This was another four movie weekend for me (number represents box office rating this weekend and my grades are in parentheses):
Rot. Tomatoes
Rev. Aud.
I watched Elysium in Titan XC. It was loud and stressful, but entertaining, good reasons why I left the theater with a headache. Appropriately enough, the movie was filmed at a Mexican garbage dump and a Mexican rich neighborhood, plus Vancouver.
Dystopian-future of 2154 leaves only two classes: the very wealthy, who live on a space station in easy view from Planet Earth, where the rest (99%???) of the downtrodden attempt to survive in a Mad Max (in 1979 this film garnered a 95% RT reviewers rating) apocalypse. Matt Damon plays Max (no relation to that other Max) and Jodie Foster, a Hitleresque protector of the ultra wealthy and perfectly healthy space population. There are two compelling reasons why Max has to get to Elysium (which means a state of perfect bliss)...but you can see the film for the details.
We're the Millers was raunchy, more so than all three Hangovers combined, was well-written with regular and huge laughs, featuring good acting, and, was truly enjoyable, if you like funny films on the edge of scatology. If R films can be rated, the Before trilogy would get a 2, Hangover a 6 and Millers a 9, with the higher numbers in the direction of an X.
In short, like finding Seven Samurai (which, by the way, had 100% reviewers and 96% audience RT ratings) to fight off invaders, the Miller family was formed by Jason Sudeikis, a small-town pot dealer, who has no choice but to simply pick up a bit of marijuana in Mexico and smuggle it back to the USA. So he finds a stripper (Jennifer Aniston) who doesn't like him, but lives in his apartment building, a wimp of a teenager who also lives there and a homeless girl to serve as his family, for the logic was that such a group in a van can more easily pass border customs. The smidge and a half of MJ turns out to almost fill the vehicle, and the adventure of returning home was sprinkled with high humor. It would not surprise me if there is a WTM 2.
I found Blue Jasmine to be disappointing. The audience clapped at the end, which is a good sign for the film, but I guess I like Hollywood endings more than a movie supersaturated with difficult individuals, all lacking in relationship skills, with a final scene of hopelessness. Plus, the laughs were limited. Mind you, all the reviewers say that this is Woody Allen's best since Annie Hall (which was 36 years ago and won three Oscars), and no doubt Kate Blanchett will get nominated for Best Actress. Come to now think of it, I guess Woody Allen's films tend to be depression leavened with laughs. Can you believe What's Up Tiger Lily, his first, was 47 years ago? Why was Blue Jasmine titled Blue Jasmine? Best as I can figure out, Jasmine was the made-up name of Jennifer, the Blanchett character, who keeps mentioning meeting her Bernie Madoff-like husband, played by Alec Baldwin, with Blue Moon, the song, in the background. It kind of captures the theme of the movie.
The Attack is a well-made movie directed by Lebanese-born director, Ziad Ddoueiri, filmed in Israel using actors from that country. On the surface it appeared that the loving wife of an award-winning Arab surgeon living in Tel Aviv shockingly turned out to be a terrorist-bomber, thus killing herself. The reality, as I can best understand it, was that 15 years earlier she connived to meet him so that she could have a safe cover while planning for this atrocity, which she intended to perpetrate because of her beliefs. I've long felt that these Arab-Israeli animosities would in time dissipate as people became more educated. This film left me with the impression that it will be a long, long time in the future, if ever, for this to occur. Fill the Void, which I earlier reviewed, provides an Orthodox Jewish point of view, which further underscored how peace in our time might be impossible in the Middle East.
The sunset tonight was super. First, I finally found a pipe ashtray that prevents the ash from scattering when windy:
The holes perfectly fit my churchill size cigars. My filter only holds this size. Actually the ashbowl is a toothbrush holder. The sunset:
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Typhoon Utor slammed into the Philippines as a Category 4 at 140 MPH, weakened into a Category 3 at 100 MPH, and will make landfall over China between Hainan and Hong Kong:
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