Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

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.

I was in the mood for some comedy, so I rented “I Think I Love My Wife“.  I knew that with Chris Rock on the cover of the DVD, I had at least a few laughs guaranteed.  I wasn’t wrong.

The thing with Chris Rock is that he is a stand-up comedian.  He writes comedy and then he talks it back to the audience from the stage.  And he is good at that (check YouTube videos for some samples, there are quite a few).   His comedy is usually about much debated topics - politics, racism, gun control, parenting, and stuff like that.

He is a pretty smart guy.  But he is not an actor.  Neither he is a director.  Even though, the titles of this movie will tell otherwise.  Chris Rock is a comedian - that’s what he does.  So this film, like many others that he took part in, is like a continuation of the stage from which he reads his comedy.  Maybe it’s a little bit more visual, with some more people on it, but it’s still just a stage for Rock’s comedy.  Not that I find anything bad in it anyway.

I like his sense of humor.  I like his choice of subjects.  And I like the way he usually looks at things.  He is one of those people who can put complex issues into simple terms.  He often suggests solutions or, should I say, possible course of actions, for the problems that he talks about.

In “I Think I Love My Wife”, Chris Rock explores marriage, the way relationship between husband and wife changes from the wedding day, through years of living together, having kids, daily routines, and things like that.  I have to say that once again he manages to put rather complex issues into simple words and clear perspectives.  However, this time I wasn’t very satisfied with the way the story ended.  It was like an exploration, during which the explorer got scared and aborted the mission.  Maybe because he got scared.  Or maybe because he wasn’t as far there as he was trying to push the movie.  I don’t know.  What I know is that the film went like 80% of the way and then suddenly ended.  And that was a disappointment, since I really enjoyed the journey.

6 out of 10.  Recommended for married couples.

Before I had a long break in movie watching, one of my biggest complains about movies was regarding the stories. It seemed back then that there were three of four main story lines, which all films were aligned along.  That was very sad and boring.  Now that I got back to movie watching, I am glad to report that there are many films with original stories.  Twists, surprises, and more twists. I have troubles guessing how the movie will end every other time.  So, it’s either the movies got a little better, or I got so much worse.

I watched “Lucky Number Slevin“, which I expected to be yet another action, considering there were pictures of Bruce Willis with a gun all over the place.  I thought that it would also probably be funny, since Bruce Willis was pictured in a hat.  And that’s about as much as I expected from the film.

But I was wrong.  It was a really twisted story.  With lots of action.  Lots of really great photography.  And fast paced.  Bruce Willis was accompanied by Josh Hartnett, Lucy Liu, Morgan Freeman, and Ben Kingsley.  There are some really great background characters too.

This film provides good, albeit not family safe,  entertainment, with plenty of good humor and details to look for while watching it for the second, third, or fourth time.  A must see, and a recommend DVD buy.  8 out of 10.

I almost missed “Dan in Real Life“.  I wasn’t even planning to see it, since the poster is does not appeal to me and I’m not a big fan of Steve Carell.  I mean, he is OK, but he’s not someone who attracts me to the movie.  But anyway.  I ended up alone in the cinema.  And I’m glad I did.

This is a strong 8 out of 10.  There is no point at telling the story or bringing up any scenes from the film - most of them are rather traditional and have been seen before.  The movie follows the stereotypical love story with all elements such as close family involvement, road trip, hurting someone’s feelings, kids, rain, “go get her”, etc.  All these were present here too, and, I should say, there were very well done.

But the strength of the film is not in the love story.  It’s in other things.  For me personally, it was very refreshing to see a healthy family. And a big one a that.  This whole film was around a well managed and developed family - something they don’t show very often in the movies.  This film shows how parents can spend time with their children, how siblings can be good and supportive friends, how important are good family values and how they are passed along and cultivated.  This part of the film was so good that I almost could not believe my eyes.  Tha alone is worth the time.

And that wasn’t the only good part.  Somehow, the film is very romantic and sentimental.  Sometimes it’s said, sometimes it’s funny.  Sometimes it’s very social, and sometimes it’s very private.  And it “feels” very good too.  There is an almost natural balance of moods and transitions.  It’s not boring, and it’s not trying to squeeze any tears out of you, while, at the same time, it’s not trying to make you laugh so hard you fell from your chair.  It asks its share of questions, tries to provide some answers, and leaves a lot to think about, while still entertaining.

With all that, I am a little glad that it didn’t have a strong overwhelming story to tell.  It already offered enough, and with a good story it would be pushing its luck.  (However there are movies that do both).

Also, there is plenty of good acting in this film. It’s not brilliant or anything, but it is very believable and human.  There were some familiar faces cast for this movie, and those that aren’t so familiar, did equally good.

Overall : strongly recommended.