So I've had a week of semi-Freedom this week and all I could think to do with the time, even now being old enough to drink in a bar if I had the inclination, was to watch films. Part of this was thanks to a Birthday gift of eight new DVDs for my weird collection. Some thoughts on the films:
Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction I watched back to back the first night (last Friday, I believe). It was interesting how things changed from one to the next, and how things remained similar. The beauty of Tarantino's films is that the dialogue is always both fun and enjoyable as well as well written and occaisionally thought provoking. This is obvious in both films. However, it is amazing how much Tarantino's cinematography improved between the two. I particularly loved Pulp Fiction for its geeky homage to 1930s pulp comics, and the movie even gives off an air that the segments in it really are just a few issues of a much larger released comic serial. I'm really interested in watching Sin City now after having watched Pulp Fiction in full. Sin City, from what I've heard, is a graphic comic itself in homage to the 30s comics via Pulp Fiction. It all goes to show how much culture really does build on itself.
The next night (Tuesday, I think) was Blazing Saddles, a Mel Brooks classic, of course. I followed that up with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Baron Munchausen comes from the Terry Gilliam collection I'm working on building. So far, Baron Munchausen has been the most "fun" of his directed films to watch. Not that they all haven't had their moments of fun, Gilliam's sense of humor (in addition to his weird sense of style) obviously infects all of his movies. Baron Munchausen is pure fantasy/fairy tale, but with a story that provides for much more siliness than Time Bandits does. Robin Williams as the king of the moon was great. Also, I had a hard time deciding whether Uma Thurman was more enchanting as Pulp's Mia or as Baron Munchausen's Venus (the Greek Goddess).
Wednesday night was National Treasure at the bargain theater. I really enjoyed the film. It has to be one of the most intelligent action films ever produced by Bruckheimer's company. My only comment on the plausibility of the film was just the small flaw in that the Freemasons seemed to have completely forgotten one of their own secrets, which seemed really odd. Particularly because most of the steps of the way had quite obvious Masonic markings. The movie hints that the protagonist (or at least some of his ancestors) may have been Masons, so I guess that helps. Also, the wooden steps when concrete would have sufficed was odd. Probably most interesting to me was once again there was a connection with this film and the earlier ones in the week with the appearance of Harvey Keitel as the FBI agent (after having seen him in both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction).
Left to watch are Holy Grail, and a trio of Coen Brother's films: Fargo, Hudsucker Proxy, and Big Lebowski. Of those, the only one I don't think I've seen all the way through is Fargo.