Many Mini Movie Musings

Ok, I saw several movies recently..heres a quick snapshot for you guys.

1. The Da Vinci Code. I saw it Saturday evening with the wife after a long day working in the yard. They didnt overdo the special effects, and the acting was fine. They picked several good actors for the roles aside from Tom Hanks, including Jurgen Prochnow, an actor I liked from "Das Boot", as well as Ian McKellen, Audrey Tautou, Alfred Molina, Paul Bettany and Jean Reno. Paul Bettany did perhaps the best job, as Silas. There were certainly some cheesy moments, and they changed a few small things to not tick off the Christian right-wing as much. Pretty faithful adaptation, but the book is better..but I expected as much. If you have not read the book, I would read it first I think, but it's certainly worth seeing. I STILL think the information and evidence that is presented in this movie is VERY convincing as potential truth..but then again, I am also not religious, and not Christian either.

2. United 93. This was on tv!!! Seriously. On the History channel. Or Discovery or something. Anyways..it was very interesting, sad, and well-done. It really provides more of the craziness that went on at military headquarters and airport control, than possible scenarios in the flight. Our administration was in chaos..like pouring water into an ant hill..and all the ants come running out and around in circles and so forth. I learned a lot, and enjoyed the film, as much as one could enjoy a film about this subject.

3. Russian Ark. I understand you most likely have not heard of this. This is a Russian movie (big surprise) about the last 300 years of Russian history, and it all takes place in the Hermitage museum in St.Petersburg. I realize this sounds incredibly boring to 99% of you. The magic behind it, is that the ENTIRE 90 minute movie is done in ONE TAKE. There is no editing. If you are at all interested in filmmaking, cinematography, directing..etc..you have got to see this movie. The extras on the dvd that show how it was filmed from concept to reality is almost more interesting than the film however. Check out the trailer here.

4. Shanghai Ghetto. This documentary is about the Jews who fled and escaped to Shanghai, China during WWII. As my grandfather and his 2 brother were includied in that group, I wanted to see and learn more about that period in history. It was a bit slow (as expected), but very fascinating nonetheless.

5. Serenity. I saw the preview and thought, "what geek is going to see this piece o' crap?!". Well, I then heard how good it was, and being that I love sci-fi effects..(no, not Star Trek), I rented it. It was entertaining and funny, some cool effects and just..interesting. It was totally predictable and cheesy too. But hey..thats almost what Netflix is for. So if you loved "Starship Troopers", you might like it. And I did not know half of the history behind the film..I just took as it was. Worth wasting 90 minutes on, but not $10.

6. Thank You For Smoking. My wife had read the book, so she had several preconceived notions, but I had only gone by the previews, actors..etc. We both laughed out loud in numerous scenes, the acting and writing were solid and it was really good. It attacks both hand-wringing liberals, as well as the money grubbing conservatives, and is simply a brilliant comedy.

7, 8, and 9. MI3..I gave an encapsulation of this in my Vancouver, BC blog entry. V for Vendetta..I believe I briefly reviewed this when I was in San Francisco about a month ago. Inside Man..also a pretty good movie, and again, I thnk I mentioned this in my blogs from a few weeks ago as well.