Movies

I've seen a few movies over the holidays, so I thought I'd dedicate a post to my thoughts on them:

Charlie Wilson's War
This movie is about a congressman from Texas that played a big part in helping fund the Afganis in the Afgan-Soviet war. I thought Tom Hanks did pretty well playing the part of the party-loving, world-traveling Charlie Wilson. Philip Seymour Hoffman really steals the show - his character is awesome and his acting is great. Though the movie deals with some serious issues there are many parts that are laugh out loud funny, and though its political, I think it works for all crowds. I'm curious how much of the story is true and what's Hollywood's part, but in general I'd recommend it - even just Hoffman's acting is enough to make it worth it.

Dan in Real Life
This is a heart-warming family/romantic comedy starring Steve Carell. It revolves around a family reunion where the whole group is going up to stay in one cabin. The movie is unique in that the family is all pretty supportive and forgiving, and though there is a conflict (otherwise it'd be pretty boring) it isn't the knock-down drag-out fight that lots of other movies show. In general the movie was more interesting and sweet than it was dark or predictable. Plus Steve Carell is hilarious.

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets
I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I saw this movie, but it's true. I don't have a whole lot to say about the movie - obviously it wasn't great, but it was entertaining. Similar to Dan Brown's DaVinci Code, it's all about tracking down crazy clues based on conspiracies around the world to solve a mystery. The best way to describe the movie is that it basically does exactly what you would expect and is in no way realistic. Oh, Nick Cage.

I Am Legend
I had heard about this movie before I went and saw it, and, completely out of character, I decided to read about it before going to see it. I knew it was something about Will Smith being alone and fighting some kind of monsters, and I checked out wikipedia to find out the details. Well, wikipedia just had a synopsis of the book it is based on, so I read that. After seeing it, I felt that most of the movie was very good - the footage of empty New York City was cool, Will Smith's acting was good, the attempt to depict changes in behavior after spending lots of time alone were interesting, and the premise is interesting. (Spoiler - For example, I thought that when the two people show up near the end, it's filmed in such a way that you aren't completely sure that they are real, and Will Smith's acting leads you to believe he's wondering the same thing. It was done in a very interesting way) However, I was disappointed when it came to the end - it seemed abrupt and unsatisfying, and I think that may have to do with my prior research - I'll explain more here. <> The movie begins with most of the population of the world dying, and the rest turning into zombie/vampire-like monsters. Basically the same in the book. In the movie, the main character is alone in the city and sometimes kills the infected people - same as in the book. In the movie, new (uninfected) people suddenly show up, the infected attack, Will Smith finally finds the cure and gives it to the new people before dying in the attack. They take it to a small group of non-infected people, and Will Smith becomes "a legend" for having found the cure. In the book, it turns out that some of the infected people have the physical symptoms of the disease, but not the mental symptoms. However, the main character doesn't know this, and kills infected people during the day (while they are asleep). They think of him as a monster - kind of like the boogie man - that nobody ever sees, but that can come and kill you as you sleep. Therefore, he is "a legend" among the infected. They essentially send someone to find and spy on him, and she ends up explaining this to him. I thought that was a way more interesting twist and way more interesting meaning for the title. It seems like the movie considered this, because they had Will Smith make a point of saying that he found the infected had no cognitive ability and were even losing their survival instinct, but then one of the infected clearly sets a trap for him later on, and even later in the movie, leads the attack on his home. I was sure they were building up to the twist in the book, but then it just never happened. Ah well. Still worth seeing.

Battlestar Galactica Season 1 and 2.0
It's not a movie, but the other thing I spent lots of time watching was Battlestar Galactica. It is awesome! It took a while to get into it - I didn't like the miniseries as much as the actual tv show episodes, though it is important for setting up the premise. The characters are interesting and the plot is constantly evolving to provide more information and more questions all the time. It's one of those shows that I turn on intending to watch one episode and then end up watching four. I can't wait to get the DVDs to watch the rest of the episodes.