Something for the Weekend
I only realised yesterday that I hadn’t posted all weekend and I was trying to remember what I’d done that had kept me away from my computer that long when I remembered that I seem to have had a movie-fest of a weekend.
It all kicked off when I got home on Friday (I was back in the UK this weekend) and found a selection of DVDs I’d ordered waiting for me (always nice). So, while the house was quiet, I sat down to watch The Bourne Identity. I’d forgotten how good that movie is. That was followed by an evening watching Taxi with the rest of the family.
Taxi is based on a French film of the same name and the original is a movie I love (as a car fan), I’ll write a review for the movies to see section when I get a chance. The US version mixes things up a little (the taxi driver is a woman, the criminals are women) and plays up the comedy more. Overall, I thought it was fun. Comedy, action, underdog making good and hot women, what more could you want?
Saturday involved a trip to the cinema to see Robots (the trip there was a story in itself, instead of taking 15-20 min to get there we were still nowhere near after an hour in the car and had thoroughly missed the show, so we headed back before trying, and succeeding, later on). Another good animated movie. Robin Williams didn’t get a chance to shine like he did in Aladdin, but he managed to add his brand of zany humour to the mix nonetheless. The songs were a little weak in places and there weren’t the characters you find in something like Finding Nemo, but it had some superb moments of genius (making babies for example) and visual flair.
Sunday saw me watching Anchorman before catching my flight. I like Will Ferrell in general and he seems to be good in whatever he finds himself. Anchorman was no exception. OTT humour in a few places, but generally good fun. The tongue-in-check stereotypes of the 70s are sublimely funny, with parts of the story almost parody in the style of something like Airplane! The day finished with me watching another of the DVDs I bought, Bulletproof Monk.
Okay, so the overall story of Bulletproof Monk is a little daft (Nazis trying to steal a scroll that, when read, gives the reader ultimate power over the world) and some dumb stuff in it (machines that rip the thoughts from people’s minds and which is powered, inextricably, by water), but it’s actually not that bad. I’d attribute this to some great action scenes and the talent of the three main characters (Chow Yun Fat, the often underrated Sean William Scott and Jamie King).