This is pretty much the best idea going. The Alamo Drafthouse (along with jeans-maker Levi’s) is showing nine different classic flicks in (or around) the locations where they take place. Some settings are more spot on than others — Jackie Brown in LA’s Del Amo Fashion Mall is perfection — but the whole concept is just fantastic.
I believe they have done this in past years as well, but this is the first I’m hearing of it and, I believe, this is the most ambitious, nationwide tour. (The 2008 lineup, for example, was all pretty local to Tejas.)
Here’s the full list of movies (each of which got one of the sweet “alt posters” shown above), dates and location:
August 6 JACKIE BROWN, at Los Angeles’ Del Amo Fashion Mall
August 7 DIRTY HARRY, at San Francisco’s Washington Square Park
August 8 THERE WILL BE BLOOD, at California’s Kern County Museum
August 8 CONVOY, at the Ft. Davis drive-in in Las Vegas, N.M.
August 13 THE BLUES BROTHERS, at Chicago’s Joliet Prison
August 14 ROBOCOP, at Detroit’s Russell Industrial Center
August 19 ROCKY I-III, at the Philadelphia Art Museum
August 20 ON THE WATERFRONT, at Hoboken’s Pier A
August 27 THE GODFATHER PART II, on a Manhattan rooftop near Little Italy
I’ve seen all except Convoy (which is playing in a double feature with Red Dawn, which is horrible) and would probably go to see any of the others if they were local. Rest assured, I will definitely be enjoying The Godfather II, easily one of the finest ten movies ever made, atop a roof in Little Italy. Vito-style.
Hell, I may even break my personal code of ethics and step foot into New Jersey to watch Marlon Brando fail at being a contender.
This graphical breakdown of career director arcs over on Into the Abyss is pretty damn fantastic. What author Todd Miro did was compile all the Rotten Tomatoes scores for all the movies made by a director and then chart those critical rankings on a line graph to show how well each director’s flicks were received over time.
Pretty simple
Head over to his original post to see the graphs for Scorsese, the Cohen Brothers, Tarantino, David Fincher, Ridley Scott, William Friedkin and the Wachowski Brothers. All are muy neato.
But the three that were the most interesting to me were the three most extreme charts: M. Night Shyamalan (the initial subject of the discussion), Stanley Kubrick and Francis Ford Coppola. Honestly, it pains me to even write those three names in the same sentence, but it makes for a nice comparison when you compare M. Night’s 1929-stock-market-looking graph next to Kubrick’s unassailable career of acclaim next to Coppola’s inconsistency.
Ultimately, however, even though Coppola has made some hot garbage in his day, he will likely always remain in my top five of all time just on the strength of there being no more impressive four-movie run in cinematic history than The Godfather, The Conversation (which I honestly don’t even really like), The Godfather II and Apocalyspe Now. There might be three of the best ten films ever in there. Just unreal.
Along similar lines, good luck to any actor who ever wants to have a cleaner, more perfect IMDB page than John Cazale. Nice resume, buddy.
We don't always review movies, but when we do, we often give them numeric values to let you know what we think. Those numbers roughly mean the following:
10
One of the best movies I've ever seen. If you don't at least sort of like it, I probably just lost some respect for you as a person.
9
Great, great stuff. Your film-watching career can't be complete if you don't see this.
8
You should definitely see this. One of the better films of the year.
7
I enjoyed it. If you see it, you see it, but won't change your life either way.
6
I wasn't upset that I watched this, but it's certainly not great. Watchable if you're on a plane and don't have a book, but wouldn't go out of your way. Meh.
5
Hot garbage, entirely forgettable and a total waste of time. Never watch this.
4
Epically, memorably terrible.
3
You cannot be serious. Maybe the worst thing I've ever seen. Absolutely staggering. Unreal. I loathe everyone involved with this.
