88 Minutes (1968) - Mel Brooks
Wednesday, September 26, 2007 Selector: Bubbleman
Theatrical producer Max Bialystock was once the toast of Broadway. Now he lives in his seedy office, cadging cash contributions from wealthy old ladies in exchange for sexual favors. Even worse: he's reduced to wearing a cardboard belt. Max's new accountant Leo Bloom, the soul of honesty, suggests that Max produce a hit to try to recoup his losses, but Max knows that it's too late for that. Offhandedly, Leo muses that, if Max found investors for a flop, he could legally keep all the extra money. Suddenly, Max's eyes light up—and in that moment, Leo Bloom is gloriously corruptible. "I want everything I've ever seen in the movies!" cries Leo as Max embraces him. Together, Max and Leo conspire to select the worst play, the worst playwright, the worst director, and the worst actor to collaborate on their guaranteed flop. That play is Springtime for Hitler, "a delightful romp... with Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun." The playwright is Franz Liebkind, an unreconstructed Nazi who, in drunken delirium, insists that Hitler was a better painter than Churchill: "He could paint an entire apartment in one afternoon, two coats!" The director is pompous transvestite Roger De Bris, who is preparing to go to a costume party garbed as Marie Antoinette when Max and Leo come calling. And the star, selected after extensive auditions, is hippie-freak Lorenzo S. Dubois—L.S.D. for short. At the end of several weeks, Max has sold 25,000% of the show; and, as a finishing touch, Max bribes the opening-night critics for a favorable review, knowing full well that such a gesture is the kiss of death. The curtains part, and Springtime for Hitler opens with perhaps the most tasteless production number in the history of films. At the end of this extravaganza, the audience sits in dumbfounded silence. Gleefully, Max and Leo repair to a corner bar to celebrate their failure. But then...
The Producers
Snatch.
102 Minutes (2000) - Guy Ritchie
Wednesday, September 19, 2007 Selector: HiGrade
Turkish and his close friend/accomplice Tommy get pulled into the world of match fixing by the notorious Brick Top. Things get complicated when the boxer they had lined up gets the shit kicked out of him by Pitt, a 'pikey' ( slang for an Irish Gypsy)- who comes into the equation after Turkish, an unlicensed boxing promoter wants to buy a caravan off the Irish Gypsies. They then try to convince Pitt not only to fight for them, but to lose for them too. Whilst all this is going on, a huge diamond heist takes place, and a fistful of motley characters enter the story, including 'Cousin Avi', 'Boris The Blade', 'Franky Four Fingers' and 'Bullet Tooth Tony'. Things go from bad to worse as it all becomes about the money, the guns, and the damned dog!
Cidade de Deus
130 Minutes (2002) - Fernando Meirelles
Wednesday, September 12, 2007 Selector: MOFO
Cidade de Deus (City of God) is a housing project built in the 1960's that—in the early 80's—became one of the most dangerous places in Rio de Janeiro. The tale tells the stories of many characters whose lives sometimes intersect. However, all is seen through the eyes of a singular narrator: Buscapé, a poor black youth too frail and scared to become an outlaw but also too smart to be content with underpaid, menial jobs. He grows up in a very violent environment. The odds are all against him. But Buscapé soon discovers that he can see reality differently than others. His redemption is that he's been given an artist's point of view as a keen-eyed photographer. As Buscapé is not the real protagonist of the film—only the narrator—he is not the one who makes the decisions that will determine the sequence of events. Nevertheless, not only his life is attached to what happens in the story, but it is also through Buscapé's perspective of life that one can understand the complicated layers and humanity of a world, apparently condemned to endless violence.
The Taking of Pelham 123
104 Minutes (1974) - Joseph Sargent
Wednesday, September 5, 2007 Selector: MONA
Pelham 1-2-3, a subway train, becomes the focal point of the most audacious and unusual terrorist attack ever seen. Four gunmen, going by color codenames, seize the train and hold its passengers and conductor hostage halfway between underground stations, demanding a 1 million dollar ransom, in 1 hour, or else they will begin executing hostages. Lt. Zachary Garber of the New York City Transit Police must contend with City Hall red tape, the unrelenting demands of the hijackers, and the ever-ticking clock in his efforts to save the passengers and bring the hijackers to justice. With the gunmen and their hostages in a tunnel surrounded by police on all sides, how can they possibly escape?