"Can I be deep crack?"

American Studies major Brandon spends a lot of time watching the History and Discovery channels, so this type of thing is right up his alley. However, I generally find historical movies a tad on the dry side, so I was surprised how engaged I was with Frost/Nixon. We actually laughed a lot at the interplay between the titular characters, and the credit for that lies in the wonderful performances by Frank Langella and Michael Sheen. They were both so completely committed. The story itself was really tight and the pace of the movie was just perfect. Brandon thought it went a long way in humanizing Nixon for him, but not necessarily in a positive way as Frosts anti-Nixon researchers feared. It just made it clear how difficult being the president is and it magnifies all of a person's best and worst qualities. Nixon's drive got him to that position but his underlying sense of entitlement was ultimately his undoing.

Salt

For the first time I have no quote! It's so much harder when we're at the theater than at home. At home, I just pause, ask Brandon, "Is that our headline?" and then type it in the notepad on my phone. I tried that during the A-Team but with the others I just had to go from memory. It's not that Salt was awful or not memorable, but to be fair there wasn't a whole heck of a lot of dialog to it, just a lot of running and shooting and stunts. Full disclosure: we're firmly Team Angelina, and we'll watch and enjoy pretty much any of her movies. She's always watchable so we had a good time. It's not as awful as the reviews make it out to be, but it's not her best. We liked the story, which was interesting in the way that it tied back into actual historical events. Ultimately the movie suffered not from the script or the plot, but from the ridiculous nature of some of the stunts. If the director had not gone for the spectacular in every stunt sequence the film may have garnered kinder reviews. They tried to make her out to be some kind of super hero, which she was not. Also, it would have been nice to see a bit more of her relationship with her husband because that would have helped establish the motivations for her behavior.

"Virginity is an asset that holds its value well."

We watched Elizabeth: The Golden Age back to back with Elizabeth, which seemed a bit daunting but was actually quite enjoyable. The second wasn't as good as the first because we liked watching Elizabeth kick ass rather than unravel out of jealous and paranoia. However, Clive Owen was scorchingly hot. I would have welcomed more sex scenes with him, and although I liked the complexity of the love triangle between him, Elzabeth, and Bess, I felt like it took up way too much of the story without really going anywhere. The way they used the word "love" back then was kind of wonky, so it's never clear if he's actually in love with Elizabeth and just settles for Bess because Elizabeth forces him to stay, so I found that whole aspect a bit unsatisfying. Otherwise, this one was just as visually stunning as the first, and we are glad we took the time to watch them both. Brandon thought Geoffrey Rush did a hell of a job in both, and I would have to agree with him on that.

"It is hard for a woman to forget her heart."

The historical portion of our week commenced with the sumptuous Elizabeth. I really love dramas like this for the simple, superficial fact that they are just so gorgeous to watch. The costumes, the settings, the actors - all so delicious. Add on top of that the political intrigue and situations into which Elizabeth was basically unwillingly thrust, and it all makes for quite an intriguing couple of hours. I spent a lot of the movie excitedly picking out familiar faces, which I always enjoy doing. Cate Blanchett is as radiant and powerful as ever in this role, and the entire supporting cast is wonderful.

"I think negative emotions are always trumped by positive emotions."

Go see Inception! Go see it! Go now! Don't waste any more of your summer not seeing this movie. It's crazy good, but that's about all we feel comfortable saying. Brandon will probably jump off a bridge if it's not at least nominated for 20 Oscars.

"In my head, two worlds collide..."

After finishing our last documentary, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, I realized that the mini theme within a theme for all of the ones we watched would have to be obsession. Every single one of these subjects were basically destroyed by their obsessions. Daniel Johnston obviously has mental problems and drug problems, but the crux of his issues really comes from his single minded and unrelenting obsession about a woman who probably doesn't even think twice about him. He's unable to let go of the idea that someday he will be with the girl of his dreams, so he spends all of his time literally battling what he sees as demons in his head in order to write the perfect song that will make her love him. This was probably the best movie of the bunch, but it was just as difficult to watch. Daniel probably won't ever "recover" or be able to take care of himself the way his parents hope he will someday, but he clearly has so many people in his corner that any time he asks for help he will have it. We found it very touching that his former manager still works to this day to try to get Daniel's music out there to the public because he believes so deeply in his talent. Although we couldn't quite see the "genius" that everyone else in the movie was raving about it's plain to see that Daniel has affected many people through his art.

"In real life, a guy riding his Harley without a helmet is just stupid."

Brandon really wanted to fit in two movies last night but wasn't up for another doc, so he decided to slot in a little palate cleanser in the form of Kill Your Darlings. I thought this would be a fangbangers dream when I saw that it featured Julie Benz and Alexander Skarsgård. My expectations rose ten fold when Skarsgård was revealed to be a suicidal hot tranny mess. John Larroquette stars as a Dr. Drew-esque celebrity psychiatrist who specializes in treating suicidal people and is in the process of creating a reality show based on them. After that I am not really sure WHAT happened. It was convoluted, boring, and not even remotely entertaining. Well, ok, seeing Eric Northman in a dress and heels was pretty entertaining, but that was about it.

Brandon has nothing to add other than he wants to sue the producer for his 90 minutes back.

"We hauled away four garbage bags of people outta that bear."

I guess it's my turn to be a dick. Of course we had heard about Grizzly Man, and everyone knows that things did not end well for Timothy Treadwell. What I was not expecting was how much I would end up despising the guy. He was clearly nuts but also egotistical and a complete imbecile. I have a serious problem with people who anthropomorphise and infantalize wild animals. Yes, I treat my domesticated cats like my babies, but when they scratch me or when something bad happens to them, I am not shocked or offended. I understand that they are animals. People like this man cannot comprehend that these creatures are not their "friends." Contrary to what Timothy believed, they were not accepting him. They acclimated to his presence and adapted their behavior to accommodate his ridiculous intrusions. I was really bothered by the fact that in the staged portions of his recordings, he comes off as some goofy man-child who's so pure hearted and tells the animals constantly how much he loves them. However, in the set up moments it is clear that he thinks so very highly of himself and wants to make this footage into some kind of blockbuster movie. He also wasn't always as sweet to the animals as he pretended to be, like when he was cussing at the fox for stealing his hat.

Over and over Timothy claimed that he was the only person who was protecting them - but there was no evidence presented as to any positive affects his obsession had on them. In the ONE bit of footage he had of people mistreating the bears (some people throwing rocks at one and taking pictures), he cowered in the bushes and watched them do it. When he cried over the coyotes attacking the baby fox and said that he didn't understand and that it was unfair, that was a crucial moment for me, which I was glad the filmmaker pointed out. This man wasn't a scientist or an expert - he was an absolute loon who decreed himself some kind of champion and protector of these animals, when he had absolutely nothing of value to offer them. My favorite part was the interview with helicopter pilot Sam Egli who said it plainly - in the end he got exactly what he deserved.

Brandon had a lot more sympathy for Timothy, and does believe that he was earnest and sincere in his efforts, but that he was a depressed, isolated, misguided soul who was so lost that he rejected society in a suicidal way. He should have been on meds and needed intensive therapy, which he rejected, but the so called human "friends" he had should have stepped in an helped him rather than encourage his destructive behavior. He basically committed suicide by bear, sadly taking someone else out with him. Also, as opposed to my impression that he was just delusional, Brandon feels that he really did forge friendships with at least the foxes with whom he lived though the bears seemed at most to have tolerated his presence.

The one aspect that really felt strange to me was how mysterious everyone was about the woman who died with Timothy. Her family refused to be interviewed, and there were no pictures of her face included. All that they knew about her was that she was petrified of bears. WTF? Why would she even agree to go on these trips with him if she was so scared? That was the only tragic part for me, but I am sure she was just as insane as he was.

If nothing else, despite the bad taste his methods left in my mouth, I do admire the amazingly gorgeous footage that Timothy was able to procure. We are both glad we finally watched this documentary, but I think we both would have really preferred watching a couple hours following the adorable foxes.

(BTW, I am ending this review now but I could go on for about 20 more paragraphs. Brandon and I are continuing to discuss it via IM right now, so I guess that's the sign of a good movie - when it can get you fired up and inspire a lot of debate!)

"They say even Hitler had friends..."

As a woman who tends to get a teeny bit obsessive, I felt kind of bad for Burt at the beginning of Crazy Love... but soon I was completely horrified. By the end, I was more horrified by the object of his obsession, Linda. This is a love story of the most bizarre sort - boy pursues girl, boy gets girl, girl discovers boy is married, girl leaves boy, boy forges divorce papers to get girl back, girl figures out boy's ruse and dumps him again, boy hires thugs to BLIND AND DISFIGURE GIRL. If you think it sounds like it should logically end there, you would be wrong. That is just the beginning of their love story! These two are equally psychotic and really made for each other. We found this documentary to be enthralling and engaging, and if it weren't a true story it would be completely unbelievable. Brandon thinks he prefers Requiem for Dream as a love story over this movie.

So, we fell way behind last week - a full week behind, in fact. Brandon freaked out and was essenitally ready to give up, but I counted and we are NOT in bad shape. We have 43 days left and 53 movies. It's not impossible. I still think we can do it!

"Way to be obedient!"

I am not really going to go too deeply into Jesus Camp, because it was just really disturbing on a lot of levels. We were mostly just horrified the whole time. I felt so sad for these kids, but it was really personal for me because I was raised in a pretty religious household, went to Catholic school for 10 years, had a lot of painful times as a child where so called "Christians" would tell me I was going to hell because of the beliefs that had been drilled into my head... this subject is a bit of a sore one for me. I understand that the woman running the camp firmly believes she is saving souls. I don't think she's a bad person. I just think she's twisted and cruel in the way she goes about trying to force these kids to be "soldiers" for Christ. Although she thinks she's doing it for their own good, she doesn't give any room for them to explore their own relationships with God - it's her way or the highway. Her sermons are very fire and brimstone, and watching children "speak in tongues" is just scary on every level. Brandon thought the scariest part was the insistence by the fundamentalists that we need to remove the separation of church and state because that would be the only way to combat our fundamentalist enemies like the fundamentalist Islamics. His final word: "I just really want to forget that movie as much as I can."

Interesting movie but we wouldn't recommend it.

"Kill off all my demons, Roy, and my angels might die, too..."

I love that quote, which is actually from Tennessee Williams, because it perfectly describes the main problem with the character of Jessie in Transsiberian. She's a former wild child who has been unsettlingly settled with an uber sweet goody goody played by Woody Harrelson. She wants to be happy, she wishes she could be satisfied with the comfortable life they have made together, but she's clearly missing at least parts of her previously exciting world. So, he plans a trip for them taking a train from China to Russia after a missionary trip with his church to help children. It should be a fun adventure for both - she loves to travel and take pictures, and he's obsessed with trains. Then, as with any good suspense thriller or VH1 Behind the Music episode, tragedy strikes and it all goes downhill from there.

This movie was very good with some tense moments, but I spent quite a bit of it being super annoyed with Jessie. She makes a lot of questionable choices, and in the climactic dramatic moments she really acts like kind of a psycho. Overall though, we both liked this movie very much. It's the kind of story I am usually drawn to - throwing seemingly normal people into weird situations, and seeing how they behave, because I can then imagine how I would behave in their places. Brandon was a little disappointed that he was able to [spoiler] peg Grinko as a bad guy from the beginning [/spoiler] and he thought a lot of the plot devices could have been tighter, but was willing to let that go in the end.

Ok, Cops & Detectives week is DONE! Whew. Now on to Documentary/Historic... but not till at least Friday.

"You want me to kill him, not rape him, right?"

We got to go to a test screening of a movie called The Mechanic last night, so Brandon agreed we can include it in our 100. Since this is not a finished product, we don't want to judge it too much, but we both really liked it. Jason Statham and Ben Foster are pretty consistent actors, and they did not disappoint. I didn't realize this was a remake of a Charles Bronson movie until afterward, but I thought the story was interesting if a bit predictable. We would both recommend it, so if you like action movies you should check it out in December!

"My only interest in your head is how easy it'll crack open."

Right off the bat, this movie is strange and different because it employs a first person convention I have never seen pulled off for so long. The entire first half of the movie is shown from the perspective of Humphrey Bogart's character, Vincent - literally. He is the camera, and he is not shown onscreen until about 45 minutes into the film. At first it was quite unsettling and off putting, but once we got used to it, we enjoyed how it came across. Then, the transition to making his character an active part of the visual makes perfect sense and is totally smooth. The basic storyline is about a man who's been framed for murder, escapes from prison, and attempts to clear his name with the help of a woman who was obsessed with his case, played by Lauren Bacall.

Honestly, I was much more interested in Bacall's character in this story, because although we get a bit of a peek into why she became so involved in Vincent's case and her tangential connection, mostly she just seems like some kind of weird stalker. Their "love story" isn't very believable but pretty typical for movies of that era, in that they seem to fall for each other within minutes and she's ready to throw her life away to be with him from the word go. I thought they had good chemistry, but I think they were actually married in real life at that point so that makes sense. After we watched and enjoyed this one, Brandon suggested we do a full noir week with these types of movies and I heartily agreed.

We have one more movie to finish up Cops & Detectives, but this week is going to be really rough, not just because it's Documentary/Historic Week but also because we will only be home one night! So, this weekend we BETTER load up and resist napping all day!

"You wanna find the rabbit, you gotta work the hat."

We took a slight break from Cops & Detectives to watch what we hoped would be a lighthearted comedy with some friends on Sunday. I insisted on renting When in Rome the day it was released, because being a huge Kristen Bell fan I was sad to have missed it in the theater. So, I reallllllly really wanted to like this movie, but I should have known it was going to be awful. Mostly I just want to rescue Kristen Bell from her team of agents and publicists and save her career. She is so magical, and in a movie that is all ABOUT magic she should have shown like the sun, but was instead completely upstaged by the rest of the cast. Josh Duhamel is ridiculously adorable as a klutzy former football star inexplicably trying to woo Bell's crabby and uptight museum curator. Everyone agreed that she was just so unlikeable that it threw off the entire movie. The most entertaining part was the pack of misfits in love with her because of a spell, especially Jon Heder as a Criss Angel-type magician.

I am still counting this even though Brandon fell asleep in the middle, because he really and truly didn't miss much.

"I'm not... having... a very... good... time."

Another one of our favorites in this project is Surveillance. Wow, what a trippy little movie. This isn't surprising coming from the mind of Jennifer Lynch, but it also wasn't quite what we expected either. I really don't want to talk much about it because I just want to highly recommend it, but the basic story is that two FBI agents go to a podunk town's police station to interview witnesses to part of a brutal murder spree. The main action of the movie takes place in the station, and then we get to see flashbacks of what really happened as compared to what the witnesses say happened. It starts out kind of comical, but then it gets really creepy. I absolutely loved French Stewart as a one of the local police officers, and all I will say is that he's NOT his usual goofy self here. Great cast, tight story, excellent pacing.

"The choice between workin and drinkin was becoming harder and harder."

First off I would like to point out that I have been mistakenly calling this Cops & Robbers week - it's Cops & Detectives. In that vein, Brown's Requiem is a quirky little detective story that kept my attention quite a bit more than the previous selections. It was serious but weird enough that it was funny, too. Will Sasso is completely wacko as a sort of homeless, always smelly golf caddy who's gotten himself mixed up with a twisted scheme and is being pursued by some seriously shady characters, all while trying to protect his sister (Selma Blair) from the creepiest guy of all. The titular character is the part time repo man/part time private eye who he's hired to keep an eye on her. Brown is a loser and he knows it, but is mostly resigned to the fact that he was basically railroaded out of his career as a cop by a corrupt IA director, until he stumbles upon a shot at redemption.

Although this wasn't anything flashy or all that exciting, we both liked the plot and thought Michael Rooker was great as Brown. Brandon had read that some people thought it came off as a sort of parody of the noir genre, but we both thought it held its own pretty well. I pointed out that it had a bit of a China Town-y vibe, and Brandon actually took a break from being a dick to agree with me. ;o)

"Strange as it might seem, I believe the police when they tell me something."

Ok, before I say anything else about Gone Baby Gone, can we please discuss Casey Affleck for one second? When the hell did he get hot? How did that happen? Wasn't he just Ben's squirrelly kid brother? Yes, he was great in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, but I was not prepared for the affect he would have on me in this movie. He was poised, mature, handsome, intense, and yes, INSANELY hot.

On to the movie. Wow, this was good. Ben Affleck needs to focus more on film making rather than acting if this is the kind of product he can create. We were completely riveted from beginning to end, and in some ways it almost felt like two movies intricately layered together. Just when you think you understand what happened, everything shifts. The first half winds down and it seems like it is going to end fairly unsatisfyingly and then WHAM - a whole different story comes to light. So well done, such great acting from everyone involved. I don't know if it was because he felt comfortable acting for his brother or what, but the younger Affleck really held his own amidst the cast of more established actors and was incredible to watch. Is it coming across that we really, really liked him in this? We really did. Also stunning was Amy Ryan. About halfway through, I was like, "WAIT - is that Holly from the Office???" I think I knew that she was in it but had completely forgotten, and she was virtually unrecognizable and so very hateable. Awesome performance.

The morality issues raised in this movie - is the right thing always the right thing, and is the wrong thing sometimes the right thing if it's done for the right reasons - were handled very well, and there was no clear bias by the film makers as to how they wanted the audience to feel about it. We ended the movie very sad and pensive, painfully agreeing that Patrick did the right thing but also that we're not sure we could have done it. Personally, I want to believe that [spoiler] Patrick stays involved in Amanda's life and acts as some kind of guardian angel for her, protecting her from the screwed up world she was born into [/spoiler] but as Brandon pointed out, that probably wouldn't happen.

This is definitely in the top five of the movies we have watched so far.

"Everything is everything, baby..."

The biggest thing I took away from The French Connection is that composer Don Ellis is my sworn enemy. Apparently he won awards for this garbage, but I swear the score to this movie is worse than a pack of wild vuvuzelas. Half the time it was just filled with buzzing and screeching. I guess what I am learning is that I am not nearly as sophisticated as I would like to think.

Anyway, on to the movie itself. This story was much more interesting to me and had a bit more pizazz than Bullitt, but still was just not my thing. Again, I recognize that it's a good movie and it was probably awesome to see in the theater, but it's not the type of thing I want to snuggle up and watch in my living room. Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider were a great team with tons of chemistry, and it apparently won a bunch of Oscars, so clearly this was a good use of our time. I just won't be begging for the sequel any time soon.

After reading my review, Brandon had only this to add: "Men are men and women are women and that's a good thing. Now bring on The French Connection II."

"Look, Chalmers, let's understand each other... I don't like you."

It is clear to me that Cops and Robbers week is going to be a very Brandon-centric week. I hate to be sexist or anything, but if our first couple of movies are any indication, this is a very manly theme. As expected, he loved Bullitt and said he doesn't have much commentary besides, "The movie stands on its own." All he would say is that he really enjoyed Steve McQueen and Robert Vaughn (even though he was totally hateable). He has a strong affinity to that era in general and thinks his feelings about the movie are strongly tied to his love of several TV shows from the period (I Spy, Wild Wild West, The Avengers, etc.) so he was ensorcelled by the buildings, clothing, and general sense of the period.

Although I can objectively see why this is a classic movie, it wasn't my cup of tea. A large majority is basically just car porn. The storyline didn't really hold my interest, and the only time I perked up was during the insane car chase. When I started squealing and bouncing in my seat and exclaiming, "Biggie, this chase scene is making me crazy!!" he explained that it's one of the most famous in cinematic history.

Despite the fact that the movie as a whole didn't do much for me, I was quite intrigued by Steve McQueen. I think this was my first exposure to him and I would definitely be willing to watch more of his movies. I still cannot believe that he did most of his own driving for that chase scene! It blew me away.

Ooooh, interesting trivia from Wikipedia for Casey: The real-life San Francisco homicide investigator, David Toschi (played by Mark Ruffalo in the 2007 film Zodiac) is said to be the model for McQueen's character Bullitt, including the use of a specially designed quick-draw shoulder holster for his weapon.

"Are you bullshitting us or not? I just simply never know with you."

Dovetailing nicely with the last two movies, A Scanner Darkly is yet another tale of government invasiveness in the name of protecting the people, but as always there's a sinister underbelly at play. Also, the concept of someone going so deep undercover that even his bosses and eventually he himself don't even realize who he really is was quite interesting and well executed.

The main draw (hehe) to this movie is the visual style of the animation layered on top of the filmed actors. I found this mesmerizing, even though all the bugs at the beginning made me want to hurl. Brandon, on the other hand, found the drawing over the actors to be unnecessary and distracting. Mostly he found it frustrating because he knew the actors but the style just made it seem like his vision was distorted, although he acknowledges that this could have been used as another mechanism to drive home the main points of the movie. He felt like the only clear value of the artistic choices came from the depiction of the cloaking suits.

I am firmly Team Keanu and always have been, so I was as pleased with his performance as I ever am. Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson were hilarious together as paranoid drug addicts, and the ridiculous scene where they tried to determine how many gears a bike had was particularly genius.

"The party is over. Have a nice apocolypse."

Southland Tales makes a nice companion piece to Brazil, even thought we both agreed we had no idea wtf really happened. It takes place in a similar type of world where information is being tightly monitored and controlled for society's "protection" and any subversive types are basically shot on sight. The twisty turns and freaky metaphysical, socio-psychological mind fuck aspects were very reminiscent of writer/director Richard Kelly's seminal work, Donnie Darko, but this one is way more convoluted. As with Children of Men, we are once again dealing with a countdown to the end of days, but this one had a lot of pointed commentary on the twisted way our society has started to backslide into extreme Puritanism. As the lovely porn star Krysta Now (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) explains, "All the Pilgrims did was ruin the American Indian orgy of freedom." The lockdown on the internet portrayed in this movie is not far off from the severity of the censorship and FCC crackdowns we've experienced in the past few years.

Other than that high level type of message, we really have no effing clue what happened in this movie. So, so, so, soooo many actors we like (omg, JT! omg, Mandy Moore! omg, is that KEVIN SMITH in old man makeup??) were scattered throughout, sometimes just drifting through scenes like leaves in the wind. Such a bizarre experience.

"There are reasons each of us are born and we have to find those reasons."

Right up front, I will admit my entire previous exposure to the Avatar franchise was knowing that my friend's sister worked on the Nickelodeon series. Because of this, I knew it was based on a children's cartoon, but I wasn't expecting The Last Airbender to be a straight up kid's movie. My friends and I agreed that the marketing fell short on this one because we felt as though we were led to believe it would be more of a cool martial arts type movie, starring a kick ass kid. Brandon claims he totally knew it was a kid's movie and it was basically what he expected, even though he was a bit disappointed that it was maybe a bit overly kid friendly, especially in the violence aspect.

We enjoyed the movie for what it was - a kids' adventure flick set in a distant, strange world populated by magical creatures and characters. The effects were fun, especially the water manipulations, and little Noah Ringer was adorable and feisty as the titular character. As an M. Knight Shyamalan fan, I mostly wanted to see it because of his involvement. This was an interesting choice for him because it didn't feel like his typical style. I hadn't heard anything about the racial controversy surrounding the movie until after we saw it. Nothing struck me as strange while we were watching it except for the fact that the two main supporting kids were Caucasian when it seemed like the rest of their tribe was comprised of Inuit people. Completely superficially, I actually enjoyed the multicultural, almost Star Wars-esque, casting. Who can complain about watching handsome white, Maori, and Indian guys in the same movie? I sure as hell wouldn't.

I probably would have been obsessed with this movie when I was a kid, and certainly would have fallen madly in love with Jackson Rathbone's Sokka. My fondness for the actor has been growing lately, so seeing him here was a nice surprise. [On a side note, I actually saw two movies in the theater that day, but since Brandon didn't watch the other with me, it doesn't count towards our 100. That other movie was Eclipse, so unbeknownst to me it turned out to be a very Jackson Rathbone day!] One other actor I was not expecting in Airbender: one of my current faves, John Noble, voicing the Dragon Spirit. I recognized his voice during the movie but just could not place it while I was watching.

As seems to be the trend with a lot of our 100, we are glad we saw it but wouldn't encourage anyone to rush out and see it.

"Care for a little necrophilia?"

We knew we were in for some weirdness when watching Brazil since weirdness is sort of a prerequisite for a Terry Gilliam film. We were not wrong. This futuristic vision of a world under constant surveillance and terror was a bit overwhelming. With an impressive cast that includes the likes of Jonathan Pryce, Robert DeNiro, and Michael Palin, insane sets and costumes, and quite a bit of physicality, it's almost an overload for the senses. Underneath all of that madness, the message comes through clearly, though. It pretty much boils down to the fact that it is so easy to bury your head in the sand and ignore social injustice until it's literally pounding down your door, or in the case of this movie, cutting a hole in your ceiling and descending upon you.

The visuals basically make this movie. Everything is run by weird computers that are relied upon to take care of everything, but when one tiny mistake is made, complete chaos ensues. Those who are above it all ignore them and go about their shallow, materialistic lives, but there are others who take a stand and they are the ones who get screwed by the system. Even though it's presented in an absurd, over-the-top manner, the truth is that society isn't all that far off. There's also a romantic angle that takes up way too much of the plot. It makes sense that it's the motivating factor for Sam to rage against the machine, but it's more annoying that anything.

Overall we enjoyed it but agreed that it felt really dated, and not in a good way. Brandon's main issue was that the tone may have been a bit too whimsical for the subject matter. He said it was like"Monty Python trying to do a serious movie with heavy social commentary." My problem was that it was really long and FELT really long.

"You look like a radioactive tampon..."

Now this is the kind of sci-fi I can sink my teeth into. Moon really reminded me of the short story collections I would steal from my dad's bedside table as a kid - rooted in the world we know, not so far out fantastical that the concepts can't be easily grasped, and still makes you think. Our initial interest stemmed from hearing that Sam Rockwell plays dual roles because he is easily one of our favorite actors. He did not disappoint. He has such a way about him that he can infuse even the most tense situations with humanity and humor. What we did not realize, but were pleased to discover, is that this movie also features Kevin Spacey as the voice of a sympathetic, lovable robot. Spacey perfectly captures the emoticons displayed by the robot and conveys so much concern for Sam - concern he is obviously programmed to "feel" but nonetheless carries out dutifully, even in questionable situations.

The story starts out straightforwardly enough: a man is winding down his three year commitment manning a space station on the moon and overseeing the harvesting of some element found there. When he's injured on the job, however, everything starts to unravel around him and his entire existence comes into question. We're then presented with a whole slew of entanglements to consider: what exactly makes a person a person? Is it simply his DNA? The sum of his life experiences? A combination of the two? This kind of stuff is right up my alley, so I absolutely loved it. Brandon enjoyed the story, and was really impressed with Rockwell as well as the way the score really added a subtle emotional element to the film.

This was one of our favorites so far!

"Everything is a mythical, cosmic battle between faith and chance."

Watching Children of Men so soon after The Road might have been a mistake. I need something less depressing soon! This was almost as rough, but I felt much more hopeful after watching it. There were so many more people willing to help the protagonists here than in The Road, and the people who were fighting at least thought they were righteous (and none of them were cannibals).

Although Brandon's been dying to see it, I put this one off for a very long time because I knew it would make me sad, but I am glad he finally got his wish. It's not that I didn't enjoy it, but sci-fi week kind of ended up being more of a post-apocalyptic/world's gonna end/everyone is screwed kinda week. This movie, which fit right into that pattern with its story about a world plagued with infertility and the impending extinction of the human race, was sobering as well as entertaining. We both enjoyed it a lot and were impressed with the set design and art direction, as well as the cast. Clive Owen and Julianne Moore are always winners with us, and Michael Cain was great as their old hippie friend.

We started the next movie, Moon, last night and will definitely be finishing that along with Brazil tonight!