Movies Seen

I finally got around to seeing Fargo, and it was a wonderful movie. I love films where the outcome is a result of a slow inevitable slide caused by circumstance and chance combined. Lundegaard's surprise as the parking lot deal falls through, his utter ineptness at crime, his slowly being overtaken by whatever scam he's tried unsuccessfully to pull over on his father in law.. wonderful. Maggie, though, is the great character here. No wonder the actress got an Oscar for her performance. She's just doing her job, going about the steps, and it just feels like real police work as well.

I've been on a trend of watching some larger, more mainstream movies that I missed in the theaters or have since heard good things about. Ocean's Eleven falls into that catagory. I've never seen the original, but this was a good, slick film with a cool plot and a very nice execution. Brad Pitt does a nicely understated role when he's not the star of a film. He did the same for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and True Romance.

I'd heard a tremendous amount about Falling Down, and always meant to rent it sooner than I did. It was a darn fine film, but suffers a bit from what I think of as misrepresentation. I'd always gotten the feel that life had simply beaten D-Fens down until he snapped and there was a major thead of the film: that anyone could go nuts if enough pressure were applied to them. Not really like that, but it does involve him reaching his breaking point. It's a really good film and I'm glad I finally got around to seeing it.