Reticent Man

Bay 101, the first day of this year's Shooting Stars.  Really not that interesting.  The few stars playing a tournament, yay.  Played a lame 5 hour session, lost motivation near the end.


Maltese Falcon.  I was definitely disappointed in this movie.  Most of the reviews you see by critics will mention how revolutionary it was.  But all those innovations don't themselves make it a great movie in 2010.  A great movie in the 1940s can be a great movie today (Casablanca), but this one is not.  However it is still enjoyable.  The breakthrough film noir style is very good, and the acting fits right in.  It's a character based movie, not plot based, and the character development is quite good with one major exception.  A main scene at the end hinges on there being a mutual attraction between Bogart and Aster, but at no time during the movie did I ever get the impression that any existed, at least from him to her.  There were two weird seeming cuts in the cable version I saw, and perhaps material that solidifies their relationship was cut.  But otherwise I find that a large hole in the character development.  As far as the plot, it's decent in its complexity, but nothing special.  As with all movies I've seen from the 40s, the cultural aspects are great.... no feminism or marxism. Acting 9, Style 7, Plot 6.

Maltese Falcon 7/10

Hard Candy.  This is the most feminist movie I have ever seen.  I believe it is the most feminist movie it is possible to make.  For a man, watching this movie is akin to a jew watching a movie that portrayed a greedy evil jew and a nazi lustfully torturing and killing him.  This movie cannot be enjoyed by any real man.  The style was in some ways pretty good, and the acting was ok, but none of those factors could make this anything but the worst movie ever made.  It is the shining talisman of the now rapid decline of western society.

Hard Candy 0/10