So far this week I have seen:
SEXY BEAST with Ben Kingsley and another guy who looks exactly like the guy who runs the storage space I rent from. You'd never know Kingsley played Ghandi by this performance as an absolute bastard.
But then again, without the captioning on, his British accent is so strong, it's like trying to decypher an interview with Oasis.

The Great New Wonderful was just that and I am becomming more and more a fan of Maggie Gyllenhall every day. Good movie, quirky at times and very sad during others. The only thing was the entire time I was watching Tony Shaloub, all I could think of was Monk.

Man About Town was pretty damn good considering it was a Ben Affleck movie. Not the best thing in the world but if nothing else is on it is at least enjoyable.

This is more than I can say for The Matador.
If it had only been Pierce Brosnan being snarky and making snide comments and killing people it would have been fine but it also had Greg Kinnear sucking the life out of every single scene he was in! And NO ONE -------I don't care who you are........no one wants to see Greg Kennear having sex! Ew.

I saw two indy films that were both really good: Mind The Gap and Happy Endings. Happy Endings had the best of everything-------Maggie Gyllenhall singing, Tom Arnold NOT being completely revolting, hot boys making out and a good story.
Lisa Kudrow looked like a vole with that brown hair ------again, EW. But the movie was great.

Mind The Gap was much more serious and sad but it had a really sweet ending. I spent the entire movie wondering who was playing the character of Jody, a singer with a pacemaker who was travelling to NY for her first real gig. The voice was incredible and she looked so familiar.Turned out it was Jill Sobule, the girl that had that novelty song (that, well, changed my life) I KISSED A GIRL, in the early 90's. Good to see her around still, she's awesome.

The movie was sad and disturbing at some points and there was girl with red hair that I was so sure was Heather Graham but actually wasn't. Her name is
Elizabeth Reaser
Alan King was also wonderful in this movie.
A lot of the time when people do movies about "Seven people whose lives converge unexpected", a lot of the characters just get lost in the jumble. In this one every one stood out and you felt for each one of them.

Hong Kong Hustle

We have been watching a lot of Hong Kong movies, starting with Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer. Both were very cute, tongue in cheek, slap stick type films. Both reminded us a lot of the films Jackie Chan started out doing.

On the opposite end of the spectrum were the films of Chan-wook Park , Lady Vengeance, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Old Boy.

While Old Boy was my favorite of the three, the ending of Lady Vengeance was more than enough to put it up there as one of the most satisfying endings of all time and probably the only Hong Kong flick with a somewhat happy ending.

I was prepared for Old Boy to be very violent, and while it was mildly violent, the taboo sex and incest were the things you really had to watch out for. If you're squeamish about these subjects, this is not the film for you.

Lady Vengeance was a lot more experimental and surreal, with lots of flashbacks and hallucinations and jumps in time and place. The ending was just so incredible, I would really recommend it above all the others, even for the squeamish because the movie is just that damn good.

This week so far

We've seen The Libertine, The Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie and Rob Zombie's Remake of Halloween.

The Libertine started out strong with Johnny Depp playing a 19th century Jim Morrison. Lots of sex in this one. Johnny Depp and sex. Can't go wrong there. But once it started focusing in on Pygmalion type of plot where he falls in love with a homely actress, it sort of went downhill.

I FREAKING LOVED Rob Zombie's Halloween. It's not so much a remake as it is an origin story on the early life of Mike Myers. The kid they got to play him was creepy as hell. And let me say that Sheri Moon is still a babe.
The montage set to Love Hurts was awesome!

And for fans of really odd animation, there's the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie.
If you don't watch the series, then don't see the movie. You won't get it.
But it was worth the cost of admission just to hear Mastadon singing the movie rules at the beginning.
The Robot from the Glenn Danzig episode is back and sex starved and we find out about Frylock's past.
Take your quote book because there are all kinds of great sound bites like:
"I'm really a woman----er, I mean IT'S really a woman!"
"Plastic Novelty Vagina!!"

On the docket for the next few days is Mr. Vengance and Lady Vengance.