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Resurrecting the Champ (2006) You may not be a fan of boxing — and I’m not — but like Million Dollar Baby, this movie sucks you in. Okay, perhaps a little slow to get rolling, but it gets better and better as it unfolds. The real story’s not about boxing, of course; it’s about journalistic fraud, and more complicated than you’d think. Samuel Jackson, as always, is brilliant. |
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Office Space (1999) I tried watching this a few years ago and couldn’t get through it. The problem was me: I had a loathsome job and the movie was too painfully about my own situation. Time moves on: I took a cut in pay to do something I liked instead, and now I can enjoy the joke! Sadly, this 1999 movie can’t hold its own against the American TV series The Office, which is both more subtle and funnier. Still, Office Space is a good evening’s entertainment . . . as long as you don’t have a soul-sucking job. |
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The Counterfeit Traitor (1962) Growing up, I somehow missed this 1962 film. Man, they sure beat around the bush back in those days: rather than directly confront uncomfortable topics like the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany or the homosexuality of Lilli Palmer’s husband, the movie merely alludes to them. Some of the directing — sudden closeups of William Holden’s bug-eyed face when he’s surprised by one plot turn or another — was quite hammy. Although a true story, parts of it are overtold in the same hammy manner: in one scene, when William Holden is caught by Nazis on a busy street in Copenhagen, hoards of everyday Danes abandon what they’re doing to form a human shield and help him escape. To moviegoers of 2009, knowing what we now know about the true behavior of the vast silent majorities in Nazi-occupied nations, this pandering to the Danish ego comes across as ludicrous and comical. One scene later the movie makes up for it, as we bite our nails watching William Holden make his way back to neutral Sweden via routes and methods actually used by resistance movements. With all its ups and downs, it’s still a thought-provoking movie, well worth watching. |
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Serenity (2005) Someone said the secret to writing good science fiction is knowing history, and if you read a lot of sci-fi you know it’s true. I think the secret of making a good sci-fi movie is watching the original Star Wars until your eyes bleed. Don’t think I’m putting Serenity down, because I’m not. If you wanted more of Han & Chewie & the Millennium Falcon, Serenity delivers. I had a great time watching it, and I too want more. Just one last note about the Reavers: whoever designed their atmospheric ships must have been a Phantom driver! |
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Quarantine (2008) I didn’t think I’d like it, but I did. A hand-held camera horror fest a la Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield, only better ’cause there’s zombies. Well, no, rabies victims, but pretty much the same as zombies. I am truly surprised I didn’t have nightmares afterward. If you like scary stuff, rent this movie! |
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Nights in Rodanthe (2008) Not my sort of movie, but I’ve been hogging all the rentals lately so I thought I’d get one just for Donna. I will say this: unlike Mamma Mia!, Nights in Rodanthe did not physically drive me from the room, and I was able to watch the entire thing with Donna. The scenery was pretty, the storm was impressive, the acting business-like, the story so-so. I don’t think Donna would have given it much more than three stars, though, and at one point she commented that Richard Gere isn’t aging well. |
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