Airline movies
On my flight out to Toronto, only one leg had a movie and it was a stupid one so I didn't watch it. However, it was also shown on my return flight to California (being on a different airline), so at this point I think I've seen enough visuals out of the corner of my eye to make an accurate assessment. The movie: License to Wed. Not a single laugh and the scenes with the robotic babies were freakish rather than humorous. I couldn't give it more than 2/10.
Oooh, but since it was a long enough flight from Chicago to Oakland, that wasn't the only movie we got to watch. We had the luck to also see Evan Almighty! Since I liked Steve Carell from the early years of the Daily Show, I was reasonably willing to give this one a chance and give it my full attention. Oh god. What a mistake. This one actually sucked any sense of humor out of you. Not a single remotely funny joke. On top of that, I was offended on all fronts by its Amero-Christian-centric portrayal. EVERYONE was Christian and just in various degrees of straying from God. EVERYONE was white except the one sassy black secretary. We never saw the wife at a job, so basically she only prepares breakfast and takes care of the kids. The evil senator was one who wanted to pass a bill to develop federal parks but hardly any remarks are made about our hero living in a brand new suburban development and driving a Hummer to work in the city every day. There's certainly no resolution at the end where he changes his habits. God shows him a view of the valley before there was any human development and then contrasts that with the sprawling city that's there now. The movie supposedly has a message of protect our environment and don't destroy the world, but doesn't support that with a change in habits or rate of conspicuous consumption in our "role models". It's that same middle America bullshit: we're not harming the world, the world is the way God wants it to be and if things are going wrong, God will right things without us having to give up any of our holy American consumerism. The ignorance of the message, masked with its self-proclaimed religious piety, made me sick. Shame on ever actor than lent his good name to this crap. 1/10.
I seriously don't get how people were laughing to these two movies. I also seriously worry about what they say about mainstream religious beliefs in the US. It's disgusting and it's totally mind-numbing.
At least I had a smarter movie to watch on my laptop during my layover in Chicago: Raise the Red Lantern. An early movie of Zhang Yimou and Gong Li, you can see her excellent acting and his obsession with rich color very early on. The story centers around the four concubines of a rich man in China; Gong Li is the newest and youngest. Li's character had been studying at a university before fate forced her to become a concubine, so her educated past underlines her frustration at the concubine system and being a player within it. She tries to play with all the backstabbing involved with trying to gain the master's favor, but she never can stoop completely to that level and fails as a result. There's a depressing sense of being hopelessly stuck in a system that you know better than to be in but have no way out of. The Master plays no role in the movie as a character--instead he's just the rules that the wives have to play within. Consequently, when he is on screen, he's obscured or not facing us and only once or twice do we actually see his face. The real characters of the movie are the four wives, trapped in their prison house. Very solid drama. 8/10.
By the time I got home, my brain was fried from traveling all day so Christian and I opened up a bottle of wine and snuggled up to watch a fairly light comedy, Jeffrey. Well, it's maybe not that light since it deals with AIDS, but it's got some wit and doesn't dwell on depressing scenes too long. The plot's a little thin (gay man is afraid of getting AIDS so he gives up sex) and the love story is kinda weak, but the movie runs strong for the first half regardless. Lots of humorous storytelling and fun cameos from a lot of famous faces. Sigourney Weaver was ridiculously funny in a cameo as a motivational speaker, with a timid Kathy Najimy as an audience member. I expected Patrick Stewart to be more campy, but his role wasn't that funny. Maybe it was funnier in the 90's? The movie is rather dated, but lots of scenes are still amusing. 7/10.
Oooh, but since it was a long enough flight from Chicago to Oakland, that wasn't the only movie we got to watch. We had the luck to also see Evan Almighty! Since I liked Steve Carell from the early years of the Daily Show, I was reasonably willing to give this one a chance and give it my full attention. Oh god. What a mistake. This one actually sucked any sense of humor out of you. Not a single remotely funny joke. On top of that, I was offended on all fronts by its Amero-Christian-centric portrayal. EVERYONE was Christian and just in various degrees of straying from God. EVERYONE was white except the one sassy black secretary. We never saw the wife at a job, so basically she only prepares breakfast and takes care of the kids. The evil senator was one who wanted to pass a bill to develop federal parks but hardly any remarks are made about our hero living in a brand new suburban development and driving a Hummer to work in the city every day. There's certainly no resolution at the end where he changes his habits. God shows him a view of the valley before there was any human development and then contrasts that with the sprawling city that's there now. The movie supposedly has a message of protect our environment and don't destroy the world, but doesn't support that with a change in habits or rate of conspicuous consumption in our "role models". It's that same middle America bullshit: we're not harming the world, the world is the way God wants it to be and if things are going wrong, God will right things without us having to give up any of our holy American consumerism. The ignorance of the message, masked with its self-proclaimed religious piety, made me sick. Shame on ever actor than lent his good name to this crap. 1/10.
I seriously don't get how people were laughing to these two movies. I also seriously worry about what they say about mainstream religious beliefs in the US. It's disgusting and it's totally mind-numbing.
At least I had a smarter movie to watch on my laptop during my layover in Chicago: Raise the Red Lantern. An early movie of Zhang Yimou and Gong Li, you can see her excellent acting and his obsession with rich color very early on. The story centers around the four concubines of a rich man in China; Gong Li is the newest and youngest. Li's character had been studying at a university before fate forced her to become a concubine, so her educated past underlines her frustration at the concubine system and being a player within it. She tries to play with all the backstabbing involved with trying to gain the master's favor, but she never can stoop completely to that level and fails as a result. There's a depressing sense of being hopelessly stuck in a system that you know better than to be in but have no way out of. The Master plays no role in the movie as a character--instead he's just the rules that the wives have to play within. Consequently, when he is on screen, he's obscured or not facing us and only once or twice do we actually see his face. The real characters of the movie are the four wives, trapped in their prison house. Very solid drama. 8/10.
By the time I got home, my brain was fried from traveling all day so Christian and I opened up a bottle of wine and snuggled up to watch a fairly light comedy, Jeffrey. Well, it's maybe not that light since it deals with AIDS, but it's got some wit and doesn't dwell on depressing scenes too long. The plot's a little thin (gay man is afraid of getting AIDS so he gives up sex) and the love story is kinda weak, but the movie runs strong for the first half regardless. Lots of humorous storytelling and fun cameos from a lot of famous faces. Sigourney Weaver was ridiculously funny in a cameo as a motivational speaker, with a timid Kathy Najimy as an audience member. I expected Patrick Stewart to be more campy, but his role wasn't that funny. Maybe it was funnier in the 90's? The movie is rather dated, but lots of scenes are still amusing. 7/10.