The World Cup has destroyed my sleep schedule. I was up at 6 a.m. today, and I didn't even know who was playing. (Paraguay vs. Japan going on right now.) what
Toy Story 3 (2010): Won't get into discussion about whether this is the best Toy Story/Pixar flick, but it's very good and well worth me getting off my lazy ass and paying $9 to see it in a theater. The story is mostly straightforward, but it's pulled off well with the usual assortment of clever, hilarious lines and emotion at the end. Funniest part for me is the sequence at the very beginning -- my favorite bit is the Death by Monkeys button, with the mushroom cloud explosion of monkeys swarming on Woody and company. Thought that was a really clever visual joke. A great end to the trilogy, and I'm sure Pixar will be able to leave well enough alone and keep this as the conclusion to the series.
(Side note: There were trailers for at least eight shitty-looking 3D movies before Toy Story 3 began. Absolutely awful stuff.)
The Two Escobars (2010): This is a documentary about the connected rise and fall of the drug trade and soccer in Columbia -- the title refers to drug lord Pablo Escobar and Columbian national player Andres Escobar, who was shot and killed following a disastrous showing by Columbia in the 1994 World Cup when Columbia had sky-high expectations. (It's a bit hazy as to whether Andres was killed due to the own goal he scored in the Cup, or if drunken tempers just flared when he was partying one night.)
It's a good, interesting documentary that shows how morally gray Columbia was at that time. I've heard a couple of criticisms that the movie casts Pablo Escobar in a positive light; however, I don't think that's accurate. While the documentary does point out that Pablo gave profusely to the poor and was the main benefactor of Columbian soccer, which provided an avenue out of the gutters for many people, the documentary also does not whitewash the many brutal killings that Pablo both committed and ordered. I don't know how anyone could watch this documentary without any knowledge of Pablo Escobar and come out of it believing he was a good man. The documentary shows that he was a terrible man who happened to do some good things.
Maybe my only criticism of the documentary is that it tries to make the case for a direct cause and effect with Andres Escobar's mistake leading to his death when the evidence for that conclusion is not rock solid ... there's enough to bring up the question, but not a definitive amount.
Soylent Green (1973): I like that the movie builds a dystopia that is actually depressingly realistic (overcrowding, dilapidated cities, scarce resources, etc.), but it concentrates equally on a detective story that, frankly, is not interesting at all. I could not get into it at all, especially since you can probably count on one hand the number of people who have not had Soylent Green's final twist spoiled to them at some point.
In the queue for this week: Up in the Air (2009), maybe The Informant! (2009)
Total Movies: 83 (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, June 17, 1994, Nobel Son, Invictus, Toy Story 3, The Two Escobars, Soylent Green)
