Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

These days there isn’t much choice of what to watch in the movies. So I ended up at “Be Kind Rewind“.  It’s a comedy with Jack Black and Mos Def, both of who are often funny.  Also, I wanted to see how Danny Glover is doing these days, since the last time I saw him was in “Lethal Weapon 4” or so.

“Be Kind Rewind” is a bit of an akward film.  It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s cheap, and it’s kind.  Some parts of it are so hilarious that I was laughing out loud.  Yet other parsts of it don’t make any sense at all.  Some scenes follow each other naturally, yet some other feel like they were glued together very roughly.

Overall, I’ll give it a 6 out of 10.  Not something that I would strongly recommend, but not your regular movie experience either.

Are you a fan of Simpsons?  If so, this ,”The Simpsons Movie” is the absolute must see for you.  But then again you probably already watched it. Me, on the other hand, is not a big fan.  I like to watch an episode of Simpsons now and then, but I am getting tired of them pretty soon.  And that is probably the reason for it taking almost a week for me to watch the whole movie.

Normally, I allocate time for movie watching in such a way that I won’t be interrupted. But during the last week I simply didn’t have that luxury, even though the movie was already rented.  So, I decided that technically this movie is not a film (it’s an animation), so the normal guidelines can be bent a little bit.  I saw the whole thing in about three or four sessions, with a little bit of overlap to get me back to where I stopped the previous time.

I have to say that this movie is nice. It is not disconnected from the cartoon series.  It’s just longer and has a bigger story, but overall it looks and feels like the usual Simpsons.  The animation is the same, the humor is the same, and the sound might be slightly better than the TV version (I don’t have anything at hand to confirm it).  So, what’s more there to say?  It’s the Simpsons. If you like them, watch it. If not, then not.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

There are a few sure receipts to make a nice movie.  One of them is mix lots of cars with some boobs and a cool guy.  Of course, there are some film makers who will still be able to screw it up, but Robert Zemeckis is definitely one of them.  I just watched “Used Cars“, the movie he directed back in 1980, with Kurt Russel playing the main role, and this movie is still as good as it was back then. That’s a sign of good entertainment!

6 out of 10.

Today I watched an excellent movie “Planet Terror“.   It’s packed with action, zombies, quotes, comedy, and romance.  It has lots of special effects, great photography, and music.  If you ever watched more than three zombie movies which were released in late 1980s or early 1990s, you’ll love this film.

It is Robert Rodriguez’ re-incarnation of “Army of Darkness” in the perspective of bio-chemical accident with military personell involvement and a taste of Desperado.  That’s the best description I can come up with.  But really, you should better see this one.

7 out of 10.

I think that Sacha Baron Cohen is one of the most talented people in today’s comedy.  I’ve seen and appreciated much of his work.  If you aren’t too familiar with it, among other things, he is mostly famous for creating three characters which appear on a number of shows and television programs - Borat, Ali G, and  Bruno.  Each one of those characters is very different from the others, and all three are very different from Sacha Baron Cohen himself.   My favorite one is Ali G, which I mentioned a few times on this blog.  Other ones are funny too, but they don’t get me laughing as hard as Ali G.

One of these characters was taken as far as a full featured movie - “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan“.  I was trying a bit to avoid watching this film, because, although as funny as the character is, I thought it would be a bit too much.  After listening to a few friends of mine, who strongly recommended the movie (and referred and quoted it way too often), I decided to finally rent and watch it.

I’m glad I did.  It was indeed much more than I expected out of it.  Borat is a character who does a lot of exploration in cultural differences and stereotypes.  In this movie there was as much space for those explorations as one could get.  And he utilized it all.  It was unbelievable at times.  Sometimes Borat goes so far that it is impossible to believe that scenes weren’t done in the studio with hired actors.  After reading a bit about the movie after watching it, and after seeing a few interviews at YouTube, it seems that those scenes indeed took place as part of Borat’s life and not as staged movie scenes.  All I can say for that is - WOW!

I strongly recommend this film, if you aren’t easily upset by all sorts of humor (including toilet jokes, discrimination, sexual themes, slavery and human rights, etc).

Strong 7 out of 10 with extra points for bravery and hard work and sensitive areas.