Netflix Diary
1. Zach Galifianakis: Live at the Purple Onion
This was such a disappointment. I've liked Galifianakis ever since his short-lived but kind of awesome VH1 show, Late World With Zach, but hadn't seen a whole lot of his actual stand-up aside from the brief clips interspersed throughout the Comedians Of Comedy documentary and TV series. So I was really looking forward to checking out his new DVD, but it kind of blows. Maybe all his performances are like this and I was just expecting the wrong thing, but he really focused on the Kaufman-esque forced awkwardness of his stand-up more than the one liners and non-sequiturs, and the whole thing was dragged down by prolonged skits with Zach playing his twin brother Seth, which has always been kind of a crappy bit.
2. The Apartment
In the past couple years this has become one of my all-time favorites, movie-wise. So I had to rent it to watch it again and so that J.G. could see it. At some point I just need to rent every Billy Wilder picture I haven't seen, though.
3. The Pianist
J.G. has a somewhat frustrating habit of renting really depressing movies about stuff like World War II and genocide in Africa, and then when the horrifyingly sad stories about global atrocities make her cry, saying "I don't like this movie." I mean, I don't mind watching those kinds of movies, generally they're well made and I'm glad they make me think long and hard about certain dark moments in human history. She just puts a lot of them on our Netflix queue. And we got about a half hour into this one and she just got so upset that she had to turn it off, and I ended up watching the rest of it by myself later. I've always liked Adrien Brody so it was good to see him in the role he won the Oscar for. I didn't really like the direction, though, and felt like it was paced really poorly. And ultimately I felt like the movie was made because the main character was a famous Holocaust survivor rather than because it was one of the more compelling or interesting stories from that period. Also, it really irritated me that one of the stories told by a character, about a baby being smothered so that its crying wouldn't attract the attention of the Nazis, was totally ripped off of the last episode of M*A*S*H. But the last ten minutes, which just focused on the pianist's hands as he played with a symphony while the credits rolled, were really beautifully shot and exhilarating to watch. I could've watched that part for hours.
4. The Constant Gardener
Yet another depressing Oscar-winner. I liked this, though, interesting story and I can see why Rachel Weisz won the Oscar for it.
5. Se7en
J.G. wanted to rent this because she'd seen the ending and a lot of other parts of it on TV before but never the whole thing, and I realized in the course of watching it that I probably hadn't seen the whole thing in one sitting before either. Still a pretty cool movie, although probably a little overrated, and Brad Pitt is kind of terrible in it. I really have zero desire to see Zodiac.
This was such a disappointment. I've liked Galifianakis ever since his short-lived but kind of awesome VH1 show, Late World With Zach, but hadn't seen a whole lot of his actual stand-up aside from the brief clips interspersed throughout the Comedians Of Comedy documentary and TV series. So I was really looking forward to checking out his new DVD, but it kind of blows. Maybe all his performances are like this and I was just expecting the wrong thing, but he really focused on the Kaufman-esque forced awkwardness of his stand-up more than the one liners and non-sequiturs, and the whole thing was dragged down by prolonged skits with Zach playing his twin brother Seth, which has always been kind of a crappy bit.
2. The Apartment
In the past couple years this has become one of my all-time favorites, movie-wise. So I had to rent it to watch it again and so that J.G. could see it. At some point I just need to rent every Billy Wilder picture I haven't seen, though.
3. The Pianist
J.G. has a somewhat frustrating habit of renting really depressing movies about stuff like World War II and genocide in Africa, and then when the horrifyingly sad stories about global atrocities make her cry, saying "I don't like this movie." I mean, I don't mind watching those kinds of movies, generally they're well made and I'm glad they make me think long and hard about certain dark moments in human history. She just puts a lot of them on our Netflix queue. And we got about a half hour into this one and she just got so upset that she had to turn it off, and I ended up watching the rest of it by myself later. I've always liked Adrien Brody so it was good to see him in the role he won the Oscar for. I didn't really like the direction, though, and felt like it was paced really poorly. And ultimately I felt like the movie was made because the main character was a famous Holocaust survivor rather than because it was one of the more compelling or interesting stories from that period. Also, it really irritated me that one of the stories told by a character, about a baby being smothered so that its crying wouldn't attract the attention of the Nazis, was totally ripped off of the last episode of M*A*S*H. But the last ten minutes, which just focused on the pianist's hands as he played with a symphony while the credits rolled, were really beautifully shot and exhilarating to watch. I could've watched that part for hours.
4. The Constant Gardener
Yet another depressing Oscar-winner. I liked this, though, interesting story and I can see why Rachel Weisz won the Oscar for it.
5. Se7en
J.G. wanted to rent this because she'd seen the ending and a lot of other parts of it on TV before but never the whole thing, and I realized in the course of watching it that I probably hadn't seen the whole thing in one sitting before either. Still a pretty cool movie, although probably a little overrated, and Brad Pitt is kind of terrible in it. I really have zero desire to see Zodiac.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, April 29, 2007 at 1:19 PM.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
Post a Comment