A favorite disturbing cult movie of mine, Funny Games, is apparently being remade in America by the same director.

I am pumped about this.

I recently saw Children of Men with Ben and Jen. It was very good. Realistic treatment of characters, good dialog, good cinematography. Very sobering backdrop that enhanced the already emotional storyline.

Quick non-spoiler plot setup: It’s 2029 and all women on Earth have been infertile these past 20 years. But wait, what’s that? A pregnant lady! Drama ensues.

It was originally described to me as sci fi, but I wouldn’t classify it as such. It merely takes place in an alternate future.

This movie also renewed my desire to drink whiskey straight without making a “this is disgusting” face. The main character Theo had a flask he used liberally, and I was jealous.

Terrible.

I saw the movie V for Vendetta recently. It was much better than I was led to expect. I’d heard that by making the government more consipicously evil, the director diluted the anti-fascism angle. But I didn’t feel that very much.

It was a very good compaction of the graphic novel and an enjoyable action/drama flick. I particularly think it is a great message to be sending out right about now. Much like Olbermann’s speech the other day, it’s a breath of fresh air.

Anyway, I’d recommend it.

I saw at a friend’s house some episodes of this BBC show Ed vs Spencer, and it was hilarious.

The premise is that two overly competitive flatmates take on silly competitions (like, who can get the sickest or who can earn the most money in a given amount of time) and the loser for that episode faces specific humiliation at the victor’s hands.

Anyway, it was very good.

I like the BBC. Not only do they consistently produce good media, but they are technical minded and honestly seem to get that they serve the public.

They’re always giving stuff away for free and making good faith efforts to give back to the British public. Stuff like offering downloads of shows to British citizens (and sometimes in cool formats like ogg).

At least, it seems so to me from over here in the US. Maybe British folks are less impressed.

I was reminded of the movie Amélie recently and it made me think. Amélie was a movie that really got me going, filling me with enough energy to dance around my kitchen.

Other movies have done that, memorably Dead Poets Society. I was pretty pumped after Society; I just wanted to go out, live life to its fullest, and recite poetry all the time.

Movies like that I want to remember to watch every now and then. Try to keep myself inspired.

Though I’m sure there have been other movies with that effect, I can’t remember any of them. What movies have infused you with positive energy and/or a sense of purpose?

I finally got around to seeing Syriana. The pacing was intolerably slow, and the I got lost more than once in all the interweaving plot lines. That said, the plot (when I knew what was going on) was very good, and the presentation of how much of a mess the US likes to make in the middle east was well done.

One thing that caught my eye was a speech very reminiscent of the “Greed is good” speech in Wall Street. It’s made by the character Danny Dalton, an oil businessman, to a lawyer investigating his firm:

Some trust fund prosecutor, got off-message at Yale, thinks he’s gonna run this up the flagpole, make a name for himself, maybe get elected some two-bit, congressman from nowhere, with the result that Russia or China can suddenly start having, at our expense, all the advantages we enjoy here. No, I tell you. No, sir. Corruption charges! Corruption? Corruption is government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulations. That’s Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel Prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around in here instead of fighting over scraps of meat out in the streets. Corruption is why we win.

As far as I can tell, Dalton is saying that corruption enables US interests to subvert the competitive process over access to oil in the middle east. By preventing other ‘hostile’ countries like Russia or China from having such ready access as we enjoy, we are ‘winning’ this new cold war over energy and enjoying a much higher standard of living.

So we’ve got that going for us.

I watched The Goonies the other day with never-seen-it Nick and a-long-time-ago Sarah and Julie. This taught me some things:

• Apparently, the movie doesn’t hold up to modern audiences, as my friends were not impressed. What generation are these goons from? Not mine!
• Sloth only says “Hey, you guys!” twice. This shocked me, as I confidently expected it every time he opened his mouth.
• When Data references an octopus at the end, I always assumed he was just making shit up, like a little Asian punk. But no! Wikipedia tells me an octopus scene was cut. That would have been boss.
• I really liked how the kids would pretty much always shout their lines over each others’ in one big babble. I always thought it was believable and endearing. I have been notified that this is, in fact, up for debate.
• Anne Ramsey, who plays Mama Fratelli, had surgery for throat cancer, removing some of her jaw and tongue. This explains her tragically awesome voice.

Yesterday, Dave and I took Nick and his mom to see Deep Sea 3D at the New England Aquarium’s IMAX.

It was awesome.

The 3D effects were very realistic. We’ve come a long way since the 3D goggles of the 80s. It really felt like I was sitting there watching the critters with my own eyes. And the critters were very cool — all weird and underwater, all eating each other.

Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet narrated, but it wasn’t clear they added much. The sound effects, though, were quite good. We aren’t sure if they just had good foley or if they used a crazy underwater microphone.

At $10, we don’t see why we’d go to a boring ol’ normal theater. It’s just about the same price and half the awesome.