Movie Monday with Random Thoughts
I don’t think I’ve been neglecting my blog; I just think the substance has been pretty thin. Take last Knitting Friday. I had all the best intentions but, as you know, I wound up frogging the summer top after I had taken the picture for posting. But on the positive side, the summer top is on the needles again and this time I think it’s a road to success.
Then there was my plan to take a look at the movies in the WWII war years in the U.S. That would be 1942 (since we declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941) through 1945. I made of list of all the non-battle movies in those years and then I hit the wall. I lost interest and I don’t think churning out a blog just because “You promised.” is a good idea. So that plan is on the back (far back) burner.
I do think I took a good look at CGIs in movies. I could have been more thorough and referenced web articles or hard copy references. But most of us don’t watch movies while referring to text books and I wanted this to be my take on CGIs alone. I did forget to mention in my review of Beowulf last week that the horses looked like Playmobile horses especially in the rump area. I guess that could help you date the age of the special effects crew.
But then this weekend, I slipped again. Appaloosa was on (The one with Harris and Mortensen, not the 1960s one with Brando which always seems to be mistakenly included as the plot summary and review for the Harris movie) and I fell asleep. All my good intentions couldn’t keep those little eyes open. I was really interested in reviewing that movie since I had reviewed the trailer for it. But it was not to be.
I did sit through another weekend of Harry Potter and the gang. I’ve decided that I really don’t like the Harry Potter movies and as the series churns towards its endgame, I don’t think the directors like them that much either any more. But the Potter movies make great white noise. Like the comfortable old shoes, they make you feel good but you don’t always want to look at them.
I did see most of a French film (name to follow after I do some serious searching) about a woman judge who was appointed to clean up corruption. Apparently, she got too close to power and at the end of the film she is being told that she did a fine job and now she will be reassigned. Will she go quietly? At this point, like all good foreign films, her husband jumps off a roof. Why not? Those crazy French. So the movie ends with the husband alive but badly injured and the judge saying: Screw the bastards. (In French of course so it’s real fancy sounding.) And you are left with the question: Is she saying: Screw the bastards, I don’t need this hassle. I’ll play along and take the transfer. or is she saying: Screw the bastards, I’m going to bring them all down.
French movies will keep coffee houses alive in France because that’s where millions of Frenchmen must wind up after the movies drinking too much coffee, smoking and discussing themes. (At least, that’s my idealized version of the French.)
But I do find foreign movie more thought provoking than almost all American movies such as Eagle Eye? Beowulf? Coffee? A smoke? A thought? after seeing those. I doubt it. (OK, I know smoking is bad. I don’t smoke but give me some wiggle room here.)
I’d like to hear from anyone who can name 10 current thought provoking American films. That is films which have at least a limited release; and I mean more than one art house in East Podunk.
I’d even settle for a list of five such movies. Extra points for such a movie released by a major studio. There’s a challenge for you.
See you next Monday.
I don’t think I’ve been neglecting my blog; I just think the substance has been pretty thin. Take last Knitting Friday. I had all the best intentions but, as you know, I wound up frogging the summer top after I had taken the picture for posting. But on the positive side, the summer top is on the needles again and this time I think it’s a road to success.
Then there was my plan to take a look at the movies in the WWII war years in the U.S. That would be 1942 (since we declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941) through 1945. I made of list of all the non-battle movies in those years and then I hit the wall. I lost interest and I don’t think churning out a blog just because “You promised.” is a good idea. So that plan is on the back (far back) burner.
I do think I took a good look at CGIs in movies. I could have been more thorough and referenced web articles or hard copy references. But most of us don’t watch movies while referring to text books and I wanted this to be my take on CGIs alone. I did forget to mention in my review of Beowulf last week that the horses looked like Playmobile horses especially in the rump area. I guess that could help you date the age of the special effects crew.
But then this weekend, I slipped again. Appaloosa was on (The one with Harris and Mortensen, not the 1960s one with Brando which always seems to be mistakenly included as the plot summary and review for the Harris movie) and I fell asleep. All my good intentions couldn’t keep those little eyes open. I was really interested in reviewing that movie since I had reviewed the trailer for it. But it was not to be.
I did sit through another weekend of Harry Potter and the gang. I’ve decided that I really don’t like the Harry Potter movies and as the series churns towards its endgame, I don’t think the directors like them that much either any more. But the Potter movies make great white noise. Like the comfortable old shoes, they make you feel good but you don’t always want to look at them.
I did see most of a French film (name to follow after I do some serious searching) about a woman judge who was appointed to clean up corruption. Apparently, she got too close to power and at the end of the film she is being told that she did a fine job and now she will be reassigned. Will she go quietly? At this point, like all good foreign films, her husband jumps off a roof. Why not? Those crazy French. So the movie ends with the husband alive but badly injured and the judge saying: Screw the bastards. (In French of course so it’s real fancy sounding.) And you are left with the question: Is she saying: Screw the bastards, I don’t need this hassle. I’ll play along and take the transfer. or is she saying: Screw the bastards, I’m going to bring them all down.
French movies will keep coffee houses alive in France because that’s where millions of Frenchmen must wind up after the movies drinking too much coffee, smoking and discussing themes. (At least, that’s my idealized version of the French.)
But I do find foreign movie more thought provoking than almost all American movies such as Eagle Eye? Beowulf? Coffee? A smoke? A thought? after seeing those. I doubt it. (OK, I know smoking is bad. I don’t smoke but give me some wiggle room here.)
I’d like to hear from anyone who can name 10 current thought provoking American films. That is films which have at least a limited release; and I mean more than one art house in East Podunk.
I’d even settle for a list of five such movies. Extra points for such a movie released by a major studio. There’s a challenge for you.
See you next Monday.
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