What I'm watching:
Gran Torino: Clint Eastwood tells a bunch of pesky Hmong kids to get off his lawn. It's nice to see a movie that acknowledges what happened to the Hmong when we left Vietnam. Maybe someday we'll see something about the Montagnards.
I didn't watch this movie before because a reviewer I trusted hated it. She said it was about a racist who changes too fast and too conveniently. After watching it I'd have to disagree about Eastwood's character's racism. He is a misanthrope, and prejudiced, but I don't think the character ever came across as an out and out racist. He uses a lot of interesting words (for a Polack person of polish ancestry) but ultimately his character never judges anyone by anything but their actions. He might have been annoyed by his Hmong neighbors not taking care of their houses, but when he gets to know them a little, he understands then that they don't have the skills or the money. It's a better movie than I expected.
Hot Fuzz: I was talking with Ed this morning and I said that the idiots that make those horrible spoof movies, like Epic Movie and Not Another Teen Movie need to sit down and watch this terrific satire / hommage of bad action movies about a thousand times before they are allowed anywhere near cameras again.
It was made by the same group of folks that made Shaun of the Dead and it's about a London supercop (Simon Pegg) who gets promoted to Sargeant and is transferred to a country village because he's making the rest of the force, I mean service, look bad. It touches every single bad action movie trope you can think of: the by-the-book cop / slob cop mismatched buddy team, the budding bromance that borders on gay (there's a reason Point Break is referenced several times), over-the-top gun battles, gratuitous gore, four or five fakeout endings, and of course the completely rediculous plot. And best of all, this movie is a love-letter to action movies like Shaun of the Dead loves zombie movies.
I may need to buy me a copy of Hot Fuzz. Just talking about it makes me want to see it again.
A Word From the Boss
8 years ago
2 comments:
A love letter to action movies - that's it exactly. I watched it about a week ago, and I LOVED it. I felt like it was the first comedy I'd seen in ages that wasn't stupid (or that didn't think I was stupid). I want to see it again, now, too!
I'll have to check out the action movie spoof. (I'd been staying away from that type of deal for the same basic reasons you stated.) 'Shawn of the Dead' was pretty funny, so I'll go with your recommendation.
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