movies

For some reason I’ve seen a lot of movies this week. A quick rundown, with some brief thoughts:

Troy – Entertaining, with some irritating changes to the plot. The story is not one that fits the mold of western Hollywood values very well, and the conversion felt awkward. The fight scenes were great, and I liked Eric Bana a lot more in this than I did in Hulk. Brad Pitt is one gorgeous man.

The Day After Tomorrow - Dumb. Wait for this one to come out on DVD, and then don’t see it.

Shrek 2 - Chuckle-worthy, but not as good as the first one.

Three the Hard Way - This was on TV while I was fighting with my laptop at 2AM. The plot summary says it all: “The story involves a white supremist plot to taint the United States water supply with a toxin that is harmless to whites but lethal to blacks. The only obstacles that stand in the way of this dastardly plan are Jim Brown, Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly, who shoot, kick and karate chop their way to final victory.” It was directed by none other than Gordon Parks, Jr. and features Corbin Bernsen in his ground-breaking first role as … “Boy”.

The Triplets of Belleville - Quirky and entertaining, but it seemed like it was trying a little too hard to be whacky. I liked the music, though.

Miracle - Pretty entertaining. This movie does an awesome job of portraying the pure hell that a coach can inflict on a team. The scene of endless suicides into the night was awesome. The ending was a little anti-climactic. They didn’t do a very good job of getting you into the final game. It was just a bunch of shots of hip-checks and shots on goal strung meaninglessly together. Good for the kids, but disappointing to even the casual hockey fan. The guy that played the menacing forward for the USSR looks just like Dean Ween, who informed me that he went to Herb Brooks’ hockey camp every summer for 4 years. Go figure.