I've seen a ridiculous amount of films this weekend. Thursday I watched Thank You For Smoking, which I enjoyed overall, although I have mixed feelings about the decision to never actually show anyone smoking throughout the film. I understand the point they were making, but I think parts of the story actually suffered from the absence of cigarettes in the hands of characters who talk about how much they smoke. The alcohol lady drinks in the film, the gun guy brandishes his firearm, but the chain smoker never actually lights up. An interesting choice.
But I liked the message behind the film: make your own decisions. Anyone who wanted to decide your morality for you was the bad guy, despite what side of the argument he was on.
Friday I caught Playmates in 3D at the New Beverly theater. The director stood up before the film and announced that the red never came out right in the coloring so the 3-D didn't really work that well. The film had about twelve plots, only one of which ever really got resolved, and the sex wasn't even real sex. People were taped down and dry humping.
And the theater was filled with laughing 50-year-old men cracking jokes. So that was funny.
The movie was supposed to be terrible and that's why it was funny. A porn that embraced it cheesiness so much it make a joke about Rosebud sleds as a poke at its own sad self-image.
Boyfriend and I did not stay for the second film, some blacksploitation porn not in 3-D.
Yesterday I watched The Simpsons in the theater. I already gave my opinion about that.
I tried to watch Bend it Like Beckham and couldn't get excited. Then I tried to watch a Prairie Home Companion and couldn't get excited. Then I watched Supertroopers and enjoyed my laughter. I forgot how funny that movie was. Did you know they're making a sequel?
Then boyfriend and I watched Night of the Living Dead and the original Dawn of the Dead. It's cool to see a genre film that is about more than just the straight story. In both films the zombies serve as symbols of flaws in our society, and that's something I definitely want to emulate in my own zombie film. My story is about zombies, but the zombies are simply a vehicle for a story about trust and love and appreciating what you have.
Tonight Boyfriend and I will watch Taladega Nights and Rocky Balboa and eat quesadillas. And then I'll look out the window to remind myself of what the sky looks like.
This is funny, through temporal proximity. My wife and I went to the mall today, the Monroeville Mall, the mall they used for the film you just watched - Dawn of the Dead.
ReplyDeleteWhile we were there we were talking about how depressing the place seemed. I'd forgotten that it was inhabited by zombies. Life imitates art.
by the way, you would think that being the setting of such a seminal schlockfest as DotD they would have some sort of annual party/promo or something. They don't. :-(
Have you checked out Fido? I think it is still in the theaters? I saw it at Sundance. It is a different spin on the zombie genre.
ReplyDeleteCool post. I would say that if you want to see the worst Will Ferrell movie, Talladega is it.
ReplyDeleteI watched it once and wished I hadn't. Your taste maybe different than mine but uggggghhh...I'm so glad I didn't see it in the theaters.
It's just one bad joke after another. Definitely not "Old School." Even "Kicking and Screaming" was funnier.
Hopefully Rocky Balboa will be better than the last one, but I guess it has to be.
Taladega and Rocky are good movies. Taladega is a bit silly but then it's a Will Ferrell vehicle.
ReplyDeleteRocky Balboa rocks! I like that movie very much.
Re: Thank You For Smoking...
ReplyDeleteFunny, I actually never noticed that no one smoked in the movie. Perhaps it is because I was never a cigarette smoker (just cigars, etc). But it honestly didn't even occur to me!
Your point about the specific morality/message of the film is good. I saw a screening where Reitman spoke afterwards. He was talking about how everyone thought it was "their" movie. On the same day he received an invitation to screen it for some tobacco lobbying group and for the American Lung Society or something. Cool!