Time out for the movies
I thought I'd take a little time out for a couple reviews of movies I've seen recently:
Zodiac: Having hated "Se7en" (dumbest title/spelling ever?) and "Fight Club," I didn't have high hopes for this, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's very good. All the performances are good and the movie never drags (even at its close to 3 hours length). Highly recommended.
This weekend I saw the opportunity to theater jump at the local movieplex creating my own Sad Clown/Happy Clown double feature (Reign Over Me and Blades of Glory).
Reign Over Me: Yeah, I saw all the bad reviews, too, but I also saw some surprisingly good ones (Anthony Lane in particular). And, yeah, I hated "The Mind of the Married Man" as much as the next guy, so to say I went into this with low expectations would be an understatement. It's not that good. You don't see grief as a subject in too many movies, but this one botches it pretty bad. Adam Sandler's character doesn't seem to be grieving so much as he's become mentally ill. As a succesful dentist before his family is killed on 9/11, you would think he would have more of a support system in place than a video game and copies of The River and Quadrophenia. It just seems odd. Even odder is the dumb subplot Don Cheadle's character has to contend with (one of his patients wants to go down on him). The ending is even more ridiculous. Not recommended.
Blades of Glory: Xmastime hates Will Ferrell for some reason. I don't. I'll watch him in just about anything (although I did draw the line with that soccer movie--that just looked too damn cute for me). I missed the first 10 or 15 minutes of Blades of Glory (my calculation was slightly off in jumping from Reign Over Me--plus, I hadn't counted on the theater employee who had just seen me in one theater, standing in front of the door to the theater where Blades of Glory was playing: "Middle-Aged Man Arrested for Sneaking into Ice Skating Comedy"). Although it didn't provide as many solid laughs as Old School, there were some mildly amusing bits throughout. Strangely, the biggest laugh for me involved a decapitation. Recommended for when it comes out on DVD.
Children of Men: This was kind of disappointing. The premise was interesting, but I never felt like I had enough information to know what the hell was going on. Maybe some people like being plunged into a sea of confusion (maybe that was even the director's intent), but I don't. Recommended if you're in a gloomy mood and don't mind being confused.
Zodiac: Having hated "Se7en" (dumbest title/spelling ever?) and "Fight Club," I didn't have high hopes for this, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's very good. All the performances are good and the movie never drags (even at its close to 3 hours length). Highly recommended.
This weekend I saw the opportunity to theater jump at the local movieplex creating my own Sad Clown/Happy Clown double feature (Reign Over Me and Blades of Glory).
Reign Over Me: Yeah, I saw all the bad reviews, too, but I also saw some surprisingly good ones (Anthony Lane in particular). And, yeah, I hated "The Mind of the Married Man" as much as the next guy, so to say I went into this with low expectations would be an understatement. It's not that good. You don't see grief as a subject in too many movies, but this one botches it pretty bad. Adam Sandler's character doesn't seem to be grieving so much as he's become mentally ill. As a succesful dentist before his family is killed on 9/11, you would think he would have more of a support system in place than a video game and copies of The River and Quadrophenia. It just seems odd. Even odder is the dumb subplot Don Cheadle's character has to contend with (one of his patients wants to go down on him). The ending is even more ridiculous. Not recommended.
Blades of Glory: Xmastime hates Will Ferrell for some reason. I don't. I'll watch him in just about anything (although I did draw the line with that soccer movie--that just looked too damn cute for me). I missed the first 10 or 15 minutes of Blades of Glory (my calculation was slightly off in jumping from Reign Over Me--plus, I hadn't counted on the theater employee who had just seen me in one theater, standing in front of the door to the theater where Blades of Glory was playing: "Middle-Aged Man Arrested for Sneaking into Ice Skating Comedy"). Although it didn't provide as many solid laughs as Old School, there were some mildly amusing bits throughout. Strangely, the biggest laugh for me involved a decapitation. Recommended for when it comes out on DVD.
Children of Men: This was kind of disappointing. The premise was interesting, but I never felt like I had enough information to know what the hell was going on. Maybe some people like being plunged into a sea of confusion (maybe that was even the director's intent), but I don't. Recommended if you're in a gloomy mood and don't mind being confused.
posted by BayonneMike at 9:20 AM
3 Comments:
baiting Xmastime? BAITING XMASTIME?!?!!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!!!
Yeah, your anti-Will Ferrell rants are becoming one of your trademarks. It's almost up there with your Beatles vs The Rolling Stones rants.
sometimes a break is good. I'm sorry I posted a "will be continued" on my Catholic post. I have tons of good material, however, I'm just not feeling the love.
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