what with a werewolf tearing people apart, a progressively decaying talking corpse, and a hot British chick.

*queued*

What more do you really need?

ION, I just watched I, Robot. No matter how I try, I just cannot hear Sonny and Wash as coming from the same actor.

Heh. I found The Wild Bunch hard to sit through the first time, because it is slow, and it's kind of deliberately perverse -- every time you think you know where it's headed, it swerves. The whole movie is setting you up for a conflict that never happens. But I watched it again a week or two later, and then I dug it.

But I like it the way I like Kubrick movies. I don't think you're supposed to care about the characters -- or, at least, you're not supposed to like them.

I just saw Spartan, following in the long line of Kristen Bell fans to do so.

I... don't know if I liked it or not, honestly. The dialogue was rather strange, and I can't decide whether to describe it as "stylized" or "stilted" or some combination of both. Sometimes I really liked it, and sometimes it made me cock my head in confusion and bemusement. This was my first Mamet experience: is he always like this?

Val Kilmer was cool in it. Kristen Bell was good, too. Kilmer's bosses and associates were neat, too. And the story was pretty cool, so far as that type of simple action-drama-thriller thing go.

Put American Werewolf in Paris on the queue too. Cheese, but fun. Plus, Delpy.

I can't decide whether to describe it as "stylized" or "stilted" or some combination of both.

If Mamet has written and directed it, then yes, it's always like that. In some movies it just works for most parts, while in others it ruins pretty much´everything. As a writer he seems to be able to let go of his theatre background much easier than when he's directing.

Plus, Delpy.

Always a plus. *Bumps up Before/After sunset in the DVD queue*

I spent about 20 minutes watching Tape last night. I got it to facilitate my current Robert Sean Leonard fixation, but I found it really, really boring. Has anyone else seen it? Is it just Ethan Hawke and RSL talking in a hotel room for an hour and a half, with Uma Thurman showing up later on? Does anything actually happen? I don't need explosions or nudity--although I won't turn them down, especially if RSL is involved in the latter--but right now I don't care about any of the characters and the writing isn't compensating. I supposed I could just give up and rent Much Ado again. At least I'll get Shakespeare and leather pants.

*Bumps up Before/After sunset in the DVD queue*

I do hope you mean Before Sunrise/Sunset, because otherwise you'll be pretty surprised.

Ah, of course Before Sunrise/Sunset. No Brett Ratner for me.

I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on and I couldn't tell half the characters apart.

This sorta mystifies me. Each character has his own set of personal traits and motives, all of which seem particularly deliberate and well-constructed. Every scene works to either clarify those motives, advance the plot, or demonstrate the cathartic changes of the Bunch (and particularly Pike) during the picture. I don't think the Wild Bunch is any more challenging than, say, The Godfather or The Seven Samurai.

That said, all of these movies are definitely asking more of a viewer than most Hollywood fare, which is exactly why they're more rewarding in the long run. Strega's probably right; if you have any interest in dealing with the movie on its own terms, you should rewatch it. But, y'know, I recognize that people (and here I'm talking about my own experience) have to be ready and willing to come to great art on its own terms. When I think about all the brilliant people I know who tell me that Middlemarch is one of the greatest books ever written, I always think about how much I hated the hell out it when I read it (and still shudder at the memory of how much time I invested in finishing it). Of course, I was 18 and fairly naive when I read it, and it might speak more to me now. I certainly got more out of Faulkner when reading him in my late 20s, when I'd seen a bit more of the world, than when I read him as a teenager, when I was sure I know how the world worked a priori. And I assume I'll get even more out of him when I hit my 40s.

All of which is to say: if you don't want to rewatch it after a week like Strega suggested, at least be open to the idea of rewatching it in the future. You might find yourself surprisingly engaged.

it might speak more to me now

Hey, good topic. I can think of several books that changed for me, over the years, but I'm a little harder-pressed to think of movies that have done the same. (N.b. I've never seen The Wild Bunch. ) Can anybody name me movies that they "grew" into?