So, I officially have World Cup fever! Didn't catch the first game today, but I did watch all of Ivory Coast vs. Portugal. Soccer/football fans help me out here: Is it natural for me to want to kick a ball into Ronaldo's face? He seems like kind of a douche. 90 percent of that is because I HATE that fake falling bullshit. Come on. I get enough of that crap watching the NBA. Such a prick move.
Anyway, rooting for the home country here, even though America doesn't have a chance of hell in winning. I shudder to think what would happen if the U.S. went up against that German team. Yikes.
Fletch (1985): Really '80s comedy starring Chevy Chase as an investigative journalist who happens onto a big drug smuggling operation. Chase is smarmy as usual (you either love him or loathe him; nowhere in between), and I enjoyed all the references to the Showtime Lakers (Chick Hearn and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar even make cameo appearances). Pretty funny movie, too. Some of the parts where Chase goes in disguise to gather information fall flat, but they're mostly funny.
The Blind Side (2009): Enjoyed this more than I thought I would. There are parts that are really corny, and I wanted to chuck the little kid into oncoming traffic half the time, but the movie takes care to not dive too heavily into melodrama. I also appreciate that the plot is careful about not being patronizing about its message. As for Sandra Bullock, I haven't seen any of the other Best Actress nominees, so I can't make any judgments about whether she was ultimately deserving of the award, but I will say I never once felt as if I was watching Bullock onscreen. It's a good performance, and a nice, inspiring movie.
Speed (1994): All the jokes and parodies and whatnot kept me away from this movie for years, but I decided "What the hell" and watched it this morning ... shockingly entertaining, is what I say. There's definitely some post-Schwarzenegger goofiness (Keanu Reeves has a couple of lines that made me laugh and roll my eyes), but it's a well-made, exciting thriller with Dennis Hopper being a dickhead the whole movie. Good times. A couple of other things: 1) I wonder if anyone who saw this predicted that Sandra Bullock would go on to win an Oscar. Not that she's bad (she's not), but she's driving a bus in an action flick, haha. 2) Alan Ruck (aka Cameron from Ferris Bueller's Day Off) is one of the bus passengers, and it TOTALLY distracted me.
On the queue for this week: Invictus (2009), maybe Soylent Green (1973) finally.
Total Movies: 77 (The Taking of Pelham 123, The Station Agent, The Final Destination, Silent Movie, The African Queen, Departures, Moon, Bound, Solaris, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rifftrax), Wristcutters: A Love Story, In the Loop, Public Enemies, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Rifftrax), Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-Hen, District 9, The Magnificent Seven, Night Moves, My Name is Bruce, Big Fan, Almost Famous, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Drag Me to Hell, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Kara no Kyoukai 1-7, 9, Zombieland, Ninja Scroll, Primer, Re-Animator, Summer Wars, The Changeling, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Ponyo, Eden of the East: The King of Eden, Porco Rosso, Something Something Something Dark Side, Castle in the Sky, Robot Carnival, Halloweentown, Whisper of the Heart, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Fiddler on the Roof, Kiki's Delivery Service, Genius Party, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, The Sky Crawlers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, My Neighbors the Yamadas, THX 1138, The Stepfather, Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, Tremors, Horror of Dracula, The Brood, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, Rabid, Inglourious Basterds, Them!, The Yakuza, Alphaville, Ghost in the Shell, Priceless, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance, Whip It, A Boy and His Dog, Fletch, The Blind Side, Speed)
