Sun, 31 Dec 2006
Quick DVD Roundup 12/31
Well, it's the end of the year. I didn't manage to increase my movie theater attendance since I whined about it in my last post. I did go one time over the Xmas break, but you'll read about that in the next post. Anyway, here's the last DVD Roundup of the year:
My Netflix queue gets backed up sometimes. Backed up in the sense that I sit on some movies. I try to keep my queue balanced between my typical mix of new-releases (action), foreign, art and documentaries. Depending on my mood, I'll skip over some movies, or they just sit on my shelf while I watch movies around them. Eventually I'll get to them though, but sometimes it makes the order at home pretty interesting. That's what happened this month. One Day in September - *** A quick documentary, wait, that's an oxymoron- a 94 minute documentary about the 1972 Munich Olympics, where Palestinian terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage. The movie uses current interviews but relies heavily on the actual news footage from 1972. The interesting bits were when they would use the current interviews from people involved in the various episodes to explain what had happened in the past. I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it, but let's just say Germany was way f'd up. A good 4 star recommendation from me, mostly due to the fact that the movie stays focused just on the event, not the lead-up or aftermath (although they mention it before the end credits). There's a lot of information that I never knew about, and I bet you didn't either. Go check it out. Munich - * Yeah, I obviously didn't like this movie too much at all. It's too bad too, it has a great cast and a good story. My main problem with it was that I thought it was over-acted. Bana was really good (but he's never bad), as the team-leader. His team was great too, although it's a bit of a stretch to accept Daniel Craig as a member of the tribe- but he's a good enough actor that I let it go. Hrm, now that I'm rambling I think I liked everyone's performance except Geoffrey Rush's. He's so good though that I was willing to let his over-the-top stuff go. (His character's lines about the receipts and getting the contact's names were annoying, and really bugged me for some reason). So I guess I'm contradicting myself- it's not over-acted, it's a great cast and they do a good job. Maybe it's because I watched this right after the other documentary. Or perhaps the movie gets weird about halfway through when instead of focusing on the heist-type events and their possible repurcusions (which, to be fair, they get to at various points in the movie), they start focusing on "daddy-issues" with the Louis/Papa subplots and Avner's baby. Sure, they're interesting, but it's a bit ham-handed. Err, I didn't mean that in a kosher-pun-offensive way. It's a bit thick. And what the hell, how come they didn't beat the crap out of Louis after what happened in the safe-house? Sure, he was their best informant but sheesh . . . Anyway, this is supposed to be a quick movie "review" so I'll cut it short. Munich could have been edited down a bit. It loses it's focus and subtlety. I think that's been my main problem with it.31 Dec 13:42 | /movies | 2 comment(s)
Beverly wrote:
Glad you finally saw "Munich" which I do think was a fine film. Some people told me that they thought it didn't have to be so violent...but please, how else to tell the story but to tell and show the violence on both sides....where retribution leads....Keep up your movie reviews, Kenneth....your interest in film may truly be a genetic trait. And by the way...the comment about Daniel Craig...unaccepted since my friend and college room is and was blond and blue-eyed... plus Craig did a really good job and now has made the 007 his .....
01/02/2007 16:51:12
kenneth wrote:
I'm not saying I don't buy his looks as Jewish, I just thought it was a bit of a stretch for some reason. And I can't figure out why . . .
By the way-- "Karl" was an Irish guy, and he looked the part.
Whoever told you that Munich was violent needs to talk to me, I'll loan them some Japanese or Korean DVDs . . . speaking of, I need to write my next review tonight.
01/02/2007 17:12:48
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