Thursday, July 08, 2004

Movie Reviews

Last night was movie and Chinese food night.  I don't know if the Kung Pao appeased the literary gods or not - so far, no more writing news to post.  For the movies, not a bad choice in the bunch.

Rashomon:  another great story by Akira Kurosawa.  An interesting murder mystery, one which changes with each character's retelling.  Fortunately, forensic medicine has improved since the time of feudal Japan, and so have eyebrow fashions (women's eyebrows looked like smudges or bruises on their foreheads).
- 4 out of 5 stars.

The Hidden:  For my money, the best action/horror/sci-fi/buddy cop/humor movie of 1987.  Seriously, a good sci-fi action flick.  It has the usual minor discrepancies in continuity and logic, but those are offset by a believable story, great action, and a villain I couldn't help but envy.  WARNING - SPOILER AHEAD.  The ending was slightly ambiguous, but not in a bad way.  It made me wonder if one character took the place of the other, or actually sacrificed himself so the other could live.
- 4 out of 5 stars.

Futurama, season 3, disc 1:  still funny, but the humor wasn't up to snuff for this installment.  The show is getting a little predictable and maudlin, trying to pull heart strings where it used to go for a sucker punch.  Also they've taken their homages into theft territory.  Still good, but far from the best this series has to offer.
- 3.5 out of 5 stars.

In a somewhat related matter, the last time I returned movies to NetFlix they arrived a day later than normal.  Mailing them from home always took two days, but now the local post office takes just as long.  They recently posted a sign saying all mail will be sent to downtown Atlanta to be sorted.  As a test, I mailed two DVDs from the post office, and another one from a nearby mail box.  Hopefully one of them will knock that extra day off my turnaround time.

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