Classic movies

I’m terribly sorry but that Letters from Iwo Jima was ungodly dull. I like war movies like anybody else but that one just drifted aimlessly, man! I mean, it’s like their doing an event-centered, basically plotless movie during its first half, then they let go of everything and pour everything in the characters, when it’s just too little, too late.
So once I got the hell of the cinema I got this craving going for good movies. A quick stop at the DVD store- during a full lunar eclipse, no less!- and here’s what I ended up bringing home and watching with lots of diet Coke, Doritos, Absolut vodka and beer:

Casablanca
Regardless of how cliché you might deem watching this movie these days I think it’s still probably unsurpassed as a war movie, Ingrid Bergman is just way too cute, and Bogart kicks some serious ass!
(even though I still have no clue as to what the f*ck “Here’s looking at ya, kid” really means…)

Chinatown
You know, that Polanski movie from the 1970s… because, well, first and foremost because we could speak at length for ages about every each and every minute of this movie because oh it’s so freaking good but may I be perfectly honest with you? The bit with the Jack Nicholson character having his nose bandaged during most of the film always killed me, as a kid. Loved, loved, loved that bit.
And incidentally- and keep in mind this is the first time I’ve seen this movie in fifteen years or something- I’ve just realized the guy who plays the hoodlum who cuts Nicholson’s nose is Roman Polanski himself.

The Day the Earth Stood Still
I’ll tell you a secret: Everybody’s got a soft spot in their hearts from classic 1950s sci-fi, regardless whether they’ll admit it or not, and regardless of how bad Gort-the-robot’s suit seems today.
This one is just like… I don’t know, the first girl you’ve ever kissed? Cereal with milk for breakfast? It’s a staple of the Western world, what can you do, and I sure as hell wouldn’t mind seeing it re-made today with CGIs and the whole post-9/11 zeitgeist thing going.


I did have Blade Runner with me as well but as you can probably figure, came Sunday evening I was pretty sick of playing couch-potato. I mean, good god, I ended up looking like a tanned Solomon Grundy on Monday morning with deep dark circles beneath my eyes and a very foul mood…