Body of Lies and Rocknrolla.
Well, technically I saw Body of Lies on the 24th, so that was more than a week ago. Anyway, both were solid films in my opinion and worth seeing. Certainly compared with the other crap that is in the theater this week- High School Musical 3, Max Payne, etc.
Admittedly I have seen neither, but I personally couldn't be paid to go see HSM3. And I've been informed by reliable sources that the Max Payne film is an absolute butchery of one of my most favorite video game franchises. The game (especially the sequel, The Fall of Max Payne) is a film noir masterpiece with a moving storyline, excellent voice acting, cinematic direction, and well developed characters. By all accounts the movie totally sucks, so for the moment I'm positively pissed at Marky Mark, especially since he already proved he can do really cool stuff with his performance in The Departed.
Which I also watched this week, for the first time since it hit theaters. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It is fantastic. Assuming you don't have a problem with the "f" word. (it appears in the film 237 times.)
Back to the now. Between RocknRolla, and Body of Lies, I liked Body of Lies more, but that may just be more because it's my kind of movie. Espionage, violence, investigation. DiCaprio was solidly entertaining and convincing. I use to not like DiCaprio, due mainly to my irritation at the post-Titanic "Leomania" that circulated like mononucleosis for a time. But now that has passed and he has always been a seriously awesome actor. I really appreciated the film's non-political look at the war-on-terror. Too many folks these days seem to act like having a plot-line relating to current events gives them license to take a poorly aimed, halfassed shot at the nearest political target of opportunity just because they know it will earn some hearty "hell-yeah's" from the Michael Moore fans. Body of Lies doesn't portray America as knights in shining armor- one of the running themes in the movie is DiCaprio's frustration with his superiors' incompetence and the moral ambiguity of his job- but at the same time it clearly portrays even Crowe's character- a total ass- as having American lives as his primary concern.
Moving on to RocknRolla, I must confess that this is the first film by Guy Ritchie which I have seen, but his previous works, "Snatch", and "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels", are highly rated. It was a hilarious movie, flowing effortlessly from character to character, and throwing in violent cacophony along the way. it was a little bit confusing however, especially during the opening when a variety of characters are introduced in rapid fire succession and important plot elements are laid out in a somewhat complex manner. Very entertaining though.
I would most definitely recommend both films.
Closing, let me just warn that updates to the blog will probably come in quick succession over the next week (making up for lost time), and then even out shortly.
Finally, congratulations to JL Mann for the epic 340K spirit week win. Great thanks and congratulations go out to Lizzie, Jeter, Duncan and all the others who made it possible and helped to commemorate those lost.
Well, technically I saw Body of Lies on the 24th, so that was more than a week ago. Anyway, both were solid films in my opinion and worth seeing. Certainly compared with the other crap that is in the theater this week- High School Musical 3, Max Payne, etc.
Admittedly I have seen neither, but I personally couldn't be paid to go see HSM3. And I've been informed by reliable sources that the Max Payne film is an absolute butchery of one of my most favorite video game franchises. The game (especially the sequel, The Fall of Max Payne) is a film noir masterpiece with a moving storyline, excellent voice acting, cinematic direction, and well developed characters. By all accounts the movie totally sucks, so for the moment I'm positively pissed at Marky Mark, especially since he already proved he can do really cool stuff with his performance in The Departed.
Which I also watched this week, for the first time since it hit theaters. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It is fantastic. Assuming you don't have a problem with the "f" word. (it appears in the film 237 times.)
Back to the now. Between RocknRolla, and Body of Lies, I liked Body of Lies more, but that may just be more because it's my kind of movie. Espionage, violence, investigation. DiCaprio was solidly entertaining and convincing. I use to not like DiCaprio, due mainly to my irritation at the post-Titanic "Leomania" that circulated like mononucleosis for a time. But now that has passed and he has always been a seriously awesome actor. I really appreciated the film's non-political look at the war-on-terror. Too many folks these days seem to act like having a plot-line relating to current events gives them license to take a poorly aimed, halfassed shot at the nearest political target of opportunity just because they know it will earn some hearty "hell-yeah's" from the Michael Moore fans. Body of Lies doesn't portray America as knights in shining armor- one of the running themes in the movie is DiCaprio's frustration with his superiors' incompetence and the moral ambiguity of his job- but at the same time it clearly portrays even Crowe's character- a total ass- as having American lives as his primary concern.
Moving on to RocknRolla, I must confess that this is the first film by Guy Ritchie which I have seen, but his previous works, "Snatch", and "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels", are highly rated. It was a hilarious movie, flowing effortlessly from character to character, and throwing in violent cacophony along the way. it was a little bit confusing however, especially during the opening when a variety of characters are introduced in rapid fire succession and important plot elements are laid out in a somewhat complex manner. Very entertaining though.
I would most definitely recommend both films.
Closing, let me just warn that updates to the blog will probably come in quick succession over the next week (making up for lost time), and then even out shortly.
Finally, congratulations to JL Mann for the epic 340K spirit week win. Great thanks and congratulations go out to Lizzie, Jeter, Duncan and all the others who made it possible and helped to commemorate those lost.
1 comment:
I would tend to disagree with the notion of your second source account with Max Payne, albite it is different to the games, ie less bloody, it still holds true to the nature of the games. The only things that I disliked about the movie were that the first half could have been more actiony and the female lead had no real significance to the movie and should have been cut.
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