DIGGERS - This is a coming of age story about 4 young men who are all clam diggers in New York State. All the characters here are dirt poor and/or miserable in their mundane lives. They take time doing drugs, drinking heavily, and arguing with their women. The film is set in the late 70's, so the tone of the film is rather depressing and grungy, much like their jobs I guess. I heard decent things about this one but I didn't care for it. I love characterization films, and this is definately one of those. I just didn't care at all about the lead characters. And when that's all there is it's usually bad news for a film when you don't connect with it.
KING OF KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS - Here we have a great documentary about two men competing for the all-time high score on Donkey Kong. This is a great movie...despite the small budget. The characters and personalities here are unbelievable. So much so that you would swear they were made up if you didn't know better. This was highly recommended to me and so I'll pass along the recommendation. The stories here are both hilarious and pathetic. Very entertaining.
THE PIXIES: LOUDQUIETLOUD - This is a documentary about the classic alternative band The Pixies, and their reunion tour from 2004. Here we get a behind-the-scenes look at the band as they learn to play with one another again after a decade long hiatus. We also get some tidbits as to what led to the initial breakup of the band back in the 90's. I'll be honest, there's not much story here, and if you don't have any interest in the band chances are you'll be bored to tears. But if you like The Pixies and their music this is kind of interesting, and the performances are pretty good.
WILD MAN BLUES - Wow...another documentary on the list. Here we have a behind-the-scenes look at Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band as they tour across western Europe. Allen is an accomplished clarinet player, and the music performances here are quite good (if you like jazz that is). However, what disturbed me was of course all the backstage footage of Allen and his wife (and adopted daughter) Soon-Yi. I mean I know that whole mess happened back in the 90's, so I know it's old news. But it's still very disturbing to watch all the footage of Allen and Soon-Yi swimming together in a pool, or sharing a breakfast together, and simply acting as husband and wife. I guess for me being a fan of the writer/director (not the person) it's an image I still can't get past...even when the music is supposed to be center stage. Overall...not a good one here if you ask me.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END - Believe it or not Jenny and I never caught this one in the theaters, and we never got around to watching it on DVD until now. I actually enjoyed the first two Pirates movies and I enjoyed this one as well. My only complaint here (as with the other two) is that the film is too long and too grand. In fact, the story here was the most confusing and disoriented of the trilogy. Don't ask me what the overall story is in this one. I stopped trying to figure it out somewhere in the middle. But as with the other two films in the series, the action here is entertaining and the performances are great. I love watching Johnny Depp in the Captain Sparrow role. These movies are too long in my opinion, but they're always fun to watch.
THE TV SET - Here's a film about a television writer (David Duchovny) who is trying to get his pilot made for TV. This is one of those films where the overall theme is Hollywood making fun of itself (much like THE PLAYER). Man, this movie was so boring to watch. Fortunately I caught it on cable, so I was able to DVR through some of it. Why does it seem like the only people who like movies like this are people who work in Hollywood? Not much else to say about this one. Just plain bad.
CASINO ROYALE - This was another movie that I never caught in the theater, and I never got around to watching on DVD until now. To be honest I had grown incredibly tired of the whole James Bond franchise. I loved Sean Connery as Bond, and I thought Roger Moore was okay as well. But after that I lost interest and hardly watched the new Bond films after that. But I have to say this movie was a great surprise. I really liked it, much more than I expected. They basically blew up your traditional Bond formula, and then put it back together with a little BOURNE IDENTITY sprinkled in. There's no Bond cliches here, very little jokes, and no tongue-and-cheek scene with Agent Q about new gadgets to play with. Instead we get an entertaining story and lots of great action scenes. The opening action scene in particular stood out to me and made me take notice. Great movie. Can't wait to see the next one...Quantum of Solace in October.
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