Ride the High Country (1962)

This one I wandered in on Joel watching. I've never seen a Sam Peckinpah western before now. Overall, I'm not a fan of westerns and this didn't change it. The film is about two aging gunslingers going on a trip for a bank (collecting gold). One is wholly honest while the other brings along a young gun in order to cheat the honest one. In the midst of things, they end up having to rescue and protect a girl from lecherous miners and having one last gun fight. It's fine but it's not my cup of tea. I just don't care about westerns. Not one bit.

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007)

I thought this movie looked cute in the previews but all of the critics hated it so I skipped it in favor of other films. But it's cute. As long as you can watch it for what it is, a cute magical fairy tale type story about a toy store, I think it's worth a watch. It's a coming-of-age story in a way. Natalie Portman's character is to inherit the toy store from Mr. Magorium but is uncertain of everything in her life. She's lost and has lost her belief that's she's worth something. So, inheriting the toy store is a test and affirmation for her because she is what must make the store magic. The story also include Jason Bateman as the accountant who must be taught to believe in magic at all and a little boy who needs to make friends in addition to Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman) who is over 200 years old and is about to "depart." The store also figures in as a character as it responds to being bequeathed to Portman. It has it's inane moments but overall it's just a fun story turned into a colorful little movie.

Paths of Glory (1957)

Damn the list. This is my 222nd movie from the list. I think that almost doubles what I had to begin with--a good amount for a year, I think (especially when I've seen loads of other movies). The list comes up with some great movies but, my god, some of them are just boring. Boring. Boring. Boring. I get the higher ideals of this one--war is run by men who don't actually participate in war creating a dichotomy that sacrifices the men actually fighting--but it's not interesting and it creates a false moral dilemma. Yes, the men who run the war are corrupt and selfish and stupid in many senses but the men who fight the war are no more equipped to run the war. Robert Osborne proffered that if everyone saw this film, no one would ever wage war again. That's just nonsense. It's simply not that simple and the men who wage the wars wouldn't think themselves represented in the film. They would only see corrupt versions of themselves instead of accurate portrayals and, in some cases, they would be right. Anyway, don't bother with it unless you find yourself trying to complete some list.

Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2003)

This is one that I like more the longer I'm away from it. Intellectually, I like this movie a lot. I like the references to a whole genre of films. I like the obvious music choices and the whole kitschy thing. But, while watching it, I was bored off my ass. Right, my ass, not Uma Thurman's ass--which I was very tired of seeing by the time the movie was over.

The Changeling (2008)

Normally, the longer I am away from a movie, the more I think it might have been ok if it was only so-so. Not so much with this one. The movie is about a mother whose son goes missing and is replaced with an impostor and the police who make the situation so much worse (and the one policeman who breaks the case). The film is gorgeous. I wish all of the clothes were in my closet. I am sorry for the mother. I dislike the policemen. I am sorry for all the other mothers and children. I bristle at the psych ward. But I don't really care. I love Jolie. I am a fan, in this film at least, of Malcovich. I like the Burn Notice guy who was the bad cop. I like Amy whosit from Gone Baby Gone. They all did a wonderful job of acting. But I don't care. Too much was thrown out with no real depth given to any of them. And I am so not a fan of Eastwood's faux-endings. I understand it's part of this story in a way but I feel he relies on them a tad too much and it just makes me tired of the whole thing by the time it ends. I'm sure it will be nominated for something. Might even win. But I don't care.

Amores Perros (2000)

Oh my. This one is heartbreaking. The basic idea is that a young guy needs money to save his brother's wife from her abusive marriage so he starts to dog fight his brother's rottweiler. Meanwhile, in a parallel plot, a young model is severely injured in a car accident which ultimately takes her leg just after her lover has left his wife for her. And, in the third plot, a semi-homeless hitman witnesses much of this and tries to reconnect with his daughter while struggling with his most recent hit assignment. The heartbreaking parts for me have nothing to do with the people but the dogs, of course. The fight scenes are horrifying. I'll never watch the film again. But the truly terrifying part is that the rottweiler, after being saved by the semi-homeless man and nursed back to health after a fight ended with a gun shot, does what he was taught to do and kills the semi-homeless man's pack of stray dogs. It's really really terrible. The poor dogs are dead but you can't be angry at the rottweiler because that's what the poor dog was taught to do. He was simply being loyal to the man who saved him. Ugh. It makes my heart hurt. The film is good. It's well done. It's important. But I can't recommend it because I can never watch it again.

Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith (2007)

Another Canongate myth. This one is cute--not brilliant but not bad at all. It's a retelling of the myth of Iphis. I wasn't familiar with this one but it made me want to read Ovid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphis). Smith, I think, also manages the most literal update of the series (that I've read so far) and it works well. The classic characters have one-to-one counterparts but Smith twists it just a bit while maintaining the original story which is intriguing. The basic plot is left unchanged but characters are added which splits the original story's relationship into two. A cute quick read with a feminist political yay! individuality and owning your sexuality and fluidity of identities bent.