Movies
- Superbad: The Unrated McLovin Edition - Man, I think I knew these guys back when I was a teenager. If you’re into silly comedies about geeks and dorks, you’ll probably love this film, for me, it was like reliving the bad parts of high school. Sure, I had a few laughs, but overall I’m glad I’m in my 30′s now.
- 300 – My Persian in-laws railed against it, so I avoided seeing it for the longest time. When I finally did watch, my expectations were low and I kept in mind that it was based on a graphic novel, and only very loosely followed true historical events. It is exactly like a graphic novel come to the big screen. Many visuals look like they could have been taken straight from the novel. Now, I don’t actually know anything about the novel, so I could be wrong that it follows it. Anyways, I enjoyed it, despite Xerxes being really odd and into paraplegic lesbians. (For a different, and very interesting, review of 300, read “300 Sucked” - found via Clint’s Blog)
- Be Kind, Rewind – oh God, kill me. This sucked.
- Atonement – snooze… I didn’t find any chemistry between the main characters and didn’t care about any of them. I had the novel on my Amazon wish list before seeing this. I immediately removed it.
- Sicko – It did not piss me off like Fahrenheit 9-11, but I was really frightened about returning to the US after seeing this movie. Then I remembered that when my dad got cancer, Kaiser never gave him any problems. While I’m sure there are plenty of people like those portrayed in the movie, I don’t know anyone who’s had trouble with their insurance company. It’s not as bad as he shows. Also, Europe is not as good as he shows. I know plenty of British and Canadians who complain about their system. The French family shown can not be a typical middle class family, they are well off, unless the French are doing phenomenally better than the Germans. In the end, typical Michael Moore. His message is important, but making biased movies invites opponents to attack your message, and lets folks get off with ignoring it. It would have been a much stronger movie just showing the good things about socialized medicine, why all the scare tactics?
- I am Legend – I liked it. The first half is great, the second half is okay. It’s a disturbing premise, most humans being wiped out by an engineered virus, and most of the survivors being turned into vampire-like creatures. It’s also upsetting if you’re a dog lover, just to warn you.
- Little Children- Really good. It was controversial, I dunno why. Because a pedophile is portrayed as a human being? Because the main characters have a steamy affair? Because the pleasantly curvy Kate Winslet appears nude? It’s an interesting view of how it can feel to be lost in suburbia.
- Night on Earth- Cab rides in 5 cities. I honestly don’t understand what the big deal is about Jim Jarmisch. This is basically the same movie as Coffee and Cigarettes, except that it takes place in a cab rather then over coffee and cigarettes. In the end, it’s okay, but nothing special. And I liked the Helsinki section best.
- Sunshine- On first viewing, I thought this end of the Earth, the sun’s going out sci-fi thriller was okay. Then I watched the film commentary of physicist Brian Greene, and you know what, I’m considering buying the DVD now. If you’re a science geek, definitely check out the commentary.
Television
- Weeds, Season 1 – Widowed housewife starts selling pot to the local dads in order to make end meet. Loved it. I give it two thumbs up.
- Heroes, Season 1 – Don’t watch this unless you don’t need to be anywhere for a couple days. It’s that good.
- Dexter – This just started on Premiere. I’m two episodes in and completely addicted. It’s a serial killer who works for the Miami PD and only kills killers. It’s such a completely different concept from all the Law and Order, CSI, NCSI type crime shows.
- Numb3rs – A crime show with a mathematician. I enjoy this, but it’s not awesome or addictive. Also, I think if the FBI are investigating the spread of a virus, they’d go to an epidemiological specialists, even if the head investigator’s brother is a pure math “God.”
Have you seen anything especially “Empfehlungswert?” (recommendable)
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
hi there,
we love “my name is earl” and “the office”.
I have seen a few episodes of numbers and there were at least 2x where the “science” was bs. I am a bit of an addict, but I zap away from numbers.
thanks for the suggestions!
a
I’m getting ready to catch up on my movies. Thanks for the recommendations.
There were some moments I liked in Be Kind, Rewind, but boy, that movie struggled with focus. They were just all over the place with their storyline.
My husband saw 300 and thought it was good..me I couldn’t watch all the violence and gave up. Your right about Sicko, it was gratuitous and from other people I communicate with, it’s not that bad. In fact the care all my American relative receive is way better than what we get here in Canada. Here people die waiting…ciao
For the publicity!
If he made a movie that didn’t contain overwhelming bias, no one would sell it and no one would watch it. When was the last time you even heard of a documentary movie playing at a theater in the U.S.?
“Atonement – snooze… I didn’t find any chemistry between the main characters and didn’t care about any of them. I had the novel on my Amazon wish list before seeing this. I immediately removed it.”
better put it back on. everyone i know who read the book said the movie was crap and an insult to ian mcewan.
oh, i forgot:
“sweeney todd”, “eastern promises”, “i’m not there” and “juno” are great!
I’ve been streaming “the 4400″ lately. A USA series, 40 minutes of Scully/Molder-esque, shallow Sci-fi. Honestly, I watch ’cause the young guys are beautiful. really
I agree with Rita on “Eastern Promises” and “Juno”, but I was not smitten at all with “Sweeney Todd”. I went with Alex, Brian and my father. Our distaste was unanimous.
My father even left in the middle and went to watch “Alvin & the Chipmunks” instead.
If “Alvin & the Chipmunks” is your salvation…. that’s not a good sign.
But, I do have to say, I can totally envision you (Christina) enjoying Sweeney Todd.
Also, I am thrilled with Hezamarie’s inclusion of “The 4400″. That is a summer favorite of mine.
Also I concur with Ann on “The Office”. I think that gets better with every season.
Your dad got lucky with Kaiser. I’ve read some sick stories about various things they’ve done…
I read the book Little Children and thought it was pretty good. I’d be interested to see the movie.
We really enjoyed ‘Hot Fuzz,’ a buddy-cop-movie tribute (not spoof) by the guys that did ‘Shaun of the Dead.’ It was quite witty. We’re in total agreement on ‘Heroes.’ We were itching for more after we blew through Season 1. I watched the movie ‘Once’ on the plane in December and was really pretty enchanted by it, but I’m a sucker for musicals.
Okay, I forgot that I also saw Juno and Hot Fuzz. Both are really good. Hot Fuzz is hilarious. It’s so great to see a tribute/spoof movie that isn’t stupid and full of penis jokes.
@ann: I’m pretty good at ignoring BS science (you have to if you want to watch almost any movie or show with science in it), but yeah, Numbers has a lot of it.
@rositta: Yeah, 300 is definitely not for people who don’t like violence. I’m not into movies like Hostel or Saw, but 300-level violence is still okay for me.
@cliff: What about that penguin movie? What was it? Empire of the Penguins or March of the Penguins or something. Wasn’t that some huge hit? It’s possible!
@rita: Hmmm, I’m still wary, I’ll think about putting it back on, but it won’t make its way back there right away. I’ll check out your suggestions, although I will probably wait till Sweeney Todd gets to Premiere.
@hezamarie: The 4400 is on Premiere. I liked the first two (?) seasons, but this last season I feel like it’s really gone downhill.
@vicky: I’m not so sure I’d like Sweeney Todd, I’m not big into musicals. But maybe I should finally check out The Office. I saw an episode a while back and thought it was a little boring, maybe it’s better now.
@clint: I don’t know that he “got lucky,” I think plenty of people get decent treatment from their insurance companies (even Kaiser), but I’m also sure that the companies try to weasel their way out of paying as much as possible. I was insured through Kaiser as a teenager and I got right in when I made appointments, after my freak shotputting accident, I got plenty of treatments and physical therapy, so I’m just saying that my family’s been happy with them. I know that’s not everyone’s experience though.
@sarah: Since I’m no musical lover, I guess I’ll wait till Once hits Premiere, but I do really agree with you on Hot Fuzz.
Oh, and Andrea, Rainer just got me the book of Little Children for my birthday, so hopefully I’ll have time to read it soon!
Thoughts…
* Loved SuperBad, but it didn’t make me glad to be in my 30s.
* For me, 300 is still in the bottom 5 movies out of the last 100 or so that I’ve watched (I track these things…).
* As for Kaiser-Permanente, read some of the stories here:
http://www.kaiserthrive.org/kaiser-permanente-horror-stories/#malpractice
I’ve been in chronic pain for 2 yrs because of my back, and asked my doctor (my first died, 2nd quit Kaiser, 3rd’s the charm? No, she quit right when I left) about steroidal injections. “Why would they do that?”, she responded. Years later I’ve left Kaiser, and in my first dr visit, they are saying, “Why haven’t you gotten steroidal back injections?”
Granted, I only got to see a PA instead of my doctor, and they were late even though I was on time… Kaiser is extremely efficient and orderly, but as they say: “Good,Fast, Cheap: Pick [No More Than] Any Two.” Kaiser is Cheap+Fast, not Good. If you’re lucky enough to flow through the herd, it can be a good experience. Stray from the herd, and be prepared to enter a bureaucratic hell from which you may never emerge. Don’t even get me started on my oral surgery……
* Yea, those I Am Legend zombies were pretty badass. They made 28 Days Later look like Night Of The Living Dead
* Little Children – Didn’t see it, but I found your comments interesting. People often object to movies in response certain predictable stimuli.
Take my favorite director, Terry Gilliam (Brazil, Time Bandits, 12 Monkeys, Fisher King, Fear & Loathing, Monty Python & The Holy Grail), and his movie Tideland … It involved a girl who helped prepare her parents drugs, and then they die and she lives with their corpses for a bit.
Pretty much everyone automatically hated it because of that. I watched it and really liked it. On Netflix, there’s literally like 100 reviews, 99 negative, many quoting “my favorite movie ever is Brazil’ (which is mine) ‘but I hated this’. So I have to say, children are indeed a damn polarizing thing in movies. I really don’t think it should be as such. People are really afraid of the dark.
* Night On Earth – I frickin’ despised Coffee & Cigarettes. In fact, my bottom 5 of the last 100 included 300, Coffee & Cigarettes, Birth, and The Unforgiven (ducks). So yeah — I don’t get the big deal with him either. If I want good dialog, I’ll watch Clerks!
* I heard about Sunshine on Ryan’s [very science-y] blog, and yea, it was cool. Wish I had the patience to watch it with audiocommentary. Really, if a movie is wider than my set, it would be cool to put the audiocommentary captions in the area where the black bar occurs – so you could do both at once.
TV:
* Weeds only gets better.
* Heroes only gets better.
@clint: My doctor at Kaiser gave me steroid injections in my back without me having to ask. But that was 16 years ago, maybe the level of care has gone down(and that was also at the Reston office).
- I’ve never seen Brazil, I should probably watch that, since I like 12 Monkeys, Fisher King and The Holy Grail (haven’t seen the others). But yeah, people freak out over stupid stuff in movies. I mean, it’s a movie, calm down, they’re actors, they are not abusing the kids or anything. Also, this is the way the real world is, but movies are escapism and sometimes you don’t want to be reminded of the real world.
- I haven’t seen Clerks either. Another one I should stick on my To See list.
- That’s great to hear about Weeds and Heroes. Can’t wait to watch the next seasons!
One warning — Brazil can take a couple viewings to “get”. It took me about 3 in high school, but I’m smarter about movies now so it wouldn’t be that bad today. It is……….. Very weird, in traditional Gilliam style.