Nate's been looking forward to "American Gangster" ever since he first heard about it. Personally I'm not such a big Ridley Scott fan, but whenever Nate is excited about a movie I want to see it too so that I can discuss it with him. In this case the combination of Denzel as a bad guy and Russel Crowe looked like an interesting combination, so I was looking forward to it from that perspective as well. Overall I was pleasantly suprised with the result. In a film that could have very easily been cliche (does anyone know how to put the little dash over the "e"?) Ridley Scott took a very interesting approach; he actually let us get to know the characters and understand their motivations, on a human level. One of the problems I've always had with "Scarface" is that it's a glorification of a monster. I can't identify with the "hero" because he has no morals. Now that isn't to say that Denzel's character in "American Gangster" has morals like he should, but Scott has taken the time to explain where he's coming from. In contrast to the bad gangster, there's the good cop played by Russel Crowe. This is another well devoloped character in the movie, who isn't just an obstruction for the main character, but is a real flesh and blood man himself. This film was almost perfect in its approach and examination of its subject and characters. The only weakness I found was in the way in concluded. Perhaps it was limited by the fact that it was based on a true story. Sometimes the perfect ending for a movie isn't the one that really happened. Therefore I've got to say that in a comparison of two very different movies; "American Gangster" and "Training Day", if you want to see Denzel at his very finest, in a movie that holds up all the way through, it's got to be "Training Day". Nate I'm looking forward to talking to you about this one though, I think my favorite and least favorite scene was the one where Denzel gives his 20%. It worked and it failed to work both at the same time.
"Bee Movie" was colorful, and sometimes funny. It also was a little disturbing after seeing the public service announcement that ran beforehand. Before the movie strarted they ran a spot about Colony Collapse Disorder, which in a worst case scenerio could lead to all of us dying because there's no more plants left because bees can't pollenate if there aren't any bees left. Alright, then they show us a movie which has for its main plot bees deciding not to pollenate plants and make more honey. Now it wasn't as bad as the political browbeating they threw at us in "Little Feet", but in a way it was just as disturbing. Now at the opening of this review I said that it was a colorful and sometimes funny movie. It was like candy for the eyes, and it'll look great on a HDTV. Seinfeld and the supporting cast were funny, not like "no soup for you" or "Kramer stopped short with me" funny, but funny enough. If you got kids, this is better than taking them to see "American Gangster", but it for the most part it'll just make you remember how great "Ratatouille" was.
3 comments:
é - can be made by holding down the alt key and typing 0023 on the numaric keypad.
Ben,
I tried that like a million times, and I still can't do it. Maybe I should just avoid using any words that require the squiggily thing over the "e".
...the other way you can do it is by opening the "Character Map" (Start>Accessories>System Tools>Character Map), select the symbol you want (é), copy and paste it. I know, this takes a while, but it makes for nice looking posts.
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