Five Movies I've Seen Recently

[bcholmes]

1. Spider-Man. Four stars. Fun actiony-adventury goodness.

2. Mexico City. Three stars. Interesting story, but wooden acting and, at times, hackneyed. There was a whole sub-arc about faith that just never gelled. The story seemed to avoid a lot of the clichés of the genre, though. No finding Twue Wuv. No ridiculous plot twists.

3. Wonder Boys. One star. Hated it.

4. The Deep End. Three stars. I've had a soft-spot for Tilda Swinton since Orlando. An interesting exercise in how things just get worse.

5. Monsoon Wedding. Four stars. I liked it, but I had heard really good things about it beforehand so it felt like it didn't live up to its reputation. Colourful. Surprising. Good use of subtlety.

Comments

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

I thoroughly enjoyed Monsoon Wedding, but I know what you mean when someone pumps it up... It just doesn't seem as good as what they billed it to be. I loved the colour, the view into the culture, having never been to India or experienced an Indian wedding.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

I loved the colour, the view into the culture, having never been to India or experienced an Indian wedding.

Yeah, all that was really great. I've been to one Indian wedding -- a Muslim wedding, rather than a Hindu wedding -- and found that to be a really fascinating experience.

I just wanna say that I love the bee.

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

I hope that at some point I get to go to an Indian wedding. I had a muslim ceremony (had 2 wedding ceremonies), but ours was very simple, basic, nothing fancy. The whole thing took around 15 minutes and then we ate some really *excellent* pakistani food.

When I saw the bee, I knew it had to be mine. :)

Monsoon Wedding

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I mentioned to BC that one of the things I thought was really interesting about this movie was the depiction of arranged marriages. The only time I've ever seen an arranged marriage in a Hollywood movie, it was depicted as an awful fate that the heroine must escape in order to be with her True Love.

In Monsoon Wedding the man she was in love with was a total berk, and the guy her parents picked out for her was the better match and just a better person in general.

It was also noted a couple of times that her parents and other family members had had arranged marriages and the amount of affection between partners -- even when they were fighting -- was unmistakable.

Re: Monsoon Wedding

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

My sister-in-law requested an arranged marriage, which was done slightly different than in the movie. She met a number of prospects and picked the one that she felt suited her the best. I always thought that it was kind of weird, but they have a great marriage and a fantastic kid. I don't know if I have the capacity to love/become attached to anyone who's chosen for me by someone else, even if they are my family.

It's such a different world.

Wonder Boys

[gregclow.livejournal.com]

Why did you hate Wonder Boys so much? While I wouldn't put it in my list of faves for the last couple of years, I still enjoyed it quite a bit.

And that's even taking into account my general dislike for Michael Douglas.

Re: Wonder Boys

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

Why did you hate Wonder Boys so much?

What did I hate about it? Hmmmm... I don't feel like I ever cared about any of the characters, except perhaps Frances McDormand's character. (The Katie Holmes character was probably the most interesting character, but underused). The Toby Maguire character was Really Annoying (what the hell was going on in his head, anyway?) I had no idea what they were trying to do with the Robert Downey Jr. character, and most of the movie was about Michael Douglas stumbling around screwing up his life (you think in one of those conversations with Sara he could'a gotten around to talking about the dog?).

I did think that they an interesting job with the theme about Michael Douglas not making any choices (which was why both his life and his book were in a shambles), and it is hard to write a story about characters who aren't engaged in the events... which I think is why it failed for me.