Baby’s fat. You fat. Fat & Juicy.
March 9th – March 16th
Taken- Not exactly the first movie that comes to mind when thinking about what my parents might suggest we watch on a weekend visit. But there it is. The movie is improbable to say the least. But it’s fun enough. Liam Neeson (whose wife apparently just had a serious skiing accident) has just enough Irish gravitas to carry the movie through. But still it’s pretty much just kicking ass and not even bothering to take names.
The Hills Have Eyes – Again, not a movie I would expect the “in-laws” to suggest. But there it is again. It certainly beats Duets. I’m actually very fond of this movie (and its remake…although I’ve seen neither of the sequels). I’m kind of disappointed that I wasn’t able to get my copy autographed by Michael Berryman at the Full Moon Horror Con a couple years back (but not that disappointed).
The Visitor- Little Dickie Jenkins as the leading man. He’s all growns up. Actually, it was a pretty decent film that just hinted at immigration and national security but was really about a widower rejoining the world. Not too political, not too melodramatic. But a little bit of both. Which is just fine by me. Richard Jenkins’s quiet performance was certainly worthy of its Oscar nomination.
UPDATE: Natasha Richardson (May 11, 1963 – March 18, 2009)
Hi Dwight,
If you are in the Muskogee area, you might want to check out the Bare Bones Film Festival in April. I have a documentary, “The First Day of Shooting,” about struggling independent filmmakers in the their 20s, which will be showing at the Civic Center on 4/24 at 7pm.
If you would be willing to review my film, but cannot attend the festival, I’d be happy to send you a DVD screener.
Thanks,
Peter Kovic
http://www.InsertLogoProductions.com
The Visitor is tied with Frozen River for my pick for best film of 2008. I loved it. Jared pointed out that both are about illegal immigration, which was completely unintentional on my part. I just thought they were both amazing films.
Also, I met Famke Janssen in OKC a while back… she was speaking as a UN goodwill ambassador against human trafficking (thus the tie-in to Taken. They played a trailer for the movie at the event). I even got to play with her dog and he peeked his head under my stall in the bathroom. Invasion of personal space. Um, yeah. I took a pic of her w/ my brother b/c she’s his biggest celebrity crush, but I didn’t bother to get one of her with me. We still haven’t seen Taken. I have concerns that it endorses torture (ass-kicking) as an effective means of info-gathering, etc.
Just read your review of Frozen River… I strongly disagree! (comments were closed on that post). I can see the criticism for rough writing and directing, but the film really resonated with me for some reason. It was Courtney Hunt’s first full-length film. I was thoroughly impressed and entertained!
In Bruges (from same post) – too bad I started drifting off to sleep about 30 mins from the end. Bad Kathy! A friend of mine spent a day in Bruges a few weeks ago and absolutely raved about it. She said it really is that amazing of a town. I loved Ralph Fiennes character in that film! I am such a sucker for cockney accents.
Taken didn’t seem like an endorsement of torture so much as it was an endorsement of kicking ass in order to save your daughter. It seemed like an extreme take on the idea of the overly protective father.
And, yeah, I probably do need to take another look at Frozen River. It’s probably the main one from last year that I feel that I might have misjudged (and deserves another look). I think I might have been expecting something else and overlooked what it really did have to offer. I also loved Ballast so much that I was unfairly comparing all of the other neo-neo realist films to it.