Quickies

Ils (Them)
Heard a lot of good buzz about this movie. One of the best horror movies in years, blah blah blah, all that type of stuff. Well, while I wouldn't say it lived up the the hype, it was still a really great movie. It knew how to scare and it did it well. Lots of suspense and the soundtrack was used to it's advantage. While this wasn't nearly as good as High Tension (one of my all time favorite horror movies), it still delivers. The French seem to be making lots of awesomeness as of late, both in the movie and music fields, and now we can add another one to the list.




Nacho Libre
A completely underrated movie. Even after multiple viewings, Nacho is as hilarious as the first time around, if not more so. Jack Black's fake Spanish accent is ridiculous but he adds the much needed flavor to this movie. It wouldn't be the same with Black. His delivery isn't yet overdone and it helps Nacho Libre quite a bit. I might even go so far as to argue that this is a better movie than Napoleon Dynamite, although it might just be due to the overexposure of Napoleon. Either way, I still love Nacho.




The Royal Tenenbaums
Another one of those movies that only gets better with age. Many would say this is Wes Anderson at his peak and that's hard to argue against. This movie greatly improves upon repeat viewings when you notice all of the little things missed previously. Like the clip of the tennis game where Richie choked, I realized for the first time that the two announcers (who aren't shown) are very clearly Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman. Perfect.




The Red Balloon/White Mane
Netflix has these two movies available on the same DVD. Apparently The Red Balloon is a classic that I'd never heard of. My wife said she wanted to watch it again because the last time she saw it was when she was a kid. I understand all of the symbolism and significance of this movie but it failed to entice. I thought it was really slow for the majority of it. The ending, however, was wonderful and visually spectacular. White Mane I liked a jot more, although I thought there was too much real life animal scaring. Otherwise, it was a beautiful movie with an otherworldly beautiful child. Kinda creepy.




Death Sentence
Silly. Not as much action as I would of hoped. It was like The Brave One without the underlying message. The violence was glorified and Kevin Bacon's character was a selfish prick. "I don't care what happens to me, just make sure my family is safe." Way to go, Bacon. Of course your family doesn't care if you die because you're such an asshole.