Random Movie Ramblings

On Sunday I went back to the movies with my Dad.  And I realised that was 3 times in 8 days (with The Impossible a week before)... how obvious is it that we're big cinema fans? :p

Anyhow, we went for Argo (directed by and starring Ben Affleck). It's about the hostage crisis at the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979. Something I have no memory of whatsoever (I was 3), but my dad remembers quite well. This movie is about the 6 hostages who escaped the Embassy when it was overrun and found refuge in the Canadian Ambassador's house (spy daddy Victor Garber, yay!). It's about the CIA guy (Affleck) who was crazy enough to go and get them out by pretending to be making a Hollywood Sci-Fi film that needed to film on location in Iran. I thought it was an excellent film! Very well made and acted, and very tense even though we know the final outcome (history and all that). Both my dad and I really enjoyed it! As usual I'm sure they played with and stretched the actual timeline and historical facts to fit the storytelling needs, but I'm fine with that (I'll go digging around online later to do some fact-checking).

Argo was definitely MUCH better than the movie we went to see on Thursday: Skyfall, the latest 007. Boy was that... bland! Basically a transition film to introduce a new set of Bond people/actors for the next films. I was kind of bored during the first half of the film. It just seemed to move from set piece to set piece with no purpose, no guideline... An interesting villain but uninteresting Bond girls. Then it got better when M (the ever fabulous Judi Dench) got much more to do than her usual arguing with Bond. In fact the element that most surprised me was the fact that I was in a packed cinema (like during The Impossible the previous week), with kids/teens seated on either side of us plus behind and in front! The film itself I pretty much predicted everything way ahead of time. Even if you're a big Bond fan, you might want to wait to rent the dvd...

Just before Skyfall we got the trailer for Lincoln... looks really good! Plus a friend in Missouri who got to go to an advance screening said it's excellent, she even called Daniel Day Lewis for the Best Actor Oscar! So I'll definitely be there when that shows up on screen! Although we won't get it in Spain 'till mid-January. Fingers crossed I get a chance to see it in English!

Question: is there a Lincoln anniversary coming up? Or has there been one? That's 3 movies in a couple of years... ok one he was the victim (The Conspirator) and another was a loopy Vampire hunting one (better than I expected), but still...

But what really got my adrenaline pumping was the trailer preceding Argo: The Hobbit!!! Can't wait!!! If possible we're going to watch that all together after a family lunch on Christmas Day in Valencia (in English, yay!). We know they've filmed the whole thing... are they really going to spread it out over 3 years like Lord of the Rings?! *sigh* Apparently the titles of the three will be The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (1); The Desolation of Smaug (2) and There and Back Again (3). Time for me to re-read the book (plus the appendices of The Lord of the Rings for the extra stuff) and try and guess where they'll be splitting the story...

Question: has anyone seen a movie called The Words? Starring Bradley Cooper. It's playing here and caught my interest. I'm hesistating on wether taking my dad (or having him take me) to see that one or Looper this weekend. It will be his last visit to the movie theatre in a month probably (more on that another day)....