Movies, Movies, Movies

This weekend I saw The Departed, Music and Lyrics and Ghost Rider.

The Departed

Finally, rented this on DVD. Can't believe I missed two theater runs of this one.

Stop reading now - SPOILER --

Stopped? Ok.

Cops and Robbers. Everybody dies.

Scorsese should have won the Oscar for Gangs of New York.

Music and Lyrics

This soft, innocuous bit of fluff was still fun, generated genuine laughs and most of the audience left with silly grins on their faces. What's wrong with that?

Ghost Rider -- (some spoilers)

Ok, this one is getting bashed all over, pro movie reviews, screenwriting boards, and yet ...

I liked it.

It's definitely a boy movie. Little boys (about 9 years old), teenage boys and those twenty-something slacker boys.

Really, single girls want to know where all the boys are? Go to a comic book movie. (Except possibly Spiderman, where the audience is all the girls looking at Tobey.)

Anyway, the effects are cool(ish), not awesome as in Pan's Labyrinth, but neat.

Nic Cage's sincere, energetic, all-out acting style is perfect for a guy being turned into Fire. And just when one might think all the scenery's been chewed, Cage does something so subtle, it kills any preformed smirk.

He's about to reveal to his old girlfriend, what's wrong with his life. He looks at her earnestly, sincerely, and says, "I sold my soul to the Devil." And s l o w l y raises one eyebrow. In boy movie parlance, Sweet.

And the scene where Sam Elliot's character and Nic's character head toward the final showdown and the soundtrack fades up Ghost Riders in the Sky. Ok, sue me. It was way cool.

I followed one long thread on a screenwriting board about the stupid state of Hollywood and how bad GR is and brother, they are missing the point.

The audience enjoyed this movie. And that's what it's about.