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I've always liked Coen brother's films in the past, with the exception of "No Country For Old Men". "Fargo" was probably my favorite closely followed by "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" I thought I enjoyed dark comedies and I thought I enjoyed the Coen brothers. Apparently not anymore. "A Serious Man" was nominated for an academy award I think, but not sure why. Don't get me wrong. Some parts of the movie aren't so bad. I liked how the movie was a period piece of the 1960's. The neighborhood reminded me quite a bit of my own. The nagging phone call's the main character received were nicely awkward and uncomfortable. Actually...they were a lot like the ones William H. Macy received in "Fargo", a movie in my top ten. Dammit, the more I think of "A Serious Man" the less I hate it. I had the exact same reaction to "No Country For Old Men"
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I hated "No Country For Old Men" immediately after watching it. There were a lot of good aspects to the film, specifically the camera work and creepyness of Javier Bardem. I hated the ending though. I saw it on opening weekend so I continued to see trailers on TV for a few weeks after seeing the movie. I'd see a trailer and think, "that part was cool" and I'd see another and think the same thing. The more I thought about it, the less I hated it. I have the give Joel and Ethan Coen a ton of credit because no other movie inspired the strange reaction. It's strange, like a waning hate of a movie...I don't know.
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5 Movies out of my top 10 in no order:
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I just realized "The Big Lebowski" is another Coen brothers film I really like....See, I want to like their newer stuff but I like their older stuff way more. I tried re-watching "No Country for Old Men" a few months ago and had to turn it off. Too goddamn boring to justify for a few good scenes.
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Keith Malley of the Keith and the Girl Show hates almost every movie he sees. He didn't even like Avatar! But, we're not here to have a laugh at his expense. He mentioned that he saw "Taking Chance" with Kevin Bacon and that it was a very good movie. I checked it out on Netflix and figured it would be a movie Wife and I could watch. We typically have differing tastes in films but "Taking Chance" looked like a drama we would both be able to sit through. So, in it came from Netflix and watch it we did. "Taking Chance" is a true story about a soldier named Chance Phelps killed in action and the journey of his body to its final resting place. Kevin Bacon seems to feel guilty about not being in Iraq with his unit because he is working stateside doing troop level reports and stuff like that. He tends to read the casualty reports every night while his guilt is keeping him up. Kevin Bacon notices the death of a soldier from his hometown. He feels it's his duty to deliver the soldier to his final resting place.
The movie follows the departed soldier through every step of the process:
Getting out of Iraq.
Being delivered to a facility in the US.
Being cleaned. Being loaded on planes.
So on and so on.
A soldier is by his, and every body's, side through every step of the process. The biggest thing you can take away from it is the enormous level of respect that is payed to each and every casualty of war. The fact that loads and loads of these kids are coming home that way is incredibly moving. The movie does a good job of not pushing an anti-war or pro-war message. It is simply the story of the soldier's trip home. I can't stress how moving it is. I can understand some people may think it's a bit slow moving, but it has to be. So uhhh....its good. Check it out.
Thanks to HBO for the movie poster.
- Chris
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Recently saw a few movies and thought I'd give my thoughts for all my readers (hah). My reviews are rambling and poorly written, you probably wont like them (especially if you disagree). Twitter would be the path of least resistance and easiest place to post these but 140 characters doesn't seem like enough. Anyhoo, here we go:
The Hangover was, in fact, just as funny as everyone said it was. I didn't realize
Zach Galifianakis played a wierdo in the film but did a fantastic job. The guy from the office (Ed Helms) was funny too, the fear and apprehension he exhibits in most scenes made me really uncomfortable. I'm sure it was the point. Speaking of that, more than the movie was funny, it was downright uncomfortable and stirred a feeling of dread....but in a good way. Also, I saw this in blu-ray and I gotta say that it's wearing off. I know, for a movie like this, blu-ray is kind of a waste but still, the quality isn't all that better than DVD. Why don't they call them groundies?
I thought Sherlock Holmes was good. Most people didn't like it, I did. I went into it not expecting much due to the reviews. I have been a fan of Guy Ritchie's directorial work such as Snatch so I thought I'd like this. I never read any books or saw any movies about Sherlock Holmes so I didn't get the feeling that Ritchie ruined the Sherlock Holmes brand. I think that's what most people didn't like about it. I enjoy mystery movies where everything is tied up and explained at the end. It was a decent mystery action flick and they left the ending open to a sequel, which I'm okay with. Plus, I think Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law are good, entertaining actors. (Iron Man 2 should kick ass)
Wife likes romantic comedies and I thought I could stomach this one. It was....okay. Gerard Butler was badass in 300 so I figured if the movie was terrible, I could imagine him screaming "this is sparta!" at someone. There was a scene where he could have kicked Katherine Heigl out a hot air balloon, but he didn't. Speaking of which, I didn't know who Katherine Heigl was until I saw Knocked Up (good movie) and learned that she is quite the stunner. At any rate, the movie wasn't bad, it inspired a chuckle here and there.
Into The Wild was fantastic. I did not read the book, usually people who read book before seeing their respective movie dislike said movie. This happened to me with The Davinci Code (Tom Hanks, why did you let them do that to your hair?). The main character, played by Emile Hirsch was a great actor, I've never seen him in anything else. They show a picture of the actual guy that Emile Hirsch portrayed and it showed how perfect a job he did. A lot of the time I felt like what he was doing was crazy but understandable at the same time. I'm not really sure what else to say, I'm running out of steam.....Oh, how the hell did a bus end up in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness? That's the one thing I cant get past. I know it's true but I want to know how it got there.....Frozen land bridge from Russia? I don't know...Spoiler! He dies at the end.
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So I just saw the movie "9" and thought it was quite good. The fact
that I watched it on blu-ray probably played a role in my enjoyment.
The cgi was really good, or at least I thought it was. I remember
watching Shane Acker's short film of the same title a few months ago
on YouTube. The movie definitley stayed close to the feel of the
short. I appreciated the fact that this cgi tale was not aimed at
younger children. There were certainly not any gruesome parts but
there was no mincing of the fact that characters die. Even well liked
ones. So, all in all, I feel "9" was a good movie. I won't be
purchasing it for my collection but I'm happy netflix dropped it off.
-Chris
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