Dennis Quaid lists Five Easy Pieces as one of his favorite films on Rotten Tomatoes:
Props to him. I feel like - around here, at least - that it doesn't get enough love. I was so struck by it when I initially watched it a year ago. It is easily Nicholson's best performance, and it has one of the all-time great final shots.
That America Lost and Found set is one of the last on my list of already released items that I need to get. Last Picture Show is up there on my favorites of all time list. Nice to hear about Five Easy Pieces, no knowledge of that one at all.
so do you watch it without subs in the original Japanese or English Dub?
I like to have subs since I'm not fluent and if the English version is annoying like Love Hina's dub.
Unfortunately I only have the dubbed version I Guess only in the English language dub will you find Jackie Chan providing his own dialogue. It's very strange??? I mean, the film has some of the most technically accomplished action scenes, yet they still had to dub everything.
Props to him. I feel like - around here, at least - that it doesn't get enough love. I was so struck by it when I initially watched it a year ago. It is easily Nicholson's best performance, and it has one of the all-time great final shots.
I haven't seen it since my early cinephile days. I remember deeming it a good film, but I was disappointed that it didn't have the counterculture feel of Easy Rider.
I plan on revisiting a bunch of those BBS films soon...well, at least Five Easy pieces, Easy Rider and Last Picture Show.
That America Lost and Found set is one of the last on my list of already released items that I need to get. Last Picture Show is up there on my favorites of all time list. Nice to hear about Five Easy Pieces, no knowledge of that one at all.
I'm going to pick it up at the next B&N sale.
I'm increasingly tempted to shell out the $64 on Amazon.com for the America Lost and Found set. I might do that soon if I don't want to wait until June, but I prefer buying the box sets and digipak sets in person.
I'm increasingly tempted to shell out the $64 on Amazon.com for the America Lost and Found set. I might do that soon if I don't want to wait until June, but I prefer buying the box sets and digipak sets in person.
Considering the MSRP, coupons and membership discount during BN50 go a long way. I think I got mine for $40-something.
Speaking of films with poor translations and dubs... when are we ever going to get the Ang Lee subtitled version of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on blu ray? Maybe Criterion could do something here.
Ang Lee's theatrical subtitles were quite poetic. What we got on the blu-ray is a real head scratch-er.
Just finished Repo Man. WTF was that ending. Nuts. I really thought everything up to that point was well put together though. Need to give it some more time for reflection.
Also the credits going backwards is a little disarming.
Watched it last night for the first time too! I love how it is clearly inspired by another Criterion, Kiss Me Deadly (which, for those who aren't familiar with it, is a noir with nuclear-warfare undertones), for starters with both the dangerous glowing essence that kills people and the backwards credits.
What a nutso movie though! I did really like it. Can't believe a studio made that.
Just finished Cronenberg's Crash. I have no coherent thoughts at the moment, but I was fascinated throughout. Looking forward to Criterion's inevitable release.
Speaking of films with poor translations and dubs... when are we ever going to get the Ang Lee subtitled version of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on blu ray? Maybe Criterion could do something here.
Ang Lee's theatrical subtitles were quite poetic. What we got on the blu-ray is a real head scratch-er.
Thanks for the heads up, I'm gonna look into that.
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Side Note:
After hearing the Soundtrack to Miami Vice countless times over the last few days, I decided to touch up my original review. My BluRay copy of the UK theatrical cut just arrived, which I'm not sure I've ever seen, so I expect to make some serious alterations in the future.
[Show spoiler]
Michael Mann's New World
After reaching the pinnacle of commercial and critical success in 1995 with Heat, Michael Mann's next two features found difficulty garnering an audience: The Insider (1999), although warmly received by critics and Ali (2001), whose reception was more mixed. His subsequent film, Collateral (2004) finally broke ground with audiences. More importantly, its groundbreaking cinematography by Dion Beebe paved the way for the innovation of Miami Vice. Filmed on the Viper FilmStream High-Definition Camera, it was the first major Hollywood film to embrace the digital look. Los Angeles nightlife had never looked more dangerous.
Loosely based on the innocuous 80's TV series, Miami Vice (2006) was a critical and commercial disappointment. Promotional trailers, set to "Numb/Encore" by Linkin Park & Jay-Z promised audiences a taught, twisty, colorful thriller drenched with sex appeal. Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx were expected to embody the great cop duo of the 2000's. Upon release, audiences reacted with indifference and hate, labeling the film a boring, muddled and risible affair. What could have gone so wrong?
The opening scenes of Miami Vice give the audience little set up as it thrusts the viewer straight into an undercover prostitution ring investigation. As police detectives "Sonny" Crocket and "Rico" Tubbs close in on Neptune, the pimp, they receive a call from a former informant on a concurrent case, Alonzo Stevens. His identity has been compromised and he believes his family to be in danger. Upon meeting with him, he appears destitute and distraught, "Sonny" and "Rico" try to calm him down, and discretely inform him of his wife's murder. Alonzo then sacrifices himself into the oncoming interstate traffic. The blood stained skid marks of the eighteen-wheeler is a haunting illustration of the fragility of existence. This pained encounter complicates and foreshadows the moral stakes to come.
A synopsis of the opening act of Miami Vice promises a nail-biting thriller, but that would be misleading. The incoherent plot, though functional, serves as the entry point into some of Michael Mann's most thought provoking and indelible images. Characters are shot in wide angle close up, reminiscent of Wong Kar Wai. Medium wide shots, often takes inspiration from the work of Terrence Malick (made especially more apparent when coupled with impressionistic cutting), Michelangelo Antonioni (through contrast and mood) and Andrei Tarkovsky (through movement). In the second act, detailing "Sonny" and "Rico's" infiltration into the drug cartel, their subsequent operation as drug runners and Crocket's affair with Isabella (Gong Li), Mann eschews nimble plotting in favor of impressionistic, high contrast images of bodies reacting to each other against an open canvas. The open Colombian beaches provide the overwhelming backdrop for their tryst. Dion Beebe's expressionistic cinematography engages our senses as they seek sensual relief. The confident compositions magnify the surrounding space and their temporary dislocation from the drug running business. It might as well be a romance set in the lobby of a panoramic space station.
Another facet of Miami Vice’s success lies in its refusal to flesh out characters in a traditional sense: a few back stories are haphazardly laid on us in an expository fashion, process and movement are favored over traditional drama. Details never coalesce into an intelligible whole as incoherence is not an incidental by product of Mann’s most impressionistic filmmaking but a desired outcome. In the world Mann sketches, sporadically just as cynical as the future Alfonso Cuarón detailed for us in Children of Men (also 2006), we can only hope his aimless characters inadvertently stumble upon any semblance of functional humanity. Their lines of work have corroded any sense of hope.
Mann isn't seeking to duplicate the high drama or genre thrills of his mid to late nineties masterworks, Heat and The Insider, (though impressive blockbuster stimuli is to be found in the form of plane flights to and from South Florida, speeding boats, stash house raids & Mexican standoffs) but rather focus our attention on the prevailing systems, international crime and an ethically compromised law enforcement, that threaten to rob us of our humanity and identity. Both sides are equally ruthless, taxing on their adherents and fractured in ideology as Mann composes encounters with both the mob bosses and Federal superiors in a detached and impersonal way hinting at brooding documentary realism. Criminals don't display colorful personalities akin to Hans Gruber in Die Hard. “Crockett” and “Tubbs” do not resemble Lethal Weapon’s multiracial detective duo Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover). Their speech contains no element of the theatrical (except for when “Crockett reveals to Isabella he is a “fiend for Mojitos).
As they negotiate, third world countries are stripped of their lustre. The intended buyers of the drugs are never seen, only the harrowing byproducts on the other side of the equator. No junkies histrionically communicating the need to satiate their addiction, no drug peddlers trying to locate them either. Mann paints this sick network with fearless economy. The sole image of dozens of Colombian commoners occupying a littered street, specifically Styrofoam, communicates more than an entire Stephen Gaghan screenplay. These byproducts of hyper-capitalism and international commerce laid bare.
The simplest images convey the moral complexity at the heart of the film. Textured, high contrast, environs threaten to engulf the characters, Maroon night skies and opulent day skies vie over dominance of the frame, Crocket in particular. These images beg us to consider our role in this data centric and globally interconnected age. Can our intrinsic link to the prevailing winds be broken, at least for a moment, to exist on our own terms? As Isabella asks Crocket, during the cold, abstract realist final shootout, "Who are you?" it seems fate has claimed another victim.
Thanks Rich, I like to poke my head in once and a while to keep you guys honest...
As for Marienbad, a lot of Resnais' early films deal with the aftermath of war, politics (which I believe was such a cornerstone of the French New Wave movement) and the aftermath of the occupation. In general, societal consequences. I think this film shows some of that influence, it is more tangible and easier to see though in Night and Fog and Hiroshima mon amour. If you also notice the characters move more like pieces on a board(my chess reference) and do not show a lot of natural movement. Anyways, just a few nuggets to get others thinking more.
What's funny Rich is I know your love for Ozu, which is a little slow and simple for my overall taste, but the characters in Ozu films seem to move similarly to those in Marienbad. Always slow and calculated in relation to the story Ozu wants to tell. Them's my 2 cents... Enjoy...
Huh...I never thought about it in that light John. But I guess you're right. And if you think about it, the chess analogy extends to The Seventh Seal as well. I watched Marienbad for the first time as a Netflix rental and bailed on it early. I'm willing to be more patient the next time around. But believe it or not, I bailed on The Red Shoes in a similar fashion. Fast forward a few additional viewings and it's a part of my collection. I think Ozu films can be the same way for others as well. I think those things of substance take a bit longer to sink in. My father used to say that those things that are worthwhile typically take longer to achieve. Words of wisdom Lloyd...
What a nutso movie though! I did really like it. Can't believe a studio made that.
Before production and p&r costs went through the roof, studios used to have the ability to be a lot more creative. But really, Repo Man was an indie film.
Just finished Cronenberg's Crash. I have no coherent thoughts at the moment, but I was fascinated throughout. Looking forward to Criterion's inevitable release.
I didn't care for this much when I last watched it, but I've been dying to get back to it in the last month or so. I wouldn't complain about it joining the collection though. Any new Cronenberg on blu is good in my books.
I didn't care for this much when I last watched it, but I've been dying to get back to it in the last month or so. I wouldn't complain about it joining the collection though. Any new Cronenberg on blu is good in my books.
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I Guess only in the English language dub will you find Jackie Chan providing his own dialogue. It's very strange??? I mean, the film has some of the most technically accomplished action scenes, yet they still had to dub everything.
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