Saturday, May 26, 2007

Movie Reviews

Bill and I have gone over to Netflix. I quite enjoy it because I hate shopping and being in a video store makes my brain numb.

I've seen some good ones lately.
I thought I would become Roger Ebert. If John Mellencamp can do it, so can I.

The Painted Veil - The best movie I've seen in a long time, also the saddest. I can't remember anybody's name, but a good man (Edward Norton) falls in love with a rather vacuous, although lovely (Naomi Watts). They live in China and the photography alone makes this movie worth watching. Or maybe somewhere in Asia.

I don't want to spoil it, but this is a very good movie.

Venus - They use the F word all the time, perhaps there's other cussing. Peter O'Toole's performance redeems everything objectionable in this movie. I think everyone acts well, but Peter O'Toole, he's hot at 87. This is such a sweet movie. Although I haven't seen the end yet, so if it ends badly, not my bad.

DreamGirls - I don't think you really can sue somebody for telling your life story or even an event from your life, if it's public, but if you can, Diana Ross and Barry Gordy have a case. This is blatant Supremes. DreamGirls tells it like the Diana Ross person (Deena, I think) didn't have near as much talent as the (Mary Wilson?) person.

I actually think Beyonce Knowles was pretty good in this, not Oscar good, but pretty good. Eddie Murphy was good, I heard he sang his own songs, and he did well. The music was enjoyable, but didn't rise to the level of my two top soundtracks: The Big Chill and Phenomenon. This movie was okay, not over-done with the musical numbers and I thought the ending was sweet.

Little Children - Well, I thought this movie was something else entirely and I recommend against it. Way sex, way. Naked bodies. Adultery, perversion. Skip it.
Although, the ending was actually the best part of the movie, because the guy who'd persecuted the sex offender, to the point of causing his mother to die of a heart attack, shows genuine remorse and apologizes and it does end with hope.

Well, I know it was awful, but I wanted to see how it ended, thus I fast forwarded quite a bit.

Catch and Release - This movie was so much better than the reviews led me to believe it would be, Jennifer Garner is really a wonderful person and I guess that's what comes out in her acting. Although, it could be acting.

Diane Keaton has made these quasi-comedies and there have been several others that promise to be funny and they're not funny or entertaining, so I was prepared to be disappointed. But this movie was just right in so many ways, sweet, funny, profound, lovely.

The fat guy, I'd go out with him if I were 25 years younger. I liked him the best of all the guys in the movie. I just enjoyed his personality.

That's it for now! Next, I'm getting The Office, Season 1, The Good German and Letters From Iwo Jima. Bill always gets two and I get one because all present evidence to the contrary, I don't watch movies that much LOL.

Would anybody recommend The Woodsman? I rented The Departed and Bill sent it back before I could even watch it and Sarah told me not to, although my hairdresser loved it. Bill knows me though, excessive violence bothers.

5 comments:

Bookslinger said...

Anne, I think you'd like The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It was released in 1988, and is about the Prague Spring, 1968, when the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia.

It is rated R though.

annegb said...

Most of these movies are rated R. I'm careful, most of the time, but I think many R rated movies are excellent and worthy of my time. Not Little Children, though.

Is that movie the one with Mel Gibson and the dwarf lady? Because it's one I've wanted to see for a long time, but never got around to. I'll send for it.

I have to tell all you guys who said Borat was good that it was not good. It was absolute slop and I ejected it when he came down holding a bag of poop at a dinner party. Just disgusting. I didn't laugh one time up to that.

I heard once that black people are the hardest audiences for comedians because they won't laugh unless it's really funny. I'm like that. I don't polite laugh, you have to crack me up for real. Poop and sexual inuendo are just not that funny.

Anonymous said...

My aunt was telling me about a good movie that I may want to see depending on the rating. I think it is called "Man in the Water."

I appreciate the reviews here! Akeelah and the Bee was one the best movies I saw as of late. Very heartwarming!

Ann said...

Oh, my, Bookslinger, that surprises me. I read the book, and the sex was so graphic it about made my hair curl. I can't imagine putting it in a movie!

annegb said...

I can fast forward those parts.