Movie-watching extravaganza 2005
I wanted to talk about the movies I saw over Christmas break before I took them down from the "Last viewed" lists (on Verbatim), so here are some mini-reviews: all the movies I saw on the big-screen, as well as the ones I saw at home that I'm bothering to write about. Enjoy. :)
(I managed to watch every movie over the break that I was planning to watch, with the exception of Munich and a few movies that weren't playing anywhere anymore.)
At the theatre:
Pride & Prejudice
Understated and simple, this was quite an enjoyable movie. And it'd be so wrong for it not to be nominated for Best Cinematography sometime. I'm guessing the movie won't get a lot of nominations for things in general, though, and in part that has something to do with the aforementioned simplicity of the thing, which makes it seem more middling than extraordinary, at least when awards are involved.
RENT
It does not get cheesier than this, but I mean that in a good way. The music of RENT has been stuck in my head nearly non-stop for the past 3 1/2 weeks. That might conceivably be because I keep listening to it, but that's beside the point. I enjoyed this one too, and it's good fun even when it's being depressing. I'd watch this again anytime.
Memoirs of a Geisha
Somehow, this movie, at 2 hours and 16 minutes, feels long when you're watching it, even though it's well done, interesting, and visually appealing. I don't know much about acting, but I thought everyone did a great job (or at least gave a good effort). I don't know how different the movie is from the book.
Chronicles of Narnia
Again, I'd have to actually read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for my opinion to mean more. I liked this movie, but since the books and movie are meant to appeal mainly to children (as far as I know), everything turns out more positively than it would if the movie was meant for an older audience. Almost anything bad that happens is righted by the end of the movie, which somehow cheapens the emotions associated with the 'bad' things in the first place. But like I said, it's for the kids. There should have been more character development - for the four Pevensie children and Aslan, in particular - but everything looks great and there were a lot of memorable scenes. I'm almost certain that Susan was a more complete character in the books (right?); Lucy is the most developed character of the four children. Sometimes exposition can get heavy-handed, but I think we could have used a bit more of that.
A History of Violence
I...sort of think I must have missed something when watching this, because I didn't really pick up on any particularly complex themes and I wasn't left with lingering images or complexities that I needed/wanted to think about in more detail. Listening to what director David Cronenberg and his cast had to say about the movie at its Toronto International Film Festival press conference was much more insightful and thought-provoking than the movie itself, in my opinion, but based on that press conference, I was surprised by how seemingly straightforward the film was. Sure, there are some themes there, of course - like, for instance, the fact that [nearly] every character in the movie is affected by violence in some way - but I just found that there wasn't much there. I still think I missed the point, though, and that I should watch this again.
Brokeback Mountain
This movie's monopolizing all the award nominations, and for good reason. Well-acted, well-directed, and well-characterized, for the most part. The only thing was that I thought it wasn't clear enough what the two main characters liked about each other before they got together - what it was about each other that drew them together in the first place and created the bond that remains between them for the next several years. Once they are actually together, though, their relationship is entirely believable and it is clear how their personalities complement each other. Supporting characters are nicely realized, too, and as a viewer, you care about the characters and hope that, whatever happens, all of them will ultimately find happiness.
King Kong
Partway through watching this, I cursed Peter Jackson for his habit of putting things into his movies that he personally finds alternatively gross, frightening or creepy, because he knows that his audience will also find these things gross, frightening or creepy, as the case may be. I cursed him in a good, fond way, mind you, and I really enjoyed this movie. I had no expectations going into it - I didn't think it would be a bad movie, but I wasn't particularly interested in seeing a movie about the big ape - and was pleasantly surprised. Even though you [probably] know what will happen to Kong at the end of the movie, you still wish that somehow that won't happen, and that humans will smarten up and leave the poor, big guy alone. I would have given the movie 4 out of 5 except for the weak explanation (if any) provided for the ship captain's motivations for repeatedly coming to the rescue of various members of the film crew (the characters in Kong are attempting to film a movie), after he has clearly stated at least once that if the film crew disembarks onto Skull Island, they're on their own.
On DVD/TV:
Donnie Darko
Just as awesome as it's always been, except that it doesn't seem as inexplicable as it used to. Um, more because I'm used to it than because the movie itself actually getting more transparent to understand. Because, you know, it might still seem inexplicable if you find demonic bunnies, time travel, hallucinations or phys. ed. teachers odd at all. And you should. Oodles of memorable scenes that are either funny, interesting, confusing, or just really neat. I love this movie. I also like Gary Jules's version of the Tears for Fears song "Mad World", which is used to great effect in the closing scenes of this movie.
The Lord of the Rings (1978)
HA HA. Where to start? This movie is brilliant in its horridness. They call Saruman "Aruman" instead, but only half of the time. Anything magical glitters or shines brightly. Cheerful music accompanies the appearance of any Elf. Isildur got the ring from Sauron by heroically sneaking up behind the Dark Lord when he wasn't looking. Gandalf doesn't seem very friendly at all. Boromir wears a funny horned hat. Galadriel looks like Barbie. There's an odd mix of full animation and animation layered over live-action shots, because it was less expensive that way. Treebeard is just...off. 'Edoras' is pronounced two different, wrong ways. Bill the Pony gets killed by the Watcher in the Water! Like, duude! Bill's supposed to get back home on his own, dagnamit! Frodo, Merry, and Pippin are sort of cute, as they are drawn. Sam most decidedly is not. Also, he isn't really all that concerned about Frodo's well-being. Actually, I don't think they even say what Sam's relationship to Frodo is in the first place. Elendil and the Sword that was Broken are mentioned once (by Aragorn at the very short Council of Elrond scene) with nothing else to tell us why they're important. Also, Elrond says this about the ring: "We cannot keep it, we cannot destroy it". Then he says they have to bring it to Mount Doom, but doesn't say why - particularly since apparently the One Ring can't be destroyed.
Donnie Brasco
The movie from which the mobster phrase/word/thing "Fuhgeddaboudit" (forget about it) first came into popular knowledge, but the fact that I watched it 5 years after the fact kind of gave that whole thing less power. A decent movie, but I wasn't particularly enamoured with it. Johnny Depp rocked as per usual, though. I suspect he might be talented or something.
FBI Technician: What's "fuhgeddaboudit"?
Donnie Brasco (Joe Pistone): Fuhgeddaboudit it is like if you agree with someone, you know, like Raquel Welch is one great piece of ass, fuhgeddaboudit. But then, if you disagree, like A Lincoln is better than a Cadillac? Fuhgeddaboudit! You know? But then, it's also like if something's the greatest thing in the world, like mingia those peppers, fuhgeddaboudit. But it's also like saying go to hell, too. Like, you know, like "Hey Paulie, you got a one inch pecker?" and Paulie says "Fuhgeddaboudit!" Sometimes it just means fuhgeddaboudit.
Fight Club
The first time I watched this, I was like, "So...what's going on?" The second time around, with a few more years' worth of film-watching ability and equipped with foreknowledge of the movie's twist as well as having read a few bits of trivia regarding some of the little clues put into the movie to help you out along the way, I must say that I really liked the movie a lot better. If you actually know what's going on with this thing (and I do say you should watch it more than once), you'll be able to appreciate how intelligent this movie really is. Not that it's for a particularly highly-educated audience, really, in terms of subject matter and style and whatnot, but it's not that type of intelligence. It's funny, it's violent, and it's a movie that you'll notice something different about every time you watch it.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
This movie on its own is pretty good - entertaining enough, especially for a young audience - but it just doesn't do the books justice. Even though it's mostly based upon the first 3 books of the series, there were some things included in the movie that I'd never read about in the first 3 books, so I don't know if those things were made up for the movie, or if they just came from later books in the series. The books are...darker, somehow, than the movie. The kids do come across as fairly intelligent in the movie, but they come across more so in the books, and some of the group dynamic between the 3 siblings is missing. Likewise, Count Olaf is a more frightening villain in book-form than in the movie - as frightening as a villain would get, anyway, in a set of books for young people. Also, somehow by putting 3 books together as one movie leaves the 3 book storylines rather inadequately transcribed to the screen. Something is also lost through the decision to start the movie with the first half of the plot of Book 1, sandwich Books 2 and 3 into the middle of the movie, and end off with the remainder of Book 1. Watching this again with a more objective point of view - watching the movie as a stand-alone project - would probably help. I gave the movie half a star more than I would have otherwise solely due to the opening scene of the movie, which is just awesome.
Sin City
This movie is so visually astounding that I could watch it over and over again and not get bored. If you like nothing else about this movie, you'll at least be able to say that its style is amazing. When I went to see the movie on the big-screen, I was hooked at a particular moment in the movie's opening scene, and I've never looked back. I have no idea what this movie's trying to tell me, really, but it doesn't really matter all that much. It's darkly humourous, graphically violent, and full of cool one-liners.
Other movies I saw:
Fargo
Assault on Precinct 13
Love Actually
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous
Alien
Aliens
Aliens 3
Practical Magic
Alexander
Mean Girls
Zoolander
(I managed to watch every movie over the break that I was planning to watch, with the exception of Munich and a few movies that weren't playing anywhere anymore.)
At the theatre:
Pride & Prejudice
Understated and simple, this was quite an enjoyable movie. And it'd be so wrong for it not to be nominated for Best Cinematography sometime. I'm guessing the movie won't get a lot of nominations for things in general, though, and in part that has something to do with the aforementioned simplicity of the thing, which makes it seem more middling than extraordinary, at least when awards are involved.
RENT
It does not get cheesier than this, but I mean that in a good way. The music of RENT has been stuck in my head nearly non-stop for the past 3 1/2 weeks. That might conceivably be because I keep listening to it, but that's beside the point. I enjoyed this one too, and it's good fun even when it's being depressing. I'd watch this again anytime.
Memoirs of a Geisha
Somehow, this movie, at 2 hours and 16 minutes, feels long when you're watching it, even though it's well done, interesting, and visually appealing. I don't know much about acting, but I thought everyone did a great job (or at least gave a good effort). I don't know how different the movie is from the book.
Chronicles of Narnia
Again, I'd have to actually read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for my opinion to mean more. I liked this movie, but since the books and movie are meant to appeal mainly to children (as far as I know), everything turns out more positively than it would if the movie was meant for an older audience. Almost anything bad that happens is righted by the end of the movie, which somehow cheapens the emotions associated with the 'bad' things in the first place. But like I said, it's for the kids. There should have been more character development - for the four Pevensie children and Aslan, in particular - but everything looks great and there were a lot of memorable scenes. I'm almost certain that Susan was a more complete character in the books (right?); Lucy is the most developed character of the four children. Sometimes exposition can get heavy-handed, but I think we could have used a bit more of that.
A History of Violence
I...sort of think I must have missed something when watching this, because I didn't really pick up on any particularly complex themes and I wasn't left with lingering images or complexities that I needed/wanted to think about in more detail. Listening to what director David Cronenberg and his cast had to say about the movie at its Toronto International Film Festival press conference was much more insightful and thought-provoking than the movie itself, in my opinion, but based on that press conference, I was surprised by how seemingly straightforward the film was. Sure, there are some themes there, of course - like, for instance, the fact that [nearly] every character in the movie is affected by violence in some way - but I just found that there wasn't much there. I still think I missed the point, though, and that I should watch this again.
Brokeback Mountain
This movie's monopolizing all the award nominations, and for good reason. Well-acted, well-directed, and well-characterized, for the most part. The only thing was that I thought it wasn't clear enough what the two main characters liked about each other before they got together - what it was about each other that drew them together in the first place and created the bond that remains between them for the next several years. Once they are actually together, though, their relationship is entirely believable and it is clear how their personalities complement each other. Supporting characters are nicely realized, too, and as a viewer, you care about the characters and hope that, whatever happens, all of them will ultimately find happiness.
King Kong
Partway through watching this, I cursed Peter Jackson for his habit of putting things into his movies that he personally finds alternatively gross, frightening or creepy, because he knows that his audience will also find these things gross, frightening or creepy, as the case may be. I cursed him in a good, fond way, mind you, and I really enjoyed this movie. I had no expectations going into it - I didn't think it would be a bad movie, but I wasn't particularly interested in seeing a movie about the big ape - and was pleasantly surprised. Even though you [probably] know what will happen to Kong at the end of the movie, you still wish that somehow that won't happen, and that humans will smarten up and leave the poor, big guy alone. I would have given the movie 4 out of 5 except for the weak explanation (if any) provided for the ship captain's motivations for repeatedly coming to the rescue of various members of the film crew (the characters in Kong are attempting to film a movie), after he has clearly stated at least once that if the film crew disembarks onto Skull Island, they're on their own.
On DVD/TV:
Donnie Darko
Just as awesome as it's always been, except that it doesn't seem as inexplicable as it used to. Um, more because I'm used to it than because the movie itself actually getting more transparent to understand. Because, you know, it might still seem inexplicable if you find demonic bunnies, time travel, hallucinations or phys. ed. teachers odd at all. And you should. Oodles of memorable scenes that are either funny, interesting, confusing, or just really neat. I love this movie. I also like Gary Jules's version of the Tears for Fears song "Mad World", which is used to great effect in the closing scenes of this movie.
The Lord of the Rings (1978)
HA HA. Where to start? This movie is brilliant in its horridness. They call Saruman "Aruman" instead, but only half of the time. Anything magical glitters or shines brightly. Cheerful music accompanies the appearance of any Elf. Isildur got the ring from Sauron by heroically sneaking up behind the Dark Lord when he wasn't looking. Gandalf doesn't seem very friendly at all. Boromir wears a funny horned hat. Galadriel looks like Barbie. There's an odd mix of full animation and animation layered over live-action shots, because it was less expensive that way. Treebeard is just...off. 'Edoras' is pronounced two different, wrong ways. Bill the Pony gets killed by the Watcher in the Water! Like, duude! Bill's supposed to get back home on his own, dagnamit! Frodo, Merry, and Pippin are sort of cute, as they are drawn. Sam most decidedly is not. Also, he isn't really all that concerned about Frodo's well-being. Actually, I don't think they even say what Sam's relationship to Frodo is in the first place. Elendil and the Sword that was Broken are mentioned once (by Aragorn at the very short Council of Elrond scene) with nothing else to tell us why they're important. Also, Elrond says this about the ring: "We cannot keep it, we cannot destroy it". Then he says they have to bring it to Mount Doom, but doesn't say why - particularly since apparently the One Ring can't be destroyed.
Donnie Brasco
The movie from which the mobster phrase/word/thing "Fuhgeddaboudit" (forget about it) first came into popular knowledge, but the fact that I watched it 5 years after the fact kind of gave that whole thing less power. A decent movie, but I wasn't particularly enamoured with it. Johnny Depp rocked as per usual, though. I suspect he might be talented or something.
FBI Technician: What's "fuhgeddaboudit"?
Donnie Brasco (Joe Pistone): Fuhgeddaboudit it is like if you agree with someone, you know, like Raquel Welch is one great piece of ass, fuhgeddaboudit. But then, if you disagree, like A Lincoln is better than a Cadillac? Fuhgeddaboudit! You know? But then, it's also like if something's the greatest thing in the world, like mingia those peppers, fuhgeddaboudit. But it's also like saying go to hell, too. Like, you know, like "Hey Paulie, you got a one inch pecker?" and Paulie says "Fuhgeddaboudit!" Sometimes it just means fuhgeddaboudit.
Fight Club
The first time I watched this, I was like, "So...what's going on?" The second time around, with a few more years' worth of film-watching ability and equipped with foreknowledge of the movie's twist as well as having read a few bits of trivia regarding some of the little clues put into the movie to help you out along the way, I must say that I really liked the movie a lot better. If you actually know what's going on with this thing (and I do say you should watch it more than once), you'll be able to appreciate how intelligent this movie really is. Not that it's for a particularly highly-educated audience, really, in terms of subject matter and style and whatnot, but it's not that type of intelligence. It's funny, it's violent, and it's a movie that you'll notice something different about every time you watch it.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
This movie on its own is pretty good - entertaining enough, especially for a young audience - but it just doesn't do the books justice. Even though it's mostly based upon the first 3 books of the series, there were some things included in the movie that I'd never read about in the first 3 books, so I don't know if those things were made up for the movie, or if they just came from later books in the series. The books are...darker, somehow, than the movie. The kids do come across as fairly intelligent in the movie, but they come across more so in the books, and some of the group dynamic between the 3 siblings is missing. Likewise, Count Olaf is a more frightening villain in book-form than in the movie - as frightening as a villain would get, anyway, in a set of books for young people. Also, somehow by putting 3 books together as one movie leaves the 3 book storylines rather inadequately transcribed to the screen. Something is also lost through the decision to start the movie with the first half of the plot of Book 1, sandwich Books 2 and 3 into the middle of the movie, and end off with the remainder of Book 1. Watching this again with a more objective point of view - watching the movie as a stand-alone project - would probably help. I gave the movie half a star more than I would have otherwise solely due to the opening scene of the movie, which is just awesome.
Sin City
This movie is so visually astounding that I could watch it over and over again and not get bored. If you like nothing else about this movie, you'll at least be able to say that its style is amazing. When I went to see the movie on the big-screen, I was hooked at a particular moment in the movie's opening scene, and I've never looked back. I have no idea what this movie's trying to tell me, really, but it doesn't really matter all that much. It's darkly humourous, graphically violent, and full of cool one-liners.
Other movies I saw:
Fargo
Assault on Precinct 13
Love Actually
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous
Alien
Aliens
Aliens 3
Practical Magic
Alexander
Mean Girls
Zoolander