Movies I Like

I feel like a get a lot of guff from people for not liking things that I don't see any reason to like. I thought I would address some of the things that I do like here, because they are really quite plentiful. For the sake of removing nostalgia from the equation, I am only going to talk about movies that I have seen recently.

Note: Some of the comments I make might reveal spoilers, so if you are interested in watching any of the following films: Let the Right One In, The Andromeda Strain, then don't read about them. Or do, because I really don't give away very much.

Up: I am not a huge fan of Pixar movies. They are hit and miss with me. I don't go into the theater thinking that I have a sure fire hour and a half of entertainment on my hands. One of the major flaws with cartoons today is that they try to draw in adults with a lot of topical humor, while at the same time pandering to kids with a lot of silly humor. What you're left with, then, is a movie that is both juvenile and smarmy, and that will definitely not stand the test of time. A prime example of this is the movie Shrek. Up, on the other hand, is a delight. Abby and I saw this last weekend and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters are all rounded, even the villain, and the humor is timeless. It definitely worked for me and I highly recommend it.

Let the Right One In: This is a vampire movie that does what all the recent vampire stories (ie Twilight, True Blood, et al) have not. It is genuinely creepy. Maybe that's just cause the vampire is a young girl, and everyone knows there is nothing creepier than creepy children. I think it's more than that, though. The movie ends up being just as much a story about the awkwardness and vulnerability of pre-adolescence as it is about vampires. And then, to top it all off, it's about the unease that older people feel when they think about the youth of today. It is a great little movie.

License to Wed: I know, most of you probably didn't even bother to see this one. In case you forgot, it's about Mandy Moore and Jon Krasinski having to take a marriage course from Robin Williams, who plays what I think was an Episcopalian priest. The basic plot of the movie is very stale, and the underlying themes are very boring, but ultimately, this movie is a vehicle for some jokes and humorous bits that work very, very well.

Tombs of the Blind Dead: The main thing in this film is the pacing. That, and the robed horses. Horror today is usually about going over the top. Saw and movies like it try to get us in the stomach just as much as they try to get us in the brain. While I didn't find Tombs of the Blind Dead scary, I could definitely see how if I had been much younger I would have. In this sense, it reminded me of the Changeling, another fine horror film. And the important thing about these kinds of horror films is that they try to scare us more by not showing, which ultimately goes to the heart of all fear; the unknown.

Casino Royale: Here is a re-imagining that shows how re-imaginings should be done. Rather than subtracting from the mythos of James Bond, Casino Royale adds to it. Instead of none stop action, the fare that we had come to expect from the franchise, this Bond movie spends huge amounts of time on a card game. The only major drawback is that they kept Dame Judi Dench. Man, I hate her.

Jurassic Park III: A rare item. A trequel that is as exciting as its predecessors. Possibly more so. The first Jurassic Park movie tried to awe us with its spectacle before terrorizing us with its velociraptors. The second one just seemed forced, especially after they brought T-Rex back from the island. This one jumps right into the action and sends us on a non-stop thrill ride of death defiance, adding several new dinosaurs to the mix while retaining the old. And we get to see Sam Neill performing a fake American accent again.

Duel: This is probably Stephen Spielberg's best movie. And it was made for TV. There is very little dialogue in this film, only one real character, and we never get to see the face of the madman who is driving the action, both figuratively and literally, but I have never watched a movie with so much tension. Proof that less is more, something more Hollywood executives and directors could learn from.

The Andromeda Strain: What I love about this movie is that they create all this dramatic tension, with a race to find the cure to an incredibly deadly virus, only to learn at the end that the viruses mutations have rendered it harmless. A classic tale that reflects the way our society handles crises all too well.