Movie Review: Blood Diamond

The storyline is thus: diamond smuggler (Leo DiCaprio) helps man (Djimon Hounsou) to reunite with family [which were separated during a child soldier raid] with help of activist journalist (Jennifer Connelly). Smuggler has motives other than purely altruistic.

Ok, I couldn't even get through this one (thank goodness for Netflix). The dialog was stupid, DiCaprio's "Africaans" accent was all over the place (sometimes sounding British, sometimes Southern drawl, mostly indeterminate) and performance lame, Connelly's activist journalist was stereotypical and worse, phoned-in. I could go on, but why?


Too bad, because there were themes of the barbary of child soldiery, forced labor/slavery involved in the conflict diamond trade, and generally the savagery of man with the absence of rule of law. Compelling issues in the right hands. Painful in the wrong ones. Now I like all three actors above, but not in this venue. Save your time, energy & money on something else; even the Bond film that involves conflict diamonds (Die Another Day) is a more compelling experience.

Netflix rocks!

Ok, I know I'm way behind the whole web-rent dvd thing, so no snickering. I just signed up for Netflix and I just LOVE it! OMG, they make it so easy and efficient! And, they email you when they've received the dvd & also when they're going to mail your next selection. Such good communication skills!

BTW, our next few selections are Season 1 of Lost. No, I've never seen it, but have heard devotees seriously discussing it, so we're going to see what the buzz is all about.

Also, I've put Season 1 of Six Feet Under on my queue. DH Jeff asks, "oh, so what's that about?" (reasonable question) To which I reply, "Not a clue. I just saw the name and thought I should see what it was about." (unassailable logic) He tries to reason that one out...unsuccessfully.

The scoop

Well, gentle readers, here's what I've been up to:

- Finished shredding all old receipts and unnecessary documents and filing all the needful;

- DH Jeff & I re-org'd the "workroom" for aesthetics and better space usage. It looks SO much better now. Then,

- I tackled the closet...and continue to tackle it. I re'org'd all our clothes & shoes and am now trying to decide what to give away or throw out. And I keep finding more things. Gaack. This weekend, I will finish off that task.

- Perhaps this weekend I can also find time to finally give myself a pedicure, and

- Finish a book for a book club on the 29th, and

- Catch up on my book & movie reviews. And other blogging.

Who said I would have so much free time once I finished with school?

Also, I'm trying to lose ten pounds. That's it. Unfortunately, I love libations and victuals a bit too much. Well, I decided that I probably could shave off a few hundred calories by not drinking alcohol every day of the week. So, it's kind of one day on, one day off and on off days, I just drink water with dinner. No real progress yet, but I haven't gained any weight.

A few weekends ago, we went with a friend to her mountain home (Blue Ridge) to chill and went wine tasting. Lots of fun! I took lots of pictures, some of which I'll share with you soon.

Oh, and I joined Netflix. I figure, I can check out all the movies I want & then MAYBE buy ones with bona fide replay value. The plan I signed up for (after the free 2-wk trial) is $8.99 per month for one movie at a time, but unlimited rentals within the month. I just got The Kite Runner. I think this will be a good deal and I can save some money without foregoing entertainment.

And I need to replace the photo of me on this blog, because my hair is longer now.

Whew!

Movie Review: Educating Rita

Educating Rita is the story of a Cockney hairdresser, Rita (played by Julie Walters), who wants more out of life than attempting to make middle-aged matrons look like Princess Di (this movie was done in the 80s). So she enrolls for tutoring at the local august university. Rita's assigned tutor is a washed up, alcoholic English professor, Frank (played by Michael Caine), who wants nothing to do with teaching any more. Rita demands that he teach her and thus the adventure begins.

This gem of a film wasn't available in DVD until recently. So when I discovered it was offered on Amazon, I grabbed it. It is a charming story of how this diffident yet bright and persistent gal struggles to read and write critically, to find a new life of the mind, and to feel "good enough," ie, equal to the other university students for whom a good education is birthright. Along the way, Rita encounters vexing obstacles, not the least of which is her boozy tutor. In less capable hands, this film could have been saccharine, content-light drivel (ie, the typical Hollywood dramedy) or at least sickeningly sentimental, but with a really good script and superb performances by Caine and Walters, it truly warms the cockles of the heart. And it's not strictly a chick flick, DH Jeff liked it too.

What's more, you can get it for a song, so why not treat yourself?

Movie Review: Eastern Promises

Eastern Promises is a story about a midwife, Anna (played by Naomi Watts), whose teenage patient dies in childbirth, leaving no identification except for a diary. In an effort to track down relatives who could take custody of her orphaned baby girl, Anna must find someone to translate the diary, which is entirely in Russian. These efforts lead her into the cut-throat world of the Russian Mafia. One of the characters she encounters along the way is a mobster's chauffeur (played by Viggo Mortenson), a quiet man with a lot he's not saying.

This is not a movie for the faint of heart. It's very violent but at the same time, none of it is gratuitous. The whole cast is great, kudos especially to Mortenson whose character, at one point, has to fight two would-be assassins in a sauna while buck naked. Watts is a very sympathetic Anna, trying against odds to achieve a happy ending for the baby. I would highly recommend this intense film - it'll keep your attention to the very end.

Movie Review: Duel in the Sun

In the interests of expanding my cinematic horizons, DH Jeff had me watch Duel in the Sun, a 1946 western/melodrama starring Gregory Peck, Lionel Barrymore, Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones. Jennifer Jones plays seventeen-year-old Pearl who has been orphaned and is taken in by a wealthy Texas family. She is immediately both repulsed and wildly attracted to the brash son Lewt (Peck) and dismisses the decent other son Jesse (Cotten). The story follows the tempestuous relationship of Lewt and Pearl. No good comes of it for them or anyone around them.

The good: beautiful cinematography. Yeh, in my mind that was about it. I guess you could say it was interesting to see Peck play a complete scumbag instead of “man of honor.”

The bad: Lewt can only be described as thoroughly loathsome, and in the parlance of our time, an emotionally abusive asshole. Did I also mention “rapist”? Jennifer Jones looks thirty not seventeen and she over-acts her little heart out. Her Pearl is a trampy big trouble. There are a few sympathetic characters, but neither Lewt nor Pearl fit that category. There are, however, more unsympathetic characters.
Well, there it is.

Book & movie review: The Children of Men

The Children of Men, by P.D. James, the book on which the recent film was based, is a dire what-if tale of a world without a future, caused by sudden, inexplicable universal sterility. The story unfolds twenty-five years after the last baby was born, around a middle-aged university professor in London, who had become detached from life and humanity far before this crisis. Through his journal entries the reader learns how society is dying: the emergent pathologies, the devolutions, the apathy. One day, however, a compelling young woman crosses his path and captures his attention. This is where the story takes off.


The basic premise of the book and film are the same (worldwide inability to procreate); however, James tells a much better, a much more psychologically and emotionally haunting story. I saw the movie first and thought that it was a pretty good story and well-acted (by Michael Caine, Clive Owen, Julianne Moore) despite the pro-illegal sob-story subplot. Then I read the book and thought, this a great story as is, but the Hollywood lefties had to impose their politics, ignore the book's well-crafted characters, nuances and compelling issues - pretty much dumped the whole plot of the book. Essentially, the film-makers took a neat idea from the book and fabricated their own, politically slanted and fractured narrative - in my mind, a much inferior one to the original.

Movie Review: Pan's Labyrinth

Pan’s Labyrinth involves a fairy tale, but make no mistake about it – this is not a kid’s story. The protagonist, a young girl named Ofelia creates this fairy tale world to buffer herself from the very traumatic and violent real world around her. Her pregnant mother is married to a sadistic captain in the Spanish army in 1944 fascist Spain. The captain insists that his wife join him at the front of current fighting against the communist rebellion even though she’s dangerously close to giving birth. As Ofelia’s real existence becomes more lonely, isolated and precarious, she delves deeper into the realm of the fantastic, wherein she attempts to prove herself as worthy to become Princess of that realm.

I would highly recommend this film. Even with subtitles (the movie is in Spanish), the movie draws you into the dark real and mystical action. Really good characters all around: the winsome and brave Ofelia, the brutal captain Vidal, the kindly Mercedes, the wise, old Pan and the creepy guy with eyes in his hands. The violence is shocking, but not gratuitous. And I found it interesting, even with my limited Spanish, to contrast what was actually being said with the subtitle translation.

Movie Review: The Pursuit of Happyness

Just saw The Pursuit of Happyness, with Will Smith and his real-life son. I must say, it was a really good movie. Will Smith did a fine job of portraying this bright, nice Chris Gardner on the out-and-outs, trying to make something of himself and raise his son alone at the same time. Yeh, those cynics out there will say - heck, women have been raising children by themselves for ages - what's so special about this guy? Don't be a cynic - Smith's Gardner is so earnest, sweet and determined to do the right thing, to keep it together against odds and his own perpetual Murphy's Law, that you really do root for him. And some of the character's situations are positively painful. Oh, yeh, and his kid is cute. Anyhoo, worth a go-see!

Here are a few more reviews for your reading pleasure.

Technorati topics: entertainment, movies

Movie Review: Harsh Times

This weekend I saw the movie Harsh Times, starring Christian Bale, who looks hot and buff (and not emaciated like in The Machinist). But, ok, how did I feel about this movie…? Bale gave his usual intensity to the part of an Army Ranger returning from Afghanistan a changed man – and not for the better. Good supporting performance by Freddy Rodriguez as his old buddy from the ‘hood. But…I didn’t like the movie. Why? Hmmm. Maybe because I’ve seen Bale in other “man-on-the-edge” roles in other movies that were a lot better. Like American Psycho. In that, Bale actually brought humor to a really extreme role (that I understand didn’t originally call for humor). Maybe because his performance in this movie, although good, seemed a little forced, as noted by a reviewer on this site. Maybe because for a film on the cusp of two hours, it seemed to go on and on without a real point. This is definitely a one-time view.

If you like Christian Bale, I’d recommend some other of his films besides those mentioned above:

Reign of Fire (about the takeover of dragons)
Equilibrium (dystopic future)
Batman Begins (you know what this is about)

Tell me this: how come British and Aussie actors have no problem with the American accent, but we have few who can pull off a British/Aussi accent? What’s up with that?

Technorati topics: entertainment

Movie Review: The Machinist

Last night, we saw the movie The Machinist on DVD. This is a very disturbing movie about a machine shop worker, Trevor Reznik, who hasn't slept in a year and is literally wasting away. He finds himself in the middle of a horrific incident which is due to what might or might not be a hallucination. What's going on? That's for the viewer and our skeletal protagonist to untangle.

The title role is played by Christian Bale, of the American Psycho, Reign of Fire and most recently, Batman Begins (which I haven't seen, but am really interested in checking out) fame, who actually loses an obscene amount of weight to lend a very effective sense of veritas to the role. Now, the name "Christian Bale" still might not ring a bell because he's not (yet and hopefully never will be) a "star." He's a fantastic actor who gives a dark and haunting performance as the distraught walking collection of bones who is trying to make sense of things in a reality that keeps shifting. In some respects, Trevor's persona reminds me of Guy Pearce's amnesiac in Memento: both looking for a truth that lies just beyond the periphery of their perception and both are trying to cope with a reality that seems to be conspiring against them.

The atmosphere of the movie, too, draws the viewer into the worker's nightmare - gritty, harsh, distorted, run-down, yet at times reminiscent of a sweeter, more benign (albeit fictional) past. The entire movie is fraught with violence and menace, yet what you actually see isn't that graphic. Very effective.

If you're in the mood for something weightier than a romantic comedy and want to think a little bit, give this one a go.

DVD Review - Wait Until Dark (1967)

Ok, so I finally watched the DVD of "Wait Until Dark," starring one of the most winsome actresses ever & one of my favorites, Audrey Hepburn. Synopsis: blind gal becomes embroiled in scary situation involving determined bad guys. She's plucky & smart and is assisted by a youngster who is also plucky & smart without being annoying. There is just one rather off-putting part which shall remain nameless - just go rent it & let me know what you think.

I give the film a B+.

Go Rent It

Here's sharing a few movie rental choices for the bored and antsy:

- Ulee's Gold: drama with Peter Fonda not playing a hippy or drugged out biker. Has themes of redemption, forgiveness & bee husbandry. Trust me, it's really good.

- Drop Dead Gorgeous: underrated comedy. Kirsten Dunst, Kirsty Alley, Denise Richards. Before you say "Gack," think "Lutheran Sisterhood Gun Club" and go from there.

- Clay Pidgeons: quirky murder drama. Joaquin Phoenix, Vince Vaughn, Janeane Garofalo. When a good guy just can't come clean.

- Pecker: quirky comedy. Edward Furlong, Christina Ricci, Mary Kay Place. Cool, oddball characters & great one-liners.

Ok, enough for now. Enjoy!