Movies movies movies

Saw several movies this weekend.

We rented three movies:

Mean Machine
Mean Machine is based on 'The Longest Yard' and stars Vinnie Jones, the guy from 'The Transporter'. It's a British movie and although it was based on the same story as the American version, I know that any movie without Adam Sandler is better than any one with Adam Sandler.

Basically the movie centers around a soccer game between the cons & the guards. Danny Meehan (the main character) is an ex-soccer hero that is now in prison and he has to coach the cons. The movie is pretty funny and the humor is fast paced and not slapstick at all. I found that we had to rewind several scenes to catch the dialog since the jokes were fast & furious.

Even though they all speak intelligible English, I would suggest you turn the captions on anyways, so you won't miss the jokes. Very good movie.

Ohh and if you do rent it, you just HAVE to get a load of the governor's eyebrows! Can't believe that human eyebrows could look like that. After writing that last sentence, I did some research and I found this!!!

And more eyebrow humor!

East is East
Another British film. I thought this movie was going to be so-so but it turned out to be very good, better than Mean Machine. A Pakistani immigrant arrives in London and marries an English girl. Fast forward 25 years and we see the father of 6 boys & 1 girl try to raise his family in the traditional Pakistani way...even though they are in England, arranged marriages and all.

It was interesting to see Middle Easterners speak with a bloody English accent! The humor was not as biting as Mean Machine but it is a definite good rental prospect.

Triplets of Belleville(Les Triplettes de Belleville)
This was by far the BEST movie of the bunch! I accompanied Jeanne as she was taking a few journalists out and during a very solemn, boring dinner, I brought up the subject of foreign films. What do you know? They were all fans of foreign films and we traded best movies. The triplets was one of their recommendations. We went to the local foreign video store and rented it.

The movie is completely animated. Not quite American animation and not Japanese anime. Strange, yet very nice animation effects. We turned on the captions but we found out we needn't have bothered. The story is told with barely any dialog!

Three cyclists are abducted and the mother of one goes on a quest to find him. Along the way, she befriends a trio of sisters that used to perform on stage and the quartet go in search of the missing cyclists.

Although I have no grasp of the French language (where the most famous sentence is, " I surrender!") the song that the triplets sing is extremely catchy! Damn them. It's the type of song that keeps running around your heard incessantly!

Definitely go rent this one. For those of you with kids, it's ok for them too.

Today & Tomorrow
This Argentine flick deals with a girl who has a blue collar job but aspires to be an actress. She's way behind on her bills and she needs to come up with 300 pesos before she's evicted two days from today (hence the title).

What's a pretty young Argentine thing going to do to survive? Well, first she goes to her friends and family begging for money. This doesn't work out for her and she ends up going into prostitution. We see her learn the ropes and get cheated in the process.

All told, the movie was BORING. The director did an excellent job of portraying Argentines. The main character always has this attitude of superiority, despite her being basically destitute, that really prevents you from feeling anything for her.

"Yes, we are Argentine! Yes, we cannot keep our country solvent! Yes, our economy is in shambles! But we are still better than you!"

Bleh...

So this chick with a superiority complex get fired from her waitressing job. Good for her!
She freaks out on her dad, whom she hasn't visited in four months, when he won't give her the money.
Her friends are coy about giving her any money.
And of course, she looks at everyone with disdain since how DARE they not come to her salvation...
She calls a friend to show her the prostitution business.
She freaks out on the first john and runs out of the car.
She gets lucky and meets a john who is actually nice and pays her 150 pesos.
She goes to a nightclub and gets robbed by a policeman.
She figures out she has to work some more.
She calls up the nice john and he say if she sleeps over at his place the entire night, he'll pay 300 pesos.
In the middle of the night, the IDIOT wakes up and tries to sneak out of the apartment.
The guy catches up to her and takes 200 pesos from her. So much for that sugar daddy...
She courts another older john and he's really rough with her.
She screams, " I'm not a whore! I'm not a whore!" suuuuure you aren't...
She catches a cab and the cab driver lends her some street wisdom.
Movie ends with her running along a pier.

Yeah I know, even reading that brief description was boring. What an idiot, hello...sleep for a few hours with a guy and you'll have your rent paid. What a fool.

Skip this one but definitely see the Triplets of Belleville.