Last night I went to see Knocked Up Written & Directed by Judd Apatow who also wrote and directed “The 40 Year Old Virgin”. It was SO good… Something I didn’t expect… Vancouver is all a buzz about it because the lead character (and actor actually) is from Vancouver, Canada and is a complete stoner – which is typical of our reputation of being the weed capital of North America due to our very mild inexpensive “BC Bud” grown mainly on Vancouver Island. Which interestingly enough is also the geographical area that supports Canada’s only Surf Community – interesting.Anyways, the movie was TOO FUNNY following 2 story lines. One about the guy and his posy and the other about the girl and her reality… A perfect balance – in other words a perfect date film – which is really hard to pull off. Gross-out jokes seldom work in a chick flick and visa versa but Apatow did it and even better than in his first film!
I have seen a TON of films lately… all due to being on so many planes this month… Here’s my personal critique – for whatever it’s worth:
Children of Men – I watched this twice now… EXCELLENT Film! Every character has a rich backstory, the overall theme totally touches on the subliminal fears of this generation even though it is set in the future. Michael Caine plays I think one of the best roles of his career and has an incredible monologue about the differences between “fate & chance” awesome and haunting.
Painted Veil – Beautifully filmed and incredibly acted by Edward Norton & Naomi Watts. A period film from the 1920’s about a Cholera outbreak in China. A CLASSIC LOVE STORY… They didn’t have a lot of money for marketing – I predict huge numbers in DVD rentals & sales. (By the way... American History X was on Television the other night and is still on my Top 10 Provocative film list... Edward Norton is up there with Sean Penn & Ben Kingsley as one of those actors whose character development comes from a place of authenticity vs. ego!) History Boys – A British Film about a prep school preparing it’s elite students for entrance exams to go to Yale. It won tons of awards when it was a musical play on stage… So imagine my surprised to learn that the main character – their teacher was a Pedophile! NOT MY KIND OF FILM.
Pan’s Labyrinth – A Spanish film that was up for several Academy Awards this year due to it’s special effects. They made a point of saying it was a fantasy film about a little girl but it was NOT for children! So… true, it swung back and forth between fantasy and reality… The reality was very BRUTAL & VIOLENT hence the main character a 12 year old created a fantasy world to escape. I have a hard time watching anything where children or animals are hurt so not my type of film, but I could see why it was being praised for it’s creativity.Music & Lyrics – Billed as a Romantic Comedy but really only a Comedy, and light hearted one at that, due to the fact I didn’t believe the chemistry between Hugh Grant & Drew Barrymore. EHHhhh... A rental at best.
Shooter – Interesting stats and math on how to successfully shoot a moving target but a little too red-neck and violent for me. In general a Rambo remake. For the record, I would have NEVER gone to see this - but it was the only film on a flight to Toronto :{
Catch & Release – A cute & sweet little Romantic Comedy filmed entirely in Vancouver (pretending to be Oregon), a perfect MENSTRUAL rental ;P By the way, did you know that Kevin Smith went to The Vancouver Film School - briefly, 3 months I think. He got a 70% tuition refund and used that to make his first movie!Letters from Iwo Jima – subtitled, so a little hard to sit through but an interesting Japanese perspective on war. Clint Eastwood is consistently amazing with his attention to detail. More my FATHER's type of film...
Apocalypto – Talk about violent but really WELL DONE – excellent story telling.
The Good German – It’s tough when you try to make a “classic”. They filmed this in black & white - fashioned after “Casablanca”. A character study of 3 people (2 Americans and 1 German) in Germany in the 40’s. The crude sex and violence made it uncomfortable to sit through, hence the word of mouth killed it at the box office and I predict in DVD as well. DON'T Bother...
Happy Feet – sweet and fun – with a great Global Warming message.
I haven’t seen the big releases like Spider Man 3, Pirates 3, Shrek 3 (though I LOVE Mike Myers – being Canadian and all), Oceans 13 or Surf’s up - yet…
As you can tell, I don’t have a favorite genre, I’ll watch pretty much anything. That comes from working in the film industry I think, even if the movie is CRAP I realize how much work and effort has gone in to the making of a film that I truly believe there has to be at least one redeeming quality – like people ;P People are never black and white, we operate in the grey, that’s what makes us interesting - I think. P.
As you can tell, I don’t have a favorite genre, I’ll watch pretty much anything. That comes from working in the film industry I think, even if the movie is CRAP I realize how much work and effort has gone in to the making of a film that I truly believe there has to be at least one redeeming quality – like people ;P People are never black and white, we operate in the grey, that’s what makes us interesting - I think. P.
