REVIEWS! Appaloosa (2008), House (2008), Ping Pong Playa (2007)

Appaloosa is an Ed Harris project (he directed, co-wrote, and acted in it) and let me tell ya - it's good. Ed Harris has been one of my favorite actors for a long time, he's just one of those actors who is good in whatever role he is in. He's a hell of a director as well. Appaloosa is a modern character study Western - a meditation on friendship, loyalty, and how doing the right thing is never the easiest thing. Sounds trite but it works. It's a gorgeous movie that is a little slow but worth sitting though. I will add this to my modern Western collection when I see it on sale.

House (2008) is not a remake of the 1986 Steve Miner movie with the classic tagline, "Ding Dong. You're Dead." It's a straight to DVD hunk of confused genre junk with Michael Madsen as the twitchy bad guy. Nice to see Mr. Madsen has lost his creepy bloat - must have laid off the sauce - and can still play a convincing spooky lunatic. House is an example of why it's not a good idea to throw everything into the pot and hope for the best. Is it a haunted house movie? Is it a vengeful spirit? Is it Satan, perhaps? Creepy hillbillies? Couples in need of counselling? C'mon...Amanda and I were bored simply because we got tired of trying to figure out what the hell was going on in this confused mess. Skip. Avoid. Gong.

The real surprise was Jessica Yu's "Ping Pong Playa". Basically the story of a Chinese-American guy -Chris - who wants to be a basketball star but he sucks at basketball. His family is deeply involved with ping pong - Chris doesn't want anything to do with ping pong but gets stuck subteaching his Mom's ping pong class. A loveable loser story who teaches kids to be kids, learns to embrace his heritage, and learns he sucks at basketball. Ping Pong Playa was extremely enjoyable and funnier than any of the Jack Black vehicles I've seen. It just worked from start to finish. Plus it has the song by The Chops, "I Love Cereal" - my new make me happy song.

Dead Ringers (1988) Dir. David Cronenberg

Amanda and I decided to watch this because, well, sometimes a David Cronenberg movie just kind of hits the spot. Personally, I'm a Videodrome kind of guy but I figured what the hell.

If you've never seen Dead Ringers here's the plot summary from imdb:

The Mantle brothers are both doctors - both gynecologists - and identical twins.
Mentally however, one of them is more confident than the other, and always
manages to seduce the women he meets. When he's tired of his current partner,
she is passed on to the other brother - without her knowing. Everything runs
smoothly, until an actress visits their clinic, and the shy brother is the first
to fall in love. Will they be able to 'share' her ?

Okay. Hmmm. Yeah. Well maybe there won't be a grotesque birth/licking scene like in The Brood right? Yeah.

I don't know if I can really recommend Dead Ringers. To anyone. Ever. It's not bad, per se, it's just kind of aimless and less Cronenberg-y than his other movies. Stick with Videodrome, at least Debbie Harry gets naked in that.

Brideshead Revisited...the movie?

Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited is one of my favorite books - Top 100. I am a fan of the BBC miniseries with Jeremy Irons. I really don't know if I could possibly enjoy the movie. There's simply too much going on in the book. Bah I say. Bah.