At the movies
It takes 17 hours to travel from L.A. to Bangkok and 16 hours to get back. Luckily there were movies to keep me occupied. I've always thought that screens on the back of vehicle headrests are ridiculous--yet another sign of humanity's decreasing attention span and need to be entertained all the time--but now I can't say anything.
Casino Royale (USA, 2006) - The last Bond movie I saw co-starred Michelle Yeoh. I wondered why her character even needed Bond and why I was watching it as well. In this installment, Daniel Craig was pretty badass, and the "extreme walking" wasn't as annoying as I expected. A lot of good sequences, but the part where he falls in love was pretty far-fetched and seemed out of character. Although the card playing scenes were pretty good, I think the God of Gamblers movies' scenes were better. Likewise, Chris Cornell's song was pretty good but not nearly as catchy as Duran Duran's. A nice reset for the franchise, nonetheless.
Radio Star (Korea, 2006) - It was hard for me to get into this movie. The protagonist, a washed-up rock star, was such an asshole that I had no interest in getting to the redemption part of the movie. Then I realized that I'd never get to the end of 75 percent of all Korean movies if I thought that way! The protagonist has to swallow his pride (to an extent) and take an afternoon DJing gig in a small town. The show is a lot like Jonesy's Jukebox, since he invites people in to talk in a spontaneous manner, ramble about whatever's on his mind, talk shit, and play acoustic guitar. I wonder if the writer ever listens to Indie 103? The movie turned out to be all right--sappy yet rocking and pretty satisying.
Deja Vu (USA, 2006) - Mixing elements of Law & Order and Back to the Future, this action movie's crime-solving is as solid as as the science is wacky, but Denzel Washington is so confident and cool that I fell for it. Val Kilmer is pretty good, too, in an understated role.
Udon (Japan, 2007) - This crowd-pleaser is sort of like Tampopo without all the whimsical side stories. It shamelessly pulls at your heartstrings with an understated love story and a dysfunctional father-son relationship, but the idea of food making everything okay will be hard to resist for even the most stoic audiences. Kinda cheesy, but really well done.
Guru (India, 2007) - This rags-to-riches story is pretty straightforward, telling the true story of Gurukant Desai's rise to become the Polyester king of India. The protagonist focus is unwavering and he never loses faith in himself, and the way he bullies his way though every situation makes him kind of unlikeable. Nonetheless, the fact that his wife is played by Aishwarya Rai makes the story extremely watchable. It's kind of like Rocky, actually. The movie was only about 2 hours long, which leads me to believe that a lot of song-and-dance sequences were cut out of the version I saw.
Casino Royale (USA, 2006) - The last Bond movie I saw co-starred Michelle Yeoh. I wondered why her character even needed Bond and why I was watching it as well. In this installment, Daniel Craig was pretty badass, and the "extreme walking" wasn't as annoying as I expected. A lot of good sequences, but the part where he falls in love was pretty far-fetched and seemed out of character. Although the card playing scenes were pretty good, I think the God of Gamblers movies' scenes were better. Likewise, Chris Cornell's song was pretty good but not nearly as catchy as Duran Duran's. A nice reset for the franchise, nonetheless.
Radio Star (Korea, 2006) - It was hard for me to get into this movie. The protagonist, a washed-up rock star, was such an asshole that I had no interest in getting to the redemption part of the movie. Then I realized that I'd never get to the end of 75 percent of all Korean movies if I thought that way! The protagonist has to swallow his pride (to an extent) and take an afternoon DJing gig in a small town. The show is a lot like Jonesy's Jukebox, since he invites people in to talk in a spontaneous manner, ramble about whatever's on his mind, talk shit, and play acoustic guitar. I wonder if the writer ever listens to Indie 103? The movie turned out to be all right--sappy yet rocking and pretty satisying.
Deja Vu (USA, 2006) - Mixing elements of Law & Order and Back to the Future, this action movie's crime-solving is as solid as as the science is wacky, but Denzel Washington is so confident and cool that I fell for it. Val Kilmer is pretty good, too, in an understated role.
Udon (Japan, 2007) - This crowd-pleaser is sort of like Tampopo without all the whimsical side stories. It shamelessly pulls at your heartstrings with an understated love story and a dysfunctional father-son relationship, but the idea of food making everything okay will be hard to resist for even the most stoic audiences. Kinda cheesy, but really well done.
Guru (India, 2007) - This rags-to-riches story is pretty straightforward, telling the true story of Gurukant Desai's rise to become the Polyester king of India. The protagonist focus is unwavering and he never loses faith in himself, and the way he bullies his way though every situation makes him kind of unlikeable. Nonetheless, the fact that his wife is played by Aishwarya Rai makes the story extremely watchable. It's kind of like Rocky, actually. The movie was only about 2 hours long, which leads me to believe that a lot of song-and-dance sequences were cut out of the version I saw.
posted by gr at
9:42 PM
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