Monday, May 09, 2011

Movies in February

See what happens when you don't blog for weeks? I'm not sure I even remember some of these movies, or at least what I was thinking after I watched them. Well, let's give it a shot.


The Station Agent I picked up just because Peter Dinklage stars in it, and he's great in anything. I liked his character, he was slow to warm to other people even as they desperately want to bond with him. I'm not remotely interested in trains, but I liked his character's obsession of them; I could almost (but not quite) see the appeal.


The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest was the third in the trilogy. I think I liked the second film the best, but Noomi Rapace is very watchable. It's a shame she won't be in the English version of these films, but on the upside she's in the next Sherlock Holmes.


Chicago almost made me not hate Richard Gere. The number with the journalists as puppets on strings was particularly cool.


La Jetée is the short film (almost a slide show) that inspired 12 Monkeys. It was just the sort of niche thing I'd never have seen before Netflix. Odd, but interesting.


I Hate Luv Stories is an Imran Khan Bollywood film about a guy who works in, but hates, Bollywood films. He's also cynical about love in general and even god. I liked the set up, but my hope that he and the lovey-dovey girl would meet each other halfway was thwarted; his character had to make all the changes and in the process became less interesting. Still some clever bits in here if you've seen enough Hindi cinema to get the references.


October Sky was one we got to watch with the boys, about boys in West Virginia that win a science fair making rockets. It was a fun movie, although I'm not sure it helped me convince my own boys of the importance of math if you want to do anything cool.


The Machinist just made me sad. Christian Bale turned himself into a wraith for a movie that just wasn't worth it, storywise. It felt like the writer had read some Cliff Notes of Dostoevsky but didn't quite get what made Dostoevsky great. There were some elements from lots of different works of Dostoevsky but none of the real essence. Disappointing.


Gor I saw just because they had done the sequel on MST3K. They made the right call going with the sequel.


Catch-22 was a movie I was intending to see after reading the book, but caved and watched the movie first.


Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani is the latest from the director of one of my favorite Bollywood films, Andaz Apna Apna. This tries to harken back to some of the energy of that, and Ranbir Kapoor and Katerina Kaif are both game, but it doesn't quite reach the same heights. I think the missing element is a buddy. AAA was a Salman Khan/Aamir Khan buddy movie, and the two of them together were more compelling than the parallel love stories. Kapoor and Kaif come pretty close to being buddies to each other, but don't quite get there.


Machete is just what you'd expect from Robert Rodriguez: all sorts of actors doing things just
for the fun of it, and lots of improbable gun fights with cool music. I enjoyed it, but then I would,
wouldn't I?


The Darjeeling Limited was a movie I really wanted to like. I like Wes Anderson, and I love Satyajit Ray's films and Jean Renoir's The River, to which this is meant to be an homage. Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson as brothers should be a can't miss. Alas, there was some bit that was just missing. This was a bit of a stumble after the brilliant The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, but I think he more than made up for it with The Fantastic Mr. Fox (Oliver and I share a love of that cussin' film).


Casanova was a BBC miniseries that David Tennant and Russel T. Davies did before they did Doctor Who together. It has a lot of the same vibe, that same larger than life zaniness. I enjoyed it.


All About Eve? Should have seen this years ago. It's just as good as I'd heard.


Mesrine is a French film starring that guy who did the breakdancing in the museum's laser security system in Ocean's 12. Here he is playing France's most notorious criminal, a man named Mesrine who did many bad things. I found this movie disjointed and a bit of a downer; new people kept popping up too frequently to keep track of, but they all met bad ends. Even for a gangster film it was a downer. But stay tuned, there was a sequel that wasn't based on the subject's autobiography...

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