While greg nibbled on an unhealthy snack/tim roth what films have you watched?

[Andrew_TSKS]

I will not stand by while you sully the good name of S.H.I.E.L.D.

i know, right? shield has existed for 40 more years than homeland security, so somehow i doubt that they're intended to be in any way similar. i think shield is supposed to be a superhero version of the fbi if anything.

[DCDave]

It's actually an International Agency.  It's Interpol in a world where Latveria exists.

[Andrew_TSKS]

ah ha! i didn't know about the international component.

oh hey, movies i watched yesterday? yes, there were two, in fact.

first up: "the 400 blows". damn, i really liked this movie. a 13 year old boy who lives in a tiny cramped apartment with parents whose relationship is obviously crumbling and whose teacher singles him out a lot gets frustrated about not being able to catch a break and runs away from home. while i couldn't relate to any of the things that happened to this kid in this movie, i could relate to the emotions behind it 100%. life was really hard for me at that age too, and i did a lot of weird anti-social things--though i kept going to school, and actually got good grades, which is probably why i didn't end up where the kid in this movie ends up. but yeah, much as i'm interested in the french new wave, i think this was my first truffaut movie. i now really want to see "love at 20", which is a sequel to "the 400 blows" starring the same actor as the kid in the movie, now grown up and falling in love for the first time. sounds awesome.

then later in the day, i saw "hell's angels on wheels". now, i've recently seen "the wild angels" and "psych out", and loved them both, but while i expected this movie to fit into the same late 60s youth-in-turmoil cultural vibe, it really didn't. in fact, the plot was so loose that i ended up feeling like this movie would be what happened if you constructed an entire plot out of one of those old school traliers: "SEE! the bikers terrorize a town! SEE! girls get passed around from biker to biker like PROPERTY! SEE! a real live HELL'S ANGELS WEDDING!" ok, yeah, i saw all those things, but what was the point? there really kinda wasn't one. the ending was extremely anti-climactic, even more than i thought it was going to be. there were certain details that were dropped at certain points in the movie that could have all come together in the end for a somewhat predictable but at least exciting ending. i was expecting that. but it didn't even happen. pretty much nothing happened. jack nicholson and adam roarke were decent as always, and seeing sonny barger on screen for a minute as well as a guy that was obviously supposed to be hunter thompson for about 3 minutes in the middle of a party scene were both awesome as well. but 5 minutes of awesome do not make a pointless movie good. this was a real letdown.

[difficult]

Andrew, the 400 Blows is a damn fine film - that kid is Jean-Pierre Leaud, who went on to become one of the best actors - he's the lead in probably my favourite film, Jean Eustache's The Mother and the Whore, and still crops up a bit from time to time... although he is legendarily hard to work with. But an amazing and strange actor...
And Truffaut did a whole Antoine Doinel series of films with Leaud, following that same kid through very different times and tones.

[Andrew_TSKS]

nice! i'll probably check out all of them then.

also, "the mother and the whore"--i only know that movie from its poster making a particularly ironic appearance in noah baumbach's "the squid and the whale", but if you hold it in such high regard, i'll have to check it out soon too.

[girl]

i now really want to see "love at 20", which is a sequel to "the 400 blows" starring the same actor as the kid in the movie, now grown up and falling in love for the first time. sounds awesome.

Oh right. I meant to watch the rest of this series too. I think I got tripped up because Love at Twenty isn't on dvd. I'll have to check again.

I've got I'm Not There playing in the background. No opinions yet, but Heath Ledger was on screen for a few minutes before I remembered that he's dead. It made me really sad. Also, Dylan is so great at phrases, for example "ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're trying to be so quiet".

[Greg Nog]

Oh, I just rented that, but haven't watched it yet.  Perhaps tomorrow.

[girl]

Oh, I just rented that, but haven't watched it yet.  Perhaps tomorrow.

I think I really liked it. I'll watch it again when I'm not in front of the computer.

[martin_van_buren]

Oh right. I meant to watch the rest of this series too. I think I got tripped up because Love at Twenty isn't on dvd. I'll have to check again.

The Criterion set of the series has it.

[girl]

Oh right. I meant to watch the rest of this series too. I think I got tripped up because Love at Twenty isn't on dvd. I'll have to check again.

The Criterion set of the series has it.

Good to know! For some reason, Netflix doesn't have it. Amazon does, but the set is over $90. 

[martin_van_buren]

Oh, should mention that the Criterion set only has the Truffaut segment of Love at Twenty, not the ones by the other dudes. My recommendation would be to look into if there are any library loan systems that can help you out, other than that I don't know.

[Andrew_TSKS]

ah ha! "antoine & colette", truffaut's segment from "love at 20", is on a dvd that netflix will let you save but can't actually be rented yet. hopefully this link works.

EDIT: what i've discovered is that only the fourth film, "bed and board", is currently available from netflix. however, in addition to the above dvd, you can also save "stolen kisses" and "love on the run", the third and fifth films.

[Greg Nog]

By the way, for those of you still on this fence about whether to see Iron Man, it's worth noting that I agreed with all of hannah's "what I liked" points, but disagreed with the premises of her "what I disliked".

[JamesSchneider]

I've already seen Iron Man twice including opening day 10 AM. Fun.

[hannah]

By the way, for those of you still on this fence about whether to see Iron Man, it's worth noting that I agreed with all of hannah's "what I liked" points, but disagreed with the premises of her "what I disliked".

I happily concede defeat because the movie was just chock full of gay romance and that always beats out my lame political interpretations.

[elpollodiablo]

I think I have to take D to see Prince Caspian this weekend. Not looking forward to that.

[JamesSchneider]

I think I have to take D to see Prince Caspian this weekend. Not looking forward to that.

To be fair, it's a statistical impossibility that it will be worse than the last one.

[elpollodiablo]

That is true!

Old James come back to show us the positive

[Greg Nog]

I'm trying to decide whether I want to see it or not.  On the one hand, it looks like it'll probably veer between awful and boring.  On the other hand, it would mean I get to see monsters swinging swords at each other, which I am totally a sucker for.

[elpollodiablo]

The first one was hell of boring. Not even bad, just uninteresting.

[JamesSchneider]

Not that old motherfuck. Lollerscates at myself. I'm going to watch Teeth in a little bit and will report back. I'm expecting big things.

[elpollodiablo]

Actually James as I remember it you weren't even of drinking age that time we met, right?

[JamesSchneider]

I'll be 21 in two months. The drinking age here is 18, and when we met up I did have a big bottle of Jamesons in my bag. After I had to dart for the countryside, I went into penn station and downed the quarter of it that was left in the bathroom and got yelled at by a bum for drinking in the stall while he needed to shit. The irony was not lost on me. Also in my bag were human bones. Fact! That was a fun night! Fries with many many dips!

[JamesSchneider]

And regarding the first Narnia film, I don't understand how you fuck up a book full of wonderment AND Tilda Swinton, maybe my second favorite actress in the universe. That was a feat n'er before seen by man nor beast.

[jebreject]

Eh, it wasn't so bad.