by Ethan Johnson
February 18, 2007

Into the flood again/Same old trip it was back then:

Hamlet (1948): OK. I grew up absolutely hating Shakespeare. Not necessarily because of anything that he did, but rather because of the people who thought that either quoting his bon mots or walking around with a well-worn copy of The Tempest lent some sort of witty, erudite air to their sorry asses. One day, I watched the utterly brilliant 15-Minute Hamlet and rushed out to buy the book. Loved it, loved it. So it was with great interest that I watched the Laurence! Olivier! version in all of its greyscale glory. My take? Meh. This is why people a) hate Hollywood meddling, and b) hate Shakespeare, because this is such a straight reading that there's no distinction between who's who. Grab a script that involves 13 characters and read their lines in a flat monotone. Worse, it's not a straight reading; Olivier really played fast and loose with the script, right from the opening voiceover. Naturally, I found out after the fact that Kenneth Branagh made the definitive edition more recently (1996, coming to DVD in 2007). Oh, here's the other childhood-robbing aspect of this movie: Peter Cushing is cast as Osric the page, and he plays the role like an ultra swishy C-3P0. I had to pop in the original Star Wars to check out Cushing's deportment as Tarkin. Hey, the guy had range. Anyway, rent if you must.

Raising Arizona: Very Coen brothers. Hard to believe that this movie is going on 20 years old. Young Holly Hunter, young Nicolas Cage, young John Goodman... and everyone still looks about the same. For some reason I was expecting the baby to take more of a central role in the movie, and was kinda pleasantly surprised that he didn't. Worth sitting through, but it takes a while to really get going.

The French Connection: If I had to only use one adjective to describe this movie, I'd say "gritty." The thing about really any storytelling is that heretofore unknown characters are introduced to the audience, and some sort of connection needs to be made to generate interest for the remainder of the story. Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider pretty much hit the ground running, and it's your job to figure out a) if you care, and b) WTF is happening. (Note: Going into this, I was unaware that this was based on a real story, and thus makes this movie even more "dated" in some respects.) Despite the lack of back story elements, the movie really takes off and does and excellent job of depicting the grinding drudgery of gumshoe detective work. Oh, and there's an amazing car chase scene that shatters the mold. I was interested to learn afterwards that one scene in particular was completely real, as in, some stray motorist accidentally got in the way. Reality ensues. Warning: The ending blows. Rent with caveats.

Jesus Camp: I don't know how I can really write a pithy non-review about this. It's a beating, despite its relatively short running time (80-ish minutes). The movie itself is well crafted, but the material itself is, mildly put, deeply disturbing. I figure if Dave Rogers ever sees that movie, right about the 7th minute a scene comes along that will give him blog fodder for a year. Seriously. Rent with caveats, but err on the side of seeing it with a stiff upper lip, and be prepared to have a group discussion afterwards.

Breakfast at Tiffany's: There is a decidedly sexist joke that makes the rounds to the effect of "no matter how hot she is, someone is tired of putting up with her crap." I presume this movie, and specifically, Audrey Hepburn's character is the inspiration for this line. This is a movie that made me wonder how the leap was made from A to B: How did George Peppard go from would-be heartthrob to saying a catch-phrase every week amid explosions and car chases? How did Truman Capote go from this to In Cold Blood? I found the movie to be very maddening, but will be charitable and chalk it up to my not being in the target market for it. Rent with caveats, putting it mildly.

Black Orpheus: There was a time that I really wanted to visit Brazil and see/experience Carnaval. However, I was never interested in Mardi Gras, and that is within driving distance from me. I'm not a "massive crowds" kind of guy. This movie was interesting from a "what Carnaval must have been like in the late 1950s" point of view, but I found it awfully thin. Dancing, the same 2-tone agogo beat, huge crowds, and then some acting here and there. The upshot is, I love the song Manha de Carnaval, and assumed that this movie would be more "lyrical" if that makes any sense. My apologies to the Brazilians.

This Film is Not Yet Rated: Wow, what a movie. An amazing look at the MPAA's rating system, and more importantly, the veil of secrecy that shrouds the rating process. I have been seeing complaints that this is a slanted polemic, but as polemics go, this was eminently watchable and very interesting. Highly recommended.

Saw III: From the get-go, the Saw franchise had enormous potential to get really old, really quickly. However, in what may be the final installment of the bunch, the creative team behind the series really manages to outdo themselves. Not just in terms of the infamous traps that the series is noted for, but the clever complexity of the story. It seems like dumb slasher entertainment, but somebody actually thought this stuff through. Wow. You won't understand much of the larger plot unless and until you see the first 2 installments. Obviously, not for haters of slasher-type movies. Rent with caveats, but I liked it, anyway.

But I'm a Cheerleader: An interesting indie flick that satirizes various "gender identity" movements, namely those that claim to "cure" homosexuals. By using completely over-the-top imagery and clever uses of color, the entire subject gets the treatment it so richly deserves. Fluffy yet provocative. Rent and enjoy. <EM>