Year: 2008

I Think I Love My Wife

I Think I Love My Wife

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.

He hates me, but it’s OK

Today I was at my bank. I had to cash a check, as well as do a couple of other small things. While at that, I decided to open a credit card. I have some cards already, but not one in Euro. So, they send me upstairs to see this guy there. He is responsible for credit cards, overdrafts, loans, and things like that. I’ve seen him before a few times.

This guy hates me. It’s OK though, because I think he hates everybody. Probably, he is very good at his job, since he is paid to hate everyone. People who will max out their overdrafts, overdue payments, etc – he is the one who filters them out. And it surely helps to hate them all.

Every time I enter his office he looks at me like he is trying to decide who is more worthless a Cypriot woman or a foreign man. He tries to remember anything good about Cypriot women. His wife and mother-in-law come to mind. That disgusts the heck out of him. Then he looks at me, measures me from top to bottom and back to top, makes a face like he just ate a huge cockroach, and decides that his mother-in-law is a little bit better than I am. Then he says: “Good morning”. These two words express more than some people will manage to express in their whole life. These two words have the whole world inside them, the world where I am at the bottom of the food chain, and this guy is floating above the top… or something like that.

Usually, the visit to his office kind of offsets my day. He doesn’t freak me out or depress me or anything. But there is this sour feeling for the rest of the day, after I see him. But not today. Today he had no way of saying “no” to me. As much as he wanted to decline my request, send me as far as possible, and forget about me as fast as possible, he couldn’t do anything. He had to say “yes”.

That “yes” was as expressive as the “Good morning”. It made my day. Maybe even a week. Maybe even more. Any time that I will ever feel down and depressed, I will be coming back to read this post. It’s a booster.

P.S.: obviously, I am not going to mention the bank, the branch, or the guy’s name, but some of you can guess it as easily anyway.

Unknown

It’s always a pity to see a movie with a nice idea, which hasn’t been fully developed.  “Unknown” is one such movie.  It started off pretty good, but there was just not enough suspense and acting to pull it through.  It became boring and unimportant pretty soon, but the idea shined through the whole movie.  I wish there was more work done on this but now it’s a bit too late.  Maybe someone else will pick it up and redo.

6 out of 10.

Death Proof

Being a great Quentin Tarantino fan, I’ve been sinning a lot in the last couple of years.  I missed a few works of the Master.  One of the films which I failed to catch in the cinema is “Death Proof“.  Gladly, DVD rentals had a copy.

As I said, I am a bit fan of Tarantino’s movies, so there is no way at all that I can be objective or unbiased.  For what it’s worth, here are my thoughts about this particular movie:

  • Excellent!
  • Anyone who saw other Tarantino movies can recognize his writing and directing in this one.  All you need is about 18 seconds from the start of the film.
  • Outstanding soundtrack, as always.  Maybe even better than usual, since large part of the movie happens around a juke box. Film’s trivia page, among other things, has a list of all tracks.
  • Great dialogs.  Dialogs are one of Tarantino’s talents, and this film has plenty of them.  Practically non-stop talking.
  • Great cars!  If you like cars and car racing, this is not the film to miss.  It has some of the best car chases, car wrecks, and car engine sounds.
  • Great girls!  There are a few really hot babes in this movie, and even with no nudity at all, there are a few places where you’d like a bucket of ice just to chill you down a little bit.
  • Kurt Rassel did a great job.
  • Lots of visual pleasure.  I suddenly remembered that story about Robert Rodriguez doing soundtrack for Tarantino’s “Kill Bill vol.2” for $1 and then, later, Tarantino returning the favor by making one of the scenes in Rodriguez’ “Sin City”.  “Sin City” used a lot of digital technologies, while Tarantino is the Master of the actual film.  So, it seemed like after that story (if it was even true), Tarantino went a little deeper into experiments with film (as in media).  Scratches, noise, cuts, and other effects, which can be achieved digitally, look more authentic when done for real.

If I had to pick one thing that wasn’t perfect about this film, it would for sure be duration.  It was too damn short.  I could watch this film for hours and hours.  And just for that, I’ll rate it as 9 out of 10.

Gone Baby Gone

I just came back from the cinema, where I watched “Gone Baby Gone“, a movie about kidnapping, directed by Ben Affleck and starring his brother Casey Affleck, together with such well known names as Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris.

I was a bit worried that this film will be too dramatic with a lot of gory details of a kidnapping.  Kidnapping in this case is not just of any person, but of a kid, as in a little girl.  The film was indeed dramatic, but the kidnapping wasn’t the main part of the drama.  It was more about right and wrong, and how difficult sometimes it is to see the right choice, not to mention, to pick it.  A couple of times it was reaching so far that I had to ask myself which choice was the right one, and even then I had a few moments of hesitation.  Finally though I have to agree with the choices made and reasoned for by Casey Affleck’s character.

The directing of this film is interesting, it being Ben Affleck’s debut (he did some directing before, but two movies didn’t make it to the big screen, while the other one was a short movie).  I’d say he did pretty good.  He needs more practice and all, but it was better than many of those seasoned directors I’ve seen.  Two things were sticking out a tiny bit.  First, the lack of experience in drama.  There were a few places in the film which could have been done more dramatic.  Heavier.  Stronger.  If you know what I man.  Secondly, the film is based on a novel (read: book), and it is too obvious.  The book seems to be good, but it wasn’t processed enough to make a movie out of it.  This area needs a bit more work.  But as I said, overall it was pretty good.

As a whole, I enjoyed the film, and it gave me a few things to think about.  For that, I’ll give it a solid 7 out of 10.