Movie Diary
a) Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest
After hearing all about the behind-the-scenes drama about this movie as it was being made and completed, I didn't really have much of an appetite to see it. But then it popped up on cable and I got really excited and remembered that The Low End Theory is still probably my favorite rap LP of all time. Michael Rapaport's direction is actually pretty decent and does a good job of evoking the mood and the joy of Tribe's music and some of the interviews and musical montage segments are really great, but of course the second half of the movie falls into all the in-fighting stuff that the making of the movie itself got sadly mired in (which makes the 'resolution' of the end of the film ring false). But even that stuff is still kind of fascinating since it's less typical rap beef and more of an archetypical rock band dynamic of a bunch of guys bickering about whether it's a true group or a star vehicle for a frontman, etc.
b) Bad Teacher
These kinds of unapologetically sleazy anti-hero movies are not my favorite type of modern comedy, but I appreciate them when they're done well, and I really enjoyed how relentlessly nasty Bad Teacher is, really didn't pull any punches.
c) Your Highness
A pretty dumb movie but at least kinda sorta entertaining, if for no other reason than NatPo. I think I wanted it to be more low key and casual than it was, I was kind of amazed at how much much they spent on these big special effects scenes that weren't very funny and were actually kind of ugly to look at, it really didn't benefit the movie in any way.
d) Battle Los Angeles
Even after seeing this I can barely tell it apart from that other identical-looking space invaders movie that came out around the same time.
e) Last Play At Shea
I for some reason don't hate Billy Joel, so I found this doc pretty entertaining.
f) The Cottage
My wife and I have a Valentine's Day tradition, as I've said here before, by getting Chinese takeout and watching horror movies, and this year we scrolled through the OnDemand menu looking for various scary movies and having a hard time deciding. I ultimately decided to check out this movie because I like seeing Andy Serkis in non-motion capture roles, and at first I felt kind of annoyed at it being categorized as a horror movie since the first hour or so is basically just a farce, a caper gone wrong kind of movie. But then the serial killer shows up and it gets pretty gorey, if still in a very over-the-top satirical way. Funny movie, though, sharp dialogue, some really fun performances.
g) Fade To Black
Weird historical fiction kind of thing about Orson Welles, with Danny Huston doing a not very convincing at all Welles. I think the movie would've come off more enjoyable and original if they'd just changed the character's name and made it more overtly fictional, really.
After hearing all about the behind-the-scenes drama about this movie as it was being made and completed, I didn't really have much of an appetite to see it. But then it popped up on cable and I got really excited and remembered that The Low End Theory is still probably my favorite rap LP of all time. Michael Rapaport's direction is actually pretty decent and does a good job of evoking the mood and the joy of Tribe's music and some of the interviews and musical montage segments are really great, but of course the second half of the movie falls into all the in-fighting stuff that the making of the movie itself got sadly mired in (which makes the 'resolution' of the end of the film ring false). But even that stuff is still kind of fascinating since it's less typical rap beef and more of an archetypical rock band dynamic of a bunch of guys bickering about whether it's a true group or a star vehicle for a frontman, etc.
b) Bad Teacher
These kinds of unapologetically sleazy anti-hero movies are not my favorite type of modern comedy, but I appreciate them when they're done well, and I really enjoyed how relentlessly nasty Bad Teacher is, really didn't pull any punches.
c) Your Highness
A pretty dumb movie but at least kinda sorta entertaining, if for no other reason than NatPo. I think I wanted it to be more low key and casual than it was, I was kind of amazed at how much much they spent on these big special effects scenes that weren't very funny and were actually kind of ugly to look at, it really didn't benefit the movie in any way.
d) Battle Los Angeles
Even after seeing this I can barely tell it apart from that other identical-looking space invaders movie that came out around the same time.
e) Last Play At Shea
I for some reason don't hate Billy Joel, so I found this doc pretty entertaining.
f) The Cottage
My wife and I have a Valentine's Day tradition, as I've said here before, by getting Chinese takeout and watching horror movies, and this year we scrolled through the OnDemand menu looking for various scary movies and having a hard time deciding. I ultimately decided to check out this movie because I like seeing Andy Serkis in non-motion capture roles, and at first I felt kind of annoyed at it being categorized as a horror movie since the first hour or so is basically just a farce, a caper gone wrong kind of movie. But then the serial killer shows up and it gets pretty gorey, if still in a very over-the-top satirical way. Funny movie, though, sharp dialogue, some really fun performances.
g) Fade To Black
Weird historical fiction kind of thing about Orson Welles, with Danny Huston doing a not very convincing at all Welles. I think the movie would've come off more enjoyable and original if they'd just changed the character's name and made it more overtly fictional, really.
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on Thursday, March 08, 2012 at 12:22 PM.
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