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.