Recent Movies

Movies...I've seen a few lately, although I don't blog about them much. If I blogged about everything I watched via Netflix, I'd never have time to do anything else. Eryn and I watched 15 minutes of Netflix streaming today, a Korean movie called "Doggy Poo". Which is about Dog Poo. Whiny dog poo. Seriously, whiny, crying, pissy, sad, morose, angst-laden, I'd slap you around if I wouldn't get you on my fingers, dog poo. Even Eryn was annoyed with this stop motion feature. Which is why we watched fifteen minutes, not the full thirty, and then she demanded to play Desktop Defender instead. The only good part was when I told her that when she farted, that was her poop trying to talk to her.

So movies. Pooteewheet and I saw Shooter. It is not a good movie. But it is what it purports to be. Classic 80's, Rambo-style "you drew first blood" escapism. Not "in the spirit of" 80's style escapism, but literally Reagan-era posturing, except there's a weird liberal anti-government twist in there that seems to be an attempt to update it (which was very strange, because you'd expect it from a conservative pic...let's say Red Dawn...but not so much from something that seems to have a liberal twist). We both loved it. It was lame...yet pleasing.

Saw 300. Yeah...war mongering, Persian-hating, blah blah blah blah blah (is that insensitive? I mean blah blah blah blah in the sense that it doesn't matter who the enemy was, there had to be one). It's a comic book that was turned into a movie, that looks like the comic book, and acts like a comic book in that it appeals visually and viscerally to some select senses. If you're going to complain about it, read the comic book first so you know how close it is to the media it was derived from. We both loved it. If only for the reason that all the Persians have abs that look like J-Money's abs. Come on now, J - you complain about not getting enough exercise and being a couch potato, and yet doing shots off your stomach would mean chasing the vodka around while you twitched it back and forth just to show off and deprive a person of their buzz. Um....congrats on the 1/2 marathon! The South Park episode spoofing the slow mo 300 does to achieve their comic book feel...also excellent.

Saw Grindhouse last night. "Loved it" would be a bit strong as a modifier, but I really liked it, and for prime time rates, the 3+ hours at the theater made sure I got my money's worth. Tarantino's Death Proof was the more interesting of the two movies. Not that it was better. I liked Rodriquez's zombie movie more just because it felt so drive in. But Tarantino made me watch 75 minutes of chick talk to get to 15 minutes of action. That's crazy. I could hear the two teenage boys behind me fidgeting away. They were almost incapable of dealing with women talking and relating to each other in something that approached how men interact, but wasn't, rather than getting naked or just damn well doing something so they'd shut up. Which is why it reminded me of The Descent. But not as good. Because The Descent also has women talking. Women getting drunk [ever notice that when someone really digs in and has women talking in a movie...really talking, lots of talking, and not "girl talk", but just hanging-out, relating, being friends, talk, there's serious alcohol? It's proof men don't talk like that - because we'd need three to ten times the alcohol, so we'd be dead]. Women getting drunk and talking, talking, talking. But it just moves so much faster. And Alex Reid, the British (Cornwall, if you care...I do, they have a history of being rebellious, which is sexy, and I majored in British rebellion, so I know) actress, is so much hotter than anyone in Death Proof (here's a cast photo from The Descent, she's middle back...here's another - who knows why they're wet, who cares, and here's yet another where Alex is front and center.) So, I guess what I'm saying is I liked Grindhouse, but maybe I should have just watched The Descent again.

But Grindhouse was so Altmanish, it was scary. Zoe the stunt woman. A real stunt woman. Sydney Poitier, Sidney Poitier's daughter. Tom Savini, Udo Kier, Sybil Danning, Sheri Moon (Zombie) - if you're not familiar with them, you don't watch horror movies (or pay attention to who's in them, or care at all about how horror movies have evolved over the years, and it's worth knowing how they've evolved, because what they portray as scary, and what they spoof, is American culture as it exists in the moment. The scariest thing you can imagine is living right now and right here, you just might not realize it). And that made it fun, because you knew that despite the violence, the weirdness, and the grindhouse motif, a lot of people had signed on to do the project because this was something they understood, and they shared an idea and a sense of what was fun cinema. While that might not be contagious if you don't recognize all the actors, if you do, it's great.