ALICE
YOUR JULY 2004 RMC RESULTS ARE IN!
This meeting of the RMC marked the beginning of the 5th year. That's 48 movies!
The movie, selected randomly was...ALICE. This was our second Woody Allen movie, BROADWAY DANNY ROSE being the first.
Here's some background with my relationship with Woody (I suppose that line could be interpreted more than one way). When I was in High School, HBO was new (they even signed off at 11PM). They used to run the same movies a lot. I think I saw SLEEPER over 40 times. It was (and still remains) in my top 10 favorite comedies. I remember saying, "What could be funnier?" Then he came out with LOVE & DEATH, a movie with more jokes per minute than any other movie I can think of. I liked PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM so much, I went to see a local version of the play. And then, they ran BANANAS at my school. I think I cut all my classes and watched it a few times a day that week. Woody could do no wrong.
I moved to NYC in 1978, and a few months later, Woody released INTERIORS, his Bergman rip-off. It was his first "serious" film, and it was terrible. I pretended it didn't even exist. But months later, Woody was back in form with the release of MANHATTAN. From that point on, I'd go to every Woody film, first showing, opening day. I'd even see the same faces.
And I was in denial.
Woody was my hero. Therefore, everything he did was perfect. But like I said, denial.
I badgered the casting agents daily to put me in his next movie. And guess what? They did. I'm no actor. I just wanted to be in a Woody movie. So, I was in STARDUST MEMORIES. You can't see me, of course, but I'm in all the scenes where people are watching Woody's, playing Filmmaker Sandy Bates, movies.
But then something terrible happened. Woody became spotty. A good movie, a bad one...and so on. Yet, I defended him. I remember hating THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO, and telling people it wasn't so bad. This went on for years. Until I saw ALICE, and all bets were off. Woody can suck, and I said so, out loud, to my friend Kenny, who I saw the movie with. Kenny was a huge Woody fan also, and he was like me, in denial.
So time goes on, and Woody makes a few really funny movies (RADIO DAYS, DECONSTRUCTING HARRY), some okay movies (EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU, BROADWAY DANNY ROSE), and a lot of crap (SEPTEMBER was so bad, it actually had the line "My husband is a radiologist. Sometimes I don't want him to take an X-ray of me because he will see what is really inside me."). Yet, I still see all his movies, hoping for the best.
ALICE sucks. I think its biggest fault is Woody cast some of the most monotone actors- Mia Farrow, Joe Mantegna, William Hurt (not usually this dead), and made them even more boring. They all spoke in hush tones, or whined. The movie sounded like a song that only has one note. Which almost makes sense since it only had one color- yellow. Yes, the whole film looks like it was shot through a yellow balloon.
Mia Farrow plays Alice Tate, a woman trapped in a 16 year marriage with a husband, and two kids we rarely see. She married rich, so she spends her days shopping, giving her maid orders, and gossiping at the salon. Feeling tired (and lacking a purpose in life), she is referred to Dr. Wang in Chinatown, who gives her herbs. (Keye Luke as Dr. Wang also played Mr. Ying, the guy in Chinatown who gave out the Mogwai in GREMLINS)
I suppose there's a lot of "...in Wonderland" stuff here (I only noticed one "mirror shot" and a mention of a teacup, and probably some hooey about how we don't like to hold mirrors up to ourselves because, to quote SEPTEMBER, "we're afraid of what we'll really see."), but who cares? When a movie is this laborious, why should we invest time in any of it? If it weren't for colorful performances by Keye Luke and Bernadette Peters (here for 4 minutes)...you know? Never mind. Even with them, this movie sucks. New Rule: When Bob Ballaban steals the movie with a few lines, your movie sucks.
The Preshow Entertainment, that night (actually the Post-Show Entertainment) was a Johnny Bravo cartoon titled "Hail to the Chump". JB's a really funny cartoon. He's a fat ego-ed, clueless hunk who thinks he's a ladies man. Word has it The Rock is playing him in the movie, but it really has to be Chris Isaak. It just seems Johnny was patterned on him. That seven minute cartoon was better than ALICE.
Tags: random movie club, alice, woody allen, mia farrow,
johnny bravo
This meeting of the RMC marked the beginning of the 5th year. That's 48 movies!
The movie, selected randomly was...ALICE. This was our second Woody Allen movie, BROADWAY DANNY ROSE being the first.
Here's some background with my relationship with Woody (I suppose that line could be interpreted more than one way). When I was in High School, HBO was new (they even signed off at 11PM). They used to run the same movies a lot. I think I saw SLEEPER over 40 times. It was (and still remains) in my top 10 favorite comedies. I remember saying, "What could be funnier?" Then he came out with LOVE & DEATH, a movie with more jokes per minute than any other movie I can think of. I liked PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM so much, I went to see a local version of the play. And then, they ran BANANAS at my school. I think I cut all my classes and watched it a few times a day that week. Woody could do no wrong.
I moved to NYC in 1978, and a few months later, Woody released INTERIORS, his Bergman rip-off. It was his first "serious" film, and it was terrible. I pretended it didn't even exist. But months later, Woody was back in form with the release of MANHATTAN. From that point on, I'd go to every Woody film, first showing, opening day. I'd even see the same faces.
And I was in denial.
Woody was my hero. Therefore, everything he did was perfect. But like I said, denial.
I badgered the casting agents daily to put me in his next movie. And guess what? They did. I'm no actor. I just wanted to be in a Woody movie. So, I was in STARDUST MEMORIES. You can't see me, of course, but I'm in all the scenes where people are watching Woody's, playing Filmmaker Sandy Bates, movies.
But then something terrible happened. Woody became spotty. A good movie, a bad one...and so on. Yet, I defended him. I remember hating THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO, and telling people it wasn't so bad. This went on for years. Until I saw ALICE, and all bets were off. Woody can suck, and I said so, out loud, to my friend Kenny, who I saw the movie with. Kenny was a huge Woody fan also, and he was like me, in denial.
So time goes on, and Woody makes a few really funny movies (RADIO DAYS, DECONSTRUCTING HARRY), some okay movies (EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU, BROADWAY DANNY ROSE), and a lot of crap (SEPTEMBER was so bad, it actually had the line "My husband is a radiologist. Sometimes I don't want him to take an X-ray of me because he will see what is really inside me."). Yet, I still see all his movies, hoping for the best.
ALICE sucks. I think its biggest fault is Woody cast some of the most monotone actors- Mia Farrow, Joe Mantegna, William Hurt (not usually this dead), and made them even more boring. They all spoke in hush tones, or whined. The movie sounded like a song that only has one note. Which almost makes sense since it only had one color- yellow. Yes, the whole film looks like it was shot through a yellow balloon.
Mia Farrow plays Alice Tate, a woman trapped in a 16 year marriage with a husband, and two kids we rarely see. She married rich, so she spends her days shopping, giving her maid orders, and gossiping at the salon. Feeling tired (and lacking a purpose in life), she is referred to Dr. Wang in Chinatown, who gives her herbs. (Keye Luke as Dr. Wang also played Mr. Ying, the guy in Chinatown who gave out the Mogwai in GREMLINS)
I suppose there's a lot of "...in Wonderland" stuff here (I only noticed one "mirror shot" and a mention of a teacup, and probably some hooey about how we don't like to hold mirrors up to ourselves because, to quote SEPTEMBER, "we're afraid of what we'll really see."), but who cares? When a movie is this laborious, why should we invest time in any of it? If it weren't for colorful performances by Keye Luke and Bernadette Peters (here for 4 minutes)...you know? Never mind. Even with them, this movie sucks. New Rule: When Bob Ballaban steals the movie with a few lines, your movie sucks.
The Preshow Entertainment, that night (actually the Post-Show Entertainment) was a Johnny Bravo cartoon titled "Hail to the Chump". JB's a really funny cartoon. He's a fat ego-ed, clueless hunk who thinks he's a ladies man. Word has it The Rock is playing him in the movie, but it really has to be Chris Isaak. It just seems Johnny was patterned on him. That seven minute cartoon was better than ALICE.
Tags: random movie club, alice, woody allen, mia farrow,
johnny bravo
