Make sexy time

So yeah, I've seen some movies recently.

Borat - Is it the funniest moive ever, as advertised? Not quite. But it's pretty damn funny. And what is not shown in the previews is that it's can also be pretty damn offensive. Not that this bothers me personally, but there were definitely a few moments during the movie where I was cringing a bit as I was laughing, (including a unbeliveable fight scene that was more disgusting than it was offensive, and that's all I'll say about that as you really need to be surprised when you see it to get the full impact.)

One thing I was surprised to find/hear about after the fact is that apparently no one in the film knew what they were being filmed for. Essentially this was a giant Candid Camera moment. There were a couple of situations/scenes that I thought had to be staged, but overall apparently not, as evidinced that a couple of people are suing based on their representation in the film.

But overall, damn sexy time funny.

The Prestige - The set up: Two magicians around the turn of the last century rise to some prominence and feud with each other, trying to destroy each other's careers. It's a film largely about obsession and how it can destroy lives.

Great movie, unneccessary last 15 minutes. At least, that's my opinion. And here's why. If you remove the last 15 minutes or so, the ending becomes a lot more vague and debatable, something worth discussing, something where different people are going to have different theories. Unfortunately the last 15 minutes are pretty much all exposition, explaining way too much of what happened. Since this is a movie about magicians, it is tantamount to a magician performing a great trick and then afterwards coming out and explaining to you how he did it. Truth is, you really don't want to know. You'd like to see if you can figure it out for yourself.

However, that's my take on it. Although I would have preferred those last 15 minutes not be there, it's really a storytelling preference on my end. It's not that they were poorly done. And to be honest, if you remove that section of the film, it also does end vastly differently.

But still, another great film.

Casino Royale - This is a different Bond film. The thing with all the previous Bonds (except maybe Lazenby, since I never saw the film with him in it), is that when you first meet them (Connery, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan) in their resepctive first films, they've been Bond for a while. This is the first time you see Bond as a "new" Bond. By which I mean Daniel Craig's Bond has only had his double-0 status a short time. (If I was watching correctly, the main plot of this film is only his second mission as 007.) As such, he is not the smooth, suave Bond you've seen in other films, he is what M refers to him as a "blunt instrument". The plot behind this film is somewhat disposable. It's not important, as the main thrust of this film is watching Bond become Bond. Even at the end, he's not quite there, but he's closer than he was at the beginning. Some examples: The first car you see him driving is not his usual Aston Martin (or something similarly classy that showed up in later films), but a rented car. (Although the Aston Martin does make an appearnce.) There are no spiffy gadgets. You see Bond invent his martini shaken not stirred drink in the movie. He's not particularly smooth with the ladies. He doesn't play baccarat, (in fact a decent portion of the action revolves around a Texas Hold Em poker game.) He's not sly, slick, or surgical. He's rash, impulsive, and brutal.

This is a Bond origin story, and for the most part it looks pretty well. What you're seeing here, as mentioned before, is Bond becoming Bond. The one aspect where it could have been a little better was the Bond and his women facet. In all the other films, women are interchangeable to Bond, but the thing is that he loves them. In this film they are, as Bond girl Vesper puts it, "disposable pleasures." Also, this is evidinced by the fact that Bond prefers his women married as it cuts down on complications for him. Now, without spoiling abything, knowing where Bond's attitude towards women ends up, which is much more caring and generous, there is a very definite story arc for this particular Bond girl which I saw coming a mile away. Not the exact particulars, of course, but where it was going to end up and roughly how. And that was the part that could have been written/handled a little better. It wasn't as seemlessly intergrated into the story as it could have been.

But most importantly, speaking of Bond girls....Eva Green? Wow! No, really. Wow!

Also, one other little thing. And I won't know if this is a quibble or not until there have been additional Bond films. It wasn't exactly tied up at the end. But, I don't know if that was because of the writing, or if perhaps they're setting up a shadowy villianous organization to appear in later films. If it's the latter, then bravo. If the former, then not so much.