Movies Watched Recently

1. Grindhouse. I should write a big thing on this, but don't really have the energy or time. Rodriguez - pretty exciting and fun. His best movie. Tarantino - his worst movie. Terrible. No care put into it. I was so bored, I wanted to leave. For all his un-pretension with respect to low-brow movies and love of movies versus "film," he sure makes a pretentious piece of shit grindhouse movie. Can either of these guys, though, explain to me why they need to spend $67 mil to make "Grindhouse" movies. Why didn't they give themselves a real challenge and make $2 million dollar movies?

2. The King and I. I can only watch movies like this on my job. I'd fall asleep or turn it off if I rented it, but quite enjoy watching it for....well, money. This movie fits perfectly into Casper's description of post-Classical Hollywood cinema, with the bruised male protagonist coping with a changing, post WW2 America (in the case of the movie, the King of Siam trying to deal with a changing, scientific world). The music is okay and reminds me of my mother who used to sing some of the songs when I was growing up.... The production of the Siamese version of Uncle Tom's Cabin was pretty awesome.

3. The New York Hat. An early DW Griffith movie. Again, I would have fallen asleep had I rented it, but in watching it for work rather enjoyed the fun they were having back then when Hollywood was in New Jersey.

4. The Magic Ring. Another silent movie shot in NJ in 1909 or so, not by Griffith, but still had a similar flair for humor, dramatic irony, cross cutting etc. It deals with a screw off son of a rich Earl who falls in love with a poor girl after being kicked out of college. It's easy to forget how fun it is to watch people lying.