I watched Bad Santa last night, a wholly inappropriate family movie, but I laughed my ass off. There are a few scenes in that movie that are truly hilarious, such as the scene involving the wooden pickle. I've got to agree with Roger Ebert's review, Billy Bob Thornton was pretty brave to tackle this role. I about fell off the couch at this line, spoken by Santa:
"I turned a corner yesterday...I beat up some kids. . .I felt like I really accomplished something. . . "
If you're looking for a great romantic comedy, check out Love Actually. We watched it this weekend and had many good laughs. It's a bit schmaltzy and sentimental at times, and there are probably a few too many characters to try to keep track of, but it was really a lot of fun. If you haven't seen it yet, put it at the top of your Netflix rental queue.
I saw Black Hawk Down this weekend. It isn't one of those movies you can wait to see on video, it demands the true Theatre experience to really hit you with the full impact of the movie.
And what an impact it was. This is the first movie that could actually cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in a person. Yes, the movie was gory, and normally that doesn't bother me. But the level of realism attained in this movie was what really drove it home, it wasn't cheesy cartoon-like violence, those wounds seemed real, and the knowledge that the movie is based on actual events makes it seem real to the viewer.
I was literally horrified, it's a terrifying experience to watch the planned raid by the American soldiers go so disasterously wrong. This isn't a cheesy patriotic film, it's not about moral superiority, or great leadership. It's a illustration of Murphy's Law, and it's worth $6.50 and 2.5 hours of your time.
I don't pretend to be a serious movie critic, however, so I'll link to my favorite critic, Roger Ebert, and his review of the film.
It was too hot to spend any significant time outdoors this weekend, so I saw three movies. I saw Shrek and A.I. at the local theatres, and enjoyed Cast Away from the comfort of my living room.
Of the three, I liked Shrek the best. The computer animation was simply stunning on the big screen, and it was much funnier than I thought it was going to be. The little digs at Disney were quite funny as well..
A.I. was quite entertaining, though a little long. This is most definitely not a movie for kids. Don't take yours along thinking that it is. The underrated Bicentennial Man covered much of the same material as this movie, and I think it did it better.
Cast Away was very entertaining, though I think it would have been even better if more time was spent focused on him on the island, and less time...well, I'm not going to give anything away like the trailers unfortunately did.
Alas, it is just as I feared, Pearl Harbor is no good. At least that's what Roger Ebert says in his review. I was afraid that Pearl Harbor would suffer from Armageddon syndrome, in which lots of explosions and cheesy patriotism are substituted for a decent plot or any semblance of realism. I can suspend disbelief, but I don't want a movie to treat me like a 5 year old. It's too bad Spielberg or James Cameron couldn't have done this movie instead. I'd gladly suffer through a love story element if the director had taken Cameron's obessive-compulsive approach to historical accuracy.
I almost always agree with Ebert's reviews of movies, his tastes run parallel to mine, and he hates being insulted by a movie even more than I do. Here's the first paragraph from his review:
"Pearl Harbor" is a two-hour movie squeezed into three hours, about how on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle. Its centerpiece is 40 minutes of redundant special effects, surrounded by a love story of stunning banality. The film has been directed without grace, vision or originality, and although you may walk out quoting lines of dialogue, it will not be because you admire them.
