We saw Flags of Our Fathers last night and while it was very similar at times in feel to Saving Private Ryan, I thought Clint Eastwood did a good job. Besides the standard horrifying war gore, the story telling was exceptionally well-done. I attribute the easy jumping forward and backwards in time to Paul Haggis (remember Crash?), who co-wrote the script. The movie is based on the book of the same name, written by a son of one of the men in the picture of the Iwo Jima flag-raising. I give the movie an A.
Also saw The Departed (imdb 8.6/10.0) recently. Directed by Martin Scorsese and full of Godfather-ish violence, it made me very tense – but you cannot beat the all-star cast and high caliber acting. Jack Nicholson was at his peak – and I guess Leo DiCaprio is Scorsese’s fave actor these days. I’m not so into Matt Damon, but enjoyed seeing Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlburg, Ray Winstone and even Alec Baldwin (he was also good in The Cooler.) Another A, but don’t go if you’re feeling queasy or frail – this movie will take a lot outta ya.
And on the less violent low-budget indie front, we saw Walking and Talking (imdb 6.5/10.0) on DVD this weekend. It didn’t get a very high score from imdb, but I enjoyed watching it, and I thought it was an honest, non-stereotypical look at relationships and friendships. I give it a B+. I like Catherine Keener and I liked Todd Field’s character’s sense of humor. Maybe I liked that there was couple on the brink of getting married too. Chad liked the appearance of Kevin Corrigan as the “ugly guy.”
