What I've watched lately, movie-wise.
Submitted by Bobo LaTuque on Sun, 10/31/2004 - 05:16
Tags:
- A simple list, with a minor comment or two, of the movies I have recently watched.
- Salton Sea, The (2002)
- I can watch Val Kilmer, but he's definitely not one of my favorite actors. The Salton Sea is quite a dark movie, with lots of "artistic" touches (you can take the quotation marks to mean whatever you wish...), but overall I found it just rather drab and uninvolving. I just didn't believe Kilmer's character(s) at all. However, the "Pooh-Bear" character as portrayed by Vincent d'Onofrio was an inspired and memorable movie role. The CGI bit where he removes part of his anatomy for cleaning (or whatever) was a bit lame, but d'Onofrio does seem to nail offbeat characters. Not at all really a bad movie- I mean, you pretty much know how it will end, right?-, just not to my tastes. Live and learn, no?
- Super Size Me (2004)
- Uurrrrp! Whoa. Although not exactly a great "documentary", this is a fun movie to watch whether you're a McDonald's fan or not. (I'm not- can't force down a Big Mac, and what they call "fries", I call "tasteless salted crap sticks" and a waste of potatoes). Anyway, I digress. I have a fascination with obese people- don't know why- but can't imagine how anyone can eat at just about any fast-food place more than once a week, max. I'll probably watch this one again.
- Monsters Inc. (2001)
- Anything from the Walt Disney stable usually leaves me running for cover; but the Pixar people do a fantastic job. This is the second time I've watched Monsters Inc. and the second time I've enjoyed it more than I expected to. Sure, sure, it does degenerate into mawkishness a little, but overall, it's great fun, even for old fahts like me.
- Day After Tomorrow, The (2004)
- Another disaster flick. Another Hollywood disaster flick with superb special effects... and little else. I like Dennis Quaid, but it seems he'll take just about anything these days, doesn't it? Well, maybe not. Anyway, it is another "Turn off the brain, try to suspend disbelief, ignore the clichés and watch the effects" movies I'm really coming to dislike. And I like apocolypse movies.
- 28 Days Later (2002)
- The foregoing notwithstanding (great phrase, eh?), I enjoyed this one quite a bit. Didn't think it was any worse than a lot of other recent apocolyptic scenarios, and there's quite a few clichés here, too, but overall quite enjoyable.
- Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
- I must say I got a bit of a kick out of Moore's Roger And Me , and I must say I outright enjoyed most of Bowling For Columbine , but I'm not taken in by Moore's blatant distortions and ambushes. He is vastly entertaining and does, in fact, make people think. Whether or no he can make them think like him is another thing entirely. I couldn't watch TV Nation (too 7th grade for me) at all.
- And now an admission. I really don't remember a whole lot about Fahrenheit 9/11 because I made the mistake of watching it with a bottle of rye by my side... On the other hand, this will allow me to watch it afresh another day! Maybe I should switch to Scotch.
- Blackmail (1929) [Watched: 31 Oct 2004.]
- I like the tagline for what is considered to be "Britain's first talkie": "See and hear it - Our mother tongue as it should be. Spoken." Brilliant. Anyway, I must admit on re-watching this, that Anny Ondra is a better actress than I gave her credit for the first couple of times. I suppose this is because I was entranced by the poor acting of the "villain", and the odd wooden acting of her suitor. In any case, many people who talk about this movie mention Hitchcock's inspired use of the limited sound technology when the word "knife" becomes predominant in the prattling gossip of a neighbor the morning after. My favorite bit, however, is one that I've seen nobody else ever mention; when the blackmailer, Tracy, is first beginning his extortions, he invites himself to partake of Anny's family's breakfast. As he eats he hums the tune The Best Things In Life Are Free . Another inspired use of the fledgling sound technology. I think so, anyway.
