I eventually decided to hold off Marathon Man until later this week, because I didn't get any other movie at the library, so here is a short (and rather late) movie post. Hooray!
In Bruges (2008): When I first heard about this, most of the praise related how funny it is, but some also mentioned the overall serious nature of the plot, so I prepared myself for that before watching. In Bruges really is very funny, and I like how subtly the more serious parts of the movie are handled. I think the movie actually has to be handled that way, or else the ending might be a bit too heavy to handle. But, yeah, it is good, funny and interesting in how it looks at a distinct moral code among a group of gangsters. Colin Farrell is pretty good, mainly because he gets to be a wisecracking Irishman, Brendan Gleeson is very good as Farrell's mentor and Ralph Fiennes is fun as an angry gang leader.
The Bank Dick (1940): I needs moar W.C. Fields. His character -- a drunken, browbeaten misanthrope -- is one that would be funny in any era. I like that the plot basically hangs by a thread the entire movie and only works because it is so damn funny. It floats from point to point and is about Fields' character, Edgar Sousé, interacting with the town as he tries to get some respect. He stumbles into highly improbable, utterly unrealistic situations, which only makes them funnier, because there is no way Sousé would ever be able to do these things in reality. Furthermore, I am stunned that some of the material in this movie actually made it to screen considering the Hays Code was in full force at this time. (One major plot point hinges on Sousé getting a bank inspector drunk, for instance. And I mean full-on, sick to his stomach drunk.) I don't know how Fields did it, but more power to him.
On the queue for this week: Marathon Man (1976)
Total movies: Total Movies: 41 (Gaslight, The Last King of Scotland, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Darjeeling Limited, This Film is Not Yet Rated, Diary of the Dead, Bullets Over Broadway, Interiors, Husbands and Wives, The Professional: Golgo 13, Lars and the Real Girl, Lolita, Quills, Hamlet, Iris, Manhattan Murder Mystery, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, The Savages, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Stranger, Love and Death, Harold and Maude, Spartacus, Scarlet Street, Sabrina, Zelig, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), Stardust Memories, Barry Lyndon, Be Kind Rewind, Radio Days, Deconstructing Harry, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Creating Rem Lazar, Undefeatable, Ninja Terminator, Ninja Dragon, Rumble Fish, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, In Bruges, The Bank Dick)
