I saw 2046 last weekend and was disappointed. I loved In the Mood for Love but this movie was just... wacky. Most of it was a retread of ITMFL, which while pretty, is still a retread.

I didn't like 2046 that much when I was watching it (besides being glad because of the prettiness), but as I thought about it later, I liked it more. It was interesting to see how Chow is so caught up in his past that all his stories, and all the people he meets in the present, echo his relationship with Su Li Zhen. I loved how all the women had some aspect of her. But it wasn't near as good as ItMFL.

Apropos of almost nothing, I just read a really stupid review of 2046 in the New Yorker. Anthony Lane's reviews are so petty. He dislikes almost everything but never offers any insight or interesting commentary.

Yes, Maysa. I agree with your whitefont. When the movie was in the "present" time (60s), I was intrigued and thought it was pretty fabulous-looking, especially Ziyi Zhang (yowr!). I pretty much had no use for the novel/future time. It was worth seeing, but I was expecting greatness after all of the glowy reviews I've read.

It was worth seeing, but I was expecting greatness after all of the glowy reviews I've read.

What's weird is I really wasn't expecting all that much, because the reviews I had read on the internet from real people over the past year said pretty much the same thing, "not as good as ItMFL." Then suddenly it opens over here and the critics start swooning. I think they must not have been as attached to ItMFL.

I will NEVER click on that link.

Yes, I will stand strong, and refuse to join in Vonnie and PC's sickness.

(I did like the cartoon, complete lack of understanding aside)

Oh good, it wasn't just me.

It was Underworld to me.

Likewise. With a dash of The Island, or perhaps Gattaca. Which for me isn't a bad thing... I LIKED Underworld. You suppose I'm repressing S&M tendencies? I should ask Tim about this.

At least most of Underworld made a sort of sense once you accepted vampires and werewolves with superhuman powers. (Though I still wonder what kind of magic allows you to support multiple 500 lb.-plus monsters from ceiling plaster in rat-trap tenements...)

No it did not. Sometimes the vampires had super-strength, and sometimes they didn't? Whenever things looked really bleak for Kate (running from the werewolf in the sewer, having to get her and Romeo out of the sinking car), they just cut away rather than show us how she survived. Considering she couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with her guns, I wasn't going to buy that she could've survived.

And shooting through the floor? Puh-leaze. The magic stretching hallway where the werewolves kept getting farther and farther away to give her time to use 5000 rounds of ammo chewing through 30 cm of concrete, when, even with her crappy shooting, sending those 5000 rounds down the hall would've hit SOMEthing.

Good looking movie, though.

I'll admit the nonsensicalness of wasting that much ammo on floor remodelling when one has live targets packed solid at the other end of a hallway, but having that image in the trailer probably got them an extra million butts in theater seats.

Well, yeah, that's very true.

And I was wondering after I posted if you meant the stunts and things they could do made sense, because they were vampires and werewolves, whereas it's not explained how Charlize can do the Aeon Flux stunts.

The “amateurs” line ruined it for me.

Mostly what I took away from Underworld was a desire to own the heroine's long leather coat and a sense of enjoyable mockage. I still think it would make a fun double feature with Van Helsing. On some grey, February day have a bunch of friends over, mix up some strong magaritas, and MST3K the hell out of 'em.