Whaddaya Know?

Well now, work and play as it is, i've been too harried to put up a post, but here comes another!

Vanilla sky is a Tom Cruise movie of a genre near and dear to my heart: Weird thinky movie. I rate this movie Good/ Great.

In this movie, like with others of its kind, not is all as it seems. Tom Cruise is a millionare/ billionare playboy, running the magazine "Bikini" between hitting on women, sleeping til late in the day and doing whatever pops into his head to do that day.

Penelope Cruz, Jason Lee, and Cameron Diaz are main characters in this film, who are, as follows: Sofia, the love interest of Tom Cruise and Jason Lee; Brian Shelby, the best friend of Tom Cruise, and a long suffering friend he is, as David Aames (Tom Cruise) consistantly steals away any woman he is interested in; Julie Gianni, an extremely troubled girl who, to David, is a (in far cruder words) "bed friend", and in her mind, is a devout lover, and someone who should marry him.

Other famous actors play large and small parts in the film, populating the screen with well known faces, and lending their expertise and skill to the rendering of a spectacular film.

All is going well in David Aames' world, till Julie Gianni decides that if she cannot have him, nobody can, and coerces him into her car which she then proceeds to drive off a bridge into a stone retaining wall.

Julie is killed, and David is maimed, scarred, and disfigured, which causes him a great deal of pain due to his vanity. He is offered a "facial prosthetic" by his plastic surgeons, which is a plastic/elastic/rubber copy of his face before the "accident". David, furious, demands that they fix his face by inventing surgeries, but will keep the prosthetic for halloween.

The story is told to us by a Tom Cruise who is masked and in a prison jumpsuit, talking to a court appointed psychaitrist. David Aames is accused of murdering Sofia Serrano, but he denies it strenuously, claiming that she is still alive, and that the board of directors at his magazine have set him up. The story is the story of his memories, told almost episodically, as the psychaiatrist probes for information, trying to get all the facts, and to see what, if anything, David has blocked from his memory.

The story only gets weirder, more exciting, and just darn fun from here on, but as this is a "wierd thinky movie" any more explanation would be plain ol spoilers, so go watch it!

I leave you with a thought: Who was the true enemy, the MAIN enemy in Final Fantasy VII? Sephiroth, or Jenova?

For those of you unfamiliar with FFVII, a quote: "I killed a man with a TRIDENT!"

Tommy

So, Im back!

I watched Burn After Reading the other day, and my rating of it is Good/Great.

This movie is hard to rate, as it is hard to describe without revealing plot points. The movie revolves around a few characters, John Malkovich who plays Osbourne Cox, an ex CIA agent, Brad Pitt who plays Chad Feldheimer, a personal trainer at a gym, Frances McDormand who plays Linda Litzke, another employee at the gym, and George Clooney as Henry Pfarrer, who is an agent of the treasury.

This movie is the movie of an accidental conspiricy, revolving around the characters of Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand trying to sell a data cd that contains what they believe to be classified government intelligence. Brad Pitt's character is an overall outright doofus, and Frances Mcdormand's character is very insecure and very greedy.

Burn After Reading left me feeling bemused, because, just like the characters, you are clueless as to what is happening until it happens. This movie is a monument to modern day paranoia, as the characters all believe that the government is trying to get them, as they enact what seems to be a spy movie done by amatures. This movie brings to mind another movie which it seems to share some premise, The Man Who Knew Too Little. In The Man, Bill Murray believes he is in a improv spy play, but he really has stumbled upon a conspiricy. Burn After, however, is the polar opposite, where the characters believe they have found a conspiricy, but actually havent.

The facial expressions as well as the dialogue, had an enormous comedic effect on me, though it is more a humor of the silly and ridiculous than straight up comedy. I watched this whole movie grinning, albeit with a bemused expression to add to it, due to the "What Next" type of flow this movie has. This movie, though containing little slapstick, has an aura of slapstick style comedy to me.

Though this movie jumps around, and surprises you from left to right, the ending ties it up well, and i believe that it is the only ending i can imagine occuring for such a movie. The acting was supurb in every way, the characters being realistic (if in an unrealisticly paranoid state), they way they interacted, and all the minutiae coming together to make a Great, though weird, film.

Last thought: I can see this movie becoming a cult classic, because it isnt really a mainstream style movie, but it is great in all the ways that matter to me.

Well, Im off to see the Wizard

Tommy

(If your mind didnt automatically say "the wonderful wizard of oz", i am saddened :-P)