The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

Brad Pitt plays a man who was born old & dies a baby, his life unfolding in reverse. Cate Blanchett is hopelessly in love with him, through every stage of their lives.

This movie has gotten quite a bit of attention, but I'm not sure why. Brad Pitt has done much better work than this elsewhere. His character has no personality in this film, & Cate's character is just silly. Everyone says that they shed puddles of tears at the end of this movie, but we all knew that Daisy was going to die from the start of it (no spoiler here). I hope that it gets beaten at the Oscars for all of its nominations.

One oddity: IMDb lists all of the actors who played Benjamin Button, but doesn't seem to have the name of the actress who played the dying Daisy. Could it have been Cate Blanchett?

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on IMDb

Taken (2008)

Liam Neeson is a retired government spy who decides to move closer to his 17-year-old daughter so that he can spend some long lost time with her. She has other plans, however, wanting to spend the summer in Europe with her friend Amanda. Daddy is none too pleased, thinking of all the terrible things that could happen to a naive (& cute) teenaged girl traveling on another continent with her equally naive (& cute) teenaged friend. The worst does happen: daddy's little girl is taken by a gang of Albanians who plan to sell her into the sex trade. Luckily, she was on the phone with her spy-dad when it happened... You can probably guess the rest.

Taken on IMDb

Gran Torino (2008)

A politcally incorrect, very grumpy, recently widowed Korean War veteran still lives in the same house that he's been living in for years. However, the neighborhood has gone to pot, with gangs staking claim to the sidewalks. To add insult to injury, a Chinese family moves in next door (oh, the horror!). Meanwhile, his son is trying to get him to move into an assisted living community. Not to mention that his wife's dying wish was for him to go to confession when he lost faith in the church years ago. Grumble, grumble.

Clint Eastwood does an excellent job of grumbling & growling throughout the movie, & the end was fitting for the character. Interesting note: Clint's son Scott Reeves has a small part in the film.

Of the three movies that I watched today, I liked this one the best. I'm not sure why this film was only nominated for its title song (which Clint sings for a bit during the end credits). Are they mad at Clint in Hollywood? Or do they think that he already has enough awards?

Gran Torino on IMDb

The Visitor (2007)

A lethargic professor comes back to his apartment in New York City to find two immigrants squatting there. Instead of throwing them out on the street, he allows them to stay until they can find another place to live. In the meantime, one of them is arrested & threatened with deportation. The professor tries to help resolve the problem.

This was apparently a film about the plight of illegal immigrants, its supposed goal to squeeze sympathy from the viewer. However, the story is so loosely constructed that I never got to the point that I cared what happened to poor Tarek. I never felt that he was being wrongly accused, or that he had been rightly accused. I never felt one way or the other about him or any of the other characters. For a movie so highly recommended to me by several of my friends, this one fell disappointingly flat.

The Visitor on IMDb

Lista de Espera (Cuba, 2000)

Several people are waiting at the bus depot, but the bus never comes. Many of them are from out of town, so they wind up spending the night at the station, & possibly longer.

This was a cute story. Some of the "surprises" were obvious long before they were revealed, but who cares. This movie was pleasant, light-hearted entertainment. The social commentary on life in Cuba is merely the setting for the story rather than the main focus.

It's interesting to see that the actor that plays the male protagonist has a Russian name, Vladimir. Many Cubans born in the 1960's have Russian names, an homage to communism.

Lista de Espera on IMDb

L'Argent (France, 1983)

A film by the apparently famous Robert Bresson about greed.

By the end of this film, I was laughing at the absurdity of it. There was a complete lack of emotion throughout the movie. Forgery, robbery, perjury, murder - all done with a poker face & slow-moving actions. No one was in a hurry & no one seemed to be affected in the least.

After listening to the "expert" commentary on the special features of the DVD, these characteristics supposedly make this film a brilliant work of art. I beg to differ.

L'Argent on IMDb

Grizzly Man (2005)

This is the story of a man lost, in search of his life's fulfillment. He lived 13 summers in the Alaskan outback, encroaching on bear territory, & befriending wild foxes. This film includes the man's own footage taken during his stays in Alaska, as well as interviews with friends & family members.

It's films like this that make me thankful that I'm not that crazy. Timothy Treadwell was a troubled soul, a manic depressive with no direction. As we all do, he was looking for happiness. But he chose to seek it out in the midst of giants, eventually being crushed by them.

I recently saw another film by Werner Herzog, Encounters at the End of the World (2007), in which the film maker was sarcastic & impatient with his subjects. I expected the same for this movie, since there was no shortage of opportunities to criticize Treadwell. Instead, Herzog was respectful, kind, & sometimes even emotional. What could have happened to him in the interum?

Grizzly Man on IMDb

Ali Zaoua (Morocco, 1999)

This is the story of four street urchins who are just trying to survive the harsh streets of Casablanca. At the beginning of the film, one of the friends is killed by a rival gang. The rest of the movie follows the three remaining boys as they struggle to deal with their friend's death.

I'm not sure if I liked this film or not. On the surface, the acting was mediocre, the story like many others, the scenery unengaging. Yet at the end of the film I found myself wanting to know more.

Several of the boys in the film seemed to be real street children. They had very real-looking scars on their faces. They smoked like they've been doing it for years. They had a sadness in their eyes that cannot be faked.

After a Google search, I found out that many of them were indeed real kids living on the streets of Casablanca, recruited by the film maker for this movie. That explains the unremarkable acting, but begs the questions: What is their real story? How did they get those horrific scars? Which ones were actors & which ones lived the tale daily?

Ali Zaoua on IMDb

Valkyrie (2008)

I never paid attention to history back in high school. I thought it was all so boring. Memorizing names & dates for the test at the end of the week did not capture my attention at all. If only they had presented history to us as what it is, a story. History is so much more than a list of presidents. It's an intricate tale of us.

So now I'm wondering: Did they teach us about this in school? Because I don't remember anything about it. But what an interesting tale!

Valkyrie on IMDb

Azúcar Amarga (Cuba, 1996)

She longs to leave Cuba for something better, he is dedicated to his country, thinking that Cuba will be better someday. Of course, they fall in love. The acting was so well done that it's easy to get lost in the story, & even though the movie was filmed in black & white, I found myself imagining the colors.

Azúcar Amarga on IMDb

47 Ronin (Japan, 1994)

This is a classic tale from Japan of a group of samurai whose leader is forced to commit seppuku, or ritual suicide. His followers believe that the sentence was unjust, so they return to the castle to kill everyone involved. Afterwards, they perform their own seppuku, & enter into enternal legend.

I am not familiar with the legend, so I was a bit confused during this movie. Luckily this particular DVD had footnotes! During the movie, when there was a scene that could be confusing for a Westerner, they explained why the scene was important. They also included translations for weights & measures. Pretty cool!

47 Ronin on IMDb