Mid-Year Report

NARC     $7.00

MAX     $6.00

CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND     $7.50

THE GODFATHER     FREE

THE PIANIST     $7.50

IMITATION OF LIFE (1934)     FREE

CITY OF GOD (CIDADE DE DEUS)     $7.00

IMITATION OF LIFE (1949)     FREE

GOODFELLAS     $5.00

SHANGHAI KNIGHTS (2)     $7.00/$7.00

CLUELESS     FREE

DOG SOLDIERS (2)     $9.25/$25.00

FRAT HOUSE (2)     FREE/FREE

RESERVOIR DOGS     $3.00

OLD SCHOOL     FREE

DAREDEVIL (2)     $7.50/$10.00

AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE     FREE

Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN     $3.00

AMORES PERROS     $3.00

SALO, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM     $3.00

THE WATERMELON WOMAN     FREE

BUBBA HO-TEP     $8.00

CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE     $7.50

VERSUS (2000) (2)     $3.00/FREE

IRREVERSIBLE     $7.00

WILLARD     $10.00

I STAND ALONE (SEUL CONTRE TOUS) (2)     $30.00/FREE

STRAW DOGS     $3.50

SPUN     $8.50

COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE     FREE

WRESTLEMANIA XIX     $20.00


BETTER LUCK TOMORROW     FREE

Disappointed by the ending? Ben's concluding voiceover narrative was modified from the version shown at Sundance in 2002, ostensibly to soften the ending and make the film more palatable for a wider audience.

In the original version, Ben considers turning himself into the police, but says, "I couldn't let one mistake get in the way of everything I'd worked for. I know the difference between right and wrong, but I guess in the end, I really wanted to go to a good college."


PHONE BOOTH     $7.50

UNFORGIVEN     $3.50

ANGER MANAGEMENT     $6.00

THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN
(LA CITÉ DES ENFANTS PERDUS)
     FREE

SUPERMAN (1978)     FREE

RAISING VICTOR VARGAS     $9.75

TAXI DRIVER     $8.00

HOWARDS END     FREE

THE BIG SLEEP (1946)     FREE

X2 (2)     FREE/$6.00

MANIC     FREE

THE THIRD MAN (1949)     FREE

THE ANIMATRIX     $8.00

THE MATRIX RELOADED (2)     $11.00/$7.50

BRUCE ALMIGHTY     FREE

SWEET SIXTEEN     $7.00

FINDING NEMO     $14.00

THIS IS SPINAL TAP     $8.00

ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA     $8.00

28 DAYS LATER     $8.50

CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS     $7.50


HERO (YING XIONG)     FREE

Cast: Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Donnie Yen
Writer/Director: Zhang Yimou

All-star Chinese cast and crew. Visually stunning. Think Crouching Tiger meets The Two Towers.

However, the movie is also shameless fascist propaganda. The hero sets out to assassinate a fascist leader who's terrorizing his people but later realizes that it's better to submit to the fascist leader than to assassinate him because the ideal solution to civil unrest is…submission to the rule of a fascist leader. The fascist leader is thus relieved that the hero won't kill him and in turn KILLS THE HERO. The hero is a hero because he willingly accepts the establishment of a fascist state. Un-fuckin'-believable.

Other than that, it's a good movie.

Hero hits American theatres in November.


THE SHINING     FREE

FRIDAY     FREE

M*A*S*H     FREE

DELIVERANCE     FREE

SPELLBOUND     $6.00


HULK (2)     $10.50/$10.50

Chris Hyatte on 411 Wrestling:
Saw the Hulk. It was okay… little boring at times.

BUT… that monster had a better acting range than Ben Affleck.

AND… Nick Nolte… my God… Nolte rules.

BUT… there was a climatic scene at the end that was so lame and so off from the rest of the movie that it REEKED of the movie studio meddling in and telling Ang Lee, "Look, we'll let you do the movie your way but you HAVE to throw in this super hero slugfest… no, you HAVE TO… we DEMAND it"

The scene was so lame that Ang Lee shot it in darkness and under water… so the entire sort-of fight was murky to the point of almost being invisible… you just KNOW he was ashamed of it. Got to give the little guy credit… he did what the studio wanted and told them to fuck off at the same time.

See the movie only for the third act… where the Hulk is running around in the desert… beautiful scenery there… and if you can wait… then just rent the thing… it really does drag on at times.

Me:
Word.

Adam Riff™ Top 10
10. the explosion of Bruce's childhood home

9. during the Right Stuff homage, when the screen blacks out leaving only a meteor shower visual + the two-way mirror sequence between Bruce and Hulk

8. when David Banner's hand merges with blue metal + the ensuing event

7. when "electric" David Banner (who looks like the guy in the American Idol title sequence) chases Hulk through a dark sky and instead of real-time movement, we see strobe light-type imprints of Hulk in the clouds produced by lightning produced by his father

6. Bruce is exposed to radiation and the screen blacks out and a little green mushroom cloud appears in the middle of the screen accompanied by a soft rumbling

5. the title sequence

4. when Bruce lies in a hospital bed listening to his father talk to him, half of his face is lit off-green while the other half is brightly lit, showing his natural skin color

3. the split-screen effects and shot transitions. best editing?

2. the sequence beginning with David Banner revealing the secret behind "the door" and ending with Edith Banner reaching out into an open desert while a green mushroom cloud appears in the background and we hear sad female vocals

1. David Banner's over-the-top conversation with his son in a warehouse. felt like I was watching theatre. Shakespeare


Like Bruce Banner, Jennifer Connelly's hair keeps changing throughout the movie. Also, in almost every scene, she's crying, and she always cries exactly one teardrop. I was half-expecting her to tell Bruce: "I need to believe…that something extraordinary is possible!"


Note to self: Bruce likes Fat Slice. No La Burrita for him.

Many people complained about how CGI Hulk looked fake. I wonder why Universal didn't just hire WWE wrestler Brock Lesnar and paint him green. After all, they are the same studio that first cast The Rock in a movie.


INFERNAL AFFAIRS (WU JIAN DAO)     FREE

TOTAL SPENT ON MOVIES
$362.50

Is that excessive?