Big movie day so far. I managed to sit through Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven. When The Thin Red Line was released in theatres in the late 90's he was acclaimed as this legendary director whom everyone wanted to work with. He was a recluse who hadn't made a movie since the 70's when he made two. This is one of them. Stars Richard Gere as a migrant worker with his woman and they end up working on this farm. The idea is to scam the farm owner who has fallen for his woman. Everyone believes Gere and the woman are siblings because this is the story they have told. There is very little dialogue, random shots of nature and scenery (though the underwater shot of the goblet was quite beautiful), and there is spare narration and the whole thing felt...incomplete. Like there was a story there but Malick didn't really get around to telling it. I was bored. Still, Malick did an excellent job with The Thin Red Line, I look forward to The New World and I'll get around to renting Badlands fairly soon. Then I can cross "Watch all Terrence Malick's movies" off of my list of things to do.
Watched the Imax documentary Volcanoes of the Deep Sea. Somehow this one managed to stir up a bit of controversy a few years back because it hinted at evolution and the creation of the world and some theatres in the south didn't show it. Oh. My. God. Honestly, this is an hour long documentary about creatures two miles underwater that we've never seen before and scientists didn't believe anything existed down there. So, for a visual treat this is worth watching and it is neat to see this unexplored world...and it is like a whole different world. On the other, the documentary isn't anything special and it doesn't really say anything or explain things very well and it was rather dry. I imagine the best experience would be to find an Imax theatre that was showing this and watch it as it was meant to be seen. It didn't play that well at home, but at only an hour in length it isn't bad. And forget about that evolution controversy. I was looking for it and it wasn't really there...unless you believe the Earth is only 4000 years old in which case you'll probably hate most science books and movies.
I tried to watch David Croenenberg's Naked Lunch. Key word: Tried. A co-worker lent me this movie when I said I've only seen eXistenZ and nothing else by the director. Love eXistenZ, by the way. Well, this movie is just flat out weird. Based on a novel written in an acid trip and considered unfilmable, I just didn't get it. There's this guy who is an exterminator and his wife is shooting up the "bug powder" and then some bugs are huge and they talk to him about this conspiracy and that his wife may be a bug and I just wanted Jerry O'Connell to come in with his roaches and have a great big bug paradise while Caspar Van Diem and Doogie Houser tell me the only good bug is a dead bug. It wouldn't have made sense, but then this movie doesn't either. I could only manage 40 minutes of it, so if you tell me that it gets better or that it makes more sense or that the last 27 minutes of the movie should have won a special Academy Award...I still don't want to finish it.
Ugh.
So, the three movies I've watched so far have all pretty well sucked. What didn't suck? My Name is Earl. This week's episode had Earl trying to make something up to his ex-wife Joy. He had smashed one of her figurines which apparently can only be won in this mother/daughter beauty pageant and he needs to get her a figurine. She wants a hot tub. And then there are this mother daughter pair who come from a long line of knife throwers but the daughter doesn't want to, she wants to become a doctor. The mother wants none of that and wants to go on the pageant circuit with her. This show just gets better and better. Love it. I also want more knife throwing children on television.
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