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tedcoconut
Reviews
The Departed (2006)
If you like movies, you will love this movie.
I don't know any cahiers du cinema stuff but this is a mad enjoyable gangster/cop movie. It was so much fun I sat through it twice. The whole audience, mostly senior citizens and crackheads in the middle of the afternoon in Times Square, was cheering and laughing all through it. The only reason I didn't actually cry was I kept telling myself that: A. I may not under any circumstances cry in a gangster movie; and B. as Mom always said, It's only a movie and Sounder/Flag/E.T./Johnny Boy didn't die in real life. When I walked out after 5+ hours I had a huge smile on my face and an urge to tell every single person I know to go see it.
This movie had everything: good guys, bad guys, chases, mad suspense, clever cussing, piles of cocaine, Patsy Cline, exploding cars, garroting, barfights, insectivores, literary quotations, brain spray, blood splatter, and Ray Freaking Winstone to boot! This movie rocked. If you don't like it you don't know how to enjoy movies. The only legitimate reason not to love this movie is if you are turned off by man's inhumanity to man, cuz there is mad violence. But there was only one scene where I had to cover my eyes and it wasn't nearly as gruesome as Syriana with the fingernails or Reservoir Dogs with the ear.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Not a movie about gay cowboys
I'm not very eloquent and I don't know anything about "film" but here goes: I wasn't expecting this movie to live up to the hype but I thought it would be nice to relax and watch the scenery and the good-looking actors. But I left the theater 3 hours ago and I can't stop thinking about that movie, I want to go see it again tomorrow except I don't know if I can take the emotional strain of it two days in a row. Don't think this is a movie about "gay cowboys are people too," but more about the fugacity of happiness and the evanescence of life. It's corny but it reminded me of the song "Time in a Bottle," especially the part about "But there never seems to be enough time/To do the things you want to do/Once you find them," and it seems like, we should realize that this is universal. Ah well, I don't know what I'm talking about but this was one of those rare movies that really deeply affected me.
And the acting was magnificent. I kept wanting to ask the projectionist to rewind the reel so I could watch a scene over and over.
Be Somebody... or Be Somebody's Fool! (1984)
Now I Know the Difference Between Locking and Popping
Although all agree that this movie is hysterically funny and not to be missed, I am compelled to defend it from the implication that it's one of those "So-bad-it's-good" movies, a la Showgirls or the one where Rupert Everett gets Madonna pregnant. When the video started rolling, I was really ready to make fun of Mr. T, to suggest he was on drugs when he filmed this, or that he had to make it to pay off gambling debts, but this movie is truly good, good lessons, good feelings, good attitudes, good fun. I just ordered 4 copies: one for me, 2 for gifts for friends, and one to keep around for whomever might need it. I only hope that more people find out about it so it can get the recognition it deserves, and so that more people (especially kids) will be exposed to Mr. T's lessons of self-esteem, his perpetually hopeful spirit and his silly sense of humor.