Junto Boys

DUDE'S MOVIE ROUNDUP

Now that I have Tivo, I am watching fewer DVDs and much more poker, history channel, and SpongeBob. This short list is several months in the making:

MARIA FULL OF GRACE
This is the only title on this list that I would wholly recommend - a very interesting film with great moments, especially the inflight sequence. Maria is a Comombian malcontent who turns to drug muling to make some needed cash. Once she gets to America, she ably skirts danger and ultimately decides not to leave the promised land, so that she may raise her pending child in Bush country.

I, ROBOT
Enjoyable so far as popcorn flicks go. Requisite overcomplicated plot. Wil Smith is still doing his ID4 character.

CLOSER
Started off great, loved the opening meet cute, but downhill from there and kind of depressing, except for the barely clothed Natalie Portman scenes.

WAR OF THE WORLDS
Speilberg is the master of scenes as opposed to story. There are great tense moments but the film feels like a collection of set pieces. When Tim Robbins pops the hood to his bomb shelter and flags down Cruise/Fanning from the delirious crowd, it's as if he's saying "You two, come on, let's do some scenes down here!"

OWNING MAHONEY
Philip Seymour Hoffman is our Charles Laughton. He is great in this role, though the movie is ultimately unsatisfying.

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
As with all Burton films to date, I go for the Elfman score and find the film overrated. The only Burton film that I truly love is NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and that is mostly because of the Elfman songs. The songs here feel too overproduced, and they even make jokes about that in the film. Burton's pacing always feels wrong as he is more interested in showing off his fun sets than conveying story. Am I the only person who prefers the original?

INCIDENT AT LOCH NESS
I've seen a handful of Werner Herzog films and I tend to enjoy them depsite methodical pacing. This film isn't a Herzog, but it is Herzogian and stars Herzog as Herzog. It is a mockumentary that plays it straight and suceeds for a long time until the cryptozoologist appears and he is clearly acting. Herzog is amazing in this film - I absolutely love him here. At no time do you ever get the feeling that he is acting, he is genius really. The commentary track carries the joke too far as first Herzog then a handful of others all in turn walk out on the director in disgust.

BATTLE ROYALE
The youth in Japan are getting too rebellious so a law is passed that every year a middle school class is chosen randomly and sent to an island to fight to a lone survivor. What's not to like here? There's something oddly appealing about watching Japanese schoolgirls fighting to the death, but despite the glowing review on AMG, I found the whole affair rang a little hollow for my tastes. I believe the premise first made waves as a graphic novel in Japan and that seems the appropriate medium for this story.

MR & MRS SMITH
Doug Liman makes good movies. This was certainly entertaining though hardly a modern classic. It is great fun when they are both hunting each other and flirting, but the nuance is lost in the back half when the whole story becomes like a comic book. Pitt and Jolie are about as beautiful as people get. This is a decent entry into the WAR OF THE ROSES camp of spousal abuse films.