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Daydreams (1922)

director credits to Buster Keaton & Edward Cline

This short comedy film had a small handful of straight-faced Keatonesque gags:
1) the coordinated throw & catch of a bouquet,
2) the scores of policemen who suddenly but implausibly emerge from a tram, and
3) the shenanigans at the fire escape involving Buster & two policemen.

Otherwise, it was not very good. The protagonist's resolve to either succeed or opt for suicide by revolver is immoral (this implicates his lover & her father as well, who were willing participants).

I watched a 20 minute (approx.) version of "Daydreams" on a Divx file on a 15" laptop display/monitor without any audio. Image on top-right is from "Sherlock Holmes, Jr."

Blood Diamond (2006)

A terrific work of fiction, in Gregory Currie's sense, "Blood Diamond" is one of those history-based adventure dramas that reminds you of a good old-Hollywood flick starring Humphrey Bogart as the hard-boiled & slightly crooked but ultimately moral character. This is not to say that I'm comparing the gifted Leonardo DiCaprio with Bogie the icon; merely that the film elicits a positive response via the traditional film-fiction-making of solid performances by A-list actors, compelling characters & a good structure. Jennifer Connelly is a case in point: a serious actor who plays up her sex appeal and exudes the charm of a self-confident woman in serving the screenplay as the protagonist's only link to the civilized world.

The narrative even has a memorable motto, "TIA," which resignedly stands for "This is Africa."

More importantly, I will not look at diamond jewelry the same way again. 15 minutes into the film, I begin to wonder if the diamond ring I purchased from the retailer Tiffany's is one tainted, metaphorically, with the blood of hostaged Africans during its mining. I am persuaded by the film's morality and, as a result, feel happily guilty.

The Fallen Idol (1948)

Around the film's midpoint, an anticipatory cut occurs to reveal the close-up of our haggard villain from the point-of-view of our vulnerable child protagonist. Even though the cut was undoubtedly expected and, therefore, technically cannot be a surprise, the close-up still sent a shock-wave of intense dread down my back. After a day of thinking, I assert that this feeling is produced by fictioneers Carol Reed & Graham Greene engineering a 15-minute (or so) build-up of suspense preceeding this "shocking" cut. Throughout this build-up, only glimpses of a limb or the billow of clothing fabric belonging, presumably, to the villain is revealed onscreen. This technique is analogous to casually winding up a mechanical clock & then letting the alarm go off after many minutes have passed. There's something here not quite Hitchcockian that I have yet to identify.

I bet Ridley Scott was well-versed in Carol Reed films when he conceptualized the staging and cinematography of his suspense-horror "Alien" (1979). The makers of "Alien" seems to employ the same build-up for the lethal beasts before the actual creatures were sufficiently revealed onscreen. Of course, Ridley took it one step further (also due to budget constraints) by not revealing the entire beast in high key lighting. I'll have to listen up the next time I do a DVD commentary on a Scott Free film.

"The Fallen Idol" is predominantly a suspense film & one would not guess this from the uneventful first act; just imagine a "Shane"-like little boy running around large halls, being inquisitive (ala sticks and stones and puppy dog tails). What a wonderful discovery! An entertaining genre film and a discussion movie too; due to the problematic nature of truth when it involves multiple characters/spectators, the child protagonist quickly gets on the road to disillusionment.

I watched the Criterion Collection DVD release.

... Lame movies

Night at the Museum (2006)
directed by Shawn Levy

The movie trailer looked fun, but the movie itself was a disappointment. NATM shows that there IS a formula for financial success in a bad movie. The film costs $110M & grossed $571M worldwide; $320 million outside the US (source: the-numbers.com). My viewing experience was similar to that of the energetic but empty Madagascar (2005). If I were Ben Stiller, I would take a month-long shower after all this (maybe he did). Parents should avoid this at all costs, unless their children are beyond treatment or have already left the nest.

Idiocracy (2006)
written & directed by Mike Judge

Despite its creative credits to Mike Judge, the creator of the charming & often poignant series King of the Hill, I cannot help but think that Idiocracy was made in the wrong format. Perhaps a 1-minute youtube.com video could better convey Judge's beer-induced thoughts about Western civilization. It has an unsophisticated message about a decaying nation damned to complacency and non-intelligence; even this interpretation is overreaching. Perhaps Judge's excuse for over-producing this narrative into feature-length could be made via gratuitous exercises in really bad taste. But that didn't happen. L-A-M-E.