Sunday, August 28, 2011

Weekly Round Up (8/21/11 - 8/27/11)

The Love Parade (Ernst Lubitsch) **** - A womanizing military attache finds himself married to the Queen of his country and a battle of the sexes ensues. This is another classic pre-code musical courtesy of Ernst Lubitsch and Maurice Chevalier. The film will be viewed as rather sexist today and the songs are not that memorable but the wit, charm and filmmaking artistry will definitely win most people over (yours truly included). Oh, and it's also quite funny.

30 Minutes or Less (Ruben Fleischer) **1/2 - An unambitious pizza delivery boy finds himself forced to rob a bank after a couple of n'er-do-wells decide to off the rich dad of one of them so they can get their inheritance to fund their prostitution scheme. This film is from the makers of Zombieland. It's not quite as good as that movie. The film feels like a Coen Brothers script as directed by Judd Apatow and the result is a mix of good and meh. The cast is funny though Jesse Eisenberg, I feel, is just teeny-smudge miscast (though he's still great in it).

Pixote (Hector Babenco) **** - A young street urchin who after escaping from a brutal reform school with a bunch of young hoodlums enter a life of pretty crime involving robbery, drug dealing and prostitution in the streets of Brazil. This film predates City of God by more than 20 years. Although it has less violence and no flashy editing, it is somewhat more harrowing and disturbing even after all these years. The lead child actor in the film, Fernando Ramos da Silva, who plays the title character is a real-life street criminal whose brief fame with this film was shortlived due to his illiteracy and turned back into a life of crime, ending in a police shoot-out which killed him at age 19. Knowing this fact lends a bit of poignancy to certain scenes. It's often tough to watch but still a great film no less.

Woodstock (Michael Wadleigh) **** - I got this as a present for my dad because he loves classic rock music. Since I've only seen parts of it, I might as well catch up on my classic documentaries (one of the few genres of film which I'm dreadfully behind) and my music at the same time. This is an extraordinary documentary. The breathtaking editing and cinematography are matched only by the amazing musical performances captured forever, thankfully, on celluloid. The historic event has very much a "it's-as-if-you-were-there" feel to it.

16 comments:

Reanaclaire said...

hello, coming by because I am looking for movie blogs for some reviews. Please drop me an email..
reanact(at)gmail.com

thanks!

A said...

Definitely going to check out pixote. Nice post.

Anonymous said...

30 Minutes or Less seems to be interesting. :D

Linchpin said...

Pixote seems interesting with that real-life story.

i_love_weed said...

from the makers of zombieland??

hmm, maybe ill check it out

Andrea said...

oh yes entertaiment weekly is great :)

my day in a sentence said...

Woodstock it is. I'll give it a go. :)

mjunta said...

interesting. nice post!

Bersercules said...

I like finding out about movies from your reviews but its hard to put the movie in context when you don't add the year it was made. I know pre code is pre 1934 but thats it!

Thomas Duder, Author of the Things said...

Love Parade sounds kinda like The King and I (the original one, not the horrible remake YES IT WAS HORRIBLE THE ORIGINAL WAS SUPERIOR), which isn't a bad thing inexactly...

Scrubby Bear said...

Thanks for the update! Pixote seems.... different! ;)

Igneel21 said...

you got me at "zombieland"

Unknown said...

I really enjoyed 30 mins. or less.

Damon said...

great post
i like your blog (:
+follow

Jaccstev said...

Nice reviews! Haven't seen most of those titles yet.

DS said...

Pixote o,O intresting