As a major fan of Robert Rodriguez and a fan of Frank Miller, I think that I was expecting a bit more from Sin City
. It’s hard to know exactly WHAT I wanted more of, since the film is suffused with style and violence, cheap broads with hearts of gold and mugs who never got a fair shot.
But for all the style the film oozes, its extremely stylized dialogue is sometimes hard for the film’s cast to get out and sound plausible doing so — this is particularly true of some of the lines placed in the mouths of the actresses.
Still, the film is ruthlessly true to Miller’s vision and is easily the most hard-boiled noir movie ever made. As a result, Sin City has to be strongly recommended to fans of either.
Have you heard about this book? Author David Horowitz lists 100 (well, 101) academics whom he says “spew violent anti-Americanism, preach anti-Semitism, and cheer on the killing of American soldiers and civilians—all the while collecting tax dollars and tuition fees to indoctrinate our children.” Yowza.
So far, I’ve only found a list of historians mentioned in the book but am trying to find a complete listing somewhere.
My hope is that someone from Virginia Tech is on the list. Otherwise, I’ll feel sort of robbed that I didn’t get a “dangerous” education. (Other than, you know, on Fraternity Row.)
For the record, the only intolerance I saw at Tech, other than intolerance towards frat boy broadcast majors who skip class a lot, was the engineering department’s insistence that women couldn’t hack it as engineers, despite the fact that my girlfriend Mary Ann did quite well in the program and afterwards. I suspect the professors’ attitude had a lot more to do with why Mary Ann was one of the few women in most of her classes.
The only semi-political cause I saw at Tech that stirred up more than 10 or so people (of a student body in the tens of thousands) was student parking, which was capable of generating marches and protests.
Flightplan is a nicely executed mystery.
Most of the fun of this Jodie Foster star vehicle (other than seeing Greta Scacchi again) is in unravelling what’s actually going on. Once the mystery is untangled, the movie loses a bit of steam as it changes modes to deal with the consequences of the answer. But it still has enough steam to propel it to the end.
Flightplan is long on atmosphere, shot more like a top-drawer classic horror movie, complete with long, lingering, mysterious camera shots and spare music. Everyone around Foster’s character seem to be in on some grand conspiracy and stare at her with portentous expressions.
This wasn’t a movie I expected to enjoy as much as I did.
A strongly recommended mystery/thriller.
It would be hard to imagine a sweeter, gentler comedy that the whole family will actually enjoy (as opposed to “family friendly” fare only small children will enjoy) than Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
Loaded with gentle humor, this Wallace & Gromit full-length feature has a much lighter touch than Chicken Run while still retaining a core of sharp wit.
A must-see film.
The latest entry in the romantic haunting mini-genre started by Ghost, Just Like Heaven, is a surprisingly sweet and effective little treat.
What the haunting means, and how the pair deals with it is a lot of fun, although whenever the focus expands to include other actors, particulary Mr. Napoleon Dynamite, the movie wavers somewhat.
In the end, this wasn’t as romantic or compelling as Truly, Madly, Deeply, a warts-and-all British entry in the genre, but Just Like Heaven will likely put smiles on a lot of faces. (Heck, the cover versions of the title song by the Cure made me smile all by themselves.)
Recommended for fans of Reese Witherspoon or Ghost.
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