Email
Print
del.icio.us
digg
yahoo!
Comments
FeedPete's weekend movie roundup: German neo-noir, Livermore's new art house cinema, When Harry Met Bruno
Harry Potter is the toast of the town this weekend—bit there's still lots to see, including a cool update on the Postman Always Rings Twice.
Happy July 17th weekend, kids!
NEXT STOP POTTER-VILLE There's a lot of buzz about the new Harry Potter movie that's just raking in the bucks at the box office ($104 million worldwide on Wednesday!)—and the good news is the movie rocks. I think the best Potter flicks are still chapters 3 and 4, when Harry got his PG-13 on and Voldemort started showing off his nose job. Chapter 6 is almost as good, and it's an absolutely gorgeous film to look at.
THE BRIEFTRÄGER ALWAYS RINGS ZWEIMAL If you're not into 2.5 hours of magic and wizards, here's an under the radar recommendation: Check out the special release of Jerichow, a 2008 film from Germany that's a thoughtful update of the gret James M. Cain noir novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice. Postman has been made by Hollywood twice, the superior John Garfield version from 1946 and the Jack Nicholson remake from 1981. Both are worth watching, but both run too long, which I found surprising because Cain's novel is paper-thin. Jerichow updates the post-depression potboiler and relocates it to Northeast Germany, bringing in some interesting cultural/immigration issues into its character development. Best of all, this 89-minute film is taut, tense, and leads to an amazing final shot. It's a real gem and is playing at the Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley and the Lumiere in San Francisco. If you check it out, post a comment here to let us know what you thought!
BRUNO! This one opened last Friday, but I didn't have a chance to see it until the weekend. I have to admit that a few of Sacha Baron Cohen's gags made me laugh so hard that I couldn't breathe, so I have to say thumbs up. With that in mind, there's some cheap-shottery going on here that I found a little sad, particulary a sequence in whcih Bruno gets parents to say that they will let their infant children to do horrible things in order to cast them in commercials. Some of these people did not seem like the vapid vanity seekers the filmmakers would like us to laugh at, but sad, somewhat desperate people. So shame on them for fairly cruel exploitation. But the big laughs more than made up for the winces.
THE VINE GOES ART HOUSE Beginning July 17, the cozy Vine Vinema on First Street in Livermore is going to feature those indie and art-house movies that never show in the big, loud multiplexes. Sam Mendes' quirky road trip movie Away We Go and the documentary Food Inc., are the first two movies. They will still offer free family movies at noon every day, this week, it's the amusing Madagascar 2.
 |
|  |
Posted at 10:35 AM in Pete's Popcorn Picks | Permalink
Reader Comments:
Interesting. I thought the best, most effective part of Bruno was the scene with the parents. Some of the other targets he took on were too easy, but those parents weren't forced to be there. You can be sad and desperate and still not say you'd put your kid in that position. I laughed a lot, but overall, I didn't think it pushed as many buttons as Borat did.