16 posts tagged “movies”
I've had some good luck with the ole Netflix queue recently and thought I'd do a 15 sec movie review.
Watch this one if you like LIttle Miss Sunshine, The Life Aquatic, or Rushmore. No, Will Ferrel does not overract, he's perfect in this. Characters are perfect. The story is charming. There's even excellent typography for you graphic design nerds out there. Do not watch if you've always hated English class, or never taken one.
It took 2 days to get this movie out of my head.
It's future fiction, but not science fiction. In fact, the compelling part about this view of the future is how humans deal with overwhelming dispair. Scienticif presence is almost non-existent in the movie.
Completely unromaticized violence. The first-person, embedded journalist, view is suprisingly effective.
The movie treats it's audience as it they are intelligent (what a concept) and leaves you to figure out what's going on.
Ultimately redeeming, but it's quite an exhausting ride to get there. Really bleak. If you are in a good mood, and you would like to stay that way, don't watch this.
Steven and I just finished watching Curse of the Golden Flower. I added it to Netflix not realizing that it was a Zhang Yimou film. Damn. What the heck is wrong with that guy? Hasn't he ever heard of a happy story in his life? Not that I want to see a comedy from him, but is it too much to ask that every movie of his that I watch doesn't end with Gong Li losing her mind, or collapsed and drowning in tears?
I haven't seen all of these.
So far, I've seen:
Not One Less
Hero
Shanghai Triad
The Road Home
Ju Dou
Raise the Red Lantern
House of Flying Daggers
and just tonight, we saw Curse of the Golden Flower.
Of these, I can really only say that Not One Less and The Road Home were not depressing.
Hero ended darkly, but as a viewer, I was bought into the dark ending.
Has anyone else seend the other movies? Do they have miserable endings? If not, let me know, because I'm thinking of suggesting to Netflix a feature idea where if I inadvertantly add a Zhang Yimou movie to my queue, it will pop up a dialog and that asks
"Are you sure?"
Buttons: "Yes, I want to be depressed / No, send me a comedy instead"
Finally saw Casino Royale yesterday. An interesting take on Bond, and a good action film. Was it a good Bond film? I dunno. I suppose this gives a good foundation to build how the character of Bond came to be. But whatever, that's not what this post is about.
Bond always gets the cool toys. So the difference between seeing it on opening day and seeing it yesterday is that between now and then was the intro of the iPhone — thereby making ALL OF CASINO ROYALE'S TECHNOLOGY LOOK TOTALLY LAME.
Where the hell is Q? Equipment. Our man needs equipment.
Steven and I just saw Little Miss Sunshine, and I'm gonna have to add that to the list of movies to watch after 30. It was great.
I'm not sure what took so long for me to watch Rocky, but in a way I'm glad, because I don't think the movie would have spoken to me in the same way in my younger days. My 20s were very hopeful. All potential. All opportunity. Now in my early 30s, there's nagging feeling that if something was great was going to happen in my professional life, it should've started by now. I'd image that this only gets more intense when I get to 40, 50, 60 +. And this is precisely the feeling that makes me relate to Rocky.
The other movie that only gets funnier the more I work is OfficeSpace. And that is a sad state of affairs for the workplace. Now where is that red stapler of mine?
It makes me want to travel again. Especially through Asia. Especially with Steven. (my best mate!)
It makes other things I'm doing right now seem really trite.
And it's a freakin' emotional rollercoaster, and we are so damn tired after having watched it, and all we've done is sit on our butts.
I must say, I've always liked Ewan, but after watching this, I am very impressed. I think it would be a very different project if it were run with someone overobsessed with appearances or preserving some kind of uber-macho mystique. (This means you, Steven Segal.) You'll have to see it. It's hard to explain.
Cage is perfect.
With the exception of the believability of his personal relationship with his wife, it was flawless. Grim, but flawless.
Steven and I were really engaged, though it's a rough subject. Make this a double feature with the Fog of War, (which I think is the best war documentary I've seen) you should be ready to give up on the human race.
The highly versatile Mos Def also transitions from music to movies, and to TV. Miraculously, he hasn't lost his edge in doing so.
This morning, the topic of Madonna and Guy Ritchie came up. And how the public just doesn't like her as a movie star. And then we started wondering if there were ANY singers who successfully became movie stars, or vice versa. We excluded celebs who had a teen or pre-teen audience.
Steven could name numerous failures
Madonna
Eddie Murphy
William Shatner
Don Johnson
(note that Steven doesn't consider J.Lo much of a singer.)
And while he was naming his list, I found it really hard to think of someone who successfully maintains both careers. Perhaps there really are none?...except...wait a minute....that's right! Thank goodness for Harry Connick Jr.
