The Monday Tuesday Corner 07/05/2011

Movie Watched This Past Week:

Samurai Assassin - Mifune was great, as was much of the supporting class. Not as slow as I'd been told it was, but I think it went too hard for the 'tragic' ending. Granted the snow covered battlefield = perfectly shot.

Random Thought of the Week:

Why doesn't anyone ever make a western about a small village in (I dunno) Iowa that suffers from bullets raining down upon them on a daily basis. They could hire an old gruff gunslinger with a gimp leg to train the young sheriff that hunts them down. Make the big twist in the end that their town turns out to be connected to a wormhole directly linked to the sky above all films shot in the history of cinema. And that in fact they are where all those damned bullets go people in movies keep randomly shooting into the air.

For Your Consideration:

The lovely folks at Japan Cinema have delivered their list of the Top 10 Samurai Films of all time. Of course having three Kurosawa films doesn't hurt, I'm always a supporter of any list that helps get the word out on When The Last Sword Is Drawn (one of my highest first viewing scored films).

Sam of Film Intel examines the conflicting, contradictory, and at times outrageous discussions that occur when you toss Transformers and twitter into a blender and see what comes out. To be frank, when someone tells me I need to learn to turn my "brain off" I secretly dream of slapping them upside the head, taking theirs, and transplanting it into a monkey. One of the greatest miracles of evolution (or divine creation - whatever) and you just want to piss it away and turn it off? For shame.

If you were to toss a bunch of character personalities into a pot, and create the soup that defined you, what characters would serve as your ingredients? Well Anna of Defiant Success, Brandie of True Classics, and Meredith of Forever Classics put that concept to the very test. See what they came up with! (Oh, and for me - two pounds of Woody Allen as Woody Allen, a pinch of Barry Egan from Punch Drunk Love).

How closely do you associate your life with movies? So much so that they become markers for the passage of time and key events? For Nick Prigge of Anomalous Material that is exactly the role movies play in the telling of his life story.

Continuing along the same lines of Sam of Film Intel, Andrew of Encore's World of Film & TV finds himself struggling to accept all that the latest (and soon to be outdated) Marvel offering, Thor has to offer.

Poll Results:
Nothing quite as frustrating as a big typo on the front of your blog. Then blogger wouldn't let me change it because someone had voted on it, and blah! Granted, I make so many typos on here you all should be more than accustomed to them.

Results - People seem stuck between on the bandwagon and just a little ways off. Seems as if Larry Crowne won't be changing that much in either direction. Though I do get the feeling that Tom Hanks has kind of stopped 'acting' and just does what he wants. Not saying he hasn't earned it, but it's been a while since he's taken on a heavy role.

New Poll: Going with an easy one this week - what is your favorite Harry Potter film so far?

Riddle Me This Answer:
Alright, so Anna of Defiant Success got it for the most part, but here's what you would have gotten had you taken it to the 'uni' level.

Donald Sutherland + Alan Alda + Daniel Day Lewis + Jeremy Renner = Four Hawkeyes = Four Eyes

I told you it wasn't that great, and possibly a bit juvenile but I'll accept Anna's answer of Hawkeye as the right call. I do dream that if they ever make a Hawkeye movie, Alan Alda at least gets a cameo (in Stan Lee fashion) as a man mistaken for Hawkeye.

Soundtrack of the Week:
From master composer Toru Takemitsu, here is the haunting soundtrack to Kurosawa's 1985 (masterpiece) Ran!




Have a great Tuesday everybody! Hopefully I'll get this blog back on schedule tomorrow.