Ok, as long as I'm talking about movies, I've seen a few lately (it's what I did while on vaca..., I mean, hiatus.)
Triplets of Bellview - Sureal and sometimes silly story, clever art and amazing hand drawn (or it sure looks like it) animation, and music I still hum in my head.
Collateral Damage - Like, can you believe this guy is really president of California??? It's a remake of Comando without Rae Dong Chong - which makes sense, how? Maori actor Cliff Curtis often plays the bad guy (Blow, Training Day and this one) but his most interesting role is as Pai's father in Whale Rider.
De-Lovely - The story within a story gimic works well, and the transitions are seamless. Author Cocks (no, really) portrays Porter as being bisexual, having rare but hetero sex both before and after his marriage to Linda. Yeah, maybe but I doubt it. It's a tear jerker for sure, and the performances by current artists make it worth it inconvience of having to watch a remake of Night and Day.
Especially great are Diana Krall licking a guy's ear (YONGA!!), her hubby does a pretty good number. and that guy on the gondola, but I don't know who he is. I might just get the sound track for this one. Oh, and Kevin Kline is a genius.
But what is the deal with this movie not being shown in Arizona?!?!? AMC and Harkin have a stranglehold on the movie business after squeezing out Madstone (and yes, I went, often) so we are stuck with the tastes of only two distributors. Bleah. This movie should be a blockbuster.
Bubba Ho-tep - The best movie of the last year. It doesn't matter if you believe in the survival of the King; cursed, living-dead mummies or that JFK was dyed black or not. (Well, that last guy really was crazy.) The movie is going to be a much sought after cult classic, especially as our generation discovers ageing.
The DVD includes Joe R. Lansdale reading from his short story that the movie is closely adated from. Here's a plagerized line: "I wonder, if Pricilla were to come to visit, would we still fuck, or would we just have to talk about it? And it only gets better. By the way, I watched this movie because it had Bruce Campbell in it, who hasn't let me down yet.
The Matrix (parts 2 and 3) - The story of the first movie was well executed, and complete. Once part two got in there, the story widened to an epic instead of the iconic story originaly presented, so part 3 was also needed, but the plot got lost. Toward the end, I thought it was a combination of Tron and Starship Troopers. But then I realized that it was the Star Trek where Kirk and Spock, et al., confused Harry Mudd's robots by claiming to be lying. The robots can't deal with the paradox, and self destruct in the process.
If you've seen 1 and not 2 or 3, it's your choice: really good effects, too many fight scenes, thin love story, and the plot gets lost. They finally just tie it up and live happily ever after, except for the characters who die.
Something's Gotta Give and About Schmidt (actually I saw these a while ago) - More male ageing stuff, with Jack Nicholson showing both sides of the coin. The lesson is obvious: Cathy Bates, naked in a hot tub, vs choosing between Amanda Peet and stealing Diane Keaton away from Dr. Neo.
