Movie Talk

Time to catch up on movies I've seen lately, which admittedly is a lot fewer than it used to be. You may notice that there's any almost psychotic range of styles represented here. I can't explain why other than to say I might be almost psychotic.

X-Men: The Last Stand -- Surprisingly, this movie doesn't have the numeral 3 in it, but it has just about everything else, including cars being lit on fire and used as projectiles. Along with my buddies at Filmspotting, I liked it, but I also had questions: Why doesn't Magneto just use his powers to rip Wolverine in half? Why does Professor X turn over the school to Storm of all people? Why is Beast so boring? Still, you couldn't pick a better movie to see on a perfect spring afternoon while on vacation.

Robots -- Check out this list of celebrities who did voices: Paula Abdul, Halle Berry, Terry Bradshaw, Jim Broadbent, Mel Brooks, Amanda Bynes, Drew Carey, Jennifer Coolidge, Paul Giamatti, Dan Hedaya, James Earl Jones, Greg Kinnear, Jay Leno, Natasha Lyonne, Ewan McGregor, Al Roker, Stanley Tucci, Dianne Wiest and Robin Williams. And yet none of them noticed that it's freaking boring. Without the way cool character design, this thing's got nothing.

The Story of the Weeping Camel -- I told you there was a wide range, didn't I? This documentary-style drama is unlike anything I've ever seen, and it's also unlike the movies I usually like. Normally, I want movies to be tightly-edited (Coen Brothers-style, not Michael Bay-style), but here's a movie where basically nothing happens during its 90 minutes and you're still intrigued. It all comes down to what will happen to the all-white calf of camel that has rejected its offspring. That's it. Enjoy.

Kids -- I was expecting a lot more. Anyone watching in 1995 remembers that this was supposedly a dark vision of America's youth that scared a lot of people and got some crazy media hype. Watching now, it's just a story of all the hedonistic things that some kids do in their lifetimes compressed into 24 hours. There's no plot other than one HIV-positive kid's quest to bed (and infect) yet another virgin. Definitely not well-acted, but a decent script and a truly fucked-up view of young people.

Hustle & Flow -- This was playing at Sundance in 2005 when I was there, and the buzz was overwhelming. But having finally seen it, I can't fathom the reaction. Who can possibly care whether this one pimp gets out of his crummy life by recording a rap demo? Sorry, but I really can't get much sympathy going for a pimp. The more I think about it, the only explanation for the buzz at the time is that the Hollywood agents who crawl all over Sundance sympathized on some genetic level with a guy who sells other people for money.

The Matador -- Yet another Sundance debut that I missed then, but caught when it came around to the fuck-a-buck in Charlotte. Good but not great. Pierce Brosnan playing seedy is the best part of the story, and Greg Kinnear is forgettable (just as he was in Robots). Worth a rental.