I just saw The Illusionist last night! I thought the first hour was a little boring, but definitely sped up nicely at the end. I liked Norton the best I'd ever liked him, and Paul Giamatti was great. Jessica Biels was serviceable.

Elias Koteas is a friend of Bob Bob's brother-- a nice guy, apparently, FWIW. I liked him in Zodiac.

Elias Koteas was the lead in The Prophecy--not too bad, but the angels were all designed to be the memorable ones in the film, not him or Virginia Madsen.

but the angels were all designed to be the memorable ones in the film, not him or Virginia Madsen.

As Matt likes to note, it's the movie where Christopher Walken isn't the scariest person on screen. (That honor going to Viggo.)

Elias is (for me) always Vaughn in Crash (the J.G. Ballard one of kinky car wreck sex, not the spinach movie)

Just got back from seeing The Host. It's just your average Korean comedy-horror-family-anti-pollution-coming-of-age-satire, the perfect film for my first outing since surgery. Really great film and I can recommend it wholeheartedly to most Buffistas.

This question:

4) Favorite Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger movie

from the quiz MADE me rewatch "A Matter of Life and Death" last night. Oh the hardship. Was the young David Niven ever more charming? And that's saying something.

It's was SO's first P&P movie. His comment: "abgefahren", which translates as cool, spacy, way-out, wicked. Yeah, he gets it.

His comment: "abgefahren", which translates as cool, spacy, way-out, wicked. Yeah, he gets it.

You should do Black Narcissus next--talk about abgefahren. That PP question was so hard, just cause I love them all.

Abgefahren = "Far out, man!" :-)

Anti-littering PSA from David Lynch: [link]

I just got back from the international film fest showing of Almodovar's All About my Mother. SO happy that I waited to see this on the big screen for the full immersion experience. Cecilia Roth just blew me away - I think that's the best performance by an actress I've seen in the past year.

Movie quiz stuff:

1) Repo Man (didn't really love it on first pass; soon become most quoted movie in then recent memory)

2) Grapes of Wrath

3) John Hurt's cameo in SPACEBALLS (double your reference, double your fun)

4) Damn, I've only seen PEEPING TOM which is post-Pressburger. Oh well, it's a great movie.

5) Trey and Matt showing up in drag and tripping.

6) Guy Pearce. For RAVENOUS if nothing else (and there is more).

7) Amarcord

8) THE NAKED KISS

9) Monica all the way, bay-bee!

10) GROUNDHOG DAY / THE FULL MONTY / NORTH BY NORTHWEST

11) PATCH ADAMS

12) HOPE AND GLORY

13) Warren, though I do love Bruce.

14) The correct one.

15) I think Quentin Tarantino's movies utterly reflect his personality, and that's just the first one I thought of. I think both Wes and Paul Thomas Anderson are also in that category. And definitely Sofia Coppola.

16) Aguirre.

17) THE FLY (Cronenberg version)

18) Sandra, for getting to torture Jerry Lewis on camera.

19) Favorite: the jaded hero(ine) who rediscovers their reasons / Least: Wacky misunderstandings that two sentances would have cleared up.

20) Nes.

21) BIGGER THAN LIFE (scary ass shit and could have qualified for question 17); my wise-ass response would be THE AMERICAN FRIEND

22) I'm going with famous "bombs" that were underrated: POPEYE, HUDSON HAWK & LONG KISS GOODNIGHT.

23) VIDEODROME

24) Bruno!

25) HEARTS OF DARKNESS

26) Michael Palin throwing out "but I didn't have the salmon mousse" at the last second in MEANING OF LIFE. In a non-movie context, Bob from TWIN PEAKS showing up by accident in a shot a Lynch and company running with it.

27) WINGS OF DESIRE

28) Pena, for LONE STAR if nothing else (and there is more)

29) BLACK SHEEP: Get ready for the violence of the lambs!!!!

30) Whatever Pauline Kael did, that's what I loves the most.

Bonus: Yes, because they matter to me.

Also, a massive pbpbpbbbblllttt!!!! to Hec for his 2001 crack.