Monthly Movies: August'09

August = Summer movies winding down... quality winding down as well. Sigh! This time last year I was all bubbly over the fun I had with Mamma Mia!. No such luck this time.

G.I. Joe: I can't believe I'm even admitting to having seen this one! Curiosity and nostalgia (used to watch the cartoon after school as a kid, I loved there was a tough redhead out there kicking ass! lol! there just aren't enough redheads out there!) got the better of me one afternoon when I really wanted to lose myself in a movie theatre and I'd already seen the other mildly interesting options... The end of summer is usually a very difficult time movie (quality) wise!
So, what to say about this film? Well, it goes boom! a lot. :p But there's really no developed characters, they're all caricatures. Doesn't seem to be much of a plot either. It's just there to be pretty and go boom! I also thought it was pretty lame of them to turn one of the bad guys into a reluctant, coerced bad guy... As a marine biologist I did get a kick out of the new evolution of critter-cams! Cool mechanical spy-bot tunas! That and the underwater battle ships modelled after sharks and rays? Kudos to recognising the value in Nature's designs! ;o)
Hmmm... I just realised what the biggest problem with this film is: it's an origins story, that apparently is rather successful (at the box office)... which means sequels! argh!

My Life In Ruins: OUCH! As my sister (we made a family outing of it) says "that was physically painful!" It was so bad I felt guilty laughing at some parts. I mean, how many stereotypes and contrived situations can you put in a single movie?! The friendly and polite Canadians, the rude Americans, the unhappily married couple, the man-crazy divorcées, the angry teenager, the wise-ass who thinks he's funny, the guy who works on holiday and never lets go of his cell phone... The trailers showed so much promise! But that's 'cause they just showed the little bit of good stuff. We expected more from the team behind "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Sigh! Will be my reference point for "lousy movie comparisons" for a while now.

Public Ennemies: At last!!! I of course went (with my dad) to see this on opening day, after waiting a month and a half I wasn't waiting another day! lol! And I can't say I was disappointed, I really enjoyed it! :o) My dad though seems to be graduating from the need to see dark films to which we already know the end, "what's the point?" he asks. Well the point is the same as in life: it's not the destination that counts, it's the journey! Sure we know how it will all end, but seeing it happen... seeing that world come to life on the screen with such great actors, well, it makes it all worth it! Johnny Depp was fabulous as usual (the day that man disappoints me is the day I quit movies), Christian Bale did real good, and Marion Cotillard was waaaay better than I expected (and much prettier than in "La Môme" aka "La Vie en Rose"). I loved the snappy dialogue (and I'm pretty sure it's even better in English), I loved the pacing (until the end), I loved the music... and I loved seeing a "darker" film in the summer (as opposed to all the popcorn)! I'm writing this a week later (why didn't I do it when I got home?! damn!), and I'm still feeling good about it. In fact I plan on seeing it again in a couple of weeks when I get to Belgium as the local "arts" theatre in town (Liège) will be playing it in V.O.S. (I already checked their schedule, lol!). My only negative point about the film was towards the end it did kind of feel a bit longish, as if it were dragging its feet somewhere, but I just couldn't figure out where. Oh, and there was this one scene I remembered from the previews, a press conference (I think) when Dillinger escaped the first time, with Feds saying "John Dillinger has given us another chance to capture John Dillinger", a scene I quite enjoyed... and it wasn't in the film! grrrr I hate it when scenes I like from trailers are ultimately cut for the film. Will have to look out for the dvd, a director's cut or something. ;o)




The Boat That Rocked: A BLAST FROM THE PAST!!! I saw trailers for this one all Spring... and then the movie never showed up in the Alicante cinemas! So very frustrating, until it popped up as one of those selected to be shown in VO in the single cinema that does one VO a week. So a bad thing made wonderful! ('cause this wouldn't have nearly been as good dubbed in Spanish...). New Richard Curtis (Love, Actually; Bridget Jones; Notting Hill) movie about a Pirate Radio station based on a ship in the North Sea of the coast of Britain. Led by Bill Nighy and fabulous DJs Philip Seymore Hoffman and Rhys Ifans, the operation is threatened by Kenneth Branagh (a minister) who wants to shut them down and stop them from "polluting" Britain's ariwaves with their foul language and perverse music (i.e. ROCK!). I'm not exactly sure there's much of a plot there, but I don't care! Some wonderful characters, great acting, and a soundtrack I absolutely have to get my hands on! Fun, fun, FUN!