We Amuse Myself

I've gotten back into the swing of going to the movies, so I thought I'd write down my two cents concerning their two-thumbs-up/down-ness.

The Proposal: Starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds
My Grade: B+

Now I'm sure you're wondering why I bothered to see this movie, and my answer is that there wasn't anything else playing in the rinky-dinky theatre where I live. But also, I like watching Sandra Bullock movies. They can be formulaic but they're fun and a nice, easy movie going experience.

I didn't have super high hopes for this movie, which meant I was pleasantly surprised. I think what worked for this movie was that the trailer really didn't reveal too many of the funny scenes so there were plenty of laughs you weren't expecting. Although the story is kind of predictable and it ends how you think it will, I felt the development of the main character's relationship was reasonable enough. Plus, one line at the end (I feel) saved it from having a completely unbelievable, unrealistic ending.

All in all, this movie could have had some more original story-telling, but there were enough unique moments and the characters have enough honesty that I'd watch this again.

My Sister's Keeper: Starring Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin and Cameron Diaz
My Grade: B-

The reason I saw this movie was that my mom had a free movie ticket at the Navy base theatre, where tickets are only $4. So I saw it with my mom and my sister (which was a little awkward). I hadn't read the book, but I knew the plot and I knew the ending of the movie had been changed. And I'm glad they changed the ending. It may have just been because of the dialog in the movie, but the way the story progress and the things they prepare you for, I feel using the book ending in the movie would be just too unbelievable. I don't even like it as the book ending, but whatever.

This movie was pretty good but I had a few issues with it. The main things is the order of the scenes. If you're supposed to take it at face value and things happen in the order they're presented to you (not including the obvious flashback scenes), then it doesn't really make sense. But if you follow it according to when the older sister has hair, with things hinging around when she gets sick again and when she gets chemotherapy, it still has issues. I'm pretty sure they were intending for the scenes to be out of order, but the intended order is not clear.

This movie probably could have been a C, especially considering my above complaint and a few other things, but I really liked the acting of the main characters. Another nice feature was I felt they really prepared you for the (non-book) ending, so although it's sad, it's not exactly tragic. It's an ending that will sadden some, but it's also one that I think should make people think about what they value and what they would do if they were in a similar situation. And thinking, although unplesant, is good.

District 9: Starring Sharlto Copley and Jason Cope (He was Christopher Johnson)
My Grade: A

This has the be the first movie I've seen where I read Roger Ebert's review and have come to disagree with it. Ebert says that this movie just doesn't have enough Sci-Fi to be Sci-Fi gold and wasn't too happy with some of the storytelling elements. For example, without revealing too much, he wasn't too happy with how the aliens don't have a lot of initiative.

But like The Proposal, there are a few lines here and there that I feel counter-act Ebert's points. I was impressed by the complexity of the District 9-world. If it had been more complex, it probably would have been confusing, while if it had been less complex, it probably would have felt incomplete or not entirely thought out.

I was genuinely impressed by a lot of aspects of this film. The aliens looked very realistic in their movements and facial expressions. The formation of the script (which I found out later), is practically unbelievable; the scenes were planned, but the dialog was improvised. Also, even though he infuriated me at times, I really like how the main character (with his lovely name of Wikus van der Merwe) was neither unrealistically heroic nor unrealistically adverse to what was happening to him.

While the film did have some short-comings, I think it's one of the best and most unique films of its genre for quite a while and I'd be quite disappointed if there isn't a sequel of somekind. Which brings me to the ending. A few reviewers commented that it was too dark/ ambiguous. First of all, ambiguous? Not at all. And while I'm fully happy with what happened, it could have easily been darker while staying true to the story overall. This isn't a Sandra Bullock movie guys.