100 movies in 2009: the first two
1. Tropic Thunder. I liked the movie, but I didn't love it. It was such a meta movie - I found myself wondering what someone who had not seen a lot of typical action movies would have thought. Would it have been funny if you didn't know the cliches it was mocking? I did think some things were funny - their blindingly white teeth, the agent's commitment to getting his client Tivo, the conversation about blue ray where RDJ turns to Jay Baruchel and says "were you talking to me this whole time?", and the actual black guy getting fed up with RDJ's fake blackness. I don't know, it was enjoyable entertainment but I don't think I'd watch it over and over. I liked Tom Cruise in his cameo role, but I thought his dancing at the end was too much. It wasn't necessary. I wished that all the characters would dance, not just him. 3 stars.
2. Stalingrad. Total change of pace from #1. Technically not a movie - it was a 3-episode TV documentary. But I watched it like it was a movie, so here it is. A documentary examining the battle/seige of Stalingrad, from both the German and Russian perspectives. Probably more of the German perspective. I've read about the battle - I don't know if it would have been difficult to follow if I hadn't. It was a brutal, brutal battle and seige. The Germans sent 300,000 men there and by the end of the war and after their POW term ended, only 6,000 men came back to Germany. At one point, 1000 men died every day, primarily from starvation. The Russians didn't fare any better. On both sides, many moved from eating horsemeat, to dogs, to cats, to cannibalism. But this is not talking about the movie. It does a good job of setting the stage of why the battle was important to both Hitler and Stalin, the missteps the Germans took, the challenge of urban warfare (so similar to modern situations), the troop movement and army strategies, the post-war experience in the Russian POW camps, and the situation at home back in Germany. The interviews and first person stories are tremendously moving. It's a good insight to a side of WWII that Americans might not know about, but had a huge impact on Germany and, I'd imagine although I know less about it, on Russia. 4 1/2 stars.