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Flatliner82
Reviews
Eating Out (2004)
We need more films like this!
The absolutely hilarious story of an extremely hot straight guy Caleb (Scott
Lunsford) who falls for a pushy but funny babe Gwen (Emily Stiles) and thinks pretending to be gay will make her want him. It seems the whole movie is built up to a very strange, sexy and funny phone scene. It's worth the pay off. It's hilarious from beginning to end with catchy dialogue and one liners that keep you on your toes. You're always wishing you could write them down.
Emily Stiles is the real discovery of this movie. She's a fantastic actress and walks fine line with her character between bitchiness and likability. I would definitely recommend watching anything she's in. Ever. While the rest of the cast it pretty good, the other great stand out is Ryan Carnes, who is, quite simply put, sex on legs. He's VERY attractive and the camera loves every inch of his body.
I saw this film at the Boston Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and the audience was laughing so hard I couldn't catch a lot of the lines. This is the kind of film that gives you belly laughs. During hot phone scene, you could basically hear people slightly moaning with longing. It was the most erotic theatrical experience I've ever had. The most charming about this film its unabashed dedication to being a film for gays. It doesn't really care if the rest of the world gets it or not. It's our John Hughes 'teenager wanting to get laid' film. The director spoke afterwards and cited 16 Candles as a big influence and you can tell, in a good way. I felt it was it was a bit more like the American Pie films, because it has some raunchy moments. He said they shot in only 10 days. I couldn't think of a better way to put 10 days to use.
Les triplettes de Belleville (2003)
I absolutely loved this movie!
I absolutely loved this. That catchy tune. The freaky animation. The bizarre relationship between a determined old woman and her mindless piece of muscle bicyclist son who is kidnapped during the Tour de France is fascinating. I always wanted more.
There are about a million kinds of animation used in this, and the fact that they don't blend seamlessly ADDS to its charms. I think it just illustrates the genius of this vision.
There's almost no dialogue in the film and by the end you wonder how the heck all the information you know was conveyed to you.
Valentine (2001)
I was forced to see this movie
Nerd grows up and begins murdering the girls who shunned him at the Junior high dance. A lot of stupid uncreative set-ups-- scantily clad girl decides to dissect a corpse late at night with only a desklame-- she hears a noise and goes to investigate with the lights out.
The two good things about it, a funny scene in which the stupidity of the girls is basked in during a police interview, and the killer actually gets away with it.
I really did want to like this movie, it being a date and all. But this was the only thing my dated wanted to watch.
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
A bit much but worth going there
A little too self-consciously witty at points, but an overall entertaining film. Whitaker is a mysterious hit-man who lives by the code of the samurai. His retainer is a mobster who hires him to rub out another member of the gang. Due to inner politics, the mob decides it needs to take revenge on Whitaker.
Jarmusch goes to lengths to drench the film with irony. Sometimes the film suffers for this. In one scene, the mobsters have a Pulp Fiction style romance about "niggers and indians" having weird nick names. One of them even starts rapping, which simply isn't buyable, and a real stretch for a laugh.
Of course the entire scene it set up to pay off when they use their own nicknames (like Jimmy the Snake) in the very next discussion. It's a bit too obvious.
Another plot hole that bugged me. The mobsters are dead set on killing Ghost Dog. When the actually find his pad, they kill his birds and wreck it, rather than waiting and killing him. Of course this just angers him more...
The Bone Collector (1999)
yawn
SPOILER ALERT
A cliché-riddled film that somehow makes an anti-death with dignity statement, though it attempts to do the opposite. Washington is a paralyzed forensics officer who has been suffering and wanting to die for the past four years (apparently he wrote his huge selling book only a year ago though, so it hasn't all be despair). He arranges for an assisted suicide with his doctor who will return in a week.
In the meantime, he helps out on a serial killer case. He recruits the gutsy, I don't wanna do it, but I'm just so good at it, cop Jolie, and they track down impossible clue jumping to highly unlikely conclusions in matters of moments. Hey, that old bolt means that the killer has the millionaire's wife in a steam tunnel by the old Woolworth building. Shyeah, right. It's laughable. Yet no is smart enough to figure out that doctor who's going to assist him is the killer.
When he comes to Washington to murder him (ahead of schedule), he has a change of heart and struggles unbelievably for his life. Cut to the obligatory bad guy about to shoot the good guy scene when BANG the gun goes off--- but the bad guy didn't fire! No the woman steps out of the corner, she has just shot him in the back.
The Insider (1999)
overrated
A look inside 60 minutes as a powerhouse producer attempts to get an insider from a tobacco giant to do a controversial interview. Great performances all around. It gets a little weak in the directing department. Some loose ends are never addressed, this is a TRUE STORY, it can't be all that hard, either he gets back with his wife or doesn't.
The annoying little Pepsi girl, Hallie Eisenberg, simply pulled me out of the film every time I saw her. The recognizable likes of Russel Crowe and Al Pacino did not do the same.
Flirting with Disaster (1996)
very very funny
A very funny script from David O. Russel makes Flirting with Disaster an improvement on its predecessor Spanking the Monkey. Ben Stiller's neurotic monotonic performance is the weakest in an otherwise spectacular cast, most notably Mary Tyler Moore.
A young gen Xer decides to track down his natural parents, half the battle is finding them. After bouncing from hilarious situation to hilarious situation, he finds them. Although the parents are facinating characters themselves, it is at this point that the film doesn't quite know what to do with itself.
Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989)
Emotionally draining... in a really good way
The way "the golden era" really was. The statement on the state of the 1950s presented in Last Exit is shocking, enlightening, and well supported by beautiful performances of an ensemble cast. Jennifer Jason Leigh as Tralala, a hooker WITHOUT a heart of gold (for a change) and Burt Young as a union hard hitter coming to terms with his sexuality are most notably inspiring. Excellent direction and a powerful script make Last Exit emotionally draining, and compelling.
Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
a greatly overlooked performance
A reporter decides to experience racism. He tells everyone he is Jewish and witnesses first-hand that which he had only heard about. Many films have covered this topic, and most stop there. Gentlemen's Agreement goes beyond this. It examines the validity of such an experiment, the audacity of one to think he can suddenly "become" Jewish, the betrayal to the community, and most importantly, the fact that he never ever really finds out what it's like.
Gregory Peck gives an excellent, insightful performance and under Elia Kazan's masterful direction, he makes you resent then love him in the same scene.
Safety Last! (1923)
Cute and Funny
Cute and funny. Of course it doesn't hold up so much in its humor over these years. But the stunts are somewhat disturbing when you realize the limited special effects available at the time and that they probably just had to outright do these things.
It's a simple story of a boy who moves to the big city. He pretends to be making it big in his correspondence with his girl and uses every penny earned to send her lavish gifts while he lives in poverty working as a sales clerk.
She makes a surprise visit and he must make a wad of money fast, the perfect opportunity arises, he can get a grand if he gets his friend to scale the department store. Well, the cops are after his friend, so he goes in his place.