Moving, Movies (It's a comma splice)

“Everyone always leaves it trashed.”
-Landlord of old house

Moving. Ugh. That sums it up, really. I finally got rid of one house, yesterday, by returning the key to my old landlords. They were terribly thrilled that I had actually cleaned the place up. A first time occurrence, she said.

I also hung my numerous pictures, some are crooked, and none are even with each other, so it’s bugging me, but they are on the wall instead of in a pile on the coffee table, so I’m going to call it good for now.

Hollywood has been pretty disappointing lately, putting garbage like The Descent and Pulse up on the big screen, but in the past few weeks they’ve geared up for colder weather by opting for some decent flicks, like The Illusionist. Keith and I went to the theater Friday, and now I’ve seen two good movies, in a row, at the theater. Good God! In other news, my two latest Netflix flicks didn’t quite do it for me.

Movie Review: Flyboys. Where Geronimo got it wrong, this film gets it right. It takes a big historical story – that of the Lafayette Escadrille – and works into it a manageable and focused plot with developed characters. Here’s the gist: Take a handful of Americans, before America joined the war, who volunteer to go to France and be among the first ever fighter pilots. Make one of them James Franco, who plays a cocky ranch boy who plans to become the new unit’s first “ace” and add Martin Henderson (playing Reed Cassidy) saying his line about the average life expectancy for a fighter pilot being three to six weeks, and viola! The writers do a nice job of individualizing the characters, and creating a tight plot – they’re pretty slick about nonchalantly introducing elements that become important later on, so pay attention. Martin Henderson is mundo badass as Cassidy, and he and Franco have a nice mentor-protégé dynamic. Although a savvy movie-watcher will see the main plot arc pretty early on, there’s plenty of other good stuff to keep you watching. The fight scenes had me leaning forward, and that doesn’t often happen. Definitely worth a trek to the theater.

Movie Review: Donnie Darko. Cult classic. Demonic Bunny. Adolescent kid with a bit of mental illness. Sounds good, right? Eh. I can mostly see where they were going with the idea, but the execution left me not caring much. The movie plods along, making a point of “ain’t life weird?” and here and there dropping hints that there’s a plot, oh and characters. Jake Gyllenhaal wanders around acting either really weird, psychopathic, or very intelligent and sometimes sweet. They emphasize the mental illness a lot with, “see, he’s not right in the head” scenes that kept making me think, “Yeah, I get it already.” Of course, you get to the end and have the big twist, and then get to thinking about it and realize – but what the hell? If that’s what happens, then why does the rest of it matter? Dunno on this one guys. I salute it for its outright weirdness and the fact that they did something radical at the time, but for pure movie value, it fell short.

Movie Review: Great Expectations. This is the one with Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow. As far as I can tell, most people are either really fond of it, or particularly dislike it. Me? The second one. I’m all about modernizing classic stories in movies, like the slightly corny and wonderful Bride and Prejudice, but only when they’re done well. This one wasn’t. I don’t mind that they change details, like naming him Finn instead of Pip. I do mind when they change random stuff for no good reason – like why the hell was Maggie a hooker instead of a bitchy housewife? I also mind when they miss the themes that made the original so enduring. The major one for me: in the novel, Pip’s miserable because he’s ashamed of where he comes from, in the movie, he’s fine with it and when he gets his “big break” he almost turns it down instead of jumping at it. I mean, come on, that’s practically the WHOLE POINT of the novel. Dumbasses.