Bogart

Know what I've watched a lot of this year? Humphrey Bogart films. Here's how I rate what I've watched or rewatched this year:

1930
Up the River - D+

1936
The Petrified Forest - C+

1937
Black Legion - C
Dead End - C+

1938
Angels With Dirty Faces - C
The Oklahoma Kid - C

1939
The Roaring Twenties - B

1940
They Drive By Night - B

1941
High Sierra - B-
The Maltese Falcon - B+

1942
Across the Pacific - B+
Casablanca - A

1943
Sahara - B

1944
To Have and Have Not - A-

1945
Conflict - C+

1946
The Big Sleep - B+

1947
Dead Reckoning - B+
Dark Passage - A-

1948
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - A+
Key Largo - A

1950
In a Lonely Place - B

1951
The Enforcer - C+
Sirocco - B+
The African Queen - B

1954
The Caine Mutiny - B-
Sabrina - C

I'd like to see the rest of his films and read a good bio.

Stuff

I set up an Amazon Associates account because I realized the only lure to keep me blogging is the vague possibility of money. I don't expect anyone will actually buy anything through the links, but it gives me an excuse to keep better track of what I like. So here's a few more things I've liked lately. I encourage you all to buy crap through the links. I think I get a miniscule percentage even if you buy other crap through the links. Go!

First, I've been getting into John Huston's films. I'd never seen The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and loved it. Humphrey Bogart is dark and kind of dumb, brilliant, the best I've seen with him.



And that made me watch The Maltese Falcon again for the first time this decade. I don't think I ever appreciated it when I was younger. The dialogue was too fast and I couldn't see what the big deal was over some dumb bird. Now I see so much more. Amazing film, the godfather of all noir. Anyone seen the 1931 or 1936 versions?



The One Two Three of God

Pretty good audio from Ken Wilber, one of my favorite thinkers... not for beginners to his ideas though. A Theory of Everything remains the easiest place to start.

Tropic of Cancer

I finally read some Henry Miller. I didn't expect anything so non-traditional. Miller really is the proto-Beat.

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World

Sort of a travel book as a guy goes around the world looking for happiness.

Sita Sings the Blues

I really enjoyed Sita Sings the Blues, an animated adaptation of the Hindu epic The Ramayana. It's got great Annette Hanshaw songs and beautiful animation. Plus it's funny.



Here's a torrent. I think it'd be good to watch stoned.

There Will Be Ice

There was ice hanging from the bus stop yesterday. As the weather gets colder I think I'll be staying in more and catching up on movies. I finally watched There Will Be Blood. For some reason I thought I'd be very disappointed - it has a long running time and P.T. Anderson can't really do movies about the "olden days", can he?

The movie feels hella Kubrick to me, and I love Kubrick. So much minutiae and orchestration. Amazing. The only thing that confused me a little was the twin thing with Paul and Eli. It felt unnecessary - probably something from Upton Sinclair's book.

I don't think I've seen any movies in theaters since last December. I was supposed to see There Will Be Blood in theaters (I'm amazed at how accurately I predicted films I would like - I've seen all on that list except Youth Without Youth, which got lukewarm reviews).

Here's Ebert's best of 2008 list, but Iron Man's on there so don't take it too seriously.

Roger Ebert Quote

"A very well-made film, wall to-wall with F/X violence. Its major flaw is that it's disgusting."

A Plethora of Filmgasm

Well, I haven't really blogged lately so let's do it! It's been very cold and I've run out of money till my paycheck Tuesday so what better reason to stay inside and blog?

First, let's post a few videos.

Here's Bush getting dissed by his political homies. It is indeed kind of sad.


Here's some ants. I told you they were cool.

I watched most of that documentary and there's some amazing cinematography.


And via John ("Don Juan") Glomer comes the trailer for The Wrestler, the new Darren Aronofsky film with Mickey Rourke.

Kind of fruity theme song but I like Aronofsky and Rourke.


Here's a hilarious Japanese ESL video I found.


Which led to this monstrosity.



I haven't watched a movie in forever. Here are my candidates for something to watch this weekend: Iron Man, Dark Knight, Get Smart, or Tropic Thunder. You tell me what's best.

Alright, I'll blog more tomorrow or something.

Atom Age Vampire

I'm behind on my class prep but somehow I ended up looking at a trailer for a Vincent Price version of Confessions of an English Opium Eater (they take out the word "English") that doesn't look anything like the De Quincey book, and then I followed a link to this trailer.



Glomer, go watch Atom Age Vampire and tell me if it socks your rocks.

The IMAX Decade

I thought of a name for the first decade of the 21st century: The IMAX Decade.

Like IMAX, the 00's have been loud, violent, big-budget, and focused on explosions and special effects - all at the expense of a good plot (but you can ignore plot holes when you get the IMAX experience).

The 00's were suddenly more expensive... we were told it would be a better experience, but it actually made us kink our necks to see the whole picture.

As we left the theater we were surounded by children who were thrilled they got to see giant robots blow up dinosaurs. We'd never cared about these things before, but the kids seemed to find them important and wonderful.

I'm hoping the next decade will be less fascinated by bling and sensory terrorism, and more interested in cheezy lightning bolt energy going through its collective chest.

Slacker Uprising

Michael Moore usually delivers entertaining propaganda. Slacker Uprising is just plain boring, an example of why I avoid documentaries. I had to skip through most of it. This is filler, not filmmaking, the worst I've seen by Moore, and certainly not worth a theater ticket.

The Postmodern in the first 10 Minutes of "Super Troopers"

The first ten minutes of Super Troopers are so brilliant. Only when I'd watched the whole film did I understand it, and thanks to the drugs I'm not 100% on the point of view and what "really" happened. What about the other Broken Lizard movies: are Club Dread and Beerfest any good? Glomer?