dbborroughs' Journal

12:49am: two quick reviews
Battleship
Stupid cliche set up and linking material is off set by stunning action set pieces. This stuff is the best of the alien invasion films of late. It does make sense (with in reason)

Dark Shadows
the early gothic sequences are stunning . Its wrecked by unfunny comedy and an ending that is just too much

8:03am: Girl Walk//All Day
http://girlwalkallday.com/
Three people dance across NYC
This is playing at The Korean American Film Festival New York June 6 and should be seen on a big screen. If not here it is.
Warning the music is infectious but frqently not work safe

3:04pm: The last few days
Doing a random bounce from thing to thing.
Sorted papers this morning.
Worked on the film blog
did dishes
noodled online.

that's about it

Movie-wise still decompressing from Tribeca

Watching Adam Curtis's Mayfair series. I fell into his stuff in bits and piece over the years but seeing his All Watched over Documentary had me tracking down his films en-mass. I loved All Watched over-even if the end doesn't pull it together the way it should. I am also loving his other films- which are available to see on line simply because the amount of found footage makes them nigh impossible to get clearance for home video.

Saw The Grey- a super adventure film that's more about ideas and Liam Neeson's character then a straight forward adventure tale. I know some people hate the ending. I loved it

Detachment was a kick in the pants. Not sure how exactly I feel about the film but it's in your face style and from the trenches look at education forces to to think and react

Cabin in the Woods didn't live up to the initial hype. SO many people I know loved this that when the hate started I was kind of shocked...then I saw it and realized that it's clever but not particularly good. Yea it has some great sequences but the film as a whole doesn't work.

Next on my list is learn to be social once more because frankly I've lost my ability to be social.

Going to try and see Avengers this week. I'll report in.

11:06am: Tribeca is done
Except for the writing and maybe a couple of on line films it's all done...

7:18am: I'm exhausted
I'm beat. tribeca is kicking my ass. I don't have to do this but I wanted to try so I am.
Yesterday I saw 5 films two of which made an impression (Benji- about Benji WIlson who was killed in Chicago on the eve of being a huge basketball star. Also Freaky Deaky a good but not great Elmore Leonard adaption.)
If you want to know whats been going on check out Unseen since I'm doing daily reports and lots of reviews.

11:12pm: Checking in
The prefestival press screenings of Tribeca are done. I've seen 27 out of 32 I planned to see. Most have been good, a few mediocre and amazingly very few sucked...but when they sucked they did so big time. I'm running a review of a movie Thursday night at Unseen Films that is a real stinker (the movie not the review). I'd love to talk about it but because of embargos I can't. This turkey prompted the response from one person in attendence to the effect that it wrecked any desire to ever see a movie ever again.

Since last I posted I saw Leap of Faith on Broadway and it was good but not great.

I saw Simon Callow do Being Shakespeare and thought it was marvelous

Out side of that I haven't done much....my laundry...and the day job.

Right now if you want to know what I'm up to read Unseen because thats where I'm reporting the films I've been seeing...and all I've done since March 27th is watch movies.

So if you've been wondering I'm alive and I've been reading but all my writing is going elsewhere...

8:31am: Tribeca blind notes
There have been 11 films screened for the press and I've seen 8. My dad was having oral surgery so I missed 2 and then I didn't want to see one yesterday. There are five today and I'm aiming for 3.

SO far more hits than misses. They seem nutty about embargos so I'm not going to say anything about titles... other than Eddie the Sleep Walking Cannibal was Ghoulish fun.

I think there have been three great films
Two very good films
One that has great pieces but disappoints as a whole
One with funny dialog and scenes but doesn't hang together
and there was one film that was just okay, but could have been something if there had been an ending however instead it stooped instead of ended. Its a real miss.

It's fun butI'm exhausted from all the fravel.

The real poser for me is the chatter about when we can post. I have no idea how crazy they are but something started before Friday's screenings and they have been sending out warnings about not to post until the festival starts.

Anyway- gotta get ready and go.

8:42am: Things are getting crazy.
I was at a midweek screening for the NYICFF wednesday of the amazingMonkey King Uproar in Heaven. Last night was mythbusters live. Today and tomorrow more NYICFF. Next week it Tribeca stuff. I beat and things are only starting.

10:50am: Been busy-Atteneded some press screenings for New Directors New FIlms. A good but mixed bunch of films.

I really like THE RAID a great deal (so much so I got into a Fangoria preview screening to see it again). Its a fantastic action film thaat is a must see for action fans

Also good was How To Survive a Plague about ACT UP's efforts to try to make sure a cure for AIDS was worked on. Its a moving documentary, though it suffers from assuming we know some of the story.

The Rabbi's Cat is a beautiful animated film based on Joann Sfarr's graphic novel. The 3D works against it since it mutes the colors and adds almost nothing to the film or sense of space in the frame.

There were others but not worth the time to mention- then again Neighboring Sounds has gotten great press going into the festival- but having seen it I'm at a loss to know why. The film is about a neighbor hood in a Brazilian city that gets a private security firm to watch over it. We watch the people come and go and then it all ends with a WTF was that moment as things are referenced that we've never learned of---and are not even mentioned in the press notes.

I've been seeing a great deal at the NYICFF-

Of note is the Disney documentary CHimpanzee- which had signs up saying the screening wasn't for review. I have one set to go at Unseen Films but I'm not sure when I can actually post it. All I'll say is if you like the trailers or commercials you'll like it, but that I have issues with it, though I liked it.

Most of the other stuff I've seen at the Festival is up at Unseen Films.

I saw John Carter yesterday and loved it. I completely understand why its splitting audiences. The film is an old school respresentation of an old school novel. I think it hits it perfectly. I believed I was on Barsoom. For me the moment John Carter proved he was a hero was when he sends his lady love away and then stands all alone and takes on an advancing army. There is a wonderful moment in it that has Carter standing there killing all comers and we watch as th bodies pile up around him like in a Frazetta painting.

I've been watching Adam Curtis documentaries, bad Euro crime films and NCIS episodes.

Actually the problem is work is crazy making and Unseen FIlms has been eating my time. I've been writing up stuff, pushing things forward and getting things ready for the Tribeca Film Festival which will eat most of my free time once the press screenings start.

I don't like that I'm not writing here but live is getting in the way.

I can't blme this on Facebook since I'm not there, though I have been doodling with twitter for the film blog.

I am sorry to those of you I have made promises to about stuff, I'm just getting moved in odd directions.

I think thats it for right now. You guys and girls keep posting I am reading

11:21pm: Oh crap- just looked at my friends page and realized I'm a week behind....gotta start reading

11:23pm: someone smack me because this film blog thing is way out of control

11:36pm: Have only seen bits of the oscars- I got hooked into Alex Gibney's Catching Hell on ESPN which was excellent

1:19pm: I'm reading but sadly not posting.
Life is getting in the way.
Actually whats getting in the way is prepping Unseen Films for the next say 12 weeks. There are a ton of Film Fests in and around NY (three start March 1 and run together for 2 and 3 weeks), I have press passes to some - like Tribeca, but I still want to have the blog run a film a day plus I have other blog and non blog stuff to deal with- its over whelming me.
I know it can and will get more complicated I just hope my head doesn't explode

9:05pm: yes I'm alive
I'll report soon

3:04pm: More movies
Inn Keepers- Ti West goes retro again for a good small scale film

WHite Night- Korean film version of an often filmed thriller- good mystery/ character study different than the recent Japanaese film which is more a police procedural. *(which I also saw)

Midnight in Paris- is really good, but not the best of the year.

Contraband- okay, but kind of disappointing.

9:24am: What I've seen
Things are busy at work and else where...I've been disappearing into the darkness for films more than ever

VIral Factor- Chinese action film has great action but has a plot full of WTF turns. Things happen just because it gets us to the next thing. Nothing is explained because to do so would wreck the film. Great mindless fun, but stupid as a stick.

Joann Safar Draws from Memory- badly subtitled look at artist Sfar and his art. Trouble is there is no context and only some of the dialog and comic panels are translated. Just okay

Undying- bland horror film about bringing back the dead- I shut it off after 20 dull minutes

Armed and Deadly-female soldier comes back from the Middle East and hadproblems. I didn't much care. It did make me wonder what is it about low budgetfilms that keep the camera in constant motion, it never stops moving.

We Boughta Zoo- wonderful charming marvelous. I loved it. Itjust made me feel good.

Devil Inside- BORING and stupid.

Young Adult- Less a comedy than drama of a nut case who refuses to live in the now. VEry uncomfortable. The best thing in it ans the reason to see it is Patton Oswalt who was robbed by not getting a nomination.

War Horse- Beautiful film is too episodic. never has war looked so lovely.This film is rather bloodless. I only wish it has real characters beyond the horse.

Other than that its been mostly warner archive stuff....

Thats about it. Things have just been odd lately with layoffs, thrats of lay offs and other fun things. I just haven't been talkative

6:16pm: Thats a first- a subtitled movie where the titles belong to a different movie entirely

10:55pm: GO GIANTS!!!!!

9:39am: Find the blackmailer
A detective is hired to find the blackmailer of a candidate for mayor. The blackmailer knows that the mayors fiance is an ex-con. When the blackmailer turns up dead things become a desperate hunt for a crow that can talk.

Okay, desperate is too strong a term, patorallyly paced jaunt. This is stock characters going through the paces of a not particularly tense mystery (and I use the term mystery very loosely). This is little more than the characters thrashing around for an hour or so while time runs out. I'm sure this played better in the original short story because I can't imagine this nonsense being intentionally used as the basis of a film.

The fact its a non-mystery doesn't prevent it from being entertaining. We watch the film because the actors make their characters engaging enough that we want to spend time with them. Honestly had their actually been a real mystery this would have been a great film simply because the cast is so good.

Worth a look, especially since its part of a Warner Archive release with 6 films.

6:58pm: I like Immortals. Its Tarsem insanity with a good plot---if only it wasn't so talky it would be great

1:50pm: updates
yes I'm alive.
Been running around, feeling under the weather and watching too many movies.
I'll post more when I find the words.

Redline is a great scifi racing anime
Prince of the Himalayas is a great looking movie with a great soundtrack but makes a mess of Hamlet.
A Separation is deservedly in the front for Oscars
Descendants disappointed me
Flowers of War has n place being in the Oscar hunt
50/50 is nicely uplifting
Norwegian Wood disappointed me
Ides of March is okay
And in the middle of all of those lots of Spaghetti Westerns

10:26pm: not muchto report
The Front Line, Korea's Oscar entry is pretty good.

11:00pm: movies and other things
My brother wanted to rescue an abused cat- the trouble was there is no money to do so. Its a cute cat but in desperate need of medical attention which frankly there is no money to pay for--never mind we have 5 cats already...

Going to try and log all the movies I see in a year-again. don't know if I'll keep it up.
3 days into 2012 and I'm 11 movies in- mostly spaghettie westerns and women in prison films (I was doing research for Unseen Films-no really I was see February 13th is you don't believe me.)

Watching No Room to Die- a slow western about illegal immigration. The trouble is much of the film doesn't deal with the characters who are of interest- the two "heroes" of the piece...Django and Sartana (though those names are not in the english dub- with a character named Sartana dying early on.)It's not bad as such but painfully slow.

And God Said to Cain is an interesting western starring Klaus Kinski.

Dead Men DOn't make shadows is an okay western I have no memory of....

3:19pm: Sleeping Beauty
Oh what crap is thia?
The short version is a woman allows herself to be drugged into unconciousness so men can sleep with her.
And this has a point, where?
Or why?
Pure trash
Soft core porn for the art crowd which wants to think itself kinky

thank god it was on IFC in theaters....I'd be pissed if I paid for it

11:20am: Drive
Over rated prentious twaddle about a stunt driver who does other jobs on the side.Then his dark life begins to over take him and his existence just as he finds a way into the light with a young mother and her son.

Think The Transporter but with deep and meaningful twists.

Its a pumped up B movie from the 1970's or 80's dusted off and sold to to movie public as something new.

Its not bad but seriously this is a front runner for an Oscar?

As for Albert Brooks all he does is hit his marks and says some menacing lines. It aint worthy of an Oscar.