Vox-Her

Doubt

It's 1964 and Sister Aloysius is the old, strict, and conservative principal at St. Jerome's Catholic School in the Bronx who frowns at any shred of progressiveness in the church. When she's not looking down her nose at sweet, naive, and meek Sister James, she's scoffing at Father Flynn's suggestion of Frosty the Snowman as a song for the school Christmas pageant.

After one peculiar incident, Sister James goes to Sister Aloysius with a concern: she is weary of Father Flynn's affection for the school's lone black student, David Miller. This immediately spurs Sister Aloysius into accusing the priest of "making advances" on the boy without having a single shred of evidence to back her up.

I'll come right out and say that Doubt did stir up a lot of conversation in my house. Both my husband and I had differing opinions about Father Flynn's guilt. Did he, or didn't he?

Little Children

Little Children: Though this was a well-acted movie, I don't think it was any of the actor's best performances. It was a bit dull and lifeless and I didn't feel any sympathy for anyone in the movie.

I think I was supposed to feel sorry for Sarah (Kate Winslet), who is trapped in a loveless, boring marriage with her wealthy, porn-addicted husband and her four-year-old daughter Lucy. She develops a crush on Brad (Patrick Wilson), a stay-at-home father to his little boy, Aaron. In spite of Brad's wife, Kathy, (Jennifer Connelly) being admittedly prettier and more successful than Sarah, Brad and Sarah eventually begin having an affair. All the while, the sleepy suburb is alight with the knowledge of a sexual predator (Jackie Earle Haley) in the area.

The only person I felt the least bit of sympathy for was Kathy, who is trying to be a good mother to her son and support Brad, even though he has failed the Bar exam twice and is now lying about studying for it a third time. Kathy is also a controlling, condescending bitch who refuses to "allow" her husband to have a cell phone and also refuses to put her son in his own bed. So whatever sympathy I had for her just disappears.

I did laugh at the part where the narrator does a visual comparison of Kathy and Sarah. Kathy is tall, pretty, and feminine. Sarah is short, boyish and has bushy eyebrows. SERIOUSLY THEY WENT THERE. They compared Jennifer Connelly to Kate Winslet and then had the gall to make fun of Kate Winslet's eyebrows. WHAT?

City of God

City of God: This movie and Slumdog Millionaire have a lot in common. They're both about two boys growing up in the slums of a big city and moving in different directions as they grow up. In City of God, Rocket becomes a photographer and Little Ze becomes a drug dealer. Growing up, all the boys know are drugs, violence, and burglary and as adults they don't know much else. Little Ze becomes the cocaine kingpin of the City of God while Rocket feels trapped in the middle of it all.

When I read reviews for SM, many critics mentioned CoG as the inspiration behind it. And there are similarities as I've said, but the plots are completely different. There is a lot of hope in SM, and none in CoG. It seems that even with his camera, Rocket still feels connected and drawn into the hood lifestyle, even though he wants nothing to do with it. It's a grim, sad tale about the horrors of poverty and drugs. No love story here.

Why do you blog?
Submitted by Syafira.

I blog because it's fun! :)

As I said, here's a few more movies I've seen:

Terminator: Salvation

Terminator Salvation: This movie was fantastic up until the end. Without posting any spoilers, let me phrase the ending like this: One of the main characters needs something another main character has and it's quite obvious that the second main character is going to give the first main character that thing from the moment a third main character said the first main character needed it. Doesn't make sense? Don't worry, it will when you see the movie. But I can forgive the ending because 1) the Terminator franchise has always been very successful (in spite of the third movie being crap) and terminating that franchise will mean the end of that very successful money tree and 2) the rest of the movie balances out that ending.

I've been reading criticisms of this movie (and ultimately, the entire series) and I think it's all bullshit. All criticisms about plot holes, future/past paradoxes, story timelines are all pointless. The series is about TIME TRAVEL which cannot happen anyway. You might as well sit back and enjoy the movie for what it is, science fiction, not science fact.

Grindhouse Presents, Death Proof pecial Edition)

Death Proof: This was my favorite of the two Grindhouse movies. I thought Planet Terror was too gross: too much blood, pus, and pulsating, pus-and-blood filled pustules. But Death Proof avoided a lot of pus and blood.

I'm disappointed that Death Proof was the least popular of the Grindhouse movies. I love Quentin Tarantino movies. No one can direct with as much style and coolness as Quentin Tarantino. Even the little details, like the Apple Head cigarettes, are a plus. I also like that he isn't afraid to use little known actors, either: for instance, the character of Zoe is actually real-life stunt woman Zoe Bell -- not an actress but definitely a movie star in her own right. I give QT respect for his casting choices. I don't know too many other directors who would do the same.

About the only problem I had with this movie was Rose McGowan's hair and makeup: I know she needed to look strikingly different from her role as Cherry Darling in Planet Terror, but being a platinum blonde made her look alien.

It's also a fun revenge tale. And I like revenge movies.

Oldboy

Oldboy: Speaking of revenge movies -- this is the greatest revenge movie I've ever seen. In fact, it's also the most fucked up movie I've ever seen, too. It has a very frightening storyline about how far some people will go to obtain the greatest revenge, and how long they are willing to wait. There are some patient people out there -- sick, patient people.

I had heard a lot about this movie before seeing it, and seeing that I'm squeamish around torture scenes I put off seeing it for a long time. But the scenes weren't too bad -- I did turn my head at the, um, "extraction" scene, but this isn't a two-hour long torture porn film. It's much more of a psychological thriller than horror.

And there is a lot of humor too, which is a good thing due to the subject matter. I like movies that get into my head, but I don't think I would have been able to sleep had there not been at least some comic relief!

I've been spending my vacation watching movies and adding them to my library. Here are the first two reviews -- I'll add the rest later.

Sold Out: A Threevening With Kevin Smith

Sold Out: A Threevening with Kevin Smith: I really adore KS's Q&As. He's a hilarious storyteller and this is no exception. My favorite story in this Q&A is about his Dachshund, Shecky -- I won't give away the details, but it's hilarious. (Poor Shecky!) I'm also a sucker for a bit of romance: I love the stories where he talks about his wife. (Jen Schwalbach is a beautiful, tall, thin, blonde, Kevin Smith is...none of the above.)

He also has a really humorous story about his Live Free or Die Hard experience, which I thought was pretty frustrating too. I'm amazed that movies with big budgets are even made today, with all the re-writes and the dailies and the general chaos. Apparently, Kevin Smith did some script-reworking that made its way into the movie, but didn't get any screen credit for it. Of course, LFoDH had like, eleven writers working on it the entire time, including one of Bruce Willis' own personal writer. Bruce Willis is still pretty awesome, however. Everybody loves Bruce.

(Tim Olyphant, however, is a dick.)

A History of Violence

A History of Violence: Michael and I disagree on this movie. He thought it was pretty good, I though it was stupid. Yes, violence passes on from generation to generation and blah blah blah -- this movie didn't do a very good job of convincing me that was a bad thing. In fact, it didn't convince me that it was a good thing, either. Seeing Viggo Mortenson suddenly jump up and start kicking ass was a bit odd. And the explaination for his previous life? He went out to the desert and "killed" Joey? What?

(I must be the only person in the world that didn't like this movie. I've heard nothing but praise regarding this film, but I just don't get it. =/)

I read a little be about the movie and learned that it's actually an adaptation of a graphic novel of the same name. Oh, no fucking wonder. All those dumb fight scenes would look great in a graphic novel -- not on the screen, however. Some graphic novels just do not translate well to film. (Ahem -- Watchmen...)

Also, William Hurt got an Oscar nod for his role?! He was in the movie for six goddamn minutes!! He didn't do anything!!

One hour to live. What do you do?
Submitted by Jeff Zie.

Eat everything in the fridge. Even the flour.

What were the biggest and smallest places you’ve lived in?
Submitted by Jack Yan.

The biggest: my grandparents house. It was an old, stone farmhouse with five bedrooms and two bathrooms. All of the bedrooms were huge. There was even a giant porch and plenty of land to run around and play on.

The smallest: Mike's and my first apartment. It was a quad with a sleeping area and a bathroom for each tenant but a shared living room and kitchen. It was horribly cramped and tiny with only a twin bed to sleep on. The more crap we acquired, the more cramped it got!

Star Trek was fantastic. It was visually stimulating and fun. The plot wasn't too hard to follow in spite of 1) it being about time travel and 2) me not being a hard-core Star Trek nerd. Yes, I liked the original show. Yes, I liked TNG. Yes, I liked the few movies that I saw. But I'm not deep into the lore and I don't want to be. Those things aside, I still enjoyed the film. My husband is a Star Trek nerd and he liked it -- so I think I can safely say that it works with both types of audiences. Fans of the older series do not have to worry that their beloved series was ruined by hip young people either. Everyone was well cast -- especially the young man who plays Spock. It is eerie just how close he looks to a younger Leonard Nimoy.

About the only confusion I had with the plot was the romance between two unlikely characters. I liked it, but I don't think fans of the original series will buy it. =/

Freedomland

Freedomland is about a police detective, Lorenzo Council, who investigates a woman's claim that a man car-jacked her and inadvertently kidnapped her four-year-old son who was sleeping in the back seat. The woman, Brenda, claims that she was accosted by a black man outside an urban housing projects -- which only exacerbates the tension between the residents of the projects and the police. Council enlists the help of Karen Collucci, the leader and organizer of a missing children's group. As you may have already guessed, there is a lot more to Brenda's story that she initially claims -- but what?

The plot's a bit thin (it's quite obvious what's going on from the beginning), but it's executed pretty well. What it lacks in originality the movie makes up for with great tension. It doesn't treat racism with over sentimental idealism but doesn't exploit it either. I'd say my greatest problem with this movie is that it felt like it was missing a really important B-plot -- something that was in the book but couldn't translate to the screen. Acting was good, dialogue was believable, and the script was decent. Overall, I'm lukewarm about it.

Children of Men

I wish Children of Men had gotten more Oscar attention than it did. It was absolutely amazing -- its script, its acting, and its single-camera one-take scenes.

Set in England in 2027, during a world-wide outbreak of war and discomfort, the world is suffering from an inexplicable infertility pandemic. Theo is an ordinary white-collar worker who feels indifferent to politics, until his ex-lover Julian sweeps him up in a plot to save the world's only known pregnant woman. With help from a midwife, Miriam, and his pot-dealing/political cartoonist friend Jasper, Theo tries to get the woman, Kee, to the coast so she can sail away with the humanitarian organization, the Human Project.

Like I said before this movie has INCREDIBLE one-take scenes, scenes that required great effort and talent on the actors' and crew's part. The siege of the refugee camp was probably the most amazing 6 minutes of any movie.