Ghostbusters

"Dog and Cats, living together .... mass hysteria!"

Ghostbusters, 1984, Ivan Reitman; Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis

Caught Ghostbusters tonight at the Bytowne with my brother Paddy, and ran into Jovana and some people. Had a diet Pepsi and some popcorn, and some of Jovana's leftover vegetable pad thai, which was nice and spicy.

Ghostbusters was one of my favorite movies in the 80's, and it was awesome to see it on the big screen. The print was in great condition for what was supposedly an original print from 1984, and the only technical problem was that the projectionist missed a reel change. Bill Murray somehow seems even cooler than he usually does in what I think is one of his best roles, comedic or otherwise. He pretty much has 95% of the best lines, but half of his genius is in his facial expression. But the coolest image on the big screen: the Stay-Puft Marshmellow Man.

Really awesome film, really fun time, plus it was all for a good charity, Operation Go Home ... and, as an added bonus, Chez 106 was handing out free DVDs, and I picked up a copy of In Bruges.

5 stars out of 5.

Lame audience comment of the night: "This film is in HD ... Horrible Definition!"

Fun fact of the day: At the beginning, the librarian tells the ghostbusters that she had an uncle who thought he was St. Jerome. And St. Jerome is the patron saint of ... that's right ... librarians.

Upcoming movies in the next week

Thursday: Ghostbusters in playing at the Bytowne; definitely going to check that one out. I beleive it may be a charity showing too, plus, since unlike last year, the Bytowne isn't playing any Halloween movies, I guess this is as close as it gets.



Friday: Opening in Ottawa - The Changling (dir. Clint Eastwood, star. Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Guy Pearce) [probably going to see]



- Happy-Go-Lucky (dir. Mike Leigh, star. Sally Hawkins) [will maybe see]



- Zack and Miri Make a Porno (dir. Kevin Smith, star. Seth Rogan, Elizabeth Banks) [will defnitely see]



Monday: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is playing at the Bytowne. Probably going to skip that one.

Psycho

Saw this Monday night at the Bytowne. Had the usual problems of older prints, with the sections near the ends of each reel being pretty rough, but the rest of the film was in good shape. Prints probably came from the re-release these Hitchcock films got 20 years ago when Universal bought part of the Hitchcock library.

Maybe it's just me, but I never found much of this film to be funny, intentionally or not. But there were plenty of laughs in the audience, which I've come to expect at the Bytowne lately. The second murder (won't spoil it) comes off as more jolting on the big screen than I've ever felt before (and Hitchcock didn't even direct that sequence; he was sick that day).

Overall, one of my 5 favorite Hitchcocks, and it was great to see it on the big screen.

5 stars out of 5

Fun Fact: Supposedly, this is the first Hollywood film to show a flushing toilet.

Rachel Getting Married

Steph and I saw this on Saturday night at the Bytowne, which was pretty packed. The trailers make it seem like a comedy, and although there are a few funny lines, it's actually a pretty depressing film. Anne Hathaway puts in a strong leading performance, which will probably grab her an oscar nomination, which is clearly what she was gunning for in most of her big scenes. So, despite not being the comedy I thought it would be, overall teh film was pretty strong. Plus it's nice to see Debra Winger in a film again.

Fun Fact: the dishwasher scene is based on a real (and apparently more prolonged) agrument between Sidney Lumet (father of screenwriter Jenny) and Bob Fosse.

4 1/2 stars out of 5

Passchendaele

Paul Gross is one vicious bastard. The movie opens with his character bayonetting a young German soldier through the forehead, and doesn't let up with the violence in teh war scenes, and the stiff cheezyness in the non-war scenes. With a climactic "one-in-a-million shot", Gross also manages to throw in a little explicit religious imagery too.

3 stars out of 5

Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary's Baby (1968, Roman Polanski)

Saw this Monday Oct. 20th at the Bytowne. Went by myself, but ended up sitting beside Lesley, who is the best person to sit beside if you want to make fun of a movie. Had some popcorn and a diet Pepsi, as well as the rest of my Hershey Kisses from W., the night before. The film slipped off the reel part way through, and Lesley and I debated whether jesus or satan made this happen.

I suppose that maybe this movie was scary in 1968, and it certainly did beget The Exorcist and The Omen later on in the 70's, but teh acting is pretty poor, and overwrought. But hey, god is dead and Satan lives, right? I did like the music, and the dream sequences were memorable, although the devil costume in the sex scene was a ridiculous, and we didn't even see that much of it.

Of interesting note: A scene near the end has a very pregnant Rosemary (Mia Farrow) wander confusingly across a busy Manhattan street through traffic. Apparently this scene was completely improvised, and Roman Polanski reassured Mia Farrow by saying that she'd be ok because no one would kill a pregnant woman.

Of course a year later, Charles Manson would prove Mr. Polanski very very wrong.

"W."

W. (2008, Oliver Stone)

Saw this Sunday night with my brother Paddy and my girlfriend Steph at SilverCity in Gloucester. Had a bottle of diet Dr. Pepper and some dark chocolate Hershey Kisses.

Josh Brolin does a great job as still-President Bush, and many of the supporting actors are good, especially Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney, but I'm not sure there's much point to this film right now. Some people say it's too soon, and no one's in the mood for a movie about Bush, but I think it's really that there's no real new information here. It feels more like a TV movie-of-the-week. Oliver Stone should have waited 10 years or so, to let history start settling the dust of Bush's presidency. But, solid effort, and great work from Brolin.

Virgin entry

This is a just a test, intro entry. I'm just going to use this blog to go over all the movies I watch, whether at home or at the theatre. But I haven't watched a movie today.

Possible movies this weekend:

W. (will probably see)
Passchendale [hope I've spelled that correctly] (will probably see)
Elegy (maybe see ... though I have an inherent distrust for film adaptations of Philip Roth novels)
Frozen River (was considering seeing, but I got so sick of it just from having seen the trailer ten times at the Bytowne.