At the Picture Show - Minute Reviews & Musings

Some Favorite Scenes Revisited
--Duck Soup: Groucho, and Groucho made up like Harpo dressed up as Groucho mimicking each other in the hotel "mirror"

--Manhattan: the scene on the park bench, gershwin's lush rhapsody in full timbre
--Cinema Paradiso: when the movie house moves the picture from the inside the theatre to the outside wall

--Jackie Brown: 1) the long (very long) tracking shot of Pam Grier leaving the mall store at the start of the mall scene that starts the movie's climax and 2) the mall scene story climax repeated from each person's POV 3) Oh, and what the hell, everyone's performance: Samuel L. Jackson, DeNiro, Pam Grier, Robert Forster and Bridget Fonda.
--48 hours: eddie murphy walking into the country western bar
--High Fidelity: the ending with jack black belting out al green
--School of Rock: the ending with jack black and kids belting out AC/DC
--Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: steve martin in jail trying to recall michael caine's character's name
--Swingers: jon favreau's colossal string of messages left on his prospective date's answering machine

--Private Parts: Paul Giammatti trying to get Howard Stern to say "WNBC" and Sten mocks the pronunciation with a long "ennnnnnn"
--The Life Aquatic: the tracking shot of bill murray leading owen wilson around from room-to room (or set-to-set) below deck of The Belafonte; bill murray's tone and expression when he says "this is going to hurt" just before they crash; the crash impact sequence
--World's Greatest Lover: Gene Wilder in the opening working on the line at the cake factory with an homage to Charlie Chaplin and Lucille Ball
--Chicago: The way the movie opens through renee zellwegger's eye

--Runaway Train: Jon Voight's exhortation to Eric Roberts about making a clean break in life

--Michael Clayton: The opening scene of Clooney's confrontation with the guy who committed the car accident; when Clooney is kicking the door down to reach Tom Wilkinson; the closing scene confrontation with Tilda Swinton: "Do I look like I'm negotiating?! and "I'm Sheba the Goddess of Death!" Not to mention that extraordinarily long single take one shot at the end of him silently ruminating in the cab afterward.

--Straight Time: When Harry Dean Stanton begs Dustin Hoffman poolside ("Get me out of here!") to free him from his suffocating suburban connubial and civilized "bliss."

--Out of Sight: The seduction scene in Detroit's Renaissance Center

--Broadway Danny Rose: Not one of his better movies but a funny scene when he and Mia Farrow escape from being tied up by "wriggling" out of it

--Big: Robert Loggia tap dancing on the over-sized keyboard

--Great Dictator: Chaplin bouncing the globe around the office

--The Errand Boy: Jerry Lewis pantomiming as CEO in the empty board room to Count Basie

--Pirate Radio: Just the whole freakin' concept

--Going In Style: Art Carney rolling dice in Vegas

ACTION/ADVENTURE

• 48 Hours - eddie murphy hits the bigtime. nolte is as nolte does.
• Action Jackson - detroit in all its, um, gloryBack to the Future - thank god for crispin glover and christopher lloyd
• Bad Boys - good American fun
• Batman - michael pulls the cape on and pulls the role off
• Behind Enemy Lines - this one surprised me although too over the top in terms of getting out of every mess so neat and clean
• Beverly Hills Cop - mumford high and lions jacket says it all
• Bullitt - mcqueen and the mustang at their respective bests
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - newman's still better looking
• Charley Varrick - kim basinger's debut
• Coffy - Pam Grier, and blaxploitation, at her and its prime
• Daredevil - not as bad as you think even if affleck can't act or even narrate
• Deliverance - squeal like a pig
• Desperado - the bullets and salma hayek equally hot
• Die Hard - when willis' smugness was still appealing
• Diggstown - great surprise ending. can't go wrong with james woods.
• Dr. No - yes
• Enemy of the State - the first half anyway
• Escape from Alcatraz - quietly gripping
• Fantastic Voyage - my introduction to raquel welch
• Foxy Brown - my introduction to pam grier
• From Russia with Love - my introduction to sean connery and ursula andress
• Get Shorty - the cadillac of minivans; also, james gandolfini in one of his last anonymous bad guy roles
• Goldfinger - i especially love it when TV has to run this with the pussy galore character
• The Hunter - last mcqueen flick and it's a keeper
• I Robot - like most action movies (esp the overlylong ones) only one half is worth the trouble; the first half of this one)
• Jackie Brown - bridget fonda and pam grier in the same movie
• Jaws - broke the mold
• Love and a .45 - not for the queasy
• The Man with the Golden Gun - middle bond, middling good
• Natural Born Killers - not for the queasy
• Payback - the way these are meant to be. james coburn lives
• Pirates of the Caribbean - too good to be ruined by a sequel
• The Professional - natalie portman's debut. jean reno's only success at being cool
• Pulp Fiction - uma's ugly in it and i still love the flick; plus classic keitel
• Quiller Memorandum - george segal when it mattered
• Raiders of the Lost Ark - guns beat swords every time
• The Replacement Killers - great even with mira sorvino unfortunately
• Reservoir Dogs - an earful
• Roadhouse - guilty pleasure, mostly bec of kelly lynch
• Robocop - detroit: my kind of town
• Rocketeer - fun, fun, fun
• Rocky - back then he and it was charming and innocent
• Romeo is Bleeding
• Snatch - if you can keep up with it
• Spider-Man - one of the screen's best kisses besides the great action
• Three Kings - one of 3 Clooney performances worthy of all the hype
• The Spy Who Loved Me - roger moore fills the shoes nicely
• The Sting - newman's still better looking
• Superman - i liked the secondary characters - hackman, beatty and perrine
• Thomas Crown Affair (1999 remake) - actually improved upon mcqueen's over-rated version
• War Games - Matthew Broderick when he qualified as cute and when the cold war was still quaint fun/danger

CLASSICS/EPICS

• 2001 Space Odyssey - nothing else ever came close
• Advise and Consent - fonda is fonda-esque
• A Face in the Crowd - andy griffith in a once in a lifetime role
• African Queen - still can't stand hepburn
• Apocalypse Now - begins with "The End"
• Being There - sellers' last and among greatest
• Birdman of Alcatraz - telly savalas with hair, if I recall
• Breakfast at Tiffany's - no one ever mentions george peppard
• Bridge Over River Kwai
• Cabaret - if you've got the time
• Caine Mutiny Trial - bogie is bogie
• Casblanca - sam steals the show if you ask me. okay and louie.
• Catch-22 - a story with a character named major major
• Charade
• Chinatown - the story, the colors, the outfits, the photography, the acting, the pacing, the direction ...
• Citizen Kane - who am i to disagree?
• Cool Hand Luke - my first and favorite anti-estab flick (followed by cuckoo's nest ). how many of those eggs did he really eat? and who can still remember what landed him in prison? and who remembers the blonde? and of course we all remember george kennedy. and newman got robbed.
• The Deer Hunter - christopher walken, my friends, christopher walken
• Dr. Strangelove - "you can't fight in here, this is the war room!"
• Easy Rider - too young to get it the first time. i get it now.
• Elmer Gantry - why lancaster is one of the greats
• The French Connection - arguably a better chase scene than Bullitt's
• From Here to Eternity - see two entries above. plus clift at his best.
• The Godfather - pick a scene, any scene.
• Goodbye Mr. Chips - heavy. good on a rainy day.
• The Graduate - one of the best endings of all time.
• Grapes of Wrath - fonda is fonda-esque (a theme perhaps?)
• High Noon - cooper makes it work and some shots that were probably never used before in a western. one of my mom's first two records was this soundtrack.
• The Hustler - paul newman is gorgeous. so is jackie gleason. so is the cinematography.
• The Last Picture Show - an instant classic only moreso in retrospect.
• Lawrence of Arabia - same as above. perfect for the LCD's now.
• Limelight - critics don't like it; i do. says them.
• The Maltese Falcon - all around good fun.
• Manhattan - "sometimes you just have to have a little faith in people."
• M*A*S*H - top 5 anti-estab movies
• Modern Times - chaplin's best
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - "mmm. juicy fruit?" 2nd all time favorite anti-estab flick
• Paths of Glory - kirk douglas is douglasian
• Psycho - just a little too believable; great set-up
• Raging Bull - pure power of a movie. not for the queasy. best b & w flick since color came along.
• Rear Window - always fun
• Rebecca - especially if you are in the mood to be depressed
• Rebel Without a Cause - the one dean movie that really mattered
• Roman Holiday - if you're a romantic at heart
• Rope - tie yourself down
• Shaft - created and is still the best of the genre
• Spartacus - the chicks too
• Splendor in the Grass - natalie wood, aaah.
• Strangers on a Train
• Sunset Boulevard - impossible to be overated. beautifully shot.
• To Catch a Mockingbird - one of the best about the south
• Touch of Evil - Welles would have approved of the re-master
• Treasure of the Sierra Madre - good, clean fun
• Vertigo - better maybe now?

COMEDY

• Airplane - saved my sanity the day i almost burned a house down
• A Fish Called Wanda - my stomach hurt after this one
• A League of Their Own - even with madonna; lovitz and hanks make it roll
• American Pie - eugene levy, as always
• A Mighty Wind - pitch perfect
• Arthur - moore, yes, gielgud, yes, minnelli, aarrgh!
• A Day at the Races
• Analyze This - they just *had* to make a sequel. stop with the sequels that ruin what it created.
• A Night at the Opera
• Animal House - pinto went on to be amadeus!
• A Shot in the Dark - peter sellers, elke sommer, ooh la la
• Bananas - anarchistic humor, literally
• Barbershop - better on the second viewing
• Bend it Like Beckham - just plain funny and well scripted and greatly acted
• Big - if only
• The Big Lebowski - bridges, goodman and turturro take turns stealing scenes
• Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure - be excellent to each other
• Blazing Saddles - the one and only
• Booty Call - i still think it's funny. and she's not called vivica fox for nuthin'
• Bowfinger - under-rated steve martin
• Broadcast News - the sweating scene
• Bubble Boy - thank you max for bringing it to my attention. perfect mix of slapstick, surrealism and nonsense
• Bullets Over Broadway - Chazz Palminteiri was never this good again
• Caddyshack - "be the ball." Murray, Chase, Dangerfield, what more do you want?
• Cadillac Man - hey, i just like alan arkin so leave me alone
• Cannes Man - shoestring budget, bigger laughs
• Casino Royale - i believe jacqueline bisset made an entrance in this one
• City Slickers - "it's about one thing"
• Clerks - Kevin Smith's one good movie. all downhill from here
• Clueless - don't have to be a chick to be clued in
• Cocoon - i'm a sucker for sentimental old folks
• Cool Runnings - we miss ye John Candy
• Dave - "I caught a fish *this* big."
• Dazed and Confused - that's how i remember high school. matthew mcconahey's debut, in case it matters
• Diner - "You gonna eat those fries?; " the Baltimore Colts engagement quiz
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - the hits are a little slow in coming but just enough to be worthwhile
• Ducksoup - Duh
• Fast Times at Ridgemont High - has sean penn even smiled since?
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off - the ultimate slacker fantasy. And Gordie Howe's jersey
• The Flamingo Kid - The future Mrs. Wayne Gretzky; "Any Fish You Wish"
• Fletch - chase is bearable somehow
• Flirting with Disaster - wacky stuff
• Freaky Friday - jamie lee curtis/lindsay lohan version. it's actually watchable
• Frisco Kid - gene wilder the way a rabbi ought to be
• Going in Style - old guys rule
• Good Morning Vietnam - only if you are a robin williams fan
• Groundhog Day - Bill Murray creates a new career
• Groundhog Day - Bill Murray creates a new career
• Happy, Texas - steve what's his name steals scene after scene
• Hollywood Shuffle - good spoof on a meager budget
• House Party - blacks for whites
• Kentucky Fried Movie - not for the kids
• The Last Remake of Beau Geste - The Last Role of Marty Feldman
• Lost in America - currently under reconsideration
• Major League - lots of future stars hold this together for good, harmless laughs
• Manhattan Murder Mystery - Woody starts a comeback
• The Mask (Jim Carrey version)
• Mean Girls - not just for girls
• Meatballs - i believe bill murray's first feature. nice touch.
• Midnight Run - deniro is intentionally funny
• Milagro Beanfield War - why hasn't redford done another like this?
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail - "We'll call it a draw."
• Mr. Saturday Night - is it a comedy or a drama. it works.
• My Cousin Vinny - marisa tomei's biological clock (though everyone knows still not worthy of the oscar)
• My Favorite Year - must have been fun to make
• The New Guy - max made me put this in
• The Nutty Professor (both Jerry Lewis and Eddie Murphy versions)
• O Brother Where Art Thou - great character acting by everyone incl. clooney
• One Night at McCool's - Michael Douglas steals this
• The Party - mostly improvised
• The Pink Panther - part of the first and best troika in the series
• Pirate Radio - not sure why no one else saw it; great writing, playful acting and comedic timing combined with awesome soundtrack of the times
• Play it Again Sam - took the words right out of my mout
• The Princess Bride - billy crystal in a great cameo
• Raising Arizona - still wacky funny after all these years
• Return of the Pink Panther - the last of the great opening triad
• Road Trip - good stupid fun
• Room Service - jumping butterballs!
• Running Scared - billy crystal acquits nicely - "here come the sphincter brothers"
• School of Rock - a movie made for jack black; and why can't more of them end with this much fun?
• The Scout - albert brooks does a bill murray turn
• She's Gotta Have It - spike got it in his debut
• Silent Movie - i defy to remember the one spoken word
• Silver Streak - the return of the buddy movie
• Slapshot - great moments throughout, e.g., the hanson brothers
• Sleeper - the orgasmatron
• Splash - Eugene Levy especially
• Stripes - oh what the hell, it doesn't kill me to include
• Take the Money and Run - "Put all the cash in the bag. I have a gub"
• There's Something About Mary - brett faa-rev-e
• This is Spinal Tap - "The volume goes up to 11."
• Tin Men - barbara hershey is one for the ages
• Tootsie - dustin was great but bill murray started a career. and don't forget charles durning
• Trading Places - thank you Jaime Lee Curtis
• Victor/Victoria - Julie Andrews we knew, but James Garner?
• Whole Nine Yards - better than i ever expected.
• Young Frankenstein - hard to choose between the better brooks - this or "saddles"
• Zelig - timeless fun

DRAMA

• 12 Angry Men - a rainy day movie
• A Bronx Tale - not much to admire from deniro since this one.
• Absence of Malice - newman and field make a great pair; too bad they never hooked up again
• A Clockwork Orange - not a classic but a great one
• Adaptaion - weird and too long but not bad by any means
• A Different World - tougher to watch than you think
• A Little Romance - Diane Lane's first, Laurence Olivier's last
• Almost Famous - bring back those days
• Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
• All That Jazz - how could they have denied scheider the oscar
• The Apostle - a little long but engrossing
• The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
• Atlantic City - "you should have seen the Atlantic Ocean back then"
• Awakenings - has its moments
• A Soldier's Story - good basic drama
• Amadeus - that guy played pinto in animal house? f. murray abraham is not a jew?
• Avalon - jews played by non-jews. for 3 hours. oy.
• Baby It's You - Rosanna Arquette is all that matters
• Bad Lieutenant - raw and rough. keitel eats up the scenery
• Barfly - could have been you - could have been me
• Benny and Joon - early signs of why depp would be so good
• Big Night - small movie
• Blue Collar - Richard Pryor and Detroit both shine
• Blue Sky - tommy lee jones does some real acting
• Boogie Nights - heather graham: can he f--- me up the ass? burt reynolds: sure, let him f--- you up the ass.
• Bound for Glory - david carradine was made for this movie
• Bugsy - stylish. hello annette benning
• The Candidate - "now what do we do?"
• Casino - sharon stone got robbed
• Chicago - a masterpiece; instant classic. and i hate musicals.
• The China Syndrome - what happened to all the lefty movies?
• The Cincinnati Kid - Mcqueen, Mcqueen, Mcqueen
• Cinema Paradiso - if only...
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind - if only...
• Clueless - still has its moments, surprisingly. one and out for alicia silverstone though
• Coming Home - Jon Voight pulls it off
• Contact - Jodie Foster makes you think twice
• Crooklyn - People make the world go round
• Croupier - great twist. and pretty people
• Dangerous Liaisons - chick flick but what the hell
• Dazed and Confused - sweeet.
• Dead Man - Johnny Depp in black and white
• Dead Man Walking - intense with a capital I.
• Dead Poets Society - Robin Williams when he was still likeable
• Death of a Maiden - slick but i liked it.
• Deliverance - "Gonna make you squeal like a pig"
• Desperately Seeking Susan - so 80's, but what the hell; plus another reason to love rosanna arquette
• Dirty Harry - the original. who knew clint knew what he was doing?
• Dog Day Afternoon - the weakest of the 70s spectacular triptyk (godfather and serpico) but that's still saying something
• Donnie Brasco - Pacino nails it playing off type
• Don't Look Now - julie christie is beyond words
• Do the Right Thing - the ice cube melting on rosie perez' breast
• Downhill Racer - the less redford talks the better he is
• The Drowning Pool - not newman's best but definitely worth a rent
• Drugstore Cowboy - Matt Dillon can actually act
• ET - hard to know how to categorize this exactly, but Spielberg at his storytelling best
• Fabulous Baker Boys - All three stars are fabulous in this
• Fiddler on the Roof - just don't ever make me see it again
• Field of Dreams - don't get me started
• Fisher King - Redemption rules again
• Five Easy Pieces - "Stick that sandwich between your knees and squeeze."
• Frida - colorful literally and otherwise
• The Front - Who knew Woody had it in him
• Full Metal Jacket - that is one heavy m-f movie.
• The Gambler - James Caan at his best
• Gladiator - Give Russell Crowe his due
• Goodfellas - Who wouldn't want to be Ray Liotta
• The Goodbye Girl - Last time Dreyfuss had hair
• The Good Girl - Jennifer Aniston can act in this one
• Grand Canyon - heavy man, heavy
• The Great Santini - who says fathers and sons can't get along
• The Grifters - tough, gritty story. Oh and thank you Annette Benning
• Hannah and Her Sisters - barbara hershey shines as always. wonder bread and mayo
• Hang 'Em High - Clint Eastwood as he was meant to be
• Hard Eight - great B3 soundtrack although unavailable anywhere as far as i can tell
• Harry and Tonto - one of art carney's silver screen's trifecta
• Heaven Can Wait (Beatty) - never mind the critics, hits all the right notes
• The Hospital - george c. scott in a little-remembered great role
• Hud - newman is all over this one; another one he should have oscared
• Inventing the Abbotts - a story that works
• Joe - susan sarandon's excellent debut.
• Johsua Then and Now - alan arkin and james woods worth watching the whole way through.
• Kiss of the Spiderwoman - don't plan to do much afterwards
• The Last Detail - jack nicholson and randy quaid are perfect
• Lantana - excellent performances overcome some banal dialogue
• Last Night - under-noticed; a great concept if nothing else.
• The Late Show - art carney in the role of a lifetime; under-rated movie in general
• Leaving Las Vegas - ouch
• Lenny - valerie perrine was better than dustin hoffman
• Life is Beautiful - ouch
• Lone Star - perfectly paced. chris what's his name before anyone knew him
• Love with the Proper Stranger - steve mcQueen & natalie wood. What more could a guy want
• Magnolia - tom cruise is actually good; everyone and everything else is stellar
• Man of La Mancha - if not for peter o'toole...
• Marathon Man - wouldn't want to be in dustin's shoes; or olivier's chair
• Mask - cher surprises
• Midnight Cowboy - my first x-rated movie
• Midnight Express - don't let this happen to you
• Mike's Murder - debra winger when no one cared
• Mississippi Burning - gene hackman and willem dafoe with just the right touch; resisting the urge to go over the top
• Mississippi Masala - denzel understated
• Monster's Ball - overly melodramatic but has enough moments
• My Bodyguard - two very young future starts in Vincet D'onofrio and Matt Dillon
• My Left Foot - every once in a while you should subject yourself to a movie like this
• Mr. Holland's Opus - a tear jerker for sure, and yet...
• Nine - Unbeatable talent inDaniel Day-Lewis and the benefit of getting to look at Penelope Cruz and Fergie alternately throughout the movie
• Nashville - always something new in here
• Network - can't argue with peter finch on this one
• Nobody's Fool - newman gets robbed...again
• Norma Rae - reminds you why it's great to be a leftist
• North Dallas Forty - in the top 5 sports movies. "every time we call it a game you call it a business; every time we call it a business you call it a game."
• Oklahoma Crude - George C. Scott and Faye Dunaway play it right
• Onion Field - Ted Danson and James Woods way back when
• Open Water - even when you know the outcome...ouch
• Ordinary People - our little mary tyler moore's all grown up
• Out of Sight - A very estimable pairing of George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez; his real dramatic launching pad
• The Paper Chase - almost made me aspire to be an overachieving overeducated law dude. almost.
• Paper Moon - wherefore art thou tatum o'neal
• Papillon - mcqueen's most unglamarous and very satisfying role
• The Parallax View - you gotta love 70s paranoia
• Patton - a blowhard but he's our blowhard
• People vs Larry Flynt
• Play Misty for Me - why doesn't anyone talk about this one anymore?
• Pleasantville - a perfect statement on the 50s
• Prizzi's Honor
• Quiz Show - another redford winner behind the camera
• Ragtime - perfect statement on the '20s plus Cagney's last role
• Runaway Train - mind blowingly intense
• Sabrina - don't know why; just because
• The Sand Pebbles - more unglamarous mcqueen
• Serpico - never gets old
• Sex and Lucia - if the spanish wrote and directed "adaptation"; plus, lots of paz vega
• Sexy Beast - chilling
• Shampoo - the 70s live and in color
• Shawshank Redemption - for when you haven't been depressed in a while
• Short Cuts - tough to watch at times. on the long side also.
• Something Wild - ray liotta's debut
• Sophie's Choice - i suppose one of those "the book was better" but still watchable.
• Starman - how did jeff bridges pull this off
• Stunt Man - a total treat; peter o'toole and barbara hershey
• The Sweet Hereafter - if you can stand the pain
• The Sweet Smell of Success - great b&w job.
• Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song - together with shaft, set the tone for blaxploitation
• Swept Away - ahh, when men could still slap the little lady around and get away with it
• Swimming with Sharks - "you're happy. I hate that!"
• Taxi Driver - scorcese, jodie foster, cybill shepherd, deniro and albert brooks - whose career would you have wanted?
• Terminator 2 - the sequel was actually better; a total perfect ending
• Thin Red Line
• Three Days of the Condor - back when redford, dunaway and political paranoia still reigned
• Three Kings - will this be clooney's one and only action winner?
• Timerider - where or where can this be found
• Tombstone - westerns like they oughta be
• Trees Lounge - slow, tough but worth buscemi
• Trigger Happy - odd but winning
• True Romance - christian slater is actually good
• The Truman Show - Jim Carrey should've gotten an Oscar
• Two Days in the Valley - great kitsch
• Unforgiven - eastwood at his late model best
• The Verdict - crusty newman; great jack warden
• The Waterdance - don't let this happen to you
• Warm Summer Rain
• Witness - what's to say that hasn't been said?

DOCUMENTARY

• A Perfect Candidate - The GOP would love to run every race against Robb; we'd love to run every race against North
• Comedian - why seinfeld is seinfeld
• Crumb - if the acid didn't kill your brain
• Don't Look Back - ah, dylan
• Farenheit 911 - speaks for itself
• The Kid Stays in the Picture - hollywood in a nutshell; what a life
• Porn Star - Ron Jeremy is bigger than life
• Supersize Me - the truth hurts
• Tom Dowd and the Magic of Music - a masterpiece musical producer
• Wattstax - The way it really was, unblemished
• When We Were Kings - boxing as theater at its best
• Unzipped - what egotistical, NY gay jew fashion designer isn't good for a few laughs

MYSTERY/SUSPENSE

• Blood Simple - the first coen bros deal
• Body Heat - hubba hubba
• Body Double - cheap thrills
• Bound - now *this* deserves a sequel
• Day of the Jackal (original)
• Dead Again - perfect first date movie
• The Deep - jacqueline bisset makes a couple good points
• Klute - jane fonda and donald sutherland make movie magic
• Marnie
• Manhunter - william petersen in his best role
• Memento - from what i remember a good one
• Play Misty for Me - one of my first exposures to the dark side
• Sea of Love - pacino and ellen barkin make it silly but fun
• Shattered - tom berenger: everyone's allowed one good performance
• Sneakers - Redford, Phoenix, Aykroyd, and the guy that played ghandi
• Sleuth - why didn't these two do more like this together
• Thief - james caan does it right
• The Usual Suspects - i dare you to see it just once
• Zero Effect - bill pullman and ben stiller are great

OFFBEAT/WHIMSICAL/SATIRE/BLACK COMEDY

• Afer Hours - takes some getting used to
• Barefoot in the Park
• Being John Malkovich - i wouldn't have believed it if i didn't see it
• The Big Blue
• Bob Roberts - why doesn't everyone think this way about the republicans?
• Bottle Rocket - owen wilson's debut i believe
• The Brothers McMullen - another first timer that was downhill from here
• Bulworth - vastly under-rated except by the two of us who ever saw it
• The Coca Cola Kid - eric roberts' one good show; plus greta scacchi's debut
• Daytrippers - good moments interspersed; good twist
• Delusion - takes you by surprise
• Eating Raoul - not for the kids
• Ed Wood - a small masterpiece; depp in fine, um form
• Election - probably the last movie i will ever see with reese witherspoon
• Get Shorty - not a travolta fan but what a bang
• Ghost World - you have to be in the mood
• Going in Style - art carney, lee strasberg, george burns - all at their best?
• The Invention of Lying - Truman Show updated; probably couldn't have been made without the "contributions" of the right wing nuts of the last decade
• I Shot Andy Warhol
• Jackpot
• Lewis and Clark and George
• Living in Oblivion - could have been better titled; buscemi's one and only screen kiss.
• Local Hero - burt lancaster great late in life
• Melvin and Howard - good little story, even if it's made up
• My Dinner with Andre - up to a point
• Nadine - kim basinger in an early major lead; jeff bridges always good
• Nurse Betty - rene z. pulls it off or else...
• O Brother Where Art Thou - clooney plays off type and it works
• Player - one great scene after another
• The Price of Milk - new zealand romance cum zaniness
• Purple Rose of Cairo - ingenious idea
• Radioland Murders - fun for the whole family
• Roger Dodger - george c. scott's son performs admirably; kids don't try this at home
• Rushmore - everything going for it plus bill murray and the soundtrack
• Slums of Beverly Hills - alan arkin always works for me
• Sugarland Express - spielberg's first; goldie shines
• Swingers - just remember the telephone message scene
• Tadpole - it should have always been that simple
• The Life Aquatic - whatever it is i liked it
• The Truman Show - tour de force for carrey
• To Die For - a rare nicole kidman pleasurable experience
• Trust - hal hartley with his own style
• The Unbelievable Truth - hal hartley's first. not for everyone

ROMANCE/RELATIONSHIPS

• Addicted to Love - other than ferris bueller, matthew broderick is best as a grown up
• About a Boy - hugh grant can do something besides stutter and stammer
• About Last Night - a nice slice of chicago
• A Walk on the Moon - you going to argue with me about diane lane?
• The Big Easy - kind of stupid but kind of works
• Boomerang - eddie murphy not all up in your face
• Bull Durham - baseball and susan sarandon. need i say more?
• Cafe au Lait - mmmm, tastes good
• Cappuccino - so does this on
• Closer - better be careful who you see this with. thank god for clive owen. i could even stomach julia roberts in this one.
• Crossing Delancey - bridget loves bernie comes to the big screen
• Hannah and Her Sisters - an all time keeper
• High Fidelity - Springsteen gives lover's advice and one of the all time best endings to one of the best contemporary movies
• L.A. Story - What it's all about
• Love Jones - black people in love
• My Wife is an Actress - israelis playing french and british
• Roxanne - smart humor and just enough slapstick for my taste
• sex, lies and videotape - the one, the only
• Spanglish - paz vega, please make about 100 more movies in my lifetime
• Tao of Steve - great contemporary romance issues
• Tin Cup - predictable but goes down easy
• The Truth About Cats and Dogs - i'm probably not supposed to admit i like this one
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being - if you have nothing to do for 2.5 hours except look at lena olin
• When Harry Met Sally - the interviews with the older couples

WISH I'D SAID THAT - #2

Jerry Seinfeld, NYT, February 28, 2010

"All marriages are based on a sitcom premise: What if you and I tried to stay together for the rest of our lives?"

Jeff Bridges, Rolling Stone, February 18 2010

"The kind of acting that I admire is where you can't see the wheels turning. People in real life don't try to show their feelings - they show them inadvertently."

"I prefer coming from an underdog position. Always. I don't like to say, 'Hey look what I'm going to do for you.'"

Larry David's character Boris in Woody Allen's "Whatever Works," 2009

"People make life so much worse than it has to be, and believe me it's a nightmare without their help."

"My story is: whatever works, as long as you don't hurt anybody."

50 Cent, Esquire, January 2010

"Always have bail money."

J Mays, Chief Designer at Ford, Esquire, January 2010

"They're not writing songs about cars anymore."

Jerry Lee Lewis, Esquire, January 2010

"I still got pretty hair. I'm still rocking. That's sitting on top of the world about as high as you're going to get."

Ornette Coleman, Esquire, January 2010

"The difference between sex and love...You're not always sure you're in love. But when you're having sex, there's really no mistaking it."

"I don't try to please when I play. I try to cure."

"I wasn't so interested in being paid. I wanted to be heard. That's why I'm broke."

"How is it that something you care for would not let you love it?"

Sting, Esquire, January 2010

"I had a pretty miserable childhood but would I want to change it? No. Childhood made me who I am, and I'm quite happy with who I am. Without my childhood, something else would have happened."

James Spader, Esquire, January 2010

"I like to be wrong. I like to find something new."

Carl Reiner on Mel Brooks, WPost, 12/06/09

"[Mel's] a man of very strong tastes [and can't stand it when I eat onions] because he doesn't like onions and he judges everything on how it affects him."

Tom Petty, Rolling Stone, December 10, 2009

"I had an explosive side. It wasn't that easy to set me off. But when it happened, I lost it in a big way. I've learned to control that. But I had a tough childhood and took a lot of abuse. The rage was in me, and when it got away from me, I didn't know how to control it. But I could vent it in this music."

"I had a wonderful mother. She was a very kind, good person. My father was Jerry Lee Lewis if he didn't play the piano. He was scary and violent. He beat the living hell out of me and and there was constant verbal abuse. Looking back on it, he probably was disappointed that I was so drawn to the arts. make life so much worse than it has to be, and believe me it's a nightmare without their help."

Barry Levinson on Robert DeNiro, WPost, 12/06/09

"What makes him great as an actor and fascinating as an individual is that you can never figure the man out completely. He always seems to have a secret. You want to know more and you can't ever know enough."

Paul Taylor of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, NYT, 10/18/2009

"I've always needed a certain amount of solitude...I like people OK. It is just that I like being by myself."

Ted Danson's Character George on HBO's "Bored to Death" Finale, 2009

"It's good to stay in the dark about some things. Keeps life interesting."

Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm, 2009, Season X, Episode X

"I'm not used to giving people the benefit of the doubt. I'm not conditioned to doing it. Something told me, 'no don't do it, it's not for you.'"

Kevin Smith, Huffington Post, 10-05-09

"It's sad when you realize you can't be the angry young man anymore. The angry young man is barely ever interesting, and tolerable in his 20s. But his late 20s? Early 30s? God forbid late 30s? You can't anymore."

Elliott Gould, Esquire, October 2009

"There is no escape. There is no place to go. Our life is on earth."

"It is essential that I listen so I can try to minimize the problems I create for myself."

"For a kid - or for a repressed, inhibited shy person - to find out that you could have an effect on people by making a joke was interesting. So I would do that."

"It's not women who are tough. It's life."

"I live alone and that simplifies a lot."

"Whenever I die, that will be when I die. What's the big deal. I mean, if I just had some lentil soup, I'd rather not make a mess, but other than that, what's the big deal?"

"The best friend I ever had - I don't know that it's a who. 'What' would make more sense. Calm is a good friend of mine."

"I have persisted but without a ballpark, without a game, without a team. We go on."

Rosanne Cash, NYT, 10-04-09

"I was always dreamy, thinking about art and not knowing where to buy stamps. I have a terror of running out of stamps."

"I have regrets. I don't understand people who say they don't have any regrets."

John Cleese, NYT, 10-04-09

"As you get older you laugh less because you've heard the jokes before."

Merle Haggard, Rolling Stone, 10-01-09

In his songs, Haggard often portrays himself as a free-spirited rambler, but in life he's weighed down by a complicated personality - intelligent, ornery, contrary, impulsive, always curious, with a deep worrying streak. "I've never seen anybody who can take a light load and make it a major burden the way Merle can," his manager, Fuzzy Owen, has said. "Merle's a mood man," observes his pianist, Doug Colosio. "He lives in the moment. You never know where things are going - just that it's probably not somewhere you've been before."

"I can get depressed real easy. My life is not as smooth as it might appear. There are secrets that I wish there weren't, and the glue - I'm the glue I guess, that keeps it all from falling apart."

Most of all he misses Johnny Cash. "We was more like brothers than the brothers we had. We understood each other's problems. He was the guy every macho guy in the world wanted to be, and he wasn't happy with himself at all. I'm a lot like that."

"I've shot myself in the foot plenty. I don't even have to look back at my career to see that - I can look down at my foot. But I'm just not one to give a lot of thought to the brilliant ways to make money. I guess you'd call me a lazy thinker in that particular area, but I think more about good songs and catching a big bass than I do about how to make money."

[While in prison] he found a way to escape from every single place he was locked up. Asked what motivated him, he shrugs, "I don't like to be told what to do."

From his wife: "It does him so much good not to think. He asked me, 'why would you want to not think?' I said 'Well you might want to give your mind a rest.'"

David Duchovny, Rolling Stone, 09-17-09

One of his favorite mottos, he says, is from Nietzsche - amor fati - love of fate. "Whatever happens to you, fall in love with it, because there's really no other option. You can decide to rail against the fates. You can think 'Oh, I'm a victim! or Woe is me!' But it happened. So love it. And see what the good is coming out of it."

Jeff Tweedy, Wilco Lead Singer, Rolling Stone 09-03-09

"I think it would be a waste of suffering if you don't gain wisdom or insight from it."

Actress Jane Lynch, NYT, 09-27-09

"I traveled within all the groups [in high school]. Started that pattern of don't stay long enough for anyone to get to know you, to see the chinks in your armor."

Eli Roth, New Yorker, 8/31/09

In response to Quentin Tarantino saying that Jews are willing to give a form of absolution. "The Jews are more angry about shit from 7,000 years ago than we were [when it happened] 7000 years ago. We never forget and we do not forgive. Those [referring to Tarantino's description] ain't my people."

Greg Allman, Rolling Stone, July 9 -23 2009

"To tell you the truth, it's my sixth marriage and i'm starting to think it's me."

Cornel West, Rolling Stone - 05-28-09

"I'm a bluesman in the life of the mind, a jazzman in the world of ideas."

Kris Kristofferson, Rolling Stone - 04-16-09

"I do wish I could take all the good moments of my life and spread 'em out like one every other year. It seems to that 'good times,' like the 'hard time,' come in bunches.

"Before he died, my father told me that 'I'll never understand what you have been doing with your life, but I do understand your NEED to do it."

On Johnny Cash, Uncut, February 2009

From his son: "My dad lived with pain his whole life. It was partially the way he was made, and partially the pain of addiction and partially the loss of his brother. His greatest pain was interior pain. But in the last 10 to 12 years of his life, physical pain took over. And you don't triumph over physical pain. Every day of his life he dealt with some sort of physical pain and for the last 10 years he as an abusive addict for the most part. He never stopped using substances."

Johnny Cash, Uncut, November 2008

"A record is just a recording of what you were doing that day. You don't wanna live the same day over and over again, now. Do ya?"

On Clay Felker, former editor of New York Magazine, in New York, August 2008

"Clay was not a monogamous person. It wasn't that he was such physically lustful male. It was that he really preferred women to men. I mean, without fuss or anything. He loved variety. Really, it was sort of in a not mean way - it was a harem mentality. I don't think he ever felt guilty about it. If he could keep the ball in the air so that he could be seeing three or four women at the same time, he was delighted. As I say, not that he was a great stud. He wasn't. But it was because he just loved seeing different women and having friendships and racing around."

John McEnroe, NYT, 08-24-08

"I'm not mellow, I'm mellower."

"I was always fighting the establishment, trying to run through brick walls. I don't have the angst I had."

From his wife: "He's an affectionate guy, a happy guy and man can he get freaking angry. He never goes off on meter maids. He just ices them. It's the worst. You don't want that wind blowing your way."

He definitely cares what people think. He definitely gets wounded. He just doesn't ever let what people think dictate what he does."

"I could have controlled [my temper] better. My parents always thought so. On some level I didn't control it because I didn't want to. But I took economics at Stanford, and it's the law of diminishing returns. I did feel out of control, and I didn't like it. Maybe what I like so much about what I do now is that I'm in control."

From brother Patrick: "Part of him enjoys chaos. He likes things to be a little unsettled. Wreaking havoc, what unsettles others, he can handle."

Snoop Dogg, Esquire, July 2008

"Love goes unappreciated a lot of times, but you still gotta keep giving it."

"A lot of people like to fool you you and say that you're not smart if you never went to college, but common sense rules over everything. That's what I learned from selling crack."

"Weed makes me feel the way I need to feel"

Keith Richards, GQ, April 2008

"I'm not calling myself wise. I refuse to grow up. But there are certain threads. Whether you connect the threads together, well...And really, there's nothing quite like having your kids or your grandkids or the people you know and love still say you're okay, because quite honestly, I don't know if I am or not. I mean, I'm just gonna do what I've got to do, and I've gotta live with the consequences, which I have quite often."

James Caan, Esquire, January 2008

"I never saw my dad cry. My son saw me cry. My dad never told me he loved me and consequently I told Scott I loved him every other minute. The point is, I'll make less mistakes than my dad, my sons hopefully will make less mistakes than me, and their sons will make less mistakes than their dads. And one of these days, maybe we'll raise a perfect Caan."

Sarah Silverman, Esquire, January 2008

"Jesus' words have become so perverted over time - it's been like a game of telephone. If he existed, he would fuckin' kill himself."

Chuck Berry, Esquire, January 2008

"I haven't been to church in 13 years, but I'm better prepared for heaven than most of those that haven't missed a day."

Peter Boyle, Esquire, January 2008

"When I was about to become a father, my friend Burgess Meredith said, 'You're gonna find something wonderful - someone you love more than yourself.' For self-centered people, it's a great blessing."

Mel Brooks, Esquire, January 2008

"You could never give your mother as much as she gave you."

Don Rickles, Esquire, January 2008

"No matter where you go in this world, you will always find a Jew sitting in the beach chair next to you."

"I used to play golf. I wanted to be a better player, but after a while I realized I'd always stink. And that's when I really started to enjoy the game."

Garry Shandling, Esquire, January 2008

"Tom Hanks seems to know exactly what he's doing."

Everyone at a party is uncomfortable. Knowing that makes me more comfortable."

"Some people can fake it their whole lives."

Carrie Fisher, Esquire, January 2008

"The older you get, the easier it is to spot the phonies. And I just think, how unpleasant for them."

"When you get on a manic run, you feel like you're a house burning down from the inside out. It's like having a bellyful of electric eels. Every ball you hit is out of the park. Every word you're searching for is right at the tip of your tongue. You look through the facts in your head, your library, your catalog of memories and experiences and information, and it's all there, everything. You have every connection before you even look for it. It's the best version of yourself, sold back to yourself on the cheap every minute every minute every minute."

Dustin Hoffman, Esquire, November 2007

"I became addicted to a derivative of morphine called Demerol. I;d been burned and was in the hospital for a month. When I was healing, everything was fine, and this yoke was lifted off me and there was this Zen feeling that people shoot for when they go into meditation. There was this sense of peace. I remember thinking: Why weren't we constructed this way?"

"I like to mimic my grandkids. I'm trying to understand the intensity of fixation on a leaf. Kids don't need anything else in their life."

Judd Apatow, NYT, May 27, 2007

"I was always last-picked for teams and it was devastating. I gravitated toward comedians because they were the ones who were pointing out hypocrisy and lying. I needed someone to tell me that it OK because I felt really bad."