Monday, April 16, 2007

Movies

So how was your weekend? Mine was pretty good. Yesterday (Sunday) was a washout though. I ventured out around 1 to pick up my "rejected" painting from the art show. One thing I noticed about the paintings that did get accepted... they were all LARGE paintings of at least 16x20 or bigger. So, If I enter again, I'll have to keep that in mind. Moving on...
I watched two movies this weekend (one theater and one on dvd). On dvd I saw "Babel"... I had sort of wanted to see this while it was in the theater because it was getting good buzz. I'm glad now that I saved a few bucks by waiting for the dvd. It was a slow movie that didn't really have much of a point. It was three or four stories divided up into small bite-size segments. It actually became annoying to me the way they would cut from story to story. As the movie progressed, we learn that the 4 stories really have a thread that tied them all together. But without really a point being made. The two stars that I'm sure is what drew the people in to see this were Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchette who played husband and wife. But there was an awkward chemistry between them (perhaps part of the roll as I think they were supposed to be having marital problems). But really these parts could have been played by anyone. Brad or Cate didn't really add a whole lot to this movie. The stories were all depressing too... suicide, murder, a deaf girl having a hard time fitting in, etc. I guess I just simply didn't like the movie.

The other movie I saw was the complete opposite... Disturbia. First off, I like the actor Shia LaBeouf - though I have no idea how to pronounce his name. I first became aware of Shia in a movie called "The Battle of Shaker Heights" where he was fantastic. He's done a ton of TV shows too. He'll be WELL known though after this summer because he's playing the lead in "Transformers" Which will probably be the smash hit of the summer. Trailer looks awesome.
anyway... I realized at the last minute that this movie was a remake of an Alfred Hitchcock movie called "Rear Window". This didn't really bother me because I had never seen Rear Window. My friend had and he said it really felt like two different movies. A few complaints... It was a teen movie really. It was geared towards teens, stared teens (well Shia is 21 but he played a highschool kid). I actually started to feel a little old while sitting there. The other complaint is minor too... it was a non-stop gadget fest. Cellphones, ipods, imacs, video recorders, webcams, laptops, etc... it was borderline cool and borderline commercials. Overall though it was a fast paced, entertaining movie.


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