ncoxny

I just recently saw "Putney Swope", mainly because I'm a big P.T. Anderson fan, and he frequently sights this movie as a major influence. The character played by Don Cheadle is "Buck Swope", Robert Downey Sr. has a cameo in the film, and the scene where that Asian kid is throwing fire crackers everywhere is a direct homage to "Putney".

Ultimatley, I was kind of impressed but also a bit more dissapointed. I think the film is dated, and a lot of the jokes are more offensive than funny. Now, I don't have anything against offensive humor, but offensive humor often ages badly.

Now, the film has some very funny moments. The commercial parodies are especially funny. The film is well made, well photographed, especially when you consider the fact that it was made on a shoe string budget.

The big problem with this film is the title character. There's that old saying that you should never marry someone that you wouldn't want to spend the weekend with. Well, you shouldn't make a movie about such a person either.

At first, we see that Putney Swope is just the token black guy on the board of directors at this big time Madison Avenue advertising firm. They treat Putney like crap. It's not hard at all to sympathise with him. But once he assumes power, you realize that he's a total ass hole. His creepy, gravely voice dosen't help.

Still, I can imagine that in the late sixties, this movie was refreshing and daring.

Dear God this is a great movie! One of the best movies of the year. Now, I've come to accept the fact at years end, some of my favorite films don't have a chance at winning the Oscar (I don't expect to see either "Kill Bill" or "Holes", two of my favorites, nominated for Best Picture), but this film REALLY deserves to be nominated.

The Acadamy has a long standing prejudice against films that air on television first. This has caused for some very unfortunate moments in the past. Many people were outraged that Linda Fiorentino was not nominated for "The Last Seduction", and the Japanese film "Shall We Dance" was snubbed because it aired on Japanese television first. I find it funny since both many of Ignmar Bergmans movies, including "Scenes From A Marriage", "Face To Face", and "Fanny And Alexander" (the latter won the best forign language Oscar) aired on Swedish T.V. first.

"Angels In America" was not some film that couldn't find a distributor. Nor was it some T.V. movie that was cranked out. A six hour movie is hard to release in theaters. Television has allowed for all kinds of films, from "The Decaloug" to Ken Burns documentaries to have a life that normaly would not be possible in the world of the multiplexes.

"Angels" is an important film. A great film filled with brilliant performances that deals with one of the most devestating events of the last twenty years. I also think it's Mike Nichols greatest film.

I urge everyone who has seen this movie and who loved this movie to write to The Acadamy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences and tell them to change the rules and nominate "Angels".

I first saw this film when I was a little kid. It stuck in my mind because it was so damned bizzar and depressing. I also remember that they had these really weird previews at the end in which people were at some kind of eatery and they were serving rodents on sticks.

After searching tirelessly, I finally tracked down a copy. The film was pretty much as I remember it, only, well, worse.

The film tells the tale of two brothers, who die and go to a medivil fairy tale world. The opening sequence, which I suppose was shot in Stockholm or Copenhagen, is shot in sepia tone. The younger brother, "Crispy", is afraid he's gonna die. His older brother, Jonathan, tells him not to fear. When he dies, he'll go to some place called Nagliomi (I think that's how you spell it).

Jonathan dies trying to rescue Crispy from a fire. Crispy dies shortly after. They meet up in Nagliomi. The scenes in the afterlife are shot in color, but their just as dreary. The brothers live in a medivel village called Cherry Valley. Aparently the neighboring vilage, Wild Rose Valley, has some kind of warlord that enslaves it's people. He rules over them with a big dragon called Catla.

The brothers end up going to war with the bad guy. The dragon makes the Toho monsters look like the dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park". I do know that in Norse (Viking) mythology, the greatest honor is to die and go to some place where your always at war. Compared to this, the films of Ingmar Bergman look like "The Care Bear Movie".