I saw Burn After Reading and pretty much hated it. There was that one turn of events that took me by surprise but all in all I thought the characters were pretty much unlikable.

Tonight I watched Closer again. I love this movie. But one thing I did notice this time around was that Jude Law and Clive Owen have enormous heads.

And schvanchutas .... or so I'm told.





or is that, or so i lilke to imagine?

Yay, Hangover! :) I can't believe we saw Slumdog before L&C! And yes, Burn After Reading was disappointing.

What did we see this weekend? Step Brothers with commentary. :D Can't say I recommend the commentary. About 1/3 of it was hilarious...but the movie is still one of the funniest Will Ferrell projects ever.

It's hard to like pieces with uniformly unlikeable characters. That's why I could never get into Seinfeld.


But I kinda liked Burn After Reading. Not that I'd ever watch it again, or that it was great. But it had more of a Coen Brothers feel than their previous Oscar winning mainstreamer (which I liked), so I was glad to see a return to that. Not nearly one of their best or anything, but I appreciated it for what it was.



The more I think about Slumdog, the more I think was an overpraised, overhyped, undeserving Best Picture winner.

Gemini Cricket has his Crash, and I have Slumdog. Pfft.

We were just talking about Burn After Reading yesterday. I liked it. It's not among my favorite Cohen films, but still better than your average film.

Slumdog was extremely disappointing and way overhyped. Extremely patronizing. Poverty, it's so photogenic. And we're all equal in love so it isn't so bad as it seems.

I liked Burn After Reading quite a bit. Not a surprise that there are few likable characters in it. You could probably count the likable characters in the Coen Brothers oeuvre on one hand. To me, their genius is in being able to make audiences enjoy people they shouldn't like. A tightrope walk for sure but it succeeded for me. Also, I consider Intolerable Cruelty one of their classics and don't like Raising Arizona or The Hudsucker Proxy so obviously I'm out of the mainstream of Coen appreciation.

Slumdog was and enjoyable popcorn flick but nothing special imo.

My issue with Burn After Reading wasn't so much about unlikeability as the lack of depth to the characters. As GC said, nothing was surprising in the whole movie, you pretty much figured out who these characters were and what they were going to do from moment one. I didn't hate it, but I was disappointed by it.

Hudsucker's a weird one. I like it, but I hardly even think of it as a Coen Bro's movie, it just doesn't seem to fit in with the rest somehow.

I've been watching a truckload of movies on TCM. Tons of oldies but goodies:

A Star is Born (Judy version) - wonderful film that seemed to mirror Garland's real life here and there. I like the ending a lot.

Footlights Parade - Cagney the tough guy dancing a couple of steps here and there. It has that lovely 30's banter that I love so much:

Nan Prescott: You scram, before I wrap a chair around your neck!
Vivian Rich: [Angrily] It's three o'clock in the morning - where do you want me to go?
[Nan starts to speak, but Vivian immediately cuts her off]
Vivian Rich: You cheap stenographer...
Nan Prescott: Outside, countess. As long as they've got sidewalks YOU'VE got a job.
[Shoves her out, gives her a swift kick in the rump, and slams the door behind her]

Golddiggers of 1933 - Dick Powell was so cute when he was a young lad.

Grapes of Wrath - A classic. The more and more I re-watch Fonda films the more I like him.

The Wrong Man - a rare weak Hitchcock film. Apparently the only Hitchcock film that he narrates. (A short intro at the beginning.)

Farmer Takes a Wife - another Fonda. It was okay. Sorta dull.

I'm half-watching a Marion Davies film right now that appears to have some lesbian undertones to it. Not sure what it's called...

ETA: The MD movie is Blondie of the Follies.

If you want to engross yourself in some damn fine drama, I've got one for you. "Our Mutual Friend" is a 6-part made-for-TV BBC production of a Dickens work. One I'd never heard of before now, but having seen it, it's 100% Dickens, and fabulous.

In addition to the great underlying story, the performances were terrific. David Morrissey's portrayal of Mr. Headstone, as a nerdy schoolmaster type who can't handle being in love with a woman and it rips him apart, was particularly moving.

And some familiar faces for the Harry Potter crowd ;)

Dark as a whore's heart, but with some nice surprises at the end.

It's available for "instant viewing" on Netflix

ooooh, sounds interesting. I'll check it out. Heheh, if i put it in my queue today, it should hit my mailbox in about 3 months. ;)


So just now, I'm hitting a few titles from last year:

Schenecdody New York - No NO WTF. Take it Away. OMG, NO, don't let me watch another minute. Christ. WTF?! :confused:


on the other hand,
Vicki Christina Barcelona - utterly charming. :D