Alphabetical Movie – The Hurt Locker
Francois Truffaut famously said it is impossible to make an anti-war film.
His meaning, I think, was to suggest that any film about war – no matter the perspective of the filmmaker – ends up glorifying war to some degree. I see what he meant although I don’t agree with him. One needs only watch Paths of Glory to see a film about war that doesn’t glorify it in the slightest.
Alphabetical Movie – The Hunt for Red October
As movies about a silent submarines go, The Hunt for Red October is a surprisingly effective thriller. I keep meaning to show it to my eldest son as I think he’d enjoy it. Thing is, I’m just not sure how to explain the Cold War to him.
Alphabetical Movie – The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney)
This film is a problem.
I applaud Disney for having made an attempt to grapple with some very adult themes (lust, racism, fanaticism) in a movie for kids. If they’d actually gone further, I wouldn’t find the film quite so maddening. The combination of some stunningly brilliant stuff coupled with scenes that are puzzlingly inept is what makes the movie so fascinating to think about.
Alphabetical Movie – Hugo
Here’s where I describe, in far too painful detail, the question of whether or not I was actually going to watch Hugo for the alphabetical movie project.
As I discuss in the rules of the Alphabetical Movie Project, there is a recently watched clause. If I’ve watched a movie recently, I don’t need to watch it again right away. I’m close enough so it still counts. This rule, however, is rather vague. What does “recently” really mean? A week? A month?
That lack of clarity is what caused a concern when considering Hugo.
Alphabetical Movie – Howl’s Moving Castle
Think about this for a minute: Studio Ghibli is one of the few studios regularly producing films with female protagonists. Howl’s Moving Castle is one example but thinking through most of Ghibli films with which Americans would be familiar – Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky – their stories are all centered on young women.
I’m not a huge devourer of Anime so I admit that this trend may be indicative of where the films are produced (Japan) more than it is of a particular filmmaker (Miyazaki). Keep in mind, the majority of Americans have only one window into Anime and that window is the imagination of Hiyao Miyazaki. His worlds are frequently focused on young women.
Alphabetical Movie – How to Train Your Dragon
Here’s my problem with How to Train Your Dragon: Physics.
The movie is quite good. I’m generally underwhelmed by Dreamworks animation (especially the Shrek franchise) but this film works on just about every level. Except one.
Physics.
And I’m not talking about the physics of Dragon flight (although that is pretty dubious). My concern is the final battle sequence. I’m going to have to go into spoilers below the fold.
Alphabetical Movie – How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
I think it would be fair to say that I don’t enjoy a single minute of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I did laugh at one or two jokes but the total enjoyment I credit to those jokes is no more than a few seconds.
The best thing I can say about it is that I’ll bet I like Kate Hudson more in this film than I would in Bride Wars but I’m not going to watch Bride Wars to find out.
Romantic comedies are almost always built on fantastic coincidences. We accept the fact that Return to Me ivolves a guy having an relationship with the woman who has his dead wife’s heart because it is sweet and funny and we like the characters.
Alphabetical Movie – House of Wax
My dad wasn’t a big movie buff but I remember him telling me about House of Wax long before I ever saw the film.
In the early 80’s we were in the grips of a rebirth of 3D films and our local independant station, in an effort to capitalize on such box office hits as Friday the 13th 3D and the upcoming Jaws 3D, decided they were going to screen the classic 3D film Gorilla at Large. For reasons less clear to me now, I was excited by this idea.
To be fair, how could I not be with an intro like this one?
Right?
Alphabetical Movie – House of Flying Daggers
I know that it is unusual for me to spend an entire Alphabetical Movie blog entry talking about the movie that I watched, but I’m going to do it for House of Flying Daggers. Specifically, I’m going to write about one scene because I appreciate the cinematic language of that scene. If you, for some reason, care about spoilers for a film released in 2004, don’t go below the fold.
Grail Diary 