tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post112261960605196717..comments2024-03-24T13:26:57.317-07:00Comments on Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule: THE DENNIS AND EVAN FILM FESTIVAL Summer 2005 Movies (So Far) and a Week Spent with My Movie-Mad NephewDennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-1122942311788215462005-08-01T17:25:00.000-07:002005-08-01T17:25:00.000-07:00I had my own mini moviefest this weekend, managing...I had my own mini moviefest this weekend, managing to cram in 3, albeit not the four I'd planned. I saw MUST LOVE DOGS (loved it!), MARCH OF THE PENGUINS (good, but felt I'd seen it all before elsewhere) and WEDDING CRASHERS (much, much better than I ever expected, despite the cameo that you referenced). Was also planning to catch THE ISLAND (oh, stop laughing!), but didn't realize that it's over 2 hours long. So wasn't able to fit it in. I know it's a bloated Michael Bay shoot-'em-up movie, but sometimes one needs that. Next up, hopefully, will be HUSTLE & FLOW.<BR/><BR/>That said, thus far it's been a rather disappointing summer of movies for me. Don't really know what's left to open, but it's not going to be a memorable one as far as I'm concerned. Let's hope that the fall movies will be better.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-1122928324849212102005-08-01T13:32:00.000-07:002005-08-01T13:32:00.000-07:00Wow...I finally read ALL of this opus, and I thoro...Wow...I finally read ALL of this opus, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm jealous of the maniacal movie-going week, but also impressed that you still have the stamina to SEE all those movies. Really glad to know that Evan has inherited that movie-loving tendency! Great essays on the movies, too. And I'm with Thom on The Poseidon Adventure poster--loved it! Particularly interesting about "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", since most people whose opinion I respect who've managed to see it found it funny and at least not-bad--a surprise in light of so much vehement critical condemnation of it. Thanks for another great read.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-1122910945029549002005-08-01T08:42:00.000-07:002005-08-01T08:42:00.000-07:00Yeah Dodger Thoughts is pretty nuts. It is one of...Yeah Dodger Thoughts is pretty nuts. It is one of the most popular blogs I have ever heard of, to the point that Jon now gets occasional media coverage/interviews and certain journalists actually quote the comments (some of the posters could easily start blogs with the information they post). However, I find that with so many people using the internet as a forum for venting anonymously, more press often leads to more "flotsam and jetsam" as my dad says. IMDB message boards are almost unreadable for this reason.<BR/><BR/>As for "Last Temptation" I wonder if I wasn't just surprised. After hearing all the controversy I was expecting something more... controversial? The grappling with religion is definitely there, but sometimes I think that the author goes to far afield (Jesus's sinning on purpose at the beginning is not very well explained and his transformation is too sudden. I think that it sets the tone poorly for the movie, especially since it introduces Judas as a loony toon jumping up and down on the cross). That said, I think that as I consider the movie from a distance it wasn't as bad as I thought, though it still isn't one of my favorites.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-1122881937728306162005-08-01T00:38:00.000-07:002005-08-01T00:38:00.000-07:00Peet: Great to hear from you. Actually, I did lurk...Peet: Great to hear from you. Actually, I did lurk a bit on the 24 Lies forum a bit this weekend, but I didn't check in on the WOTW discussion. But don't think I won't! Hope things are going well! Got some answers to Prof. Wagstaff's quiz for us?<BR/> <BR/>Benaiah: Just been catching up with the weekend DODGER THOUGHTS meltdown. Good grief... You were one of the (many) voices of reason, and I appreciated that. I particularly liked this post: <BR/><BR/><I>154 - You seem to respond to everything with sarcasm, but you fail to understand anything that is said. The point is, Drew had an injury history, however, getting hit on the wrist with a pitch in no way validates that he is in fact prone to injury. You assume that simply because you thought he was injury prone and now he is injured you are correct, but this injury is unrelated to your analysis. It is like deciding not to buy a stock after looking at the P/E ratio and then deciding you are a genius after the stock crashes on the basis of the CEO embezzling a billion dollars. Drew hasn't been as valuable as he should have been due to injury, but it has nothing to do with your "analysis" of his history</I>. <BR/><BR/>I'm only at comment #251 and I'm gonna have to go to bed. But I can imagine Jon W. is pretty upset at how things played out. Somebody (I forget who) worried that with too much publicity comes a lot of folks who aren't up to the standard that the site has enjoyed for three years and that the quality of the postings might be in for a major fall-off. I think it's too early to panic in that regard, but I do worry that this kind of thing might become more common, the more people stop lurking and start smart-bombing (or should that be dumb-bombing?)the site with condescending sarcasm and outright insults. Not that I ever expect to have anything like the kind of following Jon has, but I would dread having to deal with that kind of situation here. I actually did have to, on a very small scale, a few months ago, and with a couple of sharp, but nonsarcastic requests, was able to contain a certain string of comments from degrading into contextless goofiness and personal attacks on people who most commenters at that time knew, but who were not themselves participants in this site.<BR/><BR/>I'll have to talk with you more about <I>The Last Temptation of Christ</I>. I don't think it's a perfect movie, but it does strike me as one of the most sincere religious films in its searching, in its insistence that grappling with (and for) some kind of angle of truth about how divinity and humanity could coexist in the same person is more important that slavishly recreating tableaus and dialogues that might be famliar (or overly familiar) out of simple reverence. (And by simple reverence, I mean reverence that precludes challenging thought.) Thanks for checking in!Dennis Cozzaliohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-1122714445054829882005-07-30T02:07:00.000-07:002005-07-30T02:07:00.000-07:00Dennis: your enthusiasm and sense of detail almost...Dennis: your enthusiasm and sense of detail almost convinces me I was right there with you guys that week.<BR/><BR/>I especially liked your thoughts on War of the Worlds. You and other readers on this blog might have missed a very intense discussion of WOTW at the 24Lies forum. I'm an admirer of the movie, and so I've spent the better part of this discussion defending Spielberg, in spite of the film's major misstep at the end.<BR/><BR/>www.24liesasecond.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=134<BR/><BR/>Spoiler alert:<BR/>I think Koepp and Spielberg made a regrettable mistake in trying to combine two diametrically opposed dramatic arcs. The first one prescribes that the uncaring father is confronted with his careless ways and is finally able to bring his children back home. The second one is the father-son conflict, which centres around the choice we have to run or fight in circumstances of war, and prescribes that the father loses protection over his son. The ending reveals that the boy still lives, which implies that the son didn't need his father's protection after all. This is in conflict with the dramatic arc of the father and considerably devalues the impact of the son's.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-1122701356821499442005-07-29T22:29:00.000-07:002005-07-29T22:29:00.000-07:00Wow sounds like a great week! I have had a pretty...Wow sounds like a great week! I have had a pretty solid summer what with failing to find a job until last week (I have watched 80-90 movies since mid June). Because a couple people mentioned it as their favorite religious film I went and got Last Temptation of Christ and man was I disappointed. I guess I was expecting a very human god, not a slightly god human (if that makes sense). What interested me was the concept of this all powerful person struggling with human desires and emotions. Instead I get a personality changing insane person who seems largely impotent (even the miracles were filmed so as to less their import in my opinion). Plus the music ages badly, the acting is great in parts are tragically overdone in others and the dialogue is oof terrible. I swear they went out of their way to paraphrase everything Jesus said, rather then quote the Bible. The results are rather poor in nearly every case (especially when Jesus saves Mary and when he tells the parable of the seeds, which I guess he himself did not understand based on his interpretation of it in the movie). I wasn't offended in the least, but I just thought it could have been so much better.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com