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

Thinking that it would be a good afternoon movie, I had my second go through North by Northwest. And I’m glad I did, as I liked it better than last time. Or maybe the two leads bothered me less than they did last time. It’s a great and crazy story of a man being mistaken for someone that he isn’t (someone who doesn’t exist even) who happens to be a secret agent. After an attempt is made on his life he sets out to uncover who is after him and why. In his attempts to clear his name and get out of trouble, he gets a murder pinned on him and becomes a fugitive from the law. North by Northwest is a tale of secret agents, international espionage, mistaken identity, and is a fun tour through Chicago, the plains (with the famous bi-plane pursuit), the United Nations building and that wonderful crazy chase across the front of Mount Rushmore! Cary Grant does still bother me in this (with that accent…) but he does an alright job and is actually rather appropriate for the role. James Mason is just great as the lead villan and Martin Landau is fine, but sadly underused… Though this was quite early in his career. In this day and age the the suspense isn’t that over the top but (except for some tiring, yet relevant romance) the movie is non-stop and the sets are good, I especially like James Mason’s house in South Dakota.

Otheriwse, we watched Eagle vs. Shark. We had to, as it stars Jemaine. But it wasn’t particularly good. A sort of “indie” movie that is a little too intential to be genuine and a little too boring and corny to be entertaining. Jemiane is a nerdy guy who meets a nerdy girl and they akwardly get together, even though he is basically a big asshole and is obsessed with going back to his home town to beat up the Samoan who bullied him when they were in high school and “ruined his life”. There is some lame disfunctional family dynamic going on and the the dumb or dull characters are more like caricatures. It felt like listening to a hip indie rock album if it were made by MadTV.

Then we watched Margot at the Wedding. I don’t know… Maybe it was good. One of those dramas about people who treat each other badly. At the end I thought, “if you were to sum up this movie in a paragraph, who on earth would think that it was a movie that needs to be made?”

Margot is a woman who is in the process of leaving her husband and having and affair. To aid in both of those efforts, she brings her teenage son to the wedding her estranged sister. These sisters don’t get along. And Margot does not like her sisters fiancee Malcolm, thinking him too “coarse” and beneath her level. She also escalates a unpleasent feud that her sister is having with their hillbilly neighbors. Anyway, while all of the “drama” is going on, they throw in some other unsavory stuff as we wonder if this wedding is even going to happen…

Ok, that sounds bad enough but… Margot is played by Nicole Kidman, who is horrible enough in her own right, but her she puts on a portrayal that is the most unsympathic character I have ever seen in a movie, just a terrible snotty bitch who is arrogant, selfish and mean to everyone nearly all of the time. Her sister is played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, who in addition to that unbearable affectation that is her voice (not as bad as in The Hudsucker Proxy, but still) is a a nutty and erratic loser. There is some relief in Jack Black as the artist/musician fiancee, who is kind of a jerk, but is certainly of more interest than any other character. And for some reason, perennial favioite John Turturro makes a couple of appearences as Margot’s cuckold husband. Bascially the movie is a of downer that goes no where and says nothing except that these folks are fools and don’t treat each other very well.