Movies

One of my recent weekends was filled with bloodshed - fortunately all of the cinematic variety.  The weekend kicked off Friday evening with a pizza-night viewing of A Bug's Life which, while not exactly a bloodbath, does have its share of bug violence.  It's a cute Pixar movie from '98, and even if you don't have kids, it should be on your watch list.

Then, things got nasty.  The babies went to bed and Blade I & II came out to play.  These Wesley Snipes vehicles from '98 and 2002, respectively, concern a half-breed vampire (Snipes) who hunts vampires, dispatching them with a great deal of silver-laden weaponry and martial art-sy goodness.  Action + vampires = good stuff in my book.  As usual, the first installment was better than the sequel, which felt a little bland, but was still fun to watch, and had better bad vampires.

Saturday night rolled around, and my Lady Friend and I went to see No Country For Old Men.  I knew absolutely nothing about the movie, had no idea what to expect, and was a little thrown by the title.  I needn't have worried - it rocked.  Masterfully directed by the Coen brothers (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, etc), and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson, and Javier Bardem, No Country engages you right away, toys with you, teases you, slaps you around and ultimately leaves you saying (for lack of a more elegant way of putting it)...WTF? 

In a nutshell, it's about a Texas welder who happens upon the scene of a drug deal gone bad, finds 2 million dollars, takes it (duh), and spends the next two hours running from the people who want the money back.  Sound like typical Hollywood crap?  It's not.  Javier Bardem's bad guy - Anton Chigurh - is possibly the most chilling, unnerving bad guy since...well, I don't know who - he's unique.  If you're the sort of person who likes nice, neat, Spiderman-style Hollywood endings, you might be put off by the ending to this one, but still enjoy the rest.  Either way, go see it.  You won't regret it.

We capped off the violence on Sunday with Kill Bill Volume I and Volume II.  The initial entry introduces Uma Thurman as a very pissed off bride, bent on revenge and wielding one seriously badass samurai sword.  There could be more blood in this movie than was spilt in all of World War II.  Not a lot of character development, but bursting at the seams with action.

Volume II had quite a bit less action and blood - but what it had was very high quality.  Of note: a particularly vicious fight between Uma and a one-eyed Darryl Hannah.  I've never seen Ms. Hannah quite so mean, and it was a bit disconcerting.  There's quite a bit more character development and story to the sequel and it somehow works quite well.  Michael Madsen puts in another great performance for  writer/director Quentin Tarentino.  Put it on your watchlist.