Flight of the Navigator (1986, Randal Kleiser)

I still have a couple of more write ups to do until I am up to date.  My goal is to be fully up to date with this lousy blog and then just update it with every new thing that I watch/read/do but I still have yet to meet that goal. I hope I am able to do it soon.

Anyways...Flight of the Navigator...

A lot of people hold Flight of the Navigator close to their hearts due to it being a favorite of theirs from when they were kids in the 80s. I sadly did not grow up during the 80s and even though I did end up experiencing a lot from the 80s through my brother (who did grow up during the time) I never really got around to Flight of the Navigator. I remember watching it maybe once as a kid but like a lot of movies that I saw a little kid, I don't remember much except for a scene or two. So, while watching Flight of the Navigator a couple of weeks ago for the "first time" I went into it with no nostalghia factor at play and instead with just an open mind. 

I expected the normal cheesiness (I hate this word by the way) from the film given that it is an 80s kids film and I expected some lame moments but for the most part I just wanted a fun kids flick that I could still find fun and that is pretty much what I got.

Flight of the Navigator is about a kid and a spaceship. I don't want to go into plot details but you can kind of figure out the whole plot by the first sentence. 

Flight of the Navigator is by no means amazing but its a fun and enjoyable movie that is able to capture a sense of wonder and excitement that few kids films are able to nowadays. I wish I could have seen it as a kid but even still seeing it as an adult it still made me smile a couple of times. 

The kid actor playing the lead was kind of annoying though and Paul Reubens was great as the voice of the spaceship. 

Yeup.

B-

The Visitor (2008, Thomas McCarthy)

From the same writer/director who made the excellent film The Station Agent comes another excellent drama which explores the relationships between humans in such a perfectly acted and finely written way that you understand why critics have showered the film with rave reviews (93% percent on Rotten Tomatoes).

Richard Jenkins (who was excellent in Six Feet Under) is a lonely professor who one day is forced to travel to New York City. Upon arriving at his apartment there he is surprised to find an immigrant couple who have been living there for the past couple of weeks. Instead of kicking them out he decides to let them stay the night and through the next couple of days during his stay there he begins to form a friendship with the couple that begins to change his life.

The Visitor is just simply excellent. I feel like if I were to write a little bit here in this paragraph about why it is excellent I would just be rewriting what I mostly said in the first paragraph. McCarthy delivers an oscar worthy script and everyone in his cast, especially Jenkins, deliver oscar worthy performances as well.  It's these elements combined with McCarthy's great but subtle direction plus a simple, yet very deep, story about people getting to know eachother and becoming friends that makes The Visitor not only one of the very best of this year so far but also the best film that deals with the issues of living in a post 9/11 world so far. 

Really, it is just excellent stuff. It's a shame that it is a little bit too subtle and low key to be remembered come oscar time. I hope that the script will at least be remembered.

A

Foot Fist Way (2008, Jody Hill)

Danny McBride plays karate instructor Fred Simmons whose life begins to self destruct when he finds out that his wife has cheated on him.

I wanted to belong to the cult that thinks this is the funniest movie made in years but I sadly thought that it was a bit overhyped. Sure, its hilarious as fuck. That's right. Hilarious as fuck. Yet, I still thought it was a bit too overhyped and I couldn't help this bum me out a tiny bit. 

Still though, it is hilarious as fuck. Just not the funniest movie ever made. 

B+

The Violin (2005/7, Francisco Vargas)

Note: I am listing 2005/7 in the title because it seems that the film was made in 2005 and began its long festival tour that year until finally coming out in American theaters in 2007. 

The Violin tells the story of Don Plautarco (Ángel Tavira), his son Genaro (Gerardo Taracena) and grandson Lucio (Mario Garibaldi) who earn a living as traveling musicians while also smuggling weapons to rebels fighting the country's oppressive regime. When one day they return home to find their town occupied by the army and the residents forced into hiding, they make a bold play to recover the ammunition the troops have seized

Shot entirely in grimy yet moody black and white The Violin decides to focus on its characters in such a natural and intimate way that everything that happens in its short running time carries such a weight and danger to it that it truly becomes one intense story. You care for the characters and you care what happens to them and although it sounds like something that you should feel for the characters in every movie it is only rarely that I actually and really do. The Violin due to its excellent naturalistic performances and natural sounding dialogue is able to accomplish just that in such a perfect manner that I was truly impressed by it all. 

I found out about this film through film comment (under links) and I took a chance on it based on a glowing review of it and I was not disappointed. It's a small film but its a great film. I will definitely throw this one into my pile of overlooked gems.

A-

Young @ Heart (2008, Stephen Walker)

This is a documentary about a group of senior citizens that tour singing modern and classic rock songs. The documentary takes place as they begin to rehearse for their latest set which they will tour Europe with in a couple of weeks.

Get it? They are old and sing ROCK songs!

GET IT?!?!

Like, they sing "Staying Alive" or David Bowie's "Golden Years" or James Browns "I Feel Good" !!

GET IT?!?!

It's because they are old and they sing those songs which makes it clever!

GET IT?!?!

THEY ARE OLD AND SING THESE SONGS THAT ARE CLEVER WHEN SUNG BY OLD PEOPLE!!

DO YOU GET IT?!?!

Anyways...

It has a couple of touching moments. Sure. I get how it's nice that they are all really into it also. Sure.

But come on!

C

Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) (2002, AJ Schnack)

EDIT: No idea why it posted some videos twice. *Shrugs*


They Might be Giants is really,really,really,really interesting band. They seem like they would be perfect subject for an equally interesting documentary. They are only really two guys (both named John) who have made a name for themselves over the past 25 or so years because of their unique songwriting, their always interesting instrument and musical arrangement choices, and also because of the way that they truly broke out which was all because of an answering machine that played songs when you would call it. Really, just go to wikipedia and read up about them. You may or may not like their music because it really is an acquired taste but you cant deny that they are one interesting and eccentric band.

Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) is, however, a very messy, disappointing, and frustrating documentary about this great band. It really doesn't know what it wants to be. It spends way too much time giving you information and telling you little stories that are not really as interesting as other key moments in the bands history which are just mentioned a tiny bit, it wants to be a concert film, it wants to be a tour film, it even wants to be a behind the scenes sneak peek on the making of the new album, while it also keeps on wanting to tell you the story and history of the band and what really makes them so special.

Also, my biggest problem with the documentary is that when it keeps cutting back to its concert footage, the concert is filmed with such lifelessness that it makes everything seem super lame. They Might be Giants seem lame, the audience seems lame, the venue seems like a cheap bar also. It's not that any of this is true, it's just filmed in such a lazy manner that it just gives off this huge vibe of lameness.

Anyways...a messy documentary about a interesting and excellent (at least to me) band.

C

Now enjoy some of my favorite They Might be Giants songs via youtube.

















And my absoulute favorite song by theirs. When I first found out what this song was really about, it became one of my top ten favorite songs. I think it perfectly sums up why a lot of people think they are genius. This includes me.

Burnt Money (2000, Marcelo Pineyro)

A couple of posts ago I wrote about a movie named Semen: A Love Sample and in that post I wrote about another movie named The Method (El Metodo in spanish) and how much I was impressed by it. Well, after rating El Metodo 4 stars on netflix, netflix then recommended me this film. I clicked on it to read more and found out that it shared some of the cast of The Method and was also directed by the same director. So, after reading what it was about, seeing some really great reviews on netflix, seeing the high star rating, and then also taking into account the amount of talent involved I said "why not?" and gave it a shot and I am not sorry that I did.

Burnt Money (or Plata Quemada as it is known in Spanish) is an Argentinian film set in 1965 about 2 gay lovers and crime partners named Nene played by Leonardo Sbaraglia (you might know him from Intacto which is another super awesome little film) and Angel played by Eduardo Noriega (you might know him from Open Your Eyes) as they have to hide out with another crime partner (Pablo Echarri) after their latest robbery goes bad. Forced to live together in a small apartment and almost never able to leave they slowly begin to lose their minds as the police chase for them only becomes more intense.

What makes Burnt Money such a fast paced and fun ride is that the interactions between the characters is just well written and great stuff. Those expecting a hard boiled crime drama will get just that but the film also throws in enough comedy and also enough human drama into the mix that you will find yourself truly gripped by the story.

Now, the fact that there is a gay love story going on might scare away a lot of viewers or it might make a couple of people cringe in that it seems like an indie film cliche but in this case it is also one of the couple of decisions that makes the film feel different from other heist gone bad films. This added layer of tension between the two lead characters only makes everything more intense when shit starts to go bad.

It should also be noted that the decision for the lead characters to be a gay couple wasn't done to be edgy, or different, or anything like that either. No. The reason the filmmakers decided to go with this angle is just because the whole film is also based on a true story. So, knowing that everything you are watching is actually based on real events and knowing that everything actually went down this way only makes the film that much more interesting and great to watch.

However great I thought the film was I also had one giant issue with the film that I still don't know how to work out in my mind about how I feel about it. I loved,loved,loved the first hour and 40 minutes of the film and was just about ready to call it a overlooked little masterpiece of a film until the final act happened.

The final couple of minutes of this film is just plain odd in how over the top it feels. Characters begin to act crazy and different from one moment to the next and the film only continues to go more and more over the top until the final couple of minutes. I would have a major problem with this in another movie but the fact that this really did happen just like this in real life makes me just feel confused about my feelings towards it. I guess I cant hate the films ending because it actually did end like that in real life but I can however hate how odd the tone shift was handled by the director. I just wish he would have ended on a much more subtle, or at least quiet, note than the all of a sudden over the top note that he decided to go with. It really is a shame because everything preceding it is excellent stuff.

Still, don't let the final couple of minutes scare you away from the film. This film also goes into my pile of overlooked gems which I feel proud of about of kind of finding. It is definitely worth your time if you are willing to give it a chance.

B+