Comments on: Best Movie of 2005

By: Phillip

Phillip — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 14:23:44 +0000

“Donnie Darko” didn’t do much for me. All the elements are there for a fun, supernatural kind of movie, but they just didn’t pull it off. The connections between one scene and the next are thin. It takes forever for the story to develop into anything, and even when it does get going, it’s not much of a revelation.

I was looking at the deleted scenes on the DVD, and it seems like ALL the scenes that tie the story together, that give it some coherence, we’re removed. Things would have still been slow to develop, but at least it would have made more sense.

Certain elements of the movie were interesting, but it was so unfocused, it didn’t engage me. Not a horrible movie, but nothing I’d recommend.

Apparently there’s a director’s cut which, if it has all those deleted scenes I was talking about, is probably a better movie.

By: Phillip

Phillip — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 13:20:47 +0000

The Corporation is excellent. Very informative, an intriguing thesis (corporation = sociopath). Like any documentary, it does have its biases, but not enough to distort the facts the way Michael Moore does. There’s a 2-disc edition of it I’d like to have; it must have tonnes of interesting bonus material.

Donnie Darko — I don’t know a thing about this movie. I can’t remember why I wasn’t initially attracted to it, but apparently it’s not too bad. I’ll have to see it.

Thanks, TB.

By: ChrisO

ChrisO — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 12:32:18 +0000

so ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT!

By: tommyboy

tommyboy — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 08:57:47 +0000

corporation is interesting, and out on a limb..I had no idea what this was about but thougght it was interesting..donne darko…actually I liked this movie…oh yeah and in the same vein as corporation is suburbia…bad car bad car and if you want mind numbing but ocassional laugh Kumar white castle…its worth just to see doogie

By: Phillip

Phillip — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 23:59:31 +0000

Has anyone seen Crash? I hear it’s good. Unfortunately I didn’t hear a good word about it until it was gone from my local theatre. I hope it comes back. Not that I have high hopes, but almost everything in the theatre this year has sucked so bad, and will probably continue to suck, I’d like to see a half-decent movie for a change.

“Batman Returns,” which is not a great movie, has been getting favourable reviews because next to all the other crap movies out there, it doesn’t look too bad. But that’s doesn’t make it good.

Anyone have any video rental recommendations?

By: Phillip

Phillip — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 14:00:47 +0000

I was attracted to HIMALAYA because I'd heard the soundtrack first, and liked what I heard. A couple years ago, I did an online search for Buddhist chanting MP3s, ones I could download for free. I found a Russian site that illegally posted about 10 hours of chant music as high-quality MP3s. The entire soundtrack to HIMALAYA was there along every CD by Lama Gyurme, who I was already familiar with through Peter Gabriel's Real World Records. The music from the soundtrack to HIMALAYA is so moving, it's sometimes difficult to listen to the whole thing straight through. It's not the kind of music you can just put on for background sound. It pulls you in whether you want it to or not. I find it comparable to the music produced by Peter Gabriel for such films as Birdy, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Rabbit-Proof Fence. If you liked Peter Gabriel's Passion, you'll probably like this soundtrack (and the movie too).