January 2010
13 posts
Hounddog (2007)
Also known as: The Dakota Fanning Rape Movie. The rape scene is the only thing that I knew about this movie before going into it. It’s always interesting to state your preconceived notions about a film and then how it actually came together. As I was watching it, I kept wondering to myself, “which one of these characters is going to rape her?” it’s like a who done it, but with rape. Is it going...
Spice World (1997)
When I was ten years I had the biggest crush on the Spice Girls. I had their album and listened to it all the time with my mom and stepsister. I no longer have this stepsister, my Mom and Bruce got divorced and we moved away. I haven’t seen her since. Want to hear a weird story? One time when her and I were driving around with my Mom, we asked her, “Is it OK for step sibling to get married?” I...
Let the Right One In (2008)
You know what I haven’t seen in a while? A vampire movie! That’s right. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is another addition to vampire genre. There is a catch though, it was made in Sweden! I could be wrong, but I don’t think I have seen a Swedish film until now. I was looking at the geography to get a good sense of what Sweden is like. From what I can gather, there is a lot of snow and little sun. The...
Gattaca (1997)
Welcome to the world of the “not so distant future.” This is a world where genetic perfection is a must and anyone who doesn’t have the goods is considered subservient. Ethan Hawke plays one such “De-Gene-erate” (as they are called in the movie). His only aspiration is to travel to space, but the powers that be won’t let him because he has shit genes. For whatever reason, Ethan Hawke’s idiotic...
The Fifth Element (1997)
I want to begin this review with one word: Wow. I had seen bits and pieces of FIFTH ELEMENT (scenes with Christ Tucker and that singing Blue lady), but never the whole thing. Perhaps my favorite part of this movie is that the aliens in it are done with costumes and prosthetics rather than using CGI. There are a few CGI sequences, but they are never too CGI. In some movies, this can be a...
Away We Go (2009)
Does anyone else think this poster looks a lot like JUNO? It has the same art style as the opening credit sequence and it’s about pregnancy. Maybe, the people marketing this movie thought they would cash in on the JUNO frenzy. Anyway, don’t let that fool you because AWAY WE GO is a wonderful, subtle film that deals with pregnancy in a much different (and more interesting) manner. There are never...
Daybreakers (2010)
You know what I haven’t seen in a long time? A vampire movie! I mean, what happened to these things? They used to be overflowing out of the pop culture swimming pool, now I rarely see them. Seriously, nothing with vampires has come out in the last 3 years. Nothing, until DAYBREAKERS.
On that same note, where are all the zombie movies? I haven’t seen one of those in a while either.
I knew nothing...
500 Days of Summer (2008)
MEMENTO meets ANNIE HALL…. for the new generation! Two of our most beloved indie actors have joined forces to make one of the most indie movies ever! It’s about relationships (we’ve all been in those) told predominantly through the male perspective. Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) works at a greeting card company and the theme of the cards he writes changes with his mood. What a cute storytelling...
Even Dwarfs Started Small (1971)
This is the first narrative from Werner Herzog that I have seen. I did see GRIZZLY MAN (which was amazing), but never one of his narratives. Luckily for me, Netflix has just put of a bunch of his films on instant watch. I know Herzog mostly by reputation and the staggering amount of work he has produced. I know that he ate a boot in Berkeley once because he lost a bet. I thought I would start at...
Wall-E (2008)
Perhaps my favorite Pixar film! WALL-E is a perfect example how wonderful production and sound design can be superior when using animation as opposed to live action. For about a month now (ever since I saw WALTZ WITH BASHIR) I have been thinking that animation might be the more effective format to making film in. You can manipulate any element in an animated film in a way that is just impossible...
El Topo (1970)
Translates to “The Mole.”
I recently watched Alejandro Jodorowsky’s film THE HOLY MOUNTAIN and it completely changed the way I think about film and my life. After watching it, I felt a new enthusiasm for film that I haven’t felt in a long time. The last time I had a reaction like this was when I saw RUSHMORE in high school. Jodorowsky has a rare ability; everything he films is completely...
Overlord (1975)
A while back I watched a documentary called Z CHANNEL: A MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION. It’s about the first all movie channel that was started in Los Angeles in the 70’s. They showed rare and foreign films that American audiences usually had not heard of or seen. In the documentary, there were lots of clips from films that I had never heard of, but seemed so interesting. It made me want to look deeper...
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Hey, Guy Ritchie! You didn’t fuck up this time. Nice work.
I enjoyed Downy Jr. and Law in this movie. I don’t really know what else to say about it. At one point, I fell asleep during the movie, but I think that’s because I didn’t get any sleep last night. It was New Year’s Eve.
Take your Mom, take your younger brother, take a friend you went to high school with, it’s a good time.
A few...
December 2009
14 posts
The Broadway Melody (1929)
Onto film number 2 and it’s drastically different from the first best picture winner. THE BROADWAY MELODY is a musical about Hank and Queenie (women with strangely masculine names) who are trying to make it in Broadway. They both have a crush on this hot shit singer-songwriter named Eddie Kerns. It seems obvious from watching it, that this film was cranked out of MGM, looking to make a quick...
Wings (1927)
Before the Oscars had the award for best picture, there was the award for Most Outstanding Production. WINGS was the first film to win this top honor at the academy awards. Before starting this project, I had never heard of this film. I quickly jumped on Netflix to find if it was there. Sadly, it was not.
At first, I was about to give up on the whole thing, but then someone whispered a golden...
Nine (200-Nine)
Hey Guido! It’s my mother’s birthday. So we decided to load into the Ford Escape and go to the cinema. But what are we going to see? My mother loves musicals and so do I. We also love actors who have my same first name. It was a no-brainer that we would go see NINE.
I have recently fell in love with the motion picture musical CHICAGO, which was the musical Rob Marshall directed before this. I am...
Academy Award Announcement!
Dear loyal followers of Maggio @ The Movies,
Still inspired by Julie and Julia, I am going to take my blog to the next level. I am going to review every film that has won the academy award for best picture. I gave myself a one year deadline to complete this project (just like Julie).
That’s right! From Wings in 1927 all the way to Slumdog Millionaire in 2008.
81 Different Films
365...
Ya know, Movies are cool and all, but Music is...
A Married Woman (1964)
This is Godard No. 2 in the same night. A MARRIED WOMAN was released in the same year as BAND OF OUTSIDERS. It always amazes me when filmmakers make more than one feature a year because they are so much bloody work.
First off, I would not recommend this movie as a Godard entry point. I found a lot of the sequences fairly boring and hard to watch. Usually I am interested in the tangents that...
Band of Outsiders (1964)
I knew two things about this film before I went into it.
1) It’s written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard.
2) The title was the inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s production company name, “A Band Apart.”
These are two endorsements to watch the film. I have seen 5 Godard films before this one. I don’t know what the ideal order to watch them in. I saw them like, Alphaville, Peirrot Le Fou,...
Julie & Julia (2009)
The main character of this film is a blogger! So am I! So… I love this movie! I started watching this yesterday on Christmas with my Mother, but fell asleep. I am now writing my review as I finish the movie. I want to write a blog about watching the movie Julie and Julia, which is about a woman writing a blog.
Julie (Amy Adams) decides to write a blog about cooking every recipe in the Julia...
St. Elmo's Fire (1985)
Imagine all the characters from THE BREAKFAST CLUB after they graduate college and enter the work force. What’s funny is that breakfast club was released the same year as St. Elmo’s Fire. The same actors can play high school students and college grads, that Brat Pack as such versatility. I heard about this movie while reading some Chuck Klosterman article and was surprised I had never heard of...
Gigli (2003)
I never thought this day would come. I always assumed GIGLI was going to be one of those movies that I never saw. As a realistic film buff, you know there are movies that you will never see. I have a few other things that make the list of I AM NEVER GOING TO SEE THAT…. EVER. I was pleasantly surprised to find GIGLI no longer on that list. The DVD copy of GIGLI that I watched came into my hands by...
Avatar (2009)
The first Maggio @ The Movies review where I review a movie that I saw in the theater! The first thing I should mention about this movie is that there are no genitalia in the movie. I was really hoping that through some chance occurrence that every movie I review would have male genitalia. Regardless of this missing detail, AVATAR was still a (great?) film.
I don’t want to jump on this tumblin’...
Hated: G.G. Allin & The Murder Junkies (1993)
So I guess that asshole who directed Road Trip, Old School, Starsky and Hutch and School for Scoundrels (his most famous work) made a really good documentary called HATED. I am not going to write the subtitle again because it would get a little repetitive. He also narrates the film and says a very strange thing at the end of the film regarding Allin’s cause of death…. That was the only thing that...
The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976)
I must be the luckiest boy in the world. The last movie I reviewed had a penis in it and now this one has two! That’s right! Two pieces of junk. One from a middle-aged Rip Torn and the other from David Bowie himself!
I stumbled upon THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH while doing some usual netflix surfing (you know, adding a bunch of movies to your queue, but then never actually watching them). Well,...
The Brown Bunny (2003)
When you think of great auteurs in cinema, names like Orson Welles, Billy Wilder and Stanley Kubrick come to mind. But there is one name that should be on that list; Vincent Gallo. I am going to go on the record here and say that Vincent Gallo is the most misunderstood filmmaker in cinema history. Last night I had the pleasure of watching Vincent Gallo’s first (and thank the lord, not his last)...