B&C Movie Mania

Thought I'd share some movies I just watched, since they are all worth watching for one reason or another.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age is worth watching only if you like 1) Cate Blanchett's acting (she's good), 2) Clive Owen's hotness (he's hot as balls), and 3) period pieces (if you like pretty sets and costumes, this movie has them). Otherwise it was uneventful and unmemorable.

Be Kind Rewind is a nice diversion if you haven't been to the movies in a few weeks so you're jonesing for the theater and you realize that Vantage Point is supposed to be trifling and you don't want to sit through that. It's a nice, quirky, feel-good comedy. I love Mos Def, I think he's so cool in everything he does.

Sunshine. Like WOAH. This movie was frakking amazing. Really well-done, original sci-fi. Sure it was reminiscent of Alien, but still original. Tightly-paced, awesome visuals, great performances (even from the Human Torch, WTF?).

I can't talk about Gone Baby Gone without talking about the ending and so I'm going to do that under spoiler bars. It's difficult to watch, depressing -- it's about kidnapped and abused kids and depressed neighborhoods of Boston, what do you expect? I thought it was well directed and Casey Affleck and Amy Ryan are particularly good. But I got story issues, which can be reviewed if you highlight the text below. I give away the ending. You've been warned.

Long story short, the kidnapper is Morgan Freeman (Chief of Police whose daughter had been murdered years ago) with the assistance of some cops and the kid's uncle. They essentially decided that the Mom didn't care enough about the girl (true enough, she is a foul-mouthed, unsympathetic cokewhore) and that the girl would be better off being raised by Morgan Freeman and his wife. I have a real problem buying this - I just can't believe that the uncle, cops, and Morgan Freeman of all people would really do this. But, OK, let's say they did and I have to accept it. Ignoring that, I love the ending. Private detective Casey Affleck is the one who discovers this and has to decide - is the kid better off with Morgan Freeman, who has essentially stolen her, or with her cokewhore mother. He ends up having Morgan arrested and returning the kid to her mother. And the mother continues her general neglect of the girl. I still think that was the right call though, I mean, you can't just take a girl from her mother. Mike disagrees. It's a nice movie to debate afterwards.

In other words, the resolution of the kidnapping sucks but the moral dilemma it presents is really interesting.