Twoo Faster Twoo Furiouser + Pianist/Schmidt

It looks like an equation, but it isn’t. A few more movie reviews for you happy people, and then I’ve got to go for awhile. Here’s a brief update on things.

I got some money. I start rehearsals for Shakespeare pretty quick, and my job starts in a week. Woohoo for money and fun times. As for romance, there’s nothing big going on in that department as of now. After watching ‘About Schmidt’ I’ve come to realize that all I really want is someone who is incredibly happy to be with me. Simple right? Heh. “Ten Little Indians” is over and it was an incredible delight, I loved my role SO much and I wish I could go longer. Onto the reviews however..I mean geez…I haven’t got all day to type on this thing…;)

THE PIANIST: 3 of 5

How this won Academy Awards, I’ll never know…oh wait, I do. The film is more a tribute to the style of old Italian film like Rossellini’s “Open City” and is so in love with itself that it had to be genious..right? Wrong.

My problem with the film is that the only actor in it is Adrian Brody. Every other character is pulled away before we get to know them, and most of them are killed so that we know there is a finality to the chance that they might be safe somewhere else.

Secondly, the film’s title is absolutely stupid. The film does not center around music at all, in any way. We see that Brody sometimes taps his fingers or pretends to play when he can’t, but we are never ever shown that what keeps Brody alive in the hearts of others or what keeps him going himself is the chance to play the piano again. There is one scene near the end where we FINALLY see this, but it is two hours too late for us to get the impression that what saves this young man’s life is music.

Thirdly, the film has absolutely no point. It’s just us watching a guy’s life for a period of time that was intensely dramatic. Overall, I thought that Brody was good, but the rest of the movie was basically standard or sub-standard. It really wasn’t worthy of the acclaim it got, but then again, very few movies are.

ABOUT SCHMIDT: 5 of 5

This movie was excellent, a far better movie selected by the Academy than Polanski’s. Nicholson is great as the only sane and standard character in the whole film, which makes it so funny, cuz he’s probably the craziest real person.

The film centers around Schmidt, who has just retired and has lost all purpose. His wife dies near the beginning of the movie and he finds himself alone and searching for some meaning to his now pathetic life. And it is pathetic. He’s surrounded by nasty characters, even his daughter who he tries to love but who is a REAL bitch (though I really wanted her to be nice.) In fact, all the characters are terrible people that we have to hate by the end of the movie, which makes us love and empathize with poor old Schmidt all the more. Dermot Mulroney is awesome as the rather unclassy fiance of Schmidt’s daughter.

Overall, the movie really called a lot of stuff into question and reaffirmed my belief that too many people get married just because they have no idea what love and marriage should be all about. A brief warning to all of you…Kathy Bates appears nude in this movie and it is icky, icky….ICKY!! The movie is, however, incredibly touching, and by the end of it, I cried….awwww…..

2FAST2FURIOUS: 4 of 5

You may wonder why it is that ‘The Pianist’ got less points than this movie, but the fact of the matter is that a movie is created for one of two reasons or a combination of them: to entertain or to provoke thought. All movies have stereotypes around them that they themselves create and it is for that reason that this movie gets more. This movie sets out with the ideal that it wants to entertain the audience with eye-candy and pop-culture.

It does not set-out to be an award-winning piece. It does not set out to be some high-brow piece of artistic genious. That was what ‘The Pianist’ did, and all it did was subject us to vignette after vignette of WWII life…it was like watching a badly put together flip-book.

The Fast and the Furious was good, I enjoyed it. It was refreshing to see really street and teenage dialogue used a lot of the times. It never seemed like there was a script that was being forced into the heads of the actors…and while sometimes that makes the film look pathetic, John Singleton handled it well.

The second movie was a bit more scripted and it shows, because Paul Walker (who is hot but a bad actor) shows it all too well. He continues to talk as if he’s improvising but we can tell the words are forced and the ideas, too. Tyrese, however, is remarkably fascinating. I went in with the judgement that a man with one name has got to be a bad actor….ala Cher or Prince…..but I was wrong. Tyrese is rather entertaining and believable, a lot more so than Paul. What helps is that Tyrese’s character is also new to us, so the writer felt like he needed to develop the character, unlike Brian O’Connor, whose character was left with little development except in-tandem with Tyrese.

Cole Hauser was excellent as the bad guy and really got me a few times with a feeling of chills. I liked him as the bad guy, though his name and his actual look did not strike me as looking Italian…..like his name implied. Ludacris was good, too, and so was the Asian girl who played Suki or whoever. Overall, the film was basically mindless racing and intense action with standard plot twists….though I must admit, I undershot the ending of this movie thinking it would go a way it did not at all. Which made me somewhat happy about it. (I think this was the success of the film’s under-rated expectations from audience members like me.)

The movie was worth seeing in the theatre for the sound and the looks….

Well, that’s all for now. Talk to you all later. Hallelujah that FOD is back online.