In Bruges is so good. And funny, and beautiful, and horrific and sad. The dialogue is great, and all the characters come to life in a refreshingly multi-faceted way. There are no one-note, 2-D characters here.

I'm having a Finding Nemo response to Wall-E. As in, I don't want to see it because it seems to have such an incredibly sad premise.

And yet, FN was not sad (esp. if you skip the intro). And the DH wants to see it, which is rare.

So get this: Mal's daycare is taking all the kids to a special kids-only showing (of Wall-E or Horton, age-dependent), and while they are there I think the parents are going to go see Wall-E separately.

Meet the Robinsons: My bad, for skimming. The frogs are the best part. Also, it's sort of the Disneyfied version of the old Castle Amber D&D adventure.

We are thinking of going to see Wall-E all together, as a family. Mostly because we'll be in Athens with not much to do and no sitter. I am not sure Dillo will last through it - he is not two until next month - but he DOES LOVE robots. So it's possible he may just sit in my lap and say, "Robot! Robot!" for an hour and 46 minutes or whatever the run time is. I hope, anyway.

No Country for Raising Arizona

Someone's been reading Todd Alcott, I think. He wrote about No Country for Old Men containing references to their other movies. I think sometimes he's reaching, but:

the examination of trailer-park life, as well as the Lone Biker of the Apocalypse, here resurrected as the dead-serious Anton Chigurh. (In Raising, the Lone Biker shoots at a lizard on a rock as he drives past, in No Country Chigurh shoots at a bird on a bridge as he drives past -- and misses. The scene is straight from the book.) Also, the scene where the fugitive has a strange conversation with a gas-station attendant.

(There is another, funnier reference to Raising -- in No Country, Sheriff Bell squats down to examine the dent in the wall made by Chigurh shooting out the lock -- in Raising, the Lone Biker squats in the exact same attitude to examine the word "FART" scrawled on the wall.)

Today's Dork Tower is a thing of delight.

[link]

Hee!!

I just bought the DVD for The Untouchables a few weeks ago, and watched it for the first time in a while. Damn, that's a good film, but the Union Station stairwell scene was just screaming Classic Film Homage!!!

I really have been on a DVD-buying spree this past month or so. I just pulled out the Best Buy gift card my sister gave me for Christmas and made an online purchase of Holiday Inn, Gosford Park, Heart and Souls, A History of Violence ($5!), and Green Street Hooligans (which has been on my Netflix queue for a while, but since it's only $5 as well, I figured I might as well buy it. It was well reviewed locally and the producer is a Chicagoan, one of the Pritzkers, so it was promoted relatively heavily here when it was released).

After the gift card, I only had to spend $25 for all those movies, so not a bad haul! Most of the $5 films were action films, but they also had a decent number of good films for 20% off, which is where I found the first three titles.

How convenient: A.V. Club runs a Pixar Primer.

Hey, folks we've got Netflix now. I've missed a ton of not-kid movies in the last several years.

What should I see first? Eastern Promises? No Country for Old Men? That movie with the thing and the guy that did the stuff and there was a Burger King tie-in?

That movie with the thing and the guy that did the stuff and there was a Burger King tie-in?

This one?