Movies I Watched This Week (So Far)

     Ugh, I know this blog has been lame the last few weeks.  I haven't been able to write as much and keep up, but I will do better, I promise!  Which leads me into my newest segment, "Movies I Watched This Week".  Since I didn't write about the weekend on Monday.  My pulling-ideas-out-of-my-ass skills are improving.

1. Mystic River

      One of my favorite movies of all time, and one of the most depressing reads you'll ever come across, Mystic River is the type of movie you can only watch every few years, just to refresh your memory.  The gruesome somberness of it all is almost too much to handle if you watch it any more than that.  Sean Penn and Tim Robbins garnered two Oscars for their roles, both of them well deserved (especially Robbins).  It's a Clint Eastwood film that in some ways doesn't really feel like a Clint Eastwood film; there's too much darkness and murder and child kidnappings involved.  The storytelling of Eastwood, however, is phenomenal.  Boston is grim and filthy in this story about three friends who grew up together but parted ways after a horrific event.  Another horrific event 25 years later reunites them.  As bleak as that synopsis is, trust me, the movie is bleaker.  Intense, thrilling, and profoundly sad, this one stays with you.

2. Fahrenheit 9/11

      Oh man did I used to hate Michael Moore.  I used to think he was so, SO obnoxious and annoying.  Then I watched some of his movies, and no matter which side of the aisle you find yourself on, no matter what your politics, Moore does tend to make great films.  He has a distinct satirical and emotion style, both off-putting to some and heart-warming to others.  He certainly has balls to go where no other documentary filmmaker would go.   Like to the middle of Guantanamo Bay in a lifeboat.  Or asking senators to enlist their children in the army, as he did in this gem of a film, awarded Hollywood Movie of Year (and some Razzies, which makes me lol) in 2004 when it was released.  Moore examines the US before and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the Bush administration's response to them.  One thing I did notice about this film was that it seemed like Moore was more distant from the subject than in other films like The Big One, Roger and Me, and Sicko.  He wasn't even on screen that much, not even while doing interviews.  He probably wanted us, more than ever, not to pay attention to him, but to the content.  The subjects he covered could almost be enough material to fill two movies, not one.  Other works of his, such as his newest, Capitalism: A Love Story, seemed to be more focused and the right length of time in ratio to the content.  This was the only thing that distracted me during the film.  But in the end, Moore raised important, startling, and unsettling questions about one of the darkest events America has experience in this millennium.

3. Snow White: A Tale of Terror

     Do be distracted or deceived by the somewhat cool special effects/make-up/costumes this photo depicts.  What a terrible, terrible film.  The writing was wooden and surprisingly unlifelike amid the backdrop of an adaptation of the Brother's Grimm's Snow White tale.  Despite stars like Sigourney Weaver and Sam Neill, the acting seems amateur at best and lazy at worst.  It's almost laughable.  Half of the time it is difficult to even figure out what the hell is going on.  It was never released in theaters, and now I can see why.  Do not waste an hour and forty minutes of your life on this.  By the end of it, you'll be wishing you had a poison apple to eat.


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