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May Movies
Jun. 1st, 2014 01:15 amMuch like April was Meth Month, May is Clooneyriffic!
MAY MOVIES
30. Finding Vivian Maier, Theater. Excellent documentary. This should have been in the April entry because I watched it in April, but I forgot. Maier was a loner who became a nanny because the job allowed her to have a lot of time to take photographs. And take photographs she did! Over 100,000 photographs. And then she never showed them to anyone. After one of her storage units went up for auction, amateur historian John Maloof bought one of the lots that had some of her negatives in them, and he was so impressed with the quality of her work that he set out to find out who she was. So engrossing. Showcased a whole mess of obsession (on both sides — the filmmaker was clearly obsessive himself) in a fascinating way.
31. Star Wars, DVD. I own this and felt compelled to watch it. It's the re-release, where all the squeaky cutesy aliens are popping around in Mos Eisley, and with all the other post- post- post-production crap Lucas felt that he had to add in. Ugh. But it still is fun to watch. I just really need to get the original version some day.
31. I, Frankenstein, Redbox. Aaron Eckhart plays the monster. And that's where the similarity to the original Frankenstein tale ends. After slaughtering Frankenstein's wife, the monster takes off, only to be followed by his creator, until his creator freezes to death. For some reason, the monster decides to bury his maker in the family plot, and while he's doing that he's set upon by demons. And then he's saved by gargoyes. And then 200 years pass while he sulks in the woods. And then there's SCIENCE and Bill Nighy and the chick from "Chuck" and more demons and more gargoyles. And a lot of statements like "This will end tonight!" and "It is not for you or I to deny God's purpose!" In one scene the queen gargoyle gives him the name Adam. So hey, Adam Frankenstein, that's cool.
33. Bad Country, Redbox. An 80s period piece set in the south. Willem Dafoe is a cop who convinces Matt Dillon's bad guy to become an informant against mega-bad guy Tom Berenger. Neal McDonough plays unctious bad guy lawyer, and really everyone else except Willem Dafoe and some soon to be dead guys are all just bad bad men. There is, as you might expect, gunfire. There are murders. Only one gratuitous set of breasts. And then it was over. I was wondering through the entire movie if Willem, Matt, and Tom all got hazard pay for the mega-staches they had to sport. The moustaches were practically other cast members, so really they should have at least gotten scale for them!
34. 47 Ronin, Redbox. Keanu Reeves is the One, again. This time in ancient Japan. But really, same thing. The kid they cast to play him as a, uh, kid, looked a lot like Keanu did at that age. So that was good. The smoldering go-to Japanese guy of the decade, Hiroyuki Sanada, plays the main Japanese mentor. So Keanu is a half-breed, and basically lives in a mud hut, and everyone else lives at the shiny palace. The sets are lush and detailed and amazing. The plot is very complicated. Unfortunately they do the broken English thing to show that it's Japan, but I guess you have to overlook such things. But anyway, there is intrigue and a war and star crossed lovers and withcraft and fabled beasts and if they had just cast someone else it would be really good! But alas. Keanu! Great fight scene between Keanu and Hiroyuki, however.
35. Godzilla, Theater. YAY big lizard. OK, I've read a few reviews that said the big guy wasn't in the movie enough, but really he was the hero, so I think the pacing was good and having him as a guy of mystery. Or gal. It's not really clear, is it? Anyway, I enjoyed the heck out of most of it, grinning like a fool during the monster fights. The real flaw in the movie is the human hero, Bryan Cranston's character's son. He's very generic and I seriously couldn't remember what he looked like from one scene to the next. But ok. Not every actor can carry a picture.
36. The Monuments Men, Redbox. WWII throwback. Earnest Clooney. Gets the president of the US to agree to letting George form a team to go to Europe to save precious works of art from being stolen by the Nazis. I loved all of the cast. And the fact that this mission was needed made me unspeakably sad. But it's a bit uneven and it didn't make me cry, which it should have. The team is a bit jolly for all that they're experiencing the horrors of war, and the pacing is a bit strange. Still, it made me nostalgic for old movies.
37. Solaris (2002), Netflix DVD. Sad Clooney. In this one he plays Chris Kelvin, a psychiatrist on Earth. He gets a call from a friend, begging him to come to space station Prometheus located in orbit around the planet(?) Solaris. The crew is coming unhinged and they need his help. It's far enough into the future that the space station is huge, and spaceflight is largely unmanned. He flies there alone, and arrives to find a mystery, indeed. There are bloody handprints on the walls, and his friend is dead. There are two remaining crew members present who seem to be under some serious amount of stress. What is happening?
The whole thing is gorgeous and claustrophobic. Soderburg does an excellent job of world building, whatever the decade. Vaguely disturbing that the reason that we'd build a giant space station outside a really odd unstable (gas giant?) planet (apparently an unknown object) with no obvious commercial benefits is never explained at all. Obvi I never read the book. Bonus points for bare Clooney butt in several shots.
38. Up in the Air, Netflix DVD. Detached-turned-Sad Clooney. George is a professional downsizer who travels from one doomed company to the next telling people that they've been fired. He has no other life at all, but he likes it that way—in voiceover at one point says something like "I was on the road 323 days last year, which means I had to be at home for 42". His apartment is a closet. He meets a woman that also travels constantly, and they start a no-strings relationship. But then of course some stuff happens and George has an epiphany. Maybe his life isn't that great? No Clooney butt in this one, but some serious Vera Farmiga butt instead, so there you go.
39. Captain Phillips, HBO. Gripping. Didn't realize how much of it took place in the lifeboat. Very sympathetic towards the pirates, because really, what other choices do the pirates have? Tom Hanks is very Tom Hanks-y. I looked up the real story, and clearly the real Captain Phillips must have been a mean boss, because his crew doesn't have much nice to say about him. But it's ok—Tom makes him very heroic and smart and most people will remember the movie and not the truth.
40. The Double (2011), Netflix Streaming. This is not the highly-rated psychological Jesse Eisenberg thriller called The Double. This is the other one. I was hoping for fun/good, but I had to settle for mediocre-to-bad. Richard Gere, Topher Grace, Russian assassins and spies, FBI, every "Russian" actor we currently have working, and plot, lots and lots of plot. Richard Gere is still pretty hot. That's all I've got.
41. Get the Gringo, Netflix Streaming. Loads of fun, surprisingly. If you can ignore what you know about Mel the man, and just focus on the performance, it's good! Mel is a thieving clown in the opening scene, and he is being chased by the police right along the Mexican border. He manages to crash through the border, and since he has bags full of cash he gets taken in by the Mexican police who steal the money and hide him away in a Mexican prison. Lots of plot happens, and Mel has his charming moments. As expected, there is drug intrigue, gangster intrigue, a grubby disgusting setting, and, unexpectedly, a cute kid that Mel bonds with.
42. The Art of the Steal, Redbox. Much better than it should have been. Heist movie with the usual plot twists. Matt Dillon and Kurt Russell are brothers in crime (and also brothers) when a scheme goes wrong and Matt gets caught. He has a record and would do serious time if convicted, so he gives up his brother as a fall guy. After five and a half years, Kurt gets out and works as a motorcycle stunt driver. Then the fates conspire to drag him back into the con...there are then unexpected plot twists!
43. Veronica Mars, Amazon Instant. Ah, such a fun trip back to Neptune CA! More murder, of course. Veronica is 10 years older, a law school grad, dating the adorable Piz, and about to embark on her legal career, when she gets a call from Logan Echolls, her high school nemesis and later boyfriend. He's the son of a famous A-list actor, and he's been dating a pop star. But now the pop star is dead, and he's in the spotlight, suspected of her death. Veronica goes back home to help him screen lawyers, and gets caught up in the investigation and the corruption in Neptune. Bonus amusing cameo by James Franco as himself. Great fan service overall. No idea how it would hold up if you hadn't watched the series, because I watched every second of the series. And I watched this movie 2x back to back, because.
MAY MOVIES
30. Finding Vivian Maier, Theater. Excellent documentary. This should have been in the April entry because I watched it in April, but I forgot. Maier was a loner who became a nanny because the job allowed her to have a lot of time to take photographs. And take photographs she did! Over 100,000 photographs. And then she never showed them to anyone. After one of her storage units went up for auction, amateur historian John Maloof bought one of the lots that had some of her negatives in them, and he was so impressed with the quality of her work that he set out to find out who she was. So engrossing. Showcased a whole mess of obsession (on both sides — the filmmaker was clearly obsessive himself) in a fascinating way.
31. Star Wars, DVD. I own this and felt compelled to watch it. It's the re-release, where all the squeaky cutesy aliens are popping around in Mos Eisley, and with all the other post- post- post-production crap Lucas felt that he had to add in. Ugh. But it still is fun to watch. I just really need to get the original version some day.
31. I, Frankenstein, Redbox. Aaron Eckhart plays the monster. And that's where the similarity to the original Frankenstein tale ends. After slaughtering Frankenstein's wife, the monster takes off, only to be followed by his creator, until his creator freezes to death. For some reason, the monster decides to bury his maker in the family plot, and while he's doing that he's set upon by demons. And then he's saved by gargoyes. And then 200 years pass while he sulks in the woods. And then there's SCIENCE and Bill Nighy and the chick from "Chuck" and more demons and more gargoyles. And a lot of statements like "This will end tonight!" and "It is not for you or I to deny God's purpose!" In one scene the queen gargoyle gives him the name Adam. So hey, Adam Frankenstein, that's cool.
33. Bad Country, Redbox. An 80s period piece set in the south. Willem Dafoe is a cop who convinces Matt Dillon's bad guy to become an informant against mega-bad guy Tom Berenger. Neal McDonough plays unctious bad guy lawyer, and really everyone else except Willem Dafoe and some soon to be dead guys are all just bad bad men. There is, as you might expect, gunfire. There are murders. Only one gratuitous set of breasts. And then it was over. I was wondering through the entire movie if Willem, Matt, and Tom all got hazard pay for the mega-staches they had to sport. The moustaches were practically other cast members, so really they should have at least gotten scale for them!
34. 47 Ronin, Redbox. Keanu Reeves is the One, again. This time in ancient Japan. But really, same thing. The kid they cast to play him as a, uh, kid, looked a lot like Keanu did at that age. So that was good. The smoldering go-to Japanese guy of the decade, Hiroyuki Sanada, plays the main Japanese mentor. So Keanu is a half-breed, and basically lives in a mud hut, and everyone else lives at the shiny palace. The sets are lush and detailed and amazing. The plot is very complicated. Unfortunately they do the broken English thing to show that it's Japan, but I guess you have to overlook such things. But anyway, there is intrigue and a war and star crossed lovers and withcraft and fabled beasts and if they had just cast someone else it would be really good! But alas. Keanu! Great fight scene between Keanu and Hiroyuki, however.
35. Godzilla, Theater. YAY big lizard. OK, I've read a few reviews that said the big guy wasn't in the movie enough, but really he was the hero, so I think the pacing was good and having him as a guy of mystery. Or gal. It's not really clear, is it? Anyway, I enjoyed the heck out of most of it, grinning like a fool during the monster fights. The real flaw in the movie is the human hero, Bryan Cranston's character's son. He's very generic and I seriously couldn't remember what he looked like from one scene to the next. But ok. Not every actor can carry a picture.
36. The Monuments Men, Redbox. WWII throwback. Earnest Clooney. Gets the president of the US to agree to letting George form a team to go to Europe to save precious works of art from being stolen by the Nazis. I loved all of the cast. And the fact that this mission was needed made me unspeakably sad. But it's a bit uneven and it didn't make me cry, which it should have. The team is a bit jolly for all that they're experiencing the horrors of war, and the pacing is a bit strange. Still, it made me nostalgic for old movies.
37. Solaris (2002), Netflix DVD. Sad Clooney. In this one he plays Chris Kelvin, a psychiatrist on Earth. He gets a call from a friend, begging him to come to space station Prometheus located in orbit around the planet(?) Solaris. The crew is coming unhinged and they need his help. It's far enough into the future that the space station is huge, and spaceflight is largely unmanned. He flies there alone, and arrives to find a mystery, indeed. There are bloody handprints on the walls, and his friend is dead. There are two remaining crew members present who seem to be under some serious amount of stress. What is happening?
The whole thing is gorgeous and claustrophobic. Soderburg does an excellent job of world building, whatever the decade. Vaguely disturbing that the reason that we'd build a giant space station outside a really odd unstable (gas giant?) planet (apparently an unknown object) with no obvious commercial benefits is never explained at all. Obvi I never read the book. Bonus points for bare Clooney butt in several shots.
38. Up in the Air, Netflix DVD. Detached-turned-Sad Clooney. George is a professional downsizer who travels from one doomed company to the next telling people that they've been fired. He has no other life at all, but he likes it that way—in voiceover at one point says something like "I was on the road 323 days last year, which means I had to be at home for 42". His apartment is a closet. He meets a woman that also travels constantly, and they start a no-strings relationship. But then of course some stuff happens and George has an epiphany. Maybe his life isn't that great? No Clooney butt in this one, but some serious Vera Farmiga butt instead, so there you go.
39. Captain Phillips, HBO. Gripping. Didn't realize how much of it took place in the lifeboat. Very sympathetic towards the pirates, because really, what other choices do the pirates have? Tom Hanks is very Tom Hanks-y. I looked up the real story, and clearly the real Captain Phillips must have been a mean boss, because his crew doesn't have much nice to say about him. But it's ok—Tom makes him very heroic and smart and most people will remember the movie and not the truth.
40. The Double (2011), Netflix Streaming. This is not the highly-rated psychological Jesse Eisenberg thriller called The Double. This is the other one. I was hoping for fun/good, but I had to settle for mediocre-to-bad. Richard Gere, Topher Grace, Russian assassins and spies, FBI, every "Russian" actor we currently have working, and plot, lots and lots of plot. Richard Gere is still pretty hot. That's all I've got.
41. Get the Gringo, Netflix Streaming. Loads of fun, surprisingly. If you can ignore what you know about Mel the man, and just focus on the performance, it's good! Mel is a thieving clown in the opening scene, and he is being chased by the police right along the Mexican border. He manages to crash through the border, and since he has bags full of cash he gets taken in by the Mexican police who steal the money and hide him away in a Mexican prison. Lots of plot happens, and Mel has his charming moments. As expected, there is drug intrigue, gangster intrigue, a grubby disgusting setting, and, unexpectedly, a cute kid that Mel bonds with.
42. The Art of the Steal, Redbox. Much better than it should have been. Heist movie with the usual plot twists. Matt Dillon and Kurt Russell are brothers in crime (and also brothers) when a scheme goes wrong and Matt gets caught. He has a record and would do serious time if convicted, so he gives up his brother as a fall guy. After five and a half years, Kurt gets out and works as a motorcycle stunt driver. Then the fates conspire to drag him back into the con...there are then unexpected plot twists!
43. Veronica Mars, Amazon Instant. Ah, such a fun trip back to Neptune CA! More murder, of course. Veronica is 10 years older, a law school grad, dating the adorable Piz, and about to embark on her legal career, when she gets a call from Logan Echolls, her high school nemesis and later boyfriend. He's the son of a famous A-list actor, and he's been dating a pop star. But now the pop star is dead, and he's in the spotlight, suspected of her death. Veronica goes back home to help him screen lawyers, and gets caught up in the investigation and the corruption in Neptune. Bonus amusing cameo by James Franco as himself. Great fan service overall. No idea how it would hold up if you hadn't watched the series, because I watched every second of the series. And I watched this movie 2x back to back, because.
