Movie reviews!

One good thing about my change in student status has been a wealth of new-found free time. Thus far I haven't done much with it--I find that I'm still recovering for now, more than anything else--but I have caught more movies in the past four months than I've probably seen in three years. And, I'm happy to say, many were seriously good. (Of course, that statistic is helped by the fact that I finally got off my ass and saw the Godfather I and II for the first time ever.) Below please find some select reviews:

1) Sweeney Todd
Johnny Depp sings! And he has a decent voice, too! Kick-ass costuming, a nice/twisted little love story, and interesting cinematography. At least, I think so: I spent about one-third of the movie with my eyes covered. The slicing! The blood and gore! The horrid meat pies! It was a bit too much for my delicate disposition, and I ended up--seriously--a shade of pale green by the end. (An aside to those who live in the DC area: the movie theater in Tysons Corner has a super cheap pre-noon matinee price. Catch a movie at 10am, and then grab lunch, unless you're still nauseated from the throat-slicing scenes. We had to postpone lunch by a full hour to give me time to recover.)

Rating: three hockey pucks out of four--forgive me, but I'm all fired up about the NHL playoffs (the Flyers are rocking the house!!), and the usual star rating system seemed so uninspired.

2) Eastern Promises
Holy moly. I saw this movie at a friend's house two weeks ago, and when it ended, we all sat up straight and stared at each other, slack-jawed. Amazing gangster flick that sticks with you--and I got to practice my horrible, non-existent Russian skills! Viggo Mortensen cuts a dramatic figure with the multiple tattoos and the greasy hair. I'm shocked that this movie didn't have more of a presence in American theaters. Or maybe it did, and I was just enough of a flake that I never noticed.

Rating: four pucks

3) The Departed
I love love love Marky Mark, even though I strongly suspect he hates being remembered as--and still called--Marky Mark. That said, his character was about as physically unattractive as I've ever seen him. Leonardo DiCaprio, of whom I'm not the biggest fan, was fantastic, and his character made me come around to liking him. So, yay.

I saw the Departed a couple of weeks ago at my sister's house. For some reason, they had several dozen free movie channels one weekend, and at 10pm we (she, my brother-in-law, and I) decided to sit down to watch it on one of the many HBOs at our disposal that night. It's a long movie, though, and by 11:45 I was wiped out and went to bed with about an hour of it remaining. Sis and b-in-law were right behind me; we were Tivo-ing it and would watch the rest the next day. Except... while I went to bed, they decided to continue to watch it in their bedroom. Fast forward to the next morning. Sis volunteers to free up the big tv in the living room for me to watch the rest of the movie, which I happily do. So I'm sitting there, completely engrossed, when b-in-law walks into the living room and asks, "So, is [character] really an FBI informant?" I spit out whatever was in my mouth at the time and shake my head in disbelief. Sis looks at him incredulously and gasps, laughing, "Oh. My. God." "Whah?" he replied defensively/cluelessly. And in an instant, the suspense vanished. Actually, it was pretty funny, and the ending still kept me gasping with every twist and turn. Awesome, awesome flick.

Rating: four brand-spanking-new NHL regulation pucks

4) The Kingdom
A major rah-rah-USA! sort of movie, which is fine for mindless fare, but the inaccuracies and the requisite ability to suspend one's understanding of how the real world actually works started to wear on me. Why why why was Jennifer Garner traipsing around Saudi Arabia in a form-fitting t-shirt? Tell me! Never mind how annoying Jason Bateman's character was. Sigh.

Rating: two pucks (hey, it was still entertaining)

4) No Country for Old Men
This was my most recent viewing, as the movie of choice for the latest Classy Evening In at Tiberius and Fluffy's house. I fought hard to watch this one over Gone Baby Gone, and while I'm glad that I got to see it, I wasn't as spellbound as I'd expected, mostly because of the "wait, that's it?" ending. But Javier Bardem? Super creepy. It's amazing that someone who looked so handsome and dashing at the Oscars could look like he did in this movie. Josh Brolin? His best role since the Goonies! The Milk Duds that were left over from our last Classy Evening In (featuing a viewing of Borat)? Delectable, and not at all stale! God bless the humble Milk Dud. And God bless the Coen brothers for the idea to put Bardem in that hideous haircut--it honestly made the movie.

Rating: three pucks and a roll of tape (it would have been four pucks but for the ending)

So there you go. I don't expect much in the way of movie-viewing as long as the Flyers are still in the playoffs, but as the summer blockbusters are released, I will be sure to inform you of my opinions, loyal reader.