movie musings

More movie musings thanks to Professor Corey’s Honor Society (Part 2).

9. Monica Bellucci or Maria Grazia Cucinotta?

   Maria Grazia Cucinotta, but just for her small part in The Sopranos as the foreign nursing student.

10. What movie can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?

    I just saw one: The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (1966). Today was pretty nothing, and this movie raised my spirits. It was shot in Mendocino just north, and Bodega Bay just west, of where I grew up. The Russian sailors simply speak Russian without subtitles. Alan Arkin is great. It also has Eva Sarie Saint, Brian Keith, Carl Reiner, and Jonathon Winters.

11. Conversely, what movie can destroy a day’s worth of good humor just by catching a glimpse of it while channel surfing?

    In short Stop! Or My Mother Will Shoot (1992). I saw this because I had to; I reviewed it. I still remember another TV critic laughing out loud at it in a theatre full of film critics. I still feel the bile rising just thinking about it. It also had some scenes shot in Sonoma County.

12. Favorite John Boorman movie.

    Zardoz (1974). It doesn't matter that it’s flawed. It has Sean Connery in a red dhoti and Charlotte Rampling in little. The special effects are cheesy, the story forced, but, yet, it has something that many films today lack: it holds your attention.

13. Warren Oates or Bruce Dern?

    Bruce Dern, but just because of the strangeness of Castle Keep (1969), Silent Running (1972), and for his daughter Laura Dern (1967).

14. Your favorite aspect ratio.

    The right one for the picture. But, seriously, I’ve always had a soft spot for TechnoScope.

15. Before he died in 1984, Francois Truffaut once said: The film of tomorrow will resemble the person who made it. Is there any evidence that Truffaut was right? Is it Truffaut’s tomorrow yet?

    But, only for fifteen minutes.

16. Favorite Werner Herzog movie.

    Aguirre der Zorn Gottes (1972). Still my favorite after all these years. Kinski and the jungle. But, Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen (1970) comes a close second.

17. Favorite movie featuring a rampaging, oversized or otherwise mutated beast, or beasts.

    20 Million Miles to Earth (1957): Ray Harryhausen and William Hopper.

18. Sandra Bernhard or Sarah Silverman?

    Sandra Bernhard. No doubt about it. Nope. Sarah doesn’t even come close, yet?

19. Your favorite, or most despised, movie cliché.

    The red LED time display on any bomb in any action movie.

20. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom—yes or no?

    No, no, no. This may very well be the worst bit of stink that Spielberg has foisting on his adoring public. Just rancid and wretched. And, they loved it.