More Recent Movies
During my vacation week, I made one trip to the movies for a double feature. I first took in a showing of Angels & Demons. I like Tom Hanks, and I found The Da Vinci Code interesting enough to want to see the sequel. I was raised Catholic, but I have long since lost interest in religion. Even with the previous knowledge I had about Catholicism, I found the church history presented in Angels & Demons to be very educational (in a History Channel sort of way). The plot is well written and the movie is pretty well directed. If you get into Roman Catholic history or you like mysteries rooted in history, then this movie is for you. Otherwise, you'll probably only find it mildly interesting at best.
The second movie I saw that afternoon was Drag Me to Hell. All I had to know was that Sam Raimi directed it to get my attention. The movie looked cheesy from the trailer, but it also looked like fun. The movie turned out to be exactly what I expected. In much the same spirit as the Evil Dead trilogy (but without the male hero with a prominent chin), this movie is a classic cheesy stylized horror flick with lots of scare tactics and gross stunts. It's got Sam Raimi all over it. The plot was pretty simple and the scare tactics were very old school. The music was overly dramatic, but it fit well with the cheesy style. If you want a good mindless romp then go see this one. It might even make for a great date movie. (But not a first-date movie unless she's a gothic chick.)
While I was in Flint on Saturday, I met up with tai_meyer and we took in a showing of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. You don't get many details about the plot of this movie from the trailer, but it looked like a crime drama set around the taking of hostages on the New York subway. That's exactly what it was. The plot starts off pretty early in the film, and most of the movie is about the standoff with the hostage takers. I don't really care much for John Travolta as a bad guy, but he gave a pretty convincing performance. His character had a lot of attitude and style, and he played it to the hilt. Denzel Washington gives an excellent performance as a subway dispatcher who gets sucked into the bad guy's plot. The story is tense with a few good plot twists. It's not big on action, but it is there in all the right places; especially with a police car race through the streets of New York City and a climactic ending. I definitely liked it.
