Movies, Lists, And Recommendations
I really like movies. I enjoy the big-screen, surround-sound theater experience, and I also enjoy sitting at home with a DVD.
As I’ve already blogged in an earlier post, we’re rather picky about what we watch. I will often watch or read the big-name movie reviewers…usually, if they like something we probably won’t, and vice-versa. Mainly, I rely on recommendations from good friends to populate my Blockbuster queue.
Recently, I have also used the “best of” lists from Christianity Today Movies (for example, here’s their “Ten Most Redeeming Films Of 2007” list…we’ve watched three of them so far).
In attempting to broaden our cinematic horizons, we have often found ourselves watching a movie that someone says we SHOULD like because of its story, beauty, themes, symbolism…but we just don’t get it.
Case in point: last night, we watched “Children Of Men”, which was on my queue because of its inclusion on CT’s “Ten Most Redeeming Films Of 2006″. After watching it, I was wishing we had rented a comedy. Yeah, there was all sorts of allegory, symbolism, redemptive themes, the skill of the filmmaker was obvious…but it just wasn’t enjoyable. And call me shallow, but I like to enjoy movies when I watch them.
My blogging pal Jeffrey Overstreet (one of CT’s reviewers) wrote a fantastic book about film and faith called “Through A Screen Darkly“. I highly recommend it. He spent so much ink rhapsodizing about “Wings Of Desire“ (a German film from 1987, poorly remade as “City Of Angels” in 1998) that I figured it must be amazing, and rented it. Sorry, Jeffrey. It probably makes me a movie neanderthal, but I just didn’t get it.
So, how about you? What was your most recent (or most memorable) movie disappointment?
(And could I possibly have MORE links in a single blog post? Whew.)
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Comments
Hey - thanks for the heads up on redemptive movies. I added a bunch to my q.
By the way, don’t see Year of the Dog. It sucks.
My most recent disappointment was Semi-Pro with Will Ferrell. I know I was an idiot for expecting to like it, but Elf and Kicking and Screaming are two of my all time favorite movies. This wasn’t funny and completely deserved it’s R rating, which made it just disgusting.
There are two kinds of people in the world….
Those who love (fill in the blank), and those who hate (same).
The former applies to me and Woody Allen. I don’t know what it is. The whole neurotic pseudo-intellectual Jewish city guy thing just is hilarious to me (coupled with the preoccupations with big name Hollywood types who elbow each other to get into his movies). I’ve loved just about every film he’s made: slapstick (Bananas, Sleeper); sweet and sad romance (Annie Hall, Sweet and Lowdown, Purple Rose of Cairo); Runyonesque city-humor (Bullets Over Broadway, Radio Days); even the depths of emotion and despair (Crimes and Misdemeanors). Brilliant stuff.
Except “Everyone Says I Love You.”
He wanted to make a musical, so he took the standard Woody Allen screwball romance plot and jammed Tin Pan Alley songs into virtually every scene. Along with a few overblown production numbers. Sort of like a Busby Berkeley Meets Ingmar Bergman Meets Catskill Tummler. The romantic lead is Edward Norton (yeah, him…American History X, Fight Club…what was the Woodster’s casting director smoking???), I don’t remember the female.
So every seven or eight minutes, a cast member launches into song. Bleccchhh. I could only make it through about twenty minutes. (In the ’70s there was a similar film called “At Long Last Love,” big name stars like Burt Reynolds and Cybill Shepherd attempting to sing and dance. Whatever.)
Okay, I’m done. That was fun, Paul. I’m ready for the next category (records that I bought for only one song, classes I hated that I originally thought I would like, hmmm, what else?)…..