Movie Reviews
So John and I haven't sat down by ourselves and watched a movie in a really long time. We decided over the weekend to pick up a movie or two at Blockbuster and watch them after Ben was in bed. He went to get Pirates of the Caribbean II, but it was out so he ended up with Lady in the Water and The Illusionist.
We watched Lady in the Water first. I'll preface by saying I'm a big M. Night Shamalyan fan. I haven't seen a movie of his that I didn't like. I've heard terrible things about this movie. It doesn't make any sense, it's a horrible premise, blah blah. After the first 30 minutes I thought had it started too quickly, and didn't have enough of a build-up. But about an hour into it I was really liking it. I know it's not the best storyline, but the characters were so likeable (especially Paul Giamatti) and I was honestly a little captivated. We were both a little weirded out by the fact that M. Night himself plays a fairly large role at the end. It made me jump, it made me laugh and I honestly thought it was a movie that was trying to do something bigger, but maybe didn't succeed. But I still really liked it. I think if it was given a more interesting title and had different marketing when it was in the theater it might have done fairly well.
We watched The Illusionist after Lady in the Water, but I fell asleep. John finished it and we ended up watching the 2nd half again last night. We both agreed it was really slow to start, but overall a really great and inventive movie (though you have to fast forward through a fairly revealing love scene). I think Ed Norton was great, but I love him as an actor in most any movie. Jessica Biel was a little odd to me and didn't have a great accent. But she was decent. It got a little weird in the last 2/3 of the movie, but it all makes sense at the end. And ironically enough, both movies had Paul Giamatti in them, but he honestly played two completely different characters so we didn't even think about it. My favorite line from him: Norton-"Are you compleltely corrupt?!" Giamatti-"Not completely, no." It's a fairly serious movie but has a really great ending.
I have to say that Lady in the Water is my favorite of all of his movies. Maybe it's because I like the fairytale/fantasy aspect of this one, I don't know. And, it has some pretty "everyday" characters doing extraordinary things, which is nice. I personally think Unbreakable is his best movie to date (I have my reasons), but Lady in the Water is my fave. (And The Ilusionist is in our Netflix queue!)
I agree and I think I like this one more partly because there was so much hype around The Sixth Sense and the rest have been more low-key. I love Unbreakable too, though John wasn't as much of a fan. I think it was partly the music for me on that one, and I loved the way they did the opening credits. Anyway. I'm a big M. Knight fan, I'm just sorry there's no upcoming movies listed for him on IMDB! Let me know you think of The Illusionist. We may rent The Presige in th next month or two to see how they compare.
I liked The Prestige... It's kind of confusing at first, but like the Illusionist, once you figure out what's going on, it's kind of cool!
Anyway, I will have to put Lady in the Water in my Netflix queue. M. Knight's movies are always a little disappointing to me at first, but once I think about them, and watch them a 2nd time, I like them a little bit better.
Okay, so I had to find this post to comment again:
We watched The Illusionist this weekend, and The Prestige last weekend (or was it the weekend before that?), anyway, I found The Illusionist much more to my liking. The Prestige was dark and left some questions unanswered (especially the feasibility of it all). Brian and I were eating through the "love scene", and it was kinda jumbled anyway (weird angles and cuts), so I didn't find it uncomfortable (though I DID think it rather odd that she JUST ran back into him and they're hopping into bed, but whatever). I didn't think that the part at the beginning where they show the bit from the end really did anything. Just tell the story. But I really liked it. *nods nods*