mmm, looking at the list I compiled, it hasn’t been a big movie watching month, but it was still fruitful,  I think it might look that way, because two of the movies in my March quick reviews post were actually watched in the beginning of April, plus there is a good 5 days left in April for movie watching.  So lets start the reviews, and BE AWARE I might spoil a lot of these films if you looking to not know endings and plot progressions.

One Fine Day – 1996

I happen to cross by the film on the Fox Movie Channel, starring George Clooney and Meg Ryan.  It oddly reminded me of Baby’s Day Out, probably the idea of running throughout New York and the adventure between the eyes of the children and parents.  It  ended off as enjoyable film about divorced single parents falling in love.

In the Company of Men – 1997 (NetFlix Instant)

Wow, ridiculously sadistic.  First you got a young Aaron Eckhart that resembles a clean cut Andy Samberg and his best friend that is his boss.  They are two execs that are temporary traveling to a new location for business.  They both recently broke up, and disgusted by what situations they had with woman, they want to get them back by finding one girl and both of them dating her at the same time and playing with her feelings for the remainder of their trip, then crushing her heart.  Man, this quickly get crazy, because their woman of choose is a deaf receptionist, and you as viewer feel guilty of sitting there watching this go down.  Aaron Eckhart’s character is the true heartless manipulative character in this film, his friend is easily coerced into doing things, and man, is crazy how much power Eckhart’s character has over this situation with the deaf girl and … his best friend.  After the end hits you and you are like What?  after a hour or two you be like really? That guy is evil and the other guy is a complete idiot for being friends with this man. (sorry for the vagueness, but I rather you watch it and fully understand the complexes.)

Sex and Death 101 - 2008 (NetFlix Instant)

I think this movie takes the cake for my term “horribly entertaining.”  It is pretty much a chick flick made for guys.  The premise is Simon Baker’s character is successful exec for a fast food company and he is about to get married, and oddly he gets an email them everyone he is going to have sex with in his whole life.  He originally thinks its a pre-bachelor party prank, but later finds out the power of this list.  After saying goodbye to his fiancé, to follow the guidance of the list he goes on his sex escapades having fun with the predictably of the list, but later falls in depression because he has no power in controlling the outcome of his own life, everything is preplanned for him.  Then he realizes the last girl on the list, is sex villain played by Wiona Ryder, that kills her victims after having sex with them.  The movie definitely has a lot of (predictable) funny parts and was super enjoyable, and pretty much everything I stated can be found in the trailer of the movie, but a great watch if you bored and need an entertaining movie.  Note: after watching this I was influenced to watch Simon Baker in the CBS series “the Mentalist,” which I am a fan of now and will have to throw a post about some time in the future.

Elegy – 2008 - (NetFlix Instant) 

Starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz.  It start off as a fun little movie about an older college professional being extremely mesmerized by one of his students, played by Penelope.  Who wouldn’t like the idea of guy getting the heart of his desire.  But the movies moves around a lot to deconstruct the Ben Kingsley’s character to show all the internal tensions that made him the man he is today, and sadly I have to say got a little pissed off personally.  Being that you get the point of view from a father the practically abandon his family and how he had little to no remorse because that was the past.  After I set that part aside, the movie really revolves around the perception of age and love.  Even though there might be some initial fun in the film, this is a serious drama that has a lot of sad and depressing arches. Side Note: Penelope looks gorgeous in this film, its seems like she never ages, ahhh.

Delirious – 2006 - (NetFlix Instant)

Starring Michael Pitt and Steve Buscemi.  I going have throw this on my horribly entertaining list, some felt low budget about it.  First lets start with Michael Pitts Character, he is seriously Leonardo Dicaprio from “Growing Pains,” looks exactly the same and has the back story of being homeless.  Then Steve Buscemi is a paparazzi, but it more interesting that he thinks he is above it all because he plans to become a serious photographer for magazine, but funny enough I am sure 80% of paparazzi would claim the same (I am sure you can put this analogy to a lot of undesirable careers.)  I am kind of done the analyst of this film, but pretty much Pitt’s character in a week or months time goes from homeless to a TV actor dating super famous singer, the equivalent of Brittany Spears in her prime.  Even though that sentence that I wrote sounded pretty ridiculous, they actually did a nice job evolving that story like into some interesting to watch.

Casino – 1995

Just wanted to note this is epic classic and yes this was my first watching of Casino.  I don’t know if I am a sucker for mafia movies, but this was definitely incredible and still deserve all the praise it gets 14 years later.  Fun Fact, this movie has the most uses of the word “fuck” in an American Film ever at 422 uses.  The movie is close to 3hrs long, but from what I guess mafia flicks need this long length fully explain the complete narrative.  Just to tell you about my method of movie watching, I tend to watch films like people read books, in my than one sitting, this film was digested in 3 sittings.

I will do part 2 when I feel up too it.

Alright, As for the month of March, I happen to see a lot of films like usual.  But as usual I am to lazy to give in depth insight into each one.  So here is my quick reviews, I might miss a few from early this March.

The Kingdom – 2007

• I really enjoyed this movie, which starred Jaime Foxx, Jennifer Garner, and Jason Bateman.  It was action pack with some nice twist.  This is probably what I thought the movie Syrianna was going to be more like.  Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the deep story line of Syrianna, but this just packs the action punch a lot better.

Contract (Netflix) – 2006

• It took me awhile to even finish this film, I was in Gainesville at the time on a low connection.  This thriller stars Morgan Freeman as contract killer on the run and John Cusack as a widow ex cop turned teacher.  Pretty much Cusack is in forest hiking with his son, when a car transporting the arrested Morgan freeman flies off a mountain, when he goes to try to help out, Cusack ends up doing citizen arrest of Freeman.  I think Freeman’s character had a better life to delve into.

Shanghai Kiss (Netflix) – 2007

• HAHAHHAHA, I actually enjoyed to movie alot. First, why the laugh?  One it stars Hayden Paniettiere, second the dvd cover is ridiculous, its like 75% Hayden’s head and small picture of some Asian dude about to kick somebody’s head off.
• Any, I enjoyed the movie alot, the main character’s sarcastic comments were on point and hilarious.  Plus it delve into deeper issue of being Chinese-American, or pretty much any hyphened American.  So i enjoyed his views on wants to leave Cali to leave in China.  But issues do arise.  Plus did I mention the main character is late twentys and he is dating the 16 year old Hayden.

Cruel Intentions – 1999

• An obvious classic to most people.  In my case this happen to be that one movie that I happen to see the ending for a thousand times on USA and never seen the rest.  And Damn, I loved it, it was really refreshing for a movie that was targeted to teens.  and Damn again, I want that 1955 Jaguar roadster.  I pretty much a watch this movie a few times over.
• I could help to want to reference James Toback when watching this film, I don’t know, its the clash of artsy classicism and contemporary Gen X culture, but I always felt that was the Tobackain thing to do.

Adventures of Babysitting – 1987

• this happens to be one of my friends all time favorite film.  Very enjoyable, I really don’t know would was the targeted audience for this film, because you would assume its a family movie that should be played repeatedly on ABC Family.  But after watching it you know this ain’t G rated film.  A must see for any that loves that 80’s ferris buller adventure feel.

The Watchmen – 2009

• Loved it, I think I like it way more because it wasn’t my idea to see this movie, and my friend that I went to see it with was disappointed.  I just love how they made idea of a superhero so real.  You just have to watch to understand, but it isn’t the live action version of the “Incredibles.”

Big Picture (Netflix) – 1989

• Please don’t waste your time, one of the biggest waste of times.  Stars a young Kevin Bacon.  It as zero of amazing 80s feel, such as movie as Risky Business or Back to the Future would have.  I just think whomever made this was just full of himself.  It just plain bad, and it worst because it try to analyze films of the time as garbage, but this happens to be the stain on some people’s resume instead.

Flip a Coin (Netflix) – 2004

• This is the 1st movie on the list I can truly give the horribly entertaining moniker too.  It was enjoyable in its own right, but really, 2004, some the cheese looks like a movie from 1995. 

Point & Shoot (Netflix) – 2004

• I happen to this this film was amazing.  Even though the netflix users gave it a lot of bad comments saying it was just hot girls doing drugs and no substance.
• Shawn Regurto is my dawg, he is the director/cameraman/narrator.  I really connected to his personality, I can see me in his place very easily.  the Artist photographer that surrounds his life in a fast pace life of models and drugs, but always distances himself away from it all by standing behind the lens.
• This movie really deserves for me to give it a full write up.

Batman – The Dark Knight –2008

• Great movie, what more to say, the whole world already it seen it, I was like a half year late on it.

You Tell Me (Netflix) – 2006

• I will give it a “horribly entertaining”  but it was definitely falling more on the horrible side.  The crappier thing, the more movies I watch this month that was similar in context to this one, the more I think out crappy generic it really was.

Kicking and Screaming (Netflix) – 1995

• a bunch of friends graduate college, in up staying in town, talking about how things changed.  This is probably only meant for people that recently in the same struggle of identity such as myself.

Reality Bites (Netflix) – 1994

• same as the last, but instead after college, they try going into the rocky work field where they pretty much lose their jobs.  But it has allstar cast and was directed/acted by Ben Stiller.  I think many people will enjoy this one.  Because I liked it.

Dinner and Driving (Netflix) –1997

• I am wondering why I watched this? again this is similar to “You Tell Me” in the sense, you just watch this if you are bored out of your mind and can find anything else good on netflix to watch.  I think those 2 movies hit on people trying to hard and coming out with little.

Synecdoche, New York – 2008

• What a movie, what a movie, I am seriously in love it.  This is a quick review on a complex movie.  Its a satire on death. Damn, I could go days talking about this one, but I rather you watch it twice.  Apparently there are a lot of this you notice in the second viewing that you didn’t notice before.

The Hammer – 2007

• Adam Carolla, funny movie written by adam and starred by adam, about a 40 year carpenter turned boxer.

**I am real tired, and I will edit this the next time I am bored at 2am in the morning, pretty much the time block I watched most these films, lol.

These are one of those films that was late to hit my radar,  I actually happen to cross over it on Netflix.  Before I get on particulars of the film, I rather start with some the tracks from the film that I happen to vibe to.

Nick Drake – Poor Boy 1970 Album: Bryter Layter

Bebel Gilberto – Simplesmente

Martin Denny – Quiet Village originally composed by one of my favs Les Baxter

Camille – Senza

Now enjoy these tunes while I ramble on about this film.

What Just Happened? 2008

Directed by Barry Levinson

Starring a lot of big names, Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, and Bruce Willis to name a few.  Just to make it clear from the start this film wasn’t really well received by the critics, and the big names didn’t help, because there reputations tend to speak of a higher quality.  I not one to big to critical, so I will not.  But I enjoyed this film, this was obviously not a film for the mass or even for hipster art students.  This is meant for film lovers with an edge for the love of Hollywood business.  “What Just Happened?” is an adapted screenplay from a book of the same title by Art Linson.  This was an autobiography of Art Linson and his life of being a director/producer.  In the film, De Niro is a producer which is managing two situations, one changing the horrific ending to a movie directed by some eccentric artsy director, but is backed by a big studio and stars Sean Penn and another situation with Bruce Willis refusing to shave his beard.

From the IMDB boards, Bruce Willis character is based from a situation Art had with Alec Baldwin when filming “The Edge.”

I going end this with this is nice movie to watch if you want to see all the crap that movie producers have put up with / control to give an end product.

(IMDB) – Watch Instantly on NETFLIX

I think before I start posting up all I movie titles I have been watching, I just want to explain how my movie watching experience has changed up a bit this year and some new terminology.

I still keep up with my foreign film watching, with some new titles like “Paris” and older like Godard’s “Une Femme est une Femme” which translates to “A Woman is A Woman.”  Plus I got my classics with my old school Muse, Audrey Hepburn, in “Funny Face.”

But in addition to that I sometime got to relax, detune and turn off my mind a bit, so I have been watching some films some people might refer to as B-Rated.  I usually call these movies, “Horribly Entertaining.”  This term is used for a movie, that I am not going to bow down and refer to it as a masterpiece or even re-watch it, but for the time being I was entertained.  A lot of people are getting the Netflix plan because of “Instant View” which allows you to stream movies straight to your desktop,  I got to say its an amazing feature, but it does lack a lot of popular titles, so hopefully these blog posts will help you navigate through some great “horribly entertaining” films which you can find on Netflix.

**NOTE: just to make sure the term “Horribly Entertaining,” in no way is meant to be negative, it just a movie that is watched for entertainment’s sake, which movies should allows do, allow us to escape for an hour and half and enjoy a tale through the lens of another person eyes.  You don’t have to be always mentally provoked when watching films, sometimes you need to relax and let something else do the thinking for you and so you can just laugh or express another emotion.

  I almost thought this was my first post for the new year, but I am not that bad.  I am working on the next phase of “The RNDM.”  Below is 2 screenshots of my newest blog that is curated by 1/2 of the writers of CertifiedRANDOM.  Angel, JB, and JT

Iconology, is Art, Photography, and everything Visual Blog.  It not typical to any blog I have done, let me rephrase that, its not typical to any other blog on the net.  I not talking bullshit either,  instead of the Linear Vertical fashion that blogs are in today, we like to show images more as a collections, in a horizontal way.  It mimics the looks of an indexhibit portfolio which is better fit for displaying images that were originally intend to be published in a printed magazine.  I see a lot of hope in my new endeavors, I am just still in the process of managing my life, 2 blogs “Seriously,” and plus my Restaurant Listing Service, Menuwall.com (Which includes another blog to update, “Blogging Menuwall”).

**I plan on bringing back my movie reviews or atleast say what I have been watching, because I never miss an opportunity to watch a movie.