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Eastern Promises - and other movies
Jan. 15th, 2008 10:54 pmHubby and I have decided, that we should go out more often, and that from now on Tuesday will be our movie night. Last week we saw "Keinohrhasen", a German comedy with Till Schweiger that we enjoyed a great deal, tonight we saw "Eastern Promises" with Viggo Mortensen.
Eastern Promises takes a bleak, depressing look at the Russian mafia. I don't want to give anything important away, so I'll just say that this isn't your typical action movie that celebrates violence while paying lip service to non-violence. This is gritty and ugly. Viggo Mortensen is impressive, while Armin Müller-Stahl is chilling. Excellent direction. The fight scene in the Turkish bath is extremely icky, leaving nothing to the imaginaion. And naked Viggo Mortensen did NOT wear an infamous sock over his crown jewels. Anyway, I'm very glad we watched this instead of I am Legend (which just started here and which we may go to see next week). Four point five tattoos out of five.
We also watched a couple of good movies on DVD.
We really enjoyed Hot Fuzz. Silly but fun. We enjoyed the humor and weird perspective as well as the editing. Smart entertainment, while completely over the top. I give it three bullets out of five.
We were completely enthralled by Prestige. "Are you watching closely?" A truly fascinating movie. It's now on my wants list of films that I need to own. Christian Bale is awesome, the twist is amazing, and the insights into the characters are mesmerizing. Michael Caine and David Bowie didn't hurt either, but it's really the structure of the movie, the sleight-of-hand, the story-telling that makes this movie so compelling. Excellent example of the use of narrative echo to strengthen a story's theme. Five white rabbits out of five.
Has anyone seen August Rush? Is it any good? Is it touching or just cheesy? I don't mind a good sob story, if it is told with integrity.
Eastern Promises takes a bleak, depressing look at the Russian mafia. I don't want to give anything important away, so I'll just say that this isn't your typical action movie that celebrates violence while paying lip service to non-violence. This is gritty and ugly. Viggo Mortensen is impressive, while Armin Müller-Stahl is chilling. Excellent direction. The fight scene in the Turkish bath is extremely icky, leaving nothing to the imaginaion. And naked Viggo Mortensen did NOT wear an infamous sock over his crown jewels. Anyway, I'm very glad we watched this instead of I am Legend (which just started here and which we may go to see next week). Four point five tattoos out of five.
We also watched a couple of good movies on DVD.
We really enjoyed Hot Fuzz. Silly but fun. We enjoyed the humor and weird perspective as well as the editing. Smart entertainment, while completely over the top. I give it three bullets out of five.
We were completely enthralled by Prestige. "Are you watching closely?" A truly fascinating movie. It's now on my wants list of films that I need to own. Christian Bale is awesome, the twist is amazing, and the insights into the characters are mesmerizing. Michael Caine and David Bowie didn't hurt either, but it's really the structure of the movie, the sleight-of-hand, the story-telling that makes this movie so compelling. Excellent example of the use of narrative echo to strengthen a story's theme. Five white rabbits out of five.
Has anyone seen August Rush? Is it any good? Is it touching or just cheesy? I don't mind a good sob story, if it is told with integrity.
