I've been watching movies like they are going out of style. Since my last movie update I've seen at least 30 movies and watched all the episodes of two 2-season TV shows, plus assorted current TV episodes. I iz couch potato. So once again, here is a list of what I've been watching, roughly in the order I watched them.
- Catch Me If You Can - I was reading an interesting article on con man Frank Abagnale, Jr.and there was mention of a 2002 movie that more or less told his story, at least as much as a Hollywood movie will, and I decided to watch it. DiCaprio isn't my favorite actor, but he did a really good job with this role. Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken help out a lot too. It's a fun movie that is easy to watch.
- Dead Man - I can't say enough about this 1995 Jim Jarmusch-directed movie. I'm pretty picky when it comes to westerns, but I've never seen one quite like this one. The director calls it an "acid western" and that fits pretty well. It was shot in black & white and has some pretty authentic Indian depictions in it. The cast was awesome - Johnny Depp, Crispin Glover, Gary Farmer, Billy Bob Thorton, Iggy Pop, John Hurt, Lance Henriksen, Robert Mitchum (in his last role), and all the others did an amazing job in this weird, surrealistic western. I now rank this movie in my top five favorite westerns.
- Misfits (current BBC series) - A bunch of annoying 20-somethings in a suburb of London are sentenced to community service and are caught in a storm that gives them superpowers. This show is silly and ridiculous. But it's funny and really well written. I'm looking forward to season 3.
- No Country For Old Men - I wanted to like this 2007 Coen brothers film more than I did. It seems that most everybody else thought it was great. Visually it was appealing and the acting was good. The story was intriguing but the ending was disappointing and had no closure.
- The Blue Max - I mainly watched this one for the WWI flying sequences. Those were pretty good. Otherwise, this 1966 film was mostly not that great.
- Wall-E - I sometimes have a hard time wanting to watch recent movies that are wildly popular. Most of the time they don't live up to the hype. So I resisted watching this 2008 animated Pixar science fiction film for quite a while. Too bad. It's a really great movie and actually deserves most of the praise it got.
- C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America - This is a little different. A pseudo-documentary that takes place on an alternate reality where the South won the Civil War.
- Better Off Ted An ABC television series that I had totally ignored. I quickly became a fan. Too bad they canceled it so soon.
- Spirited Away A really amazing Japanese animated movie. I was not sure I would like this film. It would probably appeal to 8-10 year olds as well, but there is probably something good there for any age. The animation is beautiful, the story is solid, and the message is positive. Not at all sugary-sweet, but still very moralistic in an un-overt (I may just be making up words now) way.
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Kind of disappointing, but not terrible. Nothing beats the original.
- The Dark Knight I gave up on the Batman franchise a long time ago. I really want to love Batman. I decided to give this one a chance. I was surprised at some of the performances. This is probably the best Batman movie so far.
- Valkyrie I hate Tom Cruise. But he's still a pretty good actor in the right role (if he sticks to action movies). This movie sounded kind of dumb, but I had lots of time on my hands. All in all, not bad for some tarted-up Hollywood take on a bit of obscure WWII history.
- Brutal Beauty I am torn on this one. I'm not sure if it's well made or not. Its about women's roller derby, the local Rose City Rollers specifically. I know or at least recognize, most of the women in this film. I think it probably gives a pretty good prospective of the sport from their point of view.
- Repo Man A classic that just doesn't hold up that well for me. Call me a pariah.
- Pans Labyrinth Super cool and different Spanish horror/fantasy film. Beautiful feel and look. Not anything like American horror films.
- Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park This is one of the worst movies ever. I had never seen it before, but had heard of its awesome terribleness. It's even worse than I thought it would be. The off-screen story of this waste of celluloid is kind of funny too.
- Bad Teacher Stupid. But kind of funny. But funny in a way that makes me mad if I think about it. Not worth seeing. Even though Carmen Diaz is pretty hot in it.
- The Big Lebowski This is supposed to be one of the greatest cult films of all time. I don't see it. Maybe I'm at just the wrong age. It seems like a bunch of pretentious crap to me.
- Trinity and Beyond I was mostly interested in seeing all of the footage of nuclear explosions. There are a lot of them. The story is pretty fascinating as well.
- Princess Mononoke Another classic animated film that is usually high on cult film lovers lists. I like it, but I liked Spirited Away better (the same guy did them). Certainly worth watching though.
- The Manchurian Candidate The original one. Great performances and a timely and topical story at the time. I won't even bother watching the recent remake.
- Minority Report Another solid Tom Cruise movie. I hadn't seen this one in a while and gave it another go. Good plot based on a Philip K. Dick science fiction short story and interesting "neo-noir" visuals.
- Battle Royale You probably shouldn't watch this Japanese movie. High school students are made to battle to the death on an island. Just graphic enough to be disturbing. I "enjoyed" this film, but that doesn't mean you will.
- Prophecy
- A Scanner Darkly
- They Live
- Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
- Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones
- Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith
- Star Wars (Episode 4: A New Hope)
- Galaxy Quest
- Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back
- Splice
- The Third Man
- Let the Right One In
- Initial D
- Star Wars Episode 6: Return of the Jedi
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