This past week I’ve watched a movie almost every night, three at the theater and three on DVD. That’s ridiculous enough that I have to comment on them.
Saturday: The Hangover
It’s true what they say – this movie is hilarious. What could be funnier than a bunch of idiots going to Vegas for a bachelor party and waking up in their trashed hotel suite, a chicken walking around, a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in a closet and no sign of one of their friends? If you want to laugh out loud, in the manner you did when first watching There’s Something About Mary, go see this movie.
Sunday: Burn After Reading
A lot of people I know didn’t like this film, even people who love the Coen brothers. All I can say is I have no idea why. Like most of the other movies in the Coen brothers filmography, this is gripping and very, very watchable (I could sit all the way through it again right now). It’s also very funny, though if you don’t get the Coens’ sense of humor it may not work. This is as good a work as they’ve done, if you ask me: it ranks beside Fargo and No Country for me (my two favorites).
Tuesday: Year One
This was billed to me as the next Monty Python’s Life of Brian, and…. it ain’t. It’s no Hangover, either, being only marginally funny most of the time. Jack Black has his moments, and Michael Cera gets points for playing the same character he’s always played, the accosted-by-life-and-naive-dork-who-still-gets-pussy, and pulling it off. Really, this is just alright though, one for DVD if anything.
Wednesday: Seven Pounds
I know I was tired, but this thing was the slowest, most boring drama I think I’ve seen this year. For a while it’s sort of intriguing trying to work out what the hell Will Smith is supposed to be doing, but that gets old very quickly and then you’re just angry that you’ve invested this much time for no precise reason. I’m sure there’s a market for this film, maybe in the Hallmark crowd.
Thursday: Powder Blue
Now this was interesting. Jessica Biel plays a stripper in this independent-feeling, perfectly shot film that reminded me of the style of Magnolia maybe, very enjoyable. Biel is of course one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, and she bares it in three perfect stripping scenes, each of which are different and perfectly coreographed – nobody who saw it had any idea she could move like that – they are flat-out HOT and worth seeing on their own merits, and by the way, the rest of the film is unpredictable and directed wonderfully and every shot is perfect and I can’t say enough about it. (Amen.)
Friday: Transformers Revenge
The main problem with the new Transformers movie is that it’s 17 hours long and will beat you down to the point that you will want to stand up in the middle of it and scream. Ultimately it’s one big special effect, and that’s great, but the fact is that once you’ve seen one big pile of tumbling metal you’ve seen them all, and if you removed from this movie all the tumbling metal then you’d be left with a 3-minute short. So, it is what it is. I guess what surprises me is that the special effects are so impressive for the first ten minutes, you’d think they would have to use them sparingly enough that you’d end up with a shorter movie. Nope. It goes on and on and on and on. Like Coronation Street with tumbling metal. What more can one say?
So, my top three are Powder Blue, Burn After Reading and The Hangover. Now I need to spend a week outside, enjoying the plants and bullshit like that.