Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Movies to See and Avoid

I finally got around to seeing Spielberg's Munich and was pleasantly surprised. The casting was pitch perfect and the acting was superb, especially Eric Bana. If you haven't seen it, try to. You probably will think it's time well spent. Despite all you may have heard, some of it no doubt true, Munich presents very well the nature of the fight we are in, such as when good men have to do bad things at great personal cost. It presents the opposing side's view as well without agreeing with their methods.
Another great film with Aussie actors in it, including Geoffrey Rush is Lantana. Which is about how one woman's disappearance effects the lives of several different people. This is one of those rare "adult films" where people change and learn to deal with each other without explosions or car chases.
I find it odd that Eric Bana started off as a comedian and Anthony Lapaglia does comedy so damn well (Simon Moon on Frasier) yet both are such excellent dramatic actors. Is it me or are the Aussie producing some great films and actors in recent years?
On the other hand there's Stealth with Jessica Biel, some white guy and Jaimie Foxx. Boy did this movie suck. It makes the oh so crappy Fire Birds seem like Citizen Kane by comparison. Did anybody read this script before filming began? If Stealth is on cable and there's an infomercial on about the Flowbee, watch the Flowbee infomercial. In terms of believability, dialogue, story and character development the Flowbee infomercial is the better bet.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Munich was very good even if a tad too long. I thought some things were left out though. Wasn't there an incident in A Scandanavian country were an Israeli operative was arrested after a muffed asassination? Too bad there will not a way to verify most of it.

Anonymous said...

I haven't seen Munich so I can't comment on it. There are problems with Speilberg's source material, however. According to this NY Times article (and others) it's based on an account "whose veracity was later widely called into question."

Warren Bell called the film an "act of moral and artistic cowardice."

This isn’t to say I won’t eventually get around to seeing. I probably will. Just thought the other side of the srgument ought to be heard as well.