The Flick Filosopher responds:
No, I haven't read Otherland, but I'll have to check it out.

posted 07.19.99
AngelSync3@aol.com writes:
i have to say, that your pages of the Hornblower series were very on the dot and exactly to what i was thinking. Man, on man, he is a handsome mam, isn't he! i absolutly adore the entire movie series. im only a teenager, so the attractive factor helps, but the series was a great entertainment, and the acting was excellent. i think you are right, Ioan does show extreme promise....sadly, i missed the showing of the other A&E special he was supposed to do... i would have given a lot to see him act again...
i must tell you that i have shared this page with my mother, and she thinks it is very well done, and we both congradulate you on a great page! we should have some Ioan pages made on the web, because no one can say with a straight face that the boy doesn't have talent, or that he isn't cute!
thank you for a fantastic page!

The Flick Filosopher responds:
Glad you liked my reviews. And hey, us older gals like a good-looking guy as much you younger ones!
Not sure what you're referring to with "the other A&E special." If you mean Great Expectations, that was on PBS, and will probably be rerun at some point. And it will certainly turn up on video eventually. Did you see Titanic? He's got a small part, but a good one... He'll also be appearing in a BBC movie called Peacekeeper (or maybe Warriors...), which, if we're lucky, will turn up on A&E or PBS eventually.

posted 07.19.99
Delsyn@email.msn.com writes:
I was watching MTV this morning and happened to catch the music video for Will Smith's "Wild, Wild, West." It was great! It was full of energy, snappy performances, great dancing, good music (including Stevie Wonder), delightful costumes, good camera work, and was obviously under the control of an energetic, innovative director.
Sigh - Remember when blockbuster movies had that and it was the music videos that were the throwaway garbage?

The Flick Filosopher responds:
The video's great, isn't it? I wonder if Barry Sonnenfeld directed it...

posted 07.05.99
Tricia Hanks writes:
I just found your site and I think it's great.
I saw your comments about Oded Fehr -- yummy. I saw The Mummy three times just to see him. I made up a new adjective to describe my reaction to him....lickable. He is completely lickable.....like ice cream. I thoroughly enjoyed his presence on screen.
As for The Phantom Menace...seen it twice. I am fully aware that this one is supposed to be more serious than the others, and I know that it is a setup for the next two, but....there were some problems. Definitely missed the witty banter of the characters in the first ones, and I think a major booboo, was the lack of dialouge between Darth Maul and Qui Gon. I mean, you know in the originals, when Vader was getting ready to fight Obi Wan or Luke, they would always talk first. Vader was like, "Luke I am your father...now I'm gonna kick your butt." And there was this great chemistry between them which the dialouge was very key in creating. Well what happened to that? I mean I can totally forgive the lack of dialouge the very first time Maul & Qui Gon meet. Everything happened too fast and it created a mystery for the Jedi Council to discuss and so on, but the second time....no forgiveness. I mean really. It is handed to you on a silver platter when they all get caught in that forcefield thingy. Obi Wan is at the other end and couldn't hear anything that Maul and Qui Gon say. That is the perfect time for them to say a little bit, and I know that you don't want to give everything away because of the next two flicks, but please. What the heck do the Sith want revenge for? Are they even the Sith? Give me a little. I'm looking for some, "Luke I am your father....now I'm gonna kick your butt." But NO! Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero! Big mistake. I did like the movie though. Lucas is great.
Anyway, just thought I would share a little flickfilosophy from a southern viewpoint.

The Flick Filosopher responds:
Darth Maul didn't exactly strike me as a conversationalist. I loved the contrast between Qui-Gon and Maul in that final duel, how Qui-Gon was so calm and centered and Maul was barely able to contain his rage. I thought that said more about the theme of the film than any dialogue could: Maul had totally succumbed to the dark side, where Qui-Gon was just the opposite and couldn't or wouldn't acknowledge that there's a little dark side in all of us and harness that darkness to defeat Maul (as Obi-Wan did). That imbalance in the Force in each of them led to their downfalls.

posted 07.05.99
Jeff Huston writes:
I wanted to commend you for highlighting the Dan & Dan site. I came upon it near the beginning of this year and have been enjoying the site ever since. They make me laugh more than any other critics out there (and that is in no way a slam against you or your kindred Film Geek). What's great about them is that they're not all rant. Beneath the biting surface there's really a solid understanding of film and what makes it work. Certainly this is what enables them to be so pointed in their sarcastic diatribes.
Another thing, completely unrelated. I was reading your page where you disect Elizabeth and Mrs. Brown. Mrs. Brown is the most underappreciated films of 1997, in my opinion, and is a favorite of mine. After reading your review, I really couldn't tell how you felt. So tell me, does this flick resonate with your filosophy?

The Flick Filosopher responds:
Dan & Dan have a definite understanding about film that gives their humor real depth. They're not just being funny -- they're using humor to comment on the sorry state of the vast majority of movies.
As for Mrs. Brown, often I'm not reviewing movies so much as fitting them into a large cultural context (kinda like the Film View features in the Sunday New York Times Arts & Leisure section). Still, it's often the films I'm ambivalent about that folks come back to me and say, "Yes, but did you like it? I certainly didn't dislike Mrs. Brown -- it was a fabulous production and had a great cast, etc. And yet the nature of the story was such that it wasn't terribly passionate, or the passions had to be kept so bottled up that they could never be expressed, and I guess the film wasn't dynamic enough for me. Or maybe that's not it. But something subtle in the film left me a wee bit cold. I wouldn't call it one of my favorites. Now, Braveheart and Elizabeth are the kind of historical dramas I really like.

posted 07.05.99
Patrick Hogan writes:
You wrote [in my review of The Matrix]

The Wachowski brothers steal shamelessly from Brazil, Blade Runner, the Alien and Terminator movies, Total Recall, Men in Black, and Star Trek. And get away with it. Dazzling visuals -- the film combines a dark, grainy, handheld style with bleeding-edge FX -- and brilliantly staged gun battles and martial-arts duels help distract from the realization that there's not a single original concept behind The Matrix.

The Flick Filosopher responds:
You're right: The Matrix is as influenced by literature as it is by film, which I alluded to when I wrote:

The film's metaphysics are the stuff of late-night dorm-room debates, mixed with literary allusions to Alice in Wonderland and Kakfa and everything in between. Not so mindblowing if you've read a few books, but then, not everybody has read a few books."

posted 06.28.99
Rogelio P. Mendoza writes:
Don't feel too bad about your reaction to the first Austin Powers film. I had the same reaction -- and I saw it at the dollar theatre. If nothing else, it made me appreciate films like Analyze This a lot more than I usually do.
For what it's worth, I'm putting off seeing the sequel on the grounds that "if you fool me once, fie on you; fool me twice, fie on me." After seeing the godawful sequel to I Know What You Did Last Summer -- yes, they actually managed to make a film that was worse than the first one -- I'm not in a big hurry to see yet another sequel to a movie I didn't like all that much in the first place.
A few quick comments on recent reviews:

1. The Phantom Menace. God, I miss Lawrence Kasdan and the late Leigh Brackett. Their touches were sorely missed, no matter how many people out there has their Joseph Campbells rubbed the right way.
2. Apt Pupil. Ian McKellan, of course, was great, but one would think a film directed by the guy who created Kaizer Soze would have a lot more suspense than this film did. Stephen King's novella still remains the definite version, and how ironic that King's original ending was jettisoned by Mr. Singer because it was too melodramatic. I thought the same thing the first time I read the original novella, but in the wake of recent events in Colorado, it seems more prophetic than I like to think about. I'm sure glad Mr. King didn't write Hannibal.
3. From Here to Eternity. While I agree with most of your points, the idea of Hannibal Lecter representing a form of personal integrity -- however strange -- still seems odd to me. And this is an opinion I held long before I heard of the recent sequel. Read the original Thomas Harris novels -- at least the first two -- and see if you agree with me. If anything, Mr. Lecter seems to personify the ultimate amoral being -- the type of entity that will either rescue a hungry kitten or else dash its brains out, depending on its particular mood. And yes, I'm even less hopeful about The Silence of the Lambs sequel than I am about the new Austin Powers movie.

The Flick Filosopher responds:
I didn't mean to imply that I feel bad about my initial reaction to Austin Powers, merely that it's a film that grew on me. It certainly can't compare to a comedy like Analyze This, but both AP movies are good for silly laughs, I think.
The Phantom Menace could definitely have used some more clever, witty dialogue, but on the whole I find that I like the movie more every time I see it (5 times and counting!).
I didn't notice a lack of suspense in Apt Pupil -- but then I went into it expecting a character drama, not a suspense thriller, and was perfectly satisfied with what I found.
I haven't read Thomas Harris's books, but based on Silence, I feel confident standing by my assertion that Lechter has his own version of personal integrity. I didn't say his was a model we should follow, but Lechter does have a code for himself. Clarice alludes to it when she assures her boss that she's in no danger from Lechter, that he would consider it "rude" to harm her. Lechter may be considered amoral when compared with society's norms, but he does seem to have his own moral code to follow. I'm not arguing for a kind of moral relativism -- I'm not saying that Lechter should be considered OK because he has rules for himself. I'm merely stating that he operates within a framework, which, however immoral we consider it, nevertheless is something he believes in. And the original point was that the characters in From Here to Eternity didn't have any guidance systems for themselves, even wrongheaded ones.

posted 06.28.99
Marsha Finley writes:
Guess I won't be going to see any movies with David Shen, as I agree with about 99.9% of what you write. (And you can add me to the list of those scouring the web for mentions of Oded Fehr.)
I just discovered your film review page a couple of weeks ago, but I plan to be a regular. Thanks for the thoughtful reviews and interesting connections between films. I rented Zero Effect based on your recommendations and loved it -- a film I somehow missed the first time around.
Please review An Ideal Husband as soon as it hits your area! (I hope you live in one of those Major Metro Areas where 'art' films come first.)
Cheers,
Marsha
P.S. Oh, and keep 'em guessing about your picture...

The Flick Filosopher responds:
Oded Fehr is yummy, isn't he?
I live in New York City -- we get everything, filmwise. You read my mind, actually: An Ideal Husband is my movie this week. (There's no way I'm gonna sit through an Adam Sandler movie. No way in hell. Even if Big Daddy is the only major movie opening this weekend.)
I have no intention of ever posting my picture online. Not with all the weirdos out there!

posted 06.28.99
Joe Perdue writes:
Oh wise one... I, I think I love you.

The Flick Filosopher responds:
You and half my other male readers, it seems. So get in line, pal.

posted 06.28.99
RSUEDODEA@email.msn.com writes:
Your site is a fine contribution to Pop Culture studies. I'll be back again and again. Thanks for giving it to us Cybercitizens...your contribution is more than worthy.

posted 06.28.99
Lori writes:
the chic? If this is true; keep it up sister.

The Flick Filosopher responds:
Chic? I don't know that I'm terribly chic. Or did you mean, Am I a chick? Yes. And I plan on keeping it up.

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MaryAnn Johanson.
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