July « 2006 « MonkeyThoughts

16Jul/060

A Scanner Darkly

I'll be honest. I'm not entirely sure what this movie is about. I think the general idea is: It's a wee bit in the future and a new drug is on the streets. A narc is essentially assigned to monitor himself. It may be a little more complicated than that, but you know what? I don't actually care. I saw the trailer a few months ago, so when my husband said it was playing at the local artsy theater, I said "Word!" Weird, I remembered I wanted to see it, but that was about it. The whole look of the film is just mind-fucking. It's like animated, but not. Like if you take a photo in Photoshop and use one of those artistic filters. I'm sure there's a technical name for this type, but I like to refer to it as the Charles Schwab look. I hate those commercials, but I dug the movie. Go figure. It was just entertaining and (surprisingly) funny at times, while maintaining this very intimate feel of drug use/addiction. What most amazed me was that I could tolerate Keanu Reeves. Who would have guessed that animated, he does fantastic work? That's the ultimate mind-fuck. Plus there was a pretty good supporting cast, especially Robert Downey Jr.

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6Jul/060

The Devil Wears Prada

I'm not sure what it was about the trailer that made me really want to see this. I didn't even read the book, and I have issues with Anne Hathaway ever since Havoc. But I dragged my husband to it anyway. (And let me tell you, I didn't have issues with her in this film.) Basic plot- Andrea Sachs is a newly grad trying to make her big break in journalism. So, to up her chances of getting her dream job, she ends up as a personal assistant to the editor of fashion mag "Runway", Miranda Priestly (played right on key by Meryl Streep). Unfortunately, it's a 24 hour on-call job for a demanding, demeaning boss who makes outrageous demands while dismissing them in the next breath. Andrea, or "Andy", takes the job in stride, knowing it will ultimately open doors for her career. But, she manages to compromise her own beliefs and alienate her friends in the process. What irritated me was the whole situation with her boyfriend and friends. Sure, in the perfect world, you can tell The Man where to stick it and lead your own revolution. But in the real world, most people need to work their asses off and be under-appreciated to work their way to the top. Her friends acted like asses about it. Yeah, it was ridiculous for Andy to jump every time Miranda wanted something, but that was the job she chose to take. Oh hell, what am I going on about? It was a movie. I've read that in the book, Andy's own judgmental side is more evident. She's working with extremely superficial people...well, people whose world revolves around fashion at least. Andy, however, could give two shits less about fashion, so she writes them off as vacant, etc. Interesting little cycle. Anyway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci gave awesome performances. Gotta love the Tucci! And I'm putting the book down as a must read. (Update: I read the book. Quite good.)

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6Jul/060

Ju-On: The Grudge

I saw the Americanized Grudge in the theaters and it remains one of those movies that I have a difficult time watching because I get too creeped out. Pale freaky asian boys + contorted black haired women = a creeptastic experience for me. I had delayed watching Ju-On cause I didn't think I'd be able to sleep afterwards. Well, I finally sucked it up and rented it from Netflix. Comparing The Grudge with Ju-On, it was evident that bits and pieces of the Japanese story were used to make a solid story line in the American version. Ju-On, on the other hand, follows multiple story lines, treated as chapters, with the creepy woman/child being the common thread to tie them all together. I wish I would have seen this version first actually, because it threw me for a loop at first. (I was essentially expecting the same exact story and structure, but in Japanese...kinda how the Ringu/The Ring played out.) Not that this was a bad thing. In fact, I have a theory that The Grudge 2 is based on another chapter in Ju-On, so it'll be interesting to see how that goes. Now creepy-wise... I still felt this movie was just as creepy as its Americanized version. I mean, hell...the whole pale, wide-eyed, semi-naked boy popping up everywhere was just unsettling enough. Now add in the crawling woman showing up in the bathroom, bedroom, in the freaking bed (that's a safety zone for crying out loud!) and I think I may have clawed up my husband. Ultimately, what I like about this film is it manages to be creepy in either language. There's not a whole lost in translation effect, like in Kairo.

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A Scanner Darkly

The Devil Wears Prada

Ju-On: The Grudge

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