Matchstick Men
[image:555,left,5,5,0]Kate and I went to the Famous Players at Rideau Centre and saw Matchstick Men.
A good movie. I had been looking forward to it (I saw a preview for it at some other movie). Funny what happens when you don't get bombarded by TV commercials. Of course, when I went to the theater showtime site looking for what was playing, I ended up clicking through various other trailers. Underworld looks cool, cool in a style-over-substance way: vampires vs. werewolves with lots of Hong Kong wire work and tight leather outfits.
But I digress. Matchstick Men is (mainly) about a couple of con men, played by Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell. Both really good actors that I always enjoy watching. Nicolas Cage seems to be going into all sorts of roles, and I've been liking him more and more.
This is very much a "people" movie -- dialog, interplay between characters, subtle glances from Cage to the female grocery cashier from whom he buys canned tuna and packs of cigarettes. Oh ya -- Cage is basically a bit out of his tree, taking pills to stop his various ticks and suppress his fears (dirt and the outdoors).
I give it 8 out of 10. OK, if you're still with me, you can go read my Big Sugar review.
Similar
Recently viewed
Comments
matchstick men
can anyone tell me was the cashier the same person as his wife in the movie/ my wife says yes, I say no, can someone help
bobmick@hutchtel.net
At the end of the movie, we s
At the end of the movie, we see him married, right? Yes, that is the cashier that he has been giving glances at throughout the movie.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
I saw this movie last night, and found it quite entertaining. I didn't find that the audio was any louder than any other action movie I've seen in the theatre in the last while, so maybe you just ended up in a cinema where the volume was cranked.
As for lame action, I thought it was actually utilized rather well... in fact, it didn't go to far into doing action for actions sake as many movies tend to these days. Not only that, but there was a noticeable lack of CG-FX which made me happy, I find they are tremendously over-utilized these days.
I thought it was an entertaining story and provided a couple of entertaining twists that I didn't totally see coming from 2 minutes after the opening credits. Depp's character was great, and I loved his t-shirts - he was definitely the highlight of the movie.
JD's t-shirts in OUTIM
The best t-shirt was the CIA t-shirt as he does business at the bullfight, in my opinion.
Cleavage Inspection Agency...
yes.. a great t-shirt
Oh?
I totally missed that part, actually! I thought it was legitimately a Central Intelligence Agency position, and he was wearing it in a bold, fearless manner, being from the CIA himself. He -was- working for the CIA, right? ;)
Yeah...
he did work for the CIA
where do I get it?
Anybody found a merchandise shop on the net where I can buy the shirt?
Lost in Translation
Lost in Translation looks like an excellent movie, and I love Bill Murray. If you haven't seen Groundhog Day in a long while, rent it again, it's hilarious. Lost in Translation - Bill, an actor, gets paid a couple million US to do a Whiskey commercial in Japan. I've always liked Bill's humor and acting, but this one looks to be a bit more serious.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico was also surprisingly good. Though I have to say - the movie was way too damn loud. And I mean the volume in the theatre. It was the loudest movie I've ever heard, there is definitely a lot of hearing damage with this movie. There may even be a lawsuit.
So the commercials and trailers fooled you - it's some lame-ass shoot-em-up with Latinos, unrealistic stunts, and a sampled cannon blast in place of Antonio's sawed-off double-barrel shotgun.
Then again, as I watched the movie, I began to notice a number of dramatical techniques that are highly uncharacteristic for action movies, and that I enjoyed. For one, there is Johnny Depp's character, who falls victim to an eyeball removing because he is a CIA operative working to overthrow a coup on the Mexican President, and gets caught by the bad guys. There is a prophetic and historical symbolism to blind characters in movies, with the simple form being - blind people always show up at the scene of a great event, by virtue of the Greek gods. Examples of this are common in French movies, and in classical Greek tragedies such as Oedipus Rex. Anyhow, so when Johnny Depp was shown in another scene and not written out, I was pleasantly surprised, but not until he showed up at the final showdown did I recognize the technique, and enjoy the movie somewhat.
Overall, it's a 2/10, failing because of its extreme volume and lame action, with the 2 points coming only because of its uncharacteristic use of credible dramatic techniques, and the pleasure I got in seeing them on screen.