Enchanting Enchanted

The delight of the night! Squirrels and Bunnies and Bumble Bees and Balloons and Bubbles and Song and Dance! Sound like a gay pride parade? Well it is! All the exuberant, merry and happily enchanting fun one could ask for!

By far the most pleasurable experience that Disney has offered up in some time. The cleverest of them all. Throwing the fairytale creatures into the heart of the real world. “People sure aren’t very nice here.” “Welcome to New York.” “Aww, thank you.” It doesn’t get any better than that.

For a laugh and a smile, it’s time to be enchanted. ~ M

Eastern Blah

Throw my favoritest director coming off my favoritest movie into another exciting adventure about rape and drugs and mobsters and you have a recipe for success, in my book. Or do I mean blah? Wait. Yes. That’s it!

Eastern Promises. While coming no where close to the suck factor of History of Violence, this movie definitely had its moments where it was struggling to stoop to that depth. From Naomi Watts going off on tangents where she sounded like a six year old. To voicing over journal entries from a diary that no one has been taken the time to translate. To having Viggo Mortensen fight a bunch of thugs while naked in the bath house (which happened to be a completely lame and pathetic fight – And if making someone naked while fighting overwrites the fact that the fight is lame and pathetic, I missed that memo.). To shocking us all with the big reveal that Viggo Mortensen isn’t actually a thug but an undercover KGB agent (Wow. I’m surprised. What a shock. No. Really. I’m overwhelmingly overwhelmed. What an amazing twist. Never saw precisely that coming. Never in a million, billion years.). It was all just… Not good. Not overtly bad. Just... Blah.

Unless seeing some guy get his neck slit, or another getting his fingers cut off, or another getting stabbed in the eye is what you’re in for. If these types of events, when presented in unmotivated, lame fashions, are what optimize “Awesome!” to you, then this is definitely one to queue up.

~ M

Lust, Caution, Awesome!

World War II. Japanese occupied China. A group of politically charged high school students set out to assassinate a well placed Chinese traitor, diving under cover to infiltrate his life and discover the perfect opportunity to circumvent his tight security.

Lies. Seduction. Love. Treachery. Talk about awesome! Nothing at all of what I was expecting. I’d heard it was mediocre. I’d heard it was long. I’d heard it was graphic. What was it about? I had no clue – maybe some kind of love story. But, a group of friends convince an innocent girl to partake in their assassination plot by befriending a traitor’s wife and later, inadvertently seducing the very man they’re setting out to kill? That’s nuts!

It wasn’t slow, it wasn’t boring, it was freakin tense. Every scene that she is undercover, you can’t help but wonder how much longer until he sees through the deceit. How much longer until she slips up and he kills her. How much longer until the world around her comes crumbling down. And the longer she lives the lie, the more that lie becomes her real identity.

All I can say is that I was captivated. Sure, there weren’t big explosions or extravagant hit men or snappy dialog. There were characters. Characters I actually believed in all of their strengths, weaknesses and flaws. Simply sitting in a room in silence, they were saying more than many characters are capable of saying in an entire movie. What a novel concept.

Ang Lee knows what he’s doing. And he isn’t afraid to step into dangerous territory to do it. That, I have the utmost respect for.

~ M