So the three foreign films (that I bought 3+ weeks ago) didn't come in, so I ended up watching 8 other films lol. Was a great film-viewing weekend!
Office Space (1999):
Peter works at a generic software company (that supports a Credit Union) and is completely apathetic towards/tired of, his job. His g/f takes him to an occupational hypnotist and the hypnotist gets him to, "not care," until he counts to three and snaps his fingers... of course, the doc dies before this count, so Peter's in a constant state of, "uncaring," which causes him to be brutally honest in his review, get promoted, get a new g/f (Jennifer Aniston) and stick it to his boss, whom everyone hates. All is well, until his two good friends at the company, are about to get laid off (including Michael Bolton
). They come up with a scheme, that completely backfires and that leads you to the rest of the film.
It's light on plot, but the writing is witty and excellent, a typical Mike Judge production (King of the Hill and Beavis & Butthead were never heavy-plot). The acting is superb for a comedy film and we root for the protagonists, despise Bill Lumbergh (
) and heed the advice of Diedrich Bader's character, who is the, "wise one," in this film. Of course, being based on Judge's, "Milton," comic strip, the character plays a prominent role in the plot, even if he isn't on-screen nearly as much as the other characters. It's nothing brilliant, but a fun and funny film indeed.
9/10 (rounded; 8.5)
Inglorious Basterds (2010):
A re-telling of the last days of WWII, fictionalized, of course, Tarantino-style. There are spoilers and plot-heavy details from the word go, so I won't summarise, for those who haven't seen it.
Phenomenal acting (after the opening scene, I flat-out said to my friends in the theatre, that Waltz was winning an Oscar... and he did!), phenomenal script-writing (IMO, the greatest two opening scenes, dialogue-wise, in cinema history, are this film and The Social Network) and just a well-crafted film from beginning to end, I enjoy this film immensely, whenever I see it. Love it, Love it, Love it. It is my favourite Tarantino film and I deem it his best (Dan and I talked about it earlier this year), though I am still yet to see Pulp Fiction, which is usually deemed his best film.
The, "Italian," scene is just priceless. Watch this if you haven't; you shan't be disappointed.
10/10
The Princess Bride (1987):
A young boy (Fred Savage) is sick and playing video games, when his grandfather (Peter Falk) comes over to read a story to him, that has been read from grandfather to grandson, for the previous 3 generations. The story is about a teenage girl (Robin Wright; stunning), who has a teenage boy servant (Cary Elwes; awesome) that she orders around, while eventually falling in love with him. He sets off one day, but never returns home and after 2 years (or was it 4? Can't remember), she is taken as a bride for the Prince of their kingdom, but she does not love him at all and while she gets away, she is kidnapped by 3 outcasts, in Vizzini (Wallace Shawn, horribly miscast as a, "Sicilian," lol, even though he has a super-memorable and funny role), Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) and Fezzik (Andre <3), who are then pursued by a man in black (CLEARLY Elwes lol, even though he's supposed to be a mysterious man). The man bests each of the kidnappers in their proficiency, which earns all of their respect (save for Vizzini, but there's a reason why lol) and then I won't say anything else, as I will be spoiling the film.
This film has been super-prevalent in my life, from a pop-culture POV and has been parodied, re-told, etc. to death, but I had never seen it until Friday (the only things I had seen were Inigo's repeated lines and, "Inconceivable!). What a wonderful film, crafted with love and heart; seeing Andre brought a constant smile to my face (especially as it was known that he had the best time of his life, during filming) and Mark Knopfler does a superb score. It's so great, I'm beyond glad that I watched it
9/10
Le Grand Bleu (1988):
Enzo Molinari (Jean Reno!) and Jacques Mayol (Jean-Marc Barr) are two friends (but rivals), growing up on a Grecian island. They both love to dive and are super-adept at holding their breath underwater. Enzo has a large family, many friends, but Jacques lives with just his father and his uncle, with no other close friends or companions (aside from Enzo). When Jacques' father is diving for shellfish and other things on the reef, something goes wrong and he sinks without oxygen, dying right before Jacques' eyes. We fast forward 20+ years and Enzo is a 15-time free-diving world champion, doing odd jobs here and there that involve diving (including search and rescue), though it isn't an official business or on the up and up. We also meet Johana (Rosanna Arquette), who is an insurance agent, travelling to a frozen lake in the mountains of Peru. There, she runs into Jacques, who is diving to reclaim the contents of a truck that fell in (which Johana has come to adjudicate). She is smitten and blows off work with excuses, to be with Jacques, while Jacques heads back to France and spends some time with his, "true family," a pod of Dolphins at the local sea park. With the next diving championships to be held in Sicily, Jacques heads there via invitation from Enzo, while Johana picks up on this and heads there herself. The rest of the film is Jacques' and Enzo's lives for the next few years and their ups and downs.
It's a fictionalized telling of their lives (they are real people), but it is VERY well-done and the film is beautifully shot (many shots done by Besson himself). There are laughs to be had, there are tears to shed, the film really plays with your emotions, but not in a stupid way or anything. Luc Besson was beginning his prime 10-year stretch at this point and this is easily one of the 5 best films he's done. It was in French theatres for over a year and made a ton of money for Gaumont, so the popularity was there.
There is a bit of over-acting done on Arquette's part, but other than that, the 3 leads do a really good job, with Reno being the standout that he always is and the supporting cast help keep things going as well. This a visually-delicious film though and if you love seeing nature on film, this a great start. Props to Eric Serra for a superb soundtrack like always, there isn't a single film scored by him, that I don't deem even mediocre, let alone bad.
9/10
Taxi (1998):
Staying in France, Daniel Morales (Samy Naceri) is a pizza delivery guy, who sets a record on the delivery vespa, his last day on the job. Everyone celebrates him, as he is the best delivery driver of them all and he will be greatly-missed. He gets back to his place with his g/f (Marion Cotillard), but before they can spend any quality time together, Daniel's alarm goes off (somewhat of a running gag) and he has to go lineup to get his Taxi license. After being at the office for hours, he finally gets his stuff and places it on his Peugeot, which has been heavily-modified (and I mean HEAVILY-modified). His first job is to take a kindly older lady and her groceries, home. She invites him in and makes him a big lunch and raves about her son... who works for the police and is introduced, failing his driving test for the 8th time. Eventually, through hijinks and the like, the two meet up and not going to spoil the plot further lol.
This was only the second time I've seen the film, but it was just as enjoyable as the first time. Super fun, super-light on plot, but great stunts, great driving action and the Naceri/Diefenthal connection is a great one; their chemistry is superb and they play off each other well. It's too bad Naceri's life is such a mess, otherwise they could've still made these films, as they were incredibly popular in France.
8/10
Mohabbatein (2000):
My first Bollywood film! As I wrote last week, I wrote a good 3 pages-worth about this film, in my final university essay, but had never seen a second of it. After a guy who worked at my grocery store (then my wife's) heard that I knew about this film, he let me borrow it in 2013... and I finally watched it this weekend lol.
3 young guys are at a train station in India (one after the other, gets off their respective trains) and once they all meet up, they realise they are all going to Gurukul, a sort of boarding school/university, run by the beyond-strict, Shankar (played awesomely by Amitabh Bachchan). The rules are just as strict and include no girls, no parties/festivals, no leaving the premises unless it's the weekend and it's to get supplies/food/whatever and no arts classes (music, dance, drama, etc.). After the 3 guys have some banter about girls, they each discover a girl of their dreams, off premises(ish). Knowing that they can't see them, they just file the thoughts/memories away... until a new teacher comes to the school, to teach music, Raj Aryan (played even-more awesomely by Shah Rukh Khan). He is a polar opposite of Shankar, who lives his life through his heart and does everything with love; can he teach the 3 guys to follow their hearts? Strap in for a 3 hour, 30+ minute (OMG) ride! lol
Honestly, I've seen Schindler's List, I've seen 7 Samurai, but this is SO much longer than the other two, it's insane lol. If they cut out the compulsory dance sequences, that would've easily saved 30 minutes and while they are well-done (the choreography is fantastic lol), I absolutely do not care for them in the slightest lol, thank GOD they are relegated only to musicals, in the West.
But yeah, each and every actor is absolutely brilliant, with a bit of hamminess at times (it's a Bollywood film; they are often over the top), while the female actresses are super-hammy, but none of them do a distinctly, "BAD," job; the young ones are very attractive, so at least the views aren't bad to look at. Special mention must go to Aishwarya Rai; she wasn't the huge megastar she became at the time of this film, but she was gaining steam. Not only is her role played quite well, she really is a stunning human being to look at, as this was the first time I had ever seen her, not in stills.
Plot-wise, while a simple romantic film isn't a heavy subject., the film dives 120 m down (to borrow from Le Grand Bleu above
) into the subject, showing the audience the feelings, responsibilities and consequences, that love brings. Khan's character is central to every aspect of the plot and while his background (or rather, the events of the character's background) would be a bit unrealistic, he drives it through his on-screen actions and dialogue: again, he just knocks it out of the park and the film turns from a simple love-story, to a plot filled with aesops, lessons learned and truths of life.
If you can stomach the runtime, this is a remarkable film that will hit you in the feelings.
9/10
Side note* for my essay (which was about the Globalisation of Cinema), I talked about how the characters wear completely Western attire (save for one of the female leads, due to reasons), are in Western settings (a diner, other British Influences) and that the locations, despite being in India, have more of a, "nowhereland," feel, as they enver explicitly mention India, their language or any other location, that identifies the setting (which isn't common in Bollywood films). Finally watching it, I could see what I wrote about!
Liar Liar (1997):
Fletcher (Jim Carrey, obviously) is a workaholic lawyer, divorced from his wife and constantly has to cancel on his son. After failing to take his son to a WCW show and then unable to attend his son's bday party, his son wishes for his dad to never tell a lie. That leads to a ton of hijinks in court, in his workplace and his everyday life.
Everyone loved this film when it came out and I had never seen it until this weekend; I get that there are some funny parts, but I find the film to be highly-overrated. The acting is mediocre (good for a comedy film), super-hammy and over the top (it is Jim Carrey, after all) and the script is nothing special; I liken this film to an Adam Sandler-esque comedy, of the late 90s/early 00s. Seeing Cary Elwes play a role, exactly 10 years after the Princess Bride, he's still a great actor, though they didn't give him enough to do.
Krista Allen is, and always will be, an absolute sex-bomb.
6/10
The Blues Brothers (1980):
My 5th favourite film ever, I haven't watched it since 2015, IIRC. Back when I used to do a paper route, (which took 3-4 days a week, to do), I had this, MK: Annihilation and Goldeneye on repeat, for the 2 years I did the route (as a result, I've seen each of those films over 250-300 times, legit), so it's one of the few other films where every line of dialogue and sound effect, is ingrained into my memory.
Jake Blues is being released from prison on parole and is picked up by his brother (not biological, blood) Elwood, whom he grew up with at the orphanage in Calumet City, Illinois. They go back there, as Jake, "promised," he'd do once released, whereupon the nun tells them that if they can't come up with $5,000.00 in a week, the Catholic Archdiocese will sell the building to the Board of Education, putting the kids, the nun and Curtis, the janitor/caretaker, out on the street, literally (well, the nun says she'll be put into the missions). After a trip to a Baptist church (the Blues are Catholic, keep in mind), they get a brilliant idea to get their band, the Blues Brothers Band, back together and make the money that way.
IMO, the greatest American Comedy film ever made, along with Ghostbusters (Dan Ackroyd was in both) and possibly, Animal House (John Belushi was in both), this is such a fantastic film from beginning to end. It never lulls, there's never any stupid dialogue and despite a bit of ham here and there (due to what's happening on-screen, not because of bad acting), everything is top-notch and so cleverly-written. The music is superb as well, even if you aren't a fan of R&B (not black people R&B, REAL Rhythm and Blues). Being a strong Catholic as well, I go nuts for this film.
10/10
Lots of films this weekend lol, I'll probably take it easy for the next little while...
