2005-12-17

Eric's Movie Minute, Episode 1

So I went to see a movie last night ... by a director who's work I'd never seen before.

And I was impressed.

Good story, good acting, interesting direction, good plot, good action, overall, a well done movie.

There were a couple of times where the special effects were a bit clunky ... you could see where the overlays or cuts were done. Hey, it happens to the best of them ... look at the scene in Episode III where they're battling Darth Sideous on Separatists ship in the beginning ... when the loft falls on Obi-Wan ... that's lame. George Lucas is better than that.

But I did enjoy the movie. And, as I so often do, I stayed to watch the credits to find out who the director was, because as a fan of movies, if I see a well-directed film, I want to see what else the director's done.

Because in doing so I've discovered some amazing films:

Swimming Pool, for instance. I saw Sitcom and liked it, so I looked up Francois Ozon, grabbed Swimming Pool next time I was in a weird movie mood, and BAM - great flick. One of those where when it's over you sound like Booker T (the wrestler, not the inventor) because you say, "Tell me I didn't just see that."

Memento. Christopher Nolan. Saw it in the theater. Then when I saw he was directing Insomnia - saw it in the theater. Then he fucked it all up and did Batman Begins (well, the cynic in me says that ... haven't actually seen it yet, but I'm not a fan of Batman movies. I've seen the previous ones, but only when I had nothing else to watch kinda thing.)

Larry Clark & Edward Lachman ... yeah, the guys who brought us
Kids
and Bully. Wait until you see Ken Park. (And no, not yet available on DVD where you shop ... and might not be available in the country you live in. And yes, I have it, and yes, it's been banned in a few countries, and yes, I can see why, even though I'm not a fan of censorship in any form. Let it out, let people decide for themselves. Encourage free thought. But do yourself a favor and borrow my copy, or buy a DVDr on eBay because you'll never, ever, see this one at Blockbuster.)

Kevin Smith ... 'nuff said. Nothing funnier than recurring characters who are funny, crude, and make fun of themselves and their industry as much as anything else.

So anyway, I come home, sit down, go to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com if you're not aware of this ... yeah, all your movie database belong to us) and type in the name of this director to see what else he's done that I might be interested in watching.

By the way, the movie I saw tonight was
King Kong, directed by Peter Jackson. Apparently he did some Lord of the Rings trilogy thing ... anybody see any of them?

Are they any good?

I remember reading the books in high school and enjoying them, never saw the movies though. (And yes, I'm serious. I have all three on DVD - purchased, thank you very much, because I do plan on watching them, I just haven't had two days with nothing to do to get through them in order, and I never have enough food or beverage in the house to last that long, either. So I need to shop, stock up, plan a couple of days off and watch them. And while I'm at it ... I'll toss out a couple of other things I've never seen ... Footloose. Forrest Gump. A single episode of Friends or Sex And The City. Or Desperate Housewives.)

And while I'm asking bizarre questions ... and since her song's on my profile, and it's a great song and it's very fitting of my life right now ... WTF ever happened to Paula Cole?

Since we now know the cowboys have all gone to Brokeback Mountain where they're having homosexual love fests ... did they take her with them? Or did they send her out for pudding so they can make the film festival rounds?

Anyway ... back to Paula ... it's been FIVE YEARS since she put out an album, and like ten years since I saw her with Jeffrey Gaines.

Did Paul Simon marry her, too? I'm liking Art Garfunkel a whole lot more these days.

If Paul Simon starts looking towards Canada ... me & Julio gonna hafta take his Rhymi'n Simon ass down to the schoolyard and Richard Cory him.

(And could I put any more obscure references in this entry? Slap me and call me Dennis Miller.)

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