Turns out writing about every movie you watch can be a real hassle. Even when you're not watching a particularly extravangant amount, when they start building up a pile of three films can look seriously daunting. Combine with this with studying for finals and then a crazy 2 job work schedule and it's very easy to find yourself in my position.
Today I find myself with free time, and so I will play a little catch up of all the films I've seen in my silent month, in order of my least favorite to most.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (Samuel Bayer, 2010) - What a lazy, shitty movie. Jackie Earle Haley gives a charisma-less performance as the iconic Freddy Krueger. I don't want to think anymore about this criminal waste of time.
The Big Easy (Jim McBride, 1986) - Another lazy film. Police corruption in New Orleans is what drives this "thriller". It tries so hard to cool, sexy, and witty without an iota of success, and completely fails to deliver any sort of thrilling or coherent narrative. Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin in the leads roles also lack any chemistry.
Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010) - Robert Downey, Jr. still rocks, Gwenyth Paltrow is the thinking man's sex symbol, and Sam Rockwell is fantastic as the anti-Tony Stark, Justin Hammer. It's too bad these great characters are in a long commercial for upcoming Marvel Studios films instead of a feature film with a strong narrative drive.
Bab'Aziz, The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul (Nacer Khemir, 2008) - I did not like this movie very much. An old, blind dervish and his grandaughter are travelling through the desert to a dervish convention of some kind. While travelling, he tells her stories of a prince who abandoned his kingdom to sit by a pool and contemplate. It's beautifully filmed and features a smart ending that adds a lot of weight to the sparse, yet confounding narrative that leads to it. I am in no way qualified to review this film. It features what I believe is probably a lot of religious symbols that go way over my head. If I every educate myself more in the subject of Islam, I might need to give this enigma another shot.
Kick-Ass (Matthew Vaughn, 2010) - Great characters, fun action, believable adolescent emotions. Kick-Ass has all these mixed up with some instances of bad dialogue, pacing issues, and equally unrealistic adolescent emotional behavior. I still wish Vaughn had just made his own superhero movie. What really keeps me from embracing this film is that it can't completely shake that Mark Millar flavor. Vaughn cuts out so much of what makes Millar's comic a mysogynistic, racist, pointlessly brutal piece of shit, but I still get those Millar whiffs every once in a while.
The Good The Bad The Weird (Ji-Woon Kim, 2010) - Whoah. What a blast. Korean westerns should come around to these shores more often. This plot is a bit too complicated for me to recount easily, but the three title characters have conflicts. That's about all you need. And there's trains. The action sequences are stylish and exhilarating, and the film has a healthy sense of humor that runs throughout.
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (Tom Six, 2010) - LKJAHSLDKJAHLDAIUYVGROSS! A former Siamese twin separater becomes obsessed with connecting people into a centipede of sorts. He kidnaps unsuspecting foreigners and then the rest happens. I don't usually go for such gross-out fare, but Centipede is handled with unusual skill. Six knows when to dial back the gore and leave a more lasting psychological impression. This film is scarring, but it's also damn good.
The Ox-Bow Incident (William Wellman, 1943) - I just watched this classic for the first time today, and I found it a very quiet yet powerful western. It deserves its classic status. Its message of the dangers of group-think and mob mentality are as relevant today as ever, and though its message is never subtle, its execution is handled remarkably well.
I've recently started reading Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8. Damn, I'm cool.
Friday, May 28, 2010
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