Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Cinema

I'm sad to say that spring break has come to an all-too-hasty close, capped off with a very fun St. Patrick's Day party this weekend. Time flies when everyone gets together and heckles a drummer who can't drum on Rock Band. Also managed a trip to Wrigleyville during the weekend where it was teeming with partyers all decked out in ridiculous green regalia. Good times!

One of the ways I wasted a lot of time during spring break was to watch some movies. The better half and I managed to head to the local multiplex and check out the buzz-y Slumdog Millionaire. With a movie that won so many Oscars, I expected it would be quite good. And I wasn't disappointed, this movie delivered. It may have gotten a little too triumphant in the end but it was a feel good movie, well-acted and it was extremely well-written, particularly the way that the story was told via flashback. Very cool.

Another excellent film I've wanted to see was Eagle Eye. This one was quite good also, extreme amounts of action and pretty smart. Billy Bob Thornton was really good in it (kinda reminded me of Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive remake) and Spielberg managed to avoid spoiling it in the end with an unnecessary love story, although he got very close. I think this was the first time I've seen Shia LeBouef or however you spell his name, he was okay. But I love how the trailer did not spoil this movie - too many do these days. This kept everything quite suspenseful for a good portion of the movie. I would highly recommend it if you're looking for action and suspense.

Finally, I got around to checking out Appaloosa, a western written and starred in by Ed Harris. Other actors in it were Viggo Mortenson, Jeremy Irons and the ever annoying Renee Zellweger. This one was okay although it was pretty predictable. There were definitely some cool moments in the movie, particularly a couple of shoot out scenes, but there was a little too much nonsense in it for my likings. Another cool thing was a song during the credits performed by Mr. Harris himself. The lyrics get a little silly at the end but actually a pretty cool song and he's got a nice singing voice. Who knew? This flic is probably best reserved for big western fans as it's really only kinda meh.

OK, enough of my Ebert routine.

Song lyric of the day "You can't pick the apple til the seed becomes the tree" You'll Never Leave My Heart, Ed Harris

Until next time.

Ace

3 comments:

Robin said...

Appalousa is HUGE In This House. We walked outta theater...maybe 4 steps, and Roy said, "When that comes out on DVD I want it!"

We have it.

He doesn't have it memorized word for word like he does Geronimo, Young Guns 2...he's not so big on Young Guns the first one.
And has every word memorized from Tombstone.

He would never watch Slumdog. So it's all a matter of what each one of us care to see.
We love Batman movies but not the Dark Knight.
He will watch Full Metal Jacket over and over up to the point they go to Vietnam, But I had to force him to watch Jarhead. "That's not MY Marine Corps!!"

It takes all kinds.

Shel said...

Glad to hear you actually get around to watching some of these movies. Sorry spring break went by so fast.

Dave said...

Duch had that thing set to "lefty mode" I'm the one that was cheated.