Up until last week, I had never seen Bullit. I knew about the famous San Francisco chase scene (where one of the cars loses six, count 'em, six hubcaps!) but I think that people have failed to recognize the brilliance of the rest of the movie.
For example, this scene, where Steve McQueen, Robert Vaugnn, Norman Fell, and some other dudes stand around in rapt attention for a minute as the high-tech telecopier delivers a fax.
What a classic moment of cinematic suspense! It's the little touches--look at how eager the turtleneck-clad McQueen is-he almost jumps the gun and looks at the fax before it's done drying. I think Norman Fell's look at the end says it all: "What the?!"
Roger Ebert's review of Jumper: When such miracles can can occur anytime, without reason or explanation, then life and plots are meaningless. "Jumper" may as well be subtitled "The Trouble with CGI." Anything can happen, and usually does, but so what?
The trailer for the new Indiana Jones movie is up, and it looks computer-graphic-riffic! Check out the pseudo-realism in the scene from Warcraft III the movie in the photo above. I can almost believe it's not completely fake.
The movie co-stars Shia LeBeouf, who's got tons of CGI-fighting street cred from his role in Transformers. Oh no, will the pixels get him? Will the computationally generated explosion hurt him? Will it even remind me of a real explosion? The tension is overwhelming.
Photo: Daniel Day-Lewis as Master Shake in "There Will Be Blood"
I enjoyed this article about the infamous "There Will Be Blood" milkshake dialog:[...] director Paul Thomas Anderson derived the dialogue from “a transcript he found of the 1924 congressional hearings over the Teapot Dome scandal.”
Once again, it's time to summarize my Netflix viewing habits for the year. I watched 144 movies, which makes the math easy: 12 movies a month, almost three a week. That sure sounds like a lot of movies! Each movie cost me about $1.50 to watch. Compare to 2005, where I watched 114 DVDs, at $1.90 each.
I managed to catch up on HBO series like The Sopranos, Deadwood, and Rome. I learned I didn't much care for Farscape after the initial novelty wore off. I watched terrible movies like The Brothers Grimm and Fantastic Four. I enjoyed fascinating documentaries like A State of Mind and Long Way Round. Thanks, Netflix!
I'm getting closer to finishing off the IMDB Top 250 list: I'm up to 185. I am getting a little burnt out, so I'm going to take it easy with the Netflix for a while, content that I got my money's worth last year.
With the help of twofifty.org, I'm working my way through the 250 top films, as selected by imdb.com users. I'm making good progress--so far, it's 162 down, with 88 to go.
Once again, it's time to summarize my Netflix viewing habits for the year. I watched 144 movies, which makes the math easy: 12 movies a month, almost three a week. That sure sounds like a lot of movies! Each movie cost me about $1.50 to watch. 
