Angels and demons review

Blevins really wanted to see Angels and Demons, and I was curious having liked the book better than the DaVinci code. I promised him we'd go on opening night.

Without giving too much away for those who haven't seen it, I had two major problems: 1) they don't develop what should be one of the major characters nearly enough. 2) the best part of the book is all the philosophy and history. They are bit players in the movie; window-dressing.

Overall it was an average movie. I think I might have been less disappointed if I hadn't read the book.

Slumdog Millionaire

Go see it.  Some of the parts are somewhat contrived and Bollywood isn't for everyone, but I thought it was a really good movie.  I liked the flashback style they used and I'm generally a fan of Danny Boyle's work.  Plus, who doesn't love Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Bolt

I watch a lot of animated films that most "adults" probably wouldn't.  I have every Disney movie available (the classics, not the ones like Cinderella 2) on DVD, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I like most of them. 

I really wanted to go see Bolt when I was home for Thanksgiving, but I don't think my Mom and Dad were on board with it.  ;)  So, I went yesterday, and even with relatively high expectations, I was pleasantly surprised.  Bolt is a great movie...  It's renewed my faith in Disney post-Pixar.  I would really recommend it to just about everyone I know.  I would even say it's the best Disney animated feature since Nemo (5+ years ago). 

Plus, for music lovers, Jenny Lewis (one of my favorite currently recording singers) does a song for the movie that was really pretty good. 

Oh yeah, it also made me get on Petfinder again and look at doggies.  :)

Anyways, go see it. 

Chocolat

"Once upon a time, there was a quiet little village in the French
countryside, whose people believed in Tranquilité - Tranquility. If you
lived in this village, you understood what was expected of you. You
knew your place in the scheme of things. And if you happened to forget,
someone would help remind you. In this village, if you saw something
you weren't supposed to see, you learned to look the other way. If
perchance your hopes had been disappointed, you learned never to ask
for more. So through good times and bad, famine and feast, the
villagers held fast to their traditions. Until, one winter day, a sly
wind blew in from the North...
"

I love this movie (and the book is good too).  It's been on Starz all week (and is ONDemand) and I've been catching bits and pieces of it on the tv while I've had it on in the background doing other stuff.

I don't know if I like this movie so much because it has Johnny Depp in it, or because the town reminds me in some ways of the small, gossipy town I grew up in, or because it's just a good movie with a good script, good acting, and good music.  Either way, this is on my list of feel good movies.

Miss Potter

I don't know how I missed this movie.  I guess it was only in limited release in the US (2006), but I always liked the Beatrix Potter books, having grown up with them.  Plus it has Emily Watson, Renee Zellweger, and Ewan McGregor, all of whom I really like, in it. 

This is a movie in the style of the Jane Austen movie that recently came out (which was only OK, I thought); the autobiography (with liberties) of Beatrix Potter.  She seems kind of nutty in the story, but it is a good story if you like the Beatrix Potter books.

Melissa and I met for dinner and to study for our relpol exam tonight and walking through campus at twilight there were rabbits everywhere which made me smile and think of Peter. 

It's on Showtime right now and available OnDemand through them (at least on FIOS) if you want to check it out.

Definitely, Maybe

Saw this over the weekend and all I can say is that I wish all rom coms could be as good as this movie.  I loved the plot and it seemed fairly true to life (for a movie), not all sappy with a fake happy ending (e.g., Abigail Breslin's mom and dad are getting divorced and they don't end up getting back together at the end of the movie).  The acting was good, the writing was good...  all in all an underrated movie, methinks.

Netflix it when it comes out on dvd.

Snatch

How did I miss this movie?  Never saw it the first time around.  Got it on Netflix.  It's an awesome movie.  I <3 Guy Ritchie.

21 - not terrible, but not good, either

I had kind of a bad day today.  Getting out of the house always makes me feel better, and as tempted as I was to drive up to AC and hang up there for 36 hours, I figured it would be cheaper to go see a movie and grab some drinks.  So against the advice of everyone I know, I went to see 21.  The first hour is actually pretty decent, but then the plot kinda devolves in the second half.  Still, they clearly had a good technical (degenerate) advisor and it is fun to see a movie about Vegas and gambling.  It was entertaining and I suppose that is all one can ask for from a movie these days. 

Afterwards, went to Barking Dog for drinks and bar games.  It was good to get out of the house for a few hours.  :)

The Grand Pushed Back

So mark your calendars for 4/11 because that's when it's opening in DC.  Patience is a virtue.  *Sigh.*

There Will Be Blood

Just got back from seeing this at AFI.  It was a really good movie about greed, power, conning people....until the last few minutes of the film.  I won't spoil it but the ending was a little disappointing, I thought.  Of course, Daniel Day Lewis did a fabulous job.

The Squid and the Whale

Been watching quite a few movies recently.  Just saw The Squid and the Whale, which I've wanted to see for quite awhile.  What a great movie.  It's one of those movies that is just real.  You could picture everything that happens and everything that is said really happening.  It's funny and sad at the same time.  Good soundtrack too. 

Bumping one of my own posts

A little less than a year ago, I posted about a new poker movie, The Grand.  Since I couldn't go to its US premiere at the Tribeca Film Fest, I mused that I hoped it would open in semi-wide release soon.  Well, it's almost a year later and the trailer has been posted on yahoo and the release date set: March 21.  Definitely must get a group of the degenerates together to see this.  Poker movies that do not take themselves too seriously = the nuts.

Finally saw the Assassination of Jesse James...

Starts out a wee bit slow, but the cinematography is excellent/stunning/beautiful.  I wish I had been able to see it on the big screen (though my 52" tv did it about as much justice as a tv could).  A little long, but worth it in my opinion.  However, the last time I waxed poetic about a movie's beautiful cinematography and it was a little long, I think I was one of two non-critics to like the film.  (Sarah et al, you have been forewarned). 

In short, I recommend it, but only if you want to sit through a slightly (ok, at 2' 40", probably more than slightly) too long movie and can appreciate beautiful cinematography.  Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck's performances were none too shabby either (and James Carville (that's right, the Ragin' Cajun) has a cameo). 

Juno, Waitress, and Religion and Politics

Went to see Juno last night at AFI.  Definitely a good movie - funny, but also touching, and Ellen Page does a really good job.  I'm sure she'll be in some other movies soon.  Also, I love Allison Janney and she was hilarious in this movie.  I highly recommend going to see it if you haven't already.  Oh - it also had a fabulous soundtrack with Belle and Sebastian on it.

After the movie we went to McGinty's and had a few beers.  We started talking about politics since CNN was on covering the Super Tuesday returns.  I told Keenan that I thought a McCain/Huckabee ticket was all but unstoppable...and that HRC probably has the best chance against them, but it would still be an uphill battle.  Somehow after that we all started talking about religion and our personal views on it...even Billy got in on the conversation after being largely quiet.  It's been a long time since I've had a real talk about religion with people and it was nice.

When I got home it was still pretty early - around midnight, so I decided to pop in one of the dvds I currently have from Netflix: Waitress.  This movie got really good reviews and I was looking forward to it, but in the end I didn't think it was that good of a movie.  Basically, Keri Russell plays a waitress who makes pies who is in an unhappy marriage and gets pregnant.  She starts having an affair with her doctor, and she has all kinds of inane conversations with the other waitresses at work.  Anyways, I thought it was overrated.  I wonder if I would have liked it more if I hadn't seen it immediately after Juno.  Whereas Juno was a movie that was about strong and empowered women, Waitress seemed to me to have a lot of codependent female characters...even the ending which I think is supposed to be the strong female ending did not seem to be that way to me. 

You learn something new everyday

I was out with a few friends last night and the discussion turned briefly to foreign cinema.  I was somewhat surprised to discover that one of my friends likes foreign films as much as me...and even better, he had brought me the special edition dvd of a Korean film that sounded especially interesting: Oldboy.  So when I got home last night, I watched it.

How this film slipped past my radar, I will never know, especially since it won the Cannes Grand Prix in 2004.  Seriously though, it's a great movie.  Definitely recommended.

Advise and Consent

For Christmas I got this dvd set of controversial movies.  Out of all the different movies, the only one I'd seen before was The Blackboard Jungle.  Anyways, I dug into the dvds today and started by watching Advise and Consent.  It's directed by Otto Preminger...and I can't believe I've never seen this movie before.  Henry Fonda plays an appointee for Secretary of State and the movie is all about the party politics of the congressional approval process.  I'm not sure I liked the very end of the movie, but overall it was good and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes political movies. 

Charlie Wilson's War

Went to go see this tonight with the fam...  It's funny how two people can leave a movie with completely opposite impressions.  My dad thought it was inspirational.  I found it rather depressing.  Don't want to give too much away for people who haven't seen it, but it's all about the US's involvement in Afghanistan in the 1980's.  Mike Nichols directs and it's written by Aaron Sorkin.  Worth seeing if you have the time/inclination. 

"Australia" wraps

I have loved history since I can remember.  Many of my Halloween costumes growing up were historical figures, when I used to travel for work I would make sure to hit up any nearby historical sites, and historical fiction is one of my favorite genres of books.

Sadly, it doesn't seem like there have been all that many historical movies out recently (the sequel to Elizabeth is a noted exception). 

Because of that, I've been waiting with baited breath for Baz Luhrmann's "Australia".  It doesn't hurt that I am a Luhrmann fan either.  According to Cinematical it wrapped filming this weekend.  I hope it doesn't suck.

Across the Universe

I saw Julie Taymor's film, Across the Universe, a little while back and I never wrote a review.  I had been eagerly anticipating this movie, but was a little wary too.  Last year, Jeff and I went to go see Love, the Cirque du Soleil Beatles show in Vegas.  It was OK, but I had built it up in my head so much that I ended up being rather disappointed.  I cringed when I read early reviews of the film that mentioned they had some pretty cheesy references like a girl coming through the bathroom window.

Some parts of it definitely were cheesy and cringe-inducing, but I really liked some of their covers of songs (though I certainly would not include Flying or Blue Jay Way in my list of 30 must have Beatles songs), and overall it wasn't as bad as it could have been (ringing endorsement, there).  Guess the key is to go into it with low expectations.  I will note that several of the plot points seemed directly ripped from the mini series on the 60s with Julia Stiles that was on tv back in the late 90's.  Overall, I was glad I saw it, but it certainly won't end up in my personal list of top movie musicals.  I'm still waiting for a "modern" movie musical to match up to some of the classics, like West Side Story, Sound of Music, Guys and Dolls, etc.  The more time that passes with continued movie musical flops (like the movie version of Rent), the more I wonder if the day of the good movie musical is just over.

It was 30 years ago today

Sgt Pepper...oh wait, no...it was 30 years ago today that Star Wars first opened.  Enjoy this happy birthday post from Cinematical.  Also, remember to set your tivos this weekend for the History Channel's Star Wars show - Monday at 9.