Gratuitous Llama Movie Reviews

It looks like Liz at Truly Bad Films is going to be back in business soon. In the meantime, I thought I'd give you some brief thoughts on the movies I wound up seeing this past weekend:

Joe Kidd - Not a great Clint western, but not absolutely the worst either. Robert Duvall is appropriately sinister and Eastwood gets some decent one-liners, but altogether there is an air of 70's-ishness about it that I don't much like. Best scene: Where the bad guy Mingo is sniping long distance at Kidd, Luis Chama and their party. I love the way the bullet hits long before you hear the report of the gun. But when Kidd shoots back with his own rifle, you see the crosshairs lined up on Mingo's chest. Given the distance and the fact that Mingo is up on a ridge, I'd think Kidd would be lucky to knee-cap him with that shot. To quote The Duke in one of my favorite westerns, "Windage and elevation, Mrs. Langdon. Windage and elevation."

Who Framed Roger Rabbit - Lileks wrote about this movie a couple weeks back, thereby planting in my brain the urge to see it again. I agree with James about the way classic cartoons celebrate their roots in 40's culture and appreciate the movie's effort to capture this in a kind of Toon Film Noir, but it left me pretty flat for all that. The rabbit is too goddam energetic and dopey. And to we really need to see Bob Hoskins' hairy back?

The Patriot - If you've got the hots for Mel Gibson, by all means drool away. But as a depiction of the Revolutionary War? Gimme a break.

EXTRA TEE-VEE SHOW REVIEW: I have to confess that I think The Fairly Odd Parents is very funny. Not that I think it's especially improving for kids, just that I think it's funny. My six-year old and I were watching an episode last evening where Timmy and the OP's pop into various other classic cartoons - Charlie Brown, Flintstones, Space Ghost, etc., etc. Plenty of good, snarky humor.