Areas of Unrest

QOTD: "I can't get worked up about politics. I grew up in New York, and I was hip as a kid that I was corrupt and the mayor was corrupt. I have no illusions." - Lenny Bruce

Reading: Mary Morris (editor), Maiden Voyages

Listening to: nothing

Decluttering accomplishments: I'm sure I must have filed away or thrown away some piece of paper somewhere

6 May 2002 - Movie Binge, Part 2

I used the last of my free movie rental coupons this past week and the last of my free movie ticket coupons tonight, so here's a wrap-up of what I've seen.

Tonight I went to see Hollywood Ending, simply on the grounds that it's obligatory for all New Yorkers to see all Woody Allen movies. This one had a few good lines but wasn't nearly as funny as it should have been. The premise is that a has-been director has gotten a prime movie job, thanks to his ex-wife, but is stricken with hysterical blindness the night before shooting commences. A translator, hired to translate with a Chinese camera man, helps him out and that led to one of the best performances of the film. The thing that bugged me the most was the a character who is just blind and not deaf has no reason not to be facing roughly in the direction of somebody who is talking to him. It's a minor point, but that's the sort of wrong note that doesn't work when it's done as an attempt at laughs. It wasn't a terrible movie, but it's far from Allen's best.

As for the rentals, the best of them was All Over the Guy, a romantic comedy I rented based largely on a cute trailer. It's not really terribly original, except for the mismatched couple being gay. The film is also enhanced by some truly interesting (and funny) side characters, including the most awful imaginable parents in the known universe. Truly putting the fun in dysfunctional, the humor was dark but never cruel.

I also liked Bread and Roses, a drama dealing with the L.A. janitors' strike. For some reason I'd thought this was a documentary, but it's really a fictionalized film focusing on a recent illegal immigrant who gets involved with a charismatic labor leader, ably played by Adrien Brody. There were a few cheesy moments (e.g. a speech made by Brody's character that's so trite as to be painful) but this was still worth watching.

In the "not awful, but could have been better" category, Novocaine was intelligent and well plotted, but the plot is entirely dependent on the main character behaving against his own interests. Perhaps if this had been played as straight mystery it would have made a credible noir film. The attempt to add comic elements muddled things and the result is merely moderately clever.

How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog isn't even moderately clever. Kenneth Branagh usually knows better than to try to make a movie out of a bunch of one liners. There are some good ideas here, but they're buried under tons of cliches.

Then there's Bandits, which I can only regard as further evidence of the Bruce Willis hair theory of movies. Namely, the quality of a movie with Bruce WIllis in it is inversely proportional to how much hair he has in the movie. He has a lot of hair in this unfunny and plodding mess.

Finally, Sexy Beast was a showcase for Ben Kingsley's acting ability. He does a fine job as a thoroughly unpleasant character. But he's so unpleasant and the film is so unrelentingly gorey that it's downright painful to watch. You'd have to be far more inured to screen violence than i am to get past the gallons of stage blood that were apparently the biggest expense in shooting this one.