Quote:
Originally Posted by mousepod
In the second act, the plot became less plausible, yet so much more interesting. While the ... ending was slightly ridiculous, it was also entirely satisfying. Not a bad start for my catch-up month.
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The first part of the movie interested me. The second part is where it lost me completely.
So far for me it has been a four-movie weekend. Two on DVD, two in theaters.
Saw
Smokin' Aces on Friday. This is the new "aren't we hip" action thriller where a dozen hired guns are competing to kill Jeremy Piven in a Lake Tahoe penthouse. I love that the location was moved from the stereotypical Las Vegas to that little four casino cluster at the Nevada-California border on Lake Tahoe. Just gave it a nice low-rent feel that went with the mood of the movie. I suspect it was filmed there because Vegas would have been too expensive but nice nonetheless. There are definitely some good moments of the film but it really doesn't have any of the payoff you'd expect, the movie isn't much more than attitude and in this regard really reminds me of last year's mildly satisfying
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang which also won a lot of points for style but negative points for story. One big surprise about the movie, which I didn't realize until hours afterwards is:
Finally, as much as the
actor might prefer otherwise, but after being the the photographer on
Suddenly Susan and Bat Manuel on the shortlived live-action
The Tick, you just can't sell being a hard-boiled assassin. Sorry.
Second up for the weekend was
Little Children, my Oscar-nominated pick-up for the weekend
. First of all, let me say that this movie has reinforced my belief that it should be federal law that Kate Winslett appear nude in all movies, at least one. There is a point in the movie where Winslett and Jennifer Connolley are compared purely on appearance and while I'll agree there was some competition before Connolley lost 30 pounds (10 of it from her boobs it appears) that is simply no longer true.
The performances are great, particularly from Winslet (a woman who is started to find herself inexplicably living the life of a suburban stay-at-home mom) and Jackie Earle Haley as a sex offender trying live in suburbia. So no complaints about those two nominations from me. Haley is particularly suprising as he is 45 years old and really hasn't had much of a career in front of the camera. Really, his most prominent role to date is as Kelly Leak in the many
Bad News Bears movies when he was a kid. Prior to this year, his last non-TV movie was 1993's
Maniac Cop 3, which I am sure we all remember fondly.
Unfortunately, while the performances are great the movie doesn't really do much. It is more of a painting, filling out the details of an at-first tranquil scene than a story. That isn't a bad thing by any means, but I'd categorize this as a "quiet little film" and a lot of people want more than that.
Then we came home and watched
Alien vs. Predator. Last weekend we were in Reno and Lani saw an AVP slot machine which prompted her to say "I'd like to see that." So I added it to the top of the Netflix queue and she actually sat down to watch it yesterday (most of the time when she says I should get a specific movie from Netflix she takes weeks to get around to it). It sucked, but I'm guessing you all knew that. But I learned something about Lani, she knew a lot more about the mythology fo
Alien and
Predator than I did.
Then as a night cap I watched
Cast a Giant Shadow finally, which I've had from Netflix for about a month now.
Cast a Giant Shadow is a 1966 movie telling the story of Mickey Marcus an American officer who helped establish the new nation of Israel's military as a power to be reckoned with. It has some good dialogue (after being told he should go to Israel to help because he's Jewish: "I'm an American, that is my religion. The last time I was at Temple I was 13. I gave a speech and got 42 fountain pens. I don't have to go again, I have enough pens.")
It was interesting to watch, especially with another 40 years of futility since it was made (and 60 since the events depicted). I've always found Kirk Douglas to be a mixed bag as an actor but this is one of his better performances. Being a movie of the late '60s it also benefits from more realistic language while not yet going full bore into graphic violence.