Movie Monday

What the? This is a book blog! Yes, but it’s my book blog, and I want to talk about movies, too. (Music was a great guess, Don.)

Problem is, you’re going to see what a nerdlinger I am as far as movies go. I abhor violence. Don’t care for cheap and gratuitous sex. Am frustrated by the easy, sappy, or sentimental. Don’t like to be preached at. Can’t stand the predictable. And, perhaps most of all, I regret the “could have been great but are only good” movies. In a time where they can do anything with effects and all things technical there is no reason not to get the story down first.

Let’s do this.

I warned you ahead about the nerdlinger tendencies, right?

Until a few years ago, I didn’t know who Gilbert and Sullivan were (librettist and composer of 14 comic operas in England in the late 1800’s). Then I saw the very good movie, Topsy-Turvy, which made me want to see the comic opera that is highlighted, Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. My daughters and I have checked out Acorn Media’s DVD of The Mikado from the library and have enjoyed it very much, which made me want to see Martin Savage’s portrayal of George Grossmith in Topsy-Turvy again. I think we’ve borrowed it from the library 3 or 4 times in the last 6 weeks. Savage is the best thing in it, and that’s saying something; it’s a great cast. I can’t take my eyes off of him. I’ve never seen him in anything else, but I’ve done a little research. I could see him in V for Vendetta (Danika, care to comment?) or Vera Drake. Don’t know if I’m up for Vera Drake, though.

I know what I just said above about violence, but sometimes, if the movie is good enough, I deal with it and just duck when necessary. Jim and I recently saw The Bourne Ultimatum. What a fun, wild ride! It’s smart, and shows how a trained assassin moves through a public space with great awareness of everyone around him. Matt Damon’s character, Jason Bourne, is at all times aware of his escape routes and potential weapons at hand. I love when movies show how people really work, and here, although the work is killing or not being killed, we get some very interesting information. Yes, we had to just “go with it” many times in the movie when Bourne survives fight after bomb after crash after fight. Jim compared him to Wile E. Coyote without the anvils. But it's done well, and Damon is so convincing, that it wasn't hard to do. The movie was filmed in a variety of countries, so I got in some vicarious travel, too, and Joan Allen is great to see in anything. Now that I’ve seen the three Bourne films, I would rank them first best, then the third, and the second movie last.

One more thing for this first blog entry on movies. Last night I saw Becoming Jane, the biopic about Jane Austen. I went with low expectations, had heard a couple of bad reviews and just didn’t want to expect much. I was pleasantly surprised! The movie looks of the time (late 1700’s) but doesn’t give us the same shots of the wide, misty moors that have been done and done. We get a slightly earthier film than the ones made of Austen’s novels, which makes sense, because she didn’t live as well as some of her characters. I felt for many people in the film and was convinced by the love story. There is a scene where the young Jane fights with her mother, and it is as real to me as a fight between a mother and daughter today, not stilted, not contrived. There were also moments in the film where it could have been easy or predictable, but the writer or director surprised me. How refreshing. And I really liked some of the camera shots. It is a sad story, told sympathetically but not with too much syrup.

So, there we go. Movies on a book blog. Dig it?