Movie Roundup

Ok, I have watched more movies since the last time I updated this thing. Nothing particularly memorable, of course, but that's pretty much always the case.

I mentioned the new James Bond movie, Die Another Day, a while back. Yep, it sucked.

Ringu, the original, Japanese version of the recent American film The Ring, didn't do a whole lot for me. I think that it had less to do with whether or not it was an interesting, well-made film and more to do with my inability to take anything Japanese seriously. ("Sadako" is coming to get you, ooooh!) I thought The Ring, though somewhat opaque, was the most original horror movie to come out of Hollywood in many years. It explains a lot that it didn't actually come out of Hollywood.

I also got around to seeing Gangs of New York. I can't find a real fault with this movie, technically speaking, although I still think Leo DiCaprio is a punk. Daniel Day Lewis turned in his usual brilliant performance as the heavy. The narrative of the movie interested me less than the real historical story. Things like, was it really that rough and violent? Did characters like this really exist and fight each other over the same things? Etc. Special kudos to Martin Scorsese and the script writers for avoiding politically correct cliches about the Civil War.