Pleh » Movies

Crash on the Waterfront

pete — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 05:30:36 +0000

Today, I did a double feature of movies Lis didn’t want to see. The early show was Crash. I really enjoyed this movie. It was amazing how easily and believably these characters could slip into racial stereotypes, both in believing and being them. Nobody was spared. Yet, at the same time, all the characters were believable and, mostly likable. I especially liked Michael PeÃ±a as Daniel. Another flick to send back to NetFlix now.

The late show was On the Waterfront. This movie felt a bit dated and simplistic to me. The acting was mostly good, but a lot of actors were given cliched parts and could only do so much with them. Everything just felt too neat and tidy. The romance felt forced unlikely. Come on, Edie was all torn up about her brother just being killed, but, “Hey, he looks cute…” Edie makes one critical comment to Father Barry, then he suddenly decides to take up social activism? I don’t know. Maybe in the context of its contemporaries, On the Waterfront was a great movie, but now… to me it’s only eh. Still, I was glad the TiVo picked it up and that I had the chance to watch it. I am also sure that Lis won’t be upset with me for having deleted it.

Technorati Tags: movies, netflix, review

Movies!

pete — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 14:00:26 +0000

Lately, Lis and I have been on a movie watching kick. We even re-signed up for Netflix. We used to be members, but the movies just sat around forever until we finally sent them back, unwatched. Between the monthly Netflix fee and the amount of time each movie sat, it probably would have been cheaper for us to just purchase the DVD. This time, we’re trying to not let the movies sit as much and I’m trying to be more open minded about what I watch. I think Lis is too, which is cool for both of us.

Our recent movie kick has covered three different sources: “MirrorMask” from Netflix, “Almost Famous” from our DVD collection, and “Deliverance” from the TiVo. (Sweet, sweet TiVo….)

“MirrorMask” was interesting. I’m pretty sure my interest in this wouldn’t have been enough to get me to the theater, but I’m glad we saw it. It was quite interesting visually. The story was about an artistic, adolescent girl, her mom, and how she deals with her mom’s sudden illness. Oh, and they’re a circus family. Very interesting visuals. Decent story. Maybe a 6.5 on a 1 – 10 scale.

“Almost Famous” is a DVD I got for some birthday or Christmas in the past, but get lost somewhere along the way. I liked it so much, I asked for it again for this past Christmas. Lis finally acquiesced to watching it and enjoyed it too. The music is good and does all kinds of nice nostalgia things for me, although I was too young for the time period of the movie. 8/10.

“Deliverance.” When I was in grad school, I lived for a year with some kayaking folks. The really seemed to love this movie. They were sick, twisted people and fun to have around. It’s a hard movie to deal with. I think this is mostly because some of the characters are pretty easy to relate to. There are lots of, “What would I do in that situation?” moments. Overall, a pretty gripping story. Also an 8/10.

Technorati Tags: movies, netflix, review

Casino Royale

pete — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 05:15:08 +0000

Lis and I just saw Casino Royale today. Liked it a lot. Daniel Craig is a very different Bond and quite good. (Easy to look at too, according to Lis.) This one’s grittier than the others. The painful quips are gone and there’s very little focus on the gadgetry. I was quite surprised to not even see Q. Overall, we’re quite pleased and look forward to seeing other Daniel Craig Bond movies.

Technorati Tags: bond, james bond, movies, review