Film Sage

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

My Best Picture Noms and winner from 2011

If I'd done the Best Picture Nominations and picked the winner this year. The Nominations, would be as follows:

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Take Shelter

Hanna

Drive

The Grey

Bridesmaids

Money Ball

The Tree of Life

The Help

Warrior

And the winner, for me, would be: Drive

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

If I'd done the Best Picture Nominations and picked the winner this year. The Nominations, would be as follows:

Inglorious Bastards
The Road
The Hurt Locker
Where the Wild Things Are
Moon
Public Enemies
500 Days of Summer
The Escapist
Bronson
Star Trek

And the winnner would have been:

Inglorious Bastards!

My 2 cents.

The Wrestler****

Star Trek****

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button****

Hot Fuzz****
The Hangover****
Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life****
Inglorious Basterds****

The Brothers Bloom****

Where the Wild Things Are****

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days****

The Road****

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly****
500 Days of Summer****
The Hurt Locker****
Moon****
The Escapist****
Public Enemies****
Bronson****

Crazy Heart****
Requiem for a Heavyweight****
An Education****
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans****
Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture****
Shutter Island****

Wise Words

Cronenburg:
--- If something freaked me out, it wouldn't mean that I would be less likely to do it. I'd be more likely to do it. I think that is what the artistic compulsion is, that you don't accept reality as it's presented to you, either socially or even physically. You're always wanting to know what's really going on, so you're going into the ceiling, you're going into the walls, you're digging under the floor. You don't feel as if you've necessarily gotten the real version of life on earth and the human condition, as it's presented officially by human society, or by art. So you're constantly looking for that....

[Y]ou're looking for those moments where things go wrong; usually when things go wrong is when you see how they're put together. You don't bother about the engineering of your car until something goes wrong. Then you want to know how it works. Not to be too mechanistic about it, but that to me is the impulse.

I don't really think of myself as someone who's driven to push things to the edge. I just seem to be naturally drawn to those things. I just think it's a very common artistic impulse to do that. If you're talking about censorship, and what things should be shown and what things shouldn't be shown, I've said that as an artist you have no social responsibility whatsoever. Once again, it's a willing amnesia. You have to forget for the moment what the effect of what you're doing might be, or what the revelations that you come up with might suggest, or what the implications of them are. Of course, no artist works in a vacuum, you're working in a social context ultimately. So you have to balance those things. You have to deal with the consequences of what you've done.

It's so easy to destroy yourself by being responsible -- what I mean is that an artist who's worried about being politically correct, to me, is dead as an artist. And on censorship, the ultimate triumph of any totalitarian state has always been to create the internalization of censorship, so that the state doesn't even have to worry about it. The citizens are so self-censored that they have reduced themselves to impotence. It's very easy to do that, even in a place that's not a totalitarian state, but that has gentle, right-minded political movements. You could make a case that the origins of political correctness have a certain validity, but if you incorporate that into your nervous system, and that is there when you're trying to create art, you're finished.

From a great book and great film.

"Thousands of years ago, the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burned at the stake he had taught his brothers to light. He was considered an evildoer who had dealt with a demon mankind dreaded. But thereafter men had fire to keep them warm, to cook their food, to light their caves. He had left them a gift they had not conceived and he had lifted dardness off the earth. Centuries later, the first man invented the wheel. He was probably torn on the rack he had taught his brothers to build. He was considered a transgressor who ventured into forbidden terrritory. But thereafter, men could travel past any horizon. He had left them a gift they had not conceived and he had opened the roads of the world.
"That man, the unsubmissive and first, stands in the opening chapter of every legend mankind has recorded about its beginning. Prometheus was chained to a rock and torn by vultures—because he had stolen the fire of the gods. Adam was condemned to suffer—because he had eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Whatever the legend, somewhere in the shadows of its memory mankind knew that its glory began with one and that that one paid for his courage.
"Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received—hatred. The great creators—the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors—stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.
"No creator was prompted by a desire to serve his brothers, for his brothers rejected the gift he offered and that gift destroyed the slothful routine of their lives. His truth was his only motive. His own truth, and his own work to achieve it in his own way. A symphony, a book, an engine, a philosophy, an airplane or a building—that was his goal and his life. Not those who heard, read, operated, believed, flew or inhabited the thing he had created. The creation, not its users. The creation, not the benefits others derived from it. The creation which gave form to his truth. He held his truth above all things and against all men.
"His vision, his strength, his courage came from his own spirit. A man's spirit, however, is his self. That entity which is his consciousness. To think, to feel, to judge, to act are functions of the ego.
"The creators were not selfless. It is the whole secret of their power—that it was self-sufficient, self-motivated, self-generated. A first cause, a fount of energy, a life force, a Prime Mover. The creator served nothing and no one. He lived for himself.
"And only by living for himself was he able to achieve the things which are the glory of mankind. Such is the nature of achievement.
"Man cannot survive except through his mind. He comes on earth unarmed. His brain is his only weapon. Animals obtain food by force. Man has no claws, no fangs, no horns, no great strength of muscle. He must plant his food or hunt it. To plant, he needs a process of thought. To hunt, he needs weapons, and to make weapons—a process of thought. From this simplest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and everything we have comes from a single attribute of man—the function of his reasoning mind.
"But the mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain. There is no such thing as a collective thought. An agreement reached by a group of men is only a compromise or an average drawn upon many individual thoughts. It is a secondary consequence. The primary act—the process of reason—must be performed by each man alone. We can divide a meal among many men. We cannot digest it in a collective stomach. No man can use his lungs to breathe for another man. No man can use his brain to think for another. All the functions of body and spirit are private. They cannot be shared or transferred.
"We inherit the products of the thought of other men. We inherit the wheel. We make a cart. The cart becomes an automobile. The automobile becomes an airplane. But all through the process what we receive from others is only the end product of their thinking. The moving force is the creative faculty which takes this product as material, uses it and originates the next step. This creative faculty cannot be given or received, shared or borrowed. It belongs to single, individual men. That which it creates is the property of the creator. Men learn from one another. But all learning is only the exchange of material. No man can give another the capacity to think. Yet that capacity is our only means of survival.
"Nothing is given to man on earth. Everything he needs has to be produced. And here man faces his basic alternative: he can survive in only one of two ways—by the independent work of his own mind or as a parasite fed by the minds of others. The creator originates. The parasite borrows. The creator faces nature alone. The parasite faces nature through an intermediary.
"The creator's concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite's concern is the conquest of men.
"The creator lives for his work. He needs no other men. His primary goal is within himself. The parasite lives second-hand. He needs others. Others become his prime motive.
"The basic need of the creator is independence. The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion. It cannot be curbed, sacrificed or subordinated to any consideration whatsoever. It demands total independence in function and in motive. To a creator, all relations with men are secondary.
"The basic need of the second-hander is to secure his ties with men in order to be fed. He places relations first. He declares that man exists in order to serve others. He preaches altruism.
"Altruism is the doctrine which demands that man live for others and place others above self.
"No man can live for another. He cannot share his spirit just as he cannot share his body. But the second-hander has used altruism as a weapon of expoloitation and reversed the base of mankind's moral principles. Men have been taught every precept that destroys the creator. Men have been taught dependence as a virtue.
"The man who attemps to live for others is a dependent. He is a parasite in motive and makes parasites of those he serves. The relationship produces nothing but mutual corruption. It is impossible in concept. The nearest approach to it in reality—the man who lives to serve others—is the slave. If physical slavery is repulsive, how much more repulsive is the concept of servility of the spirit? The conquered slave has a vestige of honor. He has the merit of having resisted and of considering his condition evil. But the man who enslaves himself voluntarily in the name of love is the basest of creatures. He degrades the dignity of man and he degrades the conception of love. But this is the essence of altruism.
"Men have been taught that the highest virtue is not to achieve, but to give. Yet one cannot give that which has not been created. Creation comes before distribution—or there will be nothing to distribute. The need of the creator comes before the need of any possible beneficiary. Yet we are taught to admire the second-hander who dispenses gifts he has not produced above the man who made the gifts possible. We praise an act of charity. We shrug at an act of achievement.
"Men have been taught that their first concern is to relieve the sufferings of others. But suffering is a disease. Should one come upon it, one tries to give relief and assistance. To make that the highest test of virtue is to make suffering the most important part of life. Then man must wish to see others suffer—in order that he may be virtuous. Such is the nature of altruism. The creator is not concerned with disease, but with life. Yet the work of the creators has eliminated one form of disease after another, in man's body and spirit, and brought more relief from suffering than any altruist could ever conceive.
"Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.
"Men have been taught that the ego is the synonym of evil, and selflessness the ideal of virtue. But the creator is the egotist in the absolute sense, and the selfless man is the one who does not think, feel, judge or act. These are functions of the self.
"Here the basic reversal is most deadly. The issue has been perverted and man has been left no alternative—and no freedom. As poles of good and evil, he was offered two conceptions: egotism and altruism. Egotism was held to mean the sacrifice of others to self. Altruism—the sacrifice of self to others. This tied man irrevocably to other men and left him nothing but a choice of pain: his own pain borne for the sake of others or pain inflicted upon others for the sake of self. When it was added that man must find joy in self-immolation, the trap was closed. Man was forced to accept masochism as his ideal—under the threat that sadism was his only alternative. This was the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on mankind.
"This was the device by which dependence and suffering were perpetuated as fundamentals of life.
"The choice is not self-sacrifice or domination. The choice is independence or dependence. The code of the creator or the code of the second-hander. This is the basic issue. It rests upon the alternative of life or death. The code of the creator is built on the needs of the reasoning mind which allows man to survive. The code of the second-hander is built on the needs of a mind incapable of survival. All that which proceeds from man's independent ego is good. All that which proceeds from man's dependence upon men is evil.
"The egotist is the absolute sense is not the man who sacrifices others. He is the man who stands above the need of using others in any manner. He does not function through them. He is not concerned with them in any primary matter. Not in his aim, not in his motive, not in his thinking, not in his desires, not in the source of his energy. He does not exist for any other man—and he asks no other man to exist for him. This is the only form of brotherhood and mutual respect possible between men.
"Degrees of ability vary, but the basic principle remains the same: the degree of a man's independence, initiative and personal love for his work determines his talent as a worker and his worth as a man. Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself; not what he has or hasn't done for others. There is no substitute for personal dignity. There is no standard of personal dignity except independence.
"In all proper relationships there is no sacrifice of anyone to anyone. An architect needs clients, but he does not subordinate his work to their wishes. They need him, but they do not order a house just to give him a commission. Men exchange their work by free, mutual consent to mutual advantage when their personal interests agree and they both desire the exchange. If they do not desire it, they are not forced to deal with each other. They seek further. This is the only possible form of relationship between equals. Anything else is a relation of slave to master, or victim to executioner.
"No work is ever done collectively, by a majority decision. Every creative job is achieved under the guidance of a single individual thought. An architect requires a great many men to erect his building. But he does not ask them to vote on his design. They work together by free agreement and each is free in his proper function. An architect uses steel, glass, concrete, produced by others. But the materials remain just so much steel, glass and concrete until he touches them. What he does with them is his individual product and his individual property. This is the only pattern for proper co-operation among men.
"The first right on earth is the right of the ego. Man's first duty is to himself. His moral law is never to place his prime goal within the persons of others. His moral obligation is to do what he wishes, provided his wish does not depend primarily upon other men. This includes the whole sphere of his creative faculty, his thinking, his work. But it does not include the sphere of the gangster, the altruist and the dictator.
"A man thinks and works alone. A man cannot rob, exploit or rule—alone. Robbery, exploitation and ruling presuppose victims. They imply dependence. They are the province of the second-hander.
"Rulers of men are not egotists. They create nothing. They exist entirely through the persons of others. Their goal is in their subjects, in the activity of enslaving. They are as dependent as the beggar, the social worker and the bandit. The form of dependence does not matter.
"But men were taught to regard second-handers—tyrants, emperors, dictators—as exponents of egotism. By this fraud they were made to destroy the ego, themselves and others. The purpose of the fraud was to destroy the creators. Or to harness them. Which is a synonym.
"From the beginning of history, the two antagonists have stood face to face: the creator and the second-hander. When the first creator invented the wheel, the first second-hander responded. He invented altruism.
"The creator—denied, opposed, persecuted, exploited—went ..d forward and carried all humanity along on his energy. The second-hander contributed nothing to the process except the impediments. The contest has another name: the individual against the collective.
"The 'common good' of a collective—a race, a class, a state—was the claim and justification of every tyranny ever established over men. Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive. Has any act of selfishness ever equaled the carnage perpetrated by disciples of altruism? Does the fault lie in men's hypocrisy or in the nature of the principle? The most dreadful butchers were the most sincere. They believed in the perfect society reached through the guillotine and the firing squad. Nobody questioned their right to murder since they were murdering for an altruistic purpose. It was accepted that man must be sacrificed for other men. Actors change, but the course of the tragedy remains the same. A humanitarian who starts with declarations of love for mankind and ends with a sea of blood. It goes on and will go on so long as men believe that an action is good if it is unselfish. That permits the altruist to act and forces his victims to bear it. The leaders of collectivist movements ask nothing for themselves. But observe the results.
"The only good which men can do to one another and the only statement of their proper relationship is—Hands off!
"Now observe the results of a society built on the principle of individualism. This, our country. The noblest country in the history of men. The country of greatest achievement, greatest prosperity, greatest freedom. This country was not based on selfless service, sacrifice, renunciation or any precept of altruism. It was based on a man's right to the pursuit of happiness. His own happiness. Not anyone else's. A private, personal, selfish motive. Look at the results. Look into your own conscience.
"It is an ancient conflict. Men have come close to the truth, but it was destroyed each time and one civilization fell after another. Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
"Now, in our age, collectivism, the rule of the second-hander and second-rater, the ancient monster, has broken loose and is running amuck. It has brought men to a level of intellectual indecency never equaled on earth. It has reached a scale of horror without precedent. It has poisoned every mind. It has swallowed most of Europe. It is engulfing our country.
"I am an architect. I know what is to come by the principle on which it is built. We are approaching a world in which I cannot permit myself to live.
"Now you know why I dynamited Cortlandt.
"I designed Cortlandt. I gave it to you. I destroyed it.
"I destroyed it because I did not choose to let it exist. It was a double monster. In form and in implication. I had to blast both. The form was mutilated by two second-handers who assumed the right to improve upon that which they had not made and could not equal. They were permitted to do it by the general implication that the altruistic purpose of the building superseded all rights and that I had no claim to stand against it.
"I agreed to design Cortlandt for the purpose of seeing it erected as I dedigned it and for no other reason. That was the price I set for my work. I was not paid.
"I do not blame Peter Keating. He was helpless. He had a contract with his employers. It was ignored. He had a promise that the structure he offered would be built as designed. The promise was broken. The love of a man for the integrity of his work and his right to preserve it are now considered a vague intangible and an inessential. You have heard the prosecutor say that. Why was the building disfigured? For no reason. Such acts never have any reason, unless it's the vanity of some second-handers who feel they have a right to anyone's property, spiritual or material. Who permitted them to do it? No particular man among the dozens in authority. No one cared to permit it or to stop it. No one was responsible. No one can be held to account. Such is the nature of all collective action.
"I did not receive the payment I asked. But the owners of Cortlandt got what they needed from me. They wanted a scheme devised to build a structure as cheaply as possible. They found no one else who could do it to their satisfaction. I could and did. They took the benefit of my work and made me contribute it as a gift. But I am not an altruist. I do not contribute gifts of this nature.
"It is said that I have destroyed the home of the destitute. It is forgotten that but for me the destitute could not have had this particular home. Those who were concerned with the poor had to come to me, who have never been concerned, in order to help the poor. It is believed that the poverty of the future tenants gave them the right to my work. That their need constituted a claim on my life. That it was my duty to contribute anything demanded of me. This is the second-hander's credo now swallowing the world.
"I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life. Nor to any part of my energy. Nor to any achievement of mine. No matter who makes the claim, how large their number or how great their need.
"I wished to come here and say that I am a man who does not exist for others.
"It had to be said. The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing.
"I wished to come here and say that the integrity of a man's creative work is of greater importance than any charitable endeavor. Those of you who do not understand this are the men who're destroying the world.
"I wished to come here and state my terms. I do not care to exist on any others.
"I recognize no obligations toward men except one: to respect their freedom and to take no part in a slave society. To my country, I wish to give the ten years which I will spend in jail if my country exists no longer. I will spend them in memory and in gratitude for what my country has been. It will be my act of loyalty, my refusal to live or work in what has taken its place.
"My act of loyalty to every creator who ever lived and was made to suffer by the force responsible for the Cortlandt I dynamited. To every tortured hour of loneliness, denial, frustration, abuse he was made to spend—and to the battles he won. To every creator whose name is known—and to every creator who lived, struggled and perished unrecognized before he could achieve. To every creator who was destroyed in body or in spirit. To Henry Cameron. To Steven Mallory. To a man who doesn't want to be named, but who is sitting in this courtroom and knows that I am speaking of him."

Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead)

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Film Sage film ratings

Let me watch the bad movies so you don't have to....because I happen to have an immaculate opinion and I've taken in quite a few films over the years. If you want to inquire about a rating send me a message, and I'll respond as soon as I can. If want to know if I've seen something that I haven't listed just ask for a rating and if I've seen it I'll let you know the best I can. This is the only running blog I have, and I update as I watch things. Please refrain from foul language if you happen to disagree with how I've rated something. Disagreement is however encouraged if it can be articulated in a proper manner, but even then you will simply still have to deal with the fact that I am correct, and you are not..(just kidding).

Thank you

2006

North Country ***
The Brothers Grimm *
Hustle & Flow ****
Badlands ***
Domino - zero stars
The Weather Man ***
Wedding Crashers ***
Firewall **
Murderball ****
Grizzly Man ****
War of the Worlds **
November **1/2
Serenity ****
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory **1/2
Last Days **1/2
Capote ****
King Kong ****
Cinderella Man ***
Vertigo ****
Crash****
Meet the Fockers *1/2
Nochnoi Dozor (Night Watch) ***1/2
Rosemarys Baby ***1/
Good Night & Good Luck ***
Two for the Money**1/2
Unleashed***
Old Boy***1/2
A Very Long Engagement***1/2
The Island**
Jarhead***
Proof**1/2
101 Reykjavik***
The Squid and the Whale****
V for Vendetta***
Inside Deep Throat**
One Flase Move***
Human Nature**1/2
Lolita (Stanley Kubrick Version)**1/2
Brokeback Mountain***
Touch of Evil****
The Third Man****
Stay**1/2
Leaving Las Vegas***1/2
Wild at Heart***
The Maltease Falcon***
The Chronicles of Narnia***
Hard Eight***
Nashville**1/2
The Seventh Seal****
Klute***1/2
Blade Runner****
Unbreakable****
Made***
The Last Picture Show****
Avalon***
Three Days of the Condor***
Panic Room***1/2
United 93****
Un Chien Andalou***(note: this is a 17 min short film by Salvidor Dali and Luis Bunuel. For true film nuts only)
Mash****
Barton Fink***
In Cold Blood****
The Source****
Last Tango in Paris***
9 Songs**
What Happened to Jack Kerouac****
Mission Impossible 3***
Burkowski: Born Into This***1/2
Wings of Desire***1/2
Gone With the Wind***
Breaking the Waves***
The Last Time I Commited Suicide**
The Killing Fields**1/2
X-Men Last Stand***
The Wild Bunch***
The Fisher King****
A Fist Full of Dollars***
Unforgiven****
The Croupier****
Delicatesson***
The Treasure of Sierra Madre***
Born Into Brothels**1/2
Born on the 4th of July***
My Left Foot****
The Godfather****
The Player****
Nights of Cabiria****
Munich***1/2
Sympathy for Lady Vengence****
The Thin Red Line****
Tora Tora Rora***
Sympathy for Mr. Vengance***
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Dead Mans Chest***
Barry Lyndon****
Patton***1/2
Eraserhead**1/2
Days of Heaven****
The Rules of Attraction****
High Noon****
Clerks 2****
Mean Streets***
Army of Shadows****
A Scanner Darkly***1/2
In the Heat of the Night***1/2
The Last Temptation of Christ***
Inherit the Wind****
Superman Returns***1/2
Stalag 17**
El Cid***
Life of Brian***
Syriana***1/2
Paths of Glory****
Amores Perros****
Fritz Langs M**1/2
The Exorcist****
Slapshot***
World Trade Center***
Basquiat****
The Sea Inside***
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada***1/2
The Godfather 2***
The Proposition****
The Black Dahlia***
Jacob's Ladder***1/2
Near Dark**1/2
New World****
Breathless**
The Science of Sleep****
The Lady From Shanghai***1/2
2046**
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang***
Cry Baby***
Mother Night***1/2
Bloody Sunday****
The Quiet American**1/2
Thirteen***1/2
Backbeat***1/2
Cypher**
Men With Guns*1/2
Age Of Innocence**
The Departed****
The Long Goodbye**1/2
Hard Candy****
Frida****The Godfather Part 3***
Bonnie & Clyde***1/2
Babel****
Casion Royale****
The Fountain****
Amadeus***
The Elephant Man***
The Big Red One**
The Straight Story****
Birth***1/2
Wall Street**
Pink Flamingos*
Black Rain**
The Passion of Christ**1/2
Rumble Fish****
Network***1/2
Children of Men****
Match Point***

2007

The Ice Harvest***
Sex Lies and Video Tape**1/2
Miami Vice***
Notorious**1/2
Brick****
Nacho Libre**
Pan's Labryinth***1/2
Catch 22***
Talladega Nights***
The Short Films of David Lynch***(Hard to rate since not a single movie, and is really only for diehard Lynch fans...not for everyone)
The Descent****
Singing in the Rain***1/2
Videodrome**
Inside Man***
Carnivale Season 1***1/2
Little Miss Sunshine****
Romeo is Bleeding***
Flyboys*
Half Nelson****
Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man****
Philidelphia***
Adams Rib*1/2
Thank You For Smoking****
The Illusionist***1/2
Click*1/2
Evil Dead**
Benchwarmers (zero stars)
Gods and Monsters**1/2
The Commitments***
Zodiac****
Bound**1/2
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore***
House of Games***
Idiocracy***1/2
The Unbearable Lightness of Being***1/2
The English Patient***
A Fish Called Wanda*1/2
Evil Dead 2***
Dark Days****
300****
The Razor's Edge***
Spun**1/2
Dark Water**1/2
Borat**1/2
Stranger Than Fiction****
Thunderbolt & Lightfoot**
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints****
Winter Break (Zero Stars)
The Notorious Betty Page**1/2
Totally Awesome***
The Searchers***
Two Mules for Sister Sara***1/2
Grindhouse****!!
On the Waterfront***1/2
Quick Change**1/2
Where the Buffalo Roam**1/2
Fast Food Nation**1/2
Hollywoodland***
The Pursuit of Happiness***1/2
Poetry in Motion**
When We Were Kings***
Tupac Resurrection***
The Battle of Algiers****
RKO 281***
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster***1/2
Paris, Texas****
Mcabe And Mrs. Miller**1/2
Le Samourai****
Gangster No.1***1/2
Chopper**1/2
Spiderman 3**
Shakespeare in Love***1/2
Sumer of Sam**1/2
El Topo****
Dead Man***
Man Bites Dog**
Giant**
Rebel Without a Cause****
Lonesome Jim***
Marie Antoinette****
Blood Diamond**1/2
A Street Car Named Desire***
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring****
Ghost World***1/2
The Claim**1/2
The Saddest Music in the World***
American Hardcore***1/2
Who the %^? is Jackson Pollock***1/2
Factotum***1/2
At Close Range***
Breach****
Caligula*1/2
Harsh Times***1/2
Henry Fool***1/2
Wonderland*1/2
Chocolat****
Once****
Live Free or Die Hard***
In the Bedroom***1/2
Shadow of the Vampire***
Winter Light**
The Basketball Diaries***1/2
Mrs. Henderson Presents***1/2
Transformers**
Kontroll**1/2
Killing Zoe**
Before Sunset****
Alphaville***
11:14**1/2
Kalifornia***1/2
The Office (British Version) Series1***1/2
Ride With the Devil***
Dear Wendy***1/2
The Sheltering Sky**1/2
George Washington****
Julien Donkey-Boy**
Down By Law**1/2
Devil in a Blue Dress***1/2
Naked Lunch**1/2
Once Upon a Time in the West***1/2
La Dolche Vita***
Carnal Knowledge**1/2
Shopgirl***
Apocalypse Now****
The Guns of Navarone***
Solaris (Russian Original)***
Das Boot***
The Thin Blue Line***1/2
Tape****
The Big Sleep***
Alive**1/2
Drugstore Cowboy***
Across the Universe****
The Conversation***1/2
Before Night Falls***1/2
Downfall****
Permanent Midnight***
Sid & Nancy***1/2
The Assasination of Jesse James****
La Strada***1/2
Disturbia***1/2
Eastern Promises***1/2
Metropolis***
Frailty****
Immortal Beloved**1/2
The Virgin Spring****
The Darjeeling Limited***
The Village**
Tommy**1/2
The Matador***
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room**1/2
Through a Glass Darkly***1/2
The Singing Detective**1/2
Perfume: The Story of Murderer****
Green Street Hooligans***1/2
Novocaine***
Francis Bacon**
New York Doll***
No Country For Old Men****
The Aristocrats**
Repo Man**1/2
Shampoo**1/2
Andy Warhol The Complete Picture***1/2
The Outlaw Josey Wales***
Bewitched**
Monster in Law*
The Incredibles****
The Belly of an Architect***1/2
Day Watch***
Yu Tu Mama Tambien***1/2
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover****
Rize**
Michael Clayton***1/2

2008

No Man's Land*1/2
Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street****
Tristam Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story***
Battle in Heaven*1/2
Ramones: The End of the Century****
Overnight***1/2
The Worlds Fastest Indian***1/2
Short Cuts***1/2
Aeon Flux**
There Will Be Blood****
Once Upon a Time in America***
The Lookout**1/2
Memoirs of a Geshia**
The Audition**
Fire Walk With Me****
Without a Paddle**
The Bicycle Thieves***
Duck You Sucker***
Inland Empire****
Juno****
The Stranger***1/2
First Snow***1/2
Tetsuo: The Iron Man**1/2
Romance (0 Stars)
Gone Baby Gone***1/2
Hype****
Reno 911: The Movie***
Edmond***
Fire Fly (Television Series)***1/2
Aqua Teen Hunger Force the Colon Film For Theatres***
Agguire The Wrath of God***
3:10 to Yuma***
Underworld Evolution**1/2
Charlie Wilson's War***1/2
Someone to Eat Cheese With***1/2
Erin Brockovich***1/2
A Cool Dry Place**1/2
Belle De Jour**1/2
American Gangster***1/2
This Quiet Earth**1/2
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix****
Stardust***
Superbad****
Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser**
Scratch***1/2
DJ Shadow: In Tune and On Time***
An Evening With Kevin Smith***1/2
Prozac Nation**1/2
The Last King of Scotland***1/2
Iron Man****
Down in the Valley***
The Simpsons Movie***
Rescue Dawn***1/2
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan***
Into the Wild****
A Decade Under the Influence****
Volver**1/2
I Am Legend***1/2
Lady in the Water***1/2
P.S. I Love You*
Southland Tales (zero stars)
The Kingdom***1/2
Before the Devil Knows Your Dead****
Cloverfield***
Sunshine***1/2
Revolver***
The Fall****
Waitress***1/2
Twin Peaks Season 1****
In Bruges***1/2
Indiana Jone and the Kingdon of the Crystal Skull**1/2
Twin Peaks Season 2****
Kinky Boots***
Judgement At Nuremburg***1/2
Dodgeball: A True Underdog story***
Double Indemnity****
Rambo: First Blood**1/2
The Dark Knight****
Control***1/2
Below**1/2
Hellboy***
Doomsday**
The Bank Job***
Funny Games***
Cure****
Grandma's Boy***
Bob Dylan: Don't Look Back**
Akeelah and the Bee****
The Devil and Daniel Johnston***
Be Kind Rewind**1/2
Charlie Bartlett***
The Rocky Horror Picture Show***
Black Book****
John Q*
Quadrophenia***
The Grifters****
Hells Angels***
a Prairie Home Companion**1/2
Smokin Aces**
Bubba Hot-tep***
Art School Confidential***1/2
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia**
An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder**
Who's Afraid of Virgina Wolfe***1/2
The Draughtsman Contract**1/2
Happiness*1/2
Waiting**
Strangers With Candy*1/2
Palindromes**1/2
A Zed and Two Naughts***1/2
The Fountainhead****
Kids in the Hall Brain Candy**
Young At Heart****
A Face in the Crowd***1/2
The Outsiders***
Persepolis***1/2
Married Life***
Picnic at Hanging Rock****
Gummo**
Cache***1/2
The Piano***1/2
Black Snake Moan***
The Lives of Others****
Downtown 81**
The Quantum of Solace***1/2
Wordplay***
The Hours***
A Place in the Sun***
Powaqqatsi***
Koyaanisqatsi***
The Naked Prey**1/2
The Nightmare Before Christmas****
My Own Private Idaho**1/2
All That Jazz***
Slumdog Millionaire****
Gran Torino****
Cape Fear(Scorsese Version)
**1/2 Forgetting Sarah Marshall****
Tropic Thunder***
Naqoyqatsi**

2009

The Greatest Game ever Played***
Dead Letter Office**1/2
For Your Consideration**1/2
The Apostle***
John From Cincinnati (season 1)***
The Cathouse (season 1)**
Amistad**1/2
Flags of Our Fathers***
The Prestige***1/2
The Boxer***
The Queen****
Infernal Affairs**1/2
Body of Lies**1/2
Transsiberrian**
Don't Look Now***
Beerfest***
Little Children**1/2
Sherrybaby***
Cinema Paradiso****
The Quiet Man**
Synecdoche, New York***1/2
Transporter 2*
Pineapple Express***1/2
Changeling***
Let the Right One In****
Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny***1/2
Choke***
WallE***1/2
Four Minutes***1/2
Filth and the Fury: A Sex Pistols Film***
God Grew Tired of Us****
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus***
Wanted***
Apocolypto***
The Haunting of Molly Hartley*
Zack and Miri Make a Porno***
Loud Quiet: A Film About the Pixies***
The Fallen Idol**
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson***
The Lost City***1/2

The Wrestler****

Star Trek****

The Beat My Heart Skipped***

Australia***

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button****

Hot Fuzz****

Art 21 ***

Fahrenheit 451***1/2

Titus***

I'm Not There***

The Happening*1/2

To Live and Die in LA***
X Men Origins Wolverine***
Snow Angels***
Terminator Salvation***
Out of Africa***
Reds***
Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch**1/2
Transformers2 Revenge of the Fallen*1/2

Sweet Sweetback's Badass Song**

The Spy that Came in From the Cold**

The Thin Man***
The Hangover****
After The Thin Man***1/2
The Perfect Sleep**1/2
Kiss Me Deadly**1/2
Carnivale Season 1 & 2***

August Rush**1/2

Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life****

Harold and Maude***

Gi Joe*1/2

The Break Up **1/2

Life (Season 1) ****

The Wickerman (2006)*

Help***

Knowing***

The Informers**

Rock N Rolla***

The Watchmen***

Inglorious Basterds****

Definately Maybe***

Survelliance***

Adventureland***1/2

The Chunking Express*

Ben Hur***1/2

Carnivale Season 2***1/2

The Spagetti West***

Crumb**1/2

The Great Rock N Roll Swindle***

Coraline***

The Proposal***

Taken***1/3

3 Iron***1/2

Samaritian Girl***

Freedom Writers**1/2

Northfork***

Holy Mountain***

Mirror Mask**

The Brothers Bloom****

Valkyrie****

Bolt****

The Good German***

Band of Outsiders*1/2

Venus**

Where the Wild Things Are****

The Hustler***1/2

The Grapes of Wrath***

Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles**

The Last Kiss***

The Bourne Ultimatum***

Max**1/2

Life Season 2****

Blindness***

Sherlock Holmes***1/2

Color Me Kubrick***

The Kite Runner***

The Blind Side***1/2

The Good Shepard**

Burn After Reading***

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days****

The Road****

Avatar**1/2

Nightwatching***1/2

Letters From Iwo Jima***1/2

2010

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly****

Appalosa**1/2

Uninvited*

Factory Girl**1/2
Extract***
500 Days of Summer****
The Hurt Locker****
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince***1/2
The International***
The Spirit*1/2
The Wild One***
Slaughterhouse Five***
Keane**
Moon****
The Escapist****
Surrogates**1/2

Knocked Up***
The Merry Gentlemen***
Lucky Number Slevin***
Taking Chance***1/2
Public Enemies****
Invictus***
A Serious Man***
Django**1/2
Sugar***1/2
The Bad Lieutentant**1/2
Deathwish***
End of the Spear**1/2
Eagle vs Shark**1/2
Black Robe**1/2
The Box**1/2
Havoc*
The Girlfriend Experience**1/2

9***

Julia***1/2

City of Ember***

Limits of Control***

Gomorrah***

District 9***1/2
Alice in Wonderland***1/2
Up in the Air***1/2
Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day*
Bronson****
Fando & Lis**
Peter Greenway Short Films**
Scarecrow***
Wassup Rockers**
The Damned United***1/2
Special**
Looker**
Brothers***1/2
Saints and Soldiers**1/2
The Reader**1/2
Gentlemen Broncos*
Men who Stare at Goats**1/2
Fantastic Mr. Fox***1/2
Welcome to the Dollhouse***
Europa***1/2
Red Dawn***1/2
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus***1/2
Renaissance***
Fingers***
The Last Wave***
The Passenger***
Requiem for a Heavyweight****
Cold Souls**
An Education****
Dreamscape**
Goin South***
Crazy Heart****
Time After Time**1/2
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans****
2012**
Into the Storm***1/2
Scanners***1/2
The Deadzone***
In the Realm of the Senses**
The Dead Girl**1/2
Iron Man 2 ***
Re-Animator**
Daybreakers***
Edge of Darkness***
John Adams (Mini Series)***1/2
The Man Who Fell to Earth**1/2
Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture****
Radio On*
Blue***1/2
Fay Grim**1/2
Dog Soldiers**
Jet Li's Fearless***
Changing Lanes**
Cocaine Cowboys***1/2
Shutter Island****
Performance**1/2
The US vs John Lennon**1/2
The Darwin Awards*1/2
Candy**1/2
John Rambo**
Vantage Point**1/2
Inception****
Your Gonna Miss Me***
Next**
Flashbacks of Fool***1/2
Ultraviolet*
Compulsion***1/2
Seven Years in Tibet**1/2
Quest for Fire***
Kick-Ass****
Greenburg***
The Trial***
Me & Orson Welles***
The Square***
Jackass 2***
The Book of Eli***
The Killer Inside Me***
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls**
Birdy**
Harry Brown***1/2
Get Him to the Greek***
Youth in Revolt***
Chumscrubber*
Shooter**
Witness****
Clash of the Titans 2010*
The Ultimate Gift***
All the Pretty Horses***1/2
Brooklyn's Finest***
The Social Network****
Victor Victoria**1/2
Guess Who**1/2
The Losers**
Jumper**
Predators***
Mad Max***
Three Kings***
Kicking and Screaming***1/2
Four Brothers***
The Wind that Shakes the Barley****
The Color of Money**
Band of Brothers (Series)****
Another Day in Paradise***1/2
Three Kings***
Kramer Vs Kramer****
I'm Still Here***
Scott Pilgram Vs The World***
Black Swan****
The King of Comedy***
Robocop*1/2
Bjork Inside Bjork***
The Town***1/2
Love Ranch*1/2
The A Team*1/2
Tron Legacy****
Winters Bone****
Hope and Glory**

2011

The Expendables**
Salt***
The American***1/2
Air Guitar Nation***
Strange Brew*
Helvetica***1/2
Boxcar Bertha**
The Longest Yard(Sandler)**1/2
The Incredible Hulk**1/2
Hancock**1/2
A Dry White Season**1/2
Animal Kingdom****
Get Smart**
Red***
Red Hill***1/2
Mutiny on the Bounty (62)***
Shotgun Stories***1/2
The Day of the Jackal***
The Warriors***1/2
Accepted(zero stars)
Jean Michael Basquiat: The Radiant Child****
All the Real Girls***1/2
Get Carter(2000)**
Unstoppable***
Observe & Report***
The People Vs Larry Flynt****
Bull Durham**
The Missouri Breaks**1/2
Rembrandt J'Accuse****
Map of the Human Heart***1/2
Running Scared*
Glengarry Glen Ross***
Bugsy***1/2
The Love Guru (zero stars)
All the Right Moves**1/2
Don Juan De Marco**1/2
Speed Racer*
The Hoax**1/2
Valhalla Rising****
Atonement****
Against All Odds**1/2
Bulletproof Monk (zero stars)
Battle Los Angeles**1/2
Exit Through the Gift Shop****
Art & Copy****
The Cider House Rules**
Thor***
Roadhouse*1/2
The Hangover 2**1/2
127 Hours****
Get Low***
The Fighter****
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 1****
Super 8***
Hereafter***
Young Adam***
True Grit(2010)****
Machete*
The Kings Speech***1/2
Waiting For Superman****
The Tree of Life***1/2
Red Eye***
Love is the Devil***1/2
Enter The Void***1/2
Restrepo***1/2
Let Me In***
The F-Bomb**1/2
The Wanderers***
Blue Valentine****
Pirates of the Carribean At worlds End**
National Treasure Book of Secrets*1/2
Walkabout***1/2
Tideland*1/2
Chalk**1/2
Sucker Punch**
Limitless***
Destricted*
Cowboys & Aliens**1/2
Zulu**1/2
Fish Tank***1/2
Sleeper*
Yes Man**
The Getaway***
Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End**
Source Code***
The Adjustment Bureau**1/2
Young Einstein(Zero Stars)
It's Kind of funny Story***
Barney's Version***1/2
Blow Up***
What About Me**1/2
The Sorcerers Apprentice**
A Bridge Too Far***
Stranger Than Paradise***
Easy A**1/2
Zombieland***
A Lowdown Dirty Shame*
The Fist of the North Star (Live Action Version)*
Living in Oblivion****
Drive****
Black Dynamite**1/2
The Fabulous Baker Brothers**1/2
X-Men First Class****
Harvard Man*
Eros**
Hesher***1/2
Wild Hunt****
Paul Klee: The Silence of the Angel**
Just Go With It*1/2
The Passion of Ayn Rand**1/2
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)**
Hanna****
Rango***1/2
Bunny & The Bull**
Captain America**1/2
The Lottery***1/2
Take Shelter****
Clean, Shaven***
Franklyn**
The Interpreter***
Night & The City**1/2
Rubber***
Irreversible***1/2(Note that this rating is not a recommendation but, a judgment on the execution and the effectiveness of the film)
Gilda****
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2****
Ratcatcher**1/2
Nowhere Boy**
Water For Elephants**1/2

2012

Apt Pupil***
Ratcatcher**1/2
The Illustrated Man**1/2
Hitch**1/2
The Secret of Kells****
MoneyBall****
Rise of The Planet of The Apes***
Boogie Woogie**
Justified (Season 1)***1/2
The Bridge**
Devil***1/2
Bridesmaids****
J. Edgar***1/2
Secratariat***
The Guard***1/2
Young Adult***1/2
The Immortals**1/2
We Own The Night**1/2
Red Riding 1974***1/2
Red Riding 1980***
Push***
Attack The Block**1/2
Super**1/2
The Green Hornet**
Homeland (Season 1)****
Kung Fu Panda 2**
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)****
A Prophet***1/2
Mission Impossible 4 Ghost Protocol***
Chronicle**1/2
Warrior****
Anonymous**
The Ides of March**1/2
30 Minutes or Less*
Moonrise Kingdom****
The Night Porter***
Posse**1/2
Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows***
Martha Marcy May Marlene***
Picking Up The Pieces**1/2
Reign Over Me**1/2
A Mighty Heart***1/2
Monsieur Verdoux**1/2
Broken Down Palace**1/2
Red Riding 1983***
Justified Season 2****
The Descendants***
The Grey****
The Help***1/2
Fright Night (2011)***
Red Road***
28 Weeks Later***
American Reunion****
The Magnificent Ambersons (A&E Remake) ***
Ink**1/2
Mad Max 2 The Road Warrior**1.2
Meek's Cut Off **1/2
Darkman*1/2
The Dark Knight Rises ****
The Rum Diary**1/2
London Boulevard**1/2
The Hunger Games***1/2
Talk to Me***
If***
O Lucky Man**1/2
Hud****
Melancolia**1/2
Get Carter (1971) ***
The Good Girl***
Dredd 3D***1/2
The Avengers****
Objectified**
F is for Fake****
A Dangerous Method***
Far From Heaven***
Elizabeth***1/2
The Last Airbender*
Wilfred Season 1***
Lockout*
Freaks & Geeks Season 1***1/2
Everything Must Go**1/2
Beyond The Black Rainbow***1/2
Skyfall****
The Hunter***

2013
Looper****
Happy Endings**
Walking Dead Season 1***1/2
Walking Dead Season 2***
True Grit ( John Wayne)***
Ip Man****
Ip Man 2***
Winnebago Man**
Total Recall(2012)**
Trouble With The Curve**1/2
Lawless***1/2
The Bourne Legacy***
Frasier Season 1-9***1/2
Session 9***
The Next Three Days***
The Perfect Host**1/2
Deadman's Shoes**1/2
Bellflower**
Life of Pi****
Breaking Bad Season 1****
Breaking Bad Season 2***1/2
Breaking Bad Season 3***1/2
Breaking Bad Season 4****
Side By Side***
Happy Endings **
Mysterious Skin**1/2
The United States of Tara Season 1 ***1/2
The United States of Tara Season 2 ***
The United States of Tara Season 3 ***
Picasso & Braque Go to the Movies***1/2
Submarine**1/2
Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007****
Argo***
Doc Martin Season 1 ***1/2
The Master***1/2
Killing Them Softly**1/2
Flight***
Girl in Progress**
The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia***
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Along Complex***
Doc Martin Season 2 ***
Doc Martin Season 3**1/2
Doc Martin Season 4***
The Queen of Versailles***
Battle Royal***
The Hobbit***
The Rape of Europa****
The Odd Couple****
Gosford Park**
End of Watch***1/2
Breakfast At Tiffany's***1/2
Goon***1/2
Phoebe in Wonderland**1/2
Encounters At The End of the World***1/2
Heather*1/2
Mad Men Season 1****
Mad Men Season 2****
Mad Men Season 3****
Mad Men Season 4****
Mad Men Season 5****
Holy Motors***
Monsters**1/2
Paranoid Park***
Thief**1/2
Cabin in the Woods**
Pretty in Pink**1/2
The Mill and The Cross**
The Art of the Steal**
Man of Steel****
Modern Family Season 4***1/2
Gangster Squad**
A Boy and His Dog**
The Last Airbender*
Zero Dark Thirty***1/2
The Devil's Double***
The House of Pleasures***1/2
Upstream Color***1/2
The Fist Foot Way***1/2
Only God Forgives**
8 Men Out***
Up for Grabs***1/2
The Turin Horse***
The Adventures of Tintin**1/2
GI Joe Retaliation **
Live Free or Die Hard*1/2
World War Z***1/2
Mud****
Breaking Bad Season 5***1/2

Film Sage

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

My Best Picture Noms and winner from 2011

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Four Star Films

Wise Words

From a great book and great film.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Film Sage film ratings

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