Tag Archives: 1990’s

#263- Trainspotting

Quick recap: Don’t do drugs, kids. Unless you don’t mind swimming through the dirtiest toilets in Scotland and watching dead babies crawl on your ceiling. If that’s your thing though, you do you.

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Fun (?) fact: The title Trainspotting comes from the fact that it is an unusual hobby and only people who do it truly understand what it is, much like heroin.

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Even playing a character addicted to heroin, I still love Ewan.

My thoughts: I’ve loved Trainspotting for a long time, having first watched it in high school many years ago. Back then I was drawn to it solely because Ewan Mcgregor was the star and that he had a nude scene. Now,however, I appreciate this movie on different levels, one of them still being Ewan Mcgregor.

Watching Trainspotting this time around, it was the soundtrack that got to me most. The songs are perfectly chosen and create an emotional depth I hadn’t noticed in previous viewings.My favorite scene is when Renton (Ewan’s character) overdoses and ‘falls’ through the carpet. It’s very difficult to describe if you haven’t seen it, but the perspective on the screen is what he would see if he were laying in a grave. As the audience watches the trip to the emergency room and injection that brings him back to life, Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’ is playing and it is so haunting to watch.

As I looked up trivia for the film, I saw that there are people who think the movie glorifies drug use and director Danny Boyle should’ve done more to show the consequences of what happens when you get addicted to heroin. It’s kind of a stupid argument because I think the film was realistic to what really goes on. Spud was sent to prison, Sick Boy’s child died, Tommy contracted AIDS and Renton pretty much got off without too much lasting damage. That’s life. Drugs are a gamble. Many people waste their life but that would be a life to say that it ruins EVERYONE. Plus, it’s not Danny Boyle’s job, unless he worked for DARE or something. All the same, it certainly didn’t make me want to go out and score a hit, mainly because I don’t like the sight of blood. Whatever works, you know?

Final review: 5/5.

Up next: Beverly Hills Cop

 

 

 

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#250- The Crying Game

Quick recap: A man befriends a soldier, Jody, who he is holding hostage. After Jody dies, Fergus starts up a relationship with the dead man’s girlfriend. Yes, this is the movie with the surprise penis.

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The only other movie I remember seeing with Forest Whitaker is Last King of Scotland. This was definitely a departure.

Fun (?) fact: In his review of the film, Richard Corliss gave away the twist by spelling out ‘she is a he’, using the first letter of each paragraph.

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WHY ARE THEY WALKING BACKWARDS IN THIS GIF?

My thoughts: Holy trainwreck, Batman! This was a mess of a movie, and I don’t mean it in the ‘hot mess’ way. This was just straight up messy. I knew about the ‘twist’ before watching so I was expecting some controversy. What I didn’t know was just how many issues this film tried to deal with. Here is a (very) incomplete list:

  • racism
  • the Irish Liberation Army
  • being transgender vs crossdressing
  • homosexuality
  • grief over the loss of a loved one
  • surviving a bad hairstyle

I don’t have a problem with an issue oriented film, but it just felt like it was being pulled in too many directions. The reveal of Dil being a man was actually the least complicated part of the whole movie. I still don’t really get what was going on between her and Fergus because he literally threw up when he saw her undressed but then continued to see her. I guess it’s sweet that he cared for her? But he also still cringed when he had to kiss her, so I don’t know.

It was very obvious to me that Dil was a man and although it was supposed to be tragic, I found myself laughing  when Fergus went back to the bar they met at and realized everyone was in drag.

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The best part of the movie was, of course, Jim Broadbent. He had a small role as bartender but he was wonderful. I loved that he took care of Dil and wanted to protect her. I also loved the scene where he was singing along to one of the songs because it reminded me of Moulin Rouge. Then again, almost everything reminds me of Moulin Rouge so maybe it wasn’t so special, after all.

Final review: 2/5. Just a mess all over.

Up next: The Awful Truth

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#242- Once Upon a Time in China

Quick recap: It’s about Imperialism! FINALLY. That’s been my go to response for classic literature since high school and now finally, I’m right. Also, there’s a bunch of fighting. 

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If I tried this, I would just end up setting myself on fire or something

Fun (?) fact: Jet-Li’s voice had to be dubbed over because he speaks Mandarin, not Cantonese.

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If you like Piña Coladas and doing Tai-Chi on the beach….

My thoughts: My experience with Martial arts consists of a solitary Tae Kwon Do class I took back in college. I’ve never been athletically inclined and this class put that fact in the spotlight.One time, my partner wasn’t there so the teacher practiced with me. I had practiced outside of class and when I asked him if I was doing the move right, he shook his head sadly and walked away. Some might call that unprofessional but I’m afraid that if he encouraged me, I might’ve ended up accidentally killing someone while attempting a roundhouse kick. He was right to do it.

There’s definitely a plot in Once Upon a Time in China, but good luck trying to figure it all out. I watched with my husband, who knows these kinds of movies and I’m surprised he didn’t pack his things and move out because of all the times I kept asking who the bad guys were.  From what I gather, there is the hero Wong Fei Hung, who is in several of these movies and I think he is the leader of a group of guys who fight for good. There’s a bad-ish gang as well as another bad guy who I don’t think is associated with anyone else. And then there are the British and Americans, who are taking the Chinese and selling them into slavery. Basically, everyone fights everyone at some point in the film and I think that’s all you really need to know to get by.

The fighting scenes were impressive, even though there were a lot of wires used. I don’t get the hatred some people have for special effects like this. These are the same people who go to museums and complain that they could’ve created the same kind of art and sold it for millions of dollars. Yeah, you could’ve buddy, but you didn’t. Any kind of fighting requires physical stamina that most people don’t have. They don’t just strap you to wires and leave you to fly around, looking flawless. I was also impressed with the humor used during the fight scenes. There was plenty of graphic violence to go around, but a lot of the fighting looked like the 3 Stooges.

Final review: 2/5. Enjoyable, but not really my thing. My opinion might change with more opportunities to watch this genre, though.

Up next: Rio Bravo or E.T

 

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#240- Run Lola Run

Quick recap: Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks before her boyfriend is found and killed by the mob.

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Run Lola run!

Fun (?) fact: There are many spirals in the film because director Tom Tykwer loves the movie Vertigo.

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My thoughts: I find it a little weird to 1) have two movies with Lola in the title on one list and 2) to have watched both films unintentionally so close to each other. Whereas the first Lola I watched a couple of weeks ago was sweet and sad, this Lola is spunky (you can tell because of the red hair) and much more resourceful than her counterpart. This Lola would laugh at the thought of sitting around waiting for her love to return. I highly doubt Other Lola did any running at all, and if she did,it certainly wasn’t to save anyone from being murdered. Get it together, Other Lola, or should I say Lesser Lola?

What the movie lacks in plot, it more than makes up for visually. There is so much to take in that it becomes overwhelming at times, and it was difficult for my mind to figure out what I was supposed to be paying attention to. There seem to be a lot of clues hidden throughout the movie, although I never could figure out what they meant.There are actually three different scenarios Lola goes through as she tries to find a way to save her boyfriend and I kept trying to figure out which was the ‘real’ scenario.In the end, I had to tell myself that this isn’t Memento and maybe I should stop analyzing what might not even exist. Run Lola Run works best if you think of it like a live action video game. With each ‘death’, the character learns what not to do and how to make it to the end successfully.

One aspect that I did manage to pick up on was how everyone’s lives intersected with each other in some way. Many of the meetings fall in to the ‘butterfly affect’ philosophy, with the idea that merely brushing into someone can drastically change the entire course of their life. The film also relies heavily on the concept of time- that being one second early or one second late can also have major consequences. It was interesting to see this played out, although I don’t think the idea itself is all that complicated. Many people attribute things happening to fate when really, it all boils down to being in the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time.

Final review: 4/5. The movie is a lot of fun and I recommend checking it out if you haven’t before.

Up next: Good Bye Lenin!

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