Movies recently seen

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

I was concerned that Jim Carrey would ruin this movie, but it was still very enjoyable. The first three books are combined and the plot was reconstructed, but in a story arch I could deal with. The visual is Tim Burton-esque and the cars and phones and such are neat. I would have liked a less generic score and soundtrack, especially since Stephin Merrit had composed songs for the audio books.

The end credits were really cool looking, although I was a bit upset that Brett Helquist's illustrations from the books were absent. I would like to see the end credits again, even though there is a brief annoyance song in Jim Carrey's sailor voice.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Wes Anderson makes many interesting characters. Willem Defoe was better than he was in almost anything else recently. Bill Murray, playing himself, was good, just like when he played himself in Rushmore, Tenenbaums and Lost in Translation. Or maybe that's not himself. But that is a role he is good at. Certainly better than the Elephant drop movie and Osmosis Jones. I'm sure everyone loves Seu Jorge singing Bowie songs in Portugese.

So the characters were actually interesting, but instead of making a story Mr. Anderson just made more characters. The movie is interesting looking and the computer made stuff isn't too annoying, although it seems false. This was good and I will probably see it again on dvd but I'm not sure that it would hold my attention if i was flipping through the tv.

Meet the Fockers

I didn't see the first one, so maybe I'm missing something. I thought Dustin Hoffman was ok and funny in places. Ben Stiller was Ben Stiller. DeNiro and Streisland I'm not so into. The Ben Stiller love interest i can't identify. And there was a baby. Why? I'm not sure, except that it allowed some gags. As I'm not so into gags, maybe that's why I wasn't feeling this. This movie wasn't terrible, but I think the Father of the Bride movies are far superior if you want to watch something about premarriage issues.