Movies update

Okay. Movies I've watched lately. And what I thought of them. In a hurry. (Before Drej kicks me for being late to another doggie walk. Man, how time flies when it's 6 am and you got all this wise things to say to the aether!)

Flight

Didn't understand this one. In the beginning, you have a really fucked up Denzel and a very pretty naked lady. They board a plane and the plane has it's day. Then he tries to recover, with a help of a pretty junkie, but although he's a hero, everyone suspects he did what he did 'cause he's a drunk. In the end, he admits he's a drunk and his son likes him again. Don't know what the fuck all this was about. but the plane crash was well shot (scary footage, really), and there's a scene with a cancer patient in a stairwell, whom I thought was amazing. Also, don't like seeing Goodman as a villain.

Argo 

Am I going to Hell, admitting I loved Ben Afleck here? Not just because he reminds me of my sister's boyfriend or because I just love that period of stripe-velvet beige jackets and thick beards. (Am making the General grow a beard.) I loved the bits where American public was saying oh, why don't the US super soldiers just go in, shoot everyone and save the hostages, while the reality of the situation was so very, desperately delicate. This was an unexpectedly good movie. No matter what degree of it was righteous. Argo fuck yourself.

Across The Universe

This is a really odd and oddly well done film. I'm in my Jim Sturgess mood, using a him-based character of Pruitt to narrate my fiction momentarily, and Jim Sturgess - something the directress of this film was well aware of - is a fiercely cute 'natural' actor. He may get lost in roles where he has to portray people he can't relate to, but when he's asked to play himself, you can't get your eyes off him. Even if he kisses like a gourami. Even everyone else in this weird coming-of-age, let's-communicate-via-The-Beatles-songs, fuck-Vietnam piece was adorable. And I don't even particularly like The Beatles.

Here comes the Boom

A meek teacher comedy abound a lazy, chubby guy who kicks it up a gear to help his friend and impress the school nurse. It's nothing to write home about, but it's a comedy and comedies are always nice. This coming from a person who lately watches The Philadelphia for breakfast. The actors were far more devoted to the concept than the screenwriters, so there's that. Also, there's some wrestling. And Neil Diamond. Was that song in Holy Smoke?

Zero Dark Thirty

(I heard someone say that although Mrs. Chastain is very nice, all the praise she is getting is rather hollow. All the movies she's doing, that do get such high praise, could just as well be done with any other actress. Same goes here.) I liked ZDT more than I thought I would, I liked the pace and I liked the concept of NOT developing characters. Namely, because when you're working on a field like that, you just DON'T get to know people. They are either ashamed of their past or they want to keep it private. Or they really aren't all that interesting. Uuu, you're a secret agent who tortures people! sexy! I bet you must have very interesting things to say and shit! ... No. Not really. Also, the whole debate about this being fiction - I don't think that was the point of this movie. In the end they never actually show who got shot. It could have been ANYBODY. A ghost. A blow up puppet. Anybody. That's the point. It all comes down to what some dedicated (fanatical?) employee will say and drop curtain. I think from that perspective, it was a good message. NOBODY knew what the heck that whole Osama chapter was about. Least of all tiny self-righteous patriots on a go.

Bachelorette

Didn't really watch more than a few flips through of this one. It's too bad. It has Rebel Wilson in it, that's why I tried, but this movie is just bad. All the other 'skinny, pretty' actresses are godawful. Too awful to watch.

End of watch

Really, really well done film. Loved it. Woke up an hour early just to be able to see how it goes. I read the plot beforehand, like I always do, because I cannot watch a movie, afraid something bad is going to happen. I don't know what life actually is like for the South Central LAPD, but I love the way these two poor guys narrate it. They see some of such nasty shit and it's just a normal day. Almost all of the roles were well chosen. maybe America Ferrera and Anna Kendrick stand out as too pretty and not really knowing what to do in such gritty set, but almost all the men remind me of people I used to work with one way or another. A big plus. though, don't watch this if you're not into tragic endings. Though of course that pretty famous actor survives.

Hotel Transylvania

Well drawn/voiced, lame script. 

Django Unchained

Kinda really good, fairly watchable, latest of absurd Tarantino movies. It helps if you're not trying to make any sense of the plot or listen too closely to the dialogue, but just about any scene with Christoph Walts is worth seeing four times.

The Impossible

An impressive footage of the tsunami washing over those poor people (twice), but most of the rest is just gruesome and overly uncomfortable footage of mangled people, decaying in infection and family drama. It's a good film, don't get me wrong, I just didn't like watching any of it. Not because I don't like to see disaster awareness, but just because I didn't like this side of it. Dunno. Something racists about it, I think. Can't explain. Like those natives are only good for being hotel servants, cooks and cleaning ladies, but when disaster strikes, all you can think about is getting faar away from their filthy, incompetent halls? I've seen disaster despair and it somehow lacks the Hollywood pathos in the real world.

Hitchcock was probably okay. Didn't see most of it. Helen Mirren was lovely as always, but everyone else, bar maybe D'Arcy, was kind of trying too hard.

Silver Lining Playbook

TRIED watching that, it just didn't come through. I just had no idea what it was supposed to say. And what was that man supposed to be? Hysterical? pathetic? Funny? Hopeful? Cute? Childishly naive and hence attractive? Or what the fuck? And the woman, whose meltdown was that she had sex with people. Is that like the ultimate fantasy? Crazy men move back to their parents and crazy women are sexy? Just didn't get it. I am not a fan of fast talking pointless words. Woody Allen may get away with it, but anyone else... Denis Leary, maybe.

I didn't get Looper either. 

Nor could I watch more than 2 minutes of Lincoln. I saw more of A. Lincoln: the vampire hunter than I saw of Lincoln. Which was bad.What IS it with Spielberg lately?

 

I am still to watch: Les Mis', Compliance, Mama, Farewell, My Queen (they say it's good?), John Dies At The End, Warm Bodies,