Movies Lately

I mentioned before that we joined Blockbuster’s Video By Mail. The membership is a Christmas present – that keeps on giving, from our son Rocky. We are seeing plenty of movies we would not have otherwise seen. Below are mini-reviews on what we saw so far.

ATONEMENT. A typical British with the play concept of a comedy or errors, or a little misterpation of what really happened can go a long way. Some of the scenes were first seen our of th eyes of a 13 year old girl then it would show you what really happned. I think Anna and I agree we can call it a sleeper – see, we both agree, we both nodded.

BLUE STATE. At local John Kerry campaign headquarters in San Francisco a headstrong campaign worker vows if Bush wins he will move to Canada. Friends hold him to that. He runs an ad in a local paper asking for a rider to help share expense. Of couse a girl emerges and from then on they have a like-hate relationship all the way to Canada. The girl has some issues of her own, she is AWOL. It is a road trip movie. Once they reach their destination he finds himself defending the U.S. more than criticizing it.

DEATH AT A FUNERAL. This is a British made movie. British movies seem to do great when they have a a group doing something for the common good – think of the movie that a aged lotto winner died in a small village and the group effort was to collect the money with the authorties not knowing he had died; and also CALENDAR GIRLS – aged women posing for revealing calendar. This is a group effort movie too.

GOYA'S GHOST. This is about artist Franciso Goya and the terrible Spanish Inquisition in Spain. It shows just how terrible things can get if a religion has too much control in Government – In this case, Catholitism.

KITE RUNNER. This movie mostly takes place in Pakistan when Russian invade the coutnry. It is another example of how bad things can get if a religion has too much control – in this case the Muslims. Aside from international politics and religion there is another theme, more univeral. Of two good friends who grew up together and got along great until peers reminded the hero that he was friends with a his father’s servant’s boy. Then, he did what he could to break off their relationship and succeeded. Later, when grown, he found out the old ex-freiend had died and was really his half-brother. He returned to his war torn/religion stronghold to claim his half brother’s son to adopt him.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. The movie was made by the Coen Brothers. It is bloody and violent. It is more or less a chase movie that takes place in the south West, probably Arizona. It is a good action movie – we would rate this as a non-sleeper. I didn’t think about it at the moment, but when planning in my mind what I was going to say about this, I thought of the Coen Brothers other movies: RAISING ARIZONA, FARGO, and O’ BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? – all four has the same theme: An evil quiet devil like person in pursuit of the person you like – the sort of hero, in an anti-hero sort of way. There are other movies by them, but because I haven’t seen them I can’t compare them…. Wow! How ethical can I get?

WEDDING DAZE. The movie is a light relaxing comedy, something that doesn’t tear at your mind or your emotions. Interesting, it seemed that almost all of the characters from the TV show OFFICE made cameos in it.