Flicks

We have been sick. Sick, sick, sick. Pete started off the sickest, and Julie ended up the sickest (so far, anyhow). I think we have used up more Kleenex in the last 3 weeks than in the whole last year.

But we have been watching movies too. Remember movies, those things I used to watch all the time and review for you here? Yeah, those.

So first was Open Range, which Netflix had mailed to me last April and I just got around to now. It's like Lonesome Dove, but not as good, although it does have Robert Duvall, who is wonderful as always. But instead of Tommy Lee Jones, it has Kevin Costner, who is lackluster as always. Oh, and Annette Bening too, who I especially like to look at. If you like Westerns, you'll like this well enough.

Next up was The Fighter, which we'd been wanting to see for a long time. It is set in the Boston area and stars Mark Wahlberg, who of course knows how to do a Boston accent. Christian Bale is as creepy as ever, and his Boston accent wasn't bad either, especially for a Brit. It tells the true story of the boxer Micky Ward and his half-brother Dicky Eklund. Melissa Leo is outstanding as their mother. Almost as good as the movie was the "making of" documentary that was included with the special features on the DVD. It was really interesting to watch Wahlberg and Bale interacting with the real Micky and Dicky on and off the set. Both Leo and Bale won Oscars for their roles, and I think deservedly so.

Then came Inception, which is a sci-fi thriller starring Leo DiCaprio. It makes very little sense if you try to put all the pieces together but works if you allow most of it to just be inscrutable. Pete watched this one with us and was very confused and frustrated, but I told him to just accept without understanding that these people can enter your dreams and that there can be dreams within dreams, and "levels" of reality, and then he could enjoy it.

Gran Torino is a very formulaic story of a grouchy, racist old guy (Clint Eastwood, at his grouchiest) who forms an unlikely friendship with the teenage kids of the Hmong family next door. Nothing surprising happens at all, but it was still enjoyable.

Finally, yesterday we watched Crazy Heart, starring Jeff Bridges as an aging, overweight, alcoholic country singer who's nearing the end of his career, while the singer he mentored, played by Colin Farrell, is becoming the new big star. Maggie Gylenhaal plays the love interest. This story's been told a million times before, but it's really Bridges who makes it worthwhile seeing again (and he won the Oscar for it too). There were many moments when the plot was less than believable (I won't give details in case there's anyone left out there who hasn't seen it), but watching Bridges makes up for it. Oh, and Robert Duvall is in this one too, yay!

Let's see, what else ... oh, right, on Christmas we actually went to the cinema. The girls saw The Muppet Movie and loved it; I considered going with them but was more in the mood for a big-screen action movie, so I accompanied the boys to the latest Mission Impossible movie. This one was even better than the last one, although my comments there apply here too. (To wit, Cruise is still a douchebag, and I still would prefer to hate him, and he looks even more like a douchebag when he's running, but he was good in this.)

These last two don't really count, but I saw the last part of Thor when Pete and Andy were watching it On Demand. They liked it. I also saw the last part of Tropic Thunder when Pete was watching it by himself, and it seemed outrageously funny, with yummy Robert Downey playing an Australian actor who is so into method acting that he has a "controversial" medical procedure to change his skin color to play an African-American in his latest movie. And guess what, Jack Black plays a fat funny guy! Oh, and Ben Stiller doing his Ben Stiller thing.

Now you are all caught up.

Comments

[Steve]

Saw The Muppet Movie. It was on par with past films. I did really enjoy being reunited with my Muppet pals on screen, but Piggy's voice was off, which I had a hard time getting past.

p.s.
You used two of my favorite words - inscrutable and douchebag.

[Wendy]

Crazy Heart was a great flick, and hey! It had Ryan Bingham in the bar scene, who frankly doesn't need Jeff Bridges around to help with the vocals (much as I enjoyed JB and his vocals). I sort of felt that the ending was a bit hard to swallow, but hey, I get it! It's Hollywood! The Dude lives.

You've seen The Descendants? If not, run, don't walk, and see it. You can almost forget it's the impossibly handsome and charming George Clooney, it's so good. The kid actors are just terrific, too; in fact, it's awfully well-cast.

[Nancy]

+1 to Wendy's suggestion. "The Descendants" is worth seeing on the big screen, and the soundtrack--all Hawaiian music--is divine. And I say that as someone who usually wants to eliminate all soundtracks everywhere.

[kate]

I thought I would hate Tropic Thunder but I laughed so hard I cried.