from Amazon
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Recent movies I like too much
Non-sports post. Enter at your peril, avoid at your pleasure.
Damn HBO. I only got it to watch The Sopranos. And now I can’t get rid of it. And, they have some movies in rotation, and they hook me. Here are five, in no particular order:
1. 16 Blocks. Stars Bruce Willis, as a drunk cop with a bleak look on his life. I love Bruce Willis, but am simply mesmerized by his performance here. The story is about him bringing a guy 16 blocks from the police station to the court house in downtown Manhattan. I have two favorite scenes here. One is the first time he draws his gun. That’s all I’ll say about it, but when you watch it, you’ll probably agree. The other is the bus scene. The other name guy in this movie is David Morse (Hill Street Blues), and he seems to be Hollywood’s go-to guy when you need someone who requires a complicated character, but not good-looking enough to be a leading man. He’s played a cop in at least 4 shows/movies off the top of my head (Negotiator and Dancer in the Dark). Anyway, these two scenes, the setting being downtown Manhattan (the “real” Manhattan, not that Times Square crap), fantastic pace, and Bruce Willis hooks me every time.
2. Blades of Glory. Stars Will Ferrell and Napolean Dynamite. I love Will Ferrell. Dude must be the funniest guy on the screen (with apologies to Jim Carrey). Hopefully, Will doesn’t get a fat head. Anyway, it’s about ice skating, and the final arc is set and shot in Montreal. Plus it’s ridiculously (as opposed to smartly) funny. I can never get enough of this movie.
3. Alpha Dog, Bully, and City of God (usually play on IFC). These are not uplifting movies, to say the least. Basically, it’s Lord of the Flies, where the kids are in control of their own destiny, with the adults not really controlling anything. When you take adults out of the equation of life, you really have a whole different world. And, that’s what these 3 movies do. And, if there’s one thing that you want in a movie, it’s to escape to a whole different world.
Alpha Dog (Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake) has great actors, and based on a true story (with the actual District Attorney acting as technical consultant to the movie). A teenager is “stolen”, and they have to figure out how to undo their mess. Simply fascinating how cavalier all the kids take the situation, including the stolen kid.
Bully (RIP Brad Renfro) is about getting revenge on a bully, and again, all the teenagers are very cavalier about what they want to do. The movie also has some really good sex scenes (and one not so good). I’d swear they must be really doing it. And one of the kid actors (Michael Pitt) has shown and done even more explicit stuff in another movie (The Dreamers).
City of God is set in Brazil, and based on a true story. It is gritty, the kids are cavalier, and there’s basically a state of lawlessness that extends beyond just the teenagers. Consider yourself blessed that you were born where you were born, and are allowed the choices at hand. Those kids? You’d end up doing the same thing as some of them, and you wouldn’t really know any better to not.
My biggest nightmare will be if my kid ends up being in a situation like in these 3 movies. Maybe I watch it to remind myself of potential disaster? Maybe to count my lucky stars that I was never exposed to that? I dunno. But, I’m hooked on these movies for some reason.
Have you seen Cloverfield? Easily the most creative movie of the decade, perhaps more.