Cinema 2009

Grading system:

*** Inspiring
**   Enternatining
*     Not worthy

Movies I have watched during the year:

January

*** Punch Drunk Love (2002) – Great movie, great and weird. Never thought I would see Adam sandler interpreting a role such as the one he does here. The viewer may feel very uncomfortable sometimes with what’s happening, but I guess that’s what the director wants, and it did happen to me. The other thing that rocks is the score, and the art, which was made by a great artist who did some artwork for Beck (the musician) and later died in misteryous circumstances.

**   Goya’s Ghost (2006) – I didn’t see the whole thing, they were screening it at a tv channel we happened to be zapping through. I liked it, but I’m sure more than one historian would criticize it for some inconsistensies or whatever, like it always happens.

*     X Files (1998)- I got it from my brother. Not a big deal. I won’t even remember it. Nobody can survive naked in the north pole, give me a break.

* The Golden Compass (2007) – Watched it because Elizabeth did before me and also reads the books. This one sucked hard. It made me turn even further away from sci-fi movies. I suspect the book sucks just as hard. Maybe kids like it, but there are other great movies made for children that can be enjoyed by normal people. There are no 14-year-old prophetic heroes who can save the universe from evil forces, give me another break.

February

*     Alice in Wonderland (1951) – Downloaded it because it’s a classic. I also want to read the books sometime soon. It’s fun, but I couldn’t avoid falling asleep while watching it, even when it is so short. Definitely most old cartoons can’t compete with the new ones, a pity.

*** Los Amantes del Círculo Polar (1998) - Watched it in the Four Seasons pub. I couldn’t make it on time for the start, but I definitely have to watch those first minutes sometime soon. It was a great love story, I didn’t expect it to be so good at all. I totally got the point about the wildness of love, and how can its power make so much unintended evil. Spanish cinema truly has some great stories. Never judge a book just by it’s cheesy title.

**   Rue Santa Fe (2007) – Got a look at it at the EACC, a contemporary arts facility in the center of town. For a documentary, it’s way too long (like 3 hours?). It is also too personal, which makes the movie very moving but also a little narrow in it’s point of view. Narrates the story of a revolutionary leader’s wife years after the death of his husband by Pinochet’s minions. I enjoyed watching this, but enjoyed even more the fact that they actually screen this kind of movies somewhere around town.

*** El Bosque Animado (1987) - Watched it at the Terra pub. This movie is hillarious.

**   Quadrophenia (1979) – Watched it at the University. The classrom was almost empty, the soud bad and the chairs uncomfortable as hell, but I watched the whole thing anyway. The story isn’t great. What I think it did success was in capturing the spirit of the times, although I din’t know a lot about the youth scene in the British 60’s. It’s a little slow at first, but further on it even has some funny scenes.

**   Clandestinos (2007) – Watched it at home. It revolves around gay terrorists from the Vasque country. It was funny from time to time, a little gory too. A regular spanish movie.

**   Saw (2004) – I obviously had seen this one before. I’m not a big fan of terror movies, and much less of the gore genre, since it doesn’t make you experience any kind of catharsis or documents you about realities or has a real artistic purpose whatsoever. This one is good though. What i enjoyed most this time was that I realized there are some actors from Lost, the best tv serie ever.

**   Gelegenheitsarbeit Einer Sklavin (1973) – I must admit I was pretty busy thinking about something else while I watched this one at the EACC, but the truth is that it isn’t really that interesting, even with the abortion take and all. I don’t know if the acting was bad or they just did a great job enacting the german culture, but the behavior of the characters was so weird… Anyway I had some fun practicing my basic German.

**   Pro Dia Nascer Feliz (2006) – A Brazilian documentary proyected at the EACC for the Peace Cycle. I was a little boring from time to time, and it failed to give any solution to the problem presented, or even to talk about it. It just showed interviews to students and teachers. Very similar to the educational problem in Venezuela.

*     Faltas leves (2006) – Watched it at home. What a boring movie to see. Lots of people reunited as some sort of family with lots of fake and dumb dialogues which don’t entertain at all. Everybody wants to screw somebody else but nobody dares. Worst spanish movie I have ever seen i think.

**   9 Reinas (2000) – I had seen this one already before, when my dad was at the hospital. It’s entertaining, it keeps your attention the whole time, and the stoy is not even that original. The only thing I have always hated is the end.

*** Rivers and Tides (2001) – Bizarre documentary I watched at the EACC about Andy Goldsworthy, a land artist. The interesting thing is that there is no narrator, just Andy talking while he does his artwork into the wild. The pace and structure is quite different from what we could call an interesting documentary, but once you get into the story It can get to be quite overwhelming. I loved the guy and his work, he is like a retired McGyver.

**   Sukkar banat (AKA Caramel) (2007) – It’ didn’t seem bad. I just didn’t pay much attention ot it. Maybe it was because the movie couldn’t achieve grabbing my attention, or maybe I was just busy thinking on something else. Anyway, it was kind of enlightening about foreign cultures.

*     Tropic Thunder (2008) – Watched it at home. I was so dissapointed by this movie. It started good, but then time went by and no real good joke showed up. If it wasn’t for Robert Downey Jr playing the nigger I don’t know how low this thing could have gotten.

**   This Happy Breed (1944) – Watched it at the EACC. Sometimes old movies surprise you with their pace.

March

*    The Maltese Falcon (1941) - Watched it at a friend’s house. For a “classic” it was quite dissapointing. First time I see Humphrey Bogart performing, and dude, he can get on your nerves with that funny voice. It was interesting at the beginnin, but then the last 30 minutes totally suck, too slow and irrelevant. I guess back in the days it built a lot of tension, but I didn’t feel it that way.

**   Casablanca (1942) – Wacthed it at home. 3 of the actors also acted in the Maltese Falcon, and the genre is the same, but this is a far superior movie. I enjoyed Ingrid Bergman’s shiny eyes. The main song is a beautiful one, recently covered by Ibrahim Ferrer. Also, they had this unusual classy way of lighting cicarettes in both movies, which they did very often.

**   Miranda regresa (2007) – Watched it at home. It was too long, and sometimes the acting sucks, specially because of the way they talk. It’s just not a credible XIX century spanish. I guess it has its merit, being a venezuelan film and all. I still preffer the other Miranda movie. Ah I remeber, some special effects scenes really blow.

**   Sleepwalking (2008) – Watched it at home. Entertaining drama, but I felt I didn’t know where was the point. Beautiful people suffering the classic american white trash nightmare.

*     Crocodile (1996) – Watched it at home. It’s the worst Kim Ki-duk movie I’ve seen. Too much pointless violence.

**   Frazetta: Painting with Fire (2003) – Watched it at home. Interesting documentary. Looks very homemade but I guess that’s the idea so it’s fine.

**   Vampyros Lesbos (1971) – Watched it at home. A cheap german light porn movie, so there were lots of tits.  The music rocked, a lot of funky psychedelic stuff with lots of sitars. Some of the characters were very stylish too. The idea was a good one, however, the acting sucked. The zoom also sucked. I eventually got bored, they couldn’t keep the tension. What I liked the most was practicing the little german I have learnt.

**   The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) – Watched it for free at the Grau Cinema. It’s pretty cool for a 50′ movie, although the change in volume when the music kicked in was actually painful. I also really disliked the allusion to God at the last minutes of the film. Later I found that this was done on demand of 20th Century Fox since otherwise the movie would have seemed too “left wing”.

April

**   Guantanamera (1995) - Watched it at Hispanic Culture classs. I haven’t seen that many cuban movies, but this is actually one of the best I’ve seen. I guess I didn’t give it *** because I coulnd’t understand some lines from the dialogue since the accent is so pronunciated, and because I don’t know, it was good, but not like magical or anything. It doesa very good job at depicting the isle.

*** Diario de una Ninfómana (2008) – Watched it at home. Besides the massive amount of sex scenes (which are awesome because they seem so real and enjoyable it makes you feel envious) I think it was a great movie. The plot kept me very interested and some dialogues blew me away. I really got to feel some pity for the poor beautiful nymphomaniac. Well, maybe the end did suck a little bit.

**   Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) -Watched it at home. I really liked the actors, the acting, the theme and all. I wish I could give it ***, but since the movie is so fucked up it didn’t provide me any useful information or energy or whatever. I am howerer very interested in reading the book.

**(*) Salvador (Puig Antich) (2006) – Watched it at home. This is an exceptional movie. The music, the action scenes, the story, everything. Really looks as a movie from the US with a real historical sense to it. It captures the rebel spirit so much pushed for in other hippie era movies, but far more momentuous, since the fight is nobler. I only regret I couldn’t understand most of the second part of the movie since it is in catalanish and I don’t have such a comprehension level in the language yet. So, I lost most of the verbal emotion projected there, and I gont a little bored. I definitely have to see it again with subtitles, then I’ll decide if it gets ***.

** El infierno Vasco (2008) - Watched it at the EACC.  The theme was pretty interesting, but the film was boring. They pretty much interviewed lots of people who were victims of the ETA and the nationonalist bloc. There’s no narrator or logical order whatsoever. Also, since almost no professional opinions or factual data is given, it all gets to be very subjective.

*** The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) - Watched it at home with voicing in spanish. It’s the second or third time that I watch it, and is definitely one of my favorite movies by now, I like to think of it as a live-action adult-oriented version of an action-team cartoon. The soundtrack is totally awesome. I would say the best ever, but awesome sounds even better. The colors, the story, the action scenes, oh damm, I want to watch it again…

**   Les Années Déclic (1984) – Watched it at the EACC. An interesting auto-biography made with a bunch of B&W pictures and some video reelings. The style he uses is very simple, no music whatsoever, just talking while he slides the pictures himself. But it’s really short, like one hour, so you don’t get plenty of time to get bored. There’s a pretty fascinating segment in which he talks about his experience in Venezuela while screening the videos he did during his stay. That one came as a total surprise for me, I think I had never watched historical venezuelan videos like those. Totally worth the time.

**   Topio stin omichli (1988) - Whatched it at home, got it from the town lybrary. Had to watch it in several chunks during the month because of time and interest constraints. This director is supposed to be one of the best ones alive yet, but he didn’t quite sound all my strings. The scenes and colours are so bleak, and he never, never does a friggin close-up! how come can he live with his conscience? and the music was so dramatic… I felt uncomfortably sad and bored at the same time. I mean, the movie was good, but only sometimes, because the others, it was just too slow. I gotta give him some credit, some surreal scenes caught you off-guard, and I loved the camera chase in the highway scene.

May

*** The Boston Strangler (1968) - Watched it for free at the Grau Cinema. I dind’t expect something like that. The camera segmentation in the first half was effective, and some scenes were really srtong for the year it was released I think. I really got sucked in by it. But the girls I went with didn’t share the experience at all, they were laughing their heart out and I don’t really know why. I felt pity for that poor italian dude. WATCH IT.

*** The Doubt (2008) – Watched it at home. Copied it from a friends hard drive. It is almost unimaginable that  a  religious drama can suck you in so much. It is also almost unimaginable that  a movie with zero visually interesting takes can keep you entertained the whole while. It feels like you actually wouldn’t want to be in the place while conversations happen, but you love to watch them from a far. I mean, some lines are shot like acid, and I love acid.

**  The Zeitgeist Movement: Orientation Presentation (2009) – Watched it online, at home. It’s not really a movie, its more of a brainwashing presentation, but sometimes we like to be brainwashed and believe this fucked-up economic system has a way out. Some ideas I didn’t like nor believe. I give it ** because the content kept my full atention, but as a movie deserves a zero. Make sure to check out the other two real Zeitgeist movies, this is just a complement.

June

*     Hackers (1995) – PANAAA QUE PELÍCULA MÁS MALAAAAAA, verrrgaaaa pana que mieeeeerdaaaa. Argghh no lo puedo controlar, me siento podrido. Más nunca confiaré en las películas de Tallón.

**   New York Doll (2005) – Watched it at home in the computer. Lee gave it to me as a christmas present. It was interesting to get to know the New York Dolls, which are supossed to have been really influential on rock music, but utterly unknown to the general public. It follows the “touching” life of the bass player, and dude, there are some crazy real-life stories going around the world. Nevertheless I couldn’t avoid feeling a lot of pity while watching it since I found it very ironical. I wouldn’t call it a “must see rockumentary”.

**   Hot Shots! (1991) - Watched it at home. Got it from Patricia’s house-mate. I guess I have seen this one dubbed many a times on the venezuelan tv channels, but I dind’t quite remember well. It contains extremelly absurd humor which can sometimes makes you laugh out of control . I would like to have seen Top Gun first so I could compare and laugh harder.

*** The Story of Stuff (2007) – It’s only 20 minutes long, but I hat to put it here because it rocks and shocks.

**   The Meaning of Life (1983) – Watcehd it at home, in spanish. It gave me a couple of laughs, but I think it is just too bizarre. My guess is that it must be hillarious in english, although I have always enjoyed spanish voices for silly funny movies. I remember laughing my ass off by watching this way the Holy Grail one also by Monty Python.

**   Cashback (2006) – Watched it at homeat Beatriz’s request. She gave me a couple of pirate cd’s with a buch of 900 Mb movies. At first, I thought It rocked big time, I was really enjoying the movie. Then by hafl of it,  it became a grown-up british version of American Pie. So it’s a *** and a * together. Comes out that the feature film was made after a short film. My guess is that every single part that rocked comes from the short film, and the rest is just “feature filling”.

**   Duck Soup (1933) - Got it from Beatriz’s CDs. Its the first Marx brothers movie I watch, and I still don’t know what to think of it. Although I saw it in spanish I had subtitles in english in order to appreciate all the intended puns. Sometimes it is very funny for a 1933 movie, but sometimes it’s just too wacky to make any sense. We discussed some examples from this very same movie in a class I don’t remember. They were related to the difficulty of translating those lines.

*** Good  Bye Lenin (2003) – I have wanted to see this one for long time. I have done it however, at Chausquers’ request. Saw it at home. It starts with some sad music that makes you wanna cry. I love the way they find a specific moment in time and make a fictional story so dependant to real events. I practiced a little bit my retarded german and I also got to learn a little about german contemporary history.

July

**   Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) – I watched it at home and in spanish. I got it from B’s pirate DVD. It was pretty good for an old movie. I hardly think an old-style movie could impress me the same way as a modern one, though

**   My Life Without Me (2003) – This one alse comes from B’s DVD and of course its horribly translated to spanish. But on this one it doesn’t really matters, or at least I have the idea the original dialogues are not so interesting. The story isn’t the big deal, not very original. The shots aren’t either. Actually I think nothing was noteworthy, but it kept my interest during the whole time. It would make a good tv movie.

*      What’s Up, Doc? (1972) - I found this totally boring. I don’t know if its because she looks like Christina Aguilera trough the bottom of  a bottle or because South Park has taught me to despise her, but Barbra Streisand wans’t definitely a good point (Although I found myself quite puzzled when I found her sort of cute on a couple of scenes). The spanish translation also took away most of the supposed magic. Bahh, that family movie humor sucks hard. Waste of time.

*** Átame (1989) – Got it from B. Watched it at home. Very funny and tense. The protagonist, Victoria Abril, is really sexy and looks a lot like Scarlett Johansen. Then you get her and Antonio Banderas (with a lousy haircut) doing some great fucking on the big screen.

*** Frost/Nixon (2008) - Got it from Tallón. Watched it at home. Although it isn’t very accurate it succeds in creating a lot of tension. I loved the guy acting Nixon, sometimes he looks like he is impossible to beat. You get to feel a lot of sympathy for both.

**   The Devil Wears Prada (2006) – Got it from B, in spanish. Sort of a romantic-dramatic comedy. Predictable music and predictable story. How could I give it a **? Well, Suprisingly, I didn’t actually hate it as I though I would, and Anne Hathaway is just delicious. Sometimes I think public bitting should be socially accepted.

**   The Usual Suspects (1994) - Got it from Patty’s former flatmate. I had seen this one before, just like pretty much eveybody else, but I didn’t remember it quite well. It’s entertaining, but I’m kind of sick of pointless violent movies.

*     MXP: Most Xtreme Primate (2003) - Sometimes we are most unlucky to find ourselves watching tv in the couch of distant relatives. True story, this happened to me, and I had to watch about 90% of this hideous movie. The sad thing is I was trying to read the smart-ass prologue of an Unamuno novel, but I couldn”t stop focusing on the screen. Let’s see: This is the second sequel, direct-to-video release, translated to spanish story of a monkey who gets lost and then found by a lonely 12 year old boy. They become best friends, the primate turns out to be astonishingly smart and a hell of a great sportschimp. Some bad guys are after him. Then, if we add the hideous pop-punk and family-movie music, we have a MUST SEE MOVIE. I could write for hours about this, I could…

**   Surplus: Terrorized into being consumers (2003) - I saw this off-beat short documentary on my brother’s computer. I don’t know where he got the reference from. It’s very musical, very electronic. It’s power relies precisely on this, and on the images, since there’s actually not a lot of information in it. Sometimes it is funny as hell, sometimes boring. But it’s got a perfect lenght for it’s style.What I disliked the most was the constant feeling of being musically brainwashed.

August

**   Pink Panther II (2009) – I saw it in the train from Valencia to Barcelona. Obviously, it was in spanish. I guess I was in a very good mood, since I found it’s stupid humor quite funny, specially during the first half. Accents and stereotypes are always good for a coupe of chuckles. Then it got too dumb for me to take, the pope sketch totally killed it for me. I need to watch the original ones by Peter Sellers one day.

*** Up (2009) - Watched it at the cinema with the BCN pack. I love this movie. Funny, tender, tense. It’s a great story, and it’s set in the only decent and pure place of Venezuela.

** Plague Dogs (1982) – Whatched it at Pant’s and Mel’s house, with Pants, on mi computer. The colors are dead. The voices, and the images, all feel dark. And then it gets too long. It is thought-provoking, but also nap-provoking

** Zeitgeist (2007) – Watched it at Pant’s and Mel’s house, with Pants, Mel and Sole on my computer. This is like the third time I watch it. There is some revealing information in here, which may not be totally true, but I decide to swallow it all like a happy camper. The problem is that there is way too much talking. Also, the images could help a lot more than they do.

*** Home (2009) – Watched it at Pant’s and Mel’s house, with Pants, Mel and Sole on my computer. This is a beautiful documentary. I have always loved aerial perspectives, but I wasn’t expecting such mind-blowing sights. The power of the images alone makes you feel so tiny, but also so commited with what’s being shown. I’ve read that the numbers given are not correct, but regardless of the exactness of the information, it makes you understand very clearly how wrong modern society is.

**   Zeitgeist Addendum (2009) – Watched it at Pant’s and Mel’s house, with Pants, Mel and Sole on my computer. Just like the previous one of the trilogy, it punches you with a fistful of shocking information, which can probably be biased, but it is so delicious to believe… Anyway the images and the music interludes fuck it up. It’s like you really want to show it to people, but in the end say “nah, too crappy footage to recommend”, which is a real shame.

** Shadows (1959) - Watched it at the Barcelonian Modern Arts Museum in a public open-roof screening. It was interesting, but it seemed not to go anywhere. I’ve read all the acting and the script was improvised, which tries to give to the film a little bit of a Jazz flavour, also spiced with music.

** Igor (2008) - Watched part of it at the plane

** Wild Animals (1997) - Imagen noventosa, m´sic anoventosa, trama larga y repetitiva, graciosa, impactante

** Who Killed the Electric Car (2006) -

** Blade runner (1982) - For some time I considered that just because of having the coolest space capader

of all time (harrison ford , that is) and the 2 sexiest cyber pussies ever, I should give it a ***.

But not even the crazy technotronic on the credits could save this japanesish dystopia from the

unnecesarilly long run and the “what’s going on ” scenes.

** Apollo 13 (1995) -

** The Mindscape of Alan Moore (2003) -

*** El nido vacío (2008) -

*** Garbage Warrior (2007) -

*** Man on Wire (2008) -

*** 25 Watts (2001) -

** 28 Weeks Later (2007) -

* Dragonball Evolution (2009) -

September

** El baño del Papa (2007) -

* Plaga zombie: Zona mutante (2001) -

** Los abrazos rotos (2009) -

*** The Boat That Rocked (2009) -

* Kiltro (2006) -

** Futurama Benders Big Score (2007) -

* Dogma (1999) – Alan rickman good alanis good, rest bad

*** Carne trémula (1997) -

** Postales de leningrado (2007) -

** Matando Cabos (2004) -

*** Rescue Dawn (2006) -

*** Los girasoles ciegos (2008) -

** Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993) -

** Inland Empire (2006) -

*** Animales de compañia (2008) -

*** V for Vendetta (2005) -

** Vente a Las Vegas, nena (2009) -

** Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) -

October

**   Lions for Lambs (2007) -

** Karate a muerte en Torremolinos (2003) –

**   Ben X (2007) -

*** The Darjeeling Limited (2007) -

*** Gran Torino (2008) -

**   Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) -

**   Old Boy (2003) -

**   Chancun son cinéma (2007) -

*** La Belle Personne (2008) -

*** Absurdistan (2008) - Watched it at home in my computer. This is a Great Story, a great legend with great background meaning. It’s a little bit of 100 Years of Solitude mixed with Amélie set in the landlocked Asia. The music was great, and the dialogues are administered just as carefully as the water in the story.

Por ver: barrio, guerreros, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil_and_Daniel_Johnston, eutsi!