Double digits

You will be happy to know that after my embarrassing display of movie watching in August (I saw only eight films!) I am well into double digits for September. I humbly apologize for slacking off in August.

I've come into this theatre just to talk on the phone

I sometimes write about my theatre going dismay at the behavior of others--okay, it's more often rants involving my anger and annoyance at these idiots I have to suffer. Well, let's add a new wrinkle to the rudeness--theatre as private phone booth.

A friend and I were taking in a late night screening of Transiberian and all was well. The film had about fifteen minutes left when I hear a loud voice talking in the entryway before the talker became visible as two young women came into the room and moved above us. I thought to myself that was strange to enter the movie at this point but thought they might be talking to someone in the theatre telling them where to locate them. I was wrong.

Transiberian was in "final showdown" mode so the noise on screen initially blanketed the voices I could hear every so often behind me. I still heard those voices though and I turned to MB and asked, "Can you hear those people?" She could too. After a few more bursts of talking I stood up and turned to get a good look at the offenders. Lo and behold BOTH of them were on their phones at the same time!

Amid the current trends of texting at every opportunity and the talkers that I've experienced in movie theatres--never had I seen two more blatant talkers who seemed to enter the theatre ONLY to have conversations on their cell phones. These two dimwits didn't take a call during the film, that is expected as normal these days. No, they did something even more discourteous-- they came into the theatre with fifteen minutes left to make calls.

A woman sitting above us went to get theatre staff (instead of confronting the noisemakers) and soon someone was escorting them out. The funny thing was, one of the women did not stop her conversation as she brazenly kept on loudly blathering away down the aisle and out the door. It was an amazing display of uncivilized behavior. The depths of public conduct among our populace is hard to fathom but this is the new low point for me. The sad thing is I'm sure the bar will drop even lower in the future.

My obligatory seattle scarecrow video post

I'm in Seattle and that means one thing: my traditional Scarecrow Video post. Long-term readers will know that this place is truly one of my favorite places on EARTH! It's a mecca for cinema lovers. My DNA is wired to be able to come in, navigate the shelves and find something wonderful. 

As you can see in photo two, the foreign section is a mindblower. This is only about 2/3 of the section. If you want to see films from Finland or Portugal or Chile or India or Mexico or practically anyplace in the world--this is the section for you. It helps to have a multi-region DVD player to fully discover the foreign section as lots of the films in stock are direct from other countries. I had to leave my multi-region player in Seattle when I moved home because I'm not going to use it in Oklahoma that's for sure. 

The other two photos show how the shelves are arranged by director. While there are traditional sections such as comedy or drama, the main floor of the video store is dedicated to the director and there are dozens of shelves with films from directors from around the world--the obscure and the very well known. One of my favorites is the Preston Sturges shelf and if you know you "Sokurov" is on the 1st photo (without consulting IMDB), then you are worthy of entering the director's area with your head held high in confidence. 

There you have it. My annual Scarecrow post. I've rented a Cuban film, a Japanese film and am going to rent another Czech film for the jet ride home. I'm also renting Tony Gatlif's latest to watch when I get home and then mailing it back to The Hidden Staircase for her to return for me. 

Neptune marquee

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I made it over to the Neptune last night to see Hamlet 2 (a raunchy, random send up of the high school musical) and got a nice photo of the light blue marquee when we left. I love the long trident that goes through the entire name and turns into the "E" at the end. Great theatre!

The Neptune

Since I'm in Seattle, I might as well write about a movie theatre I love: Neptune. The Neptune is a nautical themed 968 seat theatre opened in 1921 in the U-District of Seattle. It's the rarest of movie theatre creatures in the year 2008--a single screen theatre! That fact alone completely endears me to it. Not that I wasn't captured by in the first time I caught a glimpse of the lovely blue neon marquee. Aw, the neon theatre marquee, something about them just hits me right in the heart.

When I first moved to Seattle in 1996 I came to the Neptune a lot because the woman I was seeing lived only a few blocks away. We'd walk over and eat on "The Ave," browse used book stores and then head to the Neptune to watch something. In fact, the theatre is kind of connected permanently to her memory because the first time I ever kissed her was right after we watched Flirting With Disaster together. Movie theatres can inspire romance and love and desire while you sit in the darkened theatre and images flicker across the screen. 

Along with thinking about my ex Lola, the Neptune makes me remember my late friend Phil and a few of the films I saw there with him. Before we watched the first Spiderman, he sang the old song to myself and The Hidden Staircase but the movie that stands out the most to me was when we watched the rabble rousing documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 together. 

Seattle is kind of a hot bed of leftist thinking and we (Phil, The Hidden Staircase and myself) all shared those opinions of the film's main subject matter: the ineptitude of George W. Bush. The screening was sold out, it was opening weekend and you could just feel the anger, disgust and the hatred in the air as we sat there and watched all the shenanigans of Bush, Cheney, Rove etc etc. 

After the film we headed to eat at this Indian place we liked called Bengal Tiger where we ranted to one another about the corrupt machinations of the American political wheel. It felt good that we were together and in agreement as we ate vegetable pakora and pashawari naan. Movie theatres can also provoke, make you loathe and create bonds while you watch what is on the screen. Now that Phil is gone, it makes me hold onto those memories stronger than ever. 

The Neptune's not only about the past though as I'm still seeing movies there--I plan on watching Hamlet 2 there tomorrow night with my friend Trevor. I'll savor buying the ticket and standing in the small lobby that doubles as the concession area before heading down into the large, cavernous auditorium. 

Eye In the Sky

I miss Hong Kong cinema. In the 1990s my viewing schedule was awash with people like Wong Kar Wai, John Woo, Johnny To and even heavy doses of early Jackie Chan and his cohorts in martial arts films. Those Hong Kong films were usually versions of American formula (lots of Asian gangsters for example) but chock full of non-stop kinetic fervor and saturated colors drenched in rainy urban streets and neon. I loved it. 

Eye In the Sky, produced by that workaholic Johnny To and directed by Nai-Hoi Yau, reminds me of what I've missed with Hong Kong cinema over the past few years as I've watched less and less of it. It's a cops and robbers picture (as lots of HK stuff seems to be) but it rises above that simple description to become something more suspenseful and interesting. 

"Eye in the sky" is a reference to mean if you live in a city you can be watched at all times. Whether by cameras or by unobserved "strangers" on the street--in a place like Hong Kong, you can and will be monitored without your knowledge. The same goes for New York or London or Mexico City or any other large metropolis. Such is the king of observation the secret police unit in Eye In the Sky undertake as they attempt to bring down a savvy group of heist men who rob various jewelry stores. 

The unit follows two main people--a newcomer called "Piggy" and the wise veteran training her known as "Dog Head." The criminals are led by the crafty crook Chan Chong Shan (played by Tony Leung Ka Fai) who looks more like a businessman than a violent criminal (looks are often deceiving). Shan seems just as trained and resourceful as the unit that is trying to hunt them down and a suspenseful battle of wills and observation erupts between the two groups. 

Eye In the Sky is just a taut, no-frills, clever, tense story--the kind of film the Hong Kong system is able to hit right on every note. I need to start watching more of them again if they are going to be as solid as well made as Eye In the Sky is. I watched this on a jet as I flew from Dallas to Seattle and it sure made the time pass. 

August movies

Well, I only made it to eight films in August. That's a woeful total! My ratio of good to bad was great though as five of the eight films I really liked including two films that will make my year end "best of" lists--the documentary Man On Wire and the edge of your seat French thriller Tell No One. I watched Tell No One yesterday afternoon and that was riveting and I'm betting it will be remade (and probably ruined) by an American director very soon.

The Bow---2005---south korea ***1/2
Mr. Woodcock---2007---usa **1/2
Pineapple Express---2008---usa ***1/2
Tropic Thunder---2008---usa ***1/2
21---2008---usa **
Man On Wire---2008---england ****1/2
Tell No One---2008---france ****1/2
The Backwoods---2006---spain **

Less than ten films?

Chances are, since I've only seen seven films in August, I'm going to do something I've only done a few times in the past decade: watch less than ten films in a month! I might see one or two before September comes but there's no way I'm seeing the four I need to make that double digit mark. I'm going to blame the Olympics as I was watching a bunch of that during the nights when I was free of plans.

Man On Wire

I’ve always been attracted to dreamers, pranksters, rascals, radicals, oddballs, innovators, hoaxers, romantics, thrill seekers and people willing to ignore or bend the law to accomplish their aspirations. Man On Wire tells the story of such a group (who are a lot of the items just listed) who plot, plan and then do what they set out to do—string up a 200 foot wire between the World Trade Center’s twin towers to perform a wire walk in August of 1974. Madness? I think not!

The man who actually steps out onto the wire is an engaging, charismatic Frenchman named Phillipe Petit and this story of how this small band of French, Australian and American misfits pulled off this feat is one of my favorite documentaries I’ve seen recently. When Petit actually steps out onto that wire, with no safety harness or cables to save him if he missteps, is one of the most amazing and electrifying things I’ve watched in a while. My heart skipped a beat I was so in love with the idea of it.

Man On Wire combines films the crew made of the training and preparation, recreations of the pre-event (the smuggling in of nearly one ton of equipment the night of the walk for example), archival footage of the WTC being built, films of other wire walks by Petit (the Notre Dame in Paris and a bridge crossing in Australia were small time warm ups compared to the towers walk) and interviews with all the folks involved who were all in their mid 20s when the event occurred. The interviews are lively, passionate, honest, humorous as the people all bare their souls in what they realize was the “once in a lifetime” aspect of the act. A few times people break down they are so overcome with emotions at what they did or witnessed on this 1974 morning.

Petit is an engaging, quasi-philosophical romantic who stepped onto the wire and walked it (or “danced” on it according to the NYC cops who were on the 100+ floor rooftop) for over forty five minutes performing his act of kneeling, laying down and turns—he does eight complete walks of the wire while up there. It’s truly breathtaking thing to watch. To see Petit on the wire and then looking down at what is below him makes this act completely unbelievable to me.

It’s hard to watch the film without grappling with the future events of what would happen to the WTC but that actually makes the wire walk even more interesting. The building wasn’t even completely finished when the group performed their wire walk and seeing Petit speak of the structure with such reverence, as if it was built for his wire and his wire only, kind of makes you think of the towers as something other than that of jets, fires, death, terrorism and collapse.

Man On Wire is a stunner. It’s a mesmerizing and beautiful film. I had goosebumps and the sight of Petit on that wire filled my eyes with tears of joy. Magical. It’s about the possibility of dreamers and of the burning youthful desire to do something no one dares. It’s about looking death square in the face while living in the moment of your dream no matter how preposterous and dangerous it might seem to others. Highly recommended!

Man On Wire trailer

The trailer for this stunning documentary.

The Allred

I enjoyed writing about the little movie theatres from my recent trip to Spain so I thought I’d do some new ones of theatres I love and have watched films at. I should start with the theatre that had the most impact on me as I was growing up and starting my love affair with movies. That theatre would be the Allred in Pryor Creek, Oklahoma.

Pryor Creek is a small town of about 9,000 mostly regular folks that lies 45 minutes northeast of Tulsa. Like most small towns, there’s not a lot to do around town. One of my favorite things about growing up in such a small place that was unlike the towns that surround Pryor Creek—we had a movie theatre. Trust me, that was a big advantage that we didn’t have to drive 45 minutes to see a movie.

Built in 1917 in the Art Deco style, the Allred that I knew and loved was a twin screen theatre that was likely very different than the original construction. I wish it held on to more of the original elements but someone chopped up the main auditorium pretty good at some point. The lobby does have a nice curving wall that lead into tiny restrooms with original tiled floors (which were there the last time I went there). The theatre still has the island ticket window in the middle of the marquee and any old theatre worth their salt should make use of that ticket island just off the street. If that island is just for show and sits there empty—you are cheating your movie going experience.

As a kid I was always entranced by the marquee—a solid red block ALLRED with blinking lights along the undercarriage of the marquee. I’ve seen a lot of places in cities and towns across America/Europe but one of the most magical, beautiful things to me is a lit up movie marquee on some small town main street. There’s something about the lights and the night and the fact you are about to enter a room with strangers and become lost in a story that makes me fall in love with the feeling time and time again.

I saw hundreds and hundreds of films at the Allred growing up. I saw horror films (Friday the 13th Part 2) and comedies (Airplane!) and thrillers (Jaws) and action films (The Road Warrior) and science fiction (Flash Gordon) and cartoons (The Lady and the Tramp) and R rated films I shouldn’t have been watching (Up In Smoke) and movies that I would revere until the day I die (Raging Bull or Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). I saw everything I could.

When I moved away from Pryor Creek after high school the theatre had started to fall on hard times. The beloved marquee would be partially lit, chairs were broken or missing entirely from the row and the floor would be sticky with mysterious substances I hoped was crushed candy and popcorn. There was just the omnipresent feeling of no one caring from the management.

The theatre was then taken over by Gene Oliver whose family had an intimate history with the theatre as they owned it in the early 1960s. Oliver has attempted to bring the Allred back. New sound systems, new screens, new seats and even an “annex” a few doors down from the original theatre.

I’ve got a lot of hope that the Allred will make other people fall in love with cinema the way it helped cast a spell on me. As long as that marquee is lit up and movies are flickering across the screen there is always that possibility. Pryor Creek didn’t have a lot of things that I loved growing up but I now realize how lucky I was to have at least had the Allred.

Boycott an unwanted remake: Death Race

First bit of business: I've been lazy with the posts. Two weeks without a post is way too long. I'll try not to let it happen again for the rest of the year even thought not sure I can live up to that promise. At least one post a week will be my mantra.

Now to the serious business--another unwanted and ridiculous Hollywood remake of a cult classic film in the form of Death Race. These people will stoop to every level to ruin great films while grasping for that dollar and attracting clueless people who don't seem to realize these films have already been made.

Remakes have always been apart of Hollywood history but there is a big difference in remaking a film from the 1970s now versus when a film from the 1930s was remade in the 1950s or 1960s. Now, we can all rent the original films on DVD anytime we want, unlike audiences in the past who had to rise up off the couch and venture down to the single screen theatre to see whatever they wanted to see. Those were the days pre-IMDB, pre-video store, pre-Netflix, pre-video on demand, pre-dozens of movie channels on your TV. Remakes in that era made perfect sense because every twenty five years or so audiences were completely recycled for stories.

In 2008 it's a completely different ballgame and the 1975 cult classic Death Race 2000 is a perfect example of a greedy Hollywood remake for a quick buck. The original, produced by that b-movie genius Roger Corman, was a perfect drive-in film. Set in the far future of the year 2000 and involving a cross country road race of carnage where drivers get points for not only speed but by running over and killing as many people along the route as possible (yes!). Death Race 2000 was a b-movie satire of car culture and America's emerging obsession with televised sporting events (and one might argue it was a harbinger of the looming reality TV craze a couple of decades away). The film was violent, silly, funny, naughty and offered just about anything you might want from a late night summer drive-in movie.

Granted, I haven't seen this woeful looking remake (I've sworn them off and I hope it is a box office bomb) but I promise you it will have none of the charm and lure of the original. It will be a loud, CGI'd to the max mess that will probably make the easy to please audiences of today happy and craving Death Race 2. The sad thing is other cult classic films I love such as Near Dark, The Warriors or Race With the Devil are all in development for some crappy remake that will make me cringe in horror. These remakes have got to stop!

July movies

As I wrote earlier--July was the month of old or foreign films. Of the nineteen I saw in July, fifteen would qualify as one of the two (I'm counting the films I saw from the 1980s--heck, that's twenty years old!). Five ***** star films might be a record for a month--it's the old films that I've seen and loved and was rewatching. For the Irene Dunne update--Theodora Goes Wild was the 6th film of hers I've seen this year. I heart Irene Dunne!

Only Angels Have Wings---1939---usa ***1/2
His Girl Friday---1940---usa *****!
Millennium Actress---2001---japan ***1/2
Reprise---2007---norway ****
Employee of the Month---2004---usa **1/2
Theodora Goes Wild---1936---usa ****
Time---2005---south korea ****
One Week---1920---usa *****!
Hancock---2008---usa ***
2 Days In Paris---2007---france ****
Cousins---1989---usa ****
Jean de Florette---1986---france *****!
Manon of the Spring---1986---france *****!
Tokyo Gore Police---2008---japan ***1/2
The Dark Knight---2008---usa ***1/2
Private Property---2006---france ***
E.T. the Extra Terrestrial---1983---usa *****!
Bigger, Stronger, Faster---2008---usa ***1/2
The Warriors---1979---usa ****

Tokyo Gore Police

Tokyo Gore Police, possibly winning the best title in 2008 award, is not for the faint of heart. Any film with “gore” in its name better come with the goods and Tokyo Gore Police delivers an unending blast of carnage from grisly start to gruesome end.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much arterial spray in a film as Tokyo Gore Police unleashes plumes of blood from severed hands, feet, legs, chopped off heads, split in two heads, eye sockets, torn off limbs, midsections and a body part I’d prefer not to mention—I’m telling you, it’s wall to wall bloodbath and mayhem. By the end, I was getting a bit sick to my stomach it is so unrelenting. If you like over the top gore—Tokyo Gore Police might be your dream (or should it be nightmare) film.

Directed by Yoshihiro Nishimura, responsible for the effects in another gonzo Japanese splatterfest called Machine Girl (in my queue to see), the film combines a love for the sci-fi futurism (lots of Tokyo neon ala the neon in Blade Runner), extreme satire of Japanese culture, S & M imagery and lurid horror. It’s an odd mix with the sci-fi and satire kind of losing out due to the bloodletting. It’s hard to compete with blood shooting in the air and covering the camera lens repeatedly.

The story is set in the future where the Tokyo police force has been privatized and is run by the Tokyo Police Corporation. Criminals have implants that allow them to be more evil, more deadly and when wounded, the wound becomes an even more destructive weapon than they had before thanks to the mutant implant. For example, a wound in the eye might turn your eye socket into a gun to shoot out lethal bullets made up of unneeded body parts. The criminals, dubbed “engineers,” are unstoppable by normal cops with normal weapons.

Luckily, there are an elite group of killers who work for the TPC can hunt down the “engineers” and properly dispose of them—often involves hacking them up real good with a sword. Eihi Shiina (from another infamous Japanese film Audition) plays the best of these cops. Dolled up in leather, short skirts and wielding a huge sword—she heads out to face a motley group of psychotic killers and “engineers.”

I wish the film were shorter as it’s draining to see so much butchery. Ninety minutes (ten minutes cut out) would have been a perfect running time, as the film would have been an onslaught of your senses and then left you stunned at what you just saw. Still, Tokyo Gore Police is the most unhinged, deranged film I’ve seen in a long, long time and if you want gore—this one has plenty of it to offer.

The Dark Knight

Saw The Dark Knight last weekend at IMAX and while it was entertaining, I think some of the positive reviews are going completely overboard. I guess this is the Citizen Kane of summer, comic book superhero movies! Too much hype for me. Am I the only person out there who thought this was just okay? While the film is incredibly made, it's too long. Bale's one-note "Batman" voice (kind of a deep, husky mumble) gets tiresome and Ledger's role as "The Joker," while well above average for these kinds of films, it seems he's already been given the Oscar from what I'm reading about the film.

Granted, these comic book superhero summer blockbusters are not my favorite kind of film. They don't even make the top ten genres for me so maybe I'm a bit biased--but with the unrelenting hype and praise The Dark Knight is being given, it just did not live up to the billing for me.

Jean de Florette + Manon of the Spring

This is how I spend my Sunday afternoons during the midst of the summer sun, heat and light—watch two connected French films that run about four hours between the pair of them. I somehow missed this highly acclaimed duo from director Claude Berri when they were released in 1986 but I’m kind of glad I waited to view them, as it would have been painful to sit out the delay from part one to part two. Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring should be watched in one sitting to get the full effect and power of the story.

Based on a novel by Marcel Pagnol, the films are set over a span of around a decade in the early 20th century and in an unbelievably idyllic setting of France. The locations are rugged, quaint and stunningly gorgeous. Although the film rarely ventures from the setting of a couple of farms, farmhouses and the nearby village, both films are swamped in a feeling of epic quality. This is largely due to the subject matter in the films.

The films have everything you want in four hours of French historical drama: greed, betrayal, doomed love, new love, the struggle for survival, murder, the beautiful rural French countryside, revenge, rustic architecture, crusty villagers, mystery, suspense and a terrific cast—Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil, Gerard Depardieu, Emmanuelle Beart lead the way.

Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring is a gripping experience that get a rare five stars for me for a first time viewing. The key word that sums up these films: experience. Watching them, embroiled in this story of deceit, the miserable heat outside disappeared, I was in France, I was in these farmhouses and fields, and that’s a much better way to spend an afternoon than to wander outside in the brutal Oklahoma summer.

Old + foreign

I'm dedicating this month to the watching of lots of old and lots of foreign films. Although, I'm about to head off to watch Hancock in a little while and that doesn't qualify as either. I've recorded a bunch of films on Turner Classic the past few weeks and have already watched one from the 1920s, two from the 1930s and one from the 1940s. Toss in a couple of films from Norway and South Korea and I'm hitting my July 2008 old + foreign objective.

Reprise

The 4th of July, Independence Day, means fireworks, flags, the summer warmth, hot dogs and bunting. Rather than do all that I’d rather go see a film from Norway at the Circle. After watching Reprise (2007) and being surprised at its quality (I knew little about this film before I saw it…all I knew really is that it was from Norway)—I think I made the right choice. Seeing a really good movie means more to me than patriotic overkill any day of the week. I’d rather be inside with the air conditioner anyway in this swarming heat.

Written and directed by Joachim Trier, Reprise is an honest jewel of a picture—direct, sly, romantic, smart, and bursting at the seams with ideas and intelligence. The film is energetic when it needs to be but not afraid to slow itself down to dwell in rumination and thought. It’s the quiet, silent moments that give Reprise its heart.

Reprise is set in Oslo amongst a group of male friends in their early 20s. They are all intellectual types who dream of having their first attempts at novels published, run design/ad agencies, listen to good music, philosophize about the world they exist in and try to get along with the women who enter their tight-knit sphere. The basics of the story is something you’ve seen before— buddies hanging out—but Trier digs deep into various elements of friendship throughout the film that take the story to corners you don’t expect to go.

I love it when a film attempts to discuss “writing” or the nature of writing as a creative endeavor and Reprise has lots of exceptional moments about books—the writing, the publishers, the blank computer screen, the insecurity of your words, the promotion, the fickleness of the critics. Books are an important daily activity in my life—I read from a book every day of my life—so to see characters talk about books, pick up books, well, that’s just exhilarating for me to see.

Reprise just isn’t about books though. It’s got a couple of intriguing romances—and lets loose with lots of observations on the male/female dynamic via the Norwegian mindset—and a major aspect of the film’s story is the psychological issues one of the friends has and how it changes him and all the relationships around him. I liked how the film was pieced together—it jumps forward, backward, freezes, pretends for the future.

Reprise makes you work a bit—not only the bright script but with the framework of the film’s story—but it is the most satisfying, original and entertaining film I’ve seen so far in 2008. Reprise has a depth of layers to it, combined with a level of sophistication in the dialogue and assured, confident direction from Trier. Here is a filmmaker to pay attention to.

Reprise trailer

June movies

It looks like I saw too many not-so-great films in June. Lots of two or two and a half star films this month--with even a dreaded one star! Part of the blame is because I watched films with Mia Sara or Sandrine Holt in them and let's be honest, they've kind of got a poor track record. Holt's 1998 film Gunslinger's Revenge will be in the running for worst film I see all year. "The gunfighters who rocked the west" is its tagline (David Bowie gives an embarrassing performance) and that sums up the garbage that is this film. It's strange Holt plays Native Americans a lot considering she is half Chinese and half French. While Sara was good in the film A Stranger Among Us, the movie was awful with Melanie Griffith playing a tough talking NY cop--I don't know what Sidney Lumet was thinking with that bit of casting!

The June event for films had to be Indy-A-Thon '08. Check that post out and the comment box for my running journal throughout the day.

The Savages---2007---usa ****
Be Kind Rewind---2008---usa **1/2
Cashback---2006---England ***
Secondhand Lions---2003---usa **1/2
A Stranger Among Us---1992---usa **
Iron Man---2008---usa ****
I Do---1921---usa ****
House of Voices---2004---france **
Mother of Tears---2007---italy **1/2
Gunslinger's Revenge---1998---italy *
Priceless---2007---france ***1/2
Raiders of the Lost Ark---1981---usa *****!
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom---1984---usa **1/2
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade---1989---usa ****
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull---2008---usa ***
Mr. Bean's Holiday---2007---england ***
The Pompatus of Love---1994---usa **
Kotch---1971---usa ***
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired---2008---usa ***1/2
Knocked Up---2007---usa ****
The Butcher---2007---france ***1/2
Joe Louis: America's Hero...Betrayed---2008---usa ***
A Guy Named Joe---1943---usa ***
Mongol---2007---Russia ***1/2