Schwinn!

So, Beth's parents are in town all weekend. They came down yesterday to enjoy the Grandparents' Day festivities at Max's school and have an OSU game today. Since they are staying here in Columbus, they very kindly volunteered to watch the kids while we went to a movie. We chose to see Burn After Reading, a film brought to us by the Coen brothers.

I haven't laughed at a movie that hard in a very long time. It's described as a dark spy comedy, and dark it is. I would laugh and then think, "I shouldn't be laughing at that." But darn it's funny.
John Malkovich started off not really acting very well, but got into stride pretty quickly and gave an enjoyable performance as a CIA analyst turned aspiring writer. Brad Pitt, while starting to look kinda old, and who wouldn't with that many young kids at home, gave a fabulously campy performance as a gym personal trainer. I've been quoting bits from his role all last night and today! George Clooney, a sex craved federal employee, is a hoot in a strange, perverted sort of way. His role reminded me of the part he played in O Brother, Where Art Thou. That goofy, "My hair!" thing he had going shows through here, although like I said with a perverted twist. Tilda Swinton is a perfectly bitchy pediatrician who threatens to take out one of her young patients. Frances McDormand, who works in the gym with Brad, is just cooky and obsessed with re-inventing herself by plastic surgery. One of my favorite characters was just a bit character played by J.K. Simmons as the bumbling CIA superior just trying to make sense of all the craziness.

If you're into dark, high level, comedies and not easily offended by sex stuff, go see this movie!

Why so serious?

So, we got a sitter and went to a movie last night. We were having a hard time deciding which movie, Mamma Mia!, The X-Files or The Dark Night. We already know the story to Mamma Mia and I was afraid the X-Files would disappoint me, that left the Dark Night.

Now, I love Batman but I really don't care for the "new" Batman. I wasn't a big fan of Batman Begins, primarily because I don't like Christian Bale's version of Batman. He speaks all bulldoggie, raspy and lispy and it drives me nuts. I was also leery of all the hype about how great Heath Ledger plays the Joker and assumed it was probably because the guy died before the movie came out. I knew this going into the movie and the fact that at two and half hours long, I might be in for a painful experience.

I'm still not sure what all the hype is about, if you want to know the truth. I felt that the storyline was a bit dull and rambling. But the excitement over Ledger's Joker is total deserving. He saved this movie as far as I'm concerned. I enjoyed every scene that he was in and got bored when he wasn't around. He was totally in character and added a whole new element of creepy. The movie seriously needs a good editing and probably could have had benefited from cutting out 30-45 minutes.

Something else that surprised me, the PG-13 rating. I felt that this movie was really too violent for that rating, but since I wasn't bringing any kids with me I guess it didn't matter.

Overall, Ledger's performance is worth seeing and I would recommend it for that alone.

Russians Rock!

I have been excited about the movie Wanted since last year. First, it is directed by a Russian movie director, Timur Bekmambetov, who I like a lot. He directed Night Watch and Day Watch the two highest grossing films in Russian history and which have been elevated to cult status in that country, and Twilight Watch which is suppose to come out next year. These are unbelievable difficult films to describe to people. Basically, good (the light others) and bad (the dark others) come to a truce and create the night watch (light others who make sure the dark others don't break the truce) and the light watch (dark others keeping an eye on the light ones). A Great One is expected to come and choose one side over the other, tilting the balance in their favor. Like I said, really hard to explain and do it any justice, but I highly recommend you watch them if you can find them.

Second, Wanted is not a movie remake, which is something I thought Hollywood forgot they could do.

Third, it has Angelina Jolie. I can't help but love her and would probably go see her just standing and staring at the camera for two hours.

Fourth, it's based off of a really awesome graphic novel.

Beth arranged for a girl who lives a couple of houses down from us named Kate to come watch all three kids last night so we could go to opening night. This kid was great by the way and I see much babysitting in her future.

The movie itself, AWESOME!!!!! You should stop reading this and go see it right now. Really, go.

I have heard a lot of reviews compare it to Matrix. I don't really think that's fair. This movie is much more raw and in your face and has a heck of a lot better story line. The hero of the story, Wesley, leads a crappy cubicle life with an equally crappy boss and sad personal life. He's the kind of person we can relate to. Then he finds out that he has super human skills that he inherited from his father that left when he was 7 days old. How does he find this out? The super secret clan of assassins that his father belonged to came and told him that his father was dead and that he needed to come join them and use his mad skillz to kill the jerk who killed his dad. It was a bit much for Wesley to accept, but they did convince him.

The fun part of the story, which they don't spend a whole lot of time on, is that the assassins get their kill orders from fate herself. Fate weaves the names of those to be killed into fabric using a binary code which is interpreted by the leader. Sounds strange but it is explained well in the movie. I'm not going to tell you a lot more about the plot because I don't want to ruin it for you (you are going to go see it).

The visuals are fabulous. I think this is why people compare it to the Matrix. Yes, in some ways it is similar but I think the special effects are more polished and used better than in the Matrix movies. The Matrix had an annoying habit of using the special effects just so they could say, "Look what we can do!". But in Wanted, the effects help the story and never distract from it and still provides a feast for the eyes.

The music is also great. The score is by Danny Elfman who I love and can usually spot his stuff a mile away, but I never would have guessed that it was him. I saw his name in the credits and about fell over. The guy famous for the Simpsons, Beetlejuice and other kinda campy movies made an action movie score? And it was good?

The movie has all sorts of little details in it that I love, including the lead actor from the Night Watch and Day Watch movies, articles in his cubicle that are amusing, etc.

In general, awesome. Go see it. Really. Unless you don't like action films and bullets, in which case we might not be able to be friends......