I think I just didn’t care for the plot, which at first was Jimmy Stewart following around an old friend’s wife. Then toward the two-thirds point in the film, the story takes a bizarre twist and becomes a bit hard to watch before the final big twist ending. That final twist did salvage the movie as a whole somewhat for me, but yeah, can’t believe I didn’t love VERTIGO.

Other Hitchcock reviews

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

THX 1138 [1971] review

THX 1138 was a very spartan movie. As seen in the photo above, a lot of the movie was filmed with a total white background that I just didn’t like at all. Maybe George Lucas thought it was cool, I just thought it made the movie seem like nothing, even more than it already was.

In the end, THX 1138 seems to be more of experimentation with film rather than a full-length feature motion picture.

Uninspired Hanado Dori River Ride

Distance: 11.51 miles

Time in motion: 1 hour 01 minute 56 seconds

Average speed: 11.1 mph

Max speed: 23.5 mphI guess I didn’t feel much inspiration to ride once I got to the river park I discovered a few weeks back. I had high hopes this would be a great place to ride, but the other way on the river I didn’t go before was packed with people, or at least enough so that I always had to watch out for them and the whole path was in shadows in the afternoon time. So I turned around and went back to the place I knew, as well as another small park. Some ojisans were flying kites like a 100 meters up in the air it seemed. Other than that, I watched the sun sink pretty lowly in the sky, then cruised home.

NATIONAL TREASURE [2004]

I had been thinking about watching this movie for about a week. I had been in the mood for a good and interesting historical mystery movie with a bit of Indiana Jones thrown in. In that regard, NATIONAL TREASURE served its purpose. I wouldn’t say it was an outstanding movie in anyway, but it was better than many other recent action movies I’ve seen. The action scenes are separated by nice bits of American history. This movie made me interested in learning more about the subject and made a young country like the United States seem old.

I felt like Nic Cage was into this performance, not just collecting a paycheck, and he had good and real chemistry with Diane Kruger. I do wish a lesser known would have been used for the small role of chief FBI agent, as it was a bit distracting to see Harvey Keitel pop up every now and then. Same could be said for Jon Voight, but by the end I thought he did a good job, as did Harvey who added weight to a small role that otherwise might not have come from an anonymous actor.

The actions scenes, though sometimes poorly edited, were largely free of CG and were able to build a good tenseness to them.

Basically it’s two hours of a fun time watching Nic Cage act smart and have a good time trying to find an ancient treasure, while espousing nuggets of interesting American history.

Thwarted Rainbow Bridge ride

I wanted to ride my bike over the Rainbow Bridge en route to Odaiba, but was thwarted by a ludicrous change in the rules that as of June 2007 forbids anyone to ride or even walk a bike over the bridge. … Actually, I learned of this rule while I was at home this morning, but still I wanted to see if it was really true for myself. Plus, I had tried unsuccessfully before to find the Rainbow Bridge and I wanted to prove I could do it.

This time I was able to find the non-car entrance to the bridge at the foot of its huge north foundation, which I entered to walk across the bridge in January of 2007 (photos and story here). And as if I were about to destroy a precious piece of artwork, as I walked my bike toward the foundation entrance, an ojisan angrily yelled and gestured at me to stop and not proceed even a step further. … Lucky for him, a more polite ojisan came over and dealt with the situation as one would expect, by politely and remorsefully saying it was just a “Japanese rule” and that there was no why. … I asked if I could walk my bike across, and the angry ojisan over my shoulder answered first “no push!” … Yet, you are not allowed to walk across the bridge if you have a bike with you. … I hope it would mean you couldn’t push a baby in a stroller across the bridge as well.

…Well, I felt I had put up enough of a civil disobedience display and moved on. The polite ojisan said there was another bridge I could ride over to get to Odaiba some 30 minutes away, but after a minute or two of heading in that direction, I had kind of lost heart. After I got back home, I realized I had ridden across that bridge before (story here). Now why in the world you can ride across that bridge and not the Rainbow Bridge is beyond me.

…On the way back I stumbled upon a very large temple I had never even heard of before. There was a lot of activity around it as the 2nd of January still has many people going to various temples and shrines to make New Year’s prayers and wishes. Tokyo Tower stood high in the background, making for an impressive sight of temple in the foreground and tower in the immediate background.

…So in the end I found some new places to ride and explore in the future.

THE GRADUATE [1967] review

Years ago, at least 8, I watched THE GRADUATE for the first time (possibly with my good friend Jim). It has haunted and resonated in my mind ever since. It’s one of my top-5 all-time favorite movies. The images are so powerful in this movie, that even after only one viewing, long ago, they burned into my memory. That said, I was surprised how much of the movie I had forgotten.

…It is obvious when one is watching a movie that is actually art, that is a crafted piece of art from the collaboration of many artists. Director Mike Nichols camera techniques throughout the film show what a true artist can do with a camera. In the beginning when Dustin Hoffman (Benjamin Braddock) is standing on the moving walkway in the airport, and the camera is fixed only on his upper body and moves in synchronicity with it, the mood and look of the film is immediately established. Benjamin breaks that stoic look only for a split second as he seems to see someone off camera at the doors. Much of the beginning of the film the camera is fixed solely on Benjamin’s stoic face. The whole welcome home party his face never leaves the focus of the screen, no wide shots of the party at all, just Benjamin in the center with various people swooping in to offer advice or congratulations.

…And why can scenes seen only once years ago resonate and haunt my mind still? Because THE GRADUATE has the greatest soundtrack ever put together for a movie. … The songs themselves on their own are masterpieces, and when overplayed to Benjamin’s mental state, it’s like feeling his emotions directly.

…The movie is so reflective of the mindset of any American youth’s after graduating college who isn’t already set on a career. All a boy wants to do is drive his car, and be with his girl at all costs, but all these damn decisions that are forced upon us all cause us to chafe and recoil from them. A fast car seems like it can solve any problem.

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