A Few Movies

Watched a few movies over the week to celebrate being Free At Last from taking two writing courses while working full-time. I didn't love any of them, perhaps because none of them were Truly Bad, but I knew they wouldn't be. Short notes on each one follow:

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events - I rented this because I love Jim Carrey. He was a standout way back in his In Living Color days. I don't like all of his films - he can just keep the Ace Ventura series - but he is an amazing performer. One of the most awesome things about him is his orchestration of his body. He has a dancer's physical control. He can move his body as if each part is a different character, dancing together with all his other parts, to tell a mesmerizing story. Even his tongue is a character! The man is incredible. So, I got this movie just to watch him at work, and he was very good, with some hilarious lines. For example: "

"There are many orpahns out there that would gladly swim across a sea of thumb-tacks just to be eclipsed by the shadow that is cast by my accomplishments. But I don't care about them".

I also loved the gloriously beautiful Victorian costumes and the gorgeous sets of this film. The story didn't really grab me, but I wasn't bored either. The closing credits are worth seeing just for the dark beauty of the work of Edward Gorey-esque illustrators. They are past superb!

Kingdom of Heaven - Being a fan of all things mediaeval, I expected to love this story of Saladin's face-off with crusaders at the gates of Jerusalem. It is gorgeous in every regard . . . but perhaps a little too gorgeous. I just couldn't buy into the Princess of Jerusalem character. She was too heavily made up and I didn't believe a woman in her time and place would be allowed to gallop around, sitting astride, leading her entourage as if unescorted. The way her character operated was far too much an intrusion of the modern world. I didn't hate this movie at all, and I will probably rent it again, but all the pretty-pretty people in ultra-fine, shiny fabrics, just reminded me that I was watching a movie and nothing about it was real to me.

Sin City - My God this is LONG. Frankly, I didn't make it all the way through. About 3/4 of the way I just couldn't take yet another inexplicable murder or unexpected plot twist. Why was spilled blood white sometimes and red others? The only character I cared about at all, was Benicio Del Toro's dirty cop, Jackie boy. Now he was kind of interesting. But everyone else was so one-dimensional and cardboard I just could not care less what happened to them, and I proved it by punching the eject button.

Still to be viewed:
Constantine - Real TBF potential here, dear Bander-Log!
National Treasure - Ditto, could be a TBF goldmine.
Land of the Dead - Zombies!!!