Movie Diary
1. Tristan & Isolde
J.G. and I saw this the other night because it's one of her favorite stories/myths and she was curious to see how a film adaptation would come out, although she found the "the original Romeo & Juliet" tagline pretty distasteful. Although there are few things I'm more wary of than the post-Gladiator new school of historical costume epics, I found it relatively painless, although not great. Apparently they changed a fair amount of the specifics of the original story and removed a lot of magic and mysticism from it. James Franco is still on the 8-year streak of rebellious brooding that began with Freaks & Geeks, although his performance was actually pretty strong, and the rest of the cast was decent, Rufus Sewell being a standout.
2. I Heart Huckabees
Maybe it was because I watched this really late at night while grappling with insomnia, but this was kind of a listless, unpleasant viewing experience. It definitely seemed like he was going for something kind of unique and with more depth than the average 'quirky' 00's comedy, but the fact that almost everything about it, from Jason Schwartzman down to the Jon Brion score, carried the stench of that trend made it hard to seperate from all the other movies of the past few years that it harbors obvious comparisons to. Plus, almost everyone in the cast aside from Wahlberg was tremendously annoying. I might give it another chance sometime, but I don't know if mileage will vary.
3. Jersey Girl
Saw this on cable recently, and I have to say, despite the Bennifer and poor box office and negative reviews and being disowned by even View Askew nerds, it was actually alright! If Kevin Smith's goal was to make something as un-Kevin Smith-y as possible, he did a pretty decent job, even if occasional reminders kept popping up, like the bartender from Dogma making a joke about crotch rot. Even George Carlin had a role that required him to do something other than mug and raise his eyebrows, which was a little refreshing. And there were some parts that were genuinely funny and surprising, like the Will Smith cameo, which was kind of subversive and clever in a way that Huckabees only wishes the Shania Twain bit was.
J.G. and I saw this the other night because it's one of her favorite stories/myths and she was curious to see how a film adaptation would come out, although she found the "the original Romeo & Juliet" tagline pretty distasteful. Although there are few things I'm more wary of than the post-Gladiator new school of historical costume epics, I found it relatively painless, although not great. Apparently they changed a fair amount of the specifics of the original story and removed a lot of magic and mysticism from it. James Franco is still on the 8-year streak of rebellious brooding that began with Freaks & Geeks, although his performance was actually pretty strong, and the rest of the cast was decent, Rufus Sewell being a standout.
2. I Heart Huckabees
Maybe it was because I watched this really late at night while grappling with insomnia, but this was kind of a listless, unpleasant viewing experience. It definitely seemed like he was going for something kind of unique and with more depth than the average 'quirky' 00's comedy, but the fact that almost everything about it, from Jason Schwartzman down to the Jon Brion score, carried the stench of that trend made it hard to seperate from all the other movies of the past few years that it harbors obvious comparisons to. Plus, almost everyone in the cast aside from Wahlberg was tremendously annoying. I might give it another chance sometime, but I don't know if mileage will vary.
3. Jersey Girl
Saw this on cable recently, and I have to say, despite the Bennifer and poor box office and negative reviews and being disowned by even View Askew nerds, it was actually alright! If Kevin Smith's goal was to make something as un-Kevin Smith-y as possible, he did a pretty decent job, even if occasional reminders kept popping up, like the bartender from Dogma making a joke about crotch rot. Even George Carlin had a role that required him to do something other than mug and raise his eyebrows, which was a little refreshing. And there were some parts that were genuinely funny and surprising, like the Will Smith cameo, which was kind of subversive and clever in a way that Huckabees only wishes the Shania Twain bit was.
Labels: comedy, Movie Diary, movies
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 at 11:03 PM.
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I dug _I Heart Huckabees_ because it entertained me and I think the philosophy arrived at is sensible, but I can understand why others wouldn't.
This may all be colored by how hot I think he is.
(You may mock, but I have heard it all before.)