Movie Diary
1. The Departed
I didn't have especially high expectations, but I think I ended up liking this as much as any other Scorcese film I've seen, or even more. I groaned every time he cued up "Gimme Shelter" (although the Nas and Dropkick Murphys songs almost made up for it), but it turned out to be one of those rare Oscar bait movies where the A-list cast were pretty much all in top form, Baldwin and Wahlberg especially. Even the contrived-sounding premise played out in some subtle and surprising ways (although the whole thing of Damon and DiCaprio unwittingly sleeping with the same woman seemed like a completely unnecessary parallel that went nowhere, even if the woman was pretty hot). What I especially liked was how it captured the same depressed blue collar port city organized crime vibe as the 2nd season of The Wire, and how much it focused on the role that cell phones play in these kinds of stories now.
2. The Prestige
As I predicted, this was similiar to The Illusionist but much better, lots of twists to keep you guessing. J.G. kind of figured out one of the big revelations pretty early, but even when you could see stuff coming there was a really good air of mystery to the whole thing. Cool to see Andy Serkis in something where he's not Gollum, too.
3. Fade To Black
Jim brought this DVD over since I'd never seen it and kinda wanted to. It's kind of funny how much a product of its moment it is, Jay getting wrapped up in the idea that he was really going to retire, making a big deal out of headlining the Garden when he's done it like 3 times since then. Depressing, too, considering that this comeback album is probably going to soil the premature legendary status that the retirement helped him achieve. His voiceovers were really the worst part of the movie. I always like in-the-studio footage, though, I wish there was more of that, even when it's like all the deluded producers on the album who really think they've making classic beats, when they've done enough real classics to know better.
I didn't have especially high expectations, but I think I ended up liking this as much as any other Scorcese film I've seen, or even more. I groaned every time he cued up "Gimme Shelter" (although the Nas and Dropkick Murphys songs almost made up for it), but it turned out to be one of those rare Oscar bait movies where the A-list cast were pretty much all in top form, Baldwin and Wahlberg especially. Even the contrived-sounding premise played out in some subtle and surprising ways (although the whole thing of Damon and DiCaprio unwittingly sleeping with the same woman seemed like a completely unnecessary parallel that went nowhere, even if the woman was pretty hot). What I especially liked was how it captured the same depressed blue collar port city organized crime vibe as the 2nd season of The Wire, and how much it focused on the role that cell phones play in these kinds of stories now.
2. The Prestige
As I predicted, this was similiar to The Illusionist but much better, lots of twists to keep you guessing. J.G. kind of figured out one of the big revelations pretty early, but even when you could see stuff coming there was a really good air of mystery to the whole thing. Cool to see Andy Serkis in something where he's not Gollum, too.
3. Fade To Black
Jim brought this DVD over since I'd never seen it and kinda wanted to. It's kind of funny how much a product of its moment it is, Jay getting wrapped up in the idea that he was really going to retire, making a big deal out of headlining the Garden when he's done it like 3 times since then. Depressing, too, considering that this comeback album is probably going to soil the premature legendary status that the retirement helped him achieve. His voiceovers were really the worst part of the movie. I always like in-the-studio footage, though, I wish there was more of that, even when it's like all the deluded producers on the album who really think they've making classic beats, when they've done enough real classics to know better.
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on Monday, November 13, 2006 at 8:56 AM.
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