Movie Reviews - Paris Je T'aime & Once

I had been adding a quick review on new movies I watched and with the holidays I got a bit behind. Here is a quick update.

Paris Je T'aime - 1.5 thumbs up

I didn't really know what I was getting into with this one and I think it negatively impacted my judgement and experience. It's a compilation of shorts by different directors and contains some big names and familir faces. I thought that they would all tie together at the end to have some overall meaning but they don't really. They all do make a comment on a different type of love.

At first I wasn't impressed. Some of the shorts seemed too far out there or just didn't make sense to me. But after letting it marinade for awhile I've decided that it's a decent film. Some of the shorts's meaning took a while to hit me. I will caution that it's a slow sort of film, best watched with friends of similar movie taste.

PS - I think the short I liked the most was titled Ana - you can watch it on YouTube - I especially love the lullabye and it's use.

Once - four thumbs up

Mom and I stumbled upon this one. We had a free rental at the devil's haven (aka blockbuster) and were looking for something new that we new the guys wouldn't want to watch with us since we had the night to ourselves. We gambled with Once - we figured it could be an undiscovered gem or soft porn...but it was free so why not?

We loved it! The disc was scratched so we went back to the store for a replacement just so we could finish it. We learned that it is a modern day take on a musical which means it's pretty much just one long music video. The cast is really talented and I found the songs to be very haunting. I love that the main characters are 'guy' and 'girl'...

Funny that we found out after the fact that everyone around us had already heard of the movie and wanted to see it so we're kind of on the forefront ^_- We watched all the speical features and found that the actors aren't professional actors but musicians that have been friends for a long time. The director wanted the performances to be peak rather than the acting. See a great ad for the movie here, it all makes sense after you've seen the film.

PS - I think that Glen Hansard would make a great 'Jack' in a Pillars of the Earth, if one was ever made.

The next two I didn't really watch whole heartedly so they don't get as big of a write up:

Fracture - 3 thumbs up.

This was one of Chris's picks. I was pulled away from the movie a few times so I didn't get as into it or see all of the plot twists. Chris was pleasantly surprised. He felt that the twists were creative but not hidden well enough.

Four Brothers - 1.5 thumbs up

This was another of Chris's. I worked on the comptuer while he watched this, so I really can't comment too much. I had some intense graphics and would definitely qualify as a 'shoot-em-up' movie.