Sometimes I weird myself out.

I e-mail myself and sometimes I don't know why.

I found this while automating a lot of tagging in my gmail account.

The e-mail is verbatim without a subject.

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be careful reading books.
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100 - Ben-Hurrrrrrrr

Our progress on the AFI top 100 list feels like it's going well. We were puzzled when, on our two disc plan, with one movie already out, we received two more discs in the mail last week. It turns out that biblical epic and number 100 on the AFI list, Ben-Hur is epically long. The first disc covers the first two and a half hours, up through the intermission. Yep, it's got an intermission. Disc 2 is the next hour and a half.

I'm 95% sure that I've seen this movie before, but it was definitely Lauren's first go with it. I think she did a little better with staying conscious through it. Not that the first disc is that rough! It's a beautiful movie, with stellar production values. From reading up on it, it was apparently MGM's hail mary. They were going down the tubes and had enough money for one big movie, so they pegged it all on Charlton Heston's big gay adventure.

OK, yeah, the movie doesn't HAVE to be about a gay relationship between a Roman and a Jew in biblical times, but it sure as hell seems like it. Once you get that idea in your head, it's impossible to get out. I guess I just went and ruined the movie for you..

Basic plot - Roman guy returns to Judea after having rocketed through the ranks in the Roman empire, faces pacifying an angry Jewish population. He tries to lever his old 'relationship' with Judah Ben-Hur into a few names that he can crack down on in the resistance and sends any good will down the tubes. After an incident involving a loose tile falling on the incoming Roman governor is pinned on Ben-Hur, Roman Marsalla makes an example of him by imprisoning his mother and sister while banishing Judah to the galley of a Roman warship. Begin revenge story!

Advice on the movie - definitely see it, but not when sleepy or short on time. Make sure to fast forward through the intro music - it's 6.5 minutes of orchestral interlude on a static background. The same applies to the intermission music. Be ready for a lot of movie after the seeming climax - there's still the whole Jesus aspect of the movie to deal with.

I don't think it's a movie that could be made the same way today. The chariot race at the circus is impressive and should blow away any but the most jaded viewer. Put in the hands of any of the likely directors these days would result in a mishmash of rapid cuts, too much CGI, and a hollow experience. The real deal uses real crowds, a real set, and supposedly one real death - see if you can spot it!

One sentence assessment? Classic, epic, never to be redone the same way, story of revenge in the time of Jesus.

94 - Pulp Fiction

We continue our attack on the AFI Top 100 films with number 94, Pulp Fiction.

This one was easy to do, since I already own it. The problem, though, was it was already 11 when we started and I'm a huge wuss now. I guess that's what happens when you start work at 8am every day and you're used to 8 hours of sleep.

I've already seen this movie a bunch of times, and I love it. It helps that I was 15 when this movie came out - this is a movie that blows any teenager's mind and in my case is close to perfection. I don't know how much I feel of that now, but it's still pretty good. I have definitely fallen out of love with Quentin Tarantino, though. Watching the first half of Kill Bill I swore I could hear him just masturbating furiously in the background because that's essentially what that movie was. I never did bother to see the second half..

Lauren, not so much a fan of the non-linear timeline in Pulp Fiction. I think it makes the movie a bit more interesting and definitely adds to it the first time you see it. I personally think that Tarantino, like Kevin Smith, is a lot more interesting when working with limited resources - see also Reservoir Dogs. This movie relied on dialogue, which was great, story, which was still interesting, and the actors. Big thumbs up on all of that. Also, the soundtrack of this totally kicks ass - see also Reservoir Dogs.

Considering the ripple effect that this movie had on the industry since it's premiere, I can definitely see why it made it onto the AFI list. However, it's not a movie that I'm going to be like "man, I can't wait to show this to my kids." Actually, it would be pretty cool to show to *older* kids, but also not the kind of movie that they would feel comfortable watching with me.

I once saw a commercial on WGN about how they were going to be showing Pulp Fiction on broadcast TV. I would almost pay money now to see exactly how they shoehorned that movie into FCC broadcast regulations. I think they probably would have had to get new voice actors to record an entirely new dialogue track. Possibly they would have spliced in some old cartoons to distract you from the extended scenes that were just unshowable.

I want to see what kind of notes you can write while on this thing

It begins - French Connection

So,

Lauren and I are embarking upon watching all of the AFI Top 100 movies.

Our first movie off the list is #93, The French Connection.

It primarily features an impossibly young Gene Hackman in a proto buddy cop movie role. Some French businessman tries to orchestrate a huge drug trafficking route into New York but Hackman and his partner stand against him.

I've got to say, having seen American Gangster, this movie is both awesome and way better than American Gangster. Gangster was kind of boring in the end - we were all kind of just waiting for it to end. French Connection is just plain more interesting.

It's great watching chase scenes like this movie has - from what I've heard there was no permission from New York nor any warning to the traffic on the street that anything was planned. So this car with a camera mounted on it, a cameraman in the back seat, and a little police dome light on top, go flying through heavy traffic chasing an elevated train. It's allegedly the best car chase scene ever - I'm not sure about that, but I don't feel like it was overhyped actually seeing it for myself.

I've got to say that I loved the ambiguity of the very ending when Hackman leaves camera while pursuing Frog One and you hear a single gun shot. Did he kill the guy and hide the body? Was it just anger? A great note to end on.

Overall assessment - There are movies that make me angry and feel like I've literally wasted those hours of my life. This movie was at the other end of the spectrum - I feel it was well spent time and the movie has aged extremely well. American Gangster has nothing on this.

Enlightenment

Only 5 seconds ago did I learn that the opening beating sound of Nine Inch Nails' Downward Spiral is a sound bite from an entertainment show in THX-1138. Apparently it's just footage of a cop beating a guy with his baton. Seeing this movie as an inspiration to Reznor makes all this Year Zero stuff make a lot more sense.