How To Be

This movie is crap.

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If I hadn't heard so many people talking about how great this movie was, I probably never would have been interested in seeing it. It sounded like the kind of thing my husband might like, and of course I would have gone to see it with him if he insisted, but as it turns out, I decided that so many intelligent people couldn't be wrong. I was the one who insisted on going.

It was a really good movie. Great, fast-paced story, visually stunning, and more than once it was so intense that every muscle in my body was rigid and I was riveted to the screen. On the other hand, I must admit that after more than 2 hours I did glance at my watch and wonder how much longer until the end.

I also think perhaps my expectations were a bit high, based on rave reviews from friends. Sorry, Gary, I did not find it a "transformative experience." No, Anne, I can't agree that this was "hands down the best movie ever," although this is not because I can rattle off a list of movies that were far better. I could probably say it was among the better movies I've seen, but by degrees rather than indisputably. Oddly enough, the one friend of mine who did the best job describing Avatar was the one who likened this movie to Fern Gully.

I was definitely impressed by the special effects. I will admit that it had the best graphics of any film I've ever seen--possibly even the best of any film yet made. It was a rare moment during the movie that I was reminded that what I was seeing wasn't real. This is certainly a movie that begs to be seen on the big screen. I saw it in 3D, although I'm not convinced that this added to the experience other than to show off what a great job they did with the effects.

Bottom line: enjoyable movie experience, glad I saw it, it was fun and all, but my favorite James Cameron movie is still Titanic. I guess that proves I'm just a girly girl and always will be.

Fool's Gold

I really only watched this so I could see Matthew McConaughey with his shirt off (yet again). Jimmy Kimmel assured me he couldn't keep it on. However, before watching, I had a pseudo-premonition that I'd seen the movie already and it was horrible. (Or maybe it was just a memory of a bad review). I was pretty relieved to realize the movie I'd been thinking of was "Into the Blue," but I was still worried about this one. But not too worried, because I had some wine to drink.

Surprisingly, Mr. McConaughey kept his shirt on far more often than I would have thought. I should have known that from looking at the poster. But that was OK, since the movie was decently funny, and it didn't take itself too seriously. And I hadn't seen it before.

I just have to say, poor Kate Hudson . . . Matthew's boobs are bigger than hers.

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?

Deliverance

I have been avoiding watching this one for a week now. It felt like a required watching assignment. I mean, hasn't this movie already been seen by everyone in the whole world except for me? Hud claims no one's actually seen it--they just know about dueling banjos and squealing like a pig. (Funny thing is, those are the only two things I knew about the movie, too). But I finally got it over with tonight.

Even though I didn't know what they would fill nearly two hours with (other than banjos and pig squeals), I was surprised by the ethical dilemmas presented. There were so many choices made where the right or wrong decision was not clear. You have to wonder if you would have done the same things, and if not, what you might have done differently. Most times it seemed no choice was available other than a bad one or a worse one. All in all, the movie was pretty riveting. Not something I'll ever watch again by choice, though. Not even to see Burt Reynolds' big guns.

Hitman

All I want to know is, how the heck did this movie get in my netflix queue? It must be a remnant from ancient times when Hud didn't have his own list. It's definitely right up his alley. (Notice the two guns in the picture. Not only that, but apparently this concept started as a video game. Not a very auspicious beginning in my book, but I'm willing to bet that Hud knew that fact before watching the movie, and liked it all the better as a result.)

My goodness, what a lot of exploding heads in just the first 15 minutes. Copious amounts of blood splattered throughout the entire movie. If I had been watching more closely it might have been interesting to time the longest interval between episodes of blood on the walls or the faces of bystanders (the latter of which happened at least three times during the movie, if not more).

I must admit I didn't pay especially close attention to this movie. It's a sad commentary to note that, even so, it was not difficult to follow the plot. I call The Bourne Identity a far superior assassin movie.

Do all sexy Russian girls wear such heavy eye makeup? (Nika the Whore wasn't the first I've seen with some serious raccoon eyes going on. "The Package" in Transporter 3 looked just the same way.) Maybe it's just the girlfriends of Russian mob bosses. But you gotta love when Hitman #47 is dragging Nika out of the restaurant and she resists long enough to reach back and grab the bottle of wine off their table. That would have been me right there. That was the best part of the movie, though. Well, maybe the second best thing; the first being that it was only an hour and 40 minutes long.

Changeling

The first thing I noticed about this movie was how much Angelina Jolie looks like my friend Colette. I'd never noticed it before, but I think if Colette would dye her hair and run around in a cloche she would be a dead ringer for Christine Collins.

The second thing I noticed was how different the actual movie was from the movie I thought this would be. One big thing that threw me off was the title. To me, a changeling is a fat and brainless (or at least airheaded) baby that malicious fairies put in your cradle when they steal your real child. I thought the child they returned to the mother would look exactly like the real one, but the mother would know it wasn't him because of his behavior. I also didn't think she would figure it out right away--I thought it would be a gradual realization that this was not her son. I guess I must have missed the part on the movie poster about this being "a true story," but I expected some sort of weird supernatural element that I didn't find.

The third thing I noticed was that the movie lost momentum and slowed to a crawl after about an hour and 20 minutes--just after the boy dug up the bones. I remember looking at the time and thinking, "there's AN HOUR left??" but then thirty minutes later it got interesting again, since we were led to believe that Walter wasn't dead.

It was annoyingly frustrating that Christine never got closure, after several close calls. I was slightly mollified by the text at the end which more or less told us that Walter was never found, but I sure had been hoping for a happy ending. If I had believed the idea that it was a true story, the bittersweet ending would have been somewhat easier to swallow. During the movie I was thinking the story seemed really realistic but I didn't let myself believe it; after all, when I read "The Bridges of Madison County," that seemed really realistic too. It was mostly just little things (like the radio preacher's weird name. If this had been a made-up story, I don't think they would have made up such a weird name).

When I saw that the Burn Notice guy was in the movie, I was glad, because I like him in his TV show. Too bad it didn't take long to decide he should stick with TV. His accent was so horrible that it was distracting. Also annoying, though slightly less so: while some characters in the movie looked convincingly like people from the 1920s, there were a few (like the whore in the asylum) who for some reason looked like they belonged smack dab in this century. It could have been worse, though. I saw in the trivia section on imdb.com that Hilary Swank and Reese Witherspoon both wanted the lead in this movie. My friend Colette could have done a better job looking the part than they could have!

Overall this was a decent movie and not a waste of time. Angelina Jolie has been in more hokey movies than good ones (Taking Lives? Tomb Raider? Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, for Pete's sake?) but she picked a good one here. I guess you can't go wrong with Clint Eastwood.