At The Movies

Been catching up on movies this past week. Finally saw Murderball; the Oscar nominated documentary on quadriplegic rugby. It is a great flick - funny and moving. It tracks a few different players and coaches for years. This should have won the Academy Award (in my humble opinion). March of the Penguinswas a good documentary and all, but I always thought it was a very traditional nature documentary. Take a standard animal story, throw in a Morgan Freeman voice over and market the Hell out of it. I'd rather learn about interesting people like in Murderball, or even Grizzly Man, than an interesting penguin.

Also watched The Island, the Michael Bay action flick that bombed in the theaters last summer, but whose basic idea I always thought was cool. The idea of clones not knowing that they are clones, and escaping. It was a lot of fun. At times it felt like nothing more than Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson running for hours - but overall fun and enjoyable.

Which I can't say for Fever Pitch. Lori and I were both horribly disappointed by this movie. I don't know why anyone who wasn't a Red Sox fan would even watch it. I thought it was pretty boring, and quite unfunny. Even the stuff at Fenway Park and with the Red Sox just felt very flat. Maybe if the Sox hadn't have won the World Series, it would have been a better film.

Yesterday we watched C.S.A., an independent film that is available OnDemand with cable and is in some theaters. IFC is doing this now with their new releases and I think it's awesome. For $6 we could watch a brand new movie instead of heading into an art house theater in Boston trying to see it. C.S.A. stands for The Confederate States of America, this fake documentary imagines the world if the South won the Civil War - er, I mean the War of Northern Aggression. It covers history right up until today and includes lots of fake commercials and promos within the movie. Bitingly funny, and scarily true at the same time.

Finally, today we actually went to the theater and saw Inside Man. I can't remember going to the theater since King Kong opened. Inside Man is very good; a traditional heist film with some twists, some New York humor, and a couple cool camera shots courtesy of director Spike Lee. I was most interested in the film because it was written by a first time screen writer. This was his first completed script, and it was sold and produced. That is quite a feat, one that I am trying to accomplish as well.