One of those movies with a bunch of recognizable actors that disappeared from theaters very fast so you know it must’ve been disappointing. I am normally a huge Billy Crudup fan but I hated the goatee action here. Frankly Maggie Gyllenhaal’s character was the only one I didn’t want to give a good shaking to. And the ending is bizarrely happy and “everything falling into place” after the extremely negative tones of the rest of it. Occasional laughs or relationship insights, but for the most part not very good. Not horrible, but not really enjoyable either.
Category Archives: Flicks
Playing at a Theater Near You?
Movies I Might Try to See This Weekend
- There Will Be Blood (Looks intense, no? I am not DDL’s biggest fan but it appears a lock on many awards.)
- The Golden Compass (My dad loved the books and still enjoyed the movie. Jen liked both. I’m still willing to give the movie a chance, despite my irrational love for the books and my fear of what other people have been saying.)
Movies I Would See But Are Not “On My List”
- National Treasure 2 (I KNOW it’s not a good movie. but the first one was enjoyable despite that, and despite me hating Nicolas Cage. Remember, I’m a low class viewer of mainstream blockbusters and proud of it. )
- The Great Debaters (Eh. Subject matter doesn’t thrill me. But you can’t go wrong with two hours of Denzel.)
- Enchanted (Eh. No need to email me, I KNOW EVERYONE IS ALL GA-GA for it. I just don’t know if I can take that much sugar.)
Movies I Will NOT See Unless You Pay Me (and more than the price of the ticket)
- The Bucket List (middle-aged males patting each other on the back? (I’m being generous there, no?) It’s “Cocoon” all over again. And WHO CARES!)
- PS I Love You (I’m sorry Gerard Butler and “Denny”, but not even for the two of you.)
Wrapping It Up: Best Movies 2007
1. Grindhouse
2. Juno (and here and here as well)
3. A Mighty Heart (Knocked down a notch by Juno, but really great and I wish more people would have seen it.)
4. No Country for Old Men
5. American Gangster
6. Control
7. Blackout
8. In the Valley of Elah
9. The Bourne Ultimatum
10. Gone Baby Gone (In retrospect, and in comparison to others, this movie moved further up the list than I originally felt)
But there were lots of other movies I enjoyed as well, and you can read more about that here.
DVD: We Are Marshall
Kinda sappy but sweet, and Matthew Fox is pretty great in this. Some nice byplay between him and M. McConaughey. Not sure why it had such a mediocre box office performance/viewership; it’s not the greatest flick but certainly a decent effort.
I guess these would be the reasons I liked it and perhaps the same reasons you wouldn’t.
a) Sports, specifically football
b) Underdogs
c) Nostalgia
d) The classic hard knocks “rising from the ashes” story.
e) The classic “I want nothing to do with you” evolving into “Wow we’re teammates and/or roommates and we can actually get along” story.
f) Matthew Fox.
g) Students vs. the administration.
h) David Strathairn.
Big Screen (IMAX): Beowulf
Not a great, movie, no. But enjoyable? Certainly. Melodramatic and predictable? Yes. Humorously macho? Indeed! (That’s a positive!) A very muscle-y bravado Beowulf? Yum.
Decent performances from Anthony Hopkins and John Malkovich, neither of whom I had any idea were in this. And very seductive work by Angelina Jolie; I particularly like the ending where I (at least) was fairly certain we were meant to think her spell was about to work again…
I am finding myself very annoyed with people recently who will ONLY go to “good” “arthouse” flicks. Sanctimonious much? Sometimes I WANT to see an action film. Sometimes I WANT to see mainstream movies. Oh, I’m so pedestrian! You are so much MORE of a person than me! [Make. Me. Puke.]
IMAX viewing is weird though. When they’re standing super still and the camera is super close to their face, then they look real. When there’s motion (of any kind) or they’re not right up front, they look like 3D cardboard cutouts. Like in “Stepmom” when Julia Roberts helps the kids make big blown-up cardboard cutouts of pictures of them? Yeah, exactly like that. So you’re always wondering if visually it was actually better in regular flat movie viewing. (And less queasy, surely.)
Have to laugh with Megan though, the whole “covering up the penis” shots were hilarious, there were soooo many of them, and honestly, just have him wear a loincloth and then we don’t have to keep putting people’s elbows, or helmets, or candles, in the way of “it”.
Recent DadReactions
Big Screen: I Am Legend. Similar to how I felt. Good job by Will Smith but the ending sucked. And Dad also felt it was very derivative. The “ghoulie” types = copied straight from The Descent (one of his faves last year!). The “medicine becomes infection wipes out population and turns them into ghouls” = copied straight from 28 Days Later (and then Weeks also) . [Yes, we know this was a book a long time ago. But given what Carla’s told me about the book, it is pretty different than the movie.]
Big Screen: Juno. He LOVED it. Smart and sweet. Really thought the lead actress was excellent. Liked the parents a lot. Thoughtful and moving.
Readin’: “The Oxford Book of English Short Stories” ed. by A.S. Byatt (For our challenge. He’s ahead of me because he already owned the book and I had to wait for it to be delivered!) Really really strange selection of stories. Some good ones (the Kipling story is GREAT! [man I can’t wait to read it. Haven’t read Kipling since I wrote my Master’s Thesis (on “Kim”)]) but some that are just bizarre (and not enjoyable). Thinks we should read the V.S. Pritchett-edited Oxford collection as our last month of the challenge; in comparison, he thought that was a great collection/selection when he read it (which was why he had picked up this one).
TV: The Office. I gave him season 1 for xmas and said I’d pick up the rest if he liked it. Two episodes in, it was obvious it was a go, so we quick picked up the next two. I had watched these either on TV or on iTunes whereas he is watching the DVDs. a) He LOVES it. Says if he had nothing else to do, he would already be done because he just can’t get enough. b) He said the DVD extras are AWESOME and some are basically like an extra episode (20 minutes long!). [Crap, now I’m going to have to get the DVDs for myself!] c) General comments: Hilarious. Really enjoying it. Loves the Pam/Jim thing. Loves Dwight! d) Is already halfway through Season 2. Yay!
Lyrics of the Day
If you were a wink, I’d be a nod…
If you were the floor, I’d wanna be the rug…
And if you were an ocean, I’d learn to float…
-“All I Want Is You” Barry Louis Pollsar from the Juno Sdtrk.
Great movie, great tunes. It’s a win-win.
If you haven’t seen this yet, or are letting some crap-ass review taint your willingness to go, go read this review. And then go, for pete’s sake. Pete would want you to.
When both me AND my dad are as equally gung-ho about a film (yes, sometimes we disagree), I don’t think there’s anything else you need to know. It’s THAT good.
Big Screen: Atonement
Beautiful.
Breathtaking.
As faithful to the book as possible, given that it’s a film (is that not self explanatory?). Great performances. Nostalgically lovely to look at (1940s. Ah.). As (momentarily) romantic and sexy as can be…and then as heartbreaking and painful and… And it’s really that good. Cee thinks so too. As she points out, the “incidental” music…is just great. The staccato typing? Wow. The back/forth juxtaposition to resolve disparate points of view? Done so well.
And by the way, the book? ALSO THAT GOOD.
Keira Knightly. James McAvoy. Joe Wright (director). Well done.
Best of December
The best movie I saw in December was a tie between Juno and Sweeney Todd. Both made me laugh, one made me cry (just a little!), they both had great music and great acting. If I was forced at gunpoint to pick one, I’d probably go with Juno. Sweeney Todd is as good as you would expect, but not necessarily moreso; Juno was better than you could know, given the previews and the ridiculous whining some critics are doing (IGNORE THEM!).
The best book I read in December was…even harder to pick than the movies as I really loved almost everything I read this month. The funniest was a tie between “An Uncommon Reader” and “Gentlemen of the Road”. The most unusual was “Red Spikes” and the two I perhaps liked the most (and didn’t know at all what to expect from either one) were “Simplify” and “Incendiary”. But honestly, I would recommend ALL my December reads.
The best gig I went to in December…doesn’t exist because I didn’t go to any concerts in December! Can you believe it? I kinda can’t…
My favorite tunes in December were Sea Wolf “Leaves in the River” and Bat for Lashes “Fur and Gold”. Also loving Lupe Fiasco‘s new one “The Cool” and the soundtrack to Juno. Have a lot of new stuff that I haven’t spent enough time with yet, but can’t stop pressing repeat on the first few off The Avett Brothers “Emotionalism”.
Random personal highlights: Two and half weeks off. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT.
Lowlights? The worst drive home I’ve had in YEARS. One of the worst drives EVER in my LIFE. Really scary.
Big Screen: Sweeney Todd
Exhilarating. Johnny Depp shines once again. I loved it. A very enjoyable night at the movie theater.
If anyone ever films Dickens (again), they need to hire the guys that did the CGI London for this movie!!