I saw Hotel Rwanda and A Very Long Engagement. I think the key to enjoying A Very Long Engagement is to NOT see it directly following Hotel Rwanda. In another mood, I might have liked it, but not today. After Rwanda's raw brutality, being bombarded with that much sly charming cuteness was just exactly the wrong thing to watch, especially coming from another war story.

The asshat reveiwer for the Boston Phoenix (Peter Keough - who I fucking despise and he just. won't. leave.) went on bitching about how they had to throw some kind of feel good story into RWANDA. It sounds to me like they told one of the few stories they could and not just have a filmed atrocity.

Granted, there's the whole question of whether such stories should be dramatized at all (SCHINDLER'S LIST being the big example here), but given the general incomprehensible indifference to what happened in Rwanda (in this country at least), I'm a touch skeptical of this position. Some things need to be known, however they get known.

I was going to say. Welcome to Sarajevo could technically be called a "feel-good story" about the implosion of Yugoslavia, except that in fictional film format, it brought to the public some raw (real) footage they would never have seen otherwise. The videos of bodies were too much for standard news broadcast. And, I don't think all that many people walked away from Welcome to Sarajevo feeling all overcome by the wunnerfulness of the human spirit.

went on bitching about how they had to throw some kind of feel good story into RWANDA.

Well I know watching innocent people being hacked to death with machetes always makes me feel good...

I can kind of see what he's saying, but I never had the sense that the story was overly tarted up for Hollywood. Yes, he found the two girls at the end, but, unless the title card at the end was a blatant lie, THAT REALLY HAPPENED, so what were the filmmakers supposed to do?

We're in the midst of watching "Excalibur," which I had never seen. So far I am underwhelmed although it sure is pretty.

I have never watched all of Excalibur, but I had a drama coach who always used to play a scene (I think it's a party of some sort. I remember dancing.) and point out Liam Neeson, saying "See! It doesn't matter if you've got the smallest part, you can go on to big things!". Then one of us watched the whole movie and said that, while you could really barely see Liam Neeson in that particular scene, he had a much bigger part. Drama coach didn't have much to say to that.

I want to see Hotel Rwanda at some point. I'm not sure when I'll get the chance, though, since I know it's going to be the kind of movie I'll have to prepare myself for, and I'll probably have to go alone. I had a really strong reaction to reading Philip Gourevitch's book about the Rwandan genocide, and it's not often that I'm in the mood to subject myself to two hours of images of horrific massacres. Jessica, how much on-screen violence is there?

Excalibur has not only Liam Neeson, but also young Gabriel Byrne, Helen Mirren and Ciaran Hinds. Personally, I like the movie quite a bit, despite some clunkiness and cheese. It's impressive how Nigel Terry gets transformed from a rather stupid-looking kid to someone with a kingly presence, just with the addition of a beard.

Plus, the sex scene between Igrayne and Uther is kind of hot. Well, except I learned (years after I saw the film) that the actress who played Igrayne was the director John Boorman's daughter, which is kind of skeevetastic when you think about it.

Also Patrick Stewart! The (oh so young) actors and art direction are impressive, but the script is pretty awful, IMO.

Jessica, how much on-screen violence is there?

There's enough. It's not so overwhelming or graphic that I had trouble watching, but it's not shied away from either.

Alicia, I thought Hero was one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen. The story does drag, although I thought it picked up more near the end. Whereas all I've heard about Flying Daggers is that it's pretty, but that it has even less story than Hero. Am I wrong?