I have been starting to record movies on TV and randomly watch them while knitting. Since they are mostly in german, I can hear some parts of the dialogue and do not necessary have to look for subtitles which is very practical. Also, even though knitting is a rather monotoneous thing to do (less than crocheting though, it seems), I prefer to watch a movie that does not take up all of my concentration. Also, I would never want to miss anything good from a seriously good movie. So here we go with three interesting, but not particularily outstanding titles.
Blow
Actually I did not know that this guy existed. I like Franka Potente and Penelopé Cruz to some extent, and I especially like Johnny Depp, so basically he was the only reason why I ended up watching the movie. Even though I had no idea what would await me, I wanted to see the movie; and now I finally did. It ended up being what I have expected, a solid movie with rather good actors without being boring at all, but nothing special.
I found it especially sad that his daughter really did not see him at all. At some point, she would grow up and understand a bit, right? Then again, Penelopé Cruz had a perfectly obnoxious character *g* I loved the scene in which she starts yelling at him in the car, asking him to fuck her. Harr.
The Life of David Gale
I have read that Roger Ebert gave this movie a 0, and every single review I have read so far was negative. Aaah, maybe I am just stupid, because I did not expect the story to turn out exactly like it did, also I found Kevin Spacey just as brilliant as he usually is, and because I actually had fun watching the movie. Of course the movie itself does not bring out the truth about the problems of death penalty and it shows nothing of the ridiculousness of the discussions, but this is a Hollywood movie after all, ah well.
Politically, this movie surely is rather problematic both in the lacking arguments for its message and the execution of the story, but somehow I did not realize it while watching it (maybe because fortunately I never had to lead many discussions about death penalty in general) and I had a rather enjoyable time watching it. Maybe this is the problem though, the movie was not supposed to be enjoyable.
Spider-Man
I haven’t seen any of the Batman movies and the only comic adaptation I have seen before was Sin City (which look fabulously, but I was unable to understand the story especially since I was only watching it with one eye basically). I was recommended to watch V for Vendetta, and Spider-Man is a movie that I used to refuse to watch, but now I am wondering why it is so successful.
I was told that Spider-Man, much unlike other superheroes, actually is more interesting since he also has very human problems such as relationship problems. This may be true, but it still does not refrain the movie from being horribly stereotypical and the dialogues extremely dumb. But oh well, again it was a nice story that was rather enjoyable to watch while knitting.
I feel like the next movies I am going to watch are going to be similar. But then again, one day I might die of boredom and I have a backlog of good movies that could fill up my computer if I had them, so there is no way I am going to become a mainstream movie watcher after all ;)
A propos backlog, oh God, I watched Harold and Maude and forgot about commenting on it! I cannot believe it…
I watched Blow a fair while ago now, so all I remember clearly is some coked-up guy shouting “I can’t feel my face!” and how the main character’s mother was such a bitch. Still, I agree it was solidly acted but nothing special – it was interesting just to see a drug smuggler painted in a more positive light, or at least showed as a human being. From a heterosexual male’s perspective (i.e. not the point of view of “OMG, he’s so hawt!”) I like Depp too. His characters never seem to be clear-cut good guys – they always have a dark or uncertain side to them…it could be his acting skills, or just his knack of picking really good roles.
I’ll make a point of looking out for The Life of David Gale since Kevin Spacey is an absolute legend. Spiderman wasn’t bad I guess, but it did feel a bit generic and “ho-hum, seen it all before.” That reminds me to watch the other two now…dammit, you’ve reminded me of my shocking backlog too! :P
What perfect timing! I cannot sleep and decide to take a look in the internet instead of just lying around stupidly in my bed – and yay, a new blog post. :)
I’ve always wanted to watch “Blow” and this one is incredibly often on TV, but I’ve never pulled myself together to watch it though.
I agree with Kevin Spacey being a legend. Se7en ftw!
And I saw Spider-Man in the cinema back then and well, I didn’t have the urge to see it again since then, because of the same reasons you have cited. But I do like Tobey Maguire (because of “The Ice Storm” and Pleasantville) and Kirsten Dunst.
Sin City seems to confuse many people – recently my sister also told me she didn’t get the film and hated it therefore.
And of course I’m awaiting your opinion on Harold and Maude.
LMAO I find Tobey Maguire totally attractive in these Spider-Man films. That may be a reason why I always caught them in the theater while they were playing? (well I’m also pretty easily entertained by all those FX ^^*)
Martin: Not only the mother, all his women ended up betraying him except for his first girl! But that’s the story of his life…
Indeed Johnny Depp is doing a good job at choosing his roles, he also likes to work with friends such as Tim Burton. But besides that, he really is one of the few actors whose acting skills are pretty outstanding in my opinion even though he takes rather generic roles in mainstream movies (like Sleepy Hollow of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy). To be honest, I never found him as hawt as most of my fangirl friends in high school back then, but I liked most of his movies.
I’m sorry that I’m adding things to your backlog! But I’d be interested in what it looks like ^^
Shii: I am planning on writing the article on Harold and Maude soon. I feel like I have forgotten most of the things I wanted to write about it…
I’m really glad that you seem to have enjoyed the blog post! After all, it was mainly about some mediocre movies and I didn’t spend nearly half as much time on them as the Bertoluccis for example.
I can’t really say if I would recommend you to watch “Blow”, but if you start knitting one day, you really should *hrr*
Seriously, I found Kirsten Dunst horrible in this movie. I was like “Wait a minute, she can actually suck at acting?”, but maybe I just hated her red hair… which would be shockingly superficial, so I guess she really did a bad acting job in Spider-Man.
@Prog: Tobey Maguire is always somewhat attractive, but indeed, basically the Spider-Man movies are entertaining. I might even watch the other two *harr harr*