Monthly Report: April 2012

Looks like this will be a recurring feature after all! Here are the films I saw for the first time during the month of April, along with mini-reviews and ratings.

Horrible Bosses (Seth Gordon, 2011)
There are a few fairly funny lines in this one, but the real reason it (barely) succeeds is the cast. They have fun with their characters and find the right tone for the material – Kevin Spacey in particular is spot-on as one of the bosses. I have some pretty big problems with the plot, which is contrived in a non-funny way and feature more logic gaps than what’s easy to swallow. Overall, I guess the movie was okay, but I don’t see myself ever revisiting it.
3/5

Pleasantville (Gary Ross, 1998)
It’s always a delight when a movie grows as it goes along and becomes something richer than you expected. I had figured this one would be merely a fun-poking of old 50s sitcoms, and it looked that way at first. But then it changes and evolves, finding nuances in unexpected places and bringing up thoughts and ideas I though would be left unexplored. And what a stunning blend of black & white and color! Wonderful stuff. I wish I had seen this one before I made my Top 10 of 1998 list. It would have made the cut for sure.
5/5

We Bought a Zoo (Cameron Crowe, 2011)
Very formulaic for sure, with few surprises to behold to anyone who has seen this kind of drama-comedy before. But it’s sweet, it’s charming, it offers a surprisingly high amount of laughs, and the cast all put in solid efforts – from Matt Damon and Thomas Haden Church to Angus Macfadyen and Elle Fanning.  We Bought a Zoo might not be Cameron Crowe’s most daring work, but it has a lot of heart.
4/5

 

Rewatch Review – No Country for Old Men (2007)

WARNING: This review contains plenty of spoilers. Proceed at own risk.

 

Self-plug – From Book to Screen: Bret Easton Ellis

I recently wrote a post for Flickchart: The Blog about the different film adaptations there have been of Bret Easton Ellis‘ books so far – Less Than Zero, American Psycho, The Rules of Attraction, and The Informers. It’s similar to a series called The Book and the Movie that I’ve done at this blog from time to time. I look at what has changed in the transition from page to screen, what works, and what doesn’t.

Please do give it a read. It can be found right here:
http://www.flickchart.com/blog/from-book-to-screen-bret-easton-ellis/

 

Money, money, money!

Today, the designs for the new Swedish money were revealed. Cinephiles might recognize the faces that adorn two of the bills.

Yeah, that’s right: we’re getting money with Greta Garbo and Ingmar Bergman on it! This is a real thing that’s happening! Granted, it’s still off in the future; I believe the new money won’t start being printed until 2015 or so. Still, this is pretty cool, no? I’m looking forward to walking around with these in my wallet.

 

Fifty Wishes

John LaRue over at TDYLF recently wrote a fun blog post called Fifty Wishes, which was just that: fifty things he wished for when it came to movies. I really like the idea, so I decided to steal swipe borrow it for a post of my own. Make sure to head over to John’s blog and read the original post as well, though; he’s a great writer.

There may be some mild spoilers for certain movies in this list, but I’ve done my best to limit it to things that are either fairly common knowledge or what can be reasonably expected. Still, if you don’t want to know how Rocky ends, proceed at own peril.

(I’d like to apologize preemptively for any grammar mistakes. I pride myself on having a good grasp of the English language for someone who doesn’t have it as his primary tongue. However, “wish” is a tricky thing grammatically, and while I have tried to look up what verb forms to use, I’ve probably messed up here and there anyway.)

1. I wish Shannyn Sossamon were a major star.

2. I wish David Fincher will find better use for his considerable talent than directing the sequels to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

3. I wish to someday get the chance to see the unreleased Glitterati.

4. I wish I had gotten interested in movies earlier.

5. I wish all films ever made were available through digital distribution all over the world.

6. I wish there were a wider range of theaters around where I live.

7. I wish the story in Nine were as good as some of the song numbers.

8. I wish more screenwriters had the level of imagination that Charlie Kaufman has.

9. I wish I “got” war movies and westerns.

10. I wish Julie Delpy‘s plans to stop acting don’t come into effect before there’s a sequel to Before Sunset.

11. I wish Amélie lives happily ever after.