It’s Already September and I’ve Only Seen 38 Movies

Oh god, how did I fall so far behind? Even if I do a glut of movies at the Chicago Film Fest, I’ll never get anywhere near 100 this year. Here are my two most recent viewings:



THE NANNY DIARIES
I actually enjoyed this movie quite a bit. Maybe I’ve been watching too many Hollywood movies due to the time of year, and my brain has been rewired and programmed to find them more amusing than they actually are. The framing device of the movie is a sociological study of rich women who live in Manhattan’s upper East Side, and it was clever enough to win me over. I don’t quite get Scar Jo-Jo’s appeal; she’s cute and all, but far too sulky and bland to really stand out in my opinion. She did a decent and believable job as a clueless college grad thrust into the world of super-needy, pampered women. I’ve put up with a few women like that in the past, and am quite happy that I don’t presently have to. I suppose a good chunk of the humor was the uncomfortable variety that was funny because I could empathize with it.

WAR
Hey look, Keith is in this movie for some reason:


This movie was bad. Sorry, but it was. It’s an action movie with almost no action in the first solid hour. Crappy action movies are fun because of the violent setpieces, which are tied together with implausible scenarios and terrible dialog… Now imagine an action movie made only of the painful dialog and bad acting and none of the action. Sample lazy dialog line: “Your obsession with this man has already cost us our marriage, don’t let it cost you your son!” I’m serious… Not fun at all! I’m sorry, but why in the world would you pay Jet Li countless millions if you’re not going to utilize his skills? Dude didn’t even throw a kick for at least an hour and twenty minutes! To be honest, there were some good twists and great violent bursts in the last half hour, but at that point it was too late and I was thoroughly bored.