Jan 3rd 2010, Week relating to 12/15 – 12/21

Movies Seen: *First time viewed
Yojimbo*
Princess Mononoke
Precious*
Avatar*
The Hangover
Fistful of Dollars*
Humpday*

Happy New Year! My New Year’s resolution is to eat more banana bread. Unfortunately I don’t know how to make banana bread so I am currently taking donations.

Yojimbo:
I watched this movie because I was told that the movie Fistful of Dollars was a shot for shot remake of this movie. I’ll get into that part of the movie when I talk about Fistful. This movie is, in my opinion, a masterpiece. Every shot is so well thought out and beautiful, I felt like I was in the little village the movie takes place in. The dialogue is amazing, not just because of the way it progresses the story and give the characters life, but because of its awesome sense of humor throughout. The goofiness of the situation in which the samurai (Toshiro Mifune) puts himself in the middle of is immediately interesting. You just want to know what is going on in his head, and when you think you have him figured out, he makes you do a double take. Akira Kurosawa is certainly an amazing director, and I cannot wait to watch more of his movies.

Princess Mononoke:
I believe I spoke of my love for Miyazaki in my review of Ponyo. This is my favorite Miyazaki movie. It is such a beautiful piece of animation. For some reason I feel like you don’t have to stretch your imagination as far for this movie as you do for the other Mayazaki movies. Part of the reason I didn’t really like Spirited Away was because I had no idea what was going on. I like how Mononoke is aimed at an adult audience, with it’s violence and mature subject matter. I think the only thing I don’t like about the movie is Billy Bob Thornton (who voices the monk Jigo). This never bothered me before, but the last time I watched the movie I couldn’t help but find his voice completely distracting. I can’t really put a finger on it. I guess I feel like his voice doesn’t match the character… or something else? I don’t know, don’t quote me.

Precious:
This film has left a nasty taste in my mouth that I still have to this day (1/18/10). It’s not that it isn’t an interesting story; it is well narrated for sure, and it isn’t that that I don’t understand the imagery; I just don’t like having a complete lack of hope from a film. This movie has so many rises and falls in the plot that I am lucky I kept down my lunch. The main character Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) is tested on all fronts from the very beginning, and when she steps up to prove she has worth, the narrative proceeds to knock her back down again. I cannot say I would ever watch this movie again, unless I wanted to see how good my life is in comparison.

Avatar:
Avatar was an exercise in technology. No one can deny that the visuals were stunning, realistic enough that I often lost track of when I was watching actual people as opposed to the computer animated creations. The facial tracking system made everything work amazing well. That said, the story left me dry. I liked the movie, but I wouldn’t see it again unless prompted to in the company of others. Every bit of the story became very predictable very fast, and with the exception of Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, the acting didn’t draw me into the plot very well at all. I don’t want anyone to get up in arms about this, I’m not trying to be a movie snob, I just didn’t get 100 percent out of the film. I cannot wait to see another movie using the tech though. The future looks very bright for sci-fi.

The Hangover:
As I stood as the lone detractor to this movie in my group of friends, I felt it was owed at least one more viewing. So I rolled down to the local Blockbuster and picked up a copy for me and Sarah, in order to share a night of movie laughs together. I was absolutely sure that I would either like it more the second time or that I would remain alone, Sarah having loved the film and casting me out from her high opinion. This has happened before after all (Magnolia, There’s Something About Mary) so it wouldn’t have been a surprise. I watched it again, and I am sorry, but I still didn’t find it that funny. It was just too predictable for me. I feel like an asshole honestly, because I know when I tell people this, once again, I come off as a snob. I will leave Sarah to represent her own feelings about the movie. Something’s are better to remain silent about, I assure you.

A Fistful of Dollars:
Fistful is an excellent western. I really respect it’s cinematic style. I love Clint Eastwood of course. The soundtrack is such a defining piece of work, truly iconic. My only problem with the movie is that I had already seen it. As I said earlier, the story is almost an exact copy of Yojimbo. It lacked the sense of humor Yojimbo had for the most part, but there were a few funny parts of its own (although I am drawing a blank at the moment). I will tell you what though; I want to kill that little kid in the movie. His voice made me want to rip off my toes so I could stuff them into my ears and block the sound. I don’t really have much else to say about the movie, except when it comes down to it I prefer Yojimbo. Next time I want to watch Clint, I’ll put in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Humpday:
An interesting experiment in narrative, Humpday relied almost completely on the dialogue of the characters. This film is an example of mumblecore, which I hear is a movement in film recently. The actor adlib almost everything in the movie, and in Humpday’s case, it comes off flawless. I found it really easy to relate to the characters in the movie, because they all spoke like real people. Now, I have never found myself in the situation of the movie, which is two straight men deciding to make a gay porn for the purpose of ART, but I still related. It was a really good movie, and if you are feeling experimental, I recommend you try it out.

So, it took me 15 days to get this done. I started school again, and with all the insanity surrounding moving people into assorted houses, I just didn’t have the energy. Or the brain mass. Or something like that. I hope you all missed me as much as I missed you. What’s that? You don’t read my blog anyways? Shame on you! If you have any comments, questions, or listings for slightly used refrigerators, please send them to JDTMovies@gmail.com. Toodle doo!