A movie is doomed when half-way through you are thinking to yourself “Is this any good?” That the movie is a good 140 minutes long can only make the verdict worse. Spider Man 3 is uneven, unfocused and unconvincing. There is an excellent movie in there, I just wish they hadn’t thrown in the other three movies.
On a brighter note we tried out the Dungarvan cinemas for the first time and they are grand, far nicer than the death trap that the Waterford cinema is. Big, clean stadium seating with great sound and picture. Very friendly staff too, not something you can often say for a cineplex.
A powerful movie. Coming from South Africa and having lived in Zimbabwe, a country being ruled by Robert Mugabe, a modern day Idi Amin, I found it difficult to watch. It spirals into tragedy in such a familiar pattern. It struck me that what the naive Dr. Nicholas Garrigan experienced was something like the Mafia. He was given a Mercedes by Amin but didn’t realise it wasn’t a gift but a debt, a payment for his loyalty. He thought he could just walk away when it became unpleasant.
Some real truth though in what Idi Amin says to the Dr. at one point. He says that the Dr. is mistaken if he thinks he can come in as a white man to Africa and understand it, to play in it. He says nothing has been real in the Dr’s life before then but that this, Uganda, is real life.
Watched The Queen last night and thought it was a fine film. Helen Mirren as the Queen was rather good and while it focused on the time of Dianna’s death it wasn’t all about her, thankfully. Well worth watching.
Martin Scorsese’s The Departed is terrific. I haven’t had my heart pounding that much during a movie for many years now. So go watch it. I am going to go rewind the DVD and watch it again. Just brilliant.
Oh my. I knew Severance was going to be a gory movie but based on the trailer alone I thought it was going to be more black-humour than terror. Wrong! Yes, there is black-humour in it and you will laugh at times but for the rest of the movie you’ll be clinging to your girlfriend as you peer through your fingers. It is good though. Nothing slick an false about it. Just a gritty, black, tense thriller that makes an upcoming trip to Romania for me a bit worrisome.
Talladega Nights - Ballad of Ricky Bobby is one of those stupid movies that somehow make you laugh all the same. Ali G… sorry, Sacha Baron Cohen, wasn’t quite as funny as I was hoping but it was well made up for by John C. Reilly aka Shake and Bake!
An hilarious and surprisingly insightful exchange was the highlight for me:
Mr. Dennit: Ricky, your little obscene gesture is going to cost you 100 points. Do you know how much that costs us in sponsorship dollars? Ricky: With all due respect, Mr. Dennit, I had no idea you’d gotten experimental surgery to have your balls removed. Mr. Dennit: What did you just say to me? Ricky: What? I said it with all due respect! Mr. Dennit: Just because you say that doesn’t mean you get to say whatever you want to me! Ricky: Yes, it does! Mr. Dennit: No, it doesn’t! Ricky: It’s in the Geneva Convention, look it up!
It is set in Mexico, it has Jack Black, crazy wrestlers, nuns, orphans, cacti and tight-pants. Sadly most of it is flat and dull with the odd laugh out loud moment. It really is funny in those moments but they are too few and far between.
Sorry Jack, your Mexican accent is lousy, you look strange in tights and the monastery is not the place for you.
A movie about the making of a movie on The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy which is laugh out loud funny. Though very much in a British way, so if dry humour doesn’t float your boat, avoid. I genuinely came to dislike the main character, which is intentional and very well done.
A near-future, motion-captured, black & white Parisian detective story. A unique visual style with a good story and well paced music. Recommended though you have to have an open mind about the visual style.
