Last Five Or So Movies

Powder Blue (2009)
A number of years ago, I watched a Jessica Biel movie solely because she was rumored to have a nude scene in it. Those rumors proved to be false. Just the other day, I watched this one for the same reason. And those rumors proved to be true. So, I can cross that off my "To Do" list.

Taken (2008)
Luc Besson writes an pretty standard action movie with a very unconventional lead in Liam Neeson, and it makes a shitload of money. So, apparently, there is no formula to making money in the movie biz. It's all just dumb luck.

The Wild, Wild West: Season One (1965)
This was one of my favorite shows as a kid, when I caught it on its first or second syndication run. Even though it was basically "James Bond on horses," it was a very original premise, one that wouldn't appear again until another one of my faves, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., used it 30 years later. And, if you've never seen the show, the Will Smith movie of the same name does it absolutely no justice (surprise, surprise).

Angels and Demons (2009)
Three years ago, I saw The DaVinci Code. Three years later, almost to the day, I saw Angels and Demons. And it has all the same problems the first movie had, and is actually worse. And I disliked it even more, chiefly because of its horrid screenplay. I hate movies that force you into thinking that a certain individual is the bad guy by having him do extremely suspicious things, even casting the character with an actor who plays a villain 99% of the time, only to have the person who is totally above suspicion and whom it makes no sense to be the bad guy actually turn out to be the bad guy. The Girl claimed she wasn't fooled and when I asked her why, she said because the movie tried so hard to make you think the bad guy was who it wasn't that the alternative, however impossible, was the only possible solution. That's screenwriting at its worst. This used to happen all the time in cheapo '70s Italian Horror Movies, but this is a big-budget 2009 movie; that bargain-basement shit don't fly here. Oh, and you're welcome for ruining the movie for you; you didn't need to pay to see it anyway.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
What, with all the hype for the newest Star Trek movie, I thought it was about time to go back to watch the oldest Star Trek movie. And, since it's an odd-numbered movie, of course it sucks. However, Douglas Trumbull's Oscar-nominated FX are almost worth the admission price; thankfully, they take up more screentime than the actual plot.

After a whole bunch of losers, this brilliantly goofy thing is the tops:

Synecdoche, New York (2008)
If you thought that, based on his previous works, Charlie Kaufman was capable of some fairly twisted visions, you have no idea what he's capable of until you see this, his first foray as a writer/director. It starts out harmlessly enough, with Phillip Seymour Hoffman trying to launch a play while dealing with his failing marriage and health. But then it gradually all starts to come apart, as life literally becomes art, and vice versa. It ends in complete insanity. Kaufman's visual ideas have been heavily influenced by his collaborations with Michel Gondry; odd touches like the paintings on canvases the size of pinheads, Emily Mortimer's perpetually burning house, or the warehouse with the full-scale model of Schenectady inside, with each model having its own warehouse with its own full-scale model inside all seem to be co-opted from a Gondry daydream. But be forewarned: the movie starts very slowly; it almost seems as though Kaufman has lost his touch for the bizarre during the first half hour. But, rest assured, it does eventually turn out to be the craziest fucking movie I've ever seen.

Makes Lost almost seem logical by comparison. Check it out.