Three, count ’em three, very good to very-very good movies reviewed by myself for MSN Movies this week: Pacific Rim (a still from which, featuring Rinko Kukuchi, is seen above), Fruitvale Station, and The Hunt.
Also: I read Henry Jaglom and Peter Biskind’s My Lunches With Orson this week, and it’s a better book than its positive reviews would indicate. I’ll have a longer post about it some time next week, as musical activities are going to take up the remainder of this week’s time.
“if there’s a German film genre built around the term I’m not sure I wanna know about it”
I know this aside was meant as a joke, but for anybody out there who’s actually wondering if the term “Jaeger” was a reference, I think it’s probably a nod to all the German that pervades some mecha animé (for example, in Gundam and Evangelion; I’m sure you could find more examples through Google or TvTropes).
The “Pacific Rim” trailer sure hides most of the “fun” items that I’ve seen referenced in reviews, all of which have been glowing. Is the movie being released in non-3D, and if so, would it suffer from not being in 3D?
Conversely, “Fruitvale Station” definitely has provoked reactions. I had not heard of the incident on which the film is based. Even so, I’m approaching it with some trepidation since it takes an unusually skilled filmmaker to take a story who’s ending is already known and make it compelling. The mixed reviews make me wonder if this one’s dependent on one’s view of the larger societal issues involved.
I guess I’ll pass on ‘Pacific Rim’ (not my cup of tea), unless someone assures me it ends with Charlie Day pushing the self-destruct button of the robots during the climatic fight, and when all the other characters turn their horrified stares at him he yells ‘WILDCARD, BITCHES!’ and jumps out of the control room window.
Review of “The Hunt” is headlined “Dutch Film.” Isn’t it Danish?
Didn’t you mind the super-kitschy dialogue in Pacific Rim and the cliched and sentimental nature of the human detail?
I know it’s meant just to be ‘fun’ action, but I can’t see why a film can’t have functional, not especially kitsch‑y dialogue and no sentimental perfunctory ‘character journeys’ at all, if it’s just fun action?