Meh.

I recently picked up another Hitchcock title at Blockbuster, namely Frenzy. I was looking forward to it. It's Hitchcock's penultimate film, and it was written by Anthony Schaffer, playwright behind my favorite script of all time; Sleuth.

It wasn't very good. At all.

The dialogue was so-so, the lead protagonist unsympathetic; despite his 'innocent man suspected of murder' status. I'm not giving anything away, here. Some of Hitchcock's best films revolve around a man in nearly the same circumstances. Frenzy isn't one of them.

What I did enjoy was spotting an actress in a small role that would later play the "Hag" hotel keeper in Hot Fuzz. That was fun.

So. There's that. I've been heading for a 'classics' kick in my movie-watching for a while now; and am looking forward to revisiting movies like Casablanca and Vertigo when I have the time. Just giving you a heads' up, people. Steer clear o' Frenzy.

A Pleasant Dilemma

For a while now, I've tried to cultivate a taste in older movies. Thanks to Blockbuster, I receive them regularly in the mail.

A director I've tried to catch up with is Alfred Hitchcock. The man was a genius, that's no secret. My problem is that I saw one of his greatest films first, and everything since has seemed to come up a little short.

Vertigo was flawless. It's absolutely heartbreaking, intensely thrilling, chilling, and the score is nothing short of phenomenal. It's a masterpiece.

I saw Psycho prior to that, and since then I've enjoyed Notorious, Rope, The Birds and as we speak I'm watching Marnie. (It's worth noting that a friend of mine from the Star Trek Improv team is a dead (brunette) ringer for Tippi Hedren. Seriously, it's as uncanny as my own doppelganger in sunny CA.)

They're all quite good, but none have matched up to Vertigo. Yet. I've got hopes for a few of his others, but I don't know.

Thoughts?

There's Just No Justice

In Hollywood News: After less than a week, posters and billboards of the new movie Captivity were taken down after numerous complaints that the images were too graphic and disturbing. After Dark Films CEO Courtney Solomon explained that the wrong files were sent to the printer, and has agreed to pay for their removal.

Yet somehow, Norbit posters remained up for a full month.