Monday, December 29, 2014

Joyeux Noel: This is a French movie but it also includes English and German. This is the story of the Christmas truce in WWI, in this telling it centers on groups of Scottish, French and German soldiers who do a wonderful thing in coming together, across battle lines for Christmas. Despite the good in this movie, it depressed me a lot, I think this took place the first year of the war, all these people had three or four more years of bloody war, more than that the truce didn't continue and at least in the movie these individuals were reprimanded. There are no happy endings before the end of a war.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Steamboat Bill Jr.: This is a fantastic Buster Keaton movie, the plot is not wonderful but that's not really what one watches a Keaton movie for and his work is amazing in this movie, including what I've heard called the most dangerous stunt he ever did. It is an amazing monument to the man's art and very funny.

Chocolate: I don't think I've written about this before, though I have seen it before. It's a good movie that perhaps falls in the 'foreign film' category. Judi Dench is in it and of course she's wonderful, there's a great ensemble cast, which I always love. The movie is thought provoking on many subjects, chief among those is what is or makes someone good? It's a good movie, sad and serious with light moments and a happy ending.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Hitch: On the surface this is a cute, enjoyable chick flick with some pointers on dating. If you think about it very hard at all or look too closely, things seem to fall apart. There are good parts and points made but not all, also the logic is confusing.

Miracle on 34th Street: First time seeing this all the way through and probably the last. I know this is a Christmas classic (ps, we're talking about the original here) but I just don't love it. The story's okay, but there's a lot of negativity before the happy ending and a lot of jumps.

Much Ado About Nothing (Joss Whedon): I have been curious about this movie since I first heard about it, as I've previously mentioned, this is my favorite of Shakespeare's plays. I did not finish watching it, I may as some point, I haven't decided. I loved the visual aesthetic of the movie but I wasn't loving the actors portraying Beatrice and Benedick, which is a big deal, not everyone will agree but to me they are the very heart and soul of the play, so not liking them is a big deal.