L.A. Confidential

[Mako Koiwai]

Kristoffer Gjevre ... how about the wonderful "My Life As A Dog"

http://worldfilm.about.com/library/week ... 040103.htm

[Giovanni Jaramillo]

If you're looking for edge of your seat excitement and great story telling: "The Hurt Locker"

http://theenvelope.latimes.com/env-et-b ... 0875.story

+1 on this one. HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. Saw it when it came out in theaters and was surprised it wasn't as popular but now it will be.

[George Schilling]

If you're looking for edge of your seat excitement and great story telling: "The Hurt Locker"

http://theenvelope.latimes.com/env-et-b ... 0875.story

+1 on this one. HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. Saw it when it came out in theaters and was surprised it wasn't as popular but now it will be.

Agreed. I'm glad I saw it, but I don't think it's one I'd watch more than once or twice.

Here's another one:

Crazy Heart (2009)

I just saw this yesterday with Amalia. Great character study of an old, drunk country singer played by Jeff Bridges. This is one I'll watch every few years.

[Tom Tanquary]

Here's another one:

Crazy Heart (2009)

I just saw this yesterday with Amalia. Great character study of an old, drunk country singer played by Jeff Bridges. This is one I'll watch every few years.

+1 there. Great music, great acting, great story. It was this year's "The Wrestler" (which was really painful to watch but a great, great movie).

[Kristoffer Gjevre]

Kristoffer Gjevre ... how about the wonderful "My Life As A Dog"

http://worldfilm.about.com/library/week ... 040103.htm

Yes, absolutely!
This is a movie I have heard about many times but have not had a chance to see yet which must be corrected soon!

[Jeff Shyu]

Oooo if you guys haven't watched Taken, it was a better movie than I had expected. Especially when Liam Neeson starts kickin arse!

Yes it was great...a total sleeper hit. Highly recommend it to those who have netflix. Also do see "The Hurt Locker" it's nominated for best picture this year. Talk about intense!

Taken was great. I didn't enjoy The Hurt Locker that much.

One that doesn't get a lot of press, but i completely enjoyed, "thank you for smoking"

on the sappy yet entertaining side - since no one on a car forum will likely admit to watching these..
Yes Man - i'm not a jim carey fan, but this was actually pretty entertaining)
Stranger than fiction - this one took a lot of convincing from my friend before i was willing to sit down to watch it, but it was well worth the time spent in front of the TV.

[Lily Liu]

Yes Man - i'm not a jim carey fan, but this was actually pretty entertaining)

I'd like to go body blading like they do at the end of the movie. It looks like fun!

[Robert Puertas]

Red Belt

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1012804/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Probably my favorite movie ever. David Mamet is a genius.

[Jeff Shyu]

interesting, it was on TV over the weekend, and I caught bits of it (red belt), I'll have to record and watch it next time.

[Robert Puertas]

interesting, it was on TV over the weekend, and I caught bits of it (red belt), I'll have to record and watch it next time.

Yes, that's how I first discovered it too. One of those little films that nobody has ever heard of, but amazingly well written, directed and acted, and beautifully shot to boot.

[Bob Beamesderfer]

NYT film critic AO Scott talks about Chinatown, Polaski's masterpiece film noir story of corruption in Los Angeles:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/ ... chinatown/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Another film noir that wasn't a big film but is solid work is After Dark, My Sweet. Another great movie is The Last Seduction, while not film noir, a drama with a few dark twists thrown.

[Michael Wolf]

Sorry, but LA Confidential was a poor effort to remake "China Town" in a haphazzard fashion. I had high hopes for that movie, but was terribly disappointed.

Do yourself a favor, go find a copy of the widescreen original version of "China Town." It is considered the most perfectly directed and acted movie ever made and still ranks in the top five of the AFI's best movies ever list. I believe its second behind Citizen Kane.


In my situation, movies have become about all I have. And collecting laserdiscs has been not only the only way I can afford them, but an awesome format for them. I have China Town on Laserdisc, and would be happy to transfer it to VHS if you'd like. Otherwise, if I get down that way, I'd be happy to screen it for you.


Right now, I'm reviewing the body of work of Wes Anderson. I'm actually working somewhat backwards this time, as I really adored "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and had to go back and review after discovering it was Wes who presented this great adaptation of the book. "Darjeerling Limited" was a fantastic movie that touched me because of my family situation. "The Life Acquatic With Steve Zissou" was a tremendously successful twist on the Mody Dick great white whale metaphor which also touched me because of my efforts in wolf recovery. I just watched "The Royal Tennembaums" two nights ago and enjoyed it as well. Check out Wes Anderson for sure. Start with Rushmore though.


If you want a pre-prepared list of movies you really should watch, check out the American Film Institute's list of best movies ever made. Watch them if you can. I hope one day to own them all on Laserdisc. I'm still hunting for Citizen Kane...

[Tom Tanquary]

Right now, I'm reviewing the body of work of Wes Anderson. I'm actually working somewhat backwards this time, as I really adored "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and had to go back and review after discovering it was Wes who presented this great adaptation of the book. "Darjeerling Limited" was a fantastic movie that touched me because of my family situation. "The Life Acquatic With Steve Zissou" was a tremendously successful twist on the Mody Dick great white whale metaphor which also touched me because of my efforts in wolf recovery. I just watched "The Royal Tennembaums" two nights ago and enjoyed it as well. Check out Wes Anderson for sure. Start with Rushmore though..

+1 I have to say all these movies are very high on my list. Because of them I became a Owen Wilson fan and became a great admirer of Bill Murray as an actor. His cameo in Darjeerling was a brilliant inside joke. But all of these films are about as good as it gets in "small" movie making. "Art" I think is the term. ;) "I'm not a nurse I'm an OR doctor." "Oh, are you."

Also check out Lost in Translation, another brilliant small film. And try the films of Tom McCarthy, a fantastic writer. He wrote/directed The Station Agent and The Visitor both of which I was profoundly taken with and he wrote Up, which I can't say enough good things about. Squirrel!!!!

[Michael Wolf]

I loved "Lost in Translation." Very understated movie.


I'm blessed in a way in that the grocery store in the small town I live has a second-rate video rental setup. They get some big studio movies, but they also get a lot of independent films. I'm pretty much sworn off of big-studio movies. "Avatar" proved why. There have been some exceptions here and there, such as "Where the Wild Things Are." But I've discovered movies such as "Imprint," a great homemade native American film that was quite well done, as well as many other movies that have been quite enjoyable. Of course, I'll always make exception to my big studio rule for artists such as Wes Anderson and especially Soderbergh, who even when he makes a big studio movie to make some money turns out a piece of artwork worthy of collecting (i.e. Oceans 13.)

Yeah, I loved Bill Murray's part in the movie. Wes really got us going, especially people like myself who don't see previews (the very reason I stopped watching TV initially on September 10th, 2001...good timing eh?) and thus don't get the "benefit" of chopped up scenes from the movie.


Movies to me are no longer just an exercise in weekly socializing or entertainment for entertainment's sake. It is a medium with so much potential to influence and inspire, and many movies have done exactly that. Miyazaki's "Mononoke Hime" quite literally changed my life, for I watched it the year after in came out (1997) from a fansub dubbed from the Laserdisc. The great thing about watching it that way was the dialog was best preserved. Disney talks about how proud they are that they alter the dialog of Miyazaki's masterpieces so that the dialog matches mouth movement. I bet Miyazaki regrets signing up with those bastards. But yeah, Miyazaki, in that film, which I watched just as I was ramping up my efforts to work in wolf recovery, showed me that there aren't two sides to an issue; that good people can do bad things, and bad people can do good things. That movie made me see that the wolf issues weren't about ranchers versus wolves, etc.

Obviously on my budget, I rarely go to the movies. But the release of "Where the Wild Things Are," "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and even "Avatar" have inspired me to redirect my interests towards children. I'm pondering writing children's books; though I'd like to learn how to draw better so I can illustrate them myself. And my costuming is now much more focused on entertaining children of all ages and far, far less concerned about the idiocy of the rest of the people involved in that subculture (freakin' furverts.)

So yeah, movies can, and should, inspire and influence. Any movie which doesn't send a positive message or inspire, is a damn waste of money in my eyes. Sure, once in a while eye candy is nice to watch, but there's plenty out there that I don't need to plop down $6.50 (matinee) to share the experience with people I don't even know (or want to know.) And when a movie like "Avatar," one of the most expensive productions and with the biggest hype of the century fails my little test, things are sad indeed. By the way, my test of a movie in that regard is whether or not I am drawn out of the experience by some kind of flaw that makes me think of the production. And in Avatar, that happened quite early when a computer-generated shadow cast by the start onto the female N'avi he encountered (or vice versa) made me see how sloppy some of the animation was.



Anyway, I talk too much.

[Bob Beamesderfer]

Sorry, but LA Confidential was a poor effort to remake "China Town" in a haphazzard fashion. I had high hopes for that movie, but was terribly disappointed.

Not a remake of Chinatown and not meant to be. Adaptation from the book by James Elroy, which captures 1950s L.A. at it's seediest. Elroy wrote three books that cover the same time frame and have some of the same characters, Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz.

However, Chinatown is one of the great American movies. NYT film critic A.O. Scott posted an appreciation last week:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/ ... chinatown/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Michael Wolf]

I guess I must be the only person who didn't like it.

But I'm definitely not the only one who thought it a take off of Chinatown. And whose to day it wasn't, the book was written in 1990 after all.


On a lighter note, watched "King Pin" last night. Campy, but what can one expect from the Farrely brothers after all. Honestly, I'm glad Bill Murray discovered he could actually act. I get tired of him playing himself in his older works. Lost In Translation was a brilliant divergence for him and while I don't think it was his debut as a true actor, I think it set in stone, for those who watched it, that he was a truly gifted actor.

[Bob Beamesderfer]

But I'm definitely not the only one who thought it a take off of Chinatown. And whose to day it wasn't, the book was written in 1990 after all.

Yeah, if by takeoff they mean that they both involved crime and political corruption in Los Angeles.