Last movie you watched......

I have seen Argo and Django Unchained this past week and must say well worth the money. I'd love to see both twice, my goodness.

 

Django Unchained - I'm sorry but this was pretty much junk. Tarantino wimped out by having the slave owner killed by another white man after a fine build-up (Leo saved it from being unwatchable). Yes, there were some slaves in it, but it drifted far enough into this pointless bounty hunter sideshow to derail from it being a really intense slave revolt revenge fantasy.

Tarantino needs to back off the cameos. Christ, they were all over the place and he didn't give these people anything interesting to do. Hey, there's Franco Nero the original Django! Those are the lines you give him? A critique on how to spell the name? Holy shit, there's Tom Savini in the background holding a dog. And then he's gone. Tom Wopat from Dukes of Hazzard as the marshal. WHY? Oh and there's Jonah Hill with some painfully unfunny assessment of klan hoods.

Tarantino is such a necrophiliac when it comes to using music. WHY CAN'T YOU COMMISSION ALL ORIGINAL MUSIC FOR YOUR FILMS? Give a modern composer a shot at some cool spaghetti western music for chrissake. Sergio Leone had Ennio Morricone. Find your guy, Quentin.

 

Nailed it.

 

"Dr. No" -- on the big screen, in an old movie theater they've remodeled in downtown Spokane.

Great to see it with my eighth-grade son -- who has enjoyed the Daniel Craig films -- in a really cool movie theater.

And one huge difference in films 50 years ago: I don't think a single swear word was uttered in the movie.


One last comment, for all you would-be super villains out there: If your hands get destroyed by radioactive material, make sure your fake ones have some grip installed on the fingers. Might come in "handy" ...

 

Saw Broken City, the new Russell Crowe/Mark Wahlberg flick. Not bad, not great but I was entertained. Kinda piss poor on the development of some essential storyline and developing characters within those storylines but overall not bad. Although I'm admittedly giving bonus points to movies that don't last a fortnight these days.

 

Spice World.

Fun snapshot of the late 1990s, from the wardrobes to the cameos.

 

Silver Lining Playbook.

Really liked it. Might have jumped into my Top 3 Rom Coms.

 

I'm beginning to come around to the idea that the more one has seen the source material, the less one likes Django Unchained.

 

'Mama,' starring the ubiquitous Jessica Chastain.
It was alright, some plotting trouble.
A few really great shots and gags.

Overall, I was a little disappointed. When Guillermo del Toro associates his name with something, my expectations are high.

 

Reel Injun. Documentary of how Indians have been portrayed in film. Quite fascinating.

Iron Eyes Cody, the guy from the "Keep America Beautiful" PSA from way back, was an Italian immigrant who lived in Louisiana.

There were better takeaways than that, though. I've added "Smoke Signals" and "The Fast Runner" to my queue.

I need to watch more documentaries.

 

Smoke Signals is a fantastic movie. In a strange way, it sorta has the same vibe as Napoleon Dynamite.

You've blown my mind with the Iron Eyes Cody info. Can't believe he wasn't an indian.

 

He wasn't faking it, though. He adopted the lifestyle and even married a native American. In Louisiana, Italians were discriminated against so took on the native American role early to avoid harassment. So his acting on film wasn't really an act. He lived it, even though he wasn't born to it.

The movie guy interviewed one of his sons and his family considered him native as well. But they showed a photo of him way back on one movie set in line to be airbrushed red.

I'm Netflixing "Smoke Signals" now. I didn't see "Napoleon Dynamite" so I have mo frame of reference there but I'm enjoying it.