Yesterday, I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, then followed it up with 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea - my all time favorite Disney movie.

For me, the problem with Flight Plan was entirely in the script. I can accept horribly convoluted plots in caper films to achieve relatively minor ends. However, I absolutely hate when the bad guys are apparently blessed with omniscience to know the results, well beforehand, of dozens of random choices.

In other words, the plot was so stupid and unrealizable to remove any interest in the film.

You saw the wrong one, this is the Matador you should see.

That would make a fun Cemetary screening movie.

I'm such a dildo. I did see that one. Didn't put two and two together. What an awful weekend.
:D

Pedro is one of my favorite directors of all time.

I just finished Fun With Dick and Jane. Great movie. The first credits rock too.

Netflix should be sending me:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Fever Pitch
Shopgirl

Tried to watch Sophie's Choice yesterday. Made it about 90 seconds into the movie. The first moment of Kevin Kline chewing scenery and I knew I just couldn't sit through it.

It immediately came out of the DVD player and back into the Netflix envelope. Maybe I'll try again some other time. I like Kevin Kline but he rubs my very soul (as if I had one) the wrong way when he plays characters in a certain way.

So I watched Terms of Endearment instead. I remember the brouhaha about it when I was a kid and can picture in my head the evening when my parents rented it. But I've never seen it myself. Not really the movie I was expecting. It almost seems to derive its soul reason to exist from the cruel joke of "well, we'll make you really like this person and then kill them just so you can feel some pain." As a character piece without any real message I enjoyed it.

Just watched The Year of Living Dangerously.

It's good to be reminded that once upon a time Mel Gibson was an actor. Having recently seen Body Heat and now this and catching both Kathleen Turner and Sigourney Weaver I had to pause for a sexist moment to reflect on how aging is a differently cruel process for some people (especially considering that Weaver is 8 years older than Turner).

Anyway, a good subtle movie. Kind of touched on some of the same themes of journalistic responsibility and involvement that featured in the Sam Waterston portions of The Killing Fields. In fact, this movie and that might make for a very good pairing.

The brilliance of casting Linda Hunt (a white woman) as Billy Kwan (an Indonesian man) is amazing in its audaciousness. I'm sure it was all the buzz back in 1982 but I didn't realize it and it was very late into the movie before I realized it was Linda Hunt. I'd recognized the character as very feminine but it lent am amazing ethereal quality to an already bizarre characterization. Looking it up now I see Hunt won an Oscar and without checking the competition it seems thoroughly deserved.

Peter Wier shows a restraint that seems to have mostly abandoned him in recent years, willing to just let the camera linger without filling it with movement. But he showcases the ability to get the best from actors for which he is famous.

That was during a time when Weir was way at the top of my list of favorite filmmakers. The Last Wave, Gallippoli, The Year of Living Dangerously and Picnic At Hanging Rock all spoke to me at that time.

Indeed, I ran both that and The Killing Fields at the movie theater I worked in within a year or two of each other, and they do complement each other nicely. I have both on old VHS tapes and would love to upgrade someday.

And yes, Linda Hunt did win supporting actress for the role of Billy Kwan, deservedly so.

I remember being in awe of Wier. We recently purchased The Last Wave but haven't watched it again. I wonder if my awe will still stand?

Damn, thinking about these films makes me miss The Balboa (or any of the Revival theaters). I saw many a film for the first time on the big screen including Wier and Hitch. Thak you lord for the Revival Cemetery. ;)