Monday, October 17, 2011

The Week In Movies 10/10/11 - 16/10/11

It's getting worse. This week we saw the movie for the Noir-a-Thon, Murder My Sweet AKA Farewell My Lovely and nothing else. It's a tough time trying to fit things in around here. But I'm not going to moan about it, my priority was to go to the beach with our new deckchairs on my day off this week.

Pasty thighs, I know. But beer, book (currently reading Shoot The Piano Player by David Goodis - the influence for Francois Truffaut's movie Tirez Sur Le Pianiste, the latest addition to our Noir-a-Thon alongside Drive,) music and good company in between pages of my book and it's pretty much a perfect way to spend an afternoon. In the spirit of Leah's What Indie Nights? page I am modelling a straw hat from Kenji (department store own brand, I don't care if they try to pretend otherwise) white tee from Topman (only 5 years old) and shorts from Acadamee via Pigeonhole (in the sale, obviously.) Deckchairs only $50 each at Bunnings and home made nautical deckchair cushions thanks to my beautiful fiance.

I'm gonna spend a bit of time on the blahblahblahgay turnoffs today as there's not much else going on. Saturday night was a disaster, we tried watching the excruciatingly dull Captain America. Once more I have been so uninterested in one of this years big budget blockbuster flicks. This one felt so run of the mill, comic book movie by numbers with a plot that existed solely to get us to The Avengers next May whilst having an interest in somebody other than Robert Downey Jr. The trailer pretty much told me everything I needed to know about this movie and by turning off with an hour to go I don't feel like I was missing out on much. There might've been some OK action scenes still to come but from the uninspiring sequences experienced to that point I wasn't going to hold my breath. One fun thing we noticed, Hugo Weaving was playing John Smith or the German equivalent and delivering his dialogue as he always does; it wasn't great acting as Agent Smith in The Matrix, it was just great casting from The Wachowskis finding the guy who can only act one way.

Cars 2 didn't last very long at all, the opening sequence upset us by not feeling anything remotely like a Pixar movie and then the thing with the machinery being sentient yet subservient to the cars doubled it and then the rest of the movie having no charm at all right up until Larry The Cable Guy called the TV show to harass the Formula 1 car in typical American fashion. Blah, if I could pretend it didn't exist and go back to a world where Pixar could do no wrong I'd be a very happy man.

Hands up who thinks I should have at least got a tan before uploading beach photos. I'm pretty sure I am in the minority on Captain America but the majority on Cars 2. Has anyone ever seen Hugo Weaving not playing Agent Smith? Discuss in the blahs by all means.

15 comments:

  1. Nice picture of you chillin' on the beach, Toby!

    Hmmm, I quite enjoyed Capt. America, though it's a bit unusual cinema viewing as I saw Chris Evans hours before I saw the movie at Comic-con. I like the retro feel and despite not having seen too many Evans' movies, I thought he's perfectly cast in this one. I haven't seen Cars 2 though, but not interested at all in doing so.

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  2. Haven't seen either of the films under discussion, but I did read the David Goodis book years ago, which I liked. However, I think that if you found Ministry of Fear to be not terribly noir, you'll probably find Tirez sur la pianiste to be even less so. Good film, mind you, that should be seen anyway.

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  3. Doesn't look like Bondi cobber!!

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  4. HAHA WHITE LEGS!!!! At least I am more tanned than you (for the moment)

    Cap'n I actually enjoyed, but you are right on Weaving his accent was very strange!

    The girls loved Cars 2, but they are only little,

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  5. Sometimes it's nice to take a little break from movies and looks like you had a great time on the beach. Haven't seen the movies you mentioned yet, so can't comment on those....

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  6. Ha ha, you'll never believe it, but I watched Captain America recently too - although, I had a different reaction to it. http://www.fernbyfilms.com/2011/10/18/movie-review-captain-america-the-first-avenger/

    I actually thought it was pretty decent, myself, even though it was meant as a set-up film for The Avengers. Thought Chris Evans did a bang up job, and Hugo Weaving was solid enough to make me smile at his role.

    Haven't seen Cars 2 yet, although I believe it's out on DVD here in Australia soon....

    Don't worry about the tan, dude. You more than make up for it with those awesome retro deckchairs!

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  7. "Has anyone ever seen Hugo Weaving not playing Agent Smith?"

    I have. The very first movie I ever saw him in was The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The image of him in the dress made completely out of flip-flops, including miniature flip-flops for earrings, is probably the most memorable thing for me from that movie.

    Fast forward a few years and I'm watching The Matrix. The guy playing Agent Smith looks familiar to me, but I can't place him. All of a sudden it hit me like a bomb - "Holy shit! It's one of the guys from The Adventures of Priscilla!" Let's just say the two images (dressed in flip-flops vs. conservative suit) just did not want to reconcile in my brain.

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  8. OOOH I love Farewell My Lovely, just saw it for the first time this summer and thought it was da bomb.

    Da bomb. I seriously just wrote that.

    FIT PIC!

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  9. Captain America and Cars 2? Fuck off. Not in a million years. I've been pretty lazy lately too. I hope you'll forgive me, I can't even be bothered finishing this comme

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  10. In my opinion Captain America started off fantastic and I loved the retro vibe, but mid-way through it just lost its way. Cars 2 I have not seen.

    Anyway, great post Toby. Apologies for the no comments recently, I have been terribly busy with school.

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  11. Cars 2.. Sigh. What a disappointment.

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  12. Please take a look at the gay short film '306', written, directed and produced by Elliot London.
    This video does contain graphic nudity. Please share the video on your site?

    http://vimeo.com/32775696

    Thank You.

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  13. Hey Toby, long time no blog... I hope the summer is treating you well, and you have a Merry Christmas!

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  15. Yeah, Captain America sucked!

    http://dailysutton.blogspot.com.au

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