Saw Children of Men today. As far as violent dystopian flicks go, it's not too bad. Cuarón does a great job of creating moody and foreboding atmosphere, and Michael Caine has one of the greatest exit scenes of his career. One of my friends observed that the plot is the macguffin. Worth seeing on the big screen if you like that sort of movie. Made me want to go home and watch 12 Monkeys.

We got around to watching Shadow of a Doubt last night. Great story and a fun early Hitchcock, but some of the acting was just a BIT over the top. I'm glad Hitch found people he loved to work with and returned great acting later in his career.

Children of Men is on my must see NOW list. But it's in very limited release. Heheh, I'm damned if I'm going to the theater a block from my office on the few days I have off work. Likely this weekend though.



As for movies I have recently seen, Monster House sucks.

I think I'm going to check out Pan's Labyrinth this weekend. I will muse later.

Netflix informs me that Cast a Giant Shadow from Lakeland, Fl is on its way to me. I didn't remember adding that movie to my queue. Once I looked closer and realized that it is just Cast a Giant Shadow and they mailed it from Lakeland, Florida, I still don't remember adding it to my queue or even what it is about.

However, since I once had a very pleasant roadside picnic lunch at a park situated on the shore of an eponymous lake of Lakeside, Florida, I have preemptively decided that I will like Cast a Giant Shadow.

Pre-emptive decisions once in a while aren't a bad thing. The better question is: Were there giant shadows cast in Lakeside, Florida?

I thought about seeing 'Dreamgirls' the other night but didn't. Something about being in the dark and inside for 2 hours in Hawai'i seemed wrong wrong wrong.
:D

Made me look. There are still a lot of things in this world that I don't know, apparently.

It's a current movie but it's been out a couple weekends I think and nobody has discussed yet so I assume there won't be much of one.

Anyway, saw The Good Shepherd tonight. It performed the trick of being very interesting without being particularly compelling. Of being almost three hours long, feeling like it is that long, and yet not being bored.

One spooky thing, however, is that in one of Robert De Niro's short scenes in looks like the love child of Henry Kissinger and Buddy Hackett.

It is a solid effort in the director's chair by De Niro, but a little too in love with the quiet pause. The score is pretty heavy handed too.

:( Babel could hardly have been more unpleasant if all the subtitles were omitted and I was left to suffer understanding only the worst Brad Pitt and lamest Cate Blanchett performances ever captured on film. Three stories of unrelenting and purposeless woe, feebly connected at the film's end by the most tenuous of explanations and unfathomably connected in theme to this sorry viewer.

I can't believe there is Oscar buzz about this work of total crap.



Oddly, the only thing that interested me was hearing the musical score sequeway into a piece very familiar from the TV series Deadwood - from four years ago. The score is by Gustavo Santaolalla (who also did Brokeback Mountain), and it's credited to have been composed for Babel. But it's not simply a matter of a John Williams or James Horner having scores which are rip-offs of earlier works ... this particular cue was the precise cue from Deadwood - so iconic to that series it's used as the background for the DVD menus. (The episodes themselves, however, feature no music credits).


Not that this score would ever garner an Oscar nomination, but I hope discerning members realize it's ineligible for having not been composed for the film in which it appears. And I hope discerning Academy members ignore the buzz and recognize this film for the disjointed piece of crap it truly is.