I watched Firestarter (1984) starring Drew Barrymore, Martin Sheen, and George C. Scott on AMC last night. I found this film unusual for a number of reasons: 1) George C. Scott plays a Native American; 2) Drew Barrymore is a better child actor than an adult actor - or, more specifically, Firestarter is better than Never Been Kissed (1999) and 50 First Dates (2004); 3) the synthesizer soundtrack is at least as good as the much-more frequently discussed synthesizer soundtrack of Escape from New York (1981); 4) I thought it a worthwhile pursuit to, if I ever become an independent filmmaker, remake Firestarter with a very small cast and minimal visual effects - almost like a stage play, but, you know, supernatural.

I watched Striking Distance (1993) starring a pre-male pattern baldness Bruce Willis on AMC last night. This thriller, like many films released between 1990 and 1994, form a curious cinematic bridge between the 1980s and the 1990s. Though Striking Distance has many hallmarks of 1990s cinema [excessively bleak storyline, “shocker” twist ending, third-tier location shoot (in Pittsburgh), Sarah Jessica Parker], they coexist with 1980s tropes (blues guitar soundtrack, revolvers, boxy cop cors, a lot of smoking, and Bruce Willis’ hair). Other films that exhibit this phenomenon: New Jack City (1991), The Crying Game (1992), and even The Usual Suspects (1995).  

I saw Sex in the City last night at a boardwalk theater in Ocean City, New Jersey. Sex in the City is shown at this theater every night at 9 p.m. and, though this film has been out for over two months, the theater was not deserted - approximately 15 middle-aged women attended my screening. Early in the film, the surround sound cut-out. The middle-aged women did not seem to mind, as they were too busy laughing at “waxing” jokes.

I watched Fatal Attraction (1987) starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close last night on AMC. Many elements of this film have been discussed ad nauseam, i.e. its thinly-veiled anti-feminism and its boiled bunny. I prefer to focus on the pivotal role of Douglas’ dog, a beast transformed into a symbol of domestic ennui after Douglas’ wife (Anne Archer) forces him to walk it late at night. This anonymous canine is the propulsive center of Fatal Attraction without which the film cannot exist. Shockingly, the dog is not even purebred, but a mixed breed.

I saw The Dark Knight starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger (RIP) in the theater tonight, doing my part to help this movie break opening weekend box office records and supporting the film industry, the economy, and the folks at Guinness Book of World Records in the process. I was prepared to offered detailed analysis of The Dark Knight’s relationship to the War on Terror, but still can’t figure out if director Christopher Nolan really intended Batman to, somehow, represent George Bush.

I rented Joel and Ethan Coen’s Intolerable Cruelty (2003) starring George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones from my local video store last night. Mr. Clooney’s character is introduced at the dentist, where he seems to be having his teeth whitened. Throughout the first half of the film, he repeatedly checks his teeth, a personal tic that marks him as egomaniacal and vainglorious. However, this running joke is abandoned in the second half of the film. Perhaps this was a mistake by the editor. 

I saw M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening starring Marky Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel in the theater last night. I pity Mr. Shyamalan. Critics unhappy with this effort will undoubtedly refer to this film as The Crappening.

I saw the Russian film Mongol (2007) starring Tadanobu Asano and Khulan Chuluun in the theater last night. This film recounts Genghis Khan’s rise to power from a minor power broker amongst nomadic tribes in 12th century Mongolia to the redoubtable Asian imperialist still worshipped in the East. In this biopic, Khan resolves to “make Mongolians live under law and order - even if I have to kill half of them to do it.” I have a similar feeling about city-dwellers who insist on claiming parking spots in front of their houses with traffic cones.

I watched an episode of Foyle’s War (2002), a BBC television series starring British actor Michael Kitchen as a police detective, on Netflix DVD last night. Foyle’s War takes place in southern England during World War II, when Churchill’s nation shared the Channel with Nazi-occupied France and Redcoat tempers ran high. Does this sound exciting to you? If so, you are either 1) a fiftysomething white-male war buff/John Milius enthusiast 2) an sixtysomething female fan of Murder, She Wrote or 3) that ironic twentysomething guy at the office who likes to start the unlikeliest of Netflix trends. 

I saw WALL-E yesterday in the theater. I understand that this film was aimed at a younger demographic. As a result, some children were present at the screening. One of these children took of her shoe and waved it around. “Put your shoe back on!” her father warned. The child refused. As a result, the child was removed from WALL-E before WALL-E met EVA, blasted off to the Axiom spaceship, and, unwittingly, helped its inhabitants return to Earth.