365/3 - #7 Find Me Guilty

7. Find Me Guilty (2006)
Director - Sidney Lumet
Writers - Sidney Lumet and T.J. Mancini & Robert J. McCrea
Date of Viewing: 01/05/07
First Viewing: Yes


Mix a formerly great director (Sidney Lumet) with a lead actor I can't stand (Vin Diesel), a half-baked script which can not decide on a genre (is it a dark comedy or courtroom drama?) and bake it for too long (over 2 hours) and what do you get? Just another flop starring "The Diesel" (though to be fair, this is his best work since providing the voice of the Iron Giant back in 1999). Relying on the fact that the audience has watched The Sopranos, think Peter Dinklage is inherently funny because he's a dwarf and that they will buy into the message that being a "rat" is a terrible thing, this film couldn't be more laughable than it first seemed, when scenes were used during a career retrospective montage played when Mr. Lumet received his Lifetime Achievement Academy Award a few years back.

365/3 - #6 Double Indemnity

6. Double Indemnity (1944)
Director - Billy Wilder
Writers - Billy Wilder & Raymond Chandler
Date of Viewing: 01/04/07
First Viewing: Yes


A salient example of classic film noir at its best, Double Indemnity is the first truly great film I've viewed as part of this project. The always amazing Billy Wilder (Sunset Blvd., Stalag 17, Sabrina, The Seven Year Itch, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment) wows me yet again with a brilliant example of the power of classic Hollywood. Fred MacMurray, playing wonderfully against type, shines as a corrupted insurance salesman led astray by intoxicating femme fatale Barbara Stanwyck and caught by an excellently irascible Edward G. Robinson.

Still Fat...Just Less Fat

Diets are a bitch, but I did lose 7 lbs. in a week. Probably mostly water weight or, as I tell the Wife, elbow weight. But skinnier elbows are fashionable in Hollywood right now and what did water ever do for me. Right? Don't worry, I'm still chunky, just slightly less chunky (almost un-noticeably less chunky).

365/3 - #5 Serenity

5. Serenity (2005)
Director - Joss Whedon
Writer - Joss Whedon
Date of Viewing: 01/03/07
First Viewing: No

This awesome sci-fi action/adventure romp , based on the canceled Fox TV show Firefly, has in the last few years become my new Star Wars. JossWhedon (TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel) reunites his band of lovable brigands for a big screen finale to his short lived series, delivering comedy, great special effects and edge of your seat action with aplomb. Where George Lucas' prequel trilogy fails, Whedon hatches a story filled with rich characters, excellent storylines and innovative direction.

365/3 - #4 Kicking and Screaming

4. Kicking and Screaming (1995)
Director - Noah Baumbach
Writer - Noah Baumbach
Date of Viewing: 01/02/07
First Viewing: Yes


What wonderful independent film from the mid-1990's about a group of friends who struggle to find their place in the world after college graduation will hit too close to home, especially, if you like a bartender who drinks or if you're nostalgic for conversations that you had yesterday or if you've ever flippantly stated that "oh, I've been to Prague?" Ding! Answer: Kicking and Screaming.

365 /3 - #3 Decision Before Dawn

3. Decision Before Dawn (1951)
Director - Anatole Litvak
Writer - Peter Viertel
Date of Viewing: 01/02/07
First Viewing: Yes

Based on George Howe's novel Call It Treason, Decision Before Dawn follows the exploits of a group of German POWs enlisted by the Allies to spy on the Nazis as World War II winds down. Though dated by today standards, full of post-war propaganda and possessing uninspired narration, the film's success rests on the outstanding performance of Oskar Werner (Jules et Jim, Fahrenheit 451) which propels the film through its harrowing climax. The film shines during Werner's mission behind "enemy" lines as he struggles to achieve his Allied objective in the face of his Axis countrymen's despair.

365 /3 - #2 Pretty Persuasion

2. Pretty Persuasion (2005)
Director - Marco Siega
Writer - Skander Halim
Date of Viewing: 01/01/07
First Viewing: Yes

Once again Evan Rachel Wood (Thirteen, The Upside of Anger) shines in a film I fuckin' hate. First time director Marco Siega misses the mark as this film flirts around, but never establishes the proper tone necessary for a dark comedy to succeed. In a film in which such incendiary topics as pedophilia, racism, xenophobia, and underage sexuality are so poorly addressed, it is the film's complete lack of comic understanding that offends my sensibilities the most.