My Favorite Wife (practically the same movie as the Awful Truth)

Except My Favorite Wife doesn't contain the best line ever (“I wouldn't go on living with you if you were dipped in platinum!”)

Desert Island Screwball Comedies:
His Girl Friday
The Awful Truth
It Happened One Night
My Man Godfrey
The Palm Beach Story
The Thin Man

Just watched Beerfest. Stupid. But funny. So funny.

The only complaint I have is that the Welsh were not represented in the international drinking competition. That was a big oversight.

Cloris Leachman is fucking hilarious.

I just saw Children of Men, and I...don't get it. Maybe because I was sitting in the second row, maybe because I was tired and nodded off for a few minutes somewhere in the middle, but I wasn't really affected by it. The unedited shots were incredibly impressive, but that's about all I can say.

Stay away from spoilers, though, because it's a huge shock when Julian is killed so fucking early. I could not believe it. Even when they were burying her, I couldn't believe it. Even when they said it on the news, I couldn't believe it. She got SECOND BILLING, for Christ's sake!

But I didn't think the movie actually rose above its premise. I mean, I don't think I really got any more out of seeing the movie itself than what I knew from the trailers.

I have now seen two movies this weekend where the protagonist wears presbyopic glasses that magnify his blue peepers. Except that they made Elijah Wood look like the Incredible Mister Limpet ( Everything is Illuminated, and, a very nice, logical movie only vaguely related to the thoroughly nonlinear book) and they made Matt Damon just look old ( The Good Shepherd. )

That latter is a movie that takes true CIA history, stuffs it all in a blender, and purees on High. There were several true-life incidents that I knew about, that got completely rearranged like echoes of life. Probably you are better off walking into the movie with no idea the history of the CIA.

Also, it was very weird for Damon to be the protagonist, because he was the shortest person in every single scene, and halfway through the movie I suddenly realized how much like a young Ned Beatty he can look like. Not exactly the WASP patrician look that I think the script intended for him.

I liked the Alec (both Sr. and Jr.) moments in EII--Eugene Hutz is wonderful as Alec Jr. EW is good in his very limited role as the cipher Jonathan, but I wish that Schrieber had developed that character more.

Also, it was very weird for Damon to be the protagonist, because he was the shortest person in every single scene

People have to be tall to be the good guy now?

Polter-Cow, I think you've hit on something I noticed with Children of Men. The characters go through a lot, although there's not really much exploration of the emotional side the characters go through. At the same time, though, I don't think that was the idea.

Personally, I thought what it attempted - showing a world which, sadly, isn't that far removed from our own (in fact, with the way things are going in the UK I'd imagine it will be dangerous close to what we saw in CoM), bringing the horror of war back home, migration fears, fear fear fear.. It's a bleak vision of the future, yet it's a future we'll walk towards, and what it tries to execute, in my opinion, it does very, very well. I do think the story is different to what people are used to, and in some respects expected because of the trailers.

And yes, the oner in the car? Changes the course of the film, technically brilliant (kicking a biker off his bike using the car door, it bouncing off the bonnet!), and was -- for me -- the highlight of the film as it has a nice mix of characters, story and a bit of actual emotion. I have it on DVD thanks to friends at the studio, and I've rewatched that scene several times in the last week to catch the details. Commentary must happen with the director on this one.

People have to be tall to be the good guy now?

Well, Peter Jackson tried to buck the trend with Lord Of The Rings, but America just wasn't ready.

The characters go through a lot, although there's not really much exploration of the emotional side the characters go through.

I didn't feel the lack, personally -- we're shown what they're going through. We don't also need to be told how they feel about it because it's right there in front of us.

technically brilliant

I know a little bit about how it was done, and all I can say is wow. I'm amazed it only took them 4 days to get that shot (in fact, I wonder if that number even includes any rehearsals).

People have to be tall to be the good guy now?

Well, he's surrounded by these towering patricians, most of them blond and unmarked and vaguely alike-looking, and he's this squat fellow with a very distinctive (and not always lovely) face. Although the character is supposed to be as patrician as everybody else in his milieu, he really does look like a sore thumb. As if his isolation as a character weer written into the genes of his bone structure!

Not as sore a thumb as the fact that Angelina Jolie never once wore a girdle between 1940 and 1961, but, pretty sore.