Movies Movies Movies

Between being locked in the house with no electricity for five nights (but with a charged up DVD player) and the long weekend last weekend, I've seen a bunch of flicks recently.

When the power went out and I grabbed my portable DVD player, I discovered that all three of the movies I had from Netflix were documentaries. I like documentaries, but it was odd that I had three at a time. I really enjoyed all of them. Here's a quick summary:

Who Killed the Electric Car? This was really interesting, frustrating (not the film, the information) and inspiring (now I really want a Prius). Turns out GM had manufactured an electric car that could be charged at your house and go for 70 miles on a charge. You're not going on any long drives with that, but for daily getting around to work, shopping, etc. it's perfect. A bunch of them went to Hollywood "celebs" - the usual suspects, Ed Begley Jr, Ted Danson, etc. but some made it to real people too. They loved the cars. They were fast, they looked cool, they drove well, etc etc etc. Then GM collected them all back (they only leased them - no selling) and crushed them all. They did not want to be in the electric car business - they only made them because of a law the California State Legislature had passed - which they then rescinded. The film goes into detail about who was responsible and didn't find any one entity to blame - the car companies, consumers, big oil, Calif. Legislature all share the blame. But it's such a bummer and even sadder that GM did everything they could to hide the fact that these cars ever existed. I'm glad the Toyota's kicking their butts.

WordPlay is about the NY Times crossword puzzle - the folks that write it (which turned out to be oddly interesting - there's a lot of rules for writing a crossword puzzle) and the folks that love it (including my hero, Jon Stewart and Bill Clinton). It was an entertaining flick.

New York Doll is about the (band) the New York Dolls. I was never a big fan but I think my friend Maria suggested I'd like this anyways and I really did. The most famous of the Dolls is David Johansen (popularly known as Buster Poindexter). Anyways, this doc follows a less known former member of the Dolls (Arthur "Killer" Kane) who became a Mormon. The Dolls reunited while the doc was being filmed. It was great. I don't want to spoil anything, but for anyone who's interested in music, this is a great great movie.

The movies I saw in the theatre last weekend were:

History Boys which was excellent. One of my favorite films of the year. Again, it's not for everybody. This was originally a play done in the West End (London's Broadway). It went to Broadway and did well there. This production includes the B'way cast and they were excellent. It's a character driven piece - about boys in a boarding school and their teachers. It's not one of those "inspiring" dopey school movies that come out every year or so (Hillary Swank has one coming out - you know, white teacher - Hillary, Robin Williams, Michelle Pfeifer, etc. - goes to the hood to teach, is overwhelmed by teens of color - they have no ability to communicate with each other; it's as if they're speaking different languages - and the teacher finds a way to break through that barrier and the kids suddenly change and become these really inspiring and thoughtful people. Of course the teacher learns a valuable lesson along the way....Yuck. I hate those films.) Anyways, back to History Boys...it does feel a bit like a play, meaning that it's chatty, so if you prefer car chases, you had best skip this one. For everyone else, I highly recommend it.

The Good Shephard - you know, I love spy movies. And, I love movies with a historical background. So, I was pretty excited for this one. It's about when the CIA was first formed and stars Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, who was horribly miscast, if you ask me. Matt was good, but this is sorta becoming his standard kind of role. I didn't really see him stretching, but perhaps the role didn't call for it. I'm sorry, but Angelina Jolie just does not strike me as a stay at home mom who's suffering cause her husband isn't sleeping with her. I mean, c'mon! Pretty much anybody on this planet (other than the Pope...I think) would sleep with Angelina Jolie, right? Perhaps I just know too much about her real life or something, but she's got too much joie de vivre to play this type of role. Flick was directed by Bobby DeNiro, whose work I usually enjoy (I loved A Bronx Tale), but I thought it jumped around too much. Spy flicks are a little complex to begin with (who's crossing who, etc.) and the jumping between years was a little much for me. It was a good movie, but not great, in my estimation.

And then there's Dreamgirls....I was really looking forward to this. As you may know, I'm a big musical theatre buff and I never got to see this in the theatre, but remember hearing about Jennifer Holliday singing "And I'm Telling You". That's what kicked off her career. And it will (and should) do the same for Jennifer Hudson. She not only kicked butt in that song, she did a great job in the movie. She should get a best-supporting nom for this one. However, once the movie stopped focusing on her....not so interesting. Beyonce bores me. She was ok in this movie playing (barely disguised) Diana Ross. What disappointed me the most was that the music was not very good. The two songs I knew (Dreamgirls and And I'm Telling You) are by far the best songs in the movie. The rest don't even qualify as forgettable. BTW, And I'm Telling You will be nominated for best music and it will win. Just saying. Oh, and one more thing - this movie is 2.5 hours long. If they cut an hour out of it, I bet I would have been much happier.

That's my very long post about recent movies. Still have some to see (Little Children, The Good German and some others). I'll keep you updated.