Tag Archives: John Goodman

Argo

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argoThe story of the CIA agent who helped 6 (mostly very young) US diplomats get out of Iran in 1980. There are actually people out there, doing this kind of stuff.  Makes you kind of think your life is boring… but perhaps glad your life is boring.

I liked the tone of this – they didn’t overdo the drama, yet it was dramatic all the same. We all know what happens, but we’re still worried for the characters. I have to wonder how this movie would play back in Iran though. What would the people there today think of it?  The diplomats didn’t really commit any crime, so it’s not like they really got away with anything. In fact, if they’d given themselves up, they would probably have been released a number of months later, along with the rest of the hostages (of course, they didn’t know this at the time). So, at the end, is all we can do shrug our shoulders?

The Artist

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Wow. It takes real imagination, dedication, and plain old balls to execute a movie like this. The novelty of the silence could have come off like a gimmick, but instead it was like seeing a painting that makes liberal use of a long lost color to great effect. I figured I would like this, but I was surprised at how much I liked it. Even the main plot line was a bit predictable, but it almost had to be. If it hadn’t been, it would have felt like cheating.

One thing though, I found it interesting that this movie used a lot of modern directorial concepts – just the camera angles, the editing, etc… these things would not have existed at the time of the movie… and I found myself thinking about this too much. But, maybe that’s just me. If it’d been done in a 1920’s style, that would have stuck-out too, so I suppose I’d rather have it as it was.

I wonder what a 1930’s audience would have thought of this.

Barton Fink

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I don’t remember much about this movie’s actual plot… something about a writer, and John Goodman is the devil or something.  I do remember that I liked it though.  It had some really neat stuff in it.  I just wish I could remember what it was actually about.  Maybe I’ll see it again someday.

Speed Racer

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Is it ok if I admit that I sort of liked this? It had style, and echoed the original cartoon really well. I think that most people who saw it weren’t overly familiar with the source material though, and a lot of the movie was lost on them. My only complaint was that it could have been “darker”. They could have taken the source material, and just gotten wicked with it: blood, sex, violence, etc. But, I know that’s not a realistic expectation. The thing is that I think it’d have worked a lot better that way. All the fans of the original are adults now, so why make this into a kids movie? Perhaps that’s where the movie fell short – it was too “grown-up” for kids, and to childish for grown-ups.