Movie Madness

I committed to seeing a few movies recently. Shocking.

Here are my four-ish sentence reviews.

Milk - Harvey Milk and his crew are thoroughly charming, entertaining and moving. I'd have totally joined their Castro Street crew. Though the ending left me with a lump in my throat, overall it's an uplifting and spirited movie. Also, I loved the way Sean Penn's eyes crinkled when he smiled.

Slumdog Millionaire - Distressing and brutal. I spent the entire movie anxious and eager for the rags-to-riches happy ending, which I think is how this movie ends up with such glowing, happy-go-lucky reviews: He gets the girl AND the money. YAY! The rest of the movie, however, is heaps and heaps of violence and brutality. Children are lured by kindness to then be blinded, the hero is orphaned, tortured and then betrayed by his brother, and the heroine is pimped as a young girl then later slapped around (and cut) by her rich husband. But hey! In the end they get together and do a dance number. Fun!

Coraline in 3D - Coraline is fun to look at. It has spooky scenery and fantastical moments, but it fell flat for me. The characters are emotionally devoid, and therefore so I was toward them. And while I rooted for Caroline to make it back to her "real" parents it was only because I didn't want her to end up with button eyes, not because I particularly liked her. Fun to watch, but a joyless story.

(Sidenote: Whoa! 3D glasses are a lot cooler than the blue and red lensed pieces of cardboard they had when I was kid.)

The Spirit of the Marathon - I saw this during it's one-night run in the theater last spring and declared it my favorite movie of '08 even then. Watching it on the couch took away some of the drama of the huge shots of runners starting in the Chicago Marathon and the feeling of running beside them as they competed and suffered, but it's still a great movie. Whether you're a runner or not, it's impossible not to root for these folks and marvel at the body's adaptability.

Best line: "People ask me why I run marathons - I run it for the t-shirt."

Tropic Thunder - Sure I was delirious with bronchitis and hopped up on cough medicine when I saw this, but I was highly entertained and delighted by the strange satire and over-the-top story. Robert Downey Jr.'s character made me crumble with laughter, as did Jack Black's heroin withdrawal scenes. And Wow, That was Tom Cruise!

Best line: "I know what dude I am. I'm the dude playin' the dude, disguised as another dude!"

Next on the list, Revolutionary Road and He's Just Not that Into You. (Yeah, I want to see it. So what.)