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sdelmonteLibraries are great. They have books. They trade paperbacks of comic books. They have videotapes. They have DVDs!
So I watched:
Ocean's 12 - While still fairly entertaining, Twelve wasn't the new Eleven after all. Rather than focus on one big heist, it bounces around Europe, and gets caught up in more plot than it needs, as well as a sequence that tries to be meta but is just silly. Still, Clooney, Pitt, Damon and the ensemble have a lot of fun, the script is reasonably intelligent, and Soderbergh uses a variety of eye-catching filming styles drawn from teh Eurpean New Wave. Good fun for a rainy day.
Shane - I saw this famous Western some years ago and enjoyed it. On this rewatching, however, its pacing problems are very evident, the performances seem stilted, and I wonder just why this fairly standard film is called a classic. Stick with High Noon for your dose of early 50s classic Western.
Star Wars: Clone Wars, series one - It's Jedis and Clone Troopers vs. Droids across the galaxy, and with Genndy Tartokovsky at the helm, it's everything the recent Star Wars could have been. From beginning to end, this is old-fashioned animation used to its fullest. Kudos to Tartokovsky, to Cartoon Network for airing this, and to Lucas for letting someone else play with his toys so well.
Constantine - Much derided both for ignoring most of the comic book version of John Constantine and for Keanu Reeves, I was looking forward to seeing this. I like Keanu, and I don't know much about comic book Constantine. So I was able to appreciate this as a stylish, occasionally outre, and offbeat horror film about a grade A a-hole, psychic and exorcist fighting the demons outside and within. There's nothing brilliant here, but the film entertains, and offers a somewhat original view of good and evil. Keanu is never going to be the next Tom Hanks, but he does angry and sarcastic heroes well. If you are a purist about Constantine, or are tired of blatant Christian themes, you won't care for this. But if you like colorful and demented horror films with strong heroes, you should have some fun. (That said, I keep wondering what would have been if they kept the basic plot but used the proper English Constantine. And for that matter, I wonder how the Winchester boys would have dealt with the same situation.)
So I watched:
Ocean's 12 - While still fairly entertaining, Twelve wasn't the new Eleven after all. Rather than focus on one big heist, it bounces around Europe, and gets caught up in more plot than it needs, as well as a sequence that tries to be meta but is just silly. Still, Clooney, Pitt, Damon and the ensemble have a lot of fun, the script is reasonably intelligent, and Soderbergh uses a variety of eye-catching filming styles drawn from teh Eurpean New Wave. Good fun for a rainy day.
Shane - I saw this famous Western some years ago and enjoyed it. On this rewatching, however, its pacing problems are very evident, the performances seem stilted, and I wonder just why this fairly standard film is called a classic. Stick with High Noon for your dose of early 50s classic Western.
Star Wars: Clone Wars, series one - It's Jedis and Clone Troopers vs. Droids across the galaxy, and with Genndy Tartokovsky at the helm, it's everything the recent Star Wars could have been. From beginning to end, this is old-fashioned animation used to its fullest. Kudos to Tartokovsky, to Cartoon Network for airing this, and to Lucas for letting someone else play with his toys so well.
Constantine - Much derided both for ignoring most of the comic book version of John Constantine and for Keanu Reeves, I was looking forward to seeing this. I like Keanu, and I don't know much about comic book Constantine. So I was able to appreciate this as a stylish, occasionally outre, and offbeat horror film about a grade A a-hole, psychic and exorcist fighting the demons outside and within. There's nothing brilliant here, but the film entertains, and offers a somewhat original view of good and evil. Keanu is never going to be the next Tom Hanks, but he does angry and sarcastic heroes well. If you are a purist about Constantine, or are tired of blatant Christian themes, you won't care for this. But if you like colorful and demented horror films with strong heroes, you should have some fun. (That said, I keep wondering what would have been if they kept the basic plot but used the proper English Constantine. And for that matter, I wonder how the Winchester boys would have dealt with the same situation.)
