Alphabetical Movie – It’s a Wonderful Life
Every time I watch It’s a Wonderful Life, I wonder how they managed to get that ending past the Hays office.
For those unaware of the Hays code, it was a strict set of guidelines that was meant to ensure that American films were morally “acceptable.” One of the more important parts of the code was that criminal behavior could not go unpunished. Bad guys ended up in jail or dead. Period.
Quick aside: I know it is silly to warn about spoilers for a movie almost everyone has seen but if you haven’t actually seen the film yet and you don’t want the ending spoiled, I’d suggest you don’t read on.
Alphabetical Movie – It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
We all have them, right? The movies that we are supposed to like but we just…don’t?
Take Ben Hur, for instance. Man do I dislike that film. That awesome chariot race? It’s definitely better than the pod race in The Phantom Menace but that is faint praise indeed. I just think it’s long. Really long.
I don’t dislike It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World the way I dislike Ben Hur but try as I might, I sure don’t like it.
Alphabetical Movie – It Happened One Night
You can’t really escape sexism in most movies but the older the movie, the more likely that the sexism will be overt. Just like the racism in classic films, though, everyone involved in making the films was oblivious to what they were doing.
Nobody was trying to be sexist. They just were. The fact that women weren’t actually delicate flowers who would faint at the slightest provocation didn’t change the fact that women in film were that way. Easiest way to facilitate the monster carrying his victim? Have her faint!
That isn’t really sexism, right? It’s just practical.
Alphabetical Movie – Iron Man 2
So I’m thinking about the trajectory of late career revivals for actors. It seems to me that these revivals must include, at some point, an appearance as a villain in a Super Hero movie.
Take Mickey Roarke.
His career was completely in the toilet until his Oscar nominated turn in The Wrestler. Suddenly, the guy has a career again. Good for him. The Wrestler was a good movie and he was amazing.
The Dark Knight Rises – Spoileriffic
I wasn’t able to see The Dark Knight Rises until Tuesday. I’ve managed to stay almost completely free of spoilers for the film, which is rare for me.
If I don’t see a movie early in the run, I don’t care about spoilers. I’ve enjoyed movies when I’ve known “too much” as much as movies when I’ve gone in with a blank slate. A good movie is a good movie.
Sure, Cabin in the Woods is a better film if you go in completely blind. But it’s a good movie anyway. There’s an additional layer of enjoyment if you don’t know anything going into the film but I still look forward to watching it again.
Let’s face it. Every viewing after the first is filled with spoilers.
I’m getting seriously off track.
I didn’t need to be spoiler free to see The Dark Knight Rises but I’m glad I was. If you haven’t seen it yet and would prefer to avoid spoilers, read no further. Yeah, I just spent all that time warning you to stop reading this post if you haven’t seen the film.
Sorry about that.
Alphabetical Movie – Iron Man
To the few folks who enjoy my Alphabetical Movie Blogs, sorry for the lengthy dry spell. Fringe and the Renaissance Festival tend to slow down my movie viewing. For everyone who isn’t reading them anyway, this preamble was completely unneccessary.
I actually talked quite a bit about Iron Man on Episode 5 of Geeks Without God. My feelings about the recent slate of Marvel movies have been quite positive but having re-watched most of them recently, I feel Iron Man continues to be the best.
Alphabetical Movie – The Iron Giant
The Iron Giant was a movie that felt set up to fail. I watched the film on it’s release date – August 6th, 1999 and on opening day, I was forced to go to an afternoon showing because there was not a single showing scheduled after 5:00 PM. Exhibitors had no faith in the film, the studio had no faith in the film and audiences weren’t given any opportunity to watch it so they could decide for themselves.
On that same day, two other major films were released. One was Mystery Men, which I watched immediately following The Iron Giant. The movie is fun but not particularly memorable.
Yes, I do own a copy of Mystery Men. I said it was fun.
Alphabetical Movie – Irma La Douce
I realize it isn’t universal but why are so many movies about prostitution a romanticized version of the profession? Is it that we can’t deal with the fact that the reality is pretty ugly? Being a prostitute is nothing like the world of Pretty Woman. Or The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
Irma La Douce is interesting because in it, I can see Billy Wilder hinting at the ugliness that surrounds prostitution while staying carefully within the confines of the slowly disintegrating Hayes code. Yes, it is romanticized, but it also shows us an abusive boyfriend/pimp and the unhealthy mental programming most prostitutes accept without even realizing it.
Alphabetical Movie – Intolerable Cruelty
It’s been a slow week of blogging for me. I’ve got these shows coming up – perhaps you’ve heard of them?
So Intolerable Cruelty is about two people who are so much better looking than everyone else in the world, they could only be destined for each other. In fact, I think the title refers to the cruelty the Coen Brothers are inflicting on their audience by forcing them to remember they will never be as attractive as George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
I’m not talking sexy. I’m talking attractive.
New Stuff I wrote
We have a new podcast up over at the Vilification Tennis website this morning along with lots of other new content! This week’s podcast got into some pretty deep discussion about comic theory including what makes Geek humor work so well and, in the wake of the Colorado shootings, we ask how soon it is too soon to joke about tragic events.
Interestingly enough, I also wrote a Movie Dick article this week about The Dark Knight Rises. It has nothing to do with the shooting and was written before that event ever took place. Somehow, I still think that someone will tell me that posting it was in the worst possible taste…
Grail Diary 