Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Sunday, January 29, 2006
a day for the books
i got out of bed at 11 am.
so as i said, i'm about movies and musings. i'll leave this to movies today because my musings are rather dark. movies: today was a record day for me. i saw 4 movies. yep. four. that ties for the most movies i've seen in one day. the last time i saw four movies in one day it was 1995. so here i go...
sahara.it was 45 minutes too long. that was my first thought. my second was "damn! matthew mcconaughey is fine!"penelope cruz ain't half bad either but her accent annoys me. pretty much not pc huh? but the truth.
the story is based on a clive cussler novel. a naval researcher goes off looking for a lost conferderate ship...in the saharan desert. meanwhile, cruz's character is a WHO doctor looking for the source of an outbreak. of course, their searches are really the same and they save the day. oh and there's steven zahn playing his same quick witted, silver tongued side kick character. i'd love to see him in a different role. anyway, it seems lately i've watched a number of movies about the corruption of africa. just an observation. the movie runs about 128 minutes which is way too long. it was easy to "figure out" and not terribly entertaining. grade: c-
serenity.i really enjoyed this movie and had a good time watching it. now, it could have been my friend's enthusiasm or her couch or popcorn or the chocolate covered raisins....no, it was the movie.
a "space western" that deals with the future of the universe, serenity is actually the name of the ship that is home to a motley crew. their leader, "Capt. Mal" is a wry, rebel type who, when it's all said and done, leads the crew in an adventure to save a psychic ass-kicking 17 year old girl from the hands of the alliance. the alliance pretty much rules the universe and we all know absolute power corrupts absolutely. it was just a great romantic, comedic, action story with a futuristic setting and 'good v. evil' lesson, to boot. as is my motto for 2006, this movie is "good times". grade: a-
the closet. 2001 french film about a man who pretends to be gay in order to keep his job. he's considered boring by everyone. his wife has left him two years prior and he's still pining after her. his son purposefully avoids him. in short, life stinks. he decides to kill himself but then enter a neighbor with the idea to be gay in order to appear "more interesting".
this movie was entirely likeable but i got tired of the multiple misunderstanding brought about by this lie. this seems to happen a lot in the last couple of french films i've seen. i understand the point but it becomes weary. anyway, the most annoying/unbelievable was gerard depardieu - a bigot who has a change of mind and heart. what was good was how his "change" actually made others change their attitude toward him. i read some review that said the main character never changes but the people around him do. i disagree. his "coming out" actually does take him outside of himself in order to more fully evaluate his life. maybe someone would suggest this to bush? grade: b
november. 78 minute, 2004 indy featuring courtney cox. i don't really know what to say. i didn't like it and that's probably why i'm so inarticulate.
WARNING:SPOILER! sophie, played by cox, is a photographer who is having trouble grieving her boyfriend. he's shot in a convience store following a night of chinese food. "yes, i'm still hungry. you know what they say about chinese food." only that's what you think is going on. actually, she's dying and living through the stages of grief. this is easily deduced based on the titled chapters, "denial", "despair". well, i mean i do work in mental health and watch an inordinate amount of movies so maybe it was easily deduced for me. REGARDLESS, the slick editing and empty space left much to be desired, very much. i'm glad i got it through netflix. grade: d
whew. movie'd out. time to just snuggle up in bed and listen to the wind attempt to blow in my window.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
promises, promises
i hereby pledge to update this journal at least 4x/week. we'll see how that goes. i haven't had a public web page/journal thing since 1998. i'm a little gunshy.
what i really want to do is have somewhere to try my unrealized movie critic dreams. i watch so many of them and besides saving ticket stubs, i have no other record. i also never record what i thought after watching, save for the conversations with friends i may or may not have seen the movie with. so that's that really. i hope to have the first reviews going soon. i also moved to portland in may 2005 so meeting local folks is always nice.
yes, i will always type in lowercase.