Fight Club

I'd seen this movie years ago, so I already knew the story; but I read the book a few weeks ago, which gave me a craving to see Brad Pitt's muscles and hear the cool Pixies soundtrack again.

Here's something I don't remember noticing the other time I watched it: the Tyler Durden subliminal messages. He flickers into the picture for just a few frames every now and then (including perhaps one specific part of him at the end).

The movie ends a little bit differently from the book. I guess the book's ending is just a little bit more rational or realistic, but I'm not sure which ending I prefer.

But I can tell you that in general I prefer the movie, because man, that Brad Pitt sure is hot stuff.

Inglourious Basterds

Brad Pitt + Quentin Tarantino = ??? I kind of felt compelled to find out. On the other hand, (don't shoot me but) war movies = thumbs down, spaghetti (or any other kind of) westerns = thumbs down, so I would think that war movie + spaghetti western (don't ask me--that was what netflix claimed) = theoretically two thumbs down. (After watching, I'm guessing the spaghetti western reference was based solely on the soundtrack.) Even though it took forEVER for netflix to sent me a copy of this disk (I sat through several months of Very long wait), I was not especially eager to sit down and watch it once it finally arrived.

Surprisingly enough, I've got to say I was completely engrossed by this movie. The level of tension reached in Chapter One was amazing, and it certainly never got boring after that. I'd only planned to watch about half of the movie tonight and maybe catch the rest tomorrow night, but I couldn't help staying up to see the entire thing in one night, even though by the end I was so tired that my eyes were just rolling around in my head. While this may not be the most, shall we say, historically accurate war movie I've ever seen, I find there may be something to be said for a fantasy regarding how things should have happened.

I'm sure I've made this point multiple times before, but ugh, Brad Pitt and his attempted accents! Can't he just keep his mouth shut and look pretty? The only thing worse than Pitt's southern accent is his stupid little mustache. Here again he was a caricature instead of a character.

This may be one of the only war movies I might recommend for someone to watch. Of course, there weren't many scenes of combat or strategy which, as I'm sure I've said before, are the parts of wars that bore me (integral though they may be). Only problem is, "basterds" is a pretty rude word no matter how you spell it. Maybe I won't recommend it to anyone out loud.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I think this may be one of the many movies that was better as a book. (Not that I've read the book--I'm just guessing). It didn't contain much that was more compelling visually than I imagine the story is in words (except perhaps the scene where Daisy dances at night in the gazebo), although as I've said before, Brad Pitt is awfully pretty and I don't mind looking at him one bit. On the other hand, once again his obviously fake accent was annoyingly distracting.

For most of the movie I found I didn't care much about the characters. Benjamin's condition was mildly interesting, but beyond that I didn't give a whoop about what happened to any of them. (I was curious about how his retro-aging would progress and what this would do to Benjamin's relationship with Daisy, but that was about it). Until Daisy announced that she was pregnant. Then I started to care. Of course Brad Pitt ruined the moment of the baby's birth by announcing that his daughter was "poifect." (I am not kidding. He did it again on Caroline's "foist boithday.") But I must admit it was sadly sweet to watch Toddler Benjamin walking along with Old Daisy, holding her hand as she bent down so he could place a baby kiss on her wrinkled cheek, and I was slightly choked up by the time the cherubic Baby Benjamin closed his darling little eyes and died.

And I was most impressed by the way they managed to make Brad Pitt look younger when he returned after his long absence. Movie magic! How did they DO that?? I mean, he's still a beautiful man, but there's no denying he has some age on him these days. They somehow got him to look just like he did back in his "A River Runs Through It" days, or maybe even "Thelma and Louise" young. I did notice he only appeared in low lighting, so I'm sure that helped, but they must have somehow digitally erased the years. Where can I get me some of that?

True Romance

I was expecting this to be basically the same movie as Kalifornia. I couldn't have been more wrong. My first clue was the music in the very first scene, which told me that this one would be comparatively light-hearted. My second clue was seeing that it was written by Quentin Tarantino. Although this was not the gem that was Pulp Fiction, it's pretty much a romantic comedy, Tarantino style.

Before watching, I didn't even realize Brad Pitt was in this one. (Do you sense a theme throughout the past few movies? Apparently I have reached the point in my netflix queue where I picked out all of the Brad Pitt movies I hadn't seen yet). It was kind of funny to see Pitt in a bit part as a Spicoli-esque stoner.

If I ever had any doubt before (and I may have, during The Fifth Element), this movie convinced me that Gary Oldman is amazing. I would never have believed he could pull off a dreadlocked pimp until I saw it with my own eyes.

Unfortunate that Samuel L. Jackson had such a brief part in this movie. Lucky for us, Tarantino saw the error of his ways and gave us Jules Winnfield a year later.

Kalifornia

Hud warned me I wasn't going to like this movie and for once he was wrong. His warning made me worry that this was going to be as awful as something like Silence of the Lambs (saw that in the theater in high school and it freaked me out so bad that I promised myself I would never watch it again) but, despite all the killings, it was nowhere near as bad as SoL, and I think I know why. See, there was kind of an excuse for the killings in this movie; Brad Pitt played an inbred hillbilly (is that what they call them in Kentucky? I thought that was more of an Arkansas thing) who was obviously not right in the head, and who murdered for money or "necessity" rather than "enjoyment." On the other hand, in SoL we have Hannibal Lecter who is highly intelligent and cultured, and very methodical and matter-of-fact in his killings, just the way a normal person would select a wine to go with their meal. It is much harder to understand why such an outwardly normal-seeming person would end up as a murderer, let alone a freakin' cannibal.

Anyway, this movie was nowhere near as horrifying as Silence of the Lambs, which makes me wonder if I should actually watch one of the Godfather movies. Hud warned me away from those too, knowing I really dislike movies that portray people at their most heartless and cruel, but I've heard so often how great all of those movies are.

I am still trying to decide if Brad Pitt did a good job with his character and accent or if it was more of a caricature. I think most of the time he did pretty well, until he would make one of his Beavis & Butthead grunting noises. One thing's for sure, I really didn't notice the pretty about him much in this flick.

The Devil's Own

You would think that Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt sharing the screen would hold my interest. I mean, all that's missing is Hugh Jackman, right? But alas, let's just say I was not glued to the screen, nor did I run to blog about it immediately. Chalk this up as one of the movies about which nothing stands out for me (other than Brad Pitt trying to do an Irish accent. I didn't think he did a too horribly awful job of it, but then again I'm not Irish. It does make me wonder, though, why they wouldn't let him try a British accent in Snatch. Either way--with an Irish accent here or as an unintelligible Pikey in Snatch--it works better than Kevin Costner's unapologetic American accent in Robin Hood).

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

This DVD sat in my house for days just waiting for me to watch it. I was planning to watch it last Thursday night, but Hud saw it by the TV, picked it up, shook it at me and asked, "Have you actually watched this?" in a tone of disbelief. I told him I hadn't yet, but I planned to, and... why? His response: "This movie is really, really long and really, really boring, and... just really long and boring." (And, by the way, if the title of the movie could be any indication, I thought he might be right). Discouraged by this, I decided I needed sleep more than I needed to watch this movie Thursday night. I didn't regret that decision.

Of course, I knew I would eventually get around to watching this movie. I mean, it has Brad Pitt in it--how bad could it be? I should have at least been able to enjoy looking at him for a few hours. Although I do recall hearing his "Seven Years in Tibet" referred to as "Seven Years in My Seat," which kind of made me squirm uncomfortably every time I thought about popping this 2 hour and 39 minute movie into the DVD player.

Well, as it turns out, Hud was right. Not even Brad Pitt's über-sexiness could hold my interest in this movie. In fact, he wasn't even looking all that hot as Jesse James. The only remedy I could suggest for this flick is the one Toby Keith sang about 15 years ago: "a little less talk and a lot more action." I definitely would have preferred to spend 2 hours and 39 minutes reading the book I can't wait to get back to.

As I watched I found myself wondering why Bob Ford was referred to as a coward in the title of this movie. (This was between moments of wondering HOW much longer until the end??). I could see him being called a traitor, maybe, but he didn't seem any more cowardly than the next guy. I speculated that it could be because he shot an unarmed man who suspected (or expected?) that he was about to be killed, and because he wouldn't admit to Jesse's wife that he'd done it on purpose. While Ford may have killed James in a cowardly manner, it didn't sound fair to classify Ford as a coward based solely on that fact. But that thought did give me an idea. They should have made the title of this movie even longer and more boring: The Assassination of Jessie James in a Cowardly Manner by Robert Ford.

Of course watching the rest of the movie explained his label as a coward. First of all, that was the way the public came to view him. Sounds to me like they came to this conclusion based on the way he killed Jesse James, which was probably the only instance they had by which to judge him. Second of all (apocryphal though this may be) he all but admitted his cowardice to his girlfriend when he told her he shot James because he was scared that if he didn't, James would kill him first.

So we have determined that Robert Ford was a coward, and that I was an idiot for sitting through this movie. Lesson learned.