Hey there kids.
So as I mentioned in my last blog entry, I no longer watch television. And honestly, I just haven't felt the same since. I'm lethargic and can't seem to rid myself of this headache. I think I have rickets. Can you get rickets from a lack of television? I think we should do a study...
In an effort to fill the many hours of the long days sans television, The Old Man and I have been renting movies. As long-time readers of this blog know, although I love film, I rarely see movies in the theater and in a timely manner. I've never planned it that way, it just happens. For the most part, I am adhering to that habit these days. I've just been renting, rather than waiting 'til they come on HBO or whatever. I thought I would share my thoughts on what I've seen of late, because I'm sure you're just dying to know.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: There are actually a few curious things about this movie. 1) Why was Brad Pitt nominated for an Oscar for his role in this flick and not Cate Blanchette, who I thought was far better in hers? 2) Why the hell did Benjamin leave his wife and daughter???? OK, I understand that eventually he would become an infant again. Eventually. When he leaves them, he's like 30 years old! When he goes back to see them, the kid is thirteen and he's like twenty or something. So what???? He could have been a father to his child that whole time! Instead, Cate is forced to live a lie with a man she doesn't love. The whole thing was so unfair and made me so angry. C) What the fuck was the point of this movie? Maybe I'm shallow. Perhaps I'm on idjit. But I didn't get it.
I did, however, like the relationship he had with his adoptive mother and all of the other characters which wandered in and out of his life. I also liked the way it was filmed and all of the beautiful New Orleans stuff. But still... what the fuck was that movie about, anyway?
Enemy at the Gates: The Old Man and I saw this movie years ago and it put me to sleep. I didn't like it. So when his niece bought him the DVD for Christmas a few years back, we never opened it. Well, desperate times, you know... so we cracked it open.
I have no idea why I didn't like it before. Maybe I was smokin' a lot of the evil weed or something.
I loved this movie. OK yes, I did have to leave the room for much of the first fifteen minutes of the film because the war violence is a bit too real for my delicate sensibilities (I will NEVER watch Saving Private Ryan again, remember, no matter how brilliant a film it is), but the rest of it is just amazing. Jude Law is wonderful as Vasily, a simple man who is glorified as a war hero in a media blitz, so as to improve morale in a Russia rapidly being ripped apart by the Germans in WWII. Joseph Feinnes is also good as the political officer responsible for the hyperbole surrounding his friend. Of course, the hype backfires when the Germans decide to send their best sharpshooter after him (played by the always remarkable Ed Harris). It then becomes a cat and mouse game as these two sharpshooters hunt each other around Stalingrad. There are a lot of close-up shots of these characters' eyes and both Jude Law & Ed Harris have very intense, communicative, piercing blue eyes. Ed's are calculating and cold, while Jude's are human and scared shitless. You really get a feel, also, for how it was to be a sharpshooter, to sit or lay in one position for literally hours, waiting for a good shot at your target. I could never do that.
Rachel Weiss plays a woman in Stalingrad. Part of the city's militia at first, for very personal reasons she later becomes a sharp-shooter herself. And, of course, she falls in love with Vasily (though Feinnes' character is in love with her, as well, which causes some major drama). She is also really good in this movie. There is a scene in which she and Vasily talk about what he wanted to be before the war came. He simply wanted to work in a factory and he tells a story of visiting one with his grandfather. Although we have seen it coming for much of the film, this is also the scene which shows us, beyond a doubt, that she has fallen in love with him. Weiss' performance in this scene is beyond moving. Every emotion plays out perfectly on her face. Jude Law is really good too, don't get me wrong, and their chemistry is palpable. Law's character is caught between his feelings for this woman and his love for his friend (Feinnes) who he doesn't want to betray by loving her and he is haunted by the fact that he is now being hunted. But it is Rachel Weiss who truly moved me in their scenes together, especially in this one.
And how in the world did I not know about the incredibly hot sex scene in this movie??? I really must have been smoking when I watched it the first time, because obviously I slept through that scene or I would have remembered. You don't see anything, really. Well, you get a glimpse of Rachel's naked bum and you get a peek at Jude Law's absolutely beautiful stomach (good god, but it's gorgeous! Does he fuckin' groom his tummy hair or what? It's perfection.), but this isn't some graphic lovemaking scene with naked bodies flying and intertwining all over your screen. No "You Can Leave Your Hat On" playing in the background. They do it in a room filled with sleeping soldiers so they are very quiet about it and their bodies are fully covered. But I was gritting my teeth and biting my lips the whole time. It's intense, is what I'm sayin'. I did love these characters by this point in the movie, so that may have had something to do with it. It also may have had to do with the fact that either of these two could very well die the next day, which brings an immediacy and a desperation to their love for each other. Or maybe this scene is another testament to Weiss' fabulous work, since we see her face throughout the scene and it is expressive in the extreme.
This isn't really your typical war movie. The love-triangle is as much center-stage as the duel of wits and guns between Vasily and Ed Harris' character (whose name escapes me, sorry). The interplay between Law & Feinnes, their sometimes not-so-subtle competition for Rachel Weiss' character and the jealousy which develops within Feinnes as he watches not just as Weiss falls in love with Law, but as his media-creation becomes lauded and practically deified by the Russian people, could play out in front of any backdrop. The fact that it does so while a war rages behind them just brings it more intensity and, ultimately, tragedy.
Curious item of note: All of the Russians in this film speak with British accents and the Germans are all Americans. It doesn't matter, of course. I constantly make fun of movies for having people from other countries speaking English, but with accents. I mean, what's the point? But this is the first movie I recall seeing where they did this, so I just thought I'd mention it.
Another movie I was at least somewhat pleasantly surprised by was Law Abiding Citizen starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Fox. The storyline was completely implausible, but if you suspend your belief for a while, it's an exciting and thrilling flick and actually says a little something about our often fucked up justice system. And Gerard Butler is really good in it, especially in the first few scenes. I won't be giving too much away to say that his character's home is broken into and his wife and child are murdered. His reaction to that and the immediate aftermath seemed quite real and he was impressive. The performance showed me a side of Butler I'd not seen before (granted, I haven't seem many of his films).
Star Trek! We watched the newest Star Trek, with Chris Pine as a young Kirk and the guy who looks almost exactly like my 16 year-old nephew playing Spock. Oh my goodness, I loved this movie! I really wish I'd seen it in the theater, cuz I'm sure the special effects were even more impressive on a huge screen. Aside from the effects, though, I found myself laughing a lot. I loved the introduction of all of our favorite characters - "Bones" McCoy, Mr. Scott, Sulu, Chekov, etc. I love that Spock and Uhura are getting it on! I did not like the part of the storyline which brought old Spock back in time to tie up loose ends. That was hokey and corny. But otherwise, this was - by far - the best Star Trek film and was highly enjoyable.
The other day I watched What We Do is Secret. I watched this one on my own, because it's about seminal LA punk band The Germs and the Old Man has no interest in music from the'70s unless it was recorded by Pink Floyd or ELO.
*sigh* Remind me again why I'm with that man? Oh yeah... the shoulders...
What We Do is Secret was... disppointing. Shane West plays Darby Crash and he's... well, he's fine, but he ain't no Darby Crash. I'm trying not to be too hard on him because on the one hand I don't know that anybody could be Darby Crash - I don't even think Darby was Darby Crash, really. But on the other, I didn't think anybody could play Johnny Cash, either, yet Joaquin Phoenix did a brilliant job. Bijou Phillips is fine as Lorna Doom, but again... there's just something missing. My favorite performance was given by Rick Gonzalez as Pat Smear. Overall, it was OK, There was just a lot missing and I had such high hopes that I was bummed. The band comes off as just idiots with no direction and lots of energy who cause chaos just for the hell of it. And I'm sorry, but I just don't believe that's who they were.
Plus, the imdb page for this flick promises glimpses of Joan Jett and Billy Zoom (well, you know, people playing them) and they were never in the friggin movie goddammit! If they were, they were part of the scenery. The closest we get is Belinda Carlisle, who was almost in the band (and the gal playing her was seriously channeling the Go-Go) and a split second of DJ Bonebrake playing drums. Best line of the movie, though? "Fucking drummers..." Ha! Truer words were never spoken. Oh and I think it's hilarious that they had subtitles when Brendon Mullen (proprietor of the Masque) spoke with his heavy Scottish accent. Hee! :)
We also re-watched The Hangover and Juno, both of which I own and really love. And The Reader. Kate Winslet was brill, but gall dern that movie was depressing. Oh and I hosted a recent meeting of Movie Club. It was Cohen Brothers night and we watched O Brother Where Art Thou and Miller's Crossing. Divinity. Miller's Crossing is probably my favorite Cohen Bros. flick. It never gets old for me. Yes, it's about the mob and we all know how that thrills me (the Irish mob, at that!). But it's also brilliantly filmed, the script is at once funny and startling and real and Albert Finney is in it, for JC's sake. Plus. Gabriel Byrne. *sigh* Oh my sweet Lord in heaven. 'Nuff said.
Thank god I can watch Real Time with Bill Maher on the internet. That's all I'm sayin'.
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