Without fail, every time the Cap'n does a Year End Recap, I forget one movie that subsequently sticks out like a sore thumb. It was nearly Whatever Works, but I managed to sneak it in at the last second while working on the "Favorites". Astute readers have pointed out to me that I did completely forget about Taken, which was something we watched in lieu of a Doctor Who party earlier this year. I could use my "get out of jail free" card and point out that the rest of the world had Taken in 2008 (which prevented JCVD from making it onto the list), but since it was technically released here in January, I forgot it. Whoops.
For those curious, Taken would have fallen into the "Honorable Mentions" category. It's a breezy movie, one punctuated with some jarring violence, but not the sort of film that transcends "good action movie". It's more Lethal Weapon 2 than Leon. No offense intended.
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I'm not going to make a big deal of this, because the guy is a) an idiot, or b) some kind of comedy mastermind looking to take me down a peg, but "Grampa J" is at it again with his 2009 Best Of. I haven't laughed that hard in a while, so I recommend you scuttle on over to his blog, whoever he is, and take a gander for yourself. Any list that includes District 9, The Ugly Truth, Avatar, and Paul Blart: Mall Cop is one worth a chuckle.
Don't tell him I sent you. I don't want this dude getting any ideas.
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Coming tomorrow is a review for It Might Get Loud, the rock guitarist documentary from Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth). If you haven't heard of the film, the basic idea is to get Jack White, The Edge, and Jimmy Page together in a room and let them play. I suppose they also talk about their influences, etc, but the word on It Might Get Loud is very good.
So I can include the "Damn You Hippies" tag on this post, I watched Gimme Shelter last night, and those hippies got what was coming to them. I can just imagine Eric Cartman watching the Altamont footage and seething with anger.
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Finally, I'll briefly touch upon the Blu Ray release of Chasing Amy. I'm not really a fan of the film, so this is mostly about the supplements, which included two things I really wanted to check out: 1) a "12 years later" discussion between Kevin Smith and Joey Lauren Adams, who were an item prior to, during, and shortly after the film came to be. The conversation is interesting, but the first half is mostly dominated by Smith recounting how the couple came to be. Adams has some interesting comments towards the end about the problems she's had in Hollywood getting past the "girlfriend" role with casting directors.
2) was the SModcast commentary that replaces the Criterion laserdisc track (which famously began with Smith pronouncing "Fuck DVD!"). The new commentary track is, in fact, just another SModcast (part of Smith and Scott Mosier's long running podcasts), except that you'd have to pay roughly $30-40 to get it (the rest are free). They claim it to be a "technical" track, which is partially true, but more often than not it's like most SModcasts: they digress, laugh wildly at silly moments, and come up with crazy ideas.
The two that stand out the most involve an earlier version of the film that theoretically could have been called "Ass is Pussy", and Smith's idea to make a Chasing Amy Take Two with the entire cast twenty years later. Rather than a follow-up, he expresses an interest in simply shooting the same script with the same cast, but in the hopes his skills as a director have improved enough to do it justice.
For the record, I didn't watch the actual movie with its actual soundtrack, so I can't really give you a revisited opinion, but it did look much better than the Criterion dvd, and considerably better than the Clerks Blu-Ray. There's also a nice 80 minute documentary about the film with all the principle cast and crew, producers, Miramax execs, and critics involved, and a 10th Anniversary Q&A where Ben Affleck cuts loose again. I can't imagine Smith fans not picking this up, so it scarcely requires the Cap'n to recommend it.
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