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Moody malaise means movie madness.
1. Hamlet 2
Wanted to be lifted up by Steve Coogan. (Would also like to be laid down by Steve Coogan, if anyone knows him). Steve didn't disappoint himself, but the movie was embarrassingly awful, on the whole. Catherine Keener can shrink balls with the lines she has. I wonder what drama teachers think of this?
2. The Strangers
I had to watch most of it on fast forward, because I am a total wimp. The Exorcist is the only horror film I can watch, and then it's only because I've seen it so many times. On FF, it was okay. Except that I agree with...AO Scott? Andrew Sarris? Whoever it was who said that the director, Bryan Bertino, is all kinds of skilled, but has used his powers for evil instead of good. It's such a nasty film. Who gets 'inspired' by the Tate/LaBianca murders and actually follows through? I mean, it's not really a cultural touchpoint for us anymore. Not that it should be forgotten, because as seemingly random post-hippie acid-induced cult slayings go, it is the benchmark, but we've had Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Columbine, bodies in vats, feet in harbours, and Paul Bernardo since then. I know we're supposed to fear the idea that people can kill not because they're sick or disturbed, but because they can, or they're bored, because that's not something we can contain or treat. But has that been borne out yet? Do rapists and murderers really go that far out of ennui and apathy and a kind of vulgar curiosity? Is this a post-Prozac movie? People need to stalk and stab total strangers in order to feel a spark of life? Seeing the masked killers push and twist the butcher's knife into the couple's bodies was really disgusting, gross, and hideous. It did suggest a clinical interest in the proceedings that perhaps the characters were supposed to have, but the audience isn't. Apparently there's a sequel already in the works.
3. The Dark Knight
Heath Ledger's Brando-sounding Joker is another soulless killer, although he has a touch more thought going on in the form of a love of anarchy and chaos. Did Bale's Batman always talk like that? Thank God for Maggie Gyllenhaal and the absence of Katie Holmes. Gary Oldman looks like an...oldman. Didn't realise Anthony Michael Hall was in it until the credits. Oldman has a terrible, rambling, melodramatic speech at the end. Ill-advised use of a small child.
I'm going to have mashed potato for dinner tonight and watch Lars and the Real Girl. I am this close to getting a mannequin myself.
Moody malaise means movie madness.
1. Hamlet 2
Wanted to be lifted up by Steve Coogan. (Would also like to be laid down by Steve Coogan, if anyone knows him). Steve didn't disappoint himself, but the movie was embarrassingly awful, on the whole. Catherine Keener can shrink balls with the lines she has. I wonder what drama teachers think of this?
2. The Strangers
I had to watch most of it on fast forward, because I am a total wimp. The Exorcist is the only horror film I can watch, and then it's only because I've seen it so many times. On FF, it was okay. Except that I agree with...AO Scott? Andrew Sarris? Whoever it was who said that the director, Bryan Bertino, is all kinds of skilled, but has used his powers for evil instead of good. It's such a nasty film. Who gets 'inspired' by the Tate/LaBianca murders and actually follows through? I mean, it's not really a cultural touchpoint for us anymore. Not that it should be forgotten, because as seemingly random post-hippie acid-induced cult slayings go, it is the benchmark, but we've had Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Columbine, bodies in vats, feet in harbours, and Paul Bernardo since then. I know we're supposed to fear the idea that people can kill not because they're sick or disturbed, but because they can, or they're bored, because that's not something we can contain or treat. But has that been borne out yet? Do rapists and murderers really go that far out of ennui and apathy and a kind of vulgar curiosity? Is this a post-Prozac movie? People need to stalk and stab total strangers in order to feel a spark of life? Seeing the masked killers push and twist the butcher's knife into the couple's bodies was really disgusting, gross, and hideous. It did suggest a clinical interest in the proceedings that perhaps the characters were supposed to have, but the audience isn't. Apparently there's a sequel already in the works.
3. The Dark Knight
Heath Ledger's Brando-sounding Joker is another soulless killer, although he has a touch more thought going on in the form of a love of anarchy and chaos. Did Bale's Batman always talk like that? Thank God for Maggie Gyllenhaal and the absence of Katie Holmes. Gary Oldman looks like an...oldman. Didn't realise Anthony Michael Hall was in it until the credits. Oldman has a terrible, rambling, melodramatic speech at the end. Ill-advised use of a small child.
I'm going to have mashed potato for dinner tonight and watch Lars and the Real Girl. I am this close to getting a mannequin myself.
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