I watched some movies this month.
Living in OblivionA pretty darn funny film I had to see for my class. This was about what goes into making a small independent film, and it's generally quite funny from start to finish. There were some fun editing tricks that I enjoyed, and in all, it was definitely worth watching. I don't really have anything in-depth to say about it, though.
Risky BusinessI consider this movie to be a classic from its time period, and watching it again merely reminded me of why. Before Cruise was insane, he was really, really cool. I wonder if we were less uptight about language, if the "Sometimes you just gotta say 'What the fuck?'" sequences would have caught on more than the Old Time Rock-n-Roll sequence. Because, in my opinion, they were way more memorable.
In the Heat of the NightVery well done movie that had some fantastic cinematography and
mise-en-scene, and also some terrific performances by some of the actors, especially Rod Steiger, who won an Academy Award, in a rare display of good judgment from the Academy. Run-on-sentences aside, there were some aspects of the movie that I really didn't care for, namely the mystery itself, which, thankfully, was secondary in this movie. The mystery felt pretty weak, and only the "Rar. This guy is evil" presentation served as any real hint that he was the killer. It felt more-or-less weakly tied together, but the movie was still quite good.
Sin CityVery strong visuals here, and stories of badass dudes being badasses. The middle sequence with Micky Rourke was absolutely fantastic, and I'd say his character easily qualifies for "greatest badass of all time" consideration, because, really. My god. It was a little graphically violent for my tastes, but it made up for that some by having a suitable level of nudity for my tastes. Alexis Bledel has the bluest eyes in the world.
GhostbustersI remember watching this movie at least once when I was very, very young, and I should have kept my memories of the movie alone, because it really feels dated and choppy in this day and age. The movie's plot wasn't well put together at all, because the real conflicts or whatever of the movie don't show up on the scene very early at all. It feels like the POINT of the movie jumps around from place to place, and the ending is them driving off into the sunset after defeating the evil except.... ....when exactly did the evil whatsisface become the main plot of the movie? Performances felt really dated in an over-the-top 1980s sort of way, where I think everything in the decade was done to excess.
Still, the movie retains some of its good points, and the look of pure, unfiltered GLEE on the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man's face as he rampages through the city gets me every time, and is well worth watching the movie for by itself. I honestly
would not be surprised if that joke was much of the whole point of the movie, because I consider it that good of a visual. Nevertheless, this is solidly in the bottom half of the 10 movies I've seen this year.
Sex, Lies, and VideotapeThankfully, this movie is on the list, so Ghostbusters can feel good about itself. I watched this because a friend told me
A character in this movie has a fetish you probably have
Which was an interesting enough review to let me give it a look, but this was another movie that really felt pointless. I get the drama, but some of the dialogue just made me cringe, particularly the scene with Peter Gallagher and the potted plant. Between that trainwreck and the "FUCK ME YOUR MAJESTY" from American Beauty, I am convinced that Peter Gallagher is capable of sucking the sexuality out of damn near any scene or movie he is in, no matter how erotic it's intended to be. Also, the casting was stretching it by trying to make me believe that Laura San Giacomo could be sisters with Andie Macdowell. What the fuck, casting director?
The Bucket ListThis was a pretty decent comedy/feel good movie, in that it made me laugh and it made me feel good, so hey, it set out to do what it wanted. It was absolutely glurgy from start to finish, but I didn't mind, largely because I believe that the actors played roles that both firmly suited them, and that contrasted with one another well. A relatively simple plot but it was executed quite well, I felt. If you like nice, fluffy films, I'd have to recommend this one, but if you find sweetness or whatever to be too much for you, I'd stay away. If there were chicks in this movie, I'd call it a chick-flick.
HeroMake no mistake: Until I say otherwise, Hero is my pick for the greatest film ever made.
This was a positively breathtaking movie experience, and I'm
very glad that I got to watch it in class where we have the auditorium as opposed to watching it on my PC, which would probably suck some of the life out of it. We watched this for the "Cinematography" section of the course, and there's no small wonder why. The visuals in this movie are unrivaled. The subtle uses of symbolism (in colors, namely) are one of the few cases I've seen of symbolism which I actually felt worked and weren't contrived pieces of garbage. Shot-for-shot, the film is stunning from start to finish, and the story of Nameless and the "King of Qin" (Qin Shi Huang except not really) is itself worthy of retelling.
The action and wire-fu can be ridiculous at times, but partway through the movie, I decided to treat it like I would a ballet, and it really helped hold the movie together after that point.
Watch this goddamn movie.
The TerminalBut not this one. Of the 10 movies I've seen this month, this is easily the worst one. The Terminal is... I don't even know what it is. It's supposedly a comedy, except the best joke of the entire film is used up within the first 5 minutes or so, and the film is an ungodly
128 minutes. This is the length I would expect for an epic superhero movie or a western or... something more than a guy stuck in a goddamn airplane terminal.
Characters in the movie seemed to switch alignment seemingly at will, as the main "villain" of the story seemed to go from very believably sympathetic to over-the-top cartoonish evil at the drop of a hat. If the movie had outright TRIED to be a drama, it might have been better, but it clearly didn't try that hard at it. I liken this movie to my experience in college: It didn't know what it wanted to be, and it lingered around way longer than it should have. This was the first movie I've intentionally put on in YEARS, where I felt like I might turn it off instead of finishing.
I don't give a fuck if it's Spielberg. I don't give a fuck if it's Tom Hanks. I don't care HOW ridiculously hot Catherine Zeta-Jones and Zoe Saldana are. This was just a really bad, not very funny movie. Avoid at all costs.
The Maltese FalconA very good movie that, aside mostly from some tropes of its time, still stands up. Same Spade/Humphrey Bogart is pretty much the man I always want to be, even though I never really saw this movie today. Bogart is fantastic, and his vicious little smile is something I'm going to have to work on, because damn, that needs to go into my arsenal.
THIS mystery actually made a lick of sense, which is good, because unlike "In the Heat of the Night", the mystery is paramount to the enjoyment of this film.
I find it odd that this is the selection on classical editing, because really, there were parts where the editing of this movie really took me out of the action. Sometimes the characters or an object would VERY visibly jump from shot to shot, so that was a little distracting. There's also a "jump take" or two in the film, and those are REALLY distracting.
Nevertheless, this was a very enjoyable movie that didn't bore me the way some earlier Hollywood cinema can. I can see why Bogart is a legend. Also, I couldn't help but want to build a time machine so I could get Sydney Greenstreet to the future where he can play the Kingpin of Crime, because OH MY GOD HE IS THE KINGPIN. But no. We get fucking Michael Clark Duncan.
