hollywood cheese
i downloaded a few cam rips of current hollywood flicks. the quality isn’t the greatest, but it’s good enough…kinda like watching it on an old film projector with hollow sound.
Troy: crap. typical hollywood cheese. one dimension characters, lame overly dramatic dialog, predictable storyline. a few decent fight scenes, though. Eric Bana was decent (he totally blew in The Hulk). Brad Pitt had the most compelling character, but it’s the same type of character he always plays: the wildcard, uncontrollable, the best at what he does, romantic, blindly engraged when someone he loves is killed, yet honorable in the end.
The Day After Tomorrow: also crap. director Roland Emmerich follows the same formula he used in Independence Day – a doomsday scenario with quick cut scenes between multiple storylines all happening simultaneously as tragedy unfolds. start with the end of the world, add a heavy dose of special effects, and sprinkle with a few heroic people to add a human touch. the human element is just filler, since we’re all just waiting to watch NYC get destroyed once again.
Shrek 2: i liked it. like Finding Nemo, it’s great animation with non-stop witty jokes and satire of pop culture. seems to be a winning formula.
the best movie i’ve seen recently (one i actually paid to see) was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. it felt a lot like Charlie Kaufman’s other screenplays (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich) – kooky & surreal. i always hesitated seeing it because i can’t stand Jim Carrey, but he was actually good in this (probably because he didn’t have creative control over it). Kate Winslet was also great in it…i never really noticed her acting abilities before.
a sad, disturbing flick – definitely not a date movie, unless you want your date to breakdown crying and get depressed (my dates usually end up like that anyway). the critical acclaim for awesome performances by sean penn, naomi watts, and benecio del toro is justified, but it takes a lot of effort to follow what’s going on. first, snippets of scenes are shown all out of sequential order, so for the first half of the movie you’re thinkin “what the fuck is going on?”. second, the story progresses really slowly and doesn’t really come together until the end. watch it alone, then go in a corner and slit your wrists.
