February 13, 2010

Big Screen: A Single Man

Oh so very arty, Tom Ford.

But unfortunately not enough plot and sense to back that art up. Pretty to look at. But lots of holes. (Every gay male is an adonis. Oh wait, that's true, right? Haha. The bar down the street has the same bartender now that it had 16 years ago. Colin Firth ages but his partner doesn't. Etc, etc.) And the whole "he's grey with misery" but "now he pinks up, alive with life" camera/film technique got old, pretty fast.

But there was lots of nice grain and soft light. And pretty pretty boys. Mmmmmm Matthew Goode. (I highly recommend the film "Imagine Me & You" (available on DVD. a very favorite.) if you want to see him get to do more than he does here.)

It vaguely reminded me of the book "The Line of Beauty" by Alan Hollinghurst (read back in 2004 so my memory of it is quite vague indeed) but that may just be b/c of the whole gay melodrama more than anything else (set in totally different times).

Posted by Duff at 06:48 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

January 23, 2010

Big Screen: Sherlock Holmes

It was entertaining and fun and weirdly action-packed and RDJ and Jude Law have nice bromantic chemistry and the steampunk-ness of it all was visually stimulating.

But it had little to nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes. I mean, my god, people, if you're going to make a movie about Sherlock Holmes, a GREAT PLOT SHOULD BE THE POINT. This movie really falls short there.

So you know, go to it to have fun. But not to find yourself intellectually challenged. As the real Sherlock Holmes, at his best, always does.

Posted by Duff at 09:57 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Daybreakers

I loved it. It's creepy and icky and SUPER GORY and it actually kind of ANNOYED THE FUCK OUT OF ME when some Zombie-dressed people (I'm not joking about that) laughed at stuff that was super gory when it clearly was NOT funny. It's super imaginative and interesting and totally worth seeing in the theater. And Ethan Hawke is actually pretty good in it and so is Sam Neill. The dude who plays Ethan Hawke's brother is yummy. FYI. If you, say, need for there to be a yummy boy for you to be interested.

Posted by Duff at 09:53 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

January 22, 2010

iPod: Twilight / Big Screen: New Moon

I had read all the books, but I hadn't seen the movie, and then I had a date planned with a school friend to see the second one. So I watched the first one on the plane to Georgia so I could see the second one with her when I got home.

Twilight
Admittedly a very cheesy book so you know a somewhat cheesy movie. But well-done nonetheless. I mean, if you are going to make a movie of a cheesy book, you have to treat the cheese with respect. Treated the romance like it was more romantic than it was...thus making it romantic. And lordie, where they filmed this is just plain drop-dead gorgeous. Gorgeous forests, gorgeous house (the vampire house, of course). Lovely. Cheesy. Laughable at times, but not a horrible movie. Honestly.

New Moon
Not good at all. Basically felt the entire time like the director was saying "this is so cheesy! and I'm not cheesy! so here's a cheesy movie! I can't do more with this material! I'm NOT like it!" Yes, the Volturi stuff was pretty excellent. But honestly the rest of the time I just felt like he was cutting off dialogue/conversations too fast, not letting it Be what it IS and be OK with that. Still filmed in lovely places. But not as well done as the first AT ALL in my opinion. I hope they don't have this guy doing the third one. (I'm sure I could already find out if I cared enough to do a search. But I guess I don't.)

And also: They made the wolves WAY too big. They were supposed to be BIG like surpisingly big for a wolf but just enough that someone who didn't know could still kindof believe they were a wolf. Not supernaturally ridiculous big. If they're that big why would it take even one to kill a vamp let alone five.

Posted by Duff at 12:06 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

January 17, 2010

Big Screen: Four Flicks at the Chicago Film Festival.

Ah, the CIFF. One of my very favorite things about living here. So easily accessible. The previous year I saw 15 flicks there. (I KNOW! NUTS!) The year before, six (one, two, three, four, five, six). This year, I was busy with school and skeered to spend much money so I only saw four. And three out of the four were FANTASTIC. So I was extra happy I made good choices!!!

SPY(IES) [ESPION(S)]
Super! Sexy! Sleek! The main dude looked like a French Patrick Dempsey. Loved this movie. Believed in the frustrations and the attractions. Very nicely done.

Love and Savagery
The one of the four that I didn't think was great. It was beautifully filmed (in Ireland, where it's set, I presume) but the storyline and most of the acting were really below par. Particularly compared to the others.

Girls on the Wall
A documentary about girls in an IL juvenile facility who put on a musical/play for their families / guardians / etc. based on their own stories. So good. Really intimate look at their lives. There are so many places one's life can go wrong. So many times the wrong choice can turn into a terrible mistake. And then there are the ones who fight and fight and eventually rise above that. Really powerful.

Fish Tank
Kinda hard to watch. Super yicky subject. Super fantastic (FANTASTIC) acting. I think this one is now being released wider (saw a review of it in EW) and I highly recommend seeing it. I mean, the subject matter is tough. But the acting is so good. And there's a lot to like here. It really tied me up emotionally. And the main dude, Michael Fassbender, was also fantastic in "Hunger" that I saw last year (and he also plays the Scottish soldier in "Inglorious Basterds"). Dude has fantastic RANGE.

Posted by Duff at 04:07 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

Big Screen: Zombieland

Hilarious, good fun. Somewhat spoofing all those zombie / apocalypse movies ("28 Days Later" and the like) but came up with some original stuff to fill it out. Quite enjoyable.

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Big Screen: Whip It!

So much fun!! I loved it just as much as my dad did. Sucks that more people didn't see this because you really missed out on one of the most fun evenings at the movie theater all year. ALL YEAR, PEOPLE.

Loved how un-Juno-like Ellen Page was in a role that could have felt very similar. Loved her interactions with her parents; loved the teams, the camaraderies vs. the rivalries. Loved the music and the boy. LOVED IT.

Posted by Duff at 04:00 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

January 12, 2010

DadReaction: Hurt Locker

I've already told you how much I loved Hurt Locker (twice). Dad loved it too.

OMG!!Fabulous!! Will James was so intense!! And how they'd freak out when they didn't know what was happening!! You can see why the guys in Iraq just blast away. Super.

I include the following paragraph for hilarity's sake, perhaps you need some humor in your day. No, we are NOT going to become bomb defusers.

But hey: when I came out I wondered: am I too old to do this shit? Because I would LOVE to do this shit!!!! What do you think? Look--the UN must need people to defuse all those minefields around the world, no? LET'S DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Research it! We'll do it together. (As your Mom said when I mentioned this, "You're probably too old--but, on the other hand, nobody would care if you died." Exactly!!) So let's do it!!

ETA: More musing on The Hurt Locker. Funny: Your mom really put off by it--something about the guy disturbed her. But I'm sitting there thinking: I could be that guy!! In fact, it reminded me of some of the calls I went out on when i was with Temperature Control at Purdue*--you'd walk in alone to these insane situations--steam pipes busted , heat going wild, animals freaking out in their cages, HUMANS (worst animals on earth) freaking out, and: WOW! what a buzz you'd get from the challenge!!! Just the challenge to be focused while all this chaos was around you. I mean, I so get that: that it could be your happiest time on earth.

That little smile on James' face at the end, when he's gone back for another tour and he's walking out to deal with whatever's out there. Yeah, yeah....

Oh, reminds me: one of my favorite movies is about another bomb disposal squad--called Juggernaut, w. Richard Harris, David Hemings. Seen it? Worth a look. Richard Lester, of all people, directed.

*Note he has a PhD and an MDiv but yes there was a time when he had two young kids and a wife and worked at Temperature Control to pay the rent.

Posted by Duff at 12:32 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under DadReaction, Flicks, Watchin'

DadReaction: Julie & Julia

It gets my award for most JOYFUL movie of the year. Grinning the whole time. The mod. story (about the blogger) has been sort of carped at by reviewers, but I thought Adams and the guy were v. believable and funny and neurotic--I mean, the stories, eras, women are different but, boy I'd say Adams held her own with Streep. Of course, Streep is getting the praise and she is super--esp. playing such an outsized, well known drama queen like Julia Child. Great impersonation, but she's in the character--you laugh and cry with her, fight with her.

I thought all the humor was very character driven and not contrived (as in the romcoms of the summer--TheProposal and themoviethatmustneverbenamed), and I thought both lives were very gently led to the paths they took. Back and forth between the eras very good too--and interestingly, both eras have a grim background: 9-11 with the mod story and the McCarthy witchhunt in the Child story.

So you get this genuine search for joy in ordinary life, no matter what the world's doing, which is of course how we all live. And the movie takes you to the joy. Highly recommended.

Posted by Duff at 12:28 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under DadReaction, Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Inglourious Basterds

I came out of this movie with a huge grin on my face, I just enjoyed the frak out of it. Then I turned to Carlos and said "WASN'T THAT GREAT" and he shrugged and said: "Eh. I wasn't into it." Um WHAT?!

Yeah, I don't know. People explain to me what they don't like about Tarantino movies and usually those are exactly the things that I DID (do) like. I like the stylized violence and the comic/graphic novel chop chop and the over-the-topness of it all. I like that the characters you expect to have morals don't, and the ones who seem completely cold do.

In this flick in particular, I just thought there were some brilliant casting moves, some great performances*, it was vivid visually. I loved the settings; I loved the tweaking of the history. I loved seeing an irreverent look at WWII frankly.

Although I think this article has some decent (critical) points...I don't think his movies are all schlock and awe, and to some extent, yes I think you can safely assume that his whole nonchalance attitude about a "deeper message" is just yet another subterfuge. And while yes, you should not adore something for its aesthetics if it's morally bankrupt like the Nazi propaganda films, Tarantino films are NOTHING like that to my mind. This flick's "Are you going to take your uniform off?" Q & As (and their result!) alone have a very (correct) moral message. [Trying not to be spoilerific there.]

*"Ryan" from The Office stuck out like a sore thumb for me. He's the one that I just could not see in his role. He always seemed way too clean and showered compared to the rest of the Basterds.

Posted by Duff at 12:15 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

January 04, 2010

Big Screen: Thirst

A transfusion turns a priest into a vampire and then there's just a boatload of sex and blood and murder and vampirism and oh I did NOT like this movie at all.

In fact, of all the movies I saw in 2009, which was not really very many, this is the one I really wish I had never seen (with The Wrestler and Gran Torino as #s 2 and 3 - those reviews are spoilerific, btw).

Posted by Duff at 01:54 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Julie & Julia

I've beyond sick of hearing people whine about this movie and how much they don't like Julie Powell. Particularly since that really ain't the point at all. Also: Amy Adams is fantastic in this but isn't getting credit for her performance due to the aforementioned wendy whiner whinging.

Yes, Meryl Streep is fantastic, as is Jane Lynch as her sister. Both are almost unrecognizable they're so fully sunk into character here.

And while it's great to honor Julia Child with her current resurgence of popularity, as my friend GirlDetective reminds people, this movie would not exist without Julie Powell (and her book)*. I like how this article puts it as well.

You know, Julie Powell didn't have a well-off diplomat for a husband (and didn't come from money either). She didn't get to learn to cook on her leisure during the day, gallivanting around. She had a shitty job and a shitty apartment in a hard city to live in and frankly I say more power to her.

I loved the blog / didn't like the book (had a very different tone / style than the blog. Maybe too heavily edited?) / loved the movie.

*I left a long comment there you can peruse as well.

Posted by Duff at 01:39 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: District 9

Yes, it's a little ridiculous to be writing about this now when I saw it back in September! And anyone who wants to has seen it already. I'm just trying to whip through things and close out Snip PROPERLY for the year although why I feel I MUST do that, I really can't say.

Anyway.... it was a really great movie. Effects were great, acting was great, intense storyline, very satisfying. My #2 movie of the year. (Hurt Locker was #1.)

I'm so pleased there is quality sci fi being made again. There's just nothing like seeing it on the big screen.

Posted by Duff at 01:36 PM | E-Mail | Comments (1) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

Big Screen: An Education

Really yicky in some ways. But ends better than it seemed it would.

And it is just filmed in such a classy way. The clothes, the sets, the music. You want to visit this world only NOT with Sarsgaard and NOT with all the idiots who never step in to address a situation that is clearly bad from the very beginning.

The lead, Carey Mulligan, has a very Audrey Hepburn-esque quality. Lovely performance by Olivia Williams, nice to see her somewhere other than Dollhouse.

Nicely done but sometimes hard to watch. In the way 13 is a well-done movie but something I never, ever, EVER want to see again. This isn't as harsh as that, but it's in that vein.

Posted by Duff at 01:22 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

December 27, 2009

Big Screen: Crazy Heart

Leisurely paced but not slow. Heartaching but not completely breaking. Really nuanced performances. Lovely music. Thumbs up all 'round.

ETA: And I forgot to tell you that my favorite drummer Jay Bellerose (from here and he played at this show also although I didn't know it at the time) played in the movie / on the soundtrack. Oh YES! :)

Posted by Duff at 12:38 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

December 24, 2009

Big Screen: The Young Victoria

Quite lovely.

I feel like I've seen a zillion movies about Elizabeth so it was nice to visit with a different monarch for a while. Emily Blunt was fantastic.

And I loved that she got to have a love story (and not a salacious one), even if it that meant I cried through a lot of it. Very nice interplay between the couple.

Posted by Duff at 04:17 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

December 23, 2009

Big Screen: The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Very charming. Wonderfully voiced. I really love the puppet look vs. traditional animation.

Posted by Duff at 09:11 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

December 22, 2009

Big Screen (3D): Avatar

Well. I guess I'll have to eat crow. I thought this movie looked really, really dumb (as I may have mentioned here and also here) and I went to it somewhat against my wishes.

And I really enjoyed it.

It's super heavy handed, almost clunkily so ("I AM A GOOD GUY! SEE THE SIGN ON MY HEAD!"), and very typical in its... racial... assumptions, let's say, but despite that (or because of it?) it totally works on one's emotions and I just couldn't help but care about the characters.

And it doesn't hurt that Sam Worthington is really kinda secretly sneak-up-on-you hot. (I have told you that before even though I didn't know his name then and just called him that "half-terminator dude".)

We paid for 3D and I thought the effects were SO MUCH BETTER than when I saw 3D Beowulf, but I am wondering if there's a difference between 3D on the regular movie screen and 3D on Imax...

Posted by Duff at 07:46 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

December 18, 2009

The Comfort Food of DVDs

So I like to have movies on in the background when I'm crafting but they generally have to be movies I both like and have seen a million times. I once had a friend come over and ask:

Her: "What do you do with all these DVDs?"
Me: "What do you mean? I watch them."
Her: "You rewatch movies?"
Me: [Stunned Silence.]

Wednesday

• Tristan & Isolde - Mmmm James Franco mmmmm.
  
• In the Line of Fire - One of my all-time favorite movies. Unfortunately it appears to be time for a new DVD as this one kept mysteriously skipping scenes!
  
• Three Days of the Condor - An old espionage favorite. I love her photographs.
  
• The Other Boleyn Girl - The only one I hadn't seen before (I needed a break in my crafting!). I remember this getting seriously panned but I thought it was decent. Portman and Johanssen really playing against type here.
  
• Chariots of Fire - Oh Yes. Watching this counts as exercising, right?

Thursday

• Garden State - Music and laughter.
  
• Laurel Canyon - Music and angst. And Alessandro Nivola being very sexy.
  
• Iron Man - RDJ has never been more fun.
  
• Hot Fuzz - This will never get old.
  
• Point Break - How can you watch Hot Fuzz and NOT follow it up with Point Break? But in all seriousness, this might be my favorite movie of all-time. And it is definitely my favorite Keanu movie of all-time.

And I'm off to the theater to see Avatar today. I actually think the previews make it look really, REALLY DUMB, but Steve keeps SWEARING it's good and Carlos suggested it. So we'll see.

Posted by Duff at 09:04 AM | E-Mail | Comments (1) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Lists, Watchin'

December 04, 2009

Big Screen: Up in the Air

Even though I am waaaay behind on movie reviews (which is odd considering I haven't even seen very many this year, I'm going to tell you about last night's flick anyway! I'll get all caught up on Snip over my "winter break." I'm sure you were concerned heh...

So last night I saw the new Clooney movie (I believe it's set to come out 12/25 [per IMDB] but I have connections...)... It was a really good solid flick. My friend Steve is calling it, at this point, his #1 of the year. I don't feel quite as strongly as him, but I did really enjoy it.

As Jason Reitman movies are (Juno, Thank You for Smoking), it's chock full of dialogue and witty interplay. Clooney is really charming for a character with some very fucked up ideas about how to live life, and the interplay with Vera Farmiga is pretty great.

It's quite bittersweet and the ending is either really sad or sorta hopeful depending on which members of our group you ask. We all enjoyed it. We also enjoyed that they credited someone as playing "Makeout Dave." I plan to introduce myself as Makeout Carolyn in the future. Hahahaha.

I oddly happened to be with a group of people who mostly have not seen "The Departed"* and was really weirded out the whole movie by how different Farmiga's face looked from her (awesome) performance in The Departed. Lo and behold, she was pregnant (or had just been pregnant?) during the filming. That must've been a body double in the one, fairly gratuitous, random look at her nekkidness.

*I didn't think those people existed. Watch The Departed. It's good!

Posted by Duff at 08:17 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

October 18, 2009

Big Screen: Ponyo

I am really not a fan of animation in general, but wow I loved this movie. The art was soooo pretty, the story was sooooo sweet, the music was fun. It was happy making.

PONYO LOVES SUSOKE!!! (Susoke sounds like "Sose-kay")

Posted by Duff at 05:17 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Paper Heart

An odd little half fake / half true indie piece. One of several sweet lil romances of this summer in film. I guess the fact that I knew all along (before seeing it) which bits were faked made me never really fall for some of it. If you really love the whole awkward geek thing, this may be the ultimate film for you. Jenni and I have a whole routine of us walking around with our sleeves pulled way down and our shoulders hunched and letting out just a funny giggle every once in a while...

Charlyne Yi (writer, star) was there taking questions and it was really funny. I liked her more there in her real self than the self of her that was in this film.

Funny and worth seeing, and some good tunes, and a Michael Cera performance, but ultimately I liked both 500 Days and Away We Go better. (But maybe that's because I am looking for fantasy, and not reality, on the movie screen.)

Posted by Duff at 12:39 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Hurt Locker

Wow. Just...WOW. If you only go to one movie this year, make it this one. (If you go to two movies, make it this one and District 9.)

Really breathtaking filming in how much it puts you right into the minds and hearts of these soldiers and into the insane tense unknown world that is this war right now. There were so many scenes where I was on the edge of my seat...and the choice NOT to explain everything, and NOT to tell you whether something that appeared dangerous really was as dangerous because they went away and never saw the resolution of it... So good.

Well-acted, well-directed. Tour de force. This is brilliant filmmaking. And some other piece of crap is going to win the Oscar for Best Picture and I'm going to keep telling you: Hurt Locker is the movie that should win and that you should be watching and talking about and watching.

If I was going to send out my Christmas packages this year (which most likely I won't be due to lack of any income), this is the movie I would choose.

You may be a little paranoid after seeing it the first time. And the second. You may be noticing every car that's weaving on the streets, and every passerby who looks at you and then seems to signal to someone else across the road, and every window that suddenly closes right as you walk by it... But it's so worth it.

[I liked it so much...I accidentally reviewed it twice! Turns out I told you about it months ago already!

Posted by Duff at 12:26 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

Big Screen: 500 Days of Summer

Really not quite the sweet romance you may have been expecting. Turns the gender stereotypes upside down. Really enjoyable and funny. Great soundtrack. Nice beats. Love the pentultimate and ending scenes.

Posted by Duff at 12:24 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Public Enemies

I thought this was a good movie, but not a great one.

On the great side, Johnny Depp's performance was brilliant. The sets, clothing, atmosphere were all well done. The dude playing the agent from Texas was great - and I loved his (kind) lie at the end. Marion Cotillard was wonderful and it was so nice to see her not looking like Edith Piaf on screen! :)

On the not as great side, he winds up in jail way too soon. The audience hasn't been given enough time to know the gang, to know the politics of dealing with the other mobsters. It's like just as the action was getting good... I thought that was a bad decision in terms of timing. A lot of the dramatic tension was lost after that. And there were a bunch of scenes that I thought felt too flat (and clearly flatter than they were intended). Not enough tension / somewhat balanced out by Depp's bravura performance, but not entirely.

As Dad said when he was re-watching Point Break to get ready to see Hurt Locker (which is definitely my favorite movie of 2009, btw): Now there's a movie about bank robbers and an obsessive agent that pursues them plus a little romance --Michael Mann, take note.

Posted by Duff at 12:15 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under DadReaction, Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Hump Day

A "straight and narrow" dude and his wife are paid a visit by his wildchild former college roommate. Of course Mr. S&N finds himself seduced by the wild side (again, presumably) and the weekend turns into a crazy dare situation based on a festival of amateur porn films that others plan to enter: "we should make a gay porno together. and the reason it'll be awesome...is because we're not gay!"

Some of it was funny and some of it was sad; some of it felt true and some of it felt fake. Overall, I'd say there were too many disconnects that weren't solved.

The director was there for Q&A after the flick. It was interesting to here how little scripted the movie was / sounds like her process if mostly giving the actors free rein "here is what your character is about, now what do you think he would say in this situation?". Of course, the fact that the director referred to "Zach & Miri Make a Porno" sarcastically pissed me off (she obviously did not "get" Zach & Miri"). I guess she was reacting to being compared to Z&M and not enjoying that fact.

Z&M is a better flick in my opinion.

Posted by Duff at 10:31 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

July 26, 2009

Big Screen: MOON

First of all, god I am so glad space movies are back. With Sunshine a couple years ago and now Moon, things are looking up for space movie lovers like me.

That said, this is so different than most space movies, being that there is basically one dude in this movie. No big crew of lonely astronauts and their inevitable small-living-space conflicts. No scary aliens. Just Sam Rockwell at his (insane, quirky, bizarre, disturbed) best.

Really unique story. Really nicely filmed. Really creepy, in the best (and not too scary) way.

Posted by Duff at 04:47 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

Big Screen: Away We Go

Perfect soundtrack by Alexi Murdoch, some of which I'd heard before but hadn't listened to in ages. Just fit the movie perfectly.

A movie about a happy relationship through and through = so rare these days! Instead of a couple in trouble, this is a couple looking for "home". Trying to find that place they belong. Wandering together, looking for the place they both fit. Visiting friends, visiting family, seeing what they have, and what they don't. Trying it all on.

Quite lovely. (And both the leads are so NOT at all what they have been before. Really unexpectedly good performances.)

Posted by Duff at 04:44 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: State of Play

This was actually a well-plotted, well-acted, intelligently written thriller and a really good movie...up until about 10 minutes from the end when it went just one twist too far and basically EVERYTHING falls apart from that moment on. And I mean EVERYTHING. If you go home and think about what that moment CHANGES, you get about 17,000 strands going off in the wrong direction that just don't even make sense anymore.

At the exact moment it happened, P. and I looked over at each other, and I said "Sigh" and he made the universal hand motion for "DOWNHILL" and the movie just threw away all the good it had been up to that point.

If you pretend those 10 minutes didn't happen: some really tight performances by Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck, and Helen Mirren was great, and Rachel McAdams really made her part sing, and Jason Bateman has really made himself a new career out of playing slimeballs so well (what with this and with Juno) and there was some nice cinematography and wow Jeff Daniels looks HORRIBLE, WTF happened to him. And then BAM. 10 minutes of suckage that destroys all the fine plotting of the previous two hours.

Ah well. Happens to the best of us, doesn't it. I know my plotting falls apart pretty much every time I try. (I'm talking Life there, not Movies.)

Posted by Duff at 04:35 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Terminator: Salvation

So...I guess I just had really, really low expectations because honestly I can't really figure out why people are bitching and moaning so much about this movie. Hello, it was the FOURTH installment in an ACTION SERIES. How fucking good did you expect it to be?

I myself expected it to be horrible...and instead found it quite watchable. There was a sad lack of romance or even, at least, sex (hello, you are an action movie, where's the mack session?). And there was one car chase type sequence that went on way way waaaay too long. (But of course most of the people bitching about the flick didn't seem to mind that!)

But otherwise, I thought it was fine for what it was: the fourth installment in an action series, that wasn't ever that great to begin with! I liked Moon Bloodgood or whatever her name is, and yeah the half terminator dude was quite nice to look at, considering Christian Bale was a bit wooden.

And really, probably the main reason I enjoyed it was I thought it raised some interesting, and VERY Battlestar Galactica-like, questions about "man or machine" and what defines a person.

Posted by Duff at 04:28 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Star Trek

I'm so not a Trekkie, I've probably seen maybe 10 episodes total? But I've seen just enough to be able to tell what a great job they did with the casting of this flick. The actors were able to give performances that were just reminiscent enough of the actors of the original as to make it believable that this was them in their younger days.

Enjoyed a lot of the humorous touches. Didn't take itself too seriously. Some cool effects. Pretty good job, if you ask me. But again, not enough of a Trekkie to have taken issue with it anyway! :)

Posted by Duff at 04:26 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Gigantic

A quirky little indie flick that was quite enjoyable but ultimately suffers from a lack of plot. Nice nuanced performances by Paul Dano (who played the brother who rarely talked in Little Miss Sunshine) and Zooey Deschanel. But ultimately one of those movies that's a bio piece on a quirky dude but nothing much happens or if it does, it doesn't seem to lead to anything. Also there's a weird little Fight Club thing happening in the background that never ultimately amounts to much (or is even explained).

So while I liked it...I also thought it lacked that "story" or momentum that would have brought it to a higher level.

p.s. I did think John Goodman was a bit over the top. For a quiet, slowly evolving movie to have this big ole loud dude on screen? He always took me a bit out of the "action". Not that it was "action" per se.

Posted by Duff at 04:22 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

July 15, 2009

Big Screen: Hurt Locker

F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C.

Best movie you will see all year. Now get your damn butts out there to see it so it makes enough money to get wider distribution and maybe, just maybe, be shown in the teeny town theater near my pops who really, really wants to see it.

It was one of the best war movies I've EVER seen. And I have seen a LOT of war movies.

Yeah, I know I'm behind and I usually like to do these things in order. But better out of order than not at all, right? I'll try to get to the rest soon.

Posted by Duff at 09:16 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

April 07, 2009

Big Screen: Sunshine Cleaning

Very enjoyable. Certainly the most worth seeing of the movies I've seen recently. And I think it would stand up to higher standards as well.

While it's being marketed as another psuedo comedy, as with indie peers such as Little Miss Sunshine and Juno, it's really a much deeper movie than that. Much more concerned with the little miseries of our day-to-day lives and how much greater an effect the bad things have than the good.

In other words, you take one small step towards improving your life, it helps a tiny bit and then just one little bad thing happens and KABAM you are five steps backwards. A very realistic look at that place of struggle between "doing OK" and "not really doing OK at all" or "barely hanging on" where so many people are stuck. It was so topical and seemed very true to that moment (moreso really than Little Miss Sunshine in fact).

Amy Adams and Emily Blunt were believable as sisters not just in appearance but in attitude and we both really enjoyed it. Although T did ask on the way out: How many movies with "Sunshine" in the title are these people going to make? And are they all going to have Alan Arkin as the dad? :)

Posted by Duff at 08:09 AM | E-Mail | Comments (1) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

Big Screen: Gran Torino

SPOILERS

Another afternoon at the cheap (although $1 more expensive than before!) theater.

My dad and I seriously DISAGREE about this movie. My parents liked a lot of it, thought it was worthwhile, thoughtful, etc. (Although Dad agrees with me about the ending. I think.)

I thought it was sooooooo heavy handed and ridiculous. Most of the scenes between Eastwood and the girl next door (particularly the one in the truck) were, to paraphrase myself, straight out of "The Mung People for Dummies". (When I said this to Dad, he said "Nooooo!!!")

There's a huge difference between "thinking some particular people might be OK" and "realizing that your racist attitudes are bullshit" and Eastwood seems to have filmed the movie thinking he has persuaded you of the latter when in fact he BARELY makes the leap to the former.

I was not impressed. The dialogue was horrible, stiff and sometimes idiotic. C. and I were OFTEN laughing at things that likely were not meant to be funny. It was such a thin attempt at addressing racist attitudes. THIN. And not well done, if you ask me.

I can't quite put my finger on what made this palatable to my pops and not to me. I think it's some combination of 1) age: I found Eastwood's character so annoying and such a perfect picture of what's WRONG with so many old people you run into; how they expect you to just be fine with incredibly rude behavior on their part that they would FREAK OUT if a young person treated them with the same disrespect; and 2) exposure to Asian people in general?and perhaps a more shall we say rare Asian culture in particular? That's my guess anyway.

I really thought it was not a very good movie at all.

And the ending? Hello, suicide by provocation? It almost pissed me off as much as another ridiculous ending recently (THAT LINK HAS SPOILERS). Then he uses himself crooning (and playing piano) over the ending credits? COME ON.

I'm glad I didn't pay more than $4 for this because I would have been pissed if I had.

Posted by Duff at 07:58 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under DadReaction, Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Duplicity

Basically a couples version of the Oceans 11 (12, 13) scenario (i.e. if the characters of Brad Pitt & George Clooney were romantically involved). One of those heist/con movies that works while you're watching it, but is just a little bit too slick in the end, too many things work out "just" right. Or do they? Whether they do or not, you can pick apart about a million things when you leave the theater so it's really whether or not that ruins the experience for you. (In this case, for me, it did not.)

The difference between the Oceans movies and this one is a bit of added slapstick thanks to Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti playing feuding consumer products CEOs. It's partially hilarious because you're like come on NO ONE's this crazy...but on the other hand, it's hilarious because hello CEOs of Fortune 500 companies...are TOTALLY this crazy. They both brought a very hilarious physical energy to their roles.

Not much deeper than your average bit o' fluff. But definitely entertaining and Julia/Clive played their love/hate relationship very realistically. Ah, the hidden jealousies. So nasty when they become unhidden.

MK insisted (and I mean INSISTED) we go get champagne after this movie (they seem to celebrate each assignation with yet another bottle) so we had a long leisurely afternoon... Fun times!

Posted by Duff at 07:47 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Push

An afternoon at the $3 theater* is always so pleasing as you can see things that have long left the mainstream theaters still on the big screen.

I'm not sure anyone else on earth saw this movie but really? I quite enjoyed it! It was pretty cheesy and the crazy Asian dudes whose power is SCREAMING? Yeah, they were a bit much. But if you decided to just roll with it, there was some cool Matrix-y / Wanted type stuff. And Dakota Fanning was really good. Impressively so.

I wasn't blown away by Chris Evans but I thought he did a decent job and Djimon Hounsou always manages to bring some serious gravity to his roles, even if silly.

Totally entertaining and didn't piss me off. So you know, a worthwhile afternoon at the movies! AND ONLY $3. :)

*Which JUST upped its price to $4 a few weeks after this!!! I thought C. was going to die of shock when he found that out!

Posted by Duff at 07:35 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: The Reader

I have no idea how I was blissfully unaware going into this movie that hello it's about the fucking Nazis. (Generally I cannot watch Holocaust-related movies as the sobbing and the crying just get out of control. Yup, I'm a crier.) Maybe because this and that suburbia movie with Leo were released so close together? Not sure, but somehow I just had no idea what this one was about.

Kate Winslet was totally entrancing and I really loved the sloooooow revelation of the movie, how you suddenly come to realize what the kid suddenly comes to realize. To someone who's been thinking a lot about the particular relevant issue* these days (long story), the "middle" of the story was done so nicely. Not an easy thing to portray on film.

The ending was really quite beautiful in its very sadly devastating way.

*That bit's a big spoiler so I've tried to be vague as it's worth not "knowing" going in.

Posted by Duff at 07:30 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: The Class (Entre Les Murs)

This movie was oddly affecting. Strong and interesting performances both from the main dude and the kids in his classroom. Intriguing look at a very diverse classroom/school. Also interesting to think about and watch how the teacher needs to approach students in individualized ways and when that does or doesn't work.

Yet somehow it felt a bit incomplete. A number of storylines that weren't quite tied up or where it wasn't quite clear how the resolution came about. Yet definitely kept you involved and interested and felt very "true".

Worth seeing despite feeling a bit...unclear at the end.

Posted by Duff at 07:27 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: The Wrestler

Don't read this if you don't want SPOILERS but honestly if you wanted to see this, why haven't you seen it already?

Uh huh

SPOILERS.

The ending of this movie made me so angry I had fumes coming out my ears. But T. sitting next to me was totally wiping away tears. So you know, there's another point of view.

Not sure why all the reviews are rah rah Mickey Rourke, who is basically, face it, playing himself, right down to the wrestling. COME ON. Hey congratulations on pulling your life out of the shitter and doing a decent job acting again? Hello, not sure why that's SOOOOO noteworthy.

Whereas Marisa Tomei isn't actually a down-and-out stripper in real life, yet here a) she does a great job and b) the movie is as much about her transformation as his. Perhaps moreso since her character ACTUALLY works toward transformation a bit harder than his, frankly. I wasn't prepared to see literally all but about an inch and a half of her naked body, but I thought her performance was outstanding.

So he basically gets a death sentence, halfheartedly tries to change, tries to start anew and oh gee things don't go EXACTLY his way? COME ON!!! He has a shitty day and his daughter and potential girlfriend don't give him exactly the response he's looking for? So he basically commits suicide via wrestling? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. If I committed suicide every time things don't go exactly my way...

I spent several years in NYC working TWO jobs, 9-5 at #1 and 6-10 at #2 Monday through Friday, plus 10-4 Saturdays at #2 and some Sundays. That sucked fucking dick and it wasn't by any means the only shitty thing that happened those two years. Funny how SOMEHOW I kept going. WHATEVER.

Oddly time has not softened my feelings toward the end of this movie but made me even madder.

Posted by Duff at 07:19 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

April 03, 2009

DVD: The Happening.

Wow, this was incredibly bad. Bad dialogue, bad plot, bad everything.

Someone online called it "The Crappening" last year but I refused to believe it. Yup. Believe it.

Posted by Duff at 05:49 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

March 26, 2009

Big Screen: Coraline

Sometimes it ain't just about the movie. Sometimes it's about the awesome people you go with, or the personal ziplock of delicious homebaked cookies they bring you, or the boy you see in the audience that you're bewilderingly too shy to really talk to.

I am not generally an animation fan. But I loved it.

Posted by Duff at 09:15 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Slumdog Millionaire

Liked. But did not love.

Good:

• Oh the romance.
  
• Oh the feel-good-ness of it all. The Bollywood dance at the end (the intercutting of them alone, them with crowd, and them as young) was so smile-inducing. Everyone in the theater seemed so happy on the way out.

Bad:

• The framing technique got old. FAST. They should have ended it about 15 minutes earlier because the movie got SO much better once the stories all came together.
  
• So, so, so, SO predictable. You could spot that ending a mile away.

And frankly that last one is what killed it for me. Movies this predictable should not be given awards, if you ask me. Or if they are, with a "*100% predictable" tacked on the end.

Worth seeing, sure. But the Oscar? Eh. Milk should have won. That was predictable only in that IT WAS FROM A TRUE STORY.

(For pete's sake (who's pete), Iron Man was less predictable than this!!!!)

Posted by Duff at 09:07 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

March 05, 2009

Wrapping It Up: Favorite Movies 2008

Yes, I'm aware it's March and I'm randomly posting Best of 2008s. Blame the economy, hahahaha.

My Favorite Movies in 2008 Were:
(linked to their original Snip reviews)

1. Iron Man. WIthout a fucking doubt. This SHOULD have won awards.
2. Milk. So well done.
3. Let the Right One In. Spooky!
4. Zach and Miri Make a Porno. Hilarious. Yet sweet.
5. Wanted. AWESOME. With a few plot holes. Bygones.
6. Hunger. So sad.
7. The Dark Knight. It wasn't as good as IronMan. But it was good.
8. Tropic Thunder. Fucking pure hilarity.
9. Atonement. Gorgeous. Just as good as the book.
10. Leatherheads. Beautifully filmed. And I really do not care for Renee Z., yet she was unable to ruin it for me.

And if you'd like to hear about other movies I liked or DIDN'T, you can go read the full post.

Posted by Duff at 11:12 AM | E-Mail | Comments (1) | Permalink | filed under Best of..., Flicks, Watchin'

February 07, 2009

Big Screen: Bolt

It was entertaining. But I am not a huge fan of animated film. So you know, I though it was sweet and funny enough but I am not the person you want to come to for reviews of such. My dad, however, LOVED it and you can read what he had to say here.

Posted by Duff at 09:22 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

January 20, 2009

DVD: Death Race

Nothing more than an action movie chockfull of explosions and car chases. But for what it is? Pretty entertaining. (Far more entertaining than the movie I watched yesterday.) Maybe not enough hand-to-hand fighting for a prison movie (not enough shirtless scenes, certainly).

A combination of Mad Max, futuristic prison scenes, and The Fast & The Furious stylized car races/chases. It did a nice job of whiling away two hours for me and I certainly wasn't bored, even though I was sometimes laughing when I maybe wasn't supposed to be.

Really, my only question is: What the fuck is Joan Allen doing in this movie?

Posted by Duff at 05:06 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

January 19, 2009

DVD: Pineapple Express

My conservative estimation would be: 90% stupid, 7.5% ludicrous and 2.5% occasionally funny. James Franco was good, for what the part was worth, but Seth Rogen seemed like he was just going through the motions, and all the yelling during the first half? Boring. Most of the other acting was bad, and one guy was so incredibly bad that every time he came on screen I felt like I was watching someone's bad "home audition" movie.

I *think* this wanted to be to drug movies what Hot Fuzz is to cop movies. But it so was not.

I am completely baffled by its lack of funniness, given the reviews it has gotten.

Posted by Duff at 05:05 PM | E-Mail | Comments (1) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

December 31, 2008

Big Screen: 15 Features from the Chicago Film Festival.

So back in October, I saw 15 films in 10 days at the Chicago Film Festival. I was quite ambitious in my ticket buying (obviously) and although I was a bit worn out at the end (it's not like I had any days off work during this adventure), I saw a lot of interesting films, most of which I certainly would not have had the opportunity to see otherwise.

Day 1, Oct 17

The Pleasure of Being Robbed
Misleading description. Not about the pleasure of being robbed at all. Maybe a little bit about the pleasure of robbing, not that it even seemed that pleasurable, and the cinematography wasn't interesting enough to keep the viewer involved. This wasn't terrible, but we both felt it smacked of "senior year art project". And as T pointed out: it ended and you weren't even sure you knew the main character's name, much less her motivations. 2.5 out of 5.

Wendy & Lucy
Really nuanced wonderful performance by Michelle Williams. But sad, hard to watch, and one of those movies where it's more "a portrait of a moment" than a movie/story. Minimal plot. And our second movie of the day featuring a girl who is somewhat lost and alone. 3.5 out of 5. Great performance but not much there otherwise.

Let the Right One In
Beautiful. One of my faves of the festival. Slowly paced, dim and quiet. Sweden. Winter. Loneliness. Vampire. Love. So glad to see this one is getting a more widespread release (if you can consider indie theaters in big cities to be widespread). If you read the review in EW and decided not to see it, I urge you to go anyway. It was really lovely and moving. Icky in places, but quite powerful. This is definitely a 5 out of 5 for me.

Day 2, Oct 18

Sparrow
Very fun. Slapstick drama about four brothers who are all pickpockets and all get involved with the same woman. Her end of the plot was a bit lame but it was so fun, I really didn't mind that. Sort of Marx Brothers in Hong Kong with a little more seriousness. 3.5 out of 5.

Surveillance
One of only a few US-centric flicks we saw. First 2/3rds = really interesting, tightly plotted, intriguing flick. Last 1/3rd = insane twist that throws away a LOT of the good stuff from earlier on and makes it not nearly as interesting. Bizarre. And then the credits roll and "Oh, directed by Jennifer Lynch. From the content of that movie, I HAVE to think she's related to David." 3 out of 5.

Day 3, Oct 19

Hunger
So good. So sad. HARD to watch. Death of IRA leader Bobby Sands by hunger strike (which had followed a "rub shit on the walls" strike). Loved the first half. Neat stuff showing how the prisoners found ways to communicate both with each other and with the outside world. A really really interesting (long) conversation in the middle of the film between Sands and a priest. But didn't like how the second half (or last third maybe) of the movie lets all the other characters drop away and basically you just watch someone waste away, hallucinate(?) and die. 4 out of 5. Really good but could have easily been better just by keeping the stories of the other prisoners/activists going.

North Starr
Poor. Definitely the weakest entry I have seen not just this year but last year as well. Poorly written and acted, heavy handed. Maybe a 2 out of 5 and that's generous. Not sure how this even got selected.

Day 4, Oct 20: No movies for me.

Day 5, Oct 21

Everlasting Moments
WWI Sweden. Woman stuck in bad marriage, constant pregnancy, poverty, etc. Gets the gift of a camera. Changes her life. Somewhat. Beautifully done. The grunge of their lives so well portrayed/styled/etc. 4 out of 5.

Zach & Miri Make a Porno
I am not unbiased about Kevin Smith. I fucking loved this movie. I loved it even more after he took Q&A for an hour afterwards. Sure, it's crass and gross and whatever else people are saying about it. It's also super sweet and romantic and really fucking funny. 5 out of 5.

Day 6, Oct 22

Two Lovers
Not very good and you know I love Joaquin Phoenix so that was sad. Same director as We Own The Night which while somewhat formulaic/predictable was a much better movie than this one. Convoluted. And unlike how seeing Kevin Smith's Q&A made me love his movie more, this Q&A went the other direction. 2.5 out of 5.

Day 7, Oct 23

Girl by the Lake
Italian murder mystery. Starts with your classic misdirection. Some nice subplots about the lead detective's own life. Liked it. But not sure the conclusion really worked. 3.5 out of 5.

Day 8, Oct 24

Country Wedding
Two busloads of Icelandic family members lost trying to find the right church for a wedding. Some really funny stuff. Some sweet. But dragged a bit. Could have used some zippier editing or maybe a few more contretemps thrown in. 3 out of 5.

Julia
Totally crazy movie about people making insanely bad decisions and then following through on them only to have even worse happen. A lot of it was really uncomfortable and hard to watch. But this is by far the most human I have ever seen Tilda Swinton be. So that was interesting. 3.5 out of 5.

Day 9, Oct 25

Snow
Beautiful. A Bosnian village of women whose men have gone to war and vanished, trying to find ways not just to survive for themselves but to keep their community together. Slowly paced. But really good. 4.5 out of 5.

Day 10, October 26

Terribly Happy
Denmark. This is totally Hot Fuzz, minus the comedy and upping the eerie stuff by half or more. Really creepy and nuts. Very entertaining. Lots of misdirection. Had a little sense of slapstick but in a very serious way. 4 out of 5.

Posted by Duff at 08:30 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

December 28, 2008

Big Screen: MILK

Soooooo good. Outstanding performances. Sean Penn is just as good as people are saying but I was especially impressed by James Franco. At the end, they show the actors vs. the real people they were portraying? And holy crap the casting and styling on this movie were just PITCH PERFECT. Really well done, poignant and moving, but funny and crass at times as well. Not that I know much about Harvey Milk, but it seemed they were very true to who he was, and those funny quirks that make up a person.

And then you come out of the theater and think "So where are we with gay rights now, in 2008, some 30 years later? Well, let's see. We just outlawed gay marriage in a shitload of states, including some where it was already legal. That ain't a step forward." And then you feel even MORE depressed than the movie may have already made you over an untimely death.

What a Fucked Up World we are living in.

Posted by Duff at 12:30 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

November 20, 2008

DVD: Deception

Hugh Jackman (evil and slimey) and Ewan McGregor (nerdy and naive) play against type quite effectively here. I found the whole thing super creepy and foreboding. Michelle Williams is good too although hers is at moments barely a bit part and at other moments pivotal to the plot, which gave it overall an uneven feel I thought. Also one of the twists at the end...might have been worked better.

It's got a bit of Ripley sense to it. I liked it. But I don't remember it being in the theaters for even a week. So I may be the only one. (I didn't LOVE it but I liked it.)

Posted by Duff at 09:10 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

DVD: The Bank Job

Very entertaining! Because I apparently live in a bubble*, I was not aware that it was a) based on a true story and b) set in the '70s. I guess b) accounts for the overabundance of (female of course) tits 'n ass shown up close.

Really intriguing story, with so much crossover between different players and sets of circumstances that you really don't have any idea how it's all going to work out. I mean, if you're me and didn't know the real story going in.

*There are two (in)famous ways in which this was proven irrefutably to my friends: 1) mad cow and 2) the unibomber. But if you want to hear those stories, I guess you'll have to email me.

Posted by Duff at 09:06 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

November 16, 2008

Big Screen: Quantum of Solace

Heart-pounding. Exhilarating.

Maybe a few too many scenes with his shirt on though. "Honey, it has blood stains on it. Let's just take it off. Hmmm, yes, that's better."

Posted by Duff at 11:15 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

November 11, 2008

DVD: What Happens in Vegas.

So bad I cannot even make it all the way through.

I KNOW, why would I even TRY to watch this? Because my secret super* buttloads of love for A Lot Like Love always makes me think Ashton Kutcher movies *might* be worth watching.

This is NOT.

*as opposed to super secret!

Posted by Duff at 04:53 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

DVD: Street Kings

Solid, enjoyable, super violent (a + to me) good cop/bad cop flick. Great performances from both Keanu and Forest Whittaker, and lots of interesting bit players I wasn't expecting, such as Adrian Corbett very effectively playing slime (would you have expected that of "Aidan"?) and Chris Evans also very impressive (first time I've ever thought he was actually ACTING in a movie and not just sort of playing himself or "any guy"). (And FYI "House" fans, Hugh Laurie is also present.)

I can only guess why this didn't do well in theaters (was it even in Chicago for a whole week?): it's one of those "been done" stories. Very reminiscent of Training Day, among (many) other movies.

Connected DadReaction: Similar to what Dad has reported back about the latest Ed Norton/ Colin Farrell flick "Pride and Glory". Good flick, good performances...but may suffer from the fact that it's not a "new" story.

Posted by Duff at 04:44 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under DadReaction, Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

DVD: Green Street Hooligans

So.Frakkin.Good.

Admittedly I only watched this so I could determine if the Hottie from Sons of Anarchy is actually a good actor or not. Fortunately the answer is YES.

Also? This movie is AWESOME.

Elijah Wood = also good. Bar conversation/friend scenes = great. Fight scenes = soooo well done. Revelation of "The Major" = super.

Totally compelling. Couldn't take my eyes off the screen.

Posted by Duff at 04:39 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

October 22, 2008

My Evening with Kevin Smith / Big Screen: Zach and Miri Make a Porno

7:30pm - Already in line for Zach and Miri an hour from now (ridiculous).

7:31pm - But turns out pomegranate jelly bellies are addictive. So there's that.

7:43pm - This is worse than the Battlestar lines at Dragon*Con. And no twins here to keep me company.

8:35pm - Oh shit Kevin Smith is actually going to be here!!

[Viewing Zack and Miri Make a Porno]

10:31pm - Kevin Smith Q and A is making me very happy!

10:37pm - Someone just asked "Kevin, did George Lucas step on your balls about Star Whores?"

10:43pm - Kevin Smith used to be a Front Wiper. I do not jest. [Until Harley Quinn's birth when a nurse told him he should be doing it the other way!]

10:47pm - His next movie* is so bleak "it makes Dark Knight look like Beverly Hills Chihuahua."

11:12pm - Rosario Dawson was supposed to play Miri. [They moved the timing of filming and that made it conflict with "Eagle Eye" so they had to find someone else relatively last minute. But Elizabeth Banks is actually perfect in it (my opinion AND his) so it worked out great. Per Kevin: "She really grounds the movie."]

11:24pm - Kevin Smith's all-time fav porn title: "Jerk my cum crayon and color me white."

*Next movie = Red State. Described as him finally finding a way to talk politics. A political horror film. Not funny at all. Having trouble finding financing.

Explanatory:
At Chicago Film Festival to see Zach & Miri. Often there are directors and/or actors who take Q&A afterward but it's generally noted in the program. This one didn't say so but surprise surprise. So sad my dad couldn't be here to see this!!! If you don't know: Kevin Smith LOVES doing Q&As. If you've ever listened to a SModcast or watched one of his An Evening with Kevin Smith DVDs, you can pretty much imagine how a) awesome and b) funny this was. And also how insanely comfortable he is talking about any and/or every personal detail of his life.

Other random quotes that I didn't actually twitter:

Ben Affleck on viewing Jason Mewes' nude scene: "You realize Mewes is just one pump away from full liftoff, right?"

Personal note to Ben from me: Are you just maybe kinda jealous because Jason Mewes is so smokin hot in this movie? [I'm so not joking. Skinny and his hair all clean cut? And damn those shoulder tattoos are AWESOME.]

After talking about Red State and saying "Sorry for bringing the whole room down", someone started their question with "Not to bring the whole room down again" and KS yelled "So Don't!" and tried to move on. Turned out the dude wanted to ask him about the whole "how're you doing on your diet thing?" [What a dick.] KS wasn't necessarily "happy to" but he, in his usual brutally honest way, did respond and chat about it. But the best part was when he pointed out "You know, some skinny motherfucker always has to point out how fat I am!!!" And the whole audience looked at the questioner disapprovingly! Ha!

And the movie?
Lots of fun. Totally crude and nasty and gross. And soooooo funny and very sweet and romantic. Honestly, the last five minutes, even with the Dutch Rudder jokes, were so touching. YAY!!! [And I don't even like Seth Rogen.] Also Darryl from The Office? is HYSTERICAL in this. Brandon Routh was a total Tom Cruise doppelganger. So much so it gave me a little doubletake each time. A great night at the movies. The flick alone made me grin like an idiot. And then Kevin Smith's appearance just sent the evening over the top.

*Bliss*.

Posted by Duff at 08:53 AM | E-Mail | Comments (1) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Random Quotes, Recommending, Watchin'

October 20, 2008

Big Screen: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Sweet but cheesy. I enjoyed it more for the NYC settings (oh nostalgia to my early NYC days...Ludlow Street, I miss you!) than for the plot which I thought was sadly more juvenile than I expected. Unlike Juno, which was very much a movie about growing up, Nick and Norah was just about "being that age." Also found the title a bit of a misnomer. Like buying a sign that says "we really want to hype our soundtrack."

But Michael Cera did give a wonderfully tender, nuanced performance. So there's that.

Posted by Duff at 10:06 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Burn After Reading

On the surface, a very funny, often abruptly violent movie that you could easily just laugh through and enjoy "for what it is." Dig a little deeper and there's some very prescient criticism of the (practically defunct? hello 9/11) US spy system.

Hilarious and very twitchy performances by Clooney, Pitt and McDormand. Over the top and really hilarious belligerence by Malkovich.

Posted by Duff at 09:53 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: The Duchess

Beautifully filmed. Lovely understated performance by Keira Knightley. But oh so very, very sad.

Posted by Duff at 09:51 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

September 22, 2008

Big Screen: Tropic Thunder

So hilarious. Brilliantly satirical.

Two things alone are worth the price of admission:
1) The fake previews, ESPECIALLY the RDJ/Tobey Maguire one; and
2) Tom Cruise's performance. He deserves a fucking Oscar for that. I thought I was going to start crying, I was laughing so hard watching him during the closing credits. The boy may be totally and completely insane, but you've got to give someone credit who's willing to put it all out there like that.

If you need to know more, you can re-read the DadReaction to this flick.

Posted by Duff at 05:49 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

August 13, 2008

Big Screen: Wall-E

Cute. Sweet. And only a few moments that seemed so potentially tragic as to freak out my 3-year-old companion (thankfully her Mom sitting between us reassured her quickly).

Posted by Duff at 12:54 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

August 04, 2008

Big Screen: The Dark Knight

I liked it a lot, it definitely lived up to the hype for me, which these days is almost harder to do than to just make a decent movie.

• Loved Bale despite his (as always) weird gray all-the-same-length-across the-top front teeth. He continues to invest this character with an amazing sense of grim grief. It was just etched onto his face from scene 1.

• Loved Heath Ledger. Loved. Outstanding performance. Certainly worth the praise it is getting. No question. On the one hand, it makes it even sadder that he's dead now; just think what he could have done. On the other hand, to go out on the back to back performances of Brokeback and this? Wow. Talk about going out on a high note. Overall the performance just blew the fucking top off, but I have to say his mannerisms when he visits Dent in the hospital were just pitch fucking perfect. And when he walks out and is waiting for that last explosion? The move he makes with his arms there? Oh, Heath.

But I thought the last half hour dragged, too much time setting up the Two Face character. If he lived to be the villain of the next movie then it would make sense to me. But since he didn't, it made it feel long. I thought they could have edited some of that down. Yes, I understand that bringing him down was certainly one of the Joker's goals, but I thought the whole bit with the bombs on the ships just lagged. Didn't need it, we already KNOW the things that pointed out to us (or we should) and it just seemed like wasted time. While neither Iron Man nor Wanted made me get shifty in my seat, the last half hour of this had me really feeling the time. There was stuff they could've cut (and I think should've). Coulda been a little tighter.

That said, still tremendous. Super dark and delightfully so. Really a tour de force in the sequels department; takes the first movie and ratchets up quite a few notches. The additions of Ledger and Gyllenhaal really sent it over the top. Kudos. I've seen it twice already, I wouldn't be reluctant to see it again. But then that's nothing new for me and good movies; I am a repeat big-screen viewer and proud of it.

Posted by Duff at 05:10 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

July 17, 2008

Big Screen: Wanted.

Sooooo much fun. Completely exhilarating! Great trip to the movie theater. Very different from Iron Man, but just as completely what I am looking for in an action movie. My two favorite movies of the year so far. No fucking doubt about it.

I LOVED IT. Dad LOVED it. Nipper loved it. Michelle liked but didn't love it. The Chicago Reader hated it (prompting this response from Michelle: Damn! I liked it a little more than that dude. Who apparently doesn't understand the difference between REALITY and a FUCKING MOVIE.).

Where it suffers in comparison with Iron Man:

• The underlying mythology isn't as strong. With Iron Man, it's very clear why he decides to do what he does, what's driving him, it makes sense in a very cause-and-effect way. When he sits in front of the press and says "somehow we've become comfortable with zero accountability" it's like a jolt to your (any actual smart, responsible person's) heart, a direct attack on the fucked up situation of today. With Wanted, it's more smoke and mirrors. A very "In the Name of the Rose" or "DaVinci Code" type background. I mean, that's fine, except that no one ever questions "who's running the loom?" No one ever wonders who's in the background pushing the buttons? The assassins committed to this society BELIEVE the loom is doing it all on its own? (Although in other ways, this does work for me. That whole "secret society buzz" has a very comic book feel to it, so I think it works in the movie, I just think it doesn't work AS WELL as Iron Man's themes.)

• The situation isn't as personal, or it technically should be, but it's not presented that way. While RDJ's character in Iron Man is in many ways someone living a life who just doesn't care, when he does begin to care, it's very personal. His name on the weapons, his legacy, etc. In Wanted, McAvoy sort of falls into things with an extreme lack of knowing what's really going on. Things eventually become personal, but not at first, and they become personal via lies and misinformation that creates a kind of distance from any emotional effect. In other words: Iron Man becomes a MORAL QUEST. Wanted is about a gang of slaughterers. Fun, but kinda sick. Iron Man engages you on another dimension. As my Dad put it: It's probably not good to kill people you don't even know.

• The Hero's Glamour Factor. While RDJ's character may not be on the moral highground to begin with, he's not a frustrated loser working a shithole job and getting blindsided by his best friend either. He's a little easier to fall in love with in that "beginning of the movie, suck you in, make you want to watch him" way. Much as I love Bright Abbott dearly, oh, man, I hated seeing him be the swindler of McAvoy.

Where it SHINES in comparison to Iron Man!!:

• Hello, four words: Female Fucking Action Hero. Jolie* is just as much a focus as McAvoy, or any of the other assassins (even moreso). As Dad points out, "she is a MAJOR part of this movie, her part is outstanding and she's outstanding in it." Whereas in Iron Man while Gwyneth Paltrow is actually good (a rare enjoyment of her on my part), and has great chemistry with RDJ, her role is soooooo sidelines. And very retro, the female "secretary" role, even with sass is STILL the female secretary role. I mean, she goes to the final confrontation in 5-inch spiked heels to stand on the sidelines and shriek in distress. She's good when she's in it but she's so auxiliary.

• The Sets, particularly the Factory. While they make sense in the storyline, Iron Man's modern office buildings and desert caves don't really do as much for me as the sets in Wanted (although RDJ's house is pretty cool). The textile mill/factory is really majestic in a way, I LOVED all the car chases through the El structures and the stuff on the El itself (I love you, Chicago! You're so pretty!). And the train scenes at the end with his dad? And when Jolie drives her car onto it! VERY COOL!

Where both movies are GREAT:

• Effects, effects, exhilarating effects. Even my Dad who is not generally fan of CGI bullet fights (Peckinpah and Walter Hill did it better, OLD SCHOOL, and he will happily talk your ear off about it), even he loved the "fight" scenes in Wanted. How about the final showdown at the textile mill, where McAvoy is picking up other people's weapons as his way to reload? AWESOME!

• Wit, sarcasm, banter. Both movies have enough of this to be interesting BEYOND the effects and the drama and the Super Heroness of it all. Comic relief so you don't become bogged down by the horribleness of some of it.

• The "training" scenes. RDJ in his laboratory with his robot helpers and McAvoy gettin' schooled by Jolie. Like the scene where he's trying to grab the shuttle? And then when he finally does? All done with nice touches of humor.

I could go on (and on...) but believe it or not, I actually have something else to do right now. Shocking!

Need I even say it? Highly recommended. (BOTH)

*And if you enjoy Jolie in this, I recommend you check out Mr. & Mrs. Smith (which I LOVED a ridiculous amount!) as well as the two Tomb Raider movies, because she is great in these mixes of physicality/sass/sex/etc.

Posted by Duff at 02:30 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under DadReaction, Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

July 06, 2008

DVD: Rendition

Powerful. Emotionally moving. And extremely fucking depressing.

This IS what is going on ALL THE TIME in our world today and fuck who wants to live in a world like that.

p.s. Do Peter Sarsgaard and Jake Gyllenhaal have some clause in their contracts that they have to be in at least 90% of each other's movies?

Posted by Duff at 02:17 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

June 23, 2008

Big Screen: The Fall

Visually stunning.

Similar to Pan's Labyrinth, the audience watches the fairytale playout of a child's imagination. Lee Pace is quite good here, very John Cusack-feelin'. Gorgeous, rich, saturated landscapes in beautiful locations (with every new scene, I thought: "WOW, where was THIS filmed???"). A sweetly charming (and ongoing) visual Indian vs. Indian joke.

Enjoyable enough plot; truly beautifully filmed.

Posted by Duff at 05:13 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

June 09, 2008

Big Screen: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

As lame and predictable as you would expect. Total schmaltz. Some of it was fun because it pointed back to those old (much better) movies: say, for example, the bit with the snake. But some of it was so ludicrously off pitch, it stuck out like a sore thumb: say, for example, the bits with the gophers. And the monkeys.

I always expect lame dialogue from anything that George Lucas is in anyway connected to, but the animal bits were pure Disney channel. Trying to attract a younger audience? Then perhaps you should have rethought using your original star, who certainly looks his age, if not more.

It was fine for staying in out of the alternate periods of a) torrential rain and b) torrential heat that strafed the city yesterday. Enjoyable enough for that, I guess. But unless you find yourself in similar straits, I couldn't recommend it.

Posted by Duff at 04:45 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

June 02, 2008

Big Screen: Sex and the City

Bittersweet.

Disappointing.

• Given the events of the middle, I thought the unspoken "message" of the end was complete crap.
  
• Charlotte really got gypped in terms of storylines; hers had no tension whatsoever.
  
• It felt both superficial and rushed, and considering it went over two hours, it should have been neither.

That said, the other six girls in our group (no I do not know seven girls to go to the movies with in Chicago; I knew one of them) all seemed to like it. So take from that what you will.

Posted by Duff at 04:02 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

May 28, 2008

Big Screen: Redbelt

A David Mamet script PLUS Jujitsu? Come on now, people, you can't go wrong with that one. Really compelling interesting story. Really cool fights (woot).

A lot of good performances here (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tim Allen (unexpected), Alicia Braga), including one from Emily Mortimer (whose character undergoes one of the biggest transitions), and a really great one from Max Martini (yum), whom you may recognize from The Unit.

I'll tell you what. He, Dean Winters and Tahmoh Penikett need to do some kind of brothers/mafia/cops movie together. Ah, that would be wonderful.

Posted by Duff at 08:26 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

Big Screen: Iron Man

A full Family Reaction even featuring the extremely rare MomReaction!! (No, we did not see it together.)

DadReaction: Eye popping effects, but with a lot of character. And not so effect heavy that you lose the humor as in some action movies. Downey is really great here. He's a stronger character as an actor and so much more entertaining than, say, Spiderman. Christian Bale brought a lot of grimness to Batman but Downey is very funny, lively and self deprecating. Really uses his wise ass attitude so well here, and it makes the idea of a superhero movie so much cooler. His and Paltrow's characters attraction feels very real, even though it's an under the table sort and they dance around it. Jeff Bridges was good too.

MomReaction: There's a really topical social edge to this movie about collateral damage and what you do to the world, what weapons do to the world. They don't hide behind the story: War is bad. Guns are bad.

GirlReaction: Fanfuckingtastic. Everything you could want in an action movie AND MORE. Lovedlovedloved it.

Posted by Duff at 08:22 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under DadReaction, Flicks, MomReaction, Recommending, Watchin'

May 06, 2008

Big Screen: Made of Honor

Really horribly crap-ass bad. BAD.

Posted by Duff at 03:03 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Leatherheads

Beautifully filmed in lovely golden light. Completely charming. If you haven't already, you'll fall for George Clooney all over again. His Girl Friday-type snappy dialogue. Laurel & Hardy-esque physical comedy. Great soundtrack. Really lovely.

Ditto everything my dad said. Highly recommended.

Posted by Duff at 03:01 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

Big Screen: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

So one day someone said to themselves, "Hey! I think I'll take this little, charming, fun, engaging book (that in many ways is about female friendship)...and I'll throw in a little World War II (and transfer the American depression onto London) and turn it into a moody, dramatic, cat-fight-full film! It's just not good enough the way it is!" Seriously bad idea.

Some good acting but in a convoluted messed up plot created solely because... because the book was too lighthearted? Because movie producers are idiots?

Read the book, skip the movie.

Posted by Duff at 02:56 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

April 16, 2008

Plane: Elizabeth (The Golden Age)

I really did want to see this one in the theater. But it just could NOT hold my attention on the plane. Too slow moving? Or too much variation in loud & soft, had to keep changing the volume on the headphones? I don't know what the problem was but I kept tuning out.

After that travesty, on the way home I just watched Juno over and over. Sometimes with the sound, sometimes while I listened to other things. It just gets better and better. If you're on my christmas list, you can expect to get it in your package.

Posted by Duff at 07:33 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Plane: Mr. Magorium's Magic Emporium

This movie's missing ingredient = A plot.

But Natalie Portman wears super cute outfits in it! So there's that.

Posted by Duff at 07:32 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Plane: Lions for Lambs

I can see why this tanked at the box office. It's really a three-part movie. The part with Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep? Pretty much sucked. The part with Robert Redford and the snotty stupid boy in his office? Also pretty much sucked. The part with the two hotties who became soldiers? (This one and this one). Fucking rocked. But sadly they didn't get that much screen time; certainly not enough to save this movie from the suck pond. p.s. Peter Berg was hot but had even less screen time than they did.

Posted by Duff at 07:29 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

DVD: The Descent.

Well. I may never sleep through the night again. Completely mind-twistingly scary and freaky and gross and OH HOLY SHIT! NO NO NO! RUNNNNN!!! RUNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

Dad LOVED it. In his top five for last year. I am not quite as much a fan of the horror genre as he, although I do get just as scared (thanks for passing that one down the gene pool, pops). In fact, if you ever want to have a really good time laughing at other people, you should sit between the two of us at a horror film. And wear ear plugs.

Really well done. Strong performances from unknowns. Great great locations, well chosen. Totally creepy-ass filming. I'm getting shivers just thinking about it and it was over a week ago that I watched it. *SKEEVES*

Posted by Duff at 07:25 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under DadReaction, Flicks, Watchin'

DVD: Becoming Jane

While I know all the Austen fans are up in a flurry over this one, I thought it was charming and well done and really solid performances from both Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy. My heart broke right along with hers.

My Dad really liked it too. In fact his constant refrain has been "Years from now, nobody's going to be rewatching Michael Clayton but this movie is still going to be fresh and enjoyable." I have to agree.

Posted by Duff at 07:23 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under DadReaction, Flicks, Watchin'

DVD: Lucky You

Too bad 90% of the dialogue sounds like it comes straight out of "Gambling for Dummies".

Posted by Duff at 07:20 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

March 05, 2008

Big Screen: Be Kind, Rewind

Very funny, sweeter than it looks. Some nice friendship, small town, community stuff. Love the tie-in to the jazz stuff: the final movie they make is really great and such fun. The concept of "sweded" is awesome and really all I want to do now is run around with a videocamera making my own versions of everything. A Duff-sweded Matrix? Come on, that would be HILARIOUS. And it was nice to find that Mos Def really doesn't have to talk in that crazy ass high voice he used in 16 Blocks. Not half as annoying as I thought it'd be. Pleasing, even.

Posted by Duff at 11:07 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Vantage Point

Very entertaining while you're watching it...but discussing it afterward, you can come up with a lot of holes.

Seemed like the filmmakers had established a couple "rules" about the various "vantage points" at the beginning, but those start to fall apart midway through and then it's a free for all.

Some good performances, completely enjoyable...but not quite what it could have been.

Posted by Duff at 11:00 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Cloverfield

Totally fun, exhilarating monster movie! Kind-of reminded me of "Signs" / one of those "you think it's going to turn out to be psychological or Blair Witch-y but No! There are actual monsters! Yay!"

Now that I've seen it, I think the EW review was way off-base. The video backstory totally sucked me in and made me care about these characters. Very effective use of mostly little-known actors. Great New York destruction scenery. Thrilling, scary, (occasionally gross,) and awesome. I loved it. (My dad did too.)

Posted by Duff at 10:56 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

Big Screen: There Will Be Blood

Tour de force performance by Daniel Day Lewis.

Good, but difficult to watch, movie. One of those "oh it was a good movie but really? I don't ever want to see it again, I don't know if I could make it through" movies.

A demonstration of the myth behind the American dream.
The myth = work really hard and you'll become a millionaire and have everything you want.
The truth = work really hard, be ruthless, aggressive, villainous and hard and then maybe you'll become a millionaire and have everything you want.

Very effective soundtrack. So effective that at a couple points I wanted to stand up and scream JUST TURN THE MUSIC OFF! Really got under your skin, made me completely anxious, heart racing, even in scenes where it didn't need to be yet.

Powerful and vicious. Felt like checking for dirt under my fingernails as we left the theater.

Posted by Duff at 10:48 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

February 14, 2008

DVD: Big Trouble in Little China

I remembered this movie. But I did not really remember just how hilariously AWESOME it is.

What a riot.

Merci beaucoup, SuperEggplant.

Posted by Duff at 08:51 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

January 22, 2008

DVD: Die Hard Marathon

#1 / Die Hard / The original: Awesome. Just as fun now as it was then. An intelligent crook, surrounded by dufus henchman. An enterprising hero. Great one liners. Great byplay with the LA cop. Lots of fun.

#2 Die Harder: Eh. Pretty much sucks. The double double-cross at the end was lame. The many many references to "why does this keep happening to me/us?" wink wink were lame. The newscaster on the plane? Moron. But it does have one redeeming moment: when Bruce Willis kills the dude by stabbing him in the eye with a huge icicle!

#3 Die Hard: With a Vengeance: Enjoyable, although not great (it's no #1). Liked that they introduced a new character not connected to either the cops or the crime. Some discontinuity with him being back in NY considering in #2 he has moved to LA and become a cop there / #3 acts like #2 never happened (I guess we can't blame it for that...). Liked that they figure out it's subterfuge but a little "same old thing again" on the crime / McClane should have figured it out faster!

#4 Live Free or Die Hard: Years later, an update to the franchise! Entertaining! I liked that they updated it to a very modern-day crime, rather than just a rehash of the same type of terrorism (as really both #s 2 and 3 were -- unlike other movies I could name from 2007 that took an "old story" and just did the same old thing with it). Liked the byplay with the kid from the apple commercials. Sort of predictable substituting the presence of the daughter instead of the mother, but fine. But things that made it less enjoyable were: a) too many explosions for no reason (rewatch #1, where the explosions are more integral to the plot!); b) if the Gabriel dude is such an amazing hacker, why would he have all these underlings doing his hacking for him now? seems like he would want to be doing it himself, and the actor seemed too young for the role (since he was meant to be the contemporary of the head FBI dude); c) McClane seems a bit dumbed down from #1 certainly and perhaps #3 as well.

Gold Medal: #1
Silver: #4
Bronze: #3
Not even an honorable mention, but for the icicle: #2.

Posted by Duff at 04:45 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

January 17, 2008

Cable: Trust the Man

One of those movies with a bunch of recognizable actors that disappeared from theaters very fast so you know it must've been disappointing. I am normally a huge Billy Crudup fan but I hated the goatee action here. Frankly Maggie Gyllenhaal's character was the only one I didn't want to give a good shaking to. And the ending is bizarrely happy and "everything falling into place" after the extremely negative tones of the rest of it. Occasional laughs or relationship insights, but for the most part not very good. Not horrible, but not really enjoyable either.

Posted by Duff at 09:51 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

January 10, 2008

Wrapping It Up: Best Movies 2007

1. Grindhouse
2. Juno (and here and here as well)
3. A Mighty Heart (Knocked down a notch by Juno, but really great and I wish more people would have seen it.)
4. No Country for Old Men
5. American Gangster
6. Control
7. Blackout
8. In the Valley of Elah
9. The Bourne Ultimatum
10. Gone Baby Gone (In retrospect, and in comparison to others, this movie moved further up the list than I originally felt)

But there were lots of other movies I enjoyed as well, and you can read more about that here.

Posted by Duff at 10:20 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Best of..., Flicks, Lists, Recommending, Watchin'

DVD: We Are Marshall

Kinda sappy but sweet, and Matthew Fox is pretty great in this. Some nice byplay between him and M. McConaughey.

Not sure why it had such a mediocre box office performance/viewership; it's not the greatest flick but certainly a decent effort.

I guess these would be the reasons I liked it and perhaps the same reasons you wouldn't.
a) Sports, specifically football
b) Underdogs
c) Nostalgia
d) The classic hard knocks "rising from the ashes" story.
e) The classic "I want nothing to do with you" evolving into "Wow we're teammates and/or roommates and we can actually get along" story.
f) Matthew Fox.
g) Students vs. the administration.
h) David Strathairn.

Posted by Duff at 09:15 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen (IMAX): Beowulf

Not a great, movie, no. But enjoyable? Certainly. Melodramatic and predictable? Yes. Humorously macho? Indeed! (That's a positive!) A very muscle-y bravado Beowulf? Yum.

Decent performances from Anthony Hopkins and John Malkovich, neither of whom I had any idea were in this. And very seductive work by Angelina Jolie; I particularly like the ending where I (at least) was fairly certain we were meant to think her spell was about to work again...

I am finding myself very annoyed with people recently who will ONLY go to "good" "arthouse" flicks. Sanctimonious much? Sometimes I WANT to see an action film. Sometimes I WANT to see mainstream movies. Oh, I'm so pedestrian! You are so much MORE of a person than me! [Make. Me. Fucking. Puke.]

IMAX viewing is weird though. When they're standing super still and the camera is super close to their face, then they look real. When there's motion (of any kind) or they're not right up front, they look like 3D cardboard cutouts. Like in "Stepmom" when Julia Roberts helps the kids make big blown-up cardboard cutouts of pictures of them? Yeah, exactly like that. So you're always wondering if visually it was actually better in regular flat movie viewing. (And less queasy, surely.)

Have to laugh with Megan though, the whole "covering up the penis" shots were hilarious, there were soooo many of them, and honestly, just have him wear a loincloth and then we don't have to keep putting people's elbows, or helmets, or candles, in the way of "it".

Posted by Duff at 08:35 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

January 08, 2008

Lyrics of the Day

If you were a wink, I'd be a nod...

If you were the floor, I'd wanna be the rug...

And if you were an ocean, I'd learn to float...

-"All I Want Is You" Barry Louis Pollsar from the Juno Sdtrk.

Great movie, great tunes. It's a win-win.

If you haven't seen this yet, or are letting some crap-ass review taint your willingness to go, go read this review. And then go, for pete's sake. Pete would want you to.

When both me AND my dad are as equally gung-ho about a film (yes, sometimes we disagree), I don't think there's anything else you need to know. It's THAT good.

Posted by Duff at 06:33 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under " " of the XXX., Flicks, Listenin', Lyrics, Tunes, Watchin'

January 04, 2008

Big Screen: Atonement

Beautiful.

Breathtaking.

As faithful to the book as possible, given that it's a film (is that not self explanatory?). Great performances. Nostalgically lovely to look at (1940s. Ah.). As (momentarily) romantic and sexy as can be...and then as heartbreaking and painful and... And it's really that good. Cee thinks so too. As she points out, the "incidental" music...is just great. The staccato typing? Wow. The back/forth juxtaposition to resolve disparate points of view? Done so well.

And by the way, the book? ALSO THAT GOOD.

Keira Knightly. James McAvoy. Joe Wright (director). Well fucking done.

Posted by Duff at 12:42 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Books, Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

January 03, 2008

Big Screen: Sweeney Todd

Exhilarating. Johnny Depp shines once again. I loved it. A very enjoyable night at the movie theater.

If anyone ever films Dickens (again), they need to hire the guys that did the CGI London for this movie!!

Posted by Duff at 12:04 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Charlie Wilson's War

The previews for this movie didn't thrill me (as you may recall) and I'm happy to report I was proven wrong. Well acted, well directed, and quite thoughtful. Nice to see Tom Hanks having fun again. Although if I were Emily Blunt I'm not sure I would have taken that part: a real waste of her acting skills.

And holy crap does Philip Seymour Hoffman just blow this thing right out of the water: he's top notch here!

Posted by Duff at 11:16 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

December 20, 2007

DVD: Flags of Our Fathers

Some of the "storming the beach" filming was really amazing, although I think it would've been better on the big screen.

But the story was a bit scattered. And having that many well known actors popping up in bit parts can be kinda distracting, even though they were good performances.

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December 18, 2007

Big Screen: Juno

I loved it. Yes, as funny as the previews made it look, but really so much more than that. Heartbreaking and bittersweet and some really lovely, deeply sincere moments.

I tried to keep my expectations low considering several much-hyped indie flicks this year that I did not feel were all they were cracked up to be (Waitress and Knocked Up, I'm talking to you). This surpassed even my more optimistic hopes.

I'm impressed. Strong performances, lovely soundtrack. Thumbs fucking way up.

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December 17, 2007

Big Screen: I Am Legend

Lots of really scary stuff - two of the three of us were hiding behind our coats most of the movie. Will Smith is hot (and BUILT in this film. K asked: "Why doesn't he look that way ALL THE TIME?") and I really liked a lot of it.

Up until about the last 10 minutes where suddenly everything happened all in a rush, they threw in some bullshit Utopia and extra characters and I really thought that was a bunch of crap.

And if you cannot handle seeing certain animals getting hurt = DON'T GO TO IT. That means you, Mom.

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Cable: Duma

Heartbreakingly sweet. Beautifully filmed.

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December 03, 2007

Big Screen: Dan in Real Life

Somewhat predictable, occasionally contrived. Not an award winner or must-see. But enjoyable. And very, very sweet. Nice to see Steve Carrell dialed down for the occasion.

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Big Screen: Margot at the Wedding.

HATED it. Yes. Hated. Thought it was one of the worst movies I've seen this year. Badly, badly written. Hard to judge whether the directing and acting were good or not / when the basis of the movie is that bad, the other things don't even seem to matter.

The "funny" parts were awkward and misplaced; the scenes with the neighbors seemed to belong to some other movie, perhaps a Stephen King-type horror flick; there wasn't really a single character (except perhaps the teenage boy) who had normal human reactions to anything that happened. And frankly, I could not even find one person I cared about, was interested in, or didn't think was a moron. There were many times in this movie, during arguments between various characters, where one person would be yelling at the other "But you're so smart! You're so intelligent!" I didn't see a single iota of evidence of that.

Tracy yelled out "Give me a break!" at one point; and we could hear people muttering "wow, so bad, so bad" as we left the theater. Since Tracy and I have rarely agreed on movies in the past month, I was surprised to find we both hated it equally. Michelle, on the other hand, seemed to like it. It cracked me up to read her comment: I find myself still thinking about this movie days after I saw it, and that's something; because until the moment I read that, I had completely wiped this movie out of my mind. (And then I read her post and thought "OH FUCKING HELL I'll actually have to think about it long enough to write it up. Yuck!")

Hated it.

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Big Screen: I'm Not There

A very original/unusual take on the biopic. The many past and possible lives of Bob Dylan, were he a few (five? can't remember exactly) different people. Some of it was very entertaining and well done, other bits I could have done without. Similar to, say, Being John Malkovich, you're either going to be able to go with it or you're not.

Thought Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger and Christian Bale were all excellent. Blanchett and Bales's sections were some of the most factually-based bits; there were moments in Blanchett's that were straight out of filmed Dylan interviews I've even seen. (Michelle Williams' bit part was really, really nicely done and Charlotte Gainsbourg was excellent as well.) But they could have left out the entire Richard Gere segment and I would have been fine with that (except for missing a great cover) - that imagined life just did nothing for me. More of a fairytale aspect going on there. And I didn't find the segment with the little boy that engaging either.

Enjoyed the music, enjoyed a lot of it. Didn't love it. But certainly worth seeing. Not going to see many things like it.

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November 23, 2007

Big Screen: No Country for Old Men

Super (awesomely!) violent and sometimes gross. It's from a McCarthy book so you should know that going in / shouldn't come as a shock.

Super freakily (psychologically) messed up villain (Javier Bardem. Spooky as shit. Crazy entrancing eyes).

Great performance from Tommy Lee Jones and solid from Josh Brolin (and I'm not even a fan of his!) and it's fun to see LOTS of random actors popping up in bit parts (the coach from "One Tree Hill", the nasty lady who ran the grocery store on "Jericho", Woody Harrelson (what a relief to see him in something good again after that other crapass movie which I think was way worse than I seem to have written there), Garrett Dillahunt who just played a Russian mobster on "Life")...

I have to say: what made this movie for me was pure Coen brothers; you can tell/feel where they inserted themselves into this script: the small-town, down-home country humor and the warm personal relationships and comfortable feeling between many of the characters (despite the nasty killings and brutal stuff). And believe you me, humor and warmth = those are NOT things you will find in a McCarthy book.

Really excellent filmmaking and I (given my extreme dislike of McCarthy's writing) wasn't even really sure I wanted to see this...

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Big Screen: Gone Baby Gone

Really good. Maybe not Oscar winning levels of accomplishment, but certainly respectable, compelling filmmaking. Kudos to you, Ben Affleck, I'm pretty impressed. There was only one thing I would consider a directorial gaffe / and it was perhaps a difficult moment of filming? I don't know, but only one moment where I thought "That's not right." I'll give you one or two (or maybe four depending) of those and still consider it a good flick.

Casey Affleck = also very impressive here. As I felt with Leo in "The Departed", this is the movie where Casey really became sexy to me. In the past = attractive but in a kinda skeevy way. In this movie = H-O-T, hot. Really liked watching him play this role, lots of subtle moral struggles. He did a great job.

Also nice bits by Ed Harris and Amy Madigan.

Although here is the conversation as I imagine it: Ed (says to Ben): "Hey, Ben, yeah I'll be in your movie but only if you have a part for my wife too. And here's the deal, you have to make me look super, super hot and older man sexy, but you have to make her look as shitty, old and bedraggled as possible. Does that work for you? Yeah? OK then! We'll do it!" (Yes, her part requires that she be somewhat more bedraggled than his does...but still...it was a bit...noticeable.)

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November 12, 2007

Big Screen: American Gangster

I had high expectations for this movie and I was glad to not be disappointed. That said, the first 20 minutes or so (out of almost three hours) were not really what I was expecting. Story had some unusual twists.

Denzel and Russell were both really strong, although both looked crappier physically than I've seen them look in a while. There was one scene in which Denzel looked so bloated and slackjawed and I thought "oh are they going to make his character go all crazy and loose cannon now? To match how he's falling apart physically?" But he seemed to recover a bit from that. There are TONS of other "oh oh I know that guy, what's he been in?" actors in this. The police chief (?) from Monk. Josh Brolin (Man, I can't stand that guy. And fortunately, in this movie, he plays someone to hate so my natural feelings weren't fighting the storyline). "Stringer Bell" (yay!). This scrawny dude who was, I believe, the male lead in that movie everyone on earth loved (EXCEPT ME!!) "Me and You and Everyone We Know". A dude who recently was on an episode of K-Ville. A small role knocked out of the park by Cuba Gooding Jr. and an even smaller part played by Common.

It was long and sprawling and really followed two distinct storylines (led by their respective stars) that ran parallel but didn't truly overlap until about the last five minutes. It was violent and scrappy and sometimes offensive (in the spirit of its time). And I really (really) liked it.

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October 23, 2007

Big Screen: Michael Clayton

I really didn't fall for this movie as much as I thought I might after I read Jen's reaction.

I did think George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson were great. Sydney Pollack's character pissed me off just as much as he was supposed to. Tilda Swinton was good although I felt her "accent" slipped a few times (into frigid English bitch rather than frigid American).

But...I felt like it was an excellently acted/directed movie of something that's been done before. So I wasn't wowed. If you're going to do a movie on corporate malfeasance, I think there's a lot more to choose from these days than the same old/same old chemicals cause cancer role, and things that are more pressing/more topical (how about the government continuing to handout defense contracts to companies which were the ones already "supplying" the troops with inadequate supplies, non bullet proof "armored" cars, etc.).

Not only has the chemical angle been done before (going all the way back to Silkwood! and on through Erin Brockovich), along with the "those companies kill people who get in their way", but also the sense of a whistle-blower (The Insider, among others).

So while I thought the performances were excellent, I didn't think the movie really took a reach. I didn't think it went somewhere that blew my mind, or should be award winning. (My mom called it "very competent and enjoyable.")

But Jen loved it. So you might. And the friend that went with me came out of the theater saying "Wow, that was awesome!" (She felt this movie did some "new" spins on an old subject, say, the scenes of Tilda Swinton spreading out her clothes in the hotel rooms...)

Not so much, to me.

Posted by Duff at 09:27 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

October 19, 2007

Chicago Film Festival: Control

Dir: Anton Corbijn
Actrs: Mostly fairly unknowns (Sam Riley = awesome!!), with Samantha Morton as Deborah Curtis.

A biopic of Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division, the remaining members of which became New Order after Curtis' suicide. Based on the biography written by his wife, Deborah. Reading up on details in various places, sounds pretty true to events, with some scenes/dialogue obviously imagined due to lack of other people in the room.

Corbijn is protesting in interviews being known only as a "rock photographer" although I'd say the skills of a rock photographer add greatly to the filming of this story. Regardless, it's beautifully filmed in black and white, does a good job of showing the extreme bleakness of the surrounds, where they grew up, Curtis' mental and emotional bleakness. Pondering whether either a) the side effects of his epilepsy medication made him not take the medication thus leading to more (and more?) epileptic fits on stage or whether b) he was indeed regularly taking it leading to more and more depression, paranoia, etc. The scene where the drugs are prescribed and the extreme lack of medical knowledge at the time around epilepsy was pretty scary. (Is it better now? One has to hope so.)

If not for Curtis' suicide, you feel like you could be watching a movie about the early Stones or the Beatles. The music business was such a different animal, even in the late 70s when JD was getting their start. You see the evolution not only of the band, but of their manager and record company.

Some of it is just maddening, particularly the events that appear to lead directly to his suicide. Basically couldn't handle being married and a father at his young age (they got married at 17 or 18, had a kid around 22, suicide at 23), was involved in at least one extramarital affair, (although I think the movie may have trimmed out other affairs for time), but prospect of wife divorcing him over him a) being unfaithful and b) stating to her that he doesn't love her anymore! makes him completely despondent. Yet, he's having an affair, so... Classic case of digging one's own hole, yet his mental state left him completely unable to handle it or face up to his own actions. Interesting to see events in his life tied to songs writtenly shortly thereafter ("She Lost Control" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" particularly).

Great acting here. Actors playing the band play the music themselves. If you liked Ray for Jamie Foxx's incredibly Ray-like interpretation, or Walk the Line for a similarly incredible performance by Joaquin Phoenix, you should see this. Although Sam Riley's voice is much higher than Curtis', the band does a more than credible job of interpreting the songs and it all feels very, very real. Thought Riley did an incredible acting job, as well as Samantha Morton playing his wife and Alexandria Maria Lara playing his other love Annick (she's breathtakingly gorgeous).

In my own "rock history", given that he committed suicide in 1980 when I was whatever, fucking young as shit, I knew the music of New Order much better, became a huge fan thanks to my friend Pete freshman year of college who was the first person to play New Order for me, as well as The Replacements, and so many more bands that certainly owe some musical debts to Joy Division. Even today, bands like The National, would their lead have considered a rock career without having heard similarly low-voiced Ian Curtis, one has to wonder. Curtis was a big Bowie fan early on, there are lots of other bands up and coming alongside them (the Buzzcocks, hilarious bit in the film about the name; The Sex Pistols), and watching the movie just made me need to go home and sit down in front of the stereo...

New Order site lists showings around the country. Go! Highly recommended. Might want to bring kleenex.

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October 14, 2007

Big Screen: We Own the Night

Yay, Joaquin.

I thought most of the individual performances were really good and there's some pretty intense cop-on-drug-dealer action. But I wasn't totally thrilled. Felt like the movie was really divided into three parts: part 1) before Joaquin gets involved, part 2) the long middle involved and sometimes in hiding and part 3) the final confrontation. Felt like the middle part 2) was too long and there wasn't enough in the first part 1). Things started to happen too fast / I needed a few more set up scenes to get involved with more characters than just Joaquin. And then part 3) again gets short changed (due to too much middle) and things just sort of...end. And the very last scene felt a bit like an add-on. Like they needed to add a little moment / put in sort of throwaway nod to the girl. It could have ended when Joaquin walked over to the car after handing the gun over to his "uncle" (or I thought that older police dude was their uncle anyway).

Seeing previews for American Gangster and thinking "hmm, so this fall they're both making Westerns again (3:10 to Yuma, Assassination of Jesse James) and they're also making '70s NY cop/bad guys flicks (We Own the Night, American Gangster)..."

There's a pretty gratuitous Joaquin/Eva Mendes sex scene at the very beginning of this movie. At least, so far, I can't think of a way in which it advances the plot. But I'm not saying I minded. It may be gratuitous...but it is H-O-T hot. Very sexy. Smooches to you, Joaquin.

Posted by Duff at 07:43 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Chicago Film Festival: Jump!

Dir: Helen Hood Scheer.

A documentary about the sport of Jumprope, a rising phenomenon in what appeared to be mostly inner cities. Despite not being an official sport for any schools, universities, etc., it's highly organized with regionals, nationals and world championships. Film follows primarily kids from four (or five? i'm starting to forget) groups as they practice their routines, appear at the meets, etc. I was really into the Razzmatazz kids.

If the highlight of the Olympics for you is gymnastics, I think you'd probably enjoy this. These kids are pretty amazing athletes and their jumprope routines incorporate all kinds of tumbling/gymnastic skills as well as just plain muscle and endurance. There are speed competitions of several kinds, and jumprope routines done in singles, doubles, triples and quads. (When they get to worlds, seems like there are routines done there with many more kids at once.)

Unlike the competitive backstabbing world of gymnastics (no I'm not joking about that), and probably partially because this is a more intramural/extracurricular activity, these kids are very friendly with their opponents. Practicing together before meets, sharing new "tricks", teaching younger kids... The sharing and "hey try this!" bit at the worlds is really cool, and very interesting to see the different styles evolving in different parts of the world: all the Asian kids seem to incorporate breakdancing into their jumprope routines!

And just like Olympic gymnasts, these are young kids, pouring their hearts into this sport, practicing for hours on end, devoting themselves physically AND mentally. Their collective goal is to get the sport into the Olympics. They need 5 continents (they have the 5), 74 or 75 countries (they only have about 35 right now) and all under the same rules (that part was unclear). Seems less structured rule & scoring wise than gymnastics, which is something that probably comes with regulation / the more structured a sport it becomes, the more spontaneity it will lose.

Made me cry several times. Really engaging.

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Chicago Film Festival: Surveillance

Dir: Paul Oremland
Actrs: Mostly unknowns with a great performance by Simon Callow (who you might know as the overweight gay guy who dies in Four Weddings and a Funeral)

A young teacher with a secret gay nightlife. A rich (sometimes gay) playboy with a connection to the royal family is kidnapped and murdered. London's incredible network of surveillance cameras are the only leads.

The entire film is done on CCTV and surveillance cameras, cameraphones, handhelds, etc. While this had a very direct tie-in to the plot and the point of the movie (thus a plus), it also lends itself to a very amateur look (a minus). Similar to when you're watching a well-produced, well-photographed TV show and then a super cheap commercial comes on and the filming is just flat / no depth / feels two-dimensional. While part of the point of this is the "it could happen to anyone" and "you never know what's being caught on film" and "we're being watched/ photographed/ surveilled at all times"...on the other hand, you're in a theater watching it on the big screen, and it just doesn't have the visual zing of a more traditionally produced, high quality camera & film movie.

Raises some very intriguing questions. Good performances. (The lead is a little hottie.) A very 20/20 investigative feel. Really enjoyed the Q&A with the director afterward. Some of his conversations with MI-5 and MI-6 were quite...astonishing. And followed by "I never knew whether to believe anything they were telling me. Those guys get so caught up in their own mystique." My only quibble would be: is there a way to do this, but have it look better, yet still have the "feel" of the surveillance cameras?

Posted by Duff at 07:20 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

October 10, 2007

Chicago Film Festival: Silent Light

Very hard to describe. Definitely an "art house" or "film festival" flick. Starts with a sunrise. That seemed to take approximately 20 minutes. Twenty minutes!! With nothing but the sun slowly lightening up the sky. No sounds but the wind and the birds and...maybe you can hear trees growing?

A lot of the movie is that silent. And that slow. And that ponderous. Not in a bad way. But definitely in a disconcerting way. I found my mind racing, racing, racing. Any scene with even a hint that disaster could happen had me imagining the wildest things...things that would never actually happen in this movie.

Technically the "action" of the movie is about a Mennonite farmer, with a wife and six kids, who has fallen in love with another woman. And struggles with how to go on from that moment. Although he stays with his wife, she ultimately dies (of a broken heart?)...but then there's this one moment of magical realism at the end... Which was lovely, but a bit odd considering the very very NOT fantastical rest of the movie.

It was the opposite of, say, a three hour movie that feels like it only took 45 minutes. It was only a little over two hours, but oh sweet monkey sundae, I felt like I was in the theater for 25 years. Sitting in such utter silence, broken only by, say, the sound of someone's feet walking through grass. Or walking on snow. Or occasionally having a very slow, very drawn out, very few sentences conversation.

Some of it was really beautiful. And the tension in it was very powerful, despite being such non-tense kind of tension. (Maybe you had to see it to even make any sense out of that sentence.)

But it was not an easy movie, on the mind. It totally wore me out. Consider yourself warned.

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October 08, 2007

Chicago Film Festival: Blackout

Dir: Jerry LaMothe
Actrs: Mostly unknowns (to me) but a few familiar faces such as Jeffrey Wright, Zoe Saldana, and Saul Rubinek.

This movie was EXCELLENT. Completely compelling. I turned in my ballot with a 5 and I hope it gets a major distributor. Excellent even though the print we watched had a HUGE time code along the bottom of the screen (blocking about the bottom fourth of the screen) and no credits at the end.

Focuses on the New York City blackout of August 2003*, details the events in one Brooklyn neighborhood, particularly focused on the tenants of one apartment building and the workers at one hair salon. (Based on true events from the blackout, but believe the specific particulars are fictional.)

Really really great. Great acting, great pacing, great suspense, great passion and concern... Loved it. Both thumbs way up.

*hello, I was there! that was my last night in New York and I wound up sleeping on a couch in Manhattan unable to even get to my apartment in Queens!, and walking up and down many sets of stairs in complete darkness, and going for a very scary walk on the dark streets trying to find Amy...

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Chicago Film Festival: The Walker

Dir: Paul Schrader.
Actrs: Woody Harrelson (main lead), Kristen Scott Thomas, Lauren Bacall, Lily Tomlin, Willlem Dafoe, Ned Beatty.

This was a bit of a mess. We were down with it for the first half and then things started to unravel. Had a very 80s/90s feel to it, hard to believe it was filmed recently. Full of Washington DC "high society" (oh sweet monkey sundae, are those people pretentious or what) and supposed intrigue. The attempt to make Harrelson's character BOTH a gay dandyish society fop AND a gay in a serious relationship with a trendy political artist didn't really work for us. The two sides of his personality never melded and the contrast of the scenes was choppy.

Some good acting, not terrible, but would be very surprised if this film ever really sees the light of day.

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Big Screen: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Very, very moody and melancholy and slow and drawn out. Really really beautiful photography (cinematography?), particularly during the narration. Lots of Midwestern winter shots, snow covered wheat fields, sun dappled groups of trees. Empty rooms with wooden floors and empty rocking chairs and streaks of sun shooting across them.

Oh and yeah the acting? Brad Pitt is progressively manic (eventually becoming an actually intelligible version of someone similar to the character from Snatch) and Casey Affleck really grows on you, after seeming sort of idiot-savant like at the beginning. Mary Louise Parker was excellent in a (very!) small role, as was Zoey Deschanel. Wished Frank (Sam Shepherd) had made another appearance at the end.

At the end you realize the story isn't necessarily about what it seemed. Thought the narration would be annoying, but came to love it (gives it a very storybook feel, kind of like the narration in Pushing Daisies, although in a very different genre of storybook).

And as I said, the photography was beeeeaaauuuuuuuuutiful.

Posted by Duff at 10:09 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

October 04, 2007

Still Thinking about The Kingdom

If you're an obsessive, maniacal, ridiculous FNL fan like me, then hey, bonus, off-season sightings of Kyle Chandler and Minka Kelly who both have small roles. (And for Jericho fans, "Emily" is in it as well.) Also the background music is very FNL-feelin'. I don't know if it's actually also Explosions in the Sky and, sweet monkey sundae, I'm certainly not going to be bothered to look that up. But it FEELS like the same kind of dreamy, expansive, Texas-horizon, music.

I liked it more than it may have seemed in my previous comment.

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October 02, 2007

Big Screen: The Kingdom

I liked this movie, but I thought Peter Berg left the ending a little too ambiguous. I THINK I know what you're supposed to think, but in leaving it ambiguous I think he left room for people with a radically different viewpoint than mine to say "yup, this [other thing] is what you're supposed to think." If the message is what I thought it was, it shouldn't have been left ambiguous. I don't want people to be able to prevaricate about that!

And I didn't think it made that much sense to have Jason Bateman's character so obsessed with what the whispering was. It was like using him as the plot to find out something the audience supposedly would want to know...except I didn't think anyone in the audience was actually wondering that. It was a plot mechanism to reveal a similar attitude on both sides, but I think it could have been accomplished differently.

Jamie Foxx's macho attitude is definitely one of his strengths as an actor so he really excels in parts that let him bring it on. Jason Bateman is great, although totally annoying in some scenes. I really dug the #2 Saudi policeman (the one who gets beaten early on).

I liked a lot of it, despite my aforementioned criticisms. But as the boy working the concession stand told me on my way in "It's a good movie, but it's scary. It can really make you paranoid about some stuff."

Posted by Duff at 08:37 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Eastern Promises

Not for the faint of heart. The infamous naked bathroom fight scene was more notable (to me) for its extreme bloodiness (I swear that one cut goes all the way down his spine) than a few random sightings of Viggo's peeny. There's a throatcutting scene earlier that's more like a "trying really hard to chisel off someone's head with a not very sharp knife" scene.

Viggo is so solidly into character here, it's hard to reconcile in your mind that this is the same boy who played Aragorn. Not a bad flick, a number of interesting items, but I didn't find myself very engaged with it. More like a spectator from a distance than I usually feel in the theater. And a lot of people in this movie make really bad decisions. You wanted to take them into the hallway and try and shake some sense into them.

Posted by Duff at 08:33 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

September 28, 2007

Cable: X-Men III

Oh it's the kids are now "adults" part of the series. Never a very interesting plot move. But hey, I'm completely down with Rogue's decision. I mean, if you're a romantic, how could you not be?

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Cable: Aeon Flux.

OK I didn't think it was good, but I'm not sure why this was quite as panned as it was. I mean, yeah, the woman with the hands for feet was just grotesque... but I really didn't think the rest of it was THAT bad. Charlize Theron was convincing and the dude that played her man-from-the-past was kinda hot in a Dominic West-hot way.

I've certainly seen worse movies than this. And if you got rid of a couple of really annoying things, I think it could have been decent.

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September 24, 2007

Netflix: Eulogy

This movie is HILARIOUS. Side-splittingly funny family farce. Along the lines of The Royal Tennenbaums, but less dark (despite it being funeral-focused). Ray Romano and Hank Azaria are funny, as expected, and Debra Winger is really funny, playing against type. Loved it.

Lots of completely inappropriate, non-PC humor, which is really the best kind, right? Everyone knows that the only gay relationships that work are between people of the same height. Or Azaria having told his daughter (Zoey Deschanel, so sweet) that her mom died when she was young "from being a social worker who cared too much." (Turns out she was actually a porno actress.) Too funny.

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September 17, 2007

Big Screen: In the Valley of Elah

Intense and sad, and yet a very quiet movie. Things happening beneath the surface for many of these characters. A couple things about the mystery that I felt weren't explained quite right / didn't sit quite right. But makes its point quite well: the war isn't just happening "over there." The soldiers bring it home with them.

And if you were paying attention at the beginning, the message at the end is very clear: We are a country in distress. No doubt about it.

Really great performances by Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon. And a couple of the "unknowns" playing the soldiers really did well in their parts. Very impressive filmmaking.

Posted by Duff at 09:21 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

September 11, 2007

Big Screen: 3:10 to Yuma

Really a funny movie. Very entertaining but very silly, and a lot of holes that can be poked in the plot afterward. Weirdly my parents went to see it the same night (600 miles away) and said the same thing: entertaining and satisfying but very silly. Dad says it made him remember how some Elmore Leonard stories just go overboard into crazy silliness.

Russell Crowe is quite saucy and fun, and Christian Bale is so earnest and moral that you kinda want to slap him upside the head, or upside his weird, stereotypically English, filed to the exact same length across the top row, gray teeth. Yes I have a thing about teeth and his drive me nuts.

And for you Serenity/Firefly fans, Wash has a pretty big part and he's great in it! Yay! [And the dude who played Sam Phillips in "Walk the Line" is in this as well. He has a somewhat creepy resemblance to John Ritter in this role....]

Posted by Duff at 11:16 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under DadReaction, Flicks, Watchin'

September 04, 2007

Big Screen: Transformers

I really enjoyed about the first hour of this. Then I started to get bored, and the robots started to get preachy (thank you, humans, for working with us), and I started to want it to be over.

Despite me losing interest before the end, one can't really argue the fact that Josh Duhamel is one tall drink of water, even if I had to break up with him a long time ago as you may remember. And Shia LaBeouf plays self deprecating quite well, I can imagine him having a long future in Hollywood.

Posted by Duff at 09:51 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: The Bourne Ultimatum

Fan-fucking-tastic. The car/and other transport chases were awesome, the fights were breathtaking. Loved it.

Posted by Duff at 09:50 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

August 31, 2007

Big Screen: Ratatouille

Super cute. Sweet. Utterly charming. Definitely in the top 10 so far this year (and I don't even like animated flicks for the most part!!).

Posted by Duff at 10:11 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

August 29, 2007

DVD: Premonition

Other than the last five minutes, which I thought were total cheeseball (and UCK not necessary!!), I thought this was a totally satisfying (and mentally quite torturously terrifying) movie. Sandra Bullock was completely convincing and I don't know why no one went to this movie. Although, as I said, it should have ended five minutes earlier.

Such a nice treat to see Julian McMahon (yum!) in something other than Nip/Tuck which has just gotten way too icky and weird for me. He's delish. Thumbs up from me, yo.

Posted by Duff at 08:43 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

August 27, 2007

Big Screen: Stardust

An entrancing, lovely, little fairytale. I feel the same way about the movie that Jennie of Jennie's B(ook)log felt about the book: It is just charming and winsome, and really very funny.

Thought Michelle Pfeiffer and Claire Danes both gave good performances.

Posted by Duff at 07:35 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Netflix: Attack of the Gryphon

Although this movie was cheesy to a truly ridiculous degree, I think I could have been fine with the cheese had the special effects not been so very, very bad. It's hard to believe it was made in 2007, although I realize the Sci Fi Channel does not have a big-movie-house budget.

Amber Benson = good in a badly written role. Jonathan LaPaglia = not as good. The only person in the movie whose accent (natural, in this case, I believe) just seemed too modern to fit in with the rest.

Posted by Duff at 07:32 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

August 09, 2007

Big Screen: Sunshine

Very much in the tradition of the Alien movies...except for there not being an alien. Or not really. More about how you don't NEED for there to be an alien for everything to fall apart; that long journeys and close quarters and just being human can be enough to make things go bad. That's mostly what the movie is about. Although there was a bit at the end that I really had to wonder why it was even there. Didn't seem like it helped the storyline / may even have hurt it.

Cillian Murphy always freaks me out, no less here; he's got a weird Albino-esque-ness to him for a darkhaired dude, doesn't he? The main girl from 28 Weeks Later is here also, as well as "Flame on!" from the Fantastic 4, Michelle Yeoh, and a couple other sort-of recognizable but I can't really place them dudes.

Good acting, pretty enjoyable stuff. Except for the bit I mentioned before. (You can email me -- "Say What" below -- if you've seen it and ya wanna chat.)

Posted by Duff at 05:32 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

August 06, 2007

Cable: Blown Away.

I forgot all about this one!!! It must be years since I'd last seen it...

Jeff Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones are two Irish dudes who spent their early days doing bombings for the IRA. It's many years later and while Jeff Bridges has moved on to defusing bombs instead of building them and having a new happy family and posing as an American, Tommy Lee Jones has done a) none of those things and is b) seeking vengeance. Papa Lloyd Bridges is also in this and fun as a sort of wacky tough-old Irishman, and Forest Whittaker, back in the day, before all his (justly earned) fame, is great as a cocky young'un on the bomb squad. There are lots of cheesball things about this movie, and I honestly start totally laughing when Tommy Lee Jones starts scampering around karaoke-ing to U2 while planting bombs everywhere, but I still really like this movie. All kinds of tension. Very entertaining!

Posted by Duff at 06:24 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Multiple Viewings: Training Day

As I'm sure any of you other multiple view movie watchers can appreciate, after watching one OK but not great Antoine Fuqua movie, you must IMMEDIATELY watch a great Antoine Fuqua movie.

Denzel Washington gets his swagger on in such a truly GREAT and unbelievable way in this movie and not only that but he's BAAAAD. I mean normally he's all getting his swagger on in a hot AND good guy hero type way. To see him go the evil route...it's just breathtaking and breathtakingly good.

Ethan Hawke is really just a sidekick here, but he does a good job of being almost painfully morally upright.

I don't think I'll ever stop watching this movie. Soooooo good.

Posted by Duff at 06:21 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

DVD: Shooter

Not bad at all. What is wrong with people? I knew the critics had to have been at least partially wrong considering that despite it going to DVD supersuper fast, the DVD keeps selling out at Best Buy!

Good reasons to watch:
a) Antoine Fuqua (Training Day!) is a good director, so you figure it's got to be at least a SOLIDLY directed movie. It is.
b) Marky Mark. Hello. And shirtless. Doh!
c) A dog. And the reason to NOT let something go? SPOILER IN THE NEXT LINE! HIDE YOUR EYES! (But it is only a tiny sort of "doh! of course!" spoiler...) "I don't think you understand. They killed my dog." I am a child of my mother, that is vengeance reasoning I can totally get behind.
d) Great performance by Michael Pena, in a very Mark Ruffalo type way.

Reasons why it's not THAT good?
a) predictable.
b) predictable.
c) predictable and kinda cheesy.

Not a GREAT movie. But worth watching in my book.

Posted by Duff at 06:18 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

DVD: Breach

The acting (by almost everyone) in this movie is so stiff it makes Matt Damon's performance in The Good Shepherd look overly emotional.

The most boring espionage movie I've ever seen. And think about it: you've actually got to WORK to make a spy movie boring. Because hello: spies? NOT BORING.

Baaad.

Posted by Duff at 06:15 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

July 13, 2007

DVD: Hollywoodland.

If you liked Zodiac, you'll probably like this as well. Unsolved crime from years ago, completely obsessed in-this-case private eye (in-that-case reporter) who winds up endangering the rest of his life with his need to figure out what happened.

Slow moving, with a constant intercut between the PI (Adrien Brody, usually creepy but very effective here!!) in the present and Reeves and Mannix (Affleck and Lane, both giving great performances!) in the past. Moody with strong subcurrents of regret on growing old, lost opportunities, mishandled relationships. Very noir-ish. (I wish they would have shot this in black & white!)

I particularly enjoyed Bob Hoskins and hello flashback Kathleen Robertson (Steve's girlfriend "Claire" in the later seasons of 90210!!!).

Posted by Duff at 06:19 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

July 08, 2007

Big Screen: Evening

The presence of so many great actresses kept me interested in this one, despite the reviews, but in the end, Roger Ebert's assessment of (I'm paraphrasing) "a movie to cry in, that doesn't make you cry" was correct. Seemed to be many different motivations going on, leaving things convoluted and not necessarily making sense.

Some good performances (some = eh) but too many moving parts / too many subplots that crisscrossed or were dropped. A lot of regret and contemplation of the past, and while one character seems insistent on that meaning everything, another character tells her it means nothing.

Had potential, but definitely fell short.

Posted by Duff at 12:15 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

July 05, 2007

Netflix: Harvard Man

This is one of those movies with so many absurd plot twists and coincidences that you just have to decide to GO WITH IT if you don't want to be driven crazy.

Harvard b-baller (Adrien Grenier) is sleeping with Girl A (the daughter [Sarah Michelle Gellar] of a mafioso) and Girl B (his philosophy professor [Joey Lauren Adams]). When he needs $$$ from Girl A and fixes a b-bball game to get it, the FBI (Rebecca Gayheart and Eric Stolz!) comes after him. Fortunately Girl B is currently engaged in a menage à trois with those same FBI agents and is able to help him out. There's also an LSD subplot and lots of (actually interesting) philosophy lectures and musings.

It's a quite a (wackjob) trip but I found it very entertaining. Plus it starts w/ a fairly hot sex scene. So there you go.

Posted by Duff at 09:40 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: La Vie en Rose

Wow, Edith Piaf's childhood was really awful. Not sure, at least from the way the movie played it, whether she ever really got over it. Thought the movie was very well done, some really impressive performances. Wondered about the point of the timeline jumps. Is the end meant to be more profound since we keep returning to it over and over? In some movies (Memento, Run Lola Run, etc) the nonlinear progression of time has a reason. Here, it didn't seem to add anything to the story.

Well worth seeing. A long movie that didn't FEEL long at all - unlike other recent viewings, two and a half hours passed by without notice.

Posted by Duff at 07:12 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Ocean's 13 (or #3)

All three of these movies suffer from an overabundance of slickness. The boys are all nice enough to look at, but otherwise it's a lot of posturing. Felt this entry in the series actually lacked some girlie action (i.e., actual "relationships" as the Ellen Barkin character is just a mark and not anyone Linus actually cares about) that might've made it more human. Entertaining enough for a nice air conditioned break from the heat, but nothing special.

Posted by Duff at 07:10 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Pirates 3

Better than Pirates 2, not quite as good as Pirates 1, but certainly enjoyable. The "many Johnnies" scenes were entertaining, but I could have done without them: they didn't really lend anything to the plot (and certainly added to the overall length of an already long flick).

The ending was actually quite poetic and lovely. A half hour (or more) shorter and I would be wholeheartedly in favor.

Posted by Duff at 07:08 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

July 03, 2007

Big Screen: 28 Weeks Later

Totally terrifying. Just as good as the first one.

I do get more scared in horror movies than the average person, however, so take it with a grain of salt.

But the best part? "Stringer Bell"* on the big screen. He is mighty, mighty fine to look at.

*the character he played on The Wire.

Posted by Duff at 09:34 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: A Mighty Heart

Just completely beautiful and entrancing. Jolie is wonderful (and understated) as Marianne Pearl, and Marianne's humanist message comes through loud and clear. Great performances by many unknown actors as the various Pakistani policemen and other journalists. Totally heartbreaking and gut-wrenching, particularly since you know the outcome going in / you're just waiting for the worst.

2nd best movie I've seen this year. Highly recommended. But bring kleenex!!

Posted by Duff at 09:31 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

June 27, 2007

DVD: Chance

Written and directed by, and starring, Amber Benson. Also starring James Marsters!! Has some very typical "first movie/low budget/indie amateur" effects: characters speak directly to the camera, the lighting is bizarre, timeline is the furthest from linear it could be, character development is touched on very lightly, etc. But there are a few charming moments, a couple sweet scenes. And the actors not only interact nicely, but the main two do a particularly good job of NOT being reminiscent at all of who you are expecting them to be together. Here's a random (lengthy) online review if you'd like.

Yes, I must be on a "Tara" kick as I've been reading her writing as well: Totally sucked in by Ghosts of Albion!!

Posted by Duff at 01:27 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Netflix: Center Stage

How could I have forgotten that I had seen this movie? Lots of lovely ballet, cheesy teenybop romances and soap operas. Anorexia! Injuries! Broken Hearts! And the battle against modern dance! All the highlights of any good ballet movie. Although there is a Russian among the dancers, the brash cocky American is really the one modeled on Baryshnikov. If only he were as good looking!! Particularly enjoyed the performance of Sascha Radetsky, who I've actually seen perform with the ABT. But, especially watching it now as opposed to when it came out, very hard to believe this didn't come out until 1999/2000. Feels very '80s/Flashdance/Footloose. Of course these ballet vs. dance movies never get old do they - Julie Stiles did one even more recently than this. :)

I remember my youthful days as a ballerina well. I would probably tear my Achilles or break an ankle were I to try any of those moves today!!

Posted by Duff at 01:22 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

June 25, 2007

Big Screen: Once

Painfully earnest and sincere. Very sweet. Some pretty songs. But I found myself wincing sometimes and didn't quite fall for it, although my co-viewer completely DID. She felt it was just to the acceptable side of being too saccharine. I thought it was right on the line. It didn't go so far over that I couldn't watch it, but it was teetering right there on the edge.

T: "I'm going to buy the soundtrack RIGHT NOW! I loved it!!! Didn't you?"
Me: "Um.... it was PAINFULLY sincere. Really, really earnest."
T: "So you didn't LOVE IT!! I LOVED IT!!"
Me: "No, I didn't love it. I thought it was sweet."
T: "You didn't love it????? I LOVED IT!!"

Posted by Duff at 10:10 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

June 19, 2007

Big Screen: Helvetica

Really charming and engaging. First half sways you one way: "Helvetica is so awesome! Greatest font ever!" Second half sways you in the opposite direction: "Helvetica is an evil tool of capitalism! Evil!"

Interviewees are both enigmatic and completely entertaining. Totally enjoyable flick!

Posted by Duff at 10:17 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Netflix: Mr. Fix-It

Really really bad movie. But I knew it would be -- only rented it for the Angel eye candy. I love the color of his hair here. That's what I was going for the last time but there's way too much blonde in mine currently.

Posted by Duff at 10:15 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

June 13, 2007

Netflix: Rumble Fish

Wow, I think it's been 20 years since I've seen this movie. Sometimes you just need a little Matt Dillon in your day.

It's beautifully filmed in B&W with lots of cool shots of clouds and reflections and the coloring-in effect of the fish is really before its time, isn't it. Although technically an 80s flick, it feels like a 50s/70s combination given the sock-hop feel of the stylin' combined with the general 70s vibe, particularly Laurence Fishburne's look. The fight scenes are very coolly choreographed. Diane Lane was just as gorgeous then, was she not? Same year, same director, same author, and some of the same co-stars (Lane, Tom Waits) as "The Outsiders" but totally different feel. As with many movies from back in the day, lots and lots of people you don't realize are in this just popping out of the woodwork.

Other Matt Dillon recommendations: "Mr. Wonderful" (so cheesy but one of my favorite movies EVER!), "Singles" (!!), "Drugstore Cowboy," "In & Out." (And he is quite powerful in "Crash" but I'm hesitant to recommend it as people are always yelling at me about how wrong I am and much they hate that movie.)

Not recommended: "You, Me and Dupree," which I randomly caught on cable last night while pin-basteing (and then BREAKING my quilt frame, but that's a-whole-nother story). One of those "wow, I can't believe these actors are in this horrific movie" experiences.

Posted by Duff at 11:44 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

Angel 5:14 "Smile Time" & 5:15 "A Hole in the World"

Angel turns into a Muppet!

Angel and Spike (and then everyone else, and not just on the show): Cavemen vs. Astronauts, who would win?

Wesley: "You've been arguing about this for 40 minutes? .... Do the astronauts have tools?"

Hi-fucking-larious.

Posted by Duff at 10:19 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under TVTVTV, Watchin'

Big Screen: Knocked Up.

Hilariously, raucously, side-splittingly funny = Yes.

Offensive, gross and sometimes downright icky, and I'm not referring to the scatological humor but rather the male/female relationships and general ideas about women you cannot help but get from this(ese) movie(s) = Also Yes.

I've sort of lost my patience for these bullshit male fantasy movies where the boy and his friends are nearly the lowest level of human possible (other than being cute, I guess he could be all that this boy is AND be ugly, that would be lower), yet the prettiest girl in the room falls for him. Oh, of course! And the very few (very FEW) things he eventually does to make himself even somewhat acceptable after the initial breaking off, the girl isn't even aware of when she decides "Yes".

There's a lot more I could say about this, but really: why bother. (You can email me if you really want to know.) That really isn't a world I'm interested in living in.

I feel pretty much the same way about this movie as I felt about "Waitress": Great performance by the lead actress. But pretty disappointed by the flick overall.

Posted by Duff at 09:46 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

June 05, 2007

Big Screen: Hot Fuzz

Soooo worth it.

The most intelligent spoof movie I've seen. Completely enjoyable.

Posted by Duff at 12:26 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

June 02, 2007

Big Screen: Paris, Je T'Aime.

According to the poster, 18 vignettes (the picture grid at the beginning & end was 4x4 so suggested 16. felt more like 30). All set in different Paris neighborhoods, some concerned with Paris, some not. Some realistic and true, some purely fantastical and nutso. Some I liked, some I hated, but all short enough that just hold out for a few minutes and you're on to a new one. A couple random shots at the end linking some of the stories to each other, but not all. Lots of famous faces popping up, some in unexpected ways. Overall = enjoyable. But quite wacky.

And tell me the Elijah Wood segment did not totally steal all its coloration ideas from Sin City (which he was also in). I cannot tell him or Tobey Maguire apart and they both kinda creep me out.

Posted by Duff at 08:29 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Waitress

Disappointing. Some great performances, Keri Russell in particular. But I thought the plot, the characters, their motivations, and the general "story" were all convoluted. I'm all for adultery in the movies, but in this movie it was the only fun and/or meaningful thing in any of these characters' lives but for only one or two characters did we actually know or get any clue about the motivation behind it.

Very disappointed. Did not live up to the hype.

Posted by Duff at 07:46 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

May 22, 2007

Big Screen: Away from Her

You've got to know going in, if the movie is about Alzheimer's, you might as well bring a box of kleenex with you. Julie Christie was great, and still so beautiful and luminescent at 65. First time writing & directing by Sarah Polley = pretty impressive.

That said, it was one of those movies that while totally going with the story and enjoying it while watching, afterward I just kept thinking about certain of the plot manipulations and how unnecessary they were. i.e., I could see a reason for them being there, but felt my reaction to the chain of events and the situation would have been just as powerful/effective WITHOUT those external plot manipulations. And if they stick out as manipulations, then do they really work? Worth seeing, will definitely look forward to Polley's next project. But think there were several things that could just be dropped out of the plot without any discernable loss to the viewer's experience.

Posted by Duff at 09:29 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

May 03, 2007

Big Screen: GRINDHOUSE

Best three hours I've spent in the movie theater....in a LONG time.

Exhilarating. Gruesome. Violent. Intense. Funny. Sassy. Sexy.

AWESOME.

p.s.
a) Rose McGowan has a smokin' hot body. This is why I don't wear stripper clothes: because the ass sticking out the bottom doesn't look like hers.
b) "You know what happens to bitches who carry knives? THEY GET SHOT!"

Posted by Duff at 08:55 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

April 30, 2007

DVD: Elizabethtown.

Truly bizarre. Hyperbole in EVERY scene just wears ya out. Disjointed, unconnected, illogical. There were so many things that were bizarrely wrong with this movie. A few random cute moments...that made absolutely no sense within the context of the movie. And a million more nonsensical and noncute ones. Cameron Crowe = unusually off his game.

Posted by Duff at 11:21 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

DVD: The Italian Job

Actually pretty entertaining in a goofy lighthearted way. It's just a few kisses and gropes away from being a good movie. I mean, come on, people, is that too much to ask in a movie with two hot leads?

p.s. and for my fellow Buffy fans, hello Oz is in this! And he's got some really funny lines!

Posted by Duff at 11:17 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

April 22, 2007

DVD: Babel.

Still in disbelief that this was nominated for best picture. Didn't really think much of it at all. Didn't think it was about "miscommunication" and whatnot as the title might imply. Thought one storyline was so very very tenuously connected to the others that it belonged in a different movie. Far more questions than answers. And sooooo many things that could have made it better, could have made it worth watching, could have made me care at all about any of these characters. But no.

An Altman-esque "Short Cuts" or Paul Haggis' "Crash"-type disjointed narrative. My co-viewer thought it better than Crash; although she found it frustrating, it raised interesting issues in her mind. I felt the opposite. It seemed to raise no coherent issues whatsoever. At least in Crash, the issues were recognizable whether you felt they were well done or not.

Anyone want to take this DVD off my hands? I'll happily send it to you, I'm certainly never going to rewatch it.

Posted by Duff at 09:13 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

April 17, 2007

I have no time for you.

I have a whole stack of books and concerts to write up. But I'm too busy watching TV: Buffy and Friday Night Lights. I've also watched EVERY episode of the US version of The Office over the past four days. No, I'm not joking. I'm overdosing, perhaps, but not joking. How a show can be so fucking hilarious and yet so sweet and sometimes (desperately) sad is really an accomplishment. More, please.

Supposedly Grey's is a new one this week. Do I care? Not at this moment. I'm just halfway through Lost from two weeks ago, and obviously would still have last week's to watch too. Another show I am not caring very much about. The last six episodes of Standoff were supposed to start showing April 6, but apparently they decided to show reruns of House instead. It might be returning June 8 if this site is right. We'll see.

Posted by Duff at 01:11 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under TVTVTV, Watchin'

April 16, 2007

Buffy Season 2: Eps 17-22

Ep 17: "Passion." Really really loved this episode. Loved Angel's voiceover. "Without passion, we'd be truly dead." Loved the way he was floating around in the background, stalking Buffy in various scenes. On the other hand, of course, some really really awful things happen in this episode. Awful and creepy and scary and sad. And, man, no one can hurt you the way people you love can, can they. Only of course, he's not the man she loves, he just used to be.

Ep 18: Uck, the "death" demon in the hospital and the little kids. Uck!!! Loved the Xander/Angel confrontation tho. Loved Cordelia bringing Xander donuts on his vigil. Xander "My whole life just flashed before my eyes...I've got to get me a life!"

Ep 19: Wow, another really powerful one. Makes a great companion piece to #17. Love the twist / giving Buffy the guy's role in the past and Angel the woman's. Poor Giles.

Ep 20: Oh there's the dude from Prison Break. Weird. The "fish" in this one really grossed me out. Or what about Willow describing the eviscerated swimmer as being "like [the way one eats] an oreo cookie. Except for, you know, without the oreo cookie goodness." Ew!! Loved the scene when Cordelia thinks Xander is the fish: "I'll do everything I can to make your quality of life better, whether it means little bath toys or whatever..."

Ep 21 & 22: We gets lots and lots of interesting backstory on Angel here. This season has really been a full circle for him. Loved Willow's insistence on trying to get his soul back. Then there's Buffy's revelation to her mom (which honestly at this point, weren't you thinking for ages that it would make things so much easier if she knew? only of course she doesn't take it as well as Buffy's friends did)...and the hilarious part Spike plays in that. "We're in a band." "She plays the triangle." Love the humanity in Spike that Angelus just doesn't have. His love for Drusilla, where Angel(us) is only using her to torture Spike. And on the other hand... Completely torturous. Giles in all kinds of agony, both mental & physical. Buffy watching her love ripping her world apart. The exquisite torment of having Angel get his soul back in the same instant where she has no choice but to send him into hell.

What a way to end a season: complete and utter heartbreak. Ow. [Geez, I haven't listened to Sarah McLachlan in ages, this song really takes me back...]

And the little zombie dude going across the screen at the very end of the credits? This time he says, "Oh, I need a hug." Me too!

Posted by Duff at 08:54 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under TVTVTV, Watchin'

April 15, 2007

Buffy Season 2: Eps 13-16

Oh shit, Miss Calendar is a gypsy! Uh oh!

Ep 13: So so so bittersweet and hard to watch. First they think Angel's leaving, then he doesn't leave, then they have sex, and then his soul is ripped out. Ouch! Ouch! I knew it was going to happen, but I still wasn't really ready for it.

Ep 14: Wow, when Angel loses his soul, he really goes all the way doesn't he. He's much more vicious than, say, Spike or Drusilla. As "The Judge" points out (re: Spike & Drusilla) "These two reek of humanity." Really interesting to see the contrast between the silent moody Angel and the complete swagger of Angelus; it again makes me think of Face Off and the difference in (either) Travola/Cage as they play each other. As Joss Whedon says of Boreanaz in one of the commentaries "Considering he's about as nice a guy as you could ever work with, he plays a bastard with aplomb." Thankfully they did give us some moments of humor to lighten the horror: such as Willow asking Oz to make out!!

Or Cordelia and Xander with some great byplay (as until this episode no one knows about the secret lovers):

C: This is great. There's an unkillable demon in town, Angel's joined his team, the slayer is a basketcase. I'd say we've hit bottom.
X: I have a plan!
C: Oh no, here's a lower place!!

C: Does looking at gun make YOU want to have sex?
X: I'm 17. Looking at linoleum makes me want to have sex.

Ep 15: Loving the little inside moments that I might not have caught if I wasn't powering through these in order. Like Oz looking at the cheerleader statue and telling Willow its eyes move! Yeah, we know, dude, because that's Amy's mom stuck inside there!!! :) I remembered Oz was a werewolf (remember, I only watched SOME of these back in the day, and mostly from later seasons) but I didn't know when we would find out.

Willow: "Well, I like you. You're nice, and you're funny, and you don't smoke. And yeah, OK, werewolf, but that's not all the time... I mean, three days out of the month, I'm not much fun to be around either."

Ep 16: Thanks to Amy's spell, everybody loves Xander...including Buffy's mom. And Miss Calendar! Tooooo funny. Everyone except Cordelia!

Posted by Duff at 08:53 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under TVTVTV, Watchin'

April 11, 2007

Buffy Season 2: Eps 9-12

Ep 9 & 10: Uh oh there's a new slayer in town. Buffy saving Angel instead of the other way around! The torture scenes: ouch! Too real! The grody worm killer! Bleeeech! Totally creepy!!!! Oh my, Xander and Cordelia! Wow. This show is just nutso good.

Ep 11: TED!!! This episode blew me away. John Ritter is amazing as the animatronic man and him and Buffy's fight is nuts. Loved Angel's line: "Loneliness is about the scariest thing there is." Yes, indeed.

Ep 12: It's like invasion of the body snatchers!!!!! The little animals are soooo grody! Ew! Loved the cowboy vamps. Did you notice one of the bit players in this episode (he's been in a few) was Paris' boyfriend the newspaper editor Doyle from Gilmore Girls? That's just one of the great things about rewatching old shows, the people you know now that you didn't know then.

Random: Loving how they totally went with the go-go dancer, short short skirts and high boots for a lot of the first & second seasons. I can't remember when I stopped wearing shorts that skirt but I'm pretty sure it was earlier than 96/97. Also loving Buffy rocking the BIG sunglasses. Paris Hilton is just a buffy wannabe! :)

Another great Angel line: "You're 16...and I'm 241!"

Oh and a Xander moment that is I think from an earlier episode that I forgot to mention: "I'm just going to go home, lie down and listen to country music. The music of pain."

Posted by Duff at 08:52 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under TVTVTV, Watchin'

April 10, 2007

Buffy Season 2: Eps 5-8

Ep 5: Ugh, frat parties. Yuck!  The Cordelia/Buffy exchanges are pretty hilarious.  Cordy says something like "And your hair looks great...No I can't lie. You look like crap, but here's why you need to come with me."   

Ep 6: Awesome.   The second Oz "Who IS that girl" moment!   The Buffy/Angel stuff where he explains how he felt about women back then. 

Ep 7:  The icky Billy Fordham also played an icky dude on Dawson's Creek.  Maybe he's just icky!  Love Angel going to Willow for help, her awkwardness that he's appeared at her bedroom door!    Wow, the Drusilla revelations are quite something.

Ep 8:  Can you believe there are people out there getting the mark of Eyghon(sp?) tattoos.  Did they not see this eisode?  That's a bad thing!!!   This was really powerful.  Great watching Buffy come to realize Giles isn't JUST her watcher.

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Buffy Season 2: Eps 1-4

Ep 1: Ah, the return from summer. The awkward reacquainting with friends.  And poor Willow (the ice cream moments)!  Isn't that Sean Lennon playing with Cibo Matto?

Ep 2: Hello Frankenstein.  Very creepy!  Loved it.

Ep 3:  Totally loved Spike's entrance, knocking down the Sunnydale sign and then his boots steping out of the car.   Reminded me of N. Cage's entrance in "Face Off". 

Ep 4:  Loved this episode.  Loved Xander's Twinkie explanation.  Loved the first Oz moment, seeing Willow in her eskimo costume:  "Who IS that girl?" 

Random: Excited that Angel has made the official opening credit lineup.  Oh Angel. I am diggin' you.

Posted by Duff at 08:51 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under TVTVTV, Watchin'

April 09, 2007

Buffy Season 1: Eps 5-12

Watching Buffy is completely taking over my life; I barely moved off the sofa this weekend, only going to get refreshments when absolutely necessary.  I really don't remember most of these episodes: I didn't as a practice watch Buffy every week and it seems that most of the stuff I remember is from seasons much further on.  So it's really fun to watch these with hindsight ("Hey, that's the guy Willow winds up with! But at this point, she has no clue!") and see random bits and parts that if I had been watching at the time wouldn't have really popped out at me.

I love how Cordelia has become part of the gang almost against her will.  She knows all about the slaying and the vampires and everything, but would never tell, because she wouldn't want anyone to know she actually hangs out with these guys.  Too funny.

• "Because you're always around when all this weird stuff is happening, and I know you're very strong and you've got all those weapons.  I was kind of hoping you were in a gang."

I find however that I am really all about Angel when it comes to this show so the first season where he isn't in a lot of the episodes isn't quite as good as I'm finding the second season to be...  Woops, getting ahead of myself.

Thought the hyena episode (Ep 6) was really cool, although that whole "gee who are those four brand new characters we've never seen before" is always such a dead giveaway that they'll either wind up being villains or victims.

Like Buffy, ventriloquists totally freak me the F out (Ep 9) so I was very pleasantly surprised when the dummy turned out to be a good guy!  Love the addition of the new principal.  He seems like he should be evil what with his big ears and his leprechaun-like size & demeanor but so far he's just humanly evil.  They do give him some great lines: 

• "There are things I will not tolerate:  students loitering on campus after school, horrible murders with hearts being removed...and also smoking."
• "That's the kind of woolyheaded liberal thinking that leads to being eaten."

Love how Giles always thinks Buffy is falling behind in her training, and gives her the big "OK I'm going to attack you now!"  only to find that gee, she can still kick his ass in about seven seconds.

Other lines I loved:

• Xander to Cordelia, I think: "Can we just revel in your fabulous lack of priorities."
• Ep 12: "Oh good, the feeble banter portion of the fight."

On to season two... (although technically as I write this, I am already there...)

My favorite moment in all of season one has to be the time Buffy and Angel kiss, and as she walks off, we see what she doesn't, that her necklace has burned a cross onto Angel's chest...

Posted by Duff at 08:49 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under TVTVTV, Watchin'

April 07, 2007

Buffy Season 1: Eps 1-4

So fun to (re)watch how the group comes together.  This was what, 1996?   Back when SMG actually had some babyfat in her cheeks (and her boobs!). 

Love how Buffy is already so jaded as the series begins...  and how hard Giles has to work to convince her of her role, and his use!  Willow is so sweetly nerdish here and Xander's crush on Buffy is just hilarious.   Funny to remember David Boreanz as the broody silent mysterioso, such a contrast with his Bones character.  And how skinny was he here!  At this point he isn't even part of the opening credits as a main character...  His name is at same level as Eric Balfour (Six Feet Under) who gets killed off in Ep 2!!  Were they not sure he was going to be as long-standing of a character as he became?

Favorite lines in these eps:  Buffy: "This is deeply dangerous!" and later Giles: "Oh, that was a bit British, wasn't it?"

Think it was a good (and unusual) move to have the series BEGIN with the world about to come to an end in the very first ep...rather than waiting a few seasons to build up to it. 

Posted by Duff at 08:47 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under TVTVTV, Watchin'

April 04, 2007

Big Screen: The Lookout

This movie is getting much better reviews than I would give it, Rolling Stone seemed to like it A LOT, and I'm wondering if they saw a different cut than I did? Bizarre. The manipulation stuff is, as expected, pretty fucking icky. But there's other icky stuff as well. There's about a zillion things you can pick apart in this plot, and nothing that WOWed you enough to make you not notice the gaping holes. Not recommended.

Posted by Duff at 09:12 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

April 02, 2007

Big Screen: "A Shot in the Dark"

Portuguese title: Um Tiro No Escuro. Half the story of a kidnapping, half a crime caper movie, the two of which get really bizarrely entertwined. Some great acting. Little worried that we were at a porn flick due to a few scenes at the beginning shot so close up that they make the Bada Bing look tame.

While watching: totally entranced, worried, upset, shocked, moved.
But once removed: wow, there are a lot of things you could pick apart about this plot. but oddly enough, still doesn't make me have enjoyed it any less.

Definitely worth seeing.

Posted by Duff at 12:13 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

DVD: Idiocracy

From the same brilliant minds that made OfficeSpace. But significantly darker, to my mind anyway. Two people of average intelligence are sealed up for an experiment...yet while they're "asleep" the entire society gets so dumbed down (ouch! too close to home?) to the point that when these two are mistakenly awaked, they are now geniuses. And the contretemps ensue...

Luke Wilson is great in this. And I loved the whole "Who's on First?" tattoo machine moment. Also: "Gatorade" has taken over the world! Sadly when this shit really goes down it's going to be a company a LOT worse than that...

Funny. But sort of secretly dark. Or super dark behind the scenes once you start thinking about how likely some of it feels... You could watch it without those inner thoughts. But who would?

Posted by Duff at 12:10 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Cult Favorite: Office Space

How is it possible that there are still people out there who don't know about the humor that is the masterpiece Office Space? It doesn't SEEM possible but apparently it IS as I just had the chance to initiate someone into the gloriousness of this movie. There are so many funny moments in it, it's not really describable. If you haven't seen it in a while, maybe it's time for a rewatch. And if you've never seen it...it's available on DVD and it's worth the money, slackasses.

Posted by Duff at 12:07 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Repeat Viewing: Miracle

So Glory Road reminded me how much I tend to love sports movies since I love a) sports and b) movies. It's a win-win and Miracle is one of my all-time faves, and oh look they have it on iTunes. Perfect. Looooove Kurt Russell in this. LOOOOOOVE Hockey. Love hockey fights. Love sassy boy (playing a boy) from Boston. Loooove some of the other "little" boy actors who have oddly (most of them anyway) appeared in almost nothing else of note. But they're so good in this, why people haven't been knocking on their doors offering them roles in sitcoms and romantic comedies, I have no idea. The only really recognizable one is Eddie Cahill who most of us know as "Tag" from Friends. Honestly can't think of anything I don't like about this movie.

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March 28, 2007

All TV, All the Time.

So I have two movies and one book to tell you about, and probably some music, there's always music, but in the meantime, here's what I thought of last week's FNL (lovedlovedloved), this week's House (liked) and last week's Grey's (hatedhatedhated).

Posted by Duff at 09:20 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under TVTVTV, Watchin'

March 21, 2007

Repeat Viewing: Sweet Home Alabama

After Glory Road, my trip down Josh Lucas lane continued with a movie I have seen, oh, maybe three trillion four hundred fifty seven times (no I'm not kidding). So enjoyable. The small town vs. big town? The seven years without going home? So my life, dudes. Sadly without the whole "awesome dude who loves me in each place" bit of the story. Sadly.

Again, as with one of my other recent embarrassing admissions, rather than quoting from important "classics", movies like this are the ones I quote all the time. You know, things like "You've done it, you should recognize the gesture." or "Oh I missed you allright. But at this range, my aim is bound to improve."

Posted by Duff at 04:55 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Movie/TV Quotes, Watchin'

DVD: Glory Road

So after the fiasco that was Poseidon, apparently I was in the mood for some Josh Lucas as I suddenly found myself watching Glory Road. And bonus: "Bones" plays his wife! (That show is just getting better and better this season!) Good movie, but super heavy on the issues, so somewhat hard to watch. But then again, with the underlying racism that is still going on in this country, maybe should be made to watch something like this every once in a while; a good reminder. I love sports movies, and I LOVE basketball (and I'm all about the civil rights, no?) so I am really this movie's dream audience. Loved the performances of lots of the ballplayers, some of whom seemed familiar but even when I look at their IMDB resumes, nothing rings a bell.

Posted by Duff at 01:06 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Last King of Scotland

Very intense. Yes, Forest Whittaker is pretty amazingly awesome in this movie, BUT I did not consider him the main role and I really think he should have been nominated in Best Supporting. Sure, it's a bit meatier than your average supporting part, agreed.

But in my opinion, the Scottish doctor dude played by James McAvoy is the lead role in this movie. He is the one who undergoes transformation, whose part brings about revelations to the audience, and whose emotions are the most apparent and meaningful. His reactions and realizations are what causes the plot to move in this movie. Whittaker's character, while sometimes deceptive, is really the same through and through. If you know what I'm sayin.

One really really REALLY brutal scene, which at one point I couldn't just partially close my eyes or peer through my fingers (my normal squeamish mode) but had my hand completely clamped over them. Horrible. Really not sure that needed to be shown on screen in quite that way. Wait, now I remember, there were TWO scenes I was really skeeved by. TWO. The first one being slightly less brutal because not an "active" scene, but more of a brutal tableaux. The second one being really horrific to watch.

Is it sad that my only real knowledge of historical moments like those of African dictators is through the movies? (This. "Hotel Rwanda". I also love "The Interpreter" which I think almost everyone else hated.) This made me want to ponder all sorts of issues about colonialization, and poverty, and technology, and what kinds of brutal wars happen where and why, and the "rule of law" and how sometimes you think it doesn't work but sometimes you think "wow it must work better than I think because look what happens when they don't have that". I think my random pondering really sort of annoyed my friend, who has actually spent time in Africa, and clearly knows much more about its history and civilization than I ever will. But then, that isn't a place I really WANT to go so unlikely I ever will. Ah well.

Thought some of the smaller roles in this movie were really well played as well. Gillian Anderson = very poignant. Kerry Washington = intense and sensual.

The last "party" scene was very primal and intense; made you realize how often people TRY to do that but FAIL.

Definitely worth seeing.

p.s. scottish doctor dude = he was the faun in Narnia! and also a role in Wimbledon which I've only watched a zillion times so that must have been why he felt familiar to me.

Posted by Duff at 10:59 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Zodiac

Not just a murder mystery, but also a movie about how one person's obsession (the comic turned detective) can take over their entire life. Some pretty scary moments. Some great and unexpected performances here: who knew Anthony Edwards was in this? He didn't appear in any of the previews I saw. Mark Ruffalo = great. Robert Downey = great. Jake Gyllenhaal = pretty good. Chloe Sevigny = unexpectedly strong. Dermot Mulroney = wearing a fake stomach, no? Spans a long period of time (20 years?). Really enthralling. Great discussion topic afterward.

p.s. more unexpected appearances: the dude the wife was having an affair with on "Brothers" = a desk sergeant cop earlier on, a detective at the end. the "mouth" dude from One Tree Hill = the "young" version of the one surviving witness.

Posted by Duff at 10:56 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

March 12, 2007

Cable: Poseidon

Bad. Really, really bad. It was like it wanted to be another Titanic except that it forgot the important ingredients of every (or ANY) ounce of personal connection, caring about the characters, knowing who they were or why they were there or really anything at all about them. Some decent actors you wonder how the fuck they wound up in this. Was the script better than the final movie? Or did it suck from the get go?

Bad.

Posted by Duff at 03:23 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

March 11, 2007

Cable: Into the Blue.

Honestly this movie was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Even suspenseful at times, at least to a scaredy cat like me. I've definitely seen worse!! Plus it's total eye candy: Paul Walker = hot. Jessica Alba = hot. All swimsuits and open seas. What's not to like?

Ah, for the salad days of living in flipflops, board shorts and tees. Someone find me a sugar daddy, pronto! I'm living the wrong life!

Posted by Duff at 03:27 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: The Lives of Others

The German flick that won the foreign language Oscar.

Really, really good. About secrets and trust, and oppression and cohersion. About a sad lonely man who finds himself making unexpected decisions. About figuring out the game. When is one a pawn, and when is one the chess player?

Sad. And bleak, that deep grey institutional graffiti-ed bleakness that you may recall from old books or films you haven't seen in a long time about that particular point in German/world history...

As my dad says frequently, "I miss the Cold War."

Posted by Duff at 02:51 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

March 08, 2007

Guilty Pleasure

So I caught the middle third of this movie on cable the other day and realized I hadn't watched it in ages, so pulled out the DVD (yes, I own a DVD of it. so sue me.). Man, there are some really laughable things in this movie, but it is still totally fun to watch. And contains one of my favorite all-time movie quotes, although it will be memorable to no one but me I am sure and I can't even explain why I love this line so much: "Why, you're all charm and grace, boy." I say this to people under my breath ALL THE TIME (and sometimes not so under my breath). I love the gruff old men conversations in this movie. Oh yeah, it's The Presidio (only $10 on amazon! how can you pass this up?). See, I told you! Laughable. But totally a rewatch-at-any-moment (for a good time call) candidate.

Posted by Duff at 10:17 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Movie/TV Quotes, Watchin'

March 05, 2007

DVD: Jarhead

Raw. Raucous. Raunchy.

But good!

Gyllenhaal and Saarsgard were both good. Surprisingly (given how I felt after Dreamgirls) I really liked Jamie Foxx in this, and gotta give a shoutout to Cheddar Bob, playing the most annoying soldier ever that I definitely would have wanted to murder had he been in my unit.

Posted by Duff at 06:32 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

February 28, 2007

Big Screen: Blood Diamond

Wow. For all my reluctance to go see this, I was pretty blown away when I finally did. Strong performances, intense storyline. Intense sadness. Quite the companion piece to any of the boy soldier books out now (including this one I read, as well as there's another all over the front of bookstores right now).

As for the Oscars: Djimon Hounsou was robbed!! Robbed, I tell you. He's amazing in this movie.

(For the record, I think Leo was robbed also...but in a different way: because he SHOULD have been nominated for "The Departed" and he should have won for that. While he was good in this movie, he was great in that one.)

Posted by Duff at 08:16 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

February 25, 2007

DVD: Imagine Me & You

My cousin had recommended this and then one day I was looking over the "to be watched" pile and found I had already bought it. Bride walking down the aisle toward Groom, exchanges glances with another girl and....Boom. Do you believe in love at first sight?

Good performances by both girls (Piper Perabo and Lena Headey [imagine Keira Knightley with more meat on her]) and a really lovely performance by Matthew Goode (Rachel, don't read that article, he mentions his girlfriend Sophie incessantly!!), who you can also see as the brother in Matchpoint. You'd want to have him as your new celebrity boyfriend, but sorry ladies, my cousin's already claimed him.

Quite a sweet little film. Enjoyed it.

Posted by Duff at 12:15 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

DVD: United 93.

I was very reluctant to see this movie...until my Dad hit me over the head with a [metaphorical] 2 x 4, reminding me that the director is awesome...(An earlier flick "Bloody Sunday" is another brilliant piece.) My dad went to it in the theater and recommended it at the time but I never got around to it.

A bunch of the air traffic controllers PLAY THEMSELVES in the movie. Hello, that fact alone should tell you how authentic it is. Really interesting to see how played things out / how the different air traffic centers had to try and piece together what was happening / how the military was trying to piece together what was happening / how the day slowly came together in people's minds.

You're ultra hyperly aware of the whole "hindsight being 20/20" thing the whole time you're watching the film, of course, as knowing the outcome of that day makes even the most innocuous "random people making phone calls at the airport" scenes seem foreboding. Great use of background music in this flick; just enough to set you on edge.

Very powerful. Very moving. Not cheap. Not exploitive in the least. Highly recommended. But, yes, intense. Not for the faint of heart.

Posted by Duff at 12:10 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

Netflix: The Covenant.

Oh, delicious young man eye candy. Stereotypical young "hot witches in distress" movie, only the witches are boys and one of them is "Tim Riggins". Yes, that's the whole reason I rented this. Totally predictable and bad. And sooooo yummy. The pool scene? Holy crap what a body. I think maybe I'll watch it again today...

Posted by Duff at 12:09 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

February 21, 2007

Big Screen: Music and Lyrics.

Loved it! Yes, it's predictable. And sappy. But real sugar sap, not nutrasweet fake. Loved the '80s video (hello Jason Street! Great job!). Loved the music (hello I am now addicted to the soundtrack). Loved the pop-up "where are they now"-type video at the end.

Posted by Duff at 09:08 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Netflix: Midnight Cowboy

What a fucking bizarre movie. Some of it is soooo '70s (the party, the clothes, etc.). But some of it felt very modern (the daydream sequences, the B&W inserts). And holy cow was it nastily anti-gay for a movie that in many ways could be considered Brokeback #1.

Dustin Hoffman's character? Yeeeuck.

Posted by Duff at 09:02 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Netflix*: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

This is a movie I saw over and over as a kid as it's a Dad favorite. But I hadn't seen it in many years and found that while some scenes I remembered vividly, some (the MTV-esque bicycle scene!) I had no memory of whatsoever. Paul Newman was just unbelievably hot when he was young, wasn't he. He still has the world's most beautiful eyes; sorry Elizabeth Taylor but he does.

The ending really reminds me of The Wild Bunch, another Western Dad fave.

*Carlos' queue, not mine.

Posted by Duff at 09:00 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

February 08, 2007

Big Screen: Catch and Release

One of those little "we're suddenly turning into adults and WTF do we do now" movies. So: Not nearly as good as Garden State. But not nearly as fuckinghorriblybad as Last Kiss. Yes, the valley between those two is my latest measuring stick for this kind of movie.

Which means it was pretty "middling". Some nice moments. Some funny moments. Not just a story about one chick; really about how four (or more) different people are all dealing with the same person's death, and finding out how each of them actually knew him in a very different way.

I realize Jennifer Garner was pregnant during filming but it seemed they went a little overboard on how dumpy they had her dressed. Give her some better clothes and my opinion would have gone up a few points, which might sound weird but if you've seen it I think you know what I mean. Kinda odd to have the random boys wearing cuter clothes than the only "normal" girl in a film!

Enjoyable. But not a GREAT flick.

p.s. Kevin Smith basically plays himself. And he's pretty hilarious.

Posted by Duff at 01:02 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

January 29, 2007

Big Screen: Inland Empire

Honestly, I have no idea what this movie was supposed to be about. And when I say "no idea", by that I mean "no fucking clue in any way" and anyone who says they did is full of fucking shit. For example, if you read a review that says "this part of the movie was a criticism of society's xxx". Just LAUGH TO YOURSELF and say "You pulled that OUT OF YOUR ASS man."

There was one (or maybe two) storylines that you could PSEUDO interpret to yourself in a Mullholland Drive kind of way. In other words, so in some scenes she's an actress, but in some scenes she thinks she is really the part that she was just playing in other scenes, now she thinks she's ACTUALLY her. OK, that was the one percent of the movie that was explainable in any way.

When I say this movie is at least 90,000 times MORE confusing and MORE dislinear and MORE disjunctive and MORE fucked up than Mulholland Drive (which I actually did like in quite a few ways), I think I am underestimating.

And to those obviously insane David Lynch fans who went all out with the applause at the end: Hello, WHAT were you applauding? Everyone in my row just looked at each other and said WHAT IN THE FUCKING HELL WAS THAT ALL ABOUT? And no, I wasn't the only person in my row!!!!!!!!

And p.s. it was three hours long. Three hours of lots of stress and tension and uncomfortable icky scenes and three hours of complete and utter confusion.

Posted by Duff at 07:48 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

DVD: The Warriors.

What a truly, truly great fucking movie and how have I never seen this, given that one of Walter Hill's other movies is one of my top-10 movies of all fucking time?

Loved this. LOVED. Loved the Baseball Furies, and the Lizzies, and the Orphans, and the crowds and the drama and the creepy creepy creepy bottle-tapping taunting. Loved the rollerskating, overall wearing farmboys who get their butts kicked in the bathroom at Union Square. Loved the "West Side Story" feel to some of the "running down dark streets, hoping not to get our faces beaten in" scenes. Loved the stuff on the trains. GO WARRIORS GO! RUN! Loved the DJ's mouth. And her sass. Loved. (She is also in my favorite movie mentioned above. Hello!)

Crazy realization while watching the extras: Oh shit! Now that they're showing him 30 years later, we see that Ajax is....the Richard guy Kim Catrall's character was hooking up with on Sex&theCity! NO WAY!!!

Posted by Duff at 07:41 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Recommending, Watchin'

January 22, 2007

Big Screen: Dreamgirls.

More a real "musical" than, say, Walk the Line or Ray, both of which featured singing but only when the actors were on stage. Whereas this has those random "I'm talking to you but wait, now I'm singing to you!" moments.

Eddie Murphy was GREAT. Not a character you really LIKED but he did a great job and he was one of the most humorous parts of the movie, which in some ways I felt was missing some humor. One song that went on way too long, and when I checked afterward, I wasn't the only one who felt that way... Jennifer Hudson was pretty impressive and the movie only affirms the fact that Beyonce sings about as well as...J Lo. Or me. Or you. Anybody can sound "good" mixed correctly; only some people can sound "great" and neither one of them falls into that category; Jennifer does.

Really hated Jamie Foxx in this, and not all because of who he was playing. Seemed to have a really sullen sticking-out-his-bottom-lip, barely-moving-his-mouth thing going on.

Overall, good performances, good singing. Seems like a bunch of real-world stories (Supremes, Jacksons, etc.) all sort of thrown into one fictional story. Ddn't realize it was a stage play first. Interesting.

Posted by Duff at 05:50 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Pan's Labyrinth

Contrary to what ALL of the reviews I read said: I did NOT find this to be a horror film. I did find some of it GROSS. And some of it BRUTALLY VIOLENT. But NONE of it caused me any undue horror. I was fully prepared to be screaming, shaking, grabbing the arms of people next to me, having nightmares later and perhaps being unable to sleep. None of which ensued.

It was really good. Really compelling. A mix between the reality of the adult world fighting a war against fascism (led by sadists) and the child world of trying to find a place where you feel safe and loved. Reality mixed with faery (to use their sp) tale mixed with little girl's (mis)perceptions. Intriguing.

The captain/stepdad is truly brutally sadistic and some of those scenes were hard to watch (I had my hands strategically over my eyes to block out all but the subtitles). And one of the faery sequences is soooooo gross. But still: not that scary and certainly not as scary as the reviews had led me to believe.

The little girl is just lovely and beautiful and expressive and I hope she grows up to be a rich and famous actress one day. I imagine this is what Audrey Tatou looked like as a little girl.

Posted by Duff at 05:45 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

January 14, 2007

Big Screen: Children of Men.

Freaky. Frightening.

Has the same feel as other post-apocalyptic London movies like "V for Vendetta" and "28 Days Later."

Very scary, and with just enough toeholds in reality that you have to think that if things got really (even more) fucked up, something like this COULD happen...

Thought they copped out a little on the ending though.

Clive Owen is great. Julianne Moore looks oddly clean, compared to the rest of the movie. A beacon of porcelain whiteness. Weird.

Posted by Duff at 07:05 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Cable: In Her Shoes

Wow, I must have been really tired because this not-great chick flick totally made me cry!! Convoluted, messed up family relationships just get to ya sometimes I guess.

Really liked the sweet way the romance between Rose and Simon (played by one of those actors you've seen in a million things) evolved.

Cameron Diaz seemed to have a lot more going on up top than normal. Is it just me or was she considerably more boobalicious in this movie than in any of the, say, 5000 pictures of her in bikinis they've shown in US Weekly, People, etc.? Temporary implants? Creative use of masking tape?

Posted by Duff at 07:00 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

January 13, 2007

Plane: The Guardian

Well, if you remember that I'm a sucker for this kind of movie, then you already know I quite enjoyed this. Although it's probably fine that I saw it on a plane and didn't pay $10 to see it in the theater.

A little frightened that this makes TWO Ashton Kutcher movies on my list, but I thought he was good in this, although the script certainly didn't do him any favors.

Nice bit part by Sela Ward.

Posted by Duff at 02:53 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Deja Vu

The person who cut the trailor should be fired: it completely misrepresented the movie.

Pretty good, but definitely a movie that requires you to suspend your disbelief. One of those very "real" feeling movies with just a little sci fi thingy thrown in to make it all work (similar to the way the book "Time Traveler's Wife" works).

Denzel was good (when isn't he).

Posted by Duff at 02:34 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Plane: All the King's Men

OK. Sean Penn overemoting a bit, no? Jude Law was good; surprised to find his character was the narrator. Funny to see he and Kate Winslet together again so soon after seeing The Holiday.

Not bad, but not anything special either.

Posted by Duff at 02:30 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

January 04, 2007

Cable: Underworld Evolution

OK I only caught the last who knows how long of this (hour?), but I turned the TV on right in the middle of a wordless, very sexy, very NUDE (nuder than most!) sex scene between Scott Speedman and Kate Beckinsale. Woah. For a minute, I thought maybe it was post midnight and the TV had accidentally been left on Cinemax; it's always so disconcerting to come home to that!

I'll have to try to watch it from the beginning sometime; I know neither of them are "Great Films" but I did enjoy the first Underworld. Vampires, leather, gloom: sometimes it's just what you're looking for in a flick.

Posted by Duff at 07:04 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: The Painted Veil.

Serene and slow...and very, very sad.

The emotions run the gamut during this one: from mean and horrible to tender and distressed. You can know someone for a long time...without knowing them. Can't you?

We both liked it.

Posted by Duff at 06:51 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

December 29, 2006

Cable: Without Limits

I missed the first 45 minutes or so as I was busy putting pictures of my ass up on the Internet (I know, I wish I was joking too).

One of (several) Prefontaine movies. Wow, I loved this. Billy Crudup is yummy even with the scary '70s hair and the Prefontaine ego, and look at those muscles. Was it this way in real life: were all the other runners so much skinnier than Pre and more "the normal skinny shape for long distance runners" or is that just how it looks in this film? Donald Sutherland is great, although so emaciated you can almost see his bones coming through his skin. Now who is...oooo it's Jeremy Sisto playing one of the other runners! I never liked him until I started watching Kidnapped this year, but now I am a fan.

Oh and creepy "Ethan" from "Lost" plays "Bob" (which is always said in a very creepy tone), Pre's sometimes roommate.

Loved it. Totally cried at the end! Poor Mary! Despite lack of first 45 minutes. Maybe someday...

Posted by Duff at 12:04 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

December 28, 2006

Big Screen: The Good Shepherd.

OK. Better than The Good German. But not great, not what it's trying to be.

Felt this was a very PHYSICAL acting role on Matt Damon's part, similar to what Heath Ledger did in Brokeback. It wasn't just in the way he talked, but in the way he walked with his shoulders hunched, the way he stared, the way he always seemed to have one eye looking over his shoulder. You constantly felt the burdens he was under.

Robert DeNiro was great, think he may have underused himself here. Alec Baldwin continues in his string of recent very welldone supporting roles. Angelina did a good job decaying of unhappiness. William Hurt was just as icky and creepy as you can imagine, and honestly he might need to do a "good guy" role sometime again soon or I might not be able to watch him on screen much more!

Movie covers a LOT of ground, about a 25- to 30-year time period, with flashbacks and jumping back to present. I liked the transitions / B&W slowly into color. Thought there were a couple of twists done wrong / i.e., when there's a big "reveal" of a bad guy: it has to be someone you care about. Otherwise it's thrown away.

Didn't love it. But did make you ponder some things. Like how the fucko rich boys in skull&bones have fucked the shit out of our country and aren't they still continuing to do so. But that's really a different topic isn't it?

Long and slow. A lot to take in.

Posted by Duff at 08:15 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: The Good German.

A nice try, but some problems, probably in the script, that make it unsatisfying in the end. Clooney's character is a reporter, so you're thinking he'll DETECT shit that's going on and be the one who figures things out. Uh, No, not so much. Everything that happens seems to take his character by surprise which was a) not really believable and b) made the story not work so well.

Plus, honestly, could little tiny Tobey Maguire, using ONLY ONE ARM, beat the crap out of George Clooney? In what world? (Clooney gets the crap beaten out of him a lot in this flick.)

Cate Blanchett was good. Beau Bridges was good (haven't seen him in anything in ages, but he's also brilliant in "The Fabulous Baker Boys").

In contrast to Goodnight and Good Luck, where you may remember black & white film was used to its fullest crispest shimmeriest goodness, in this movie, it's used to look like old news reel. Hence super contrasty / too dark in some scenes / washed out in others. Went with the mood of the flick, but seemed like a WASTE to me. And something that will make MORONS talk about how B&W is bad, when this is just a bad example of it. Eh, what can you do.

Posted by Duff at 08:11 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Cable: Hostage

Icky movie where lots of icky things happen. Bruce Willis is good in it, but why not watch a movie where he's good and the icky things are less icky? 16 Blocks, for example.

Posted by Duff at 08:09 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: The Holiday.

Total chick flick. But harmless and cute. Nothing wrong with spending a couple hours watching an (oddly tan?) Jude Law.

Third storyline (old dude next door) kind of thrown in arbitrarily.

But enjoyable.

Posted by Duff at 08:08 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

November 27, 2006

Big Screen: Bobby

A little convoluted at the beginning, but when you get to the end you figure it out and the whole movie makes sense.

Basically four (or five/six?/can't remember exactly) other people were shot (but not killed, according to the post script, although it seemed like one character was definitely pretty close to dead!) when Bobby Kennedy was shot / it was in a crowd. So the movie follows those characters throughout their entire day until the shooting. So at first, I GUESS I can see why people are confused because it doesn't come clear why you are following those specific characters until they get shot at the end. But why does it have to be clear? Whatever, I didn't have a problem with that myself.

So what is the point of that set-up? The point is that each of those people had hopes and dreams about the future, and Bobby Kennedy represented at least one little part of their hopes & dreams. That so many people lost something that day / not just the OBVIOUS. That an event like that can turn your life upside down whether or not you're political and whether or not you agreed with his stance. And that, overall, in the big scheme of things, it was a huge moment. Arguably huger than his brother's shooting, because his brother's shooting is part of the history. Because it was the SECOND time. Because it closely followed MLK's shooting. Because these things don't just happen to one person / they happen to all of us / and there is/was a cumulative effect flowing through those years.

Because sometimes what someone stands for is so much bigger than who they were.

The credits are accompanied by black & white shots of his life / from childhood, to young adulthood flanked by his equally famous brothers, to shots of his family, made ever so much more poignant to me, given the knowledge of what happened afterward. When you think about Jackie and JFK Jr and Caroline, they went on to live fruitful, enjoyable lives, even if Jrs was shortened. Whereas Bobby's kids had a much more tortured evolution, one dying of a drug overdose for example.

Interesting to see what a stance he took against Vietnam...given that he was his brother's attorney general and thus was part of the administration that sent us into Vietnam. And kept slowly adding to positions/one of the things that has oft been cited as a reason for the result (as with Iraq, bloody idiots who aren't learning from the past. Not that we should be there at all!). At least he wound up in the right place, but god, would it not have been amazing to see what had happened had he won on that platform? How different would our world be?

Also really cool was that (similar to Goodnight and Good Luck), the appearances of Bobby in the film (other than one handshake) are all using actual footage of the time. I thought Emilio Estevez did a great job of blending the footage / making a seamless transition (yes, this is an exercise in "how repetitious can I be? can I choose which way to say things, or will I just say it every way possible instead?").

Thought there were some solid performances, especially by Shia LaBeouf, William Macy, Sharon Stone (almost unrecognizable), Christian Slater, Laurence Fishburne, and Joshua Jackson (Hello those other girls out there who are looking for a Pacey fix!!! He has a more than minor role here and he's quite fine in it). Ashton Kucher was kind of an idiot, but given the role he played, what did you expect. Hard to picture Helen Hunt and Martin Sheen as a couple but that was the only real casting goof to my mind.

Enjoyed it. Thought it was strikingly relevant, as with Joan Baez the other night. You don't always have to be outright in your criticisms and sometimes the subtle route can be powerfully effective. Not that I plan to ever go that way myself... :)

Posted by Duff at 06:31 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

November 22, 2006

Big Screen: Come Early Morning.

Written & directed by Joey Lauren Adams, "Amy" of "Chasing Amy". Starring Ashley Judd, who was really wonderful here.

It's a small film. A "coming into one's own" film (rather than "coming of age"). A film about, really, just one moment / one turning point. Realizing that you have to make your own choices. That you can't rely on old crutches, or blame other people and the past they've saddled you with for the decisions you're making today.

A small, quiet movie. But moving. Well directed, well acted. Well worth the admission.

Well worth the drive to Highland Park, somewhere neither of us had ever been, to go to this last night as it was only playing at 4:10 in the city. Somehow we made it before the previews were even over despite getting lost in suburbia.

Posted by Duff at 08:11 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

November 21, 2006

Big Screen: Casino Royale.

People are calling this the best Bond film in years. Yeah, because it's not really what we have come to know as the Bond film, it just happens to have him as a character in it.

Ways in Which This Film Resembles a Bond Film

• His name is Bond, James Bond.
  
• Judi Dench is his boss.
  
• He works for MI6.
  
• Sleeps with more than one girl.

Ways in Which This Film Does NOT Resemble a Bond Film

• He's blonde not dark, short not tall, and has actual muscles instead of the lanky Moore/Dalton/Brosnan shape. (Craig is bulked up like a male gymnast in this movie. Quite the contrast from his Munich and LayerCake silhouettes).
  
• He takes cabs!
  
• He fights with his hands a lot (limited gun usage)!
  
• He gets the crap beat out of him several times and is very bloody and battered and completely messed up.
  
• Subtle dialogue. No cheeseball stupid lines like "I thought Christmas only came once a year" but instead nice play-by-play (Her: "I'm the money" Him: "Worth every penny." Moneypenny. Get it?)
  
• Only one scene with anything very "gadgety" (and it was medical.) Otherwise straight fists / guns / regular cars / nothing fancy.
  
• No Q.
  
• Falls in love, bares his soul.
  
• Drinks some crazy fruity drink he makes up with 1/2 teaspoon of a billion different things.

Ways in Which This Film May or May Not Resemble Bond, I Cannot Remember
A really sadistic sadomasochistic beating scene that I can only imagine made all the men in the audience cringe with sympathy pain.

It was pretty good. Not a GREAT FLICK by any means, but very enjoyable. Daniel Craig is pretty yummy, even bloody and battered. (As some of us like to say, "I'd tap that.")

Posted by Duff at 09:47 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

November 15, 2006

Big Screen: The Prestige.

Revenge. Twisted competition. And in the end, through two different revelations, you are brought face to face with the almost unbelievable level of horror humans can stoop to when caught in the throes of such. Crazy ending to wrap your mind around.

Chilling.

(Christian Bale was really great, despite his weirdly all the exact same size, all the way across the top teeth.)

Posted by Duff at 09:49 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

November 01, 2006

Big Screen: Marie Antoinette.

Loved it (man I'm easy sometimes).

Loved the costumes and the pageantry and the yummy yummy food. I was so hungry afterward, filled with longings for cakes and pies and tarts and eclairs and perhaps a jar of frosting to eat with my fingers.

Thought Kirsten Dunst was really good (I also like her in Wimbledon, although in general I really don't like her and there are a number of movies she has totally skeeved me out in).

Overall, a tremendous feeling of sadness. Her life became so barren, so lonely and alone and full of distrust and gossip...

Really well done.

Posted by Duff at 10:54 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

October 26, 2006

Big Screen: The Queen.

Really unusual idea, great acting, great writing. Some of the actors' resemblances (as made up/acted here specifically) to the real people were just absolutely striking.

Really interesting how they handled the relationship between Blair and the Queen and the dynamics there. So much of this is supposition (unclear if they had ANY sources and who, or which (if any) parts were perhaps "true" or drawn from documented information), but rings true nonetheless

Two connected scenes where I wasn't sure what you were supposed to think: which way the director was leaning toward. Doesn't matter obviously, you can make up your own mind, but afterward BOTH of us asked "but were you supposed to think this? or this? did they want THIS to be the point? or not?" about the same scenes so clearly raised questions.

I did not know much about her later in life, or follow her in that way, but as a seventh grader, I did get up at 2 a.m. or 4 a.m. or whenever (man I am old, I cannot remember!) to watch Diana marry her prince in real time. Curled up in a blanket alone in the TV room about an inch from the screen while the rest of the house slept...It's one of the first worldwide psuedo political events I remember...

And the summer I lived in the UK with my British cousins, I actually saw her (believe she was still HRH then/still married). We were about a foot apart as her limo came through the roundabout in Cornwall where the police had stopped all of us other drivers. I looked through the windows separating us, waved (she waved back, but of course) and thought "hey...I just saw a princess!"

I want to live at Balmoral. With my books and my quiltin' and my knittin' and my prince. WHERE IS HE.

Posted by Duff at 09:12 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Cable: End Game.

This movie sucked so hard I can't believe I watched all of it. Lots of good actors (good in other things actors, I mean): Cuba Gooding, Anne Archer, Angie Harmon, James Woods. But bad plot, bad dialogue, bad, bad, bad, bad. Typical presidential assassination/insiders involved/espionage like storyline.

*SPOILER* In this movie, BOTH the president AND the first lady are having affairs. Come on.

So bad.

Posted by Duff at 09:09 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

October 16, 2006

Big Screen: The Departed.

Wow. WOW. Sooooo good. Super intense. Super violent, yet lots of comic relief; funny moments that had the whole theater laughing even during the most violent scenes. Also hilarious was Markie Mark's hair. His acting was great, his hair was hilarious.

In general: well-acted, well-written, well-directed.

My one caveat was ONE of the many twists at the end was just too "out of the blue"; the audience was completely in the dark and that felt a bit "unfair" or not a legitimate twist. But it was one tiny moment and was made up for by the next one.

I think Leo's often a good actor but I've never been on the oh-he's-so-cute bandwagon. That said, there are two scenes in this movie during which he was just so very, very attractive. During one of them (NOT the sex one), I found I was holding my breath...

So.Damn.Good. GO!

Posted by Duff at 05:27 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

October 11, 2006

Big Screen: The Black Dahlia.

Some strong acting (Hilary Swank, for one, was wonderful. Completely forgot it was her in every scene). Strong directing (Brian de Palma's been pretty much a god to me since the first time I saw "Body Double"). Really great illustration of noir. Good movie. But ultimately felt things moved a little bit slower than they could have.

There was one point in particular where a conversation between two people was being conducted soooo slowly and that was already 1h45 into the movie and I thought "This is GOOD, but it might go on forever..." (My dad disagrees; he quite liked the pacing.)

And if I haven't mentioned it before, Aaron Eckhart's picture is next to "yummy" in my dictionary...

Posted by Duff at 09:25 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

October 01, 2006

Big Screen: The Illusionist.

Dreamy and nostalgic. You have to give in to the magic. But if you do, it's quite enjoyable. Edward Norton is great. Magnetic. Paul Giamatti is also good.

The one false note for me in the movie was really the Crown Prince's moustache. Perhaps it was real? But it was crooked, and I wanted to leap up there and rip it off for him!

Posted by Duff at 12:29 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Last Kiss

It's taken me awhile to get around to talking about this one. I really can't recommend it.

I heard it described today as Garden State 2. I assure you, THAT it is NOT. Garden State being actually a pretty great movie. This being... well... Not.

Well acted, for what it was. The problems lie in the script/the plot/the actions.

Four "grown up" boys. Making bad decisions.

I certainly do not recommend seeing this on a date -- I'd hate to witness the arguments afterward as to who made what mistakes and which ones were worse.

Posted by Duff at 12:26 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

September 11, 2006

Netflix: Notorious

Oh poor Ingrid Bergman, just waiting for stupid Cary Grant to admit he loves you. Just admit it, fool!!!

And although to some I think this probably feels like a complete ending, I was left a little unresolved. Does he get her to the hospital on time? Are we meant to assume that? Carlos and I were both scared it may have been too late! Maybe off-screen she is dead!

We're still not sure which kiss was supposed to be the amazing 360-pan shot (heard 'round the world!) and felt none of them were filmed in such a way as to deserve a plug in the DVD description!

Posted by Duff at 10:10 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Netflix*: Shadow of a Doubt.

1943 Hitchcock. Totally creepy incestuous-feeling uncle/niece relationship (both named Charlie). Did this not feel incestuous to people in 1943? Icky from almost moment one.

Other odd relationships as well, which seem to grow by leaps and bounds in a single instant. You walk with me in the town square for five seconds...30 minutes later (watching time. a few days movie time), you haven't seen me since, but you love me. Oh, those were the days.

*Carlos' queue, not mine.

Posted by Duff at 10:08 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

September 04, 2006

Big Screen: Conversations with Other Women.

Intelligent. Sexy. Verbose. Bittersweet. Go!

Posted by Duff at 10:42 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

August 20, 2006

Big Screen: Little Miss Sunshine.

I seriously cannot remember the last time I laughed this hard. I had to take my glasses off as tears were rolling down my face, I was doubled over, and at one point I think I almost passed out from lack of oxygen coming in due to large amounts of laughter going out.

This movie is so downright jaw-droppingly, rib-breakingly funny. Sooooooo funny. And not really sappy and sweet at all, as the previews seem to suggest.

I would love to describe the last 10 minutes of the movie for you just to give you the biggest laugh of your life, but you've got to go see this shit in the theater, yo. SOOOOOOOOO Fucking Funny.

Really not worth saying anything else about it. Good performances all around. Fun, fun, fun.

Posted by Duff at 10:42 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

August 14, 2006

Big Screen: Scoop.

SO MUCH FUN. Back to what Woody does best: awkward bumbling convoluted comedy. Sooooo much better than Matchpoint which I really didn't like that much (yes, I am saying exactly the opposite of the critics, who all seem to have liked that better than this). Hugh Jackman is super yummy in this film (I never thought so before!), suave and dangerous. Scarlet and Woody are bumbling and awkward and funny and play off each other quite well. Laughed the whole way through. Totally worth the price of admission. Gooooooo.

and p.s. Dad concurs: "Hilarious." "A Laugh a Minute."

Posted by Duff at 08:57 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under DadReaction, Flicks, Watchin'

Plane: The Sentinel

Not sure I know anyone else who saw this movie, but I thought it was really good. Reminded me a lot of No Way Out and Enemy of the State both of which I remember liking. Kim Basinger and Michael Douglas had scarily believable chemistry. Keifer was good. Even Eva was good. Thumbs up.

Posted by Duff at 08:54 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

August 02, 2006

Big Screen: Clerks 2.

Very very fucking funny. A true return to form for Kevin Smith. My only caveat is that the Clerks dudes just aren't quite as fun to watch as Jay & Silent Bob (where's #2 of THAT movie, eh? THAT I would LOVE to see.). They're a little bit more downtrodden. A little less willing to laugh at themselves. Although very willing for US to be laughing at them, right? :) Really hilarious and at the same time, as my Dad put it, "incredibly vile." Just what the doctor ordered.

Posted by Duff at 06:54 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Pirates 2

Johnny Depp is hilariously over the top. Orlando and Keira both looked pretty although they clearly have less meaty roles. Entertaining, fun, liked lots of different things about it. Long? Eh, didn't feel that long.

Liked the "bad guys" of the first film a little better -- sure they were undead, but they weren't as gross and gnarly as these. Think they went a bit far with the CGI gruesoming effects.

Otherwise looking forward to #3. Oh - and if you didn't see it yet - WAIT UNTIL THE END OF THE CREDITS. My mom told me to and like the idiot I am I forgot, so I had to call home to find out what I missed. Doh!

Posted by Duff at 06:50 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: A Scanner Darkly.

Super cool animation/art. Surprisingly dynamic and physical.

Story line kinda creepy. The art really made the movie for me and I'm not sure I would have liked it filmed "regularly".

Posted by Duff at 06:48 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

July 10, 2006

DVD: Annapolis.

Yes, fine, not a GOOD movie.

But totally satisfying in so many ways.

• The myth/magic of military tradition = Good.
  
• James Franco's chisely cheekbones and cut, cut, cut abs = Good.
  
• Fat, funny friend = Good.
  
• Donny Wahlberg (Man, I miss Boomtown) = Good.
  
• Small-town, blue-collar angst = Good.
  
• Boxing and blood and boys with no shirts on = Good.
  
• Tortured father/son relationship = Good.
  
• Sassy girl in commanding position = Good.

What's not to like?

Slammed as a wanna-be Officer & A Gentleman (one of the greatest movies ever). But some key plot points are quite different and make it not a direct copy. Although I'm sure I would have enjoyed it either way.

Posted by Duff at 10:02 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: The Devil Wears Prada.

The contrast between Meryl Streep's character/performance in this movie versus Prairie Home... Wow. She takes a lot of critical/consumer flack but she is such the consummate actress. If you didn't KNOW, you would never guess those two characters were played by the same actress. I kiss the ground you walk on, Ms. Streep, seeing both your new flicks in one weekend was a truly awe-inspiring experience.

That said, this is not much of a movie. Anne Hathaway bored me. Where is the Anne Hathaway from "Brokeback Mountain"? Does it have to be an edgy indie movie for you to be alive and excited in it? There was so little chemistry between Hathaway and Adrien Grenier that I could not imagine caring one iota about their relationship. Booooring. And since you're supposed to be thinking about how the Streep character's irrational demands are destroying her employees' personal lives...well, that only really works if you think their personal lives are worth something.

I assume the (many) weaknesses of the movie are straight from the book. Enjoyable enough, funny sometimes, but not a very good movie.

Posted by Duff at 09:57 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Prairie Home Companion.

You do not need to be a fan of Garrison Keillor, or Lake Woebegone, or Prairie Home Companion itself, to like this movie. You do need to be a fan of folky/country music, laid-back often-only-funny-in-very-obscure-ways Midwestern humor and meandering circling back and forth story lines. If you liked "A Mighty Wind", you will probably like this.

It was poignant, and sweet, and funny, and charming, and I quite enjoyed the movie overall and Meryl Streep in particular. (My mom apparently connected with Lindsay Lohan's character the most. If you could have heard how my Dad described that to me...PRICELESS.)

Oh and the songs Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly sing...and their characters in general...what a HOOT!

Posted by Duff at 09:54 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Cable: Must Love Dogs.

Ugh. Was the script Diane Lane and Jon Cusack read originally better? Enough so to convince them to do this movie? Because it was not. very. good. at. all.

Posted by Duff at 09:53 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

DVD: Stage Beauty.

I bought this a while ago and never got around to watching it. Which just proves I'm a moron because this is a great movie and I can only hazard a guess that the stars' extracurricular activities (Billy Crudup and Claire Danes hooking up on this movie and Crudup dumping his 7 months pregnant girlfriend Mary-Louise Parker) kept people from going to it (yes, Jen, I'm thinking of you and assuming that would give you even more pause than the Brangelina situation did over "Mr & Mrs. Smith").

It's just beautiful. Heartbreakingly, wrenchingly, poignantly beautiful. How do you find yourself again when all that is YOU has been lost? Ouch.

Crudup is amazing. And there's a pretty humorous scene where you cannot help but notice (if you haven't before) how incredibly flatchested Danes is as she has to bare her breast basically "to show she's a woman" yet when she bares it...well, I'm not sure that proved anything! Ah ha ha ha ha. I used to feel your pain, Claire, 35-some pounds ago...

Posted by Duff at 09:46 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Netflix: November

I really wanted to see this when it came out last year or whenever but never got to it before it ran away from Chicago. Damn those theaters who don't keep Indie movies for a decent run! Courtney Cox plays a photographer whose boyfriend gets shot to death in the first scene of the movie...or does he? If you liked Memento or Run Lola Run, films that question the continuity of the space-time continuum, you will probably like this. I loved it. Very intense. And very non-Monica like. :)

Posted by Duff at 09:43 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

June 25, 2006

Cable: Ladyhawke.

CanNOT believe how long it's been since I've watched this (Kysa, didn't we used to watch it all the time "back in the day"? When was that? 1995?). Also canNOT believe I do not own this on DVD. Will have to fix that. Still love it just as much as I used to, although admittedly the background music is very dated and somewhat humorous. Matthew Broderick is so fun in this, and I don't know that I can think of very many other movies where him being in it is one of the reasons I like it. Rutger Hauer is YUM, yum, yummy. The love story is so desperately poignant. Oh the heartbreak. Oh the torture. Yes I'm being facetious; but I love it nonetheless.

Posted by Duff at 09:15 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Cable: First Daughter

This movie was so bad (and I couldn't even honestly say "unbelievably" so), I really can't believe I watched the whole thing. But I was tired and needed to sit still for a while, so it served its purpose. Really bad dialogue, bad acting, disjointed scenes, leaps in both logic & time. Michael Keaton just looks pained here. Bad.

Posted by Duff at 09:13 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Netflix: The Cruise.

Somehow, someway, I have GOT to get better at Netflix; this movie has been sitting in my house since sometime in March! Argh!

Anyway, this totally nutso crazy Napoleon Dynamite look-alike leads architectural bus tours in NYC. If you can get past his crazy rantings, there are some neat nuggets of architectural, historical and city planning information...as well as, of course, giving those of us homesick ones some cool B&W views of our former city.

Posted by Duff at 06:23 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

June 22, 2006

Big Screen: An Inconvenient Truth.

Maybe a little less emphasis on how quietly meditative Gore is (all those longing looks out the windows of planes), but otherwise I did enjoy this movie, and I do believe he is a thoughtful person despite the movie's overemphasis on trying to prove that to you.

If you have any fucking clue at all, you already know a lot of what he talks about here. Obviously the problem being that 90% of America chooses to be fucking oblivious.

Loved the graph about the difference between a) whether or not scientists agree about global warming and b) how the media reports whether or not scientists agree about global warming. Liberal media, MY FUCKING ASS. Those graphs would be identical, did we really have a liberal media. They (the graphs) are not (identical). They (the media) are not (liberal).

It will be interesting to see if Congress wakes up to this issue. I know "the administration" won't. Jackhats.

Posted by Duff at 07:47 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

June 11, 2006

Cable: War of the Worlds.

Unlike another Tom Cruise movie I saw recently, this movie just was NOT good enough for me to forget it was him. In fact, this movie was a pretty bad piece of schlock, frankly. It was as if they made a remake of Independence Day...but left out all the good parts.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD:

I mean - come on... Alien invasion. Fine. The aliens come, and kill a bunch of people and wreck a bunch of cities. Fine, we were expecting that.

And then what happens? They. Just. Die. Say what? No, America doesn't come up with a master plan to destroy them or figure out a weakness or IN ANY WAY do anything redeeming at all. Nobody tricks the aliens, or thwarts their master genocide plan. The fuckers just die. Because, you know, they weren't "accustomed to our planet" the way we are. How fucking stupid is that.

Hellloooo in alien invasion movies, the whole point is the humans overcoming the aliens. Talk about a No Hope ending! Because clearly the next set of aliens just has to be accustomed to our planet and they'll have no problem annihilating all of us.

Stupid.

Posted by Duff at 07:26 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Mission Impossible III.

Great line in this movie: Please don't interrupt me when I'm asking a rhetorical question.

Also Amanda greatly enjoyed the use of "embolden."

Now on to the show: Yes, Tom Cruise is a freakshow. But if you can just forget about that for the two hours you're in the theater, this is just as fun as your average summer action flick and not much of a letdown unless you were dumb enough to go into the theater expecting "high art".

The scenes in China really reminded me of Tomb Raider 2 (which is a good thing in my book, but probably not in yours).

Not a great flick. No WOWza moments. But for a summer action movie with some ass kicking fights, and some chase scenes, and some things blowing up, and some twists & turns = it was just fine.

The girl playing Cruise's fiancee, Michelle Monaghan I think?, looks eerily like Katie Holmes in a couple scenes. Spooky, man. Billy Crudup and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers are showing up all kinds of places you wouldn't expect them these days, aren't they.

Posted by Duff at 07:23 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: The DaVinci Code.

This may be the movie with the worst reviews since Ishtar. Sure, it's clunky. But I'm pretty sure most of its faults are the faults of the book it's from (from what I hear, it's a pretty faithful reproduction, other than they simplified the mystery somewhat). I really didn't think this was as bad as I was led to expect -- I was entertained. I was shocked enough to yelp at one point. I wasn't bored. I found some of Ron Howard's "here's where I REALLY make it REALLY obvious what he's thinking right now" techniques were way more blatant than they needed to be - felt somewhat INSULTED by them. Apparently he was expecting a less intelligent audience. But he was, wasn't he, because he was expecting the audience that loved the book.... Mua ha ha ha, really walked into that one, didn't you, DaVinci fans?!? :)

Wasn't a great movie. But was not the most horrific movie ever made, as perhaps the reviews have convinced you. I've seen worse.

Posted by Duff at 07:19 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Books, Flicks, Watchin'

Cable: Monster in Law.

What a shittown movie. Jane Fonda is pretty hilarious, but this is baaadly written. Jennifer Lopez and Michael Vartan have very little chemistry. I was totally into her little sundress over jeans look though (loath I am to admit it). But all in all, not a good movie in any way (not that I expected it to be).

Posted by Duff at 07:18 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

June 07, 2006

Cable: Prime.

I had actually heard enough good things about this that I was convinced I would like it. Eh - not really. The boy has been on One Tree Hill (as Jake) so I'm a fan of his, but this movie never really showed Uma's and his characters to have more than just a sexual connection and some of it was just downright dumb. Shocking that it didn't really have a "Hollywood ending" though. It was Ok but I thought it had the potential to be a lot better, probably starting with a better script to begin with.

Posted by Duff at 04:39 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Cable: Star Wars III Revenge of Sith.

George Lucas can't write dialogue to save his life and there's some horrifically stiff acting in these flicks (by otherwise talented actors even), but I enjoyed the last 1/2 hour or so where they actually made connections to the '70s flicks, which is really the only reason for anyone my age to watch this garbage.

And Ewan McGregor, what's up with the wack stiff accent? Eh?

Natalie Portman is so pretty, and (other than the pretty) this role is so unrepresentative of her talents (hello Garden State and Closer are damn fine performances, you Natalie haters).

Posted by Duff at 04:37 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

May 22, 2006

Cable: Notting Hill.

On 890th viewing, STILL think this is really not a very good movie. It's like the screwed up, dumbed down version of Four Weddings. What I enjoyed this time: Matthew Modine hilariously styled in one of the "clips" from Julia's character's movies. And a very, very young Mischa Barton as the young girl in one of her movies. I'm sure I never knew that was her as this movie came out long before The O.C.

Posted by Duff at 06:26 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big Screen: Thank You for Smoking.

Black humor, sarcasm. Not *quite* as funny as the book. And missing a major plot point that would've actually given Katie Holmes something to do other than say the F word. Enjoyable. Funny. But the book is a lot funnier.

Posted by Duff at 06:25 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Books, Flicks, Watchin'

May 09, 2006

Cable: Godfather 1-3.

Why will I lie comatose on the couch watching HOURS of movies complete with commercials and all, when I own those very same movies on DVD and could just get up and put those in and actually a) not have to watch commercials and b) watch the entire series in a considerably shorter time frame?

Have seen #s 1 and 2 about a zillion times of course. Had only fully watched 3 one time a zillion years ago. On rewatching, I think to myself "What is everyone always crying about? 3 is not THAT BAD." In fact, I think it is almost satisfactory. It shows how things have fallen apart, how Michael's lack of emotion and connectedness to others (which Vito had but Michael doesn't) has caused the disintegration. It has crazy nutso unstable Andy Garcia's character coming in and eventually taking over (further disintegration). And I frankly don't see anything wrong with Sofia's acting in it.

I think everyone else is just a) bitching about nothing or b) going along w/ the party view. Fie on them. I might not think 3 is AS GOOD as 1 and 2. But there are MANY many movies out in this world that aren't as good as 1 or 2, aren't there.

It's so crazy to watch this now. Anyone who was ANYONE at the time was in it. And so many of them went on to amazing careers. Not just Pacino and DeNiro (DeNiro as the young Brando -- a stroke of genius) but Diane Keaton, James Caan, Michael Duvall... the list goes on and on.

Posted by Duff at 12:47 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

DVD: Just Like Heaven.

I liked this more than I thought I would. Mark Ruffalo is really cute in it, the interactions are funny & sweet. And really the only thing keeping me from outright raving about it is the unreality of the concept. Unlike say this movie that I am (albeit abashedly) raving about, the "plot" of Just Like Heaven couldn't actually happen TO ME and that's really what I'm looking for in a rom-com. I guess it could happen TO YOU, if you believe in Napoleon Dynamite and seeing spirits. Neither of which turn me on.

Posted by Duff at 08:47 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

May 08, 2006

DVD: A Lot Like Love.

I never thought an Ashton Kutcher movie would land on the "watch every week, and then some" list.

This is a very cute, very sweet movie. Starts out a little "When Harry Met Sally" but actually goes in a very different direction. The deaf brother seemed a little "Four Weddings and a Funeral" but he's only in a few scenes.

Super cute. Super sweet. Ouch!

Bonus: There's a scene with "If You Leave Me Now" (Chicago) that is just as awesome as the "Tiny Dancer" scene in "Almost Famous." Seriously.

Posted by Duff at 05:49 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Cable: The Watcher.

One of those rare suspense movies where we actually know who the bad guy is the whole way through, and the suspense is about stopping him rather than figuring out who he is. Keanu is quite freaky here and James Spader is great as a messed-up cop on his last legs.

Posted by Duff at 05:29 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

April 25, 2006

Cable: The Firm and The Pelican Brief.

You couldn't pay me to read a John Grisham book but I do think they make good screenplays. (OK, maybe you could pay me but it would have to be A LOT.)

I cannot turn the TV off if either one of these is playing, despite having seen each of them at least 89,765 times now.

Posted by Duff at 10:23 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Cable: The Big Easy

Man, I forgot what a great fucking movie this is. And why is it exactly that I don't own this on DVD? I have an old, very very old, copy taped down from HBO...

Posted by Duff at 10:22 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

April 10, 2006

Big Screen: Inside Man.

Loved it. LOVED IT. Clive Owen = sexy. Denzel Washington = hot. Jodi Foster = does anyone have better calves than Jodi Foster? I dream of having calves like those. Lots of bit players were completely compelling in their roles. Movie was completely engrossing. Fanfuckingtastic. Goooooo Spike.

Someday I will tell you my Spike Lee stories. And you'll be like dude, you have so many fucking ridiculously stupid stories, how did you ever get to be you. And I'll blame it on my parents, like I always do. If you knew them, you'd understand.

Posted by Duff at 05:56 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Plane: The Family Stone.

Uneven. SJP and Claire as sisters? Didn't buy it. The assorted Stones were pretty believable as a Family. But SJP winding up w/ Owen? Didn't buy that either. Love Diane Keaton but not here.

Enjoyable enough for wasting 2 hours of a 15 hour flight on, but glad I didn't pay theater $$ for this one.

Posted by Duff at 05:46 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

March 23, 2006

Big Screen: Munich

Does it not make your head and your heart hurt thinking how hard one must struggle each and every day AGAINST "an eye for an eye..."? Yes, another legacy from the Bible. Because what does an eye for an eye beget? Hello, another eye. Then another, and afuckingnother, on and on ad nauseam.

Does this ever resolve itself? No. The world just gets stuck in a neverending circle of retribution. Hello Afghanistan. And Iraq. And soon Iran. And Syria. Hellooooooo how does everyone not see how fucked up this is.

Geoffrey Rush is amazing in this. Daniel Craig is wearing really tight jeans. And Eric Bana is hot. Hot like so hot I would lick dirt off his naked body hot. He was also the hottest thing in Troy where Brad Pitt looked like an idiot and Orlando Bloom played a wimp. What he needs to do now is make a hot little romantic comedy that I can buy on DVD and add to my weekly "over and over" viewing list. THEN this world will be right.

Posted by Duff at 07:22 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

March 22, 2006

Netflix: Picnic at Hanging Rock.

Why would I watch this BEFORE going to Australia? Am I trying to freak myself out? Two hours of foreboding music, disappearances, deaths... And NO conclusions. No mysteries solved. Hello, way to leave me hanging, Peter Weir!

Posted by Duff at 02:30 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

March 21, 2006

Cable: iRobot.

Man, I love Will Smith. Robots are cool, too. It's a win-win.

Posted by Duff at 12:56 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

March 20, 2006

Big screen: 16 Blocks.

This was my second choice but only thing that worked for the timing. Um hello, why isn't anyone talking about this movie? Totally intense. Bad cop/less bad cop. Bruce Willis is awesome. Mos Def is great even though he has (at least in this movie) possibly one of the most annoying voices on earth. It's Owen Meany's voice!

Posted by Duff at 07:02 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Big screen: V for Vendetta.

A friend's review was "It's either the most egotistical film I've ever seen. Or the most fantastic."

My vote: FANTASTIC!!!

There was one speech I got a little sick off. And one very sadistic thing I so was not expecting. But I loved it. Loved it.

Posted by Duff at 06:54 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Cable: Taking Lives.

This wasn't much of a mystery, I knew from "his" first appearance who the real killer was. But regardless I still find it quite SPOOKY. Angelina is quite lovely in it. And the ending was awesome, from a girl getting back point of view.

Posted by Duff at 06:45 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Cable: Johnny Mnemonic.

Thought I had already seen this movie, but now I'm not so sure. Sort of a combination of the dirty warriors with guns road rules of Mad Max and the modern techy suaveness of the Matrix. Definitely a precursor. I really enjoyed it (smooches to you, Keanu) despite the presence of that girl, the girl who had an affair with Brandon while she was married to his teacher. Yes, that's a 90210 reference for you right there. Those can be hard to come by so I hope you appreciate it.

Posted by Duff at 06:41 PM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

March 14, 2006

Big Screen: Syriana

Not sure how George Clooney winds up with best supporting out of this. It's more of a bit role. Or "intermittent" at the most. I love Clooney but I don't see the award winner here. I guess they really did feel they had to give him SOMETHING!

Uneven. Some messages clear = US government will seek to control oil situation, no matter the cost. No matter whether it will keep that world backwards in terms of women's rights, etc. Other parts not so clear. The Matt Damon storyline achieved what? Just human interest? A more human connection to the Prince?

Good. Thought provoking. But not great. "Good night, Good Luck" = much better movie.

Posted by Duff at 08:45 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

DVD: Junebug

I wasn't so much watching it for the Amy Adams performance (which was good) but for Alessandro Nivola. Yum. We are only 1 degree of separation (my good friend Evan grew up with him). Now, why couldn't I have known that, and made something of it, BEFORE he got married.

The movie overall however was pretty uneven. Enjoyable but not a must-see.

(As w/ Constant Gardener), a great makeout scene to begin the flick -- very fun.

Posted by Duff at 08:42 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

DVD: Hustle & Flow

AWESOME. Loved it. If you don't like movies about pimps and hos and tricks and rap, then maybe this isn't for you. I thought it was GREAT. I had to immediately buy the soundtrack. It's hard out here for a pimp, yo!

Posted by Duff at 08:39 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Tunes, Watchin'

DVD: The Constant Gardener

Rachel Weisz is luminous. And the beginning makeout scene, where they are just surrounded by white (a technique often used in portraits, you put them in front of white paper reaching to all sides, it's like they're floating), is really awesome. Very, very, very sad movie. And sadly - very REAL as well. There's no doubt this stuff is happening. I highly recommend this paired with "Acts of Faith" by Philip Caputo (a book). Very intense.

Posted by Duff at 08:35 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Books, Flicks, Watchin'

Cable: Miss Congeniality 2

This movie isn't half bad. Honestly, almost as funny as the first one (if you liked that), and seriously better than lots of other sequels such as Legally Blonde 2, the Matrix 2 or Charlie's Angels 2. Very humorous girl-girl work relationship.

Posted by Duff at 08:27 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'

Netflix: To Kill a Mockingbird

My dad had never read this book b/c he had seen the movie first and loved it so much. I see what he's talking about it. It is GOOD, altho...it is not the book. It's of necessity somewhat condensed and I was so blown away by the book that this doesn't quite live up. But compared to you know other shithole movies rather than compared to the book, it's damn good. Gregory Peck is great in it. Dill has been said to be based on Truman Capote and that is really brought to life in the movie version.

Posted by Duff at 08:25 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Books, Flicks, Watchin'

January 10, 2006

Casanova: Three F-Word Review

Fun Fluffy Fairytale.

Posted by Duff at 10:17 AM | E-Mail | Comments (0) | Permalink | filed under Flicks, Watchin'