Shortbus, which was a sweet/sad little sex movie, I was little underwhelmed with it, with the lack of strong plot, the concurrent weak characters didn't help alot. Severin and the hostess of Shortbus were the only ones who added alot of kick, but I appreciated the experimental nature of it and it's message

I also watched I Trust You to Kill Me, aka the Keifer battles a Christmas Tree to a draw rawk documentary. It's surprisingly good, Keifer comes across as awesome and again surprisingly open about his drunken escapades and his ambivalent feelings about his fame/his career/his family/his drinking.The band doesn't suck, though I think DeLuca sounds alot like Jeff Buckley and the band is one part Radiohead one part jambandy. The title song is the strongest.

The timing says it all, but one day I'm totally expecting him to break and fall in love.

I Trust You to Kill Me just solidified my love for Kiefer. I thought the band was pretty good, I don't much care for Rocco's wailing singing, though.

Just finished An Evening With Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder which wasn't nearly as good as the first one. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that the first one was edited together to show only the best bits and this one shows two complete sessions with only minor edits. Still, I maintain that Smith could do stand-up if he so chose.

This Movie is Not Yet Rated was disturbing and funny all at the same time. Did you know that the MPAA involves the priesthood in the movie ratings appeal process? I'd say it was insane, but this country is strangely Puritanical for all its excess. I already "knew" a lot of the information presented but this little doc lays out the problems with the MPAA very neatly in an entertaining fashion.

Cool, I'll have to look for that at the video store. The thing that struck me about An Evening with Kevin Smith is that he's such a amazing natural storyteller. I'm ambivalent about his movies but he seems like a fun guy to have a drink with.

Not bloddy likely.

Tanner '88: in that heady election year of 1988 Doonesbury creator Gary Trudeau plucked Robert Altman off the scrap heap to direct the documentary Tanner ‘88 for HBO. What plays out is a nine episode unfunny Doonesbury strip with all the hallmarks of an Altman comedy. A low rent Not Necessarily the News without snigglets.

One of the extras is a disucssion between Truduea and his “boyhood hero” Altman. It’s amazing a 69 didn’t break out between the two of them!

And this is the man that got Jane Pauley?! HBO could have at least got Burke Breathed, Bill the Cat’s campaign was funny.

Granted calling out an of-the-moment election spoof from 20 years ago might be unfair due to it being dated, but it was dated by the time the episodes hit the air. A fawning cameo by Bruce Babbit?! And this is the guy I wanted as president in ‘88 (I was 14).

In addition to forgotten candidates and issues Tanner misses the signposts of ‘88 (in large part because of stopping after the convention) that still resonate today; Dukakis in the tank, “If your wife were raped and murdered?”, Dumass Dan Quayle, “Read my lips”, Willie Horton.

Being so enamored of the Democratic party doesn’t help Tanner as a miniseries or a fictional candidate. This is a man who in the alternate reality lost to Dukakis in the primaries, which doesn’t say much when the Duke’s performance in the electoral college is taken into account.

The ravages of age do lend some inadvertent laughs as playing herself Rebecca DeMornay is described as a “super star” commanding between $1 and $3 million a picture. If Mr. Skin downloads of the El scene count then I guess she is a super star.

The big guest star is Harry Anderson. No John Laroquette? No Markie Post? No guy who played Bull?

So 4 ½ hours and I got five intentional laughs, one was a Woody Allen quote. Cynthia Nixon, reunited with her O.C. & Stiggs costar is the designated irritant in this one. She was my favorite on Sex and the City too, she's a total Charlotte in this. The whole thing is shot on 80’s porn quality video tape.

It was still better than the mockumentary Lionel Chetwynd and Bruce Tinsley made for Showtime.

Sorry to double, but flames! Flames shooting out of my head!

The Player: Would you like another helping of yourself Bob, or are you already full?

Ah the comeback. Altman’s biographer had the bad timing to write his book in 1989 and had to cast Tanner ‘88 as Bob’s triumphant return.

The Player reputed to be a savage indictment of Hollywood but in reality revels in Tinseltown. Maybe if it was in the hands of someone who could deliver an a cutting satire as opposed to air horning you with a platitude that he treats like he found the Rosetta Stone. “Hollywood is shallow and at odds with the artistic process?! Tell me more! Every pitch is [blank] meets [blank]?!”

Instead we get a string of Hollywood in jokes and Arli$$ quality cameos. In a more incisive movie the cameos might work (no Bob Sagget on Entourage here!), but since it’s so mild all it amounts too is a bunch of struck winks at the camera. Plenty of lines made me cry for the subtext of “But I’d have to be Superman to do that Lois.”

The cameos are further complicated by Altman’s loose definition of a celebrity. Some of these guys were has-beens 15 years ago! Wow Burt Remsen was available?! Another gushing walk-on by Harry Bellafonte again announced by the only well miked line in the movie “Harry Bellafonte! Harry Bellafonte!” What's it say about Patrick Swayze that he was cut out of this movie? *guffaw!*

Sydney Pollack has a bit part as a lawyer, which you’d swear was another cameo. There’s probably exposition of the fact somewhere in the film, but it was probably buried under a conversation about nothing in particular. I’m amazed Altman outlived all the closed captioners who doubtlessly wanted to finish him off.

After oh about 150 hours of Altman his sledgehammer finesse with symbolism feels like he is drilling that damn zoom lens into my head. The constant zooms to the letter, and just in case you didn’t get it, the poster for M, just hammer home the superiority of Peter Lorre whistling Peter and the Wolf. Plenty of namedrops of better films he’s aping. A zoom on a picture of Alfred Hitchcock that would have been left out of High Anxiety.

Another fault of Altman’s characterization is when he makes a purposely unsympathetic, you want them rooming with Hitler and Stalin in hell. OK we get it, Vincent D’Onofrio is an untalented pretentious ass.

His idea of making Greta Sochi alluring is loading her down so many quirks it would put David E Kelly to shame. I’ll suspend disbelief enough to think that Tim Robbins recorded the same 15 minutes of White Mischief off Cinemax that I did and maybe another five minutes of Presumed Innocent.

Altman let my people go! the gefilte and matzo I ate tonight went down easier!

Just finished up a DiCaprio double feature--The Departed and Blood Diamond. Both movies were excellent, though I think that the The Departed had a few little rough spots, mainly in Wahlberg's performance. It was like he was imitating the intensity of characters from other Scorcese pics without actually creating a character. I'm frankly shocked that he was nominated for what I consider one of his weakest performances. In general I think he's a fine actor, just not in this movie.

I have to say that I was reticent about DiCaprio's accents based on previews of both movies, which is why I avoided them until now. I think that overcoming his baby face is tough enough without adding Southie or South African to the mix. I was pleasantly surprised. A few missteps, but fairly believable and not particularly distracting. Otherwise I think his performance was excellent.

I must admit, I bawled through the last 10 minutes of Blood Diamond.. not because of DiCaprio, but because of Djimon Hounsou. That guy is so beautiful that he makes me sad just to look at him.. any emoting just makes me sadder.

DiCaprio was nominated for Blood Diamon for the Oscars, unless you eman the general rounds of nominations, which he pretty much saw nods for both performances pretty much elsewhere.

xyzzy was talking about Wahlberg's nomination being for one of his weaker performances.

We just watched this as well tonight. So good. Incredibly sad.

Imdb claims that Russell Crowe was originally slated for the role of Danny. Glad that didn't happen - Leo was more 'inside' the role than I think Russell would've been.

H.E.A.L.T.H. aka Health aka HealtH (even the title is pretentious): The Unholy Grail! Stupid random "why did I remember this and forgot the last name of my first girlfriend?" memories. This is the first Altman movie I remember seeing, which makes me one of ten people who has. I just remember watching this with my dad on what I assume was HBO. This was before I learned to my everlasting irritation who Altman was.

HEALTH has never had any video or DVD distribution and is practically a "lost" movie. I had to go through extraordinary lengths to obtain a bootleg. Negotiating a web of back alley go betweens and shady characters. The disc came over on a cargo container full of Thai heroin.

I'd say it's somewhere between Wile E. Coyote and Javert. Good to have a hobby anyway.

It does seem odd that HealtH isn’t available on DVD. Would have fit perfect in that box set of failures: A Wedding, A Perfect Couple and Quintet. Story is, despite an election theme the movie sat on the shelf for a year and barely released in 1981. Altman maintained it would have performed better in 1980 *roll eyes and makes the jerk off motion*

It’s assumed a studio exec sick of Altman’s antics hamstrung the release and has kept it out of circulation. Of all the Altman movies to bury this seems a rather innocuous one. Why couldn’t they Hoffa 3 Women instead? God knows Altman apologists would make for a modest profit on anything you slap his name on. Of course being unavailable warrants his acolytes slapping the “underrated” tag on the movie. I supposed there are Jerry Lewis fans that think The Day The Clown Cried didn’t get a fair shake.

Ensemble Census: 19 cast members (unusual for one of his gangbangs it doesn’t run 3 hours). The talent top to bottom is actually pretty good in this: James Garner, Carol Burnett, Alfrey Woodard, Lauren Bacall, Paul Dooley, Henry Gibson. I wanted to smack Glenda Jackson. Ok we get it, you took diction classes! Dick Cavett plays himself and goes through a good half hour of screen time without name dropping, a personal record I’m sure.

Of course the movie is aimless. It’s centered around a wellness convention. They're having an election for the head of the titular organization, which goes nowhere. Might be forgiven if it were a good comedy, but this is Altman’s trademark stevedore delivery and flat characters.

Mildly redeemed by the opulent St Pete hotel location and the interesting visuals consisting of convention goes in vegetable costumes.

I’m probably one of the tens of people who have watched this twice. It might be another 25 years before I pop this in the DVD player again. Then again I subjected myself to Dr.T and the Women twice this decade.

I can tell you're really starting to warm up to Altman's work.

At least you've got all that Thai heroin now.

I do think whoever is tying you up and forcing you to watch all these Robert Altman movies is a really terrible person. I hope you know you don't have to put up with this kind of torture. I suggest reporting him or her to the authorities.

I had a pretty shitty week this week, so I holed up in the basement every night after work with a bottle of mudslides and the three extended editions of Lord of the Rings. I was mildly obsessed with the trilogy when they came out but I hadn't watched them since they were in theaters and had never seen the extended edition.

Holy crap, those movies are effing long. I wasn't really going to complain, though; it was nice to be able to pause and go to the bathroom or make popcorn or whatever when I wanted.

Something I noticed upon repeat viewing, though, was that the Gollum-Sam-Frodo bits in the last two movies were just so tedious this time. I found myself skipping ahead to the other sections because all three of them annoyed the crap out of me. I was much more interested in the parts in Rohan and the Houses of Healing scenes in the third movie.

Also, David Wenham? Where have you been all my life? SO HOT.