First lets start with the only movie I saw in theatres this week Splice.
I heard a lot of things about Splice. Critics seemed to be liking it but one person I talked to said it was really bad. So, I had to go see it for myself. Good thing I decided to go see it this week because it was only playing in one theatre in my area. The movie is about a couple(Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley) who work in genetics and splice together DNA from different animals including humans to make a new species. Of course things go horribly wrong and mayhem ensues. I liked it and even though it is a little predictable it has some great WTF moments. The fact that they really to go where they did is what sets this movie apart from other monster movies. Dark, creepy, and bizarre makes it a fun movie. The movie really is about morality of creating life and what happens when we become to attached to what we create.
Also this week I had my ducts cleaned in my house and while the people where here making lots of noise I decided to watch a silent movie. I had Battleship Potemkin from 1925 on my DVR. This movie is on IMDB top 250, 1001 Movies to See Before you Die and a number of other lists. So I had to check it out. The movie is about a Russian Battleship that helps start the Russian Revolution of 1905 with a mutiny. Started out kind of similar to Mutiny on the Bounty where the captain is cruel and unjustly punishes the crew but ends up being much different. I had DVR'd it from TCM and am always glad when Robert Osborne gives me a little background on the movie. Found out that it was the first movie to use montages to show different perspectives of what was going on. Also that they filmed one of the most famous scenes the Odessa staircase scene where the actual Odessa massacre happened. For a silent movie the action was pretty good and is one of the best silent movies I have seen. This movie topped many Greatest Movies of All Times list as late as the 1950's.
On Saturday night went over a friends house and watched Brothers with Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire. What a good movie. I wasn't expecting it to be that good. For those who don't know its about two brothers Tommy and Sam. When Sam goes off to war in Afghanistan he is involved in a helicopter crash and presumed dead. Tommy who has been a screw up and recently released from jail helps take care of Sam's wife and two daughters. When Sam is discovered alive and rescued from a POW camp he comes back not quite the same. All the performances are great even the two girls that play the daughters. Tobey Maguire looks very creepy and scary as Sam after he returns from war. He has a tendency to just stare at people with this look like he will just snap at any minute. An unexpected great performance. I liked the movie and the ending, but the people I saw it with didn't like the ending. I thought it ended perfectly. And while I am known for picking movies that have bad endings I don't feel this is one of those.
The last movie I watched this week is the documentary Gasland on HBO. Not the best documentary I have seen, but does shed some light on an important subject. The movie is about the harvesting of natural gas from the ground in America. Natural gas is supposed to be the fuel of the future and help get America off foreign oil. It is very abundant all across the United States. The problem is the method that is used to extract it. The method is call fracking and they use water and "fracking fluid" a high pressure to crack the rock under the ground and release the gas. The problem with this is that some of the "fracking fluid" and natural gas leaks into the water system and people are getting sick. The most powerful part of the movie is watching people set there water taps on fire. Very important movie as more and more natural gas is being extracted all around the country.
http://www.hbo.com/#/documentaries/gasland/synopsis.html/
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