Flix Rant: My Inner Feminist Is Coming Out

Last night, I sat down and tried to watch Frank Capra's 1934 Oscar winning movie, It Happened One Night. Looking at the movie I was immediately irritated that the same thing was going to happen like it did with His Girl Friday, when I reviewed it.  Maybe this is my 21st century mind at work, but I have to say, "Why do these women end up with these assholes?"

I know that it was a different time, but come on people! For examples, Claudette Colbert is a socialite who marry a man against her father's wishes. She leaves for New York. I was rooting, "Good for you, girl." Then, the cad has to come in the form of Clark Gable as a boozy newspaper reporter who treats her like shit. She swoons over him, please!

I had the same gripes with the The Philadelphia Story as well with the brash Katharine Hepburn has to end up with the ex-husband in the end. I'm sorry, I spoiled that for everybody, but I have to get my point across.

Why couldn't these women be happy and content, instead of settling with a man that is no good for them?

This is not an old thing. There are prime examples of movies today with the same premise that had me scratching my head. Even though, I thought that The Ugly Truth was a piece of shit. I was infuriated that a woman (Katherine Heigl) would swoon over Gerard Butler. Besides the fact that he is hot, his character was an abrasive prick. Would you ever say those things to the woman that you supposedly "love"? Fuck off. She would drag Eric Winter around like a rag doll and discard him for the asshole. Really, girl? Really?

I also had a problem with You Got Mail that Tom Hanks character's completely destroyed Meg Ryan's family bookstore in order to buy it for a major corporation and she falls for him. Just like that. Are you kidding me? Grow a pair of ovaries, ladies. Get a man that will not do you wrong. You don't see woman of color dealing with that shit. They ain't having it.

All I am saying is that I am getting sick and tired of these poor defenseless women having to settle the first man that show them any kind of attention. I needed to get that out.

A Raisin In the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun (1961)

Directed by Daniel Petrie

Written by Lorraine Hansberry

Based on the play by  Lorraine Hansberry

Stars: Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeill, Ruby Dee, Louis Gossett Jr., Diana Sands, Ivan Dixon, John Fiedler and Stephen Perry

I wanted to give all my readers and my sister-in-law a nice After Christmas present, me reviewing a black movie. It's a miracle, everyone. Rejoice!

Anyway, I hear about A Raisin in the Sun for a while now. I always wanted to see it, but I never got the chance to until recently. I am so glad that I did.

Three generations of the Younger family are living in a cramped two bedroom Chicago apartment. Walter (Poitier) tries to make sense of his place in the family unit when a business of investing in a chain of liquor come up. He needs the money to put in a down payment. The only he could get that is from the insurance money that would be given to his mother, Lena (McNeil). The Younger family try any way they can to get out of the muck they are stuck in.

Being that this was play adapted to the screen, I did not feel that it was just a play translated to screen. It felt raw, real and uncompromising with the desperation that these people are feeling to get out of their circumstances. You wonder who do they not kill each other?

The performances of the main actors were great, except  I had some troubles with Poitier. His movements felt over-dramatic sometimes. He originated the role on the theatrical production. It shows on the screen. I though that Claudia McNeil was a tour de force at the matriarch of the family. You felt her pain and anguish of see her husband die, her daughter being lost to the world and her son struggle to the man of the family.

This is a fantastic piece of work that should have gotten a lot more attention than it did.

My Rating:

The Expendables

The Expendables (2010)

Directed by Sylvester Stallone

Written by Sylvester Stallone and David Callaham

Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Eric Roberts, Steve Austin, David Zayas, Giselle Itié, Charisma Carpenter and Mickey Rourke

This movie was touted in being the best "B" movie to be released. I think that statement is true. It has all of the action stars from yesteryear in this movie. I knew the movie would be stupid fun like The A-Team. I was prepared to see non stop action, blood, fights and big ass motherfucking guns. I was a happy boy.

A group of over-the-hill mercenaries are sent to impossible missions by Tool (Rourke) in order to save hostages from terrorists. During one mission, a team member goes rogue, Gunner (Lundgren) and team has to recovery. When a handler named Church (Willis), tells the the Expendables about a plot to assassinate an overzealous dictator from the island of Vilena, General Garza (Zayas) and a former CIA operative, James Munroe (Roberts) who is trafficking cocaine with Garza's daughter, Sandra (Itié) as a bargaining chip.

This movie is not made for film critics. This is made for the teenage boy in all of us that wants to see guys fighting, blowing shit up and have bazooka guns in their hands. It's like porn. You would cream in your undies watching this movie.

I was not expecting an intricate plot or compelling dialogue. I was looking for balls to the wall action. There were some instances that I cringed. When Gunner blew a guy away in half, I was like "Whoa". Terry Crews as Hale Caesar with his bazooka tommy gun was EPIC. Jason Statham as Lee Christmas throw knives into bodies that I didn't know was humanly possible.

The movie is awesome. I enjoy every minute of the movie. I had a good time. You should as well.

My rating:



La mujer sin cabeza

The Headless Woman (2009)

Written and directed by Lucretia Martel

Stars: María Onetto, Claudia Cantero, César Bordón, Daniel Genoud, Guillermo Arengo, Inés Efron and María Vaner

I know that you guys thought that I was thinking another "vacation" from viewing movie, but I had some personal problems that I had to deal with. I hope you understand. Back to the reviewing.

I have always wanted to watch Lucretia Martel's The Headless Woman for a couple of years since I saw the high Metacritic score of 81. I always mistaken this movie for An Unmarried Woman from 1978 with Jill Clayburgh and Alan Bates, which I haven't seen. Maybe one day.

The movie is very subtle in the way that the story is told. A affluent dentist named Vero (Onetto) is distracted on a deserted road and runs over something. She doesn't stop to see what she hits. She drives on. In the days after the ordeal, she is in a haze. Vero is guilt-ridden that she might have a killed a person. Her family thinks that she has simply run over a stray dog. The notion of what she might have done weighs heavily on Vero's conscience.

This is a slow burn kind of movie. You are not spoon fed what exactly is happening with the story. I believe that Martel wanted to leave the story open for interpretation as to whether Vero committed a hit and run or it was all in her mind.

I believe I know what really happened and a couple of critic agree with me. This film is not for everyone. There are those that will get bored and those that will not get it entirely. That's fine. I think that it is a fine piece of work that I crave for instead of the remakes, sequels, prequels that are clogging up cinemas now. I long for a movie like this.

My rating:



Final Impressions - 12/2/2011

Hmm. There is no major releases this week. We have a bunch of Oscar movies starting their limited runs. Let's get started, shall we?

Directed by Steve McQueen

Shame

This is the third collaboration between director Steve McQueen and lead actor Michael Fassbender.

I covered the latest trailer a couple of weeks back. I love that a movie would be released with a "NC-17" and they don't give a fuck about appealing to the MPAA. Usually, the rating will be the death of box office potential. Possibly the awards buzz with it could help it stay afloat.

Directed by Takeshi Kitano

Autoreiji

I don't know anything about this movie.

Here is the synopsis of the movie from IMDb: "The boss of a major crime syndicate orders his lieutenant to bring a rogue gang of drug traffickers in line, a job that gets passed on to his long-suffering subordinate."

It seems like another gangster story. Next.

Directed by Julia Leigh

Sleeping Beauty

This is not fairy tale story about the narcoleptic woman that has to wait for a guy to wake her ass up. This movie is about Lucy (Emily Browning), a young university student drawn into a mysterious hidden world of unspoken desires. Okay.

Directed by Michael F. Sears

A Warrior's Heart

This movie was supposed to come out last year, but it didn't. I wonder why. Because it's shitty. It has a shirtless Kellan Lutz, Chord Overstreet and some other chicks. Blah, bah, blah.

Disposable movie.

Directed by Matthew Leutwyler

Answers to Nothing

I saw the trailer for this movie. My reaction was meh. It stars Dane Cook--wait, hold up--he is the lead of this movie. Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Am I being punked right now?