Love them. Love everything about them. Love being manipulated by breathtaking cinematography and brilliant dialogue and acting so delicious that you forget they’re acting. Also love stupid, slapstick humor and laughing at people falling down and quoting minions who say, “WHAAAAAAA?????” for days every time I watch that film. I love eating greasy “butter-flavored” overpriced popcorn or watching the Redbox copy of a film I didn’t catch in the theater. I love seeing movies a year before everyone else at Sundance and watching “Braveheart” for the gajillionth time, from any point in the film, which is pretty much always on one of the 600 channels I have.
I have given up working in local television for the most part, EXCEPT for ten days in January, when I get to cover the red carpet for the Sundance Film Festival, for Park City Television. I get to interview movie stars and directors, writers, producers, and rock stars (awesome) alongside the paparazzi of L.A. and New York (less than awesome.. Come on, you chase celebrities around for a living, you’re not reporting on a cure for cancer. Lighten up.). I see about a dozen Sundance movies during the festival (Just saw “Mud,” which I missed at Sundance in January. Go see it! Best Matthew McConnaughey performance ever. Terrific film) I spend the rest of the year trying to see Sundance movies I missed, potential Oscar contenders (I try to see them all before the awards show, then skip the awards show, as I find it usually amazingly self-serving and long and boring.), and anything else that looks interesting.
Now, with the unlimited space I have to noodle around with words now, I figure I’ll throw in my two cents worth when I see a movie. Maybe I’ll save you some money from seeing a clunker, or cost you some money and convince you to go to the movies. Or neither. All the same to me. 🙂
THE GREAT GATSBY
I mostly liked this movie. Frankly, I was ready to be a little bored with it, but that never happened. I thought the story was well-told and wonderfully complicated. I’m not a huge Leonardo DiCaprio fan, but whenever I see one of his movies, I’m impressed with his work. I was a little tired of “old sport” by the end. I don’t think he was ever comfortable saying that catchphrase, and it got stupid to me. I thought the stylized “Dick Tracy” shooting and editing worked. It was definitely done better than it was in “Anna Karenina,” which I found tedious and overdone. The hip hop and urban music tracks were jarring. Didn’t work for me.
I also liked how the characters developed. I really wanted to like Daisy and wanted everything to work out for her and Jay Gatsby, but by the end of the movie, I was less enthusiastic about her. I couldn’t put my finger on it til Nick Carraway (Toby Maguire) called her and her husband, Tom, “careless people.” A great bit of dialogue which explained a lot.
It’s beautiful and big, and I’d say you should spend your money on this one in the theater.
NOW YOU SEE ME
This one had some good twists and turns and a fun cast with fun dialogue. And Woody Harrelson is a favorite. (Can you feel the “but” coming?) But it felt to me like the film couldn’t decide whether magic really existed or not. It did, it didn’t, it did, it didn’t. Then, what was that merry-go-round scene? (Not a spoiler at all, don’t worry). This one, you can wait to get for $1.25 from Redbox.
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