20 Comments

1. richard mcenroe:

Wow! An Academy Member! Does this mean you can use your clout to finally get Zapped! 3: The College Years made?

Dec 7, 2004 - 8:01 am 2. chuck:

I liked your mini-reviews. Well done!

Dec 7, 2004 - 8:19 am 3. Silicon valley Jim:

Won’t the Academy expel you for writing for NRO?

Dec 7, 2004 - 8:26 am 4. Roger:

Thanks for giving them the idea, Jim.

Actually no. There are several members who review movies from time to time. I’m allowed to have an opinion, as far as I know.

Dec 7, 2004 - 8:28 am 5. Michael Parker:

I concur with you on _Sideways_. The wife and I went to see it this weekend. One of the problems with the seinfeldish everybody’s a scoundrel approach is that everybody *wasn’t* a scoundrel in this movie — all of the nice, trusting women were getting used and abused by these two men, yet we were supposed to be sympathetic to them. Had the women been scoundrels as well then all would have been well — the scales of justice would have remained balanced, as it were. But no, the mom, knowing that her son had rifled her sock drawer, eases his conscience by offering to give him money; the graduate-student divorcee not only lets him back in, but even compliments him on his excrable novel. Yes, the wild and freaky hot asian chick breaks the actors nose, but big whoop — he’s just doing voice work anyway. The fat chick that he had his last-night fling with was the only compensating scoundrel, but that only makes his last-minute conversion much more unconvincing — the two relationship/encounters should have been reversed.

Not to mention that Pinot is entirely overrated as an obsession. Zinfandel, now *that’s* a wine that’s deserving of passion.

Dec 7, 2004 - 9:12 am 6. Mark Poling:

How can you say Kevin Bacon is underappreciated? Who else has anything like the Bacon Number to their credit?

BTW, what’s your Bacon Number? (Unless you’ve had film appearances that I don’t know about, I guess we’d have to expand the definition to include projects you’ve worked on that include links to Bacon’s ouvre.)

Dec 7, 2004 - 9:28 am 7. Dilys:

I’m grateful (no sarcasm) for Michael Parker’s spoilers about Sideways. Sounds like the kind of hyped movie I get suckered into going to. Now I don’t have to.

John Cleese’ book on psychology, Families and How to Survive Them, comments with wonder on American women’s astonishing protectiveness of scoundrelly men. No reason to watch more of it.

But maybe Roger should post in sequence a pre-comment, Caution, Sideways Spoilers Ahead… Somebody may have promised to see it with someone, and still have to sit through it.

So what about Napoleon Dynamite, Roger? A cultural/marketing guru I admire says it’s the most important memetic profile of Gen.Com yet made. I thought it was a sweet story, but very discouraging as sneak-peek into the upcoming generation.

Dec 7, 2004 - 9:35 am 8. jedrury:

Thanks for posting your movie reviews and the inside H’wood stuff.

Please post the next installment. Regards

Dec 7, 2004 - 9:58 am 9. Kyda Sylvester:

I agree that Kevin Bacon is much underappreciated. Among the series of vignette performances in JFK, his was the standout I thought. And, speaking as a fan of B movies, Tremors was one of the best of the 90’s. If his due is due, I hope he gets it.

Will you be sharing your choice of nominee(s) – don’t know how this works – for the screenwriting awards and your eventual votes in all categories? It’s probably as close to the Awards as I’ll get.

Dec 7, 2004 - 10:17 am 10. chuck:

Tremors was one of the best of the 90’s.

Hey, I can still remember that movie and can recall the scenes. Can’t say the same about any other movie I saw that long ago. Long live B movies.

Dec 7, 2004 - 10:51 am 11. Kyda Sylvester:

Actually no. There are several members who review movies from time to time. I’m allowed to have an opinion, as far as I know.

Yes, but are you allowed to share that opinion with people like (shudder) us?

Dec 7, 2004 - 10:54 am 12. melk:

Roger: I agree that the male characters in Sideways are flawed, but I found the relationship between them to be very moving. They really cared about one another and this is remarkably well portrayed. Not to mention a superb script.

Dec 7, 2004 - 11:12 am 13. Charlie (Colorado):

Aha! My Bacon number is 2. (I was in Bull Durham, in the crowd. Kevin Costner was in Bull Durham and JFK, and Bacon was in JFK.)

Which means my Erdös number is equal to my Bacon number.

I bet that’s as small a demographic as Choctaw Buddhist Republicans.

Dec 7, 2004 - 1:39 pm 14. chuck:

Charlie(C)

I was in Bull Durham, in the crowd.

Yeah, yeah. A friend of mine was in Night of the Living Dead, in the crowd. Now that’s something to cherish.

Dec 7, 2004 - 1:49 pm 15. someone:

What I’m wondering is: despite the election results, will Moore be nominated for any of the major awards?

Dec 7, 2004 - 3:30 pm 16. Terrye:

Roger:

I love Keevin Bacon.

I remember when he did an animated feature and when asked about it he said he wanted to do a movie his kids could go see. He is very talented.

Dec 7, 2004 - 4:22 pm 17. lindenen:

Cynical me: Isn’t that what they always say when they can’t get a job? Or is it working with monkeys and children that’s a sign of a problem?

Dec 7, 2004 - 4:43 pm 18. richard mcenroe:

Gee, my closest brush with cinematic greatness was as Hip-Hop Cop in Nudist Colony of the Dead…

Dec 7, 2004 - 4:47 pm 19. chuck:

Amazon has this review of Nudist Colony of the Dead:

It was a real torture to watch it. Movie is an art and this film is simply disgusting, vulgar, confectioned with a particularly refined bad taste, a waste of time and money.

Sounds great!

Dec 7, 2004 - 5:29 pm 20. richard mcenroe:

Chuck — Honesty and a decent consideration for the regard of mankind require me to warn you that it was shot on Super 8 and written and directed by Mark Pirro, the auteur of A Polish Vampire in Burbank…

Buy a cheap used copy if you buy it at all. That’s more in the spirit of the thing, anyway.

Dec 7, 2004 - 5:35 pm

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