C.B. Murphy  .:. Movies

Thankfully I live in world half ignorant of media. I miss a lot of things, occasionally I follow a thread to some discovery only to realize that only three million people watched this. Ah, so. and So it goes.

This was my experience with JFC (John From Cincinnati.) Wikipedia could fill in some of the blanks, but after my experience of “discovering” the show I didn’t want to read what other people had said about it. I had been looking for a new series to watch on DVD. I am in the middle of the (5th?) season of THE WIRE, which I love, but THE WIRE is tough for me to sustain an interest in. Why? It’s so realistic, it’s depressing. I’ve heard the authors are liberal guys, but where is the hope? Damn. It paints a picture of corruption and human frailty that makes every character an anti-hero. Bare bones comic relief. Mostly just hardcore living in a world of greed, betrayal and failure. It’s just something I’m always prepared to watch and call it fun.

I’m waiting for the next season of BREAKING BAD to come out on DVD, as it hasn’t reached the addictive stage where I have to download it from iTunes, like I do for MAD MEN and LOST. Yes, I confess. I love BREAKING BAD, but again, it’s pretty damn dark. A guy with terminal cancer, with a pregnant wife and no money decides to supplement his high school chemistry teacher salary by becoming an (excellent) meth cooker. I can’t even make that sound light by telling saying there are tons of fun, quirky characters. Dark, dark, dark. Read More »

I can’t understand why this movie “wastes” the amazing performance of Mr. Day Lewis on a script that is relentless, predictable, and completely unredeeming as satisfying fiction. It’s very close to being a good (possible excellent) movie, but its faults–no change in the character from beginning to end, undeveloped secondary characters, no climax, no resolution–make is seem like someone (who? the writers? director?) was in a hurry to show the EVILS of OIL. “Oil” obviously is the only plot that makes sense: it’s evil, and it makes you evil if you try to make money on it. I smell global warming funding.

I’m a Shrek fan, perhaps not the most enthusiastic in the world, but a fan nonetheless. I value the good laughs I got mainly from Shrek II, but I value them more because I could enjoy them with my entire family. That’s rare for us. I’m also a fan of THE OFFICE. We’ve been downloading the third season of The Office and my two sons and I have been watching them around the computer.

IMDB.COM REVIEW

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Hot Fuzz

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A deeply misunderstood and underrated film, including me the first time I watched it. Sure, it has some gimmicky stuff and sure, magical realism isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but the voudoo stuff is fairly accurate and that’s saying a lot for Hollywood. Angel Heart

I wish my ex-techie, Rob, who moved to North Carolina hadn’t told me there were Lebowski festivals. So often I am hurt (irrationally) by the knowledge that others enjoy what I enjoy. It has something to do with thinking Shackleton understood life but his lesson was too horrible to take seriously. A flawless film. Flawless. The Big Lebowski

If quirkiness were a religion, this guy would be pope. No, he’d be like Ayatollah. No, maybe Che Guevera. Yeah, if Che Guevera was the pope of a religion of eccentrics and made a movie about how the brain works, well, this would be it. See it in its original language, though the Mandarin subtitles might be distracting. Being John Malkovich

Watch it over and over. Watch it in reverse. Watch it while you sleep. It’s a perfect loop and you can get trapped in it;, people have actually been sucked up into the screen and have become characters. Make sure you eat something while you watch it, then this won’t happen to you. Memento

Speaking of culture clash, here we have it again. Am I saying that too much? This one using James Whale a real-life director of B horror films, his hunky gardener he has a thing for and, well, Frankenstein. I don’t want to ruin it for you. Gods and Monsters

Don’t see this with your kids, like many of my recommendations, come to think of it. But for obsessiveness and irrationality of lust? Whoa, dude. Did I just say that? Intimacy