Sunday, October 10, 2004

Mounting Pressure

I have a semi-irrational fear.

The next movie I see is going to suck.

I don't care what it is, but it will suck. Or, at least, I will think it sucks. The problem is, I'm on a roll of good cinema. Okay, let's make that on a roll of enjoyable cinema with good cinema in there occasionally for good measure. In the last 7 days I have seen four films, all of which I have enjoyed hugely and a couple of which were even good movies.

First was Alien vs Predator, which was - for all its faults - an absolute ball-tearer. It really was everything I had hoped it would be and more. With significant Predator casualties, humans dropping like flies and some WWE-esque fights between young hunter Predator and scarred alien Queen that had me waiting for the "People's Elbow"[TM], I genuinely enjoyed AvP.

Next we have Wimbledon and, again, for what it is[1], Wimbledon is a great movie. Granted, the plot doesn't contain any great surprises and the expected does occur, but the characters are likeable, the dialogue snappy and the supporting cast more than just background to the leads. I don't know if ball-tearer is an appropriate term but, again, I genuinely enjoyed Wimbledon.

All you have to do is scroll down to see what I thought of the third film I saw this week, Shaun of the Dead. Did I enjoy it? You bet. Is it a ball-tearer? Fuck yeah!

And the fourth film? It was Zatoichi, people, and let me tell you that this was as fun as a night of CGI-enhanced swordplay can ever be. I'm not going to join the throng of people who proclaim this to be the one to knock Tarantino off his Kill Bill perch, because they really are very different movies, but it was funny and action-packed and well made and just about one of the best Japanese movies I have ever seen. It was an absolute, no question, ball-tearer.

And thus my problem. How can the next film I see stand up to this competition? Should I hire Old School or head out and catch Catwoman before it goes off? Would it be better to just ditch the roll now, rather than disappoint myself? Or should I just cross my fingers and hope to keep the good times coming?

Well, as they say, we live in hope.

And Collateral opens on thursday...

[1]And here I have a gripe with Margaret Pomerantz. For those reading in not-Australia, Margaret and David have a weekly movie-review show on the ABC and they are famous for a) disagreeing with each other and b) not sugar-coating their opinions of films they dislike. Now the young mistress Pomerantz, in her wisdom, reviewed both Wimbledon and AvP on the same night, and I just happened to catch the show. David said he didn't mind AvP too much, whereas Margaret hated it. She then went on to defend Wimbledon as a film, even though it is predictable, because it was a genre piece (specifically romantic comedy) and as such, you couldn't expect too much from it. AvP was a genre piece too, and it also fulfilled the necessary elements of the genre. Why, then, does it not deserve a fair go in the ratings? I wouldn't give it 4 stars, but .5 of a star? Be fair.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

And thus my problem. How can the next film I see stand up to this competition? Should I hire Old School or head out and catch Catwoman before it goes off? Would it be better to just ditch the roll now, rather than disappoint myself? Or should I just cross my fingers and hope to keep the good times coming?Here's what you have to do. Before you go see your next movie, wander over to your DVD shelf and pick up your copy of Santa Claus Conquers The Martians and stare at the cover for 30 seconds. No need to actually put it in the DVD players and watch it or anything drastic like that. Just staring at the cover for 30 seconds will be enough to make any movie you then proceed to watch look absolutely brilliant...

-Denis.

3:06 PM  

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