So I had a chance to catch a couple flicks over the long weekend. I saw Rendition which to me was only average. Not much of a stretch performance for Reese Witherspoon, and it seemed everyone involved had little ‘skin in the game’ to help out the poor sap who was taken away and imprisoned for questioning. I find it interesting that they hint that there is always a US observer for the interrogation sessions involving nasty torture. These are (sometimes) their own people getting tortured like this. This has a good cast (Meryl Streep too) but it does not show you the end result and whether this practice has stopped. I suspect somehow that it continues. Where’s the due process? Where is the trial amongst peers and being able to face your accuser? The “home of the free” takes another beating in the guise of national security. I hardly think of the Jake character as a hero, who simply has his job on the line that he really can’t seem to stomach anyway.
Last night it was No Country for Old Men. A disappointment to put a word on it. There was a build up here for a really good battle between the headstrong dude (Brolin) looking to keep his ill-gotten booty, and the mindless automaton (terminator-like killer) looking to exact some revenge, but then it all fizzles out. Harrelson dies limply. Brolin who looked to be ready and preparing himself for a kick ass battle just ends up dead, and you have a closing speech by Jones as the retired cop, and Spanish buddy (Javier Bardem) walking away with a broken arm from a senseless crash in his car. I had expected more. Is this really the Best Picture of the year?! Sad to say that if it is, then it was indeed a lean year. Funnily, no sooner had Tommy Lee Jones’ faces gone black off the screen did my ex-Wife jump out of her chair and say “Is that it?!” It pissed her off to no end, and she claimed this is why she doesn’t like the Oscars. Because of the above, I tend to agree with her on this one. And Spanish buddy (Bardem) wins a Best Supporting role here. For what?! How many lines did he actually deliver? Is the little discussion with the Texas native in the gas station enough to make that happen? I don’t know but it is disappointing. So I cannot agree on this being a great film. I will accept all arguments to the contrary.
Mondays With Robbie 