Double feature of Superbad and La Vie en Rose, ain’t I eclectic!
Superbad - I’m getting a little old for teen sex comedies, and I’ve seen quite enough of Jonah Hill, thank you very much (he’s in every third comedy released nowadays), but this one had some real inventiveness and depth to me. They really captured that teen way of making just flat out stupid moves.
La Vie en Rose - Some brilliant set piece scenes in that one. Marion Cotillard should get the Oscar, she was astounding.
10 Items or Less, with Morgan Freeman and whatzername Paz. Not a bad little film, but a jarring note was that the female lead was supposedly from Spain, but had a first name of “Scarlett”.
Working through the Connections 3 series by James Burke. It’s a little more disjointed than his previous series (although I haven’t seen Connections 2, so I can’t speak for that one), but I’m enjoying it. There’s science, there’s history, there are odd ways of looking at things, what’s not to love?
Cannibal! The Musical - Freakin’ hilarious.
Waydowntown - A weird movie about 4 college graduates who make a bet about who can last the longest without going outside of their apartment and downtown glass skyway warren.
Scotland, P.A. - Revamped Macbeth for the 20th century.
“King of Kong” and “Forbidden Zone”; I saw mentions of both movies here. Quite entertaining, each in their own way.
A coworker recommended “MirrorMask”. It has some pretty nifty CGI and set design work.
Ooh, I watched that movie a few weeks ago. I thought it was really cool too. I got the basic plot down but I feel as if there were subtleties I missed, though.
I watched Street Mobster today. Awesome. Definitely one of the best balances between plot and action I’ve seen, even if there was a little bit of overacting and the fighting was a little too obviously fake at times.
I just saw King of Kong last night and I loved it. I was nearly in tears at the end- over a documentary about Donkey Kong champions. It had great music, too.
Gone Baby Gone - Gritty, dirty and well made. Had me emotionally invested from about the fifth minute.
Eastern Promises - Am I the only person who didn’t really care for this movie? Not very original and somewhat unrealistic. Decent acting though.
MirrorMask is, so far, the only movie I’ve rented twice from Netflix.
I saw Spiderman 3 last night. It was a bit crowded, with lots going on, but easy to follow and highly entertaining for all of that. The fight scenes were nicely choreographed.
We’re making good use of our Netflix membership.
The Terminator - My 11-year-old son saw all the TV ads for The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and wanted to see the original movie. So we watched it. The '80s hairstyles, clothes and synth music are a bit distracting, but it’s still a great, straightforward, pared-down action flick with a time-travel twist.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day - Even better. The liquid-metal Terminator is still 'way cool; we rewound and slow-mo’d several times for his transformations. There’s also more of an emotional core to the movie, with the uneasy relationship between Sarah, her son John, and Ah-nuld’s reprogrammed good-guy cyborg. Next up: Terminator 3, which I liked more than most T. fans did when it first came out.
I saw the first two installments of Ken Burns’s The War, but haven’t gotten back to it. Just not all that interested - it wasn’t nearly as good as The Civil War. Likewise, the concluding episodes of the British political satire The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard are gathering dust on the shelf. Someday I’ll get back to it.
Fracture: meh. Anthony Hopkins was great, as usual. Unfortunately, the entire movie isn’t Anthony Hopkins. It’s not as clever as it thinks it is, and they appear to have changed the original ending, because there’s a scene in the trailer that doesn’t appear in the movie. I’d wait for cable.
Across the Universe: Awesome, though watching on a TV rather than in theatre (I saw it twice in theatres) has definitely made me appreciate the reviews more. When you can’t get the spectacle of the big screen, the contrived plot is more notably contrived, at least for me.
My friends and I also rented Stardust, Strangers with Candy, and the The Tenth Kingdom, but since we haven’t finished Tenth Kingdom or started the others yet, I can’t report back. I saw Stardust at a movie theater and loved it; I just have to hope it made the transition to small screen well. (Especially since all of our TVs are smaller than I’m used to, unless we can get a dorm TV room key and watch it on the big screen.)
Mmm, Tenth Kingdom was so good. Especially the yummy Kimberly Williams. Scott Cohen I did not know before this, but he was quite good.
I just got Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix and Aliens vs. Predator.
I just finished Black Sheep, and it was awesome. Very gory, but exactly what it says it is: a movie about killer sheep.
Rain – small-budget indie from New Zealand, based on the novel by Kirsty Gunn [IIRC]. A Kiwi family spends an idyllic mid-‘70’s summer in their cottage on the seaside, in a tiny hamlet where people have nothing to do but go sailing, fishing, and booze it up in a series of parties. The virtually alcoholic wife is bored and embarks on a steamy fling with a photographer who lives on his boat. (When the boat’s a-rockin’,…). Her thirteen-year-old daughter, played by an actress who actually does look thirteen, twigs to this and aggressively pursues the same guy, to fateful consequences when her six-ish-year-old brother drowns while she’s fooling around with the shutterbug in a scene that manages to be provocatively erotic while steering clear of explication or explicitness. Does a good job portraying the roiling psychodramatics of a nuclear family coming apart at the seams, with the adults behaving like teens and the teenager awkwardly exploring her burgeoning sexuality – always a tricky topic for moviemakers. Features a sensual song-based score by Neil Finn (of Crowded House fame) with additional songs by cult Kiwi and Aussie bands Human Instinct and Sherbert.
Last weekend, watched two movies:
Interview, the Steve Buscemi-directed movie with him and Siena Miller (who I was curious about, having seen Factory Girl a couple of weeks ago): pretty “meh.” They were both good, but there was a Whole Lotta Actin’ going on.
13 Going on 30, which I actually enjoyed more – it didn’t pretend to be anything other than what it was, and I like a good romantic comedy. And how can you not like Jennifer Garner? The fact that the whole “okay, so how was this actually resolved” thing was totally glossed over – who cares. Mark Ruffalo is yummy.
King of Kong is a real winner. I recommend it for everyone.
I dunno, but I’m pretty sure I’m the only person who didn’t like Gone Baby Gone.
I’m not liking Kimberly Williams yet, but I think she’ll grow on me after I forgive her for bringing a dog into a restaurant kitchen. (Health code violations!) Scott Cohen is super; surprising, though- I know him best as Max on Gilmore Girls, and Max was not like this.
Killer sheep, you say? I may have to investigate this.
I put the animated Dragonlance movie into my queue despite having seen the shabby trailer.
Seeing the whole movie made me want to stab myself in the face.
I could go on at length about the poor voice acting, horrible pacing and eye-rendingly bad CG. Instead I’ll treat you to this visual representation of how terrible this film was.
Yes, that is Verminard’s mace passing through his body. :dubious:
I also saw Clockwatchers which was good. Not great, but good and kept me going until the end. It’s a little difficult to balance making the viewer feel drawn out stretches of time and solitude and actually boring the viewer with the same.
I just saw Donnie Darko. WOW. I cannot believe I dilly-dallied and never ended up seeing it when it came out. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I totally missed my chance to be part of the Donnie Darko cult. Either way, I’m going to have to watch it over and over again.
I also rented Kissing Jessica Stein* and Tokyo Drifter today. I’ll report back on those.
*I’m about to start leading/advising the Gay/Straight Alliance at my old high school–well, about to make it official; I’ve already pretty much taken command–and I’m screen-testing the entire LGBT/Camp section at my favorite rental store until I find a good movie that I won’t get fired for showing at the club meetings.
