The Last Movie You Saw On DVD or VHS or TV.

Yeah! Another convert to a low budget Brit film.BTW,the director is David Bowie's son.

Kudos...the nut don't fall far from the tree..

Ehhm, last week(end)'s list:
- Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), pretty boring and predictable comedy.
- Good Bye Lenin! (2003), good dramacomedy for those who know their history (i.e. the events around the end of the DDR and fall of the Berlin Wall).
- The Gourmet Club (2004), culinary comedy about age gap and class struggle, fun!
- I Am Legend (2007), once upon a time there was a good book, which provided he storyline for three films. This most recent one managed to remove all the depth from the story in favour of horror SFX; a sad waste of time, money and talent.
- Reign Over Me (2007), Adam Sandler tries to pull off a Dustin Hoffman and fails, but otherwise a good film.
- Straight Into Darkness (2004), low budget war film, pretty crappy, confusing and fake.
- Lions for Lambs (2007), a R.Redford vehicle with clear political message, depressing, but well-made (Tommy Cruiz plays the creep, so he is in his natural state).
- Enchanted (2007), cotton candy for (undescerning) little girls

Oh and:
- Sweeny Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), a rather goth version with liters of blood and less focus on the songs.

the last of the summer season:
- Outlander (2008), another Beowulf-inspired flick, so so
- "Lost in Austen" (2008), quite fun miniseries, if you know the book.
- The Yes Men (2003) , hilarious documentary
- The Devil Wears Prada (2006), not so impressive comedy, la Streep is good though.
- The Forgotten (2004), saw it blank, was OK, if you relate to children
- Un genio, due compari, un pollo (1975), only mildly entertaining spaghetti western

Watched "The Red Violin" I love caper movies, especially epic caper movies.

"The Red Violin" is stylish and polished with the droll humor of Hitchcock, but managed to stay mosly original. I suppose you've seen "Rififi," the New Wave French film that really put the caper movie on the map -- and what an ending! Also, Kubrick's "The Killing," a racetrack caper that gets derailed in a unique way.

Wiz-Im only catching up from a life that suffered from a lack of film entertainment. Im gonna tell Mrs F to add these to our Netflix Que. We are up to a four movies a mailing now and we are still waaay behind.

This weekend we also saw "The Black and the SCarlet" (sorta ok but I was never a huge Gregory Peck Fan (with the exception of the Big Country).

"Glider Pilots of WWII" a docu.

"Green Fingers" Clive Owen as a prisoner who atarts a gardening movement in the British Penal SYstem. Pretty good but ,like many English movies, it has a problem with too loose editing and technical flaws. Like a scene that would occur moments later would have NO shadows art all. Ot visual continuity would be really poor.

As far as the Red Violin, the entire caper came together in the last ten minutes even though there were clues that Sam JAckson was gonna do something to keep the violins identity a secret.
I was also kept busy by all the flashbacks and forwards and following the circuitous path of the fiddle itself.

All the little sub stories, like how the violin was made RED were also enjoyable. All in all, I give this a coveted "Four Farmerman Pichforks" (out of five)

"Rififi" is notable for the actual heist scene -- 32 minutes with action only, no music, no dialogue (it's creepy as it makes you feel like you're there involved in the criminality). It's absolutely fascinating. Jules Dassin, the director, was on the Hollywood blacklist during McCarthy and settled in France, making the film that would define all the Hollywood heist/caper films from then on.

One of my other favorite Gregory Peck films, besides "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Guns of Navarone", is "Arabesque" with Sophia Loren. Convoluted and very stylish directing by none other than Stanley Donen who was responsible for "Charade" with Gary Grant in his homage to Hitchock and, of course, "Singin' in the Rain!"

as much as I wanted to like Peck in Mockingbird, his was the performance that needed more of a pulse in my mind. He was just being his sweet somnambulant self

Watched "Appaloosa" last night. It left me thinking about women and the choices we were forced to make at a time when we were without any power and had very little control over our own lives.

Rene's role had a little more depth than your standard Western female character.

I see that's on HBO now -- I'll make the effort to watch it. The previews have a "Deadwood" feel to the film, and it has three stars.

Well he was playing the Addison in the novel who squelched his emotions until the crucial court scenes. I didn't find him "sweet" at all, but rather dark and methodical as his feelings about racism and the injustic welled up. His sweet self is in "Roman Holiday" which I always enjoy, but also for Hepburn's delicious performance. In "Arabesque," he still has the Peck suaveness painted on the character but the alpha male inspires him to be overtly aggressive. He was great as Mengali in "The Boys from Brazel," that suaveness was overshadowed by his malevolent purpose. But he is perfect as the hero in "The Big Country," playing along perfectly in the homoerotic scene with Charlton Heston.

Not much of a chance to upstage those alpha males, Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen. I don't think she would have aimed at the Oscar in that film without even seeing it yet (but the previews confirm your impression).

Yep. She's no Grace Kelly. (at least, not on film because rumor has it, in reality, Grace was very alpha-male oriented.)

that brings up a question eoe. Of the three actresses(Kelly, Jurado and Zel) who best personified the Western Woman?

I don't think you can select one character and consider it so broad as to personify "the Western Woman" any more than believing John Wayne was a true prototype of the Western Man.

My wife and I just came back from watching a movie in the theatre called, "Julie & Julia". It was very good and can recommend. Meryl Streep was excellent as Julia Child, and Stanley Tucci, who played her husband, did well also.

It was a lot of fun. Meryl Streep had Ms. Child's voice and mannerisms down pat. Great story and acting!

Joan Crawford in "Johnny Guitar!" Mercedes McCambridge in the same film but not many female actors have been given a pivotal role in a Western.