I like Paul Rudd a lot, especially when he’s the lead in a movie. That was the case with Two Days, a movie that came out last year. It’s about a failed actor in Hollywood who decides to kill himself. But before he goes through with it, he hires his friends to make a documentary about the last two days of his life.
Usually, when a movie like this comes along, you pretty much know how it’s going to end. I wasn’t sure with this one. I had my suspicions, and they weren’t far off from what actually happened, but I was never certain of anything during the film.
This one’s at Blockbuster now, so if you’re interested, you should rent it. It’s not the best ever, but it’s interesting. And the music over the last scene and the credits is absolutely beautiful! Wow.
Archive for July, 2004
Brad ‘Hoser’ Moser….whatever you call him came over tonight and we watched Amelie. I really enjoy this movie but don’t always recommend it to everybody because there’s some content in it that some people can’t get past. It’s like staring at the finger while ignoring what it’s pointing at. Some people don’t like this ‘kind’ of movie cause it has subtitles. I kind of like subtitles sometimes myself. Even in movies without subtitles I have to watch it a couple times to really catch the dialog and what’s going on in the background. I really love Audrey Tautou in this film. Her performance is amazing and most of it is just in the expressions she makes. I of course have no idea what she’s like in person, but her character just seems so cool in this movie; somebody I could really get along with - kinda like how we feel about Zach Braff right Liz?
Well the gist of this movie is a young woman does a good deed for somebody, likes how she feels afterwards and continues trying to help people out in the world. At the end of the movie you get to see how her life really affected peoples’ lives. It’s definitely a feel-good movie and a subtle reminder to watch how we live our lives because you never know how you’re affecting somebody.
Ghost World is a movie I’ve seen before, but I watched it yesterday while my clothes were getting clean so I figure I might as well write about it. This is the movie that gave me my appreciation for Lost in Translation (another movie watched cause of Neville). Another link between those two movies is the actress Scarlett Johansson.
Basically these movies are both about being misunderstood. In Ghost World you have Enid played by Thora Birch who wants to ‘have her pie and eat it too’. Enid doesn’t really know what she wants or who she really is so she’s constantly trying out new hair styles, looks, music styles, job ideas, etc. She really has problems sticking with one thing for a while and seeing it out to completion. However, by the end of the movie I think she’s starting to see that some things need to be more long term and starts figuring out who she is and who she wants to be. Another starring actor in here is Seymour played by Steve Buscemi. I love this guy. I think the best thing about Buscemi, besides his great acting ability, is that he’s not the most attractive looking person which goes against Hollywood/pop culture in the ‘gotta have beautiful people’ sense.
If you were a fan of Lost in Translation, I’d say definitely give this one a try. If you didn’t like that movie I’d say give it a try anyway because Ghost World is the only reason I like Lost in Translation.
Hey, it’s two Cage movies in a row for me. The first time I saw this movie was with Neville and Liz in Marion I believe. I really like this movie. The two main actors are Nicolas Cage and Alison Lohman. Lohman hasn’t done a whole lot in the way of movies yet, but I think she has potential.
The basic story line is there’s a couple of con artists, one of them being Cage. Cage then meets his 14yr old daughter for the first time and starts up a relationship with her. Cage also has a few phobias and some social interaction issues which really add to his character. This is a movie about pulling a con, but it’s also about the relationship between a father and daughter. Some might think this is a ‘chic-flick’ or something but I thought it was insightful and entertaining.
I don’t know if I’d classify this as one of those ‘real’ movies, but I definitely enjoyed the relationship aspect to it. Growing up without an active father in my life makes me think it’d be cool to find out my dad was somebody else and to randomly meet him and start off on a clean slate. Kinda hard to explain if you don’t know what I’m talking about.
I’d have to say I recommend this movie to just about everybody. Oh yeah, and if you’re shallow and insecure about your whatever in watching non-action movies you should give it a try too. Don’t worry, we won’t rat out that you watched a ‘chic-flic’.
Here’s another one of those movies I’ve been meaning to watch for a couple years. I got the chance to pick it up for $10 and jumped on it. Bendog has been on me forever to watch it and I finally did. A couple people told me this was going to be so much like Being John Malkovich. It was, but it wasn’t. I think the cast did a great job on this. Especially Cage, Chris Cooper, and Meryl Streep. Also enjoyed seeing Ron Livingston, star of my favorite Office Space.
Cage did an excellent job playing two characters. He was his own twin brother. One was outgoing, and dangerous. The other was a nervous wreck who always worried about what others thought. As the movie progressed you see these twin brothers playing off of each other and empowering each other in ways they never imagined. It was pretty cool. The movie seemed almost a bit dull and boring. At one part a motivational speaker of sorts chews out one of the characters for thinking “real life” is boring, dull, lifeless, un-fulfilling, disappointing, safe, etc. By the end of the movie this character realizes what “real life” really is.
This made me think a little about how I view life sometimes. Yeah, life can be disappointing, threatening, and discouraging…but things are really what you make out of them. It sorta goes back to the cup being half empty or half full. Now I really get annoyed with this illustration, but there’s some good stuff in it. Nobody really makes you do much of anything. It’s all your choice. That annoying co-worker doesn’t piss you off, you choose to get worked up about them. Well, I was about to come up with a bunch of other examples, but I’m sure you can come up with whatever on your own. I know people that have had unbelievable amounts of hardship and I know some people that seem to have had to deal with none at all. It’s always interesting to see how these people act. Some people go through hard times and come out bitter while others don’t. Some people have no hard times and are bitter while others aren’t. It’s all a matter of how you perceive and react. It’s also usually not where you are that makes or breaks the situation but who you’re there with.
The other night I rented both The Station Agent and The Dreamers. The Station Agent was a million times better.
It follows Fin McBride, a dwarf, through a few weeks/months of his life in which his only friend dies, he inherits a train depot in New Jersey, and he moves in. He is content to live a quiet life. He’s one of the most believable loners I’ve seen in a movie. Usually a loner character is either so cool that you can’t understand why they’re by themselves all of the time, or they’re frustrating and you don’t really want them to have any friends. Fin was likable, but you could see why and how he was happy to be relatively alone.
Alas, friendships follow.
Bobby Cannavale died on Third Watch a few years ago, and the episode made me very sad. Watching him in this movie cheered me up a bit. His character’s giddiness was a huge reason I liked the movie so much. Patricia Clarkson is also great, as the woman who almost hits Fin with her car — twice in one day. She’s a mother who is mourning the loss of her son, Sam.
It turns out, all of these people need one another.
Fin is very cool. Peter Dinklage is great. This is a movie I would not only recommend to all of my friends, but to my family, too. Isn’t that nice? A movie you can recommend to pretty much everybody?
Well, here’s one of those movies I’ve been told was good by several people, but just got around to actually watching it.
I didn’t know anything about this before watching and was pleasantly surprised to see three actors: Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Hank Azaria. Now these are some people I’ve seen before and definitely enjoy their work. Wonderful performances by all three.
I’m usually a sucker for what I call “real” movies. These would include titles such as American Beauty (1999), American History X (1998), American Splendor (2003), 25th Hour (2002), and Blow (2001). This had many of those “real” movie qualities partly because it was based on something that really happened. They even used some real names, places, dates, etc. It’s about a journalist who ends up doctoring/lying about some stories just to make them interesting. Now this has definitely happened before, but this guy wrote for one of the most prestigious magazines in the country so that kind of makes it all the more inflammatory/important/newsworthy.
I think the acting is what stood out here the most as opposed to scenery or cinematography or whatever. I really enjoyed the performances by Peter Sarsgaard and Chloë Sevigny the most. If you enjoy dramas and enjoy movies that maybe make you think a little bit, I’d definitely suggest giving this one a whirl.
Tonight I went to Blockbuster and used my rent one get one free coupon. One of those movies I picked up was Poolhall Junkies. I remember seeing previews for this and thought it looked awesome cause Christopher Walken was in it. It’s definitely worth a dollar rental, probably even more. Gregory ‘Mars’ Martin played a big brother that had to play some pool to make money and get back at his arch-nemesis to save his brother from getting pounded for a gambling debt. The amazing thing was that Mars looked, talked, and acted like a possible young Christopher Walken. I was impressed. One of my favorite parts was Walken giving a speech about a lion that sits around and lets the hyenas and jackals pick at him until they get in close enough for the lion to go nuts and show them who’s boss. I’d quote it, but I’d have to throw the movie in again and it’s more like a short story than a quote. Well you got another great performance from Walken, some good one liners and average to decent acting. This movie really seemed like something a ‘young’ director put together with some potential to do much better. I think this is Martin’s 2nd film and it’ll be interesting to see what he comes out with in the future.
I just watched The Cell for the first time. It’s one of those movies I’ve been meaning to see, but just haven’t ever gotten around to it. Until tonight. I decided at work today that I needed to see some more Vince Vaughn movies, so I rented a couple from Blockbuster.
Very interesting movie, The Cell. It was disturbing. I had planned to eat my dinner while I was watching, but that didn’t go over very well. Overall, I liked it. Vincent D’Onofrio is really scary. Jennifer Lopez is one of those people I alternately like and dislike. I liked her in this.
Did this movie win any Academy Awards for make-up or costuming? Because that was the most amazing thing about the movie, I think. The acting was pretty amazing, the directing was great, and the artistic direction was spectacular.
My dreams are often inspired by the movies I’ve seen lately. I have a feeling I might have some creepy dreams tonight.
Yo Neville, Liz, and Tara. What do you guys think of this idea? Good? Bad? What about the name? I put that on there before I invited you guys to share this with me. I’m up for any changes you’d want to make. Is there anybody else I should invite? Feel free to give lots of feedback, just no threats on my life please.
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