

ORF said...

There are TON of movies I'm dying to see! Thumbsucker, Squid/Whale, Goodnight and Goodluck, Jarhead, the gay cowboy film (they should have just done away with titling it altogether!), North Country. The list goes on. I gotta get ON this. In fact, I'm on my way to fandango.com right now to see what's playing at the theater down the street from me.

Otto Man said...

Yes! The Squid and the Whale looks great, though I have a feeling that one's going to wind up as a Netflix film.

And yeah, Brokeback Mountain is going to be good, but you think the author would've avoided using the words "back" and "mount" in a story about gay cowboys.

Otto Man said...

Speaking of gay cowboys, I'm reminded of this cover and definitely this image from the excellent Superdickery.com.