Friday, March 28, 2014

Movie Review Round Up

Lovelace-Good but unsettling film about the brief porn career of the female lead of the infamous porn movie Deep Throat.  Great performances all around, especially Amanda Seyfried, Peter Skaarsgard, Sharon Stone, and Chris Noth.  There's some nudity and violence directed against women in this film, so be aware.  I recommend this one but no for the squeamish among you.

The Loving Story-Very informative documentary about Mildred and Richard Loving, the couple who took the interracial marriage ban case all the way to the US  Supreme Court.  The Lovings were a simple couple who just wanted to be together and raise their kids near their families in Virginia.  They just wanted to live their lives together and to be left alone, but sometimes history has a way of making ordinary people heroes.  I defy you to watch this film and not fall in love with the late Mildred Loving.  Highly recommend this one.

Silent Running-Bruce Dern is on a spaceship with three smart asses and a shitload of plants and animals.  The guys get recalled back to earth and are told they must destroy all the ships and all it's cargo.  Dern freaks out, kills the others, and sails off with a shipload of trees, plants, animals, and some two legged robots.  I remember seeing this film in the early 1970's and thinking it was the coolest thing ever, sadly, upon reviewing I must revise that opinion.  This one sucks.  It's the logical extension of all those dystopian films like Omega Man, Soylent Green, and Planet of the Apes.  Earth has gone to hell in a hand basket, so a heroic earth worshipper sails away with plants and animals in the hopes that one day he'll colonize another world that we won't fuck up.  It's laughable really.  Recommended only for the cheese factor.

Dean Splaney-A Vicar who was a dog in a past life remembers his dog days when he's lost in drinking his favorite wine.  A pretty slight premise makes a pretty slight film.  Kind of boring too.  Not recommended.

Bounty Killer-In a dystopian future corporations take over everything and bounty killers spring up to kill corporate overlords in an effort to reign in corporate power.  High octane fun this film is.  Writing like Yoda talks I am.  Loving this ultra violent sexy film I am.  Highly recommending it I am.

Burke and Hare (2010) and Burke and Hare (1972)- These two very different films tell the story of Irish murderers Burke and Hare.  These two men found out medical schools in Edinburgh in the early part of the 19th century paid cash for cadavers to dissect so they went out murdering people and selling their corpses.  The earlier of these two films is more historically accurate but the later one is a far more entertaining film.  I recommend the 2010 version, despite it's historical inaccuracies.

Contracted-A woman shags a dude who just fucked a corpse.  The next day she starts bleeding from her orifices and then things go downhill for her from there.  Ugh. I rooted for the disease in this film.  I found most all of the leads annoying and the supporting characters to be idiots.  As the woman degenerates and her disease worsens her friends keep asking her if she's 'doing okay' when one look at her tells anyone with at least one working brain cell that she's not fucking long for this world.  I hated this one and I wanted every charcater in it to die a violent horrible death.

The Iran Job-Eye opening documentary about a b grade basketball player who wasn't quite good enough to play in the NBA but was good enough to play internationally.  He ends up playing in Iran, which is a basketball mad country.  The film documents his life during his first year playing in Iran and it shows just how tough it is to live in a modern day theocracy, especially if you're a female, he befriends a group of women.  Highly recommend this one even if you're not a basketball fan, which I am not.

The Kids Are All Right-A long time lesbian couple's kids find the guy who donated sperm their mothers used to have them with.  One of the lesbians has an affair with him and her partner finds out.  Not a bad film and I could easily see Annette Benning and Julianne Moore as the couple in question, in fact I probably fantasized about them doing it long before this film ever came out.  My only problem with this movie is it's lays all the blame for the affair at the feet of the sperm donor, Mark Ruffalo.  He's not blameless in it, but it takes two to tango.  Recommended with reservations.

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