Saw Millions and Be Cool this evening. Loved the first and disliked the second (although The Rock and Andre 3000 are both lots of fun to watch). Millions is gorgeously shot and a wonderful look at the world through a kid's eyes--and not just a kid, but a really interesting, dreamy, passionate kid.

This is from five days ago, but Kathy posted--

Coolest thing I found out in the first interview was that Warner will be releasing the complete set of Astaire/Rogers RKO pictures by the end of the year, completely restored!

This is so cool! I've been bemoaning the lack of Fred and Ginger movies on DVD for a few years now.

Warner will be releasing the complete set of Astaire/Rogers RKO pictures by the end of the year, completely restored!

THANK YOU, GOD!

I also saw The Ring Two yesterday. I wasn't expecting the world, but the more I think about it, the worse it was. There were a few good creepy bits, though, which is all I really wanted.

Watched The Deer Hunter last night. I think I'll appreciate it more after some time has passed, but right now, I only can say two things about it: so farking depressing, and really farking long.

My weekend viewing included Mifune, a Danish movie, and Stander, which takes place in late-70s South Africa. I am all foreign-languaged up!

The former, a Dogma movie (remember that thing, with the Dogma? With the "no klieg lights, etc." rules? It doesn't at all obviate a good movie resulting), was a goofy, oddball story about returning home to one's embarrassing relatives and rural 70s decor and games where one puts a pot on one's head and bellows in pretend-Japanese in reenactment of The Seven Samurai. A gentle story, except for the stalking and the peeing on expensive rugs.

Stander is a true story of a Johannesburg cop who started robbing banks just to prove he could (while all his colleagues were too busy oppressing the black people to actually police the streets), got caught, and graduated (via prison escape) to a professional, many-years bank-robbing spree with "rebel without a cause" side effect. I don't know what is funnier -- that it's a true story, or what the star (Tom Jane) looks like in plaid 70s pants.

I should note for the prurient among us that Stander's main method of de-stressing after state-sanctioned murder is to dance completely naked to Iggy Pop in the middle of the night.

Anyway, fun movie. Sort of a wild-hare-breained adventure, and then there'll be the tiniest moment when you're like, oh yeah, this is late-70s South Africa. Being a criminal is, like, a sane response to that environment.

Dogme 95.

I have this recurring fantasy of kidnapping Steven Spielberg and forcing him to make a dogme-95-compliant film at gunpoint.

I have this recurring fantasy of kidnapping Steven Spielberg and forcing him to make a dogme-95-compliant film at gunpoint.

Ooooh. Need a driver?

Hmm, dance naked to Iggy Pop? That's...huh. I don't think I'll be seeing that movie...

I almost went to see "Ice Princess" this weekend. Instead, we compromised on "Hitch". Which wasn't as bad as I'd feared it would be.

The funniest part is that he's got headphones on so the music isn't audible, and he's singing along under his breath off-key. Also, I think the curtains in that part of the house were somewhat lacking. I think he needed only a math final exam or a school play for the ultimate in humiliation-potential.

(The only person who catches him at it is his wife, and she takes it as a sign he is only 2 steps away from the loony bin. Which, he is.)

I think he needed only a math final exam or a school play for the ultimate in humiliation-potential.

Think Christmas carolers.