July Movies

American Movie - (1999) Imagine Bill and Ted meets "Waiting for Guffman" by way of "Troll 2".  The story of a dreamer who wants nothing more than to make a movie.  Sadly he has no talent for the task and neither does anyone else around him.  Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1999.  The movie is fascinating the same way that "Best Worst Movie" is.  It's a train wreck of delusion meeting reality.  Ultimately it's profoundly sad bordering on the tragic.  In the end it's a wonderful commentary on the role of dreams, their ability to inspire and their devastating ability to destroy us.  Both fascinating and distrubing.
Rating - *** Worth a look

Ghost Rider - (2007) This is your basic teenaged boy movie.  Lots of action, very little intellectual content, usually a fair amount of cleavage (although this one is short on this.  Eva Mendes provides the base level of pulchritude) and a black and white moral sensibility.  The goal of this kind of movie is to elicit as many "Whoa"s and "Cool"s as possible.  So judged by its own standards this is pretty decent little film.  Nicholas Cage does his thing, Sam Elliott does his narrator thing (just like in The Big Lebowski) and Eva Mendes is, well, Eva Mendes.  Looking for some mindless entertainment on a rainy weekend?  This could be that movie.  Otherwise...
Rating - *** Worth A Look

Deja Vu - (2006)  Denzel Washington is on my current list of actors I'll watch in just about anything.  This is a kind of mind bending movie about cops using a computer that allows them to view the past to solve a terrorist bombing.  Except that it's not really that simple.  I liked the concept and I liked the movie overall but about 2/3 of the way through this movie just bogs down at the point when it needs to take off.    You just hit that point where you want the movie to kick into high gear.  It does eventually but it never really catches full speed for me so I was left feeling just a little let down at the end.  A close shot but not a bullseye.  But hey it was Denzel (and the gorgeous Paula Patton).
Rating - *** Worth A Look

Ran - (1985) Time for a little Kurosawa.  OK, the movie is close to 3 hours long so it's a LOT of Kurosawa.  The great Japanese director starts with classic Samurai stories mixes in a good dollop of Shakespeare's "King Lear" and goes roaring off.  This movie is visually stunning, an epic tale told on a epic scale.  But's 3 hours longs (2 hours and 42 minutes for the sticklers)  and even Akira Kurosawa can't resist the urge to put in pointless artistic shots to insure the "epic-ness" of it all.  Is it worth watching?  Absolutely.  But it is also in the category of great movies that I will watch once and never again.
Rating - **** Gotta See (Yes, you really do)

Payback(Director's Cut) - (1999) - This is a weird Mel Gibson crime movie.  His character Porter is betrayed by his wife and friend, shot and left for dead.  The rest of the movie is him trying to get his cut of the loot (and only his cut despite everyone trying to give him more).  I was never quite sure if the movie was supposed to be a black comedy or not.  It dances along the edge of being funny then suddenly there's blood and gore splattered everywhere.There are actually two different versions of this movie.  The original director Brian Helgeland was fired before the movie was complete.  The version released to the theaters had different characters and some different plot points.  This version is the one Helgeland intended.  In the end the movie has a certain fascinating quality to it because you're not quite sure what the hell you're watching.  It's kind of hard to rate for me.  In the end I wouldn't tell you to go out of your way to see it but it's not bad enough to say avoid it either.
Rating - ** Not Impressed

It Happened One Night - (1934)  Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, 5 Oscars, and one of the greatest of the screwball comedies.  What else is there?  Given its age I was amazed at how well it all holds up.  This is a classic movie that both the stars hated while they were filming.  Colbert thought so little of it that even though she was nominated for the Oscar she didn't bother to show up.  They had to run out and snag her at a train station headed out on vacation to accept.  The story is a spoiled rich girl who runs away to marry the man she loves.  Who, like Scarlet's Ashley, isn't worth her time and affection.  She ends falling for the reporter who finds her and wants to publish the story.  Smart, funny and with a heart and soul.  Great movie.
Rating **** Gotta See It