Legion

I'm not usually one for religious-themed thrillers... or maybe I am, I've forgotten what I like and don't like.  Anyway, I thought I'd give Legion a shot because the DVD is selling well for my company.  And really, it's not all that bad.  The action sequences are actually pretty good, but there are a few moments that are so dull the movie comes to a screeching halt.  But you have a movie with a fairly standard set of characters, and one by one they're all killed.  All because God has decided humans aren't worthy of his love any more, so he's sent an Angel down to kill the one child who could unite humanity.  Sounds like The Terminator movies kind of.  The characters aren't anything special, and you can sort of guess who will live and who will die, but it's how they die that's interesting.  Worth a rental at least.

Mamma Mia!

The other day I was with a group of people (all Indian) and they turned on the TV to a Bollywood movie.  Now, while I'm not always against Bollywood, in this case it was on Indian TV so there were no subtitles.  I would have spent the next 2-3 hours having no idea what anyone was saying, so I asked if  I could find something else.  I started flipping through the HBO channels when Mamma Mia! showed up.  One person in the group shouted that they had just seen the first hour but never got to see the end, so could we watch?  Of course the movie had started maybe 30 seconds earlier.  So this is how I ended up watching Mamma Mia! for the first time.

All in all, it wasn't that bad.  Predictable, sure.  Pierce Brosnan singing?  Horrible, yes.  But everyone else was pretty good and the music was catchy.  The story could have been resolved in about 15 minutes, but that's OK.  It is definitely a crowd pleaser.  And Amanda Seyfried in a bathing suit for about 10 minutes is worth the price of admission.  Which in this case was zero.  Considering how bad the movies have been theatrically this summer, Mamma Mia! isn't a bad way to spend a couple of hours.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Sometimes I wonder if Terry Gilliam makes weird movies just for the sake of making weird movies.  I just finished watching The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and all in all, it's not a bad movie.  The story is a little out there, but when you break it down to the basics, it's serviceable.  What's weird however is how Gilliam goes about showing the story.  At one point we see this massive temple that's sitting on top of giant elephants and I couldn't help wondering, who comes up with something like this?

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is probably best known as the last film Heath Ledger ever did, and it was a little sad seeing him on screen, but it did showcase why he was always so captivating.  I wonder how much the story had to change when he died.  Gilliam got 3 actors to fill out the role Ledger played, using Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law to play the same character at different points throughout the film.  Gilliam did a good job giving us a reason why the character changed, but I felt like the movie got cut a little short towards the end and I wonder what the real movie would have been like.

So overall, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus isn't a bad movie to check out.  It's a little weird, to say the least, but I found it entertaining.

Firefly/Serenity

I recently got my Netflix streaming DVD for the Wii and decided to test it out by watching Firefly.  I hadn't watched the show when it was on but everyone kept telling me I should.  I had watched Serenity when the movie came out a few years ago and I liked it.  I immediately got hooked on Firefly and watched all 14 episodes over the course of 2 weekends.  Then I decided to go back and watch Serenity again, now that I knew who all the characters were.  I found that I liked and disliked it more at the same time.  I disliked it more because I didn't feel the movie kept the same spirit of the show.  River, who was a minor character in Firefly, suddenly became the focus of the movie.  Yes, I imagine the writers of the show believed they'd have a couple of seasons to enhance her character and make her story more important, but by making her leap into the forefront, they short shifted everyone else.  Inara, for instance, had virtually nothing to do in the movie, but was much more important in the show.  I understand why the movie might not have kept the spirit of the show, because it needed to be able to attract people who hadn't even heard of Firefly.  But it did feel a little off to me.  At the same time, knowing the characters helped my understanding of their reactions and when one of the major characters dies in Serenity, how everyone reacted made so much more sense.  And it meant more to me too since I had see this character through 14 previous hours.  All in all though, if you haven't seen Firefly/Serenity I would give it a shot.  It's quite addictive.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

With the remake coming out in a few days I thought I'd go back and watch the original.  And to me, out of the big 3 horror films of my youth (Elm Street, Halloween and Friday th 13th) Elm Street is the most dated.  I think a lot of that has to do with the cheesy synth music that plays over everything.  I also realized that Freddy doesn't really show up much in the movie.  He's more in the background a lot of the time.  But since we've all come to know and love Freddy as a character, I was a little disappointed there wasn't more of him.  I also didn't find him as scary as I did... 25+ years ago.  Which of course makes sense.  The movie has a lot of starts and stops and I never really got into it as much as I though I would.  I'm not against remakes and while Freddy is far and away my favorite horror character of all time, I think a remake is in the calling.  I don't expect it to be great, but I do expect it to be fun.

Oh, and here's the song that plays over the closing credits of the original - be warned, it's really, really bad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDW0ITBaepY

Mary & Max and Green Zone

I watched 2 completely different movies last night. Mary & Max is an animated film that's most definitely not for kids. Based on a true story, it tells the tale of Mary, an 8-year-old from Australia who becomes pen pals with Max, a 40-something from New York. Mary is funny looking with two parents who stopped giving a damn before Mary was born. Max is an overweight loner who likes having chocolate hot dogs. Mary randomly picks Max out of a phone book and starts writing to him and this turns into a lifelong friendship that has some severe highs and lows. There's talk about murder, suicide, cats with eyes missing, lots of dead fish and sex. And it's all animated. I'm still not sure what to think about the movie. The animation was pretty impressive and at times, the movie was pretty funny - in a very dark way. But towards the end it just got really depressing. I applaud the filmmakers for doing something different.

Then there's Green Zone, the Matt Damon-led film that takes place during the opening days of the Iraq war. It was a very smart, edge-of-your-seat thriller that keeps you guessing right up till the end. It's the kind of movie that I can see a lot of people not wanting to bother with, since war films - especially one about a war that continues to this day - isn't the most uplifting of stories. But it's very well made and keeps you on your toes throughout. Definitely worth checking out.

House of Flying Daggers

Am I the only person who was bored silly by House of Flying Daggers? Did I go in expecting too much? All I know is, I hate starting a movie, then stopping it without finishing it, but the only way I made it through this movie was to fast forward the last half hour. That's the great thing about subtitled movies; you can fast forward and not miss much. Beyond music I suppose, but I didn't really care.

You've got this group called the Flying Daggers who are like the Robin Hood's of their time. So of course people want them dead, blah blah blah. Basically there's a hot blind chick and a couple of guys who like her. Should have been more action and better fight scenes. Not that they were bad, just not very original. The movie certainly looked good, but I don't remember being that bored sitting on my couch before. Too bad, I had really looked forward to this one. I suppose if you like martial arts films you might like it, but I didn't care for it very much. Really glad I didn't spend money to see it in a theater.