My recent bout of man flu (recovered now, thanks for asking) meant that my usual routine of jousting, extreme rock climbing and midnight street luge had to be put on hold, and I was reduced to reclining in front of a monitor and allowing it to feed me flickering images of entertainment.
There was one particular movie I was keen to watch; but my usual torrent based supply kept feeding me junk files which were probably intended to infect a Windows machine; but on a Mac they just made it clear that what I had was not a movie. Eventually I did what I have never done before, I went to iTunes and gave that very nice Mr. Jobs $3.99 for the privilege of renting an HD movie. Had to leave it overnight to download; but the actual HD movie experience was excellent and it seemed a reasonable price to pay. I shall rent again.
The movie in question was Shutter Island and I wanted to watch it because it was a Scorsese movie; and he usually comes up with something interesting. He had dragged along Leonardo DiCaprio (again), which didn’t particularly thrill me; he seems to move his face around more than he actually acts. But never mind, Scorsese did not disappoint; it was cracking movie. The cinematography of every scene was just wonderful (watching in HD makes a difference), the acting was admirable (Ben Kingsley does his quietly threatening thing and DiCaprio moves his face a lot), and the script and story keep you guessing till near the end. And just when you have decided you know what is happening, the last sentence of the movie gives you something to think about and discuss for many hours afterwards (at least, that is the effect it had on me). Now I know the story, I want to watch it again; but of course the rental period has run out so it is back to torrents.
If it’s a Paul Greengrass movie then it may be slightly political (Bloody Sunday, United 93), it might feature Matt Damon (Bourne Supremacy/Ultimatum) and it might make you vomit from the extensive use of cameras being whirled around on a piece of string (everything). And so it is with Green Zone, with Matt Damon as an American Marine charged with searching for weapons of mass destruction, and instead unearthing a conspiracy which (shock, horror) would reveal that the Yanks knew all along that there were no WMD. There is plenty of action, all filmed using the camera at the end of a bit of string approach. There are weighty discussions on topics which will please you if you are of a mind that the official rationale for the invasion of Iraq was a cover for a lust for oil and personal revenge. It is two hours of reasonably riveting entertainment; after which you can forget about it and go and have a cup of tea (or vomit, depending on your reaction to what is optimistically called “extensive usage of hand-held cameras”).
Extensive usage of hand-held cameras can be forgiven if that is all that is available to the cameramen; and shaky footage can be accepted when we understand that the cameramen will be thrown in prison if caught by the authorities. We see them shakily shoot the growing protests from people dressed in red. There is an increasing army presence, tear gas is used and eventually live rounds. The government complains about the scenes of violence being shown by international media. Eventually, the government clamps down, the protesters are arrested or dispersed and the protest goes underground until the next time.
Sounds like Thailand, but it was in fact the uprising of the monks in Myanmar. An underground movement of journalists used cheap video cameras to secretly film the protests and the resulting footage was smuggled out of the country, edited and released as a documentary called Burma:VJ. It’s all very well watching Matt Damon leaping around somewhere that pretends to be Baghdad, but this is real footage shot by real people whose freedom was on the line just for holding a camera. It’s sobering stuff. Thailand may not be at the same level of brutality and suppression; but it troubling to note the similarities between the two countries. It wouldn’t take much….
She who must be obeyed found my choices to be a little on the heavy side, so a chick flick was demanded. I deal with this in the way any man should. I either pretend to look for it and then announce (with a voice tinged with sadness) that it cannot be found for download; or I allow the occasional choice to be made available on her computer and I retreat to my machine and look at photos of girls in lingerie that have inadvertently stumbled into a shower.
And so it was with She’s out of my league, the everyday story of a dork who manages to hook up with a really hot girl. The storyline is of course the same in all these movies. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl get on really well. There is a misunderstanding and one of them storms off. They get back together in circumstances that require some degree of running and tension (Will they? Won’t they? Of course they bloody will!).
But I have to admit I was drawn away from my perusal of shower booths and towards my wife’s computer. Yes, the movie was as crap as these movies always are; but at least it was also very rude and I will admit to chortling a couple of times. Not that I am in anyway recommending this movie; much better you stick with www.wetlingeriegirlsintheshower.com.
(I bet you checked…)
Man flu cured and we decided to go watch a movie on something bigger than 24 inches. Knight and Day was someone’s choice, a buddy/thriller/comedy starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. That pretty much sums up the experience and it was as good/awful as you might expect that experience to be. It’s been a while since I have seen Cruise in anything, and he sits in my mind more as a lunatic Scientologist than an actor; which rather spoils things. Cameron Diaz still has that smile and she sits more comfortably in my mind as someone who would probably do OK in one of those inadvertent shower meets lingerie scenarios. Not a bad way of spending a couple of hours; totally forgettable five minutes later.
The endless previews at the cinema included a trailer for Inception, the latest from Christopher Nolan. I have been a fan since Memento, one of the best mind-fuck movies ever; and The Prestige was not far behind. After the success of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Nolan can choose his projects. This latest offering was written by him and I am hoping to be led deeply astray for the two and half hour running time. I might even forgive that fact that rubber-face DiCaprio stars.
Last, and by no means least on whatever scale you choose, Toy Story 3 arrives this month. Bliss.
Comments 🔗
2010-07-04| todd saysshutter island was a good movie, have you seen unthinkable yet?
2010-07-04| Spike saysYes, did not go far enough with the child torture I feel.