Spring Breakers and Pain & Gain

I'm still passively avoiding Django Unchained but I'll head on down to the local living dinosaur Blockbuster and rent some movies about violence in Florida.

I've seen very little Michael Bay.  I remember seeing Transformers 1.  I remember very little about it outside of the painful 3 minutes about Lebouf's parents talking to him about masturbating.  I know he may or may not be the devil, though I haven't personally confirmed.

Pain and Gain is

In the first twenty minutes I thought "I'll buy this and put it on my shelf."  An hour and a half later I didn't still have the view, even if I ended up with a positive view of the film.  Dwayne Johnson is still an amazing comedic actor in the style of Chaplin that few recognize for it.

My biggest complaint is the complaint with modern film. Look at that shot.  ORANGE AND TEAL.  All the orange and the tealest teal.  Everyone wears a teal shirt.  It's getting more and more obnoxious.  I was sick of it 2 years ago. I'm sick of it now.

The film kept reminding me of Wong Kar Wai with all the voice overs.  Internal monologues from many of the characters.  As I'm gearing up to leave America for a very long time, it felt very "This is America.  These are Americans."

Eventually the characters start acting dumber than they did in the beginning and it feel like the script lost focus instead of the characters being idiots.

Good Lord! Spring Breakers  is beautifully shot.  It is a gorgeous film.  It also probably could be cut down to an hour (from 93 minutes) with nothing lost.  A lot of footage is shown over and over.  While this could be thought of as reflective, no probably not.  It is absolutely worth seeing.

I will sit on my thoughts on it today.  I'll revisit this if I decide to buy the bluray.  It gave me a lot of the same vibes as Drive.  Hpph.  I thought I could talk about it more, but guess I need more time.

EDIT: One of the final shots is Biloxi Bridge from my hometown.  THAT'S NOT FLORIDA I screamed.  Both films remind me I do love the Gulf Coast.

July 2013 Movies

Les Miserables
I certainly remember less than I thought about a 1500 page book I read in middle school.  Holy fuck I read a 1500 page in middle school and now I don't have a job.  It was pointed out to me that I have the same eyes as Anna Hatheway. Well thanks. 

This movie has no time for pauses.  It does have moments where it slows down, and you will become very very bored.  Then it picks up again and you just want them to hold on something for a minute.  It's wrecking your brain because you can't figure out  what exactly you want from it, but it is certainly not giving it to you.

Only God Forgives

That is certainly the best part of the movie.  The world is apparently complaining it is not like Drive.  I admit that I saw it because I loved Drive.  Huh.  I never wrote about Drive.  I saw Drive in theaters 3 times.  I bought multiple copies and handed it out to friends.  I love Drive a lot.

This movie is not Drive.  I am okay with that.  It is silence and violence.  You know those long nothing shots in Drive? (OH you haven't seen Drive?  Well go watch it.)  This whole movie is that, and then violence.  The violence almost continues the silence.  I wondered if this was almost some absurd long joke at "the masses" for like Drive.  It kind of seems like it.

Man I wish I had seen the movie that poster inspires in my mind.  I will probably see every Refn film that comes out.  I'm still debating seeing his back-catalog.




The Score
This movie is on every streaming service for free and it was talked about by an internet-celebrity with a brand new game out.  I don't need to tell you more about it, other than I wouldn't have recommended it to you.  What is important is this movie staring Deniro, Edward Norton, and Marlon Brando led me to a rabbithole discovery.  There's a film, directed by Johnny Depp, that also has Marlon Brando.  In the film J.  Depp is a native american who is going to be paid to be the "star" of a snuff film.  I don't want to see that film.  It sounds like a rough time whether it's a "good" or "bad" film.  It sounds like an awful way to spend the limited pleasure time on Earth.  Why would I want to suffer in my leisure?  But yes The Score.

Crank
This Blockbuster previous rental has been sitting on my shelf since the Blockbuster nearest me died.   I finally popped it in and watched it.  Heck yeah to any movie that opens with Refused.   It's an 87 skate video.  A lot of it's punch was probably lost because I saw Shoot'em Up first.  Also Jason Stathem certainly is not a good guy in this movie!  I'm a crazy person that seeks justice in my fantasy.  Man I bet Crank 2 is even better.