Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[Morrigoon]

Color me unimpressed with The Producers. And I'm talking about the original Mel Brooks film, not the newer film-of-a-musical-of-a-film version.

There were some good moments, and Gene Wilder's performance was bloody brilliant, like he was channeling Woody Allen or something, but overall a somewhat "meh" comedy. I laughed much harder at the two Deanna Durbin films I had last week (which were, incidentally, It started with Eve and Can't help singing)

[Alex]

Movies watched so far this weekend:

Born on the Fourth of July - Not really what I expected but still excruciatingly boring.

Mountains of the Moon - A period piece detailing the early attempts to find the source of the Nile by Burton and Speke. Made Born on the Fourth of July seem like a balls-to-the-wall action movie in comparison.

I watched both of those movies while making about 600 MouseAdventure buttons so it was a morning of drudgery all around.

Then we hit the beer-and-pizza theater last night to see The Host, a Korean monster movie that is currently making the arthouse rounds to good reviews. Lani liked it, I was so so on it. As good monster movies are, it was more social commentary than monster scare fest. The external view of Americans was interesting (simultaneously the buffoonish causer of their problem and frighteningly efficient solver of the problem).

It has strong comedic elements that frequently weren't working for me. But the woman behind me was laughing so hard and in such odd moments that I started to wonder if she just found the sound of the Korean language humorous.

In Korean and subtitled.

So on five points scales I'd say, in order: 2, 1, 3.

[Snowflake]

Saw Notes on a Scandal last night. Still catching up on Oscar nodded or nominated films. Judi Dench was, as always, mezmerizing. I loved Helen Mirren, it was clearly her year, but Dench was just sppoky, creepy and I could not take my eyes off her. It was a grand performance, subtle, funny, sad and pure evil. So I revise my vote, she really deserved to win, even over Mirren. It was a tour de force and not to be missed.

[Alex]

By coincidence watched my second Korean movie within a week last night. This time 2001's Bad Guy from well respected director Kim Ki-Duk.

This is the touching story of a woman forced into prostitution by silent (he only speaks once in the movie) titular bad guy and the relationship they form.

I'm sure there are all kinds of layers and submeanings that I'm missing but damn if I can only watch scenes of abuse and rape so many times before I decide that I just can't be touched by the characters involved.

This is a well reviewed movie but it is the kind of well reviewed movie that gives critics a bad name. It is different from mainstream schlock but I wouldn't say it is good.