p e n g u i n d e v i l

Many moons after borrowing it, I finally sat down and watched Empire of the Wolves. Now that’s a Jean Reno movie! I went in expecting another French flic flick but minutes in it adds gruesome “zombie” faces, a gruesome corpse and Jean Reno in a good role. It also features an involving story of a woman losing her memory, maybe her mind, hallucinations, a serial killer, plenty of action, foreign terrorists, corruption and a few gruesome scenes. Highly recommended to Action fans, and Reno is great in another of his trademark good guy/bad guy roles.

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We also sat through three (yes) Harry Potter movies. I had thought that I had only seen Chamber of Secrets part way through, so I watched the whole thing again, just to realize I’d seen it. We then watched Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire. I don’t know, call me a fool but, in the movies at least, the story only holds about 2 movies of entertainment for me. After that point the thing seems a bit played out. Maybe it holds up better in the books? Anyway, the first two are quite entertaining and clever. Prisoner of Azkaban didn’t really do it for me. I thought it to be gimmicky, self-congratulatory and too self conscious… It seemed to be more interested in its “harry potterness” then in a good story and so the plot just didn’t seem that strong. Goblet of Fire, I thought was equally disinteresting. The plot that is unfolding though these movies is is well and good, but after the first two movies, it seems that the machinations used to move the plot along become gaudy and contrived. Also, I thought that, for a children’s movie, Goblet of Fire is a bit grim.

And if you are in the Boston area some time, I would strongly recommend stopping by the Coolidge Corner Theater. It looked very nondescript, but we stopped in due to it’s proximity to our hotel and we were in for a treat. It is being renovated and the chairs have been replaced with new-style theaters chairs (which, in all honesty, may be a good thing) but it turned out to be a beautiful old art deco theater on the inside. For it’s style, it’s easily the most dramatic I’ve seen yet! Certainly worth supporting this organizations efforts and stopping by to enjoy a film and the 1933 theater itself.

And what did we see there? Well, Little Miss Sunshine! I strongly recommend this one! I thought it was a wonderful movie: A great family movie about a family. I loved the Dwayne character, Alan Arkin, as always, dominated his scenes with his own unique efforts, Greg Kinnear did a great job, especially with the policeman, Steve Carrell shows that he can act just fine outside of juvenile comedies and Abigail is adorable and does a great job. This family road trip comedy of errors (not to be confused, at all, with National Lampoon’s Vacation

We also watched Sybil. Woosh. It starts off slow but it certainly comes into its own… It’s 3 hour length flows by very quickly and I found myself to be unable to tear myself away from it. Very shocking and tense for a TV movie, it has some startlingly unpleasant scenes and themes. Sally Fields is quite good as the women who hides behind a dozen different personalities and Joanne Woodward does a good job as the woman trying to break through them all. It was also a surprise to see good ol’ Charles Lane playing the old doctor… The cast, aside from that, aren’t really noticeable, but they’re pretty secondary to the story so no big deal. Anyway, even for someone with no interest in “multiple personalities”, it was a very engaging movie.

sybil 02:54:24 Lastly, I re-watched The Long Good Friday. Such a good classic… This time I watched the newer Anchor Bay disc. Honestly, it still looks a bit dull, but I’m thinking that’s just how the movie looks. Though it’s been a long time since I watched the Criterion disc, I didn’t feel like this looked all that much better. Soundwise, the dialogue remains unclear and the soundtrack sounds good, for what it is… But what it is, I still don’t like. Those jazzy 70s soundtracks in European movies just don’t do it for me. That all aside, this movie is just great! Bob Hoskin’s breakthrough role, showcasing his powerful presentation, is great! He just is this fellow… Peirce Brosnan’s debut film role, however brief, is very entertaining and he does a good job, Helen Mirren is also quite good… But the movie is really just Hoskins, strutting his stuff! That and a great story, really well-presented. It is quite exciting to be more in the know than poor ol’ Bob, but to still not know what the devil is going on. It is just a really well thought out, well acted, well made classic crime/action film. Highly recommended!

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