Sunny, rainy days

Today was a day of beautiful weather, though I spent most of the day indoors. The morning was sunny and cool, and the evening saw heavy rain with a crispness that made me miss home.

The last two weeks have been a time of waiting (for the return of my bride), and of watching movies. In the past 7 days, I have watched (or re-watched) and graded the following:

In the theatres:

-Bobby. This doesn't qualify as a biopic, but some scenes still paint RFK as a demi-god. Still, it was an impressive effort by writer Emelio Estivaz. Grade: B

-The Departed. A gangster movie, complete with violence, jarring edits and moments of treachery that will make you doubt the guy in the next seat. Grade: B

-Casino Royale. A Bond movie is like a warm glass of milk. It's comfortable and familiar, but also gives you a stomach ache. Okay, this particular Bond gave me a headache, but that doesn't mean I didn't like it. (It probably had more to do with the fact that it was the third movie in a row I had seen). Craig does a great job of silencing his critics, while showing us a younger, buffer, newer James Bond, sans the gadgets (which was hard for me to let go). Of particular interest was the torture scene; both funny and terrible. Grade: B+

Babel. This movie promises a lot that it doesn't deliver on. Three loosely-connected stories play out to varying degrees of success, one of which (the deaf Japanese girl) could be stricken from the movie completely with no ill effect. The film has important things to say, but mostly it feels like a warmed-over Paul Haggis (Crash) script. Frankly, I'll take Paul Haggis, thank you very much. Grade: C+

Blood Diamond. This movie was almost as stressful as its predecessor, Hotel Rwanda. But unlike the earlier depiction of African struggle and genocide, Blood Diamond is lacking the dramatic storytelling and depth of characters. Leonardo's character develops a rather wooden onscreen relationship with Jennifer Connelly, whose doe-eyed portrayal of an idealist reporter could easily have been removed from the film, again with no ill effect. The shining star in this history-lesson-as-entertainment was Djimon Hounsou, as a father struggling to maintain the tattered remnants of a family caught in bloody civil war. The depictions of children with AK-47s was horrifying: both scary and sad. And the civil war itself is given main stage, which can only be good for the world to have exposure to this knowledge. As entertainment, not so much. Grade: B-


In my apartment:

-Superman Returns. This movie rental is simple eye-candy: special effects, and the further exploration of Supe's powers. The latest addition of the Superman canon is a simple one, even more so than those of the Spider Man catalogue, although it is always entertaining to watch the Superman mythology unfold. Lex is (predictably) played to great effect by the manic Kevin Spacey, while Parker Posey adds her colourful touches. Grade: C+

-X-men: The Last Stand. Easily the darkest of the X-men, trilogy, this movie suffered (or was saved?) from director Bryan Singer's absence (who was off wasting a fortune making the above movie). Actually, I quite enjoyed this movie, though Kelsey Grammar's Beast character, while adeptly imitating a toilet brush, doesn't quite fit the tone of the movie. All in all a good swan song for a fun franchise that never took itself too seriously. Grade: B

-The Da Vinci Code. I just don't know why I rented this piece of crap. Anyone who read my review of Dan Brown's novel of the same name will know that I found it to be a terrible book with terrible story telling. The story telling in the movie improves somewhat, but only with the brilliance of Howard, Ian McKellan, Hanks and my favourite Audrey Tautou. Even with all these influences, the movie plays like a hastily pasted-together afterthought of a story. Grade: D