Just taking a break from my musings on the ACE review to talk about movies I've seen recently.
TALK TO HER - Almodovar's bit-funny, very poignant film on love, life, coma, and death. Brilliant and emotionally engaging, it's far from the Hollywood formula with unrequited love that ends in tragedy.
MY WIFE IS AN ACTRESS - Yves Attal's piece is funny and quirky in a nice kind of way. entertaining but not crass. Again, not your Hollywood kind of comedy.
21 GRAMS - Sean Penn's movies are almost always dreary, and depressing. This is no exception. But the film has a nice morale and intriguing premise: we all lose 21 grams of weight at time of death. Go figure!
GOOD BOY - If you like dogs, this is something to drool at. The cutesy dog tricks always works with dog lovers like me anyway. I still like Cats and Dogs though. But this one is passable fare.
SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE - Always admired Jack Nicholson's thespic abilities. He's always so cool, so into character -- from his axe murderer character in The Shining, to the insane joker in Batman, and now, an aging hip-hop record company owner, he's always believable, and immensely watchable. Galing! Having Amanda Peet in the cast also works, big time! Kidding aside, Dianne Keaton is great, and a natural. Guess she deserves that Oscar nod after all. Overall, I laughed hard at a lot of the scenes, especially the dancing Henrys, considering it was past midnight when I watched it.
CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN - I've always adored Steve Martin's films even when he seemed to have stumbled with some of his choices. Given a chance, I would love to collect his films like Leap of Faith. In Cheaper by the Dozen, he's the father of the baker's dozen (nice pun!). It's a miracle they're producing movies like these in this day and age when the norm is having NO kids at all. The storyline may appear trite but the bottomline I get is that you can't have it all. It was poignant to hear Steve Martin tell the university's sports head that if he fails in his being a father, nothing he achieves will matter anyway. A great family film!
GOTHIKA - Was intrigued by the trailer, less impressed by the movie's story development. Passable entertainment anyway. I kinda hate it when I can guess where the story is headed (with my ESP, it can be frustrating anyway, hehehe). But the effects, the acting were great. Halle Berry has already proven her mettle as an actress with an Oscar two years ago, always making a statement with her acting apart from her distracting physical presence (ahem). The lighting and mood were obviously borrowed from the Japanese horror genre, so it's a case of Hollywood borrowing from the Eastern film school.
TALK TO HER - Almodovar's bit-funny, very poignant film on love, life, coma, and death. Brilliant and emotionally engaging, it's far from the Hollywood formula with unrequited love that ends in tragedy.
MY WIFE IS AN ACTRESS - Yves Attal's piece is funny and quirky in a nice kind of way. entertaining but not crass. Again, not your Hollywood kind of comedy.
21 GRAMS - Sean Penn's movies are almost always dreary, and depressing. This is no exception. But the film has a nice morale and intriguing premise: we all lose 21 grams of weight at time of death. Go figure!
GOOD BOY - If you like dogs, this is something to drool at. The cutesy dog tricks always works with dog lovers like me anyway. I still like Cats and Dogs though. But this one is passable fare.
SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE - Always admired Jack Nicholson's thespic abilities. He's always so cool, so into character -- from his axe murderer character in The Shining, to the insane joker in Batman, and now, an aging hip-hop record company owner, he's always believable, and immensely watchable. Galing! Having Amanda Peet in the cast also works, big time! Kidding aside, Dianne Keaton is great, and a natural. Guess she deserves that Oscar nod after all. Overall, I laughed hard at a lot of the scenes, especially the dancing Henrys, considering it was past midnight when I watched it.
CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN - I've always adored Steve Martin's films even when he seemed to have stumbled with some of his choices. Given a chance, I would love to collect his films like Leap of Faith. In Cheaper by the Dozen, he's the father of the baker's dozen (nice pun!). It's a miracle they're producing movies like these in this day and age when the norm is having NO kids at all. The storyline may appear trite but the bottomline I get is that you can't have it all. It was poignant to hear Steve Martin tell the university's sports head that if he fails in his being a father, nothing he achieves will matter anyway. A great family film!
GOTHIKA - Was intrigued by the trailer, less impressed by the movie's story development. Passable entertainment anyway. I kinda hate it when I can guess where the story is headed (with my ESP, it can be frustrating anyway, hehehe). But the effects, the acting were great. Halle Berry has already proven her mettle as an actress with an Oscar two years ago, always making a statement with her acting apart from her distracting physical presence (ahem). The lighting and mood were obviously borrowed from the Japanese horror genre, so it's a case of Hollywood borrowing from the Eastern film school.
