We’
ve been watching a lot of movies lately. This happened because of two factors:
It stops my hands from shaking while I wait for football season, and we discovered
Redbox. The latter is a DVD vending machine distributed around town that dispenses movies for $1 a night. I first found it out west (Hey, Brant…remember Sleuth?), but it has now migrated to the East Coast and can be found in places like
Wal-Mart,
Walgreens,
McDonalds, etc. I was worried it might put Blockbuster out of business—don’t we all like to have options?—but it looks like that fear was premature. We had a good string of 3 straight movies, but then reality hit. One night the local box was out of order; the next time, all the good movies were checked out; then I ran into a line…the bloom has faded from the rose. And it may just be a $1 per day, but that
doesn’t count the time wasted standing at the box looking for a movie that
isn’t in, or waiting in line at 8:55 to return one, etc. And I value my time more than that, which is why I’ll probably stay with the Blockbuster Total Access service (mail to/from). Plus, I can keep them as long as I want…and it prevents me from spending too much time watching movies. So, the newness of
Redbox did prompt us to see some new stuff, like these:
SEVEN POUNDS-- an odd movie. I tend to gauge how I feel after I watch a movie by how much I was disappointed by it, or surprised by it. It would hard to be disappointed by this one because I
didn’t know
what to expect, and I was most likely surprised by it, but on the whole it was oddly unsatisfying. It had the same curious feel of Memento—it looks interesting and you know something is going on, but you’re not sure what. It was oddly moving (I cried, yes I admit it, but not sobs) because Will Smith was such a good guy in it. Very cathartic. Ultimately, I would recommend it as art, but not if you’re looking for something upbeat.
THE WRESTLER—this one was a disappointment after all the hype Mickey Rourke got for his performance. The movie was entertaining, in an art-house sort of way, and showed the real world of professional wrestling. But the characters
weren’t close to real, nor sympathetic. Mickey’s character was just plain pathetic. The problem I have with his performance, though it was vastly different than the “old” Mickey Rourke of Wild Orchid or Body Heat, or Angel Heart, the character was too close to who he is now to be much of a stretch for him. Not his fault, really, but great acting? Not so much.
CHANGELING—this one reminded me very much of a cross between Gone Baby Gone and L.A. Confidential. Angelina gets to go prequel, having a spin in an asylum before being Interrupted. It stretched credibility to imagine the cops being such bad guys (and idiots) back then, but, hey, I
wasn’t there to know, and power corrupts (so they say). Well acted, well directed…a mildly satisfying film, but there are better ways to spend 141 minutes.
TAKEN—despite the media opinions of this film, I thoroughly enjoyed it. A
Bourne picture that you can watch without getting seasick! Though the end result might be predictable (why would Hollywood make such a movie and have the hero fail to get his daughter back? Unthinkable) it’s the journey not the destination that counts. It’s a thriller regardless. Some might argue about the amount of suspension of disbelief required for Liam
Neeson to be such a one-man wrecking crew, but they forget the stakes. He is going to get his daughter, and anyone who stands in his way is unimportant (and frequently dead). We have probably seen too much Hollywood violence in which the spy/hero merely incapacitates the villains or simply knock someone out. Political correctness…ha! In a life or death situation, I doubt it matters to you if the other guy is crippled for life or dead, so the punishment inflicted can be far more than expected. Liam had the element of surprise and nothing to lose. It is by nature a relatively violent (also referred to as “action-packed”) film that falls down in the personal development moments, but if you want that, there’s
Schlinder’s List.
BENJAMIN BUTTON—I was pleasantly surprised by this one, as the hype seemed to exceed the ability to deliver. This is derived from an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story about a man who is born old and "ages backwards," becoming younger as time goes by. (Did
FSF know any women who weren't named Daisy?) Aside from the technology to do the aging, which was prodigious and subtle at the same time, the performances of the whole cast were excellent. It was a love story, a coming of age story, a tragedy, all rolled into one; I can see how it
wouldn’t have galvanized enough of the Academy to get the
BP Oscar (I’m not saying it deserved it) but I would recommend it despite it quirkiness.
IN THE ELECTRIC MIST (with the Confederate Dead)—I can certainly see why they dropped the subtitle from the book that was the source of this movie. The title is odd enough to begin with, but that would have thrown it over the edge. And there are, in fact, dead confederates in the movie. Tommy Lee Jones has several dream/hallucination sequences in which a Confederate General John Bell Hood (played with ethereal dignity and wisdom by Levon Helm). The movie is a cop show whodunit more worthy of an hour on a weeknight than a full movie length, but it has
TLJ back in the bayou doing a toned down, laid back Marshall Sam Gerard. John Goodman is miscast as a gumbo godfather, and a subplot involving a movie being made in the swamp is a bit of a distraction. It all works out in the end, as you would expect; I can’t say I would recommend running out and renting this, but if it comes on your cable and you don’t have other plans for about 2 hours, it’s worth a look.
Well, that’s the
Redbox saga (so far). Having gotten into this, and waiting for Gators to start playing football, I may explore some of the Blockbuster selections in recent months. Also went to two (count ‘em, 2) movies in real theaters. I might do those next simply because they’re more current and topical. The good news is that if you don’t care about my opinion of these films, you can close your browser and go do something productive.
But then, you'd miss the ....(wait for it....)
Bumper Sticker of the Month:Too much Pluribus, not enough Unum.
