I've watched a bunch of movies in the past few weeks. I think about three weeks ago, I watched a horrible movie: Alexander. An Oliver Stone epic with Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, Colin Farrell and Val Kilmer. Boy was that horrible. I fisrt caught a few minutes of it while channel surfing, then was intrigued enough [by its horribleness] that I saw it on OnDemand [the free to me part] and watched the whole thing. Horrible. What kind of an accent is Jolie trying to pull off? Farrell is really annoying and I can barely stand to see him on the big screen. Hopkins is a babbling old Ptolemy who probably felt it necessary to be in bare feet instead of sandals. But I like Kilmer so much, his role was okay. He's Iceman! Not recommended.
Super Size Me, by Morgan Spurlock, came out in 2004. I had no intention of seeing this when it came out. It had too much fanfare. And I knew that McD's and fast food in general was bad for you. I started slowly cutting out fast food from my diet with the move to Philly; I barely eat it anymore. This was surprisingly entertaining. I think Lady was flipping through channels while I was doing other stuff around the house and I sat down to see what was on TV. Neither of us had seen it and we were interested in it enough to keep watching. I think I sat down on Day 2 of the all-McD's diet. He puked during lunch out the car window. Blech. The shit turned his liver into paté in a fortnight. He interviewed people with eating problems, one guy who was getting the gastric bypass surgery after consuming around FIFTY one-liter bottles of soda every two weeks. Who the fuck knows what else that guy was eating. I don't recall if it was diet soda or not. It's a pretty good watch after you stop getting annoyed at Spurlock for simply being Spurlock. And looking at his IMDB page, I see that he's directing another interesting documentary, The Republican War on Science, a book by Chris Mooney who I saw speak in September of 2005. That should be cool. Recommended.
And last night, I watched Seven Years in Tibet, a film based on Heinrich Harrer's life. Harrer recently passed away and I wanted to see this movie after learning a little bit about him. He was a friend and tutor to a young His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama. No comments on the accuracy of the film, but to see the portrayal of a young Dalai Lama was pretty cool. He's such an affable person with a hearty laugh. He came to my school while I was in DC for a meditation session and lecture. I recall waking up at like 4a to wait on line. He walked right below where I was sitting in the stands of the packed gymnasium. According to IMDB, Brad Pitt and David Thewlis, the two main characters, have been banned from entering China for their role in the film. And the woman who plays the Dalai Lama's mother is his real life sister. Cool. Recommended.
I think Lady and I are going to go out to see a movie this weekend. Maybe Transamerica or Capote or Munich. Who knows.
Hey Albert-- ever see the movie The Woodsman? Filmed in Philly, it stars Kevin Bacon, his wife, and a few others (Benjamin Bratt, Eve, and Mos Def). In Jan 2004 I was lucky enough to go to the premiere in Philadelphia. It is directed by Philly's own Lee Daniels (he was the producer for Monster's Ball). Anyway, it has a lot of Philly scenes in it and I think you'd enjoy. Just a suggestion... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361127/
Posted by: Seth | January 20, 2006 at 04:07 PM