Thelma and Louise

Not bad. I think it did a good job of telling the girl's side of the story. There were a few things that seemed out of place. The exploding tanker truck at the end seemed a little too Hollywoodish and took me out of the story. The rastafarian on the bicycle that blows pot-smoke into the trapped officer's air-hole was completely out of place. There was no need to revisit that cop anyway, and adding a completely new type of character for one single scene was masturbatory.

The Great Dictator

This was the first talking Charlie Chaplin movie I've seen. It was well made. I enjoyed it.

Robocop

I expected this movie to be near par with Terminator 2 or at very least Terminator 1. The acting, special effects, and dialogue in this movie were so horrendous, I had a difficult time believing I wasn't watching a Mystery Science Theater movie.

Last Tengo in Paris

I've got some catching up to do so this will be a short review. Some parts are alright. But on the whole this movie is tolerable at best.

Miller's Crossing

The Cohen brothers have an amazing way of telling a brutally serious story with a sense of humor. This story doesn't have an allegorical message and it doesn't make a political point. It's a well told, enjoyable story.

A Prairie Home Companion

This was a nice movie. It was fun to watch. Nothing amazing, but I don't think it planned to be amazing. It plays through an episode of the radio show by the same name. I'm not sure someone unfamiliar with the NPR show would enjoy or sit through it. But I did.

The Prestige

This movie was excellent. I think Christopher Nolan is my new favorite director. The story is as crafty as the magicians it contains. So many twists and turns, and all of them believable. Foreshadowing filled the story all over, but never telegraphing what would come next. I don't know much about the historical accuracy of the main characters, but I understand that the Tesla character existed and made amazing electrical discoveries that were lost to history due to vicious feuds with Thomas Edison. Even the actors accents were a convincing illusion. The British characters were played by Americans. And the Americans were played very convincingly by Brits (Andy Serkis and David Bowie).

Borat

This movie is hilarious. I was pleasantly surprised at the nearly feasible story-arc. I was expecting a series of mocking interviews strung together like the Ali G show. But the story, although merely a vehicle (an ice-cream truck to be exact) for the humiliating interviews of ridiculous people was actually entertaining. I liked the overweight side-kick. I thought he was hilarious.

I wish I could have just fallen into the movie, but I found myself wondering who was a paid extra and who was a real person coerced later into signing a waver.

I'm surprised I haven't heard anyone making a big deal about the anti-semitism in the movie. Maybe people are actually becoming mature enough to realize that this movie isn't mocking or attacking jews, but satirizing anti-semitism.

Ees Nice.

Manhattan

This is a fairly typical (I wanted to say prototypical or quintessential but I think those words sound too presumptuous) Woody Allen movie. Which really isn't a bad thing. I love Woody Allen. I enjoyed the movie, but it's hard for anything to live up to Annie Hall. And it's easy to compare the two. They both co-star Diane Keaton, and both have a best friend who makes even worse decisions than Woody. I appreciate the fact that it was shot as black and white, and that he keeps referencing Ingmar Bergman. I assume that Bergman had a big influence on the style of the movie. I've only seen a few Bergman films, though, so I don't feel I have the authority to make the comparison. It was a little difficult to overlook his dating of an under-age girl, especially considering his bad behavior later in life.

Erin Brokovich

I thought I remembered this movie being heralded as a feminist break-through. If anything it seemed more like a white-trash break-through to me. It was a fine movie. Nothing spectacular. It's nice to know that a greedy corporation didn't get away with poisoning the nearby townspeople, and that a single mother with few marketable skills worked hard enough to provide for her children. Erin's personable connection to the lower-middle class is what brought the town together to form a class-action suit whereas the people wouldn't otherwise trust the uppity lawyers.

My biggest complaint really is that the neighborhood where Erin lived and raised her children was hardly white-trashy. It was supposed to look dirty and poor, but the lawns were large and mowed. Her house was new and clean (with the exception of an occasional on-screen cockroach) despite the fact that she kept complaining about how filthy it was. To show how bare her cupboards were, she had to choose between a family sized can of soup or macaroni & cheese. I think the film-makers must be so out of touch with actual white-trash that they should have had an Erin Brokovich of their own to advise the set design.

Fox and the Hound

I think that I watched this as a child. But I may not have paid close attention. I didn't remember any specifics about it. There was one tense scene that I remember very clearly, and still made me nervous when I watched it this week. There is a scene where Tod the fox (as a kit) wanders nonchalantly into the old hunting dog's barrel as he sleeps even though the young hound dog Copper warns him against it. I was terrified of dogs when I was little (even my neighbor's grandmother's dachshunds who would yap viscously at my heals). The idea of being confined inside a doghouse with a ferocious canine, and the tension of waking him up, definitely stuck with me.

I liked the moral dilemma that this story poses to such a young audience. And it is obviously rich in allegory concerning racial prejudice in US's south. I would challenge contemporary children's entertainers to show a story that develops abstract thought instead of just drafting them in a battle to save the rainforest.

infamy

I watched a documentary (two nights ago) on the the history of modern graffiti art. It was lent to me by a co-worker. It lifted my respect for these artists from moderately low to moderately moderate. The strong majority of the styles I've ever seen seem unsophisticated and uninteresting. But, there is some interesting history behind it, and some interesting styles.

baby steps

If you, for some odd reason, have been keeping up with this blog you'll probably notice that I haven't been keeping up with this blog. I have no excuse for this, nor will I apologize. But in an attempt to post more often I'm going to severely lower my standards on what I consider to be 'a post.' Unless otherwise inspired, my posts will likely be little more than a list of movies I've watched. This should include a description or opinion, but who knows. I'm going to play it by ear.

The idea is similar to physical therapy for injured persons. Even walking a few steps along a handrail each day should be better is some kind of progress. And with that in mind I'll hopefully shame myself into writing more.

This weekend I watched:
The Squid and the Whale
Magnolia
Kung Fu Hustle
Bringing Up Baby

This certainly was an eclectic mix. The first two I'd already seen. The second two were new to me.

The Squid and the Whale was an excellent story about a divorcing couple of intellectuals. They convince themselves that they have life in control, but prove otherwise, and their children suffer for it.

Magnolia is a longtime favorite. I savour it's sadness each time I devote 3 hours to watch it.

Kung Fu Hustle is a hilarious parody of kung fu movies. I probably would have appreciated the inside jokes more if I was more familiar with Kung Fu movies. The story-line seemed to have some weak points, but I'll forgive it based on the fact that I'm unfamiliar with the genre.

Bringing up Baby was fun to watch, but ultimately disappointing. It is the only movie I've seen, where I've been attracted to Katherine Hepburn. I doubt that much planning went into the movie. I think it was made simply because somebody knew someone who knew someone who had access to a jaguar (baby). If you can imagine in your head Cary Grant yelling 'Susan!' you probably don't need to see this movie.