Rob Roy

I like movies like this – they’re set in a period, but don’t try to be “epics” or something – just little slices of life. This movie is worth seeing just for the quotes from the Cunnigham character: “Love is a dung hill and I am but a cock that climbs atop it to crow”, etc.

 

Robocop

If you see this, try to see the directors cut. I don’t know what all changed, but one scene in the beginning (where the machine goes haywire and kills the executive) was changed. In the original cut, the machine shoots for like a minute solid, until its guns run dry. I guess “somebody” thought that was just too gruesome.

While the movie did have a corny element, it’s aged well. In the end, it’ll make you wonder if life will imitate art one day.

 

Ring of Bright Water

Consider this: A man from the city decides to buy an otter and move to Scotland in order to write a book about marsh arabs. He paints a cabin, then befriends a lady doctor and convinces her to row a boat while he harpoons a shark. While the man gone on a business trip, the otter is bludgeoned to death by a farmer who explains, “I thought it was just an otter.” If this sounds like a great idea for a movie… you’re too late, it’s already been done.

 

Requiem For a Dream

Stunning and original (which, as a quote from me is neither stunning nor original). A sad and scary movie about the desperate places people can reach. I didn’t feel like crying at the end of this movie, though the end… and in fact the whole thing… was utterly depressing (which was a good thing). I just felt generally sad, perhaps questioning how far I was (or any of us were) from the state of the characters in the film. Pretty far, I hope. It was a difficult film to watch, but that’s exactly what made it so worth watching.

 

The Red Violin

A unique and well made film. This follows the story of a particular violin, from its fabrication in the late 1600’s to its sale at an auction, present day. I liked the way the movie skipped around from past to present, and replayed one scene from a variety of viewpoints. The movie just had a general “cool feel” to it that’s hard to describe.

 

Red Dawn

I know most people thought it was just silly, but I thought it was done really well. The characters were all well drawn, and their reactions to the “extreme circumstances” were true.  I don’t buy-in to the whole right-wing violent fantasy aspect of this, but if you think about the climate in which it was made (the cold war), it was a good reflection of that time. And it’s got Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in about as different a movie from Dirty Dancing as you could imagine.

 

The Real Dirt on Farmer John

Really a neat movie to watch. This kind of oddball farmer always had a fascination with film, and as a result filmed much of his own story through the years. It certainly helped that it was an interesting story… I really grew to like Farmer John, but by the end, I had the feeling that the whole operation had lost a bit of the magic because of their success. I mean, I like the fact that they made it work, but most of the interesting parts of the film were the parts where things were all screwed up, and seeing how he had to learn to change to deal with it all. After it was all working, it was just like a routine business. Maybe life is like that in general?