[b]Well I finally saw 300! And it was AWESOME! The special effects were amazing and I loved the combination of slow motion and real time in the battle scenes, really effective. It also had great one-liners (kinda reminded me of the Oceans 11 and 12 movies but with different subject matter), they really made for some good laughs, I actually spent a lot of the time laughing during this movie which was a pleasent surprise considering it is a bloody, goory war movie! The battle scenes were awesome, as Chris said “Spartan men fight like swan lake!” and although it might not seem like it to some people – that’s a compliment! Spartan men definitly knew how to fight a war! And there were some great deaths in this movie as well. I mean if your gonna die, your death may as well be interesting and Spartan men definitly know how to have a good death! And I have to say – Gerard Butler as the Spartan king was FANTASTIC![/b]
I’ve basically been doing a lot of movie watching so far this summer. My brain needs a little break after all the mental hoops I made it jump through for researching and writing papers, reading way to much stuff, studying and writing exams, etc. and so forth so reading for fun takes a back seat to watching television and movies for a couple of weeks, of course that ended upon receiving my package from Amazon! Anyway, so far I’ve watched the following movies;
Blood Diamond – really well done. I was totally blown away by Leonardo DiCaprio’s preformance. I really didn’t expect him to be as good as he was. He really portrayed the character as honestly as possible and yet sensitively. I mean the guy isn’t a ‘good’ guy but he is the way he is because of what has happened to him, the life he’s had to lead in order to live. He’s not happy about it but he’s accepted who he has become while retaining a little bit of goodness. This movie deals with subject matter that is not exactly easy to deal with and it did it really well, honestly but sensitively, it really went to the heart of things rather then sticking to just the political stuff, the political stuff really became more a part of the background to the stories of the characters. And Djimon Hounsou (who plays Solomon) was just amazing, he did a really good job of playing this really strong and emotionally charged character.
Flags of Our Fathers – another great movie. I have a thing for war movies, I am more then willing to admit that, but this was good and I’m not just saying that because of my thing for war movies. It really isn’t your typical war movie. Not an emphasis on battle scenes, instead an emphasis on characters and the story, which had very little to do with the actual fighting of a war and more to do with the preception of war, which was a really interesting way to look at the subject of war. I’m not usually a fan of Clint Eastwood movies but this is a huge expection, the story and the telling of that story was great, the characters and the actors who played them were great, it was not at all what I expected but it was far better for it. And of course I have to point out the Canadian connection – Adam Beach who played the role of Ira Hayes is Canadian and he did a really good job and I’m not just saying that because he’s Canadian! Apparently Clint Eastwood tried to get him an Oscar nomination for the role! Obviously he failed but it is a good indication that there are good things in this Canadian’s acting future! I also really impressed with Ryan Phillippe’s preformance.
The Illusionist – really predictable but also really good. I am not usually a fan of a movie where 20 minutes in I know how it’ll end but frankly if this had not ended the way Kaylers and I had predicted I would have been really disappointed. And the illusions preformed in the movie were impressive concepts, I like illusions where how it was preformed is not obvious or easily gussed, if I were watching the tricks he preformed in the movie today I would be impressed. Edward Norton (who played The Illusionist) and Paul Giamatti (who played the Inspector) were really good.
The Last King of Scotland – not nearly as good as I thought it would be. The previews for it looked really good and then of course there was just so much hype about it and then it didn’t seem to live up to any of it. It started out pretty good (once it got past the introductory stuff) but then it started to loose that momentum, the acting was good but there wasn’t anything overlly spectacular about it, I mean Leonardo DiCaprio’s acting in Blood Diamond was just as good or better. And considering the subject matter it was short, only about an hour and 50 minutes. Hotel Rwanda was dealing with subject matter just as difficult and it was a solid 2 hours, I really think this movie could have done a lot more with the subject matter that seemed like it just didn’t even attempt. And there was a fair amount of time spent on the prelude to the Scottish doctor going to Uganda, and while I get why there was time spent on it frankly the time he spent in Uganda was more important to the storyline of the movie. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good movie that dealt with a difficult subject matter sensitively but honestly, it just wasn’t as good as what it was made out to be.
Fast Food Nation – this movie was terrible. Such a waste of time and money. It sounded so good when I read about it but watching it was horrible, there was so much unneccessary stuff in it, it was 2 hours long and it could have easily been an hour and you would not have missed a single thing storyline wise. Kaylers and I were actaully fast-forwarding it at times! It was trying to scare you about the fast food you eat (basically just the burgers) but there were only like 2 or 3 ‘scare’ tactics used in the movie in an effective way and they were just barely effective. When it comes to turning people off fast food, Supersize Me was a much more effective movie and way more interesting to watch.
And of course I’ve also been watching way to much tv as I catch up on all my favourite shows!
Had a party a little while ago, which Kaylers has pics of on her space. And I recently finsihed my first book-for-fun of the summer! It is a sequal to Pride and Prejudice. Now most people do not attempt to write sequels to classic novels that have been (and still are) read and loved worldwide by generations, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice definitly falls into this category. So when I noticed upon on of my many random serachings of Amazon that someone had in fact attempted to write a sequel I was intrigued. The novel is written by Linda Berdoll and called Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife. The reviews were somewhat mixed but on the whole good and the synopsis of the book soundly really interesting and so I couldn’t help but want to read it and it was worth it! While this author does mix up a few details concerning the original story, sense this entire novel concerns events that take place after Jane Austen ended Pride and Prejudice the issues are minor. Overall the novel is well written and a really good read. It was funny at times, other times terribly sad while at other times suspenseful and action-packed and the author managed to stay true to Jane Asuten’s original characters while still creating a compleatly original work. I would definitly recomend this to anyone who has read and enjoyed Pride and Prejudice, although you might find Berdoll’s attempts at Austen-ian language a little hard to comprehend at times it is a novel that is worth the read.
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