Back to the films
Short Reviews
South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut
One for the kids! Bring Grandma too.... The film version of America's Most Potty-mouthed Cartoon had surprisingly a lot going on it it, and managed to skewer just about everything and everyone the media keeps telling us we hold dear, from Mothers Against Bad Things (drunk driving, drugs, etc.) to Friendly Relations With Our Neighbors Up North (Canada, for the geographically-impaired). It even had an actual plot with something resembling cohesiveness, an attribute notably lacking in many of today's movies. My favorite scene: the Canadian Air Force blows up the Baldwin brothers in their Hollywood manse, just because they can.
The Thomas Crown Affair
This film did have a lot of plot going for it, as well as great looking actors and gorgeous outfits. And the heroine was at least not a young, sexy babe, but an older, sexy babe. Pierce Brosnan was low-key and laid-back as the larceny-dabbling millionaire, and I finally got to see Dennis Leary in one of his acting roles. This is a remake of the sort of movie that I have never really cared for - amoral (or barely-moral) and wealthy characters engaging in criminal behavior for what appear to be the slightest of reasons (they're bored, lonely...) I never understood the appeal of seeing Rich Young (or middle-aged) Things tweaking "the Establishment" by going on "cute" crime sprees. So despite the pleasant pace of the movie (the plot twisted and turned engagingly enough and the scenes weren't held too long) I was squirming in my seat, and despite the attractiveness of Brosnan's and Russo's characters my sympathies were with Dennis Leary's weary police investigator, who rightly gave off the air of having more necessary things to do than to chase after a silly painting.
Mickey Blue Eyes
This movie was kept from being absolutely lighter than air by the character of the mobster Uncle Vito (I think - all movie-mobster names sound the same to me) played by Burt Young. Instead of his sinister performance throwing the film off, it actually seemed to balance it, adding some necessary seriousness to the odd love affair between Hugh Grant's character and the mobster's inexplicably goody-two-shoed daughter (she teaches in an inner-city high-school, lives in a cute row house in some cute district in New York wherever they have such things, dresses dreadfully half the time to show she's impervious to the corruption of mafia-obtained wealth, and so on). Hugh Grant plays his usual bumbling-yet-ironically-aware-of-it character, and is as charming as ever. I don't know why people complained that there was no chemistry between he and his girlfriend, since they are hardly ever given any screen time together to be romantic. James Caan was unexpectedly funny as the mobster dad, and the performances of most of the other actors were at least competent (excellent in the case of the above-mentioned Burt Young). And any movie with Scott Thompson playing an FBI agent gets my thumbs-up.