Haha, not much to say here, so I'll just get to the movies. (Except go Lakers! lol @ the Jazz)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988): For some reason, it is difficult for me to describe what I felt while watching Totoro, except to say I enjoyed it. There is a plot only in the most basic sense, and only the faintest hint of a conflict. But there's just a magic to it that works -- it's like the type of world that a kid would dream up and live in forever. Satsuki and Mei don't gripe, groan or whine (much); they run around, play and get into things. They're filled with curiosity. That curiosity is what strikes me most about Totoro. The movie is suffused with the wonder of just about everything in the world, from the simple joys of playing outside, to the excitement of flying above the country in a Cat Bus. I suppose the highest praise I could give to Totoro is that I sat back and smiled just about every second of the movie.
The Brave One (2007): Definitely well filmed and acted (Jodie Foster is excellent, and Terrence Howard is pretty good, as well), but I'm of two minds about the content of the movie. I think it does actually try to seriously examine the nature of vengeance and inner feeling of a person who tries to take the law into his or her own hands. But the ending really strikes me as a ridiculous cop-out of the worst kind (pun not intended). I don't want to give out spoilers, but it's as if the writers really wanted to sidestep the issue of either supporting or condemning vigilantism.
3:10 to Yuma (2007): I love that westerns are making a comeback of sorts. The day westerns die for good is the day the movie industry will slide into the crapper for good. Totally underrated movie genre. 3:10 to Yuma has everything good about westerns: An interesting, intense villain (Ben Wade, who is played both frightening and funny by Russell Crowe); a simple, moral man trying his damnedest to fight off the harshness of the west (Christian Bale plays off Crowe perfectly); good side characters (especially Ben Foster as Wade's crazy second-in-command and Peter Fonda as a tough old Pinkerton agent); a ton of great action and awesome shoot-outs; the setting is appropriately tough and weathered; and it's absurdly quotable. Damn it, I love everything about this movie. Give me one great western a year along the lines of 3:10 to Yuma, and I'll be happy.
On the queue for this week: Bringing Out the Dead (1999) and There Will Be Blood (2007)
Total Movies: 57 (Gaslight, The Last King of Scotland, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Darjeeling Limited, This Film is Not Yet Rated, Diary of the Dead, Bullets Over Broadway, Interiors, Husbands and Wives, The Professional: Golgo 13, Lars and the Real Girl, Lolita, Quills, Hamlet, Iris, Manhattan Murder Mystery, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, The Savages, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Stranger, Love and Death, Harold and Maude, Spartacus, Scarlet Street, Sabrina, Zelig, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), Stardust Memories, Barry Lyndon, Be Kind Rewind, Radio Days, Deconstructing Harry, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Creating Rem Lazar, Undefeatable, Ninja Terminator, Ninja Dragon, Rumble Fish, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, In Bruges, The Bank Dick, Marathon Man, Clannad, Air, Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, MirrorMask, Slither, It's a Gift, Splendor in the Grass, Waitress, North by Northwest, Monkey Business, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, The Brave One, 3:10 to Yuma)
