It was a fairly quiet weekend, but I managed to knock out a couple of movies, and as is the custom and practice, I will now foist my unrequested opinions on you all.
Beowulf - I had the "Director's Cut" from Netflix, but having not seen the original in the theater when it came out, I don't know what the difference is. It wasn't in 3D, obviously, but it's funny to see all the 3D cutesy crap the filmmakers threw in. Like big spears coming at you and whatnot--except, without 3D they just look really badly proportioned. It was entertaining, I will give it that. Also more violent than I expected, and the "animation" (for lack of a better word) was pretty interesting. I thought it was more entertaining and slightly more comprehensible than Beowulf & Grendel. Though B&G was probably more accurate per the times and whatnot. No dragons in that one, ya see.
There Will Be Blood - Holy christ is Daniel Day-Lewis a good actor. I mean, has he ever phoned in a performance? I haven't seen a bunch of his movies--they are very heavy and most keep getting bumped down my Netflix list for popcorn crap like Jumper--but I can't recall the last time I was this impressed by a performance. It makes sense that he only does a movie every couple of years, because it seems like he must disappear into these roles. Good god. I liked this better than No Country for Old Men, for what it's worth.
Wanted - (long, drawn-out sigh). Where to start. The good? Well, Ms. Jolie is of course, fairly smokin' if a bit skeletorish these days. McAvoy is a pretty capable actor. Some of the effects were pretty good... But damn, people. I didn't like the main character much, he went from complete wuss to complete ass with only a 3-second layover Decencyville. The plot didn't make a hell of a lot of sense, which maybe was intentional, and the "twist" was kind of stupid. Riddle me this: why would assassins who can bend bullets and hit targets that are miles away have trouble shooting from a moving car? Because they're in a stupid, if visually impressive, movie. I've seen the director's Russian films (Night Watch and Day Watch, anyway) and I will admit Wanted was slightly more understandable, but not as good. The Watches suffered more from a low budget, and Wanted suffers from its insidious counterpart, too-much-money-for-effects syndrome. This one is definitely made for DVD.
1 comment:
My only complaint about There Will Be Blood? The fact that Bill would start reciting the milkshake speech everytime it sorta had to do with conversation, or anytime he just wanted to. It was like Milkshake Tourettes.
Other than that? Great, great movie. In fact it's the first movie I've puchased in a long time.
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