a Jew and his blog

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Quick Movie Thoughts (psuedo-spoilers inside)

I have a one-week vacation from work and am already nervous that I won't be able to see as many movies during the break as I had hoped. I'm off to Mammoth this Friday for a nice long weekend, and I have lots of other shit to do the next couple days. I may attempt a 10:45 am screening of Munich tomorrow @ ye ol' Arclight (like I'm sure my 3 readers really care about my movie-going itinerary), but we shall see.

Today I saw Good Night, and Good Luck. Not a bad film, but not great, and definitely not worth all the God-knows what nominations it has already received. Now, I think George Clooney is the shit. Not only is he one handsome fella', but he's a self-avowed liberal (check out this site, for the anti-EW scoop on George), and he puts his money where his mouth is. You gotta respect him for tackling such a non-sexy subject and giving it that obvious, "it's happening now" sheen, but this movie is not worth all the hoopla!

Who the fuck were Robert Downey Jr. and Patricia Clarkson? And what was Murrow up against? His boss, played by Disco Dracula, never really threatened to fire him. Well I guess him cutting Murrow's weekly show down to only 5 episodes blows, but he backed him up in the "shit."

I'm glad I saw it, but I'm even more glad that I only paid $6.50 for it at the Encino Laemelle.


I finally saw King Kong at the Arclight on Sunday. Only 11 days since it had opened, and I already felt like the last one on the block to see it.

I loved it!

Yeah, they could've cut 30 minutes from the picture, but man, I felt 9 years old all over again. It being twice as long as the original, I was hoping they'd answer the question of how they managed to get Kong on the boat and sail back to New York.

Nope.


Then that "gay cowboy" movie. Now I was really excited to see Brokeback Mountain. I was almost moved to tears by that trailer... really, that acoustic guitar score, the scenes of Heath and Jake going on their separate lives, then reuniting for a "forbidden love"... how can you not be bawling by the end of this movie?

Because you can't understand what the fuck Heath Ledger is saying!!!

I don't know if the Landmark NuWilshire's acoustics are to blame, but I'm pretty sure that Ledger mumbled half his dialogue, causing half of it (especially in all Brokeback Mountain scenes) to be incomprehensible.

That being said, I still really liked the film, but there was something lacking that prevented me from loving it.

Monday, December 19, 2005

Don Henley redux



Yesterday in Hollywood I saw a Che Guevara sticker on an SUV. This reminds me of that Don Henley lyric from "Boys of Summer":

"Out on the road today I saw a deadhead sticker
On a cadillac..."

Friday, December 09, 2005

Munich, Schmunich


Something very familiar about this movie....





















(1985)