A quick couple of reviews:
- Grindhouse
- Excellent. Quality films pretending to be bad films and ending up just quality. The "trailers" were all awesome. Rodriguez's film was spicier and funnier with a "deeper" plot (albeit easy to predict zombie film). Tarantino's Death Proof was... classic Tarantino. Death Proof felt a lot like a lost relative of Reservoir Dogs (excellent dialog with some great action thrown in the middle) with a little bit of Pulp Fiction thrown in (mostly as references). Tarantino's was better art and Rodriguez's was better pop-cinema. Ultimately hard to imagine a punchier peanut-butter-and-chocolate action film pairing. Some won't appreciate Death Proof as much as Planet Terror, but I have to say they end up being just about equal and opposite.
- Stranger than Fiction
- Excellent. The literary devices as literary device is a weird genre that actually speaks to me (yes, I own a copy of Adaptation), and its used quite well here. Will Ferrell's performance seems the most sincere, earnest, and unforced of any performance of his. Dustin Hoffman's character is hilarious and made me briefly consider switching to an English degree if I could take classes with his character. Maggie Gyllenhaal's performance was incredibly endearing. I'll save my commentary on what I thought of the plot for some other time, perhaps...