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Friday evening I watched Napoleon Dynamite, which was recommended to me (I can't remember by whom). Despite myself, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I have no idea what I'd thought it was about...but this is the actual plot:
Geeky high schooler and weird older brother are left in the charge of shady Uncle Rico when the grandmother who is raising them breaks her coccyx while riding a dune buggy. Napoleon has no affect; neither does his new best friend at school, a Mexican boy who decides to run for Class president. Interestingly, the popular girls are normal looking--not the knockouts you usually see in these type of movies. And the shy/loner girl is adorable from the beginning. A lot of stuff happens that I thought would turn kind of ugly, but it didn't. A really good natured movie, and the characters definitely grew on me.
I also watched 3:10 to Yuma, a wonderful remake of the western originally starring Van Hefflin and Glenn Ford. This one's got a yummy Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. Crowe's a famous bandit and leader of a vicious gang. When he's caught, a representative of the banks he's robbed, lawmen, and volunteers are asked to help transport him to Contention, where he'll be put onto the 3:10 train to Yuma to stand trial. The Bale character, a Civil War veteran who lost a leg, desperately needs money to keep his ranch and his family fed volunteers as one of the escorts. Despite the fact that the damned DVD started skipping halfway through, I was able to fix it well enough that I only missed little bits of the action. Good movie.
Last night after a delicious Japanese dinner (and cold sake) with friends, I watched Chungking Express which I enjoyed but really confused me (I suppose it could be because of the sake, but I doubt it).
It's a charming Chinese movie (with subtitles) but I didn't realize there were two sets of stories (The two segments have no real separation, hence part of the problem) and thought the lead characters were possibly the same--at least the females.
The two main male characters in each segment are both young policemen moping after girlfriends who dumped them. I did notice they didn't look like the same guy/cop and this confused me--the first two times the cop showed up at the fast food place I thought--so who is he and where's the other cop--or are they both the same cop??? hmmmm.
The female lead in the first segment is wearing a blonde wig and trenchcoat throughout, except for one brief scene where she wasn't clearly viewed. So in the second segment--I figured it was the same female, just not in a wig and not in a trenchcoat...Alas, I was mistaken.
So...despite the confusion I really enjoyed the movie. See it, but do be aware....the characters in the second half are mostly (there's a bit of overlap) NOT the same characters as in the first half. I now also realize that it's likely (although I didn't notice) that Chungking Express is probably the name of the fast food place where the cops in both segments stop in regularly to eat or drink coffee.
Geeky high schooler and weird older brother are left in the charge of shady Uncle Rico when the grandmother who is raising them breaks her coccyx while riding a dune buggy. Napoleon has no affect; neither does his new best friend at school, a Mexican boy who decides to run for Class president. Interestingly, the popular girls are normal looking--not the knockouts you usually see in these type of movies. And the shy/loner girl is adorable from the beginning. A lot of stuff happens that I thought would turn kind of ugly, but it didn't. A really good natured movie, and the characters definitely grew on me.
I also watched 3:10 to Yuma, a wonderful remake of the western originally starring Van Hefflin and Glenn Ford. This one's got a yummy Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. Crowe's a famous bandit and leader of a vicious gang. When he's caught, a representative of the banks he's robbed, lawmen, and volunteers are asked to help transport him to Contention, where he'll be put onto the 3:10 train to Yuma to stand trial. The Bale character, a Civil War veteran who lost a leg, desperately needs money to keep his ranch and his family fed volunteers as one of the escorts. Despite the fact that the damned DVD started skipping halfway through, I was able to fix it well enough that I only missed little bits of the action. Good movie.
Last night after a delicious Japanese dinner (and cold sake) with friends, I watched Chungking Express which I enjoyed but really confused me (I suppose it could be because of the sake, but I doubt it).
It's a charming Chinese movie (with subtitles) but I didn't realize there were two sets of stories (The two segments have no real separation, hence part of the problem) and thought the lead characters were possibly the same--at least the females.
The two main male characters in each segment are both young policemen moping after girlfriends who dumped them. I did notice they didn't look like the same guy/cop and this confused me--the first two times the cop showed up at the fast food place I thought--so who is he and where's the other cop--or are they both the same cop??? hmmmm.
The female lead in the first segment is wearing a blonde wig and trenchcoat throughout, except for one brief scene where she wasn't clearly viewed. So in the second segment--I figured it was the same female, just not in a wig and not in a trenchcoat...Alas, I was mistaken.
So...despite the confusion I really enjoyed the movie. See it, but do be aware....the characters in the second half are mostly (there's a bit of overlap) NOT the same characters as in the first half. I now also realize that it's likely (although I didn't notice) that Chungking Express is probably the name of the fast food place where the cops in both segments stop in regularly to eat or drink coffee.