Last Friday, July 13, 2012, I set up an account with Netflix. Say what you will about the propriety of setting upon a new task on Friday the 13th, I am very much enjoying my new Netflix membership. It allows me to see all sorts of very interesting movies that I wouldn't even have heard of, let alone seen, if not for Netflix. Here are the movies I have watched so far:
Bubba Ho-Tep
Raising Arizona
Broken Flowers
Repo! The Genetic Opera
Submarine
The Babysitters
My Left Foot
The Shape of Things
Dog Day Afternoon
I will endeavor to write a brief review of each of these, and keep a running commentary on additional movies I see.
Bubba Ho-Tep
This was a movie along the lines of The Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness. In fact, it stars the same actor who played the protagonist in The Evil Dead and Army of Darkness. It was very funny, though it purported to be a horror movie. The basic plot is that Elvis switched places with an Elvis impersonator, and the impersonator had a drug problem, leading to Elvis's believed death. Also, John F. Kennedy, though shot in the head, did not die, but was dyed black to live the rest of his days as an African American. He then winds up in a nursing home, where an ancient, and recently escaped, animated mummy has been keeping alive by sucking the souls of the elderly from their rectii. The movie utilizes laughably simplistic effects to depict the mummy, its activities, and Elvis's & JFK's battle to defeat the mummy. Although kind of silly, this movie was highly enjoyable. I strongly recommend enjoying this film with a glass of your favorite intoxicating liquor, wine, or beer.
Raising Arizona
Another goofy classic, Raising Arizona tells the story of a couple in what is becoming a dead end marriage who decide to circumvent their infertility by taking one of 5 quintuplets born to one of the wealthiest families in the Great State of Arizona. Much of my favorite humor in the movie occurs in the opening scenes in which Nicholas Cage repeatedly lands himself in prison for not-armed robbery (robbing convenience stations with unloaded weapons), and parlaying the booking process into a cutesy romance with the booking officer. He finally proposes by entering the booking room as a free man (instead of shortly after an arrest) and asking her to marry him. Once they get married and steal the baby, John Goodman and a fellow escaped inmate arrive to badger Mr. Cage into joining them on some further criminal shenanigans, namely robbing a bank. Mr. Cage's boss and these escaped convicts, as well as a bounty hunter, all decide they want the baby, though none of them to return it to its rightful parents. It all ends up in a hilarious clusterf*ck of a climax that ends with Mr. Cage and his wife more or less deciding to break off their marriage. Or do they?
Broken Flowers
I don't have much to say about Broken Flowers. It is a film about Bill Murray discovering that he impregnated one of his many girlfriends 18 years ago. So, he sets out to find out which of his girlfriends he impregnated. There is some humor here, but it is mostly the sort of humor where you think "this situation is so awkward and strange that it is funny." Ultimately, I don't think the film is designed to entertain or to make you laugh so much as to give a little insight about life. It succeeds at that, but that doesn't leave me with anything fun or entertaining to say about the movie.
Repo! The Genetic Opera
This was a truly fascinating movie, and one of the few musicals I've watched and really enjoyed. It is the source material for a movie that came out a few years ago called "Repo Men" or something like that. It is set in the none-too-distant future at a time when one company has gained a monopoly on the production and distribution of synthetic human organs. Most of these organs are paid for on finance plans in which the company takes, essentially, a purchase money lien against the organ. Oh, and they also got Congress to pass a bill that allows the company to repossess their property in the event that the consumer fails to make their loan payments on time. The company also developed a highly addictive pain killer that can stay in a person's brain long after they've died, leading to a black market for the drug run by grave robbers who take the drug directly from dead addicts' brains. It is dark, it is fierce, it inspires a good deal of thought. The grave robbers' songs were particularly interesting to me. I'll leave out further plot points because, for me, the themes and songs stand out much more clearly in my memory than the plot. But the story is also compelling.
Submarine
Submarine is about a school-aged boy living in Wales. His parents' marriage is not working very well due to a lack of sexual intimacy. He launches on a quest to get his parents back together and lose his own virginity. Unfortunately, the initial object of his affections is a girl whom he bullies. He winds up being responsible for her falling into a pond in Wales in the autumn. Hardly a pleasant experience for her. However, this attracts the attentions of another girl. Anyway, long story short, he succeeds in both of his goals, although his mother cheats on his father with an old flame of her's who happens to be their neighbor, and the protagonist ends up getting dumped for another boy. One take away message might be that life's winding roads and convoluted paths may let you get what you set out to get every now and then, but achieving your goals doesn't always make you happy in the end.
The Babysitters
Well, this movie was...interesting. It is about a 16 year old girl who starts an illicit affair with an older, married father. She babysits his kids. When he gives her extra money for babysitting after their first kiss and initial forays into a sexual relationship, she decides that what she has with this man is more-or-less a prostitute's relationship with her clients, so she loses her childish notions of romance. And starts a prostitution ring of other high school girls operating under the guise of being enterprising babysitters. The movie shows the impact these actions have on the girls' lives. I will tentatively say that this was a good movie, although the subject matter made me a bit squeamish.
My Left Foot
One of Daniel Day Lewis's earlier film roles, he stars as an Irish artist who grew up with and lives with almost completely crippling cerebral palsy. The only part of his body that he can use is his left foot. Hence the title. He uses this appendage to paint haunting masterpieces that bring him a certain amount of success. Much of the story focuses on his extreme difficulty in finding love from women, who view him as an object of pity, rather than as an object of love. This is a touching and inspiring movie about a man with a perfectly functioning mind and an almost entirely non-functioning body. He struggles and overcomes these insurmountable hurtles, and picks up his own share of personal flaws. In other words, it humanizes, rather than lionizes, a man who overcomes adversity.
The Shape of Things
I liked this movie quite a bit, even if it was, ultimately, a bit depressing. Paul Rudd meets a woman played by Rachel Weisz. They end up dating. She changes him in a number of ways that make him generally much more desirable to women. Then she...well, I'll leave it at "she dumps him." The particular way she dumps him is highly memorable. It is a story about the ways women can manipulate men to mold them into things they would otherwise oppose becoming. Although, as I'm sure most women would tell you, their capacity to change a man is pretty limited.
Dog Day Afternoon
Al Pacino plays a young gay man living in New York who robs a bank to get money to pay for his wife's sex change operation. The movie was made in 1975 and is set in 1972. The fact that they even made this movie at that time is surprising. The movie was excellent. You get to see what appears to be the best meaning, though most poorly planned bank robbery ever caught on camera. It is, at times, very funny, and I would recommend anyone seeing it. It is based on true events.
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