Recent Movies

With some time off for Christmas and no new TV (and a couple days with no hockey games), I was able to watch quite a few movies.  Some were new, some I had seen before.  Here are a couple quick hits on the new-to-me movies.

The Hangover Part II.  I really enjoyed 2009's The Hangover.  It is one of the rare recent comedies that is actually funny.  True, the jokes alternated between totally hilarious and totally in bad taste, but it was a good story with interesting characters.  The sequel, while funny, is like a carbon copy of the first movie.

Here's a quick rundown of the original's plot:  Doug is getting married.  His friends Phil and Stu and his future brother-in-law Alan take him to Vegas for the bachelor party.  Phil, Stu, and Alan wake up in a trashed hotel suite to find Doug and their memory of the night missing.  They travel around Vegas, piecing together what happened while trying to find Doug.

Here's the sequel:  Stu is getting married.  Phil, Doug, and Alan travel to Thailand with him for the wedding and bachelor party.  Phil, Stu, and Alan wake up in a trashed Bangkok hotel room to find Stu's future brother-in-law Teddy and their memory of the night missing.  They travel around Bangkok, piecing together what happened while trying to find Teddy.

It's almost the same movie beat for beat with the raunchiness cranked up to 11 and the characters dumbed down a bit.  Stu even learns the same lesson about standing up for himself that he learned in the first movie.  Did I hate it?  No.  Did I laugh out loud?  Yes, but not as often as the first.  It was still a fun time and worth it if you're a fan of the original.  Just don't expect anything new.

The Killer Inside Me.  Lou Ford is a deputy sheriff in a small West Texas town.  The townfolks know him has a kindly Andy Griffith-type sheriff always willing to do favors and offer pat aphorisms.  What they don't know is he's a sadistic creep who hurts innocent people and enjoys sadomasochistic sex with his prostitute girlfriend.

Based on noir legend Jim Thompson's novel of the same name, this film generated quite a bit of controversy upon its limited release.  In a world of Saw movies and other torture-porn, generating outrage over violence takes a certain something extra.  And that's what The Killer Inside Me provides.  There are two scenes in the movie where Lou beats a woman to death with his bare hands.  They're not overly stylized like most movies these days, but rough, raw, and difficult to watch.  Director Michael Winterbottom pulls no punches (no pun intended) in showing the brutality of Lou's actions.

There are some parts of the story that don't quite hang together (not sure if it's the scriptwriter or the source material's fault) and the CGI is laughable.  I'm sure the budget wasn't much, but I've seen more believable fire in the movies mocked by Mystery Science Theater.  There is no denying, though, that the movie is as noir as it gets.