Catching up on films
So last night I watched The Prestige (came out yesterday), Hollywoodland, and an episode of the Munsters ("Don't Bank on Herman"). Earlier this past week I watched Flags of Our Fathers, and Talladega Nights.
Flags of Our Fathers was very good. Talladega Nights had one brilliant scene, and two lines of dialogue so good they were the funniest lines I've came across in a film the past four years (Clarke Duncan's "Don't put that evil on me Ricky Bobby!" and the kids responding to overhearng their parents' divorce plans with "Yea! Two Christmases!" -- That line is brilliance!). But otherwise the film, as expected, was typical slick Hollywood fluff.
Hollywoodland is incredible! I loved it a lot more than I was counting on, which was a lot. I'd say it's better than L.A. Confidential, and way better than the Black Dahlia (keeping in line with the subgenre of 1950's L.A.- based film noir). The Prestige was good, but had some things that bothered me about it. Christopher Nolan's Batman bothered me too, and this sort of felt like an extension of that.
Don't get me wrong, I think its WAY better than most of the other films that came out last year; I'd probably rank it in the top 15, if not the the end of the top 10. That does say a lot. I do REALLY appreciate how Nolan took a traditional narrative and simply jumbled it enough that it keeps you invested in figuring it all out, which isn't too hard past the first 15 min., but it still helps to break up the flow. And I was hoping Ricky Jay would have a MUCH bigger role! Instead he's simply a background actor. I'd love to see a film with him as a magician protagonist someday.
Now that the new job packets are off as of yesterday, I can relax a little by catching up on a few more rental titles, plus get back to finishing the flappers script and merging my draft of the Bald Knobbers with _the_antihero's so we can start getting funding next month, right on schedule!
Flags of Our Fathers was very good. Talladega Nights had one brilliant scene, and two lines of dialogue so good they were the funniest lines I've came across in a film the past four years (Clarke Duncan's "Don't put that evil on me Ricky Bobby!" and the kids responding to overhearng their parents' divorce plans with "Yea! Two Christmases!" -- That line is brilliance!). But otherwise the film, as expected, was typical slick Hollywood fluff.
Hollywoodland is incredible! I loved it a lot more than I was counting on, which was a lot. I'd say it's better than L.A. Confidential, and way better than the Black Dahlia (keeping in line with the subgenre of 1950's L.A.- based film noir). The Prestige was good, but had some things that bothered me about it. Christopher Nolan's Batman bothered me too, and this sort of felt like an extension of that.
Don't get me wrong, I think its WAY better than most of the other films that came out last year; I'd probably rank it in the top 15, if not the the end of the top 10. That does say a lot. I do REALLY appreciate how Nolan took a traditional narrative and simply jumbled it enough that it keeps you invested in figuring it all out, which isn't too hard past the first 15 min., but it still helps to break up the flow. And I was hoping Ricky Jay would have a MUCH bigger role! Instead he's simply a background actor. I'd love to see a film with him as a magician protagonist someday.
Now that the new job packets are off as of yesterday, I can relax a little by catching up on a few more rental titles, plus get back to finishing the flappers script and merging my draft of the Bald Knobbers with _the_antihero's so we can start getting funding next month, right on schedule!