What Have You Rented Recently?

Duh, a friend and I watched Casino Royale yesterday afternoon when it was all foggy and gloomy out.

LOOOVED it. But then, I love any action flick with a half-decent plot. I don't think Daniel Craig was as good as everyone said, but he was better than I was expecting him. I had been against him, so he made me like him. I felt so bad for him at the end.

QUOTE (Kiran @ March 24, 2007 04:55 pm)

You know, I love Altman so when The Dude gets to my favorite of his films (the Player, Shortcut, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Company <which actually is the one Altman film, you like, right>, M.A.S.H., and Gosford Park) its gonna, like, hurt me.

Just think of what I'll do with this.

Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean: When I put the desiccated VHS of this movie into the VCR my cat stood in front of the TV, hair standing up and let loose a blood curdling howl. Somehow the animals are the first to know.

The feline could probably explain the plot of this movie better than I could. He isn’t much of the cineaste. Truth be told all he watches is football.

Until recently I never understood Altman’s “exile” from Hollywood. I always took a look at his flexography and saw he was working betwixt Popeye and The Player, but after CBT5&10 and Beyond Therapy I can see how low he’d fallen. Credit where due, I have admired Altman’s survival instincts and drive to be behind the lens. He toiled thanklessly in Industrial films and Television before getting his shot, so being cast aside as a false idol could not been much of a blow to him.

Shot on film stock so cheap it would put Hal Warren to shame it is a “filmed play” to the literal extent of the phrase. Altman delves into the limitations of the stage and makes his film suffer as a result. His big trick is to use move the camera to a two way mirror to show the past of 20 years ago. A coke addict with a free kilo wouldn’t go at a mirror as much a Altman does in these two hours. After the flash backs hit double digits I wished for the guile of a flashback harp.

The flashbacks are of 20 years ago, different actresses? Age make up? No and no. Altman doesn’t even bother with wardrobe change on some characters. This might be necessity live, but you aren’t performing before an audience Bob. Live a little!

The movie also uses the only set of a Woolworth’s in drought stricken Texas. Never for a minute do you forget it is a set. You telling me he couldn’t have found a location in Fresno to double for West Texas?

The cast consists of braying redneck women stereotypes. It's like Molly Ivins ate a bag of Pixie Stix. I hold little affection for Texas, but this goes well beyond “messin’” with the state. One actress acts as though she is Walter Brennan in drag. Karen Black is old friend Joe who’s made the trip to Trinidad I’ve seen Marta Hefflin described as a “potential Shelly Duvall”… ouch! This critically eviscerated play was Cher’s breakout role and displaying mere competence makes her look like Streep in comparison to the rest of the cast. Altman exasperates the weakness of the acting by overuse of lingering close ups.

Somehow this gets grouped into one of Altman’s “dream movies” I contend it is a rationalization for incoherence.

This wasn’t the biopic of the sausage magnate I expected.

QUOTE

This wasn’t the biopic of the sausage magnate I expected.

But then again, what is?

My university offered an in-depth seminar on Altman. I avoided it like the plague.

Last night I rented Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Big Red One. I've only watched the first one so far, but I enjoyed it tremendously and highly recommend it. It's a droll and witty screenplay, and all of Alec Guinness's many characters are brilliant.

QUOTE (The Dude @ March 26, 2007 05:36 am)

QUOTE (Kiran @ March 24, 2007 04:55 pm)

You know, I love Altman so when The Dude gets to my favorite of his films (the Player, Shortcut, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Company <which actually is the one Altman film, you like, right>, M.A.S.H., and Gosford Park) its gonna, like, hurt me.

Just think of what I'll do with this.

Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean: When I put the desiccated VHS of this movie into the VCR my cat stood in front of the TV, hair standing up and let loose a blood curdling howl. Somehow the animals are the first to know.

The feline could probably explain the plot of this movie better than I could. He isn’t much of the cineaste. Truth be told all he watches is football.

Until recently I never understood Altman’s “exile” from Hollywood. I always took a look at his flexography and saw he was working betwixt Popeye and The Player, but after CBT5&10 and Beyond Therapy I can see how low he’d fallen. Credit where due, I have admired Altman’s survival instincts and drive to be behind the lens. He toiled thanklessly in Industrial films and Television before getting his shot, so being cast aside as a false idol could not been much of a blow to him.

Shot on film stock so cheap it would put Hal Warren to shame it is a “filmed play” to the literal extent of the phrase. Altman delves into the limitations of the stage and makes his film suffer as a result. His big trick is to use move the camera to a two way mirror to show the past of 20 years ago. A coke addict with a free kilo wouldn’t go at a mirror as much a Altman does in these two hours. After the flash backs hit double digits I wished for the guile of a flashback harp.

The flashbacks are of 20 years ago, different actresses? Age make up? No and no. Altman doesn’t even bother with wardrobe change on some characters. This might be necessity live, but you aren’t performing before an audience Bob. Live a little!

The movie also uses the only set of a Woolworth’s in drought stricken Texas. Never for a minute do you forget it is a set. You telling me he couldn’t have found a location in Fresno to double for West Texas?

The cast consists of braying redneck women stereotypes. It's like Molly Ivins ate a bag of Pixie Stix. I hold little affection for Texas, but this goes well beyond “messin’” with the state. One actress acts as though she is Walter Brennan in drag. Karen Black is old friend Joe who’s made the trip to Trinidad I’ve seen Marta Hefflin described as a “potential Shelly Duvall”… ouch! This critically eviscerated play was Cher’s breakout role and displaying mere competence makes her look like Streep in comparison to the rest of the cast. Altman exasperates the weakness of the acting by overuse of lingering close ups.

Somehow this gets grouped into one of Altman’s “dream movies” I contend it is a rationalization for incoherence.

This wasn’t the biopic of the sausage magnate I expected.

If I remember correctly-- and I may not-- this was a Made for Showtime movie, well before HBO and Showtime were actually doing a serious job of making their own movies.

QUOTE

Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

And the self-inflicted whip marks continue to mount ...

QUOTE (Sprunkle @ March 26, 2007 01:46 pm)

Last night I rented Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Big Red One. I've only watched the first one so far, but I enjoyed it tremendously and highly recommend it. It's a droll and witty screenplay, and all of Alec Guinness's many characters are brilliant.

I love Kind Hearts and Coronets so much that it scares me to find it's available on dvd in the US. This means Eddie Murphy may see it and get ideas...

Cher got a Golden Globe nomination for [sausage movie], and it seems to indicate it was in the movie categories. However, the lack of sophisticated production values may be the result of trying to translate it straight from the stage.

QUOTE (RiverThames @ March 26, 2007 07:54 am)

If I remember correctly-- and I may not-- this was a Made for Showtime movie, well before HBO and Showtime were actually doing a serious job of making their own movies.

The backstory in his biography is Altman directed the stage production and the money men pulled the rug out from under him. Altman sunk his own cash into the stage production which got shreaded by the critics and closed quickly. He took it to film to recoop his money.

He took it on the festival circut, for some goddamn reason the film critics loved it. Given that small release most of its audience probably was on cable.

According to Jumping Off A Cliff Altman did an interview on 20/20 at the time and told them that the brutal frank Rich review was off limits, which of course was a bucket of chum to the interviewer. It say Altman"had to be restrained" I have to find this tape!

It also lists Joe Simmon as a 'long time Altman detractor" ah my spiritual brother.

a friend of mine said she saw a college production, which actually cast serperate for the 1955 and 75 portions.

QUOTE

My university offered an in-depth seminar on Altman. I avoided it like the plague.

Ebert comes to my college every year and he's done some lecturing on Altman too. I don't know if it would be the best idea for me to go to one.

QUOTE (The Dude @ March 26, 2007 11:43 am)

Ebert comes to my college every year and he's done some lecturing on Altman too. I don't know if it would be the best idea for me to go to one.

Maybe you could coax a "fuck off!" out of Roger, just like that woman in Crazy Mel's Apocalypto event the other day!

Agitate the Ebert, and you will have made an enemy out of me. Well not really, but I do love the Ebert.

QUOTE (Kiran @ March 26, 2007 11:50 am)

Agitate the Ebert, and you will have made an enemy out of me. Well not really, but I do love the Ebert.

If Ebert remembers our last encounter he knows he can drop me.

....I need to hear this.

QUOTE (Kiran @ March 26, 2007 12:16 pm)

....I need to hear this.

I was schlepping around campus with a hangover or headache or something not looking where i was going and I ran into someone and landed flat on my ass. I look up and the guy I collided with is looking over me and it's Ebert. So combine the embarassment of a public prat fall with a B-level celeb encounter.

I do want to see you make a movie so he can review as "Clumsy" and "Hitting you over the head with it's message, just like that time..."

QUOTE (Skyblade @ March 26, 2007 07:14 pm)

I do want to see you make a movie so he can review as "Clumsy" and "Hitting you over the head with it's message, just like that time..."

Vincent Gallo was playing with fire.

ETA finished another one

Short Cuts: 187 minutes and calling something “Short”… you are a goddamn liar Altman!

Here’s a problem with these ensemble pictures. 34 characters divided by 187 minutes equals about five and a half minutes per character. Maybe that’s why he stacks 75 lines on top of each other. 5 1/2 minutes doesn’t leave much time for character development. Hell Julianne Moore’s cooter gets 3 minutes of screen time.

Getting less the two Hoo-has worth of attention you have to direct with the characters and this is after dispensing with that pesky plot. Altman might as well just hung a sign around every one's neck with “Drunk”, “Bored House wife”, “Suicidal”, “Pervert” or “Matthew Modine”. I still remember the caption about Chris Penn and Jennifer Jason Leigh’s parts “the all-American two-income family in Altman’s Short Cuts: Dad cleans pools, moonlights as a rapist; Mom nurtures kids, sells phone sex.” Like wow, man. If you put a camera on the audience of a critics’ screening of an Altman film would you be to tell them apart from an audience for a Times Square grind house?

Doesn’t help that Altman burns that precious time on characters that are obsessively there for comic effect. The man cannot set up a joke. Witness Tim Robbins highway patrolman that likes to tell hero stories. Could have been a funny character if it was in the hands of someone with a comic edge.

So in the movie, a bunch of shit happens, in LA, everyone runs into each other, Altman pulls the chute with a deus ex machina earthquake.

Andie. MacDowell. Can. Not. Act.

Word to the wise if you want to have a flyweight like Matt Modine making a big dramatic point, you don’t want the audience thinking: “No dye job there!”

Short Cuts does represent the possible pinnacle of Altman’s has-been casting. Huey Lewis (with the 3rd full frontal in SC). He assembles a cast like Jerry Krause put together the Chicago Bulls. Surrounds the celluloid Jordan and Pippen, with Bill Wennington, Dickie Simpkins and B.J. Armstrong.