In the Valley of Elah 09/28/07

This will probably be the first of many movies I see about the Iraq war. and that's pretty significant because the war is still going on. They waited five years after Vietnam ended before they made The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now. The first movies about WWII that didn't include bullshit John Wayne viewpoints happened decades afterward. But here we are with 'The Valley of Elah' a movie about returning veterans from Iraq that has been released in the midst of the war itself. Is this a good thing or bad thing? I don't know. Probably a good thing. It keeps people aware of what's going on right now, it'll maybe even keep them interested.
But there will proabably be better movies than this that will talk about the same issue and be about the same things. There was something about this film that simply put, was boring. It simply expected to much from me. Let me put it this way, a soldier goes missing and dies. But why should I feel sympathy, I know nothing about this kid. I've never met him and not until the last ten minutes do I even see him or hear him talk in any coherent way. I don't feel sympathy for the guy, and I have a hard time of relating to the mother and father when they lose him. I feel for them on a universal level. They've lost their son. But I don't feel for them personally, and when there are these long slow scenes when people cry I feel disconnected and removed. I'm bored.
The good part of the movie is that it somewhat works as a detective story and Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron provide solid work as they try to solve the case. Theron in paticular is fantastic, I wish the movie would have been more about her. We get a glimpse into her life and I wish I had seen more of it. There is a paticularly good scene when Tommy Lee Jones tells her son a bedtime story about the fight between David and Goliath in the Valley of Elah. It's fantastic hearing the old grizzled man talk about bravery to a seven year old. Good times. Still I can't quite recommend the movie. It's just too emotionally demanding for a subject (the boy) that is so curiously absent. 

Casino Royale 01/23/07

fresh: This is the best bond movie I've seen. It's a top notch thriller in its own right but unlike most other Bond films, it works also as a charachter study. For the first time, James Bond is more interesting than the villain, and the big impetus for the movie is not gadgets and explosions and world takeovers. It's James bond himself. He's interesting enough to carry the movie all by himself. This is evident when the movie calms down halfway to conversations between Daniel Craig, the new bond, and Eva Green, a three dimensional bond girl, and of course a poker table. Just watching these people talk is as enjoyable as the great chase scene in the beginning. It probably helped alot to have an Oscar winning writer, Paul Haggis, help out with the script. 
The director, a man named Martin Campbell, I have never heard before. But this guy is legitimate. Whether it's the black and white opening to the druggy poisoning sequence, he has some unique and great ways of telling the story. I hope he directs another bond movie, and I plan to look him up and see his other movies.
The only complaint I have is the soundtrack. There is a great Bond theme which they don't use till the credits. To not use that song is unfathomable. They're using subpar musical sequences during the entire film when the trademark Bond theme is a thousand times better. Why they didn't use it during the first chase scene boggles my mind. It would have made the fantastic sequence super fantastic. oh well. Although this movie probably won't get much attention from the academy because these movies usually don't. It will definitely win a ton of awards at the MTV movie awards. (Best fight, Best villain, best actor, etc.) And I can say this, These guys deserve all that golden popcorn.