Le Petit Soldat, The Sweetest Thing, & California Split

Le Petit Soldat was an interesting film. Especially following Breathless up with that. I've gotta say that Godard is a strange filmmaker, as he's capable of great things, but he gets a little political and occasionally loses himself. It is interesting to see another take on the Algierian independence movement. Sad that both sides using torture hasn't really seemed to teach anyone in power any lessons. Maybe Americans will learn that after the blowback from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Also, I kept thinking that this was going to be about a penis. Yeah...

The Sweetest Thing. Terrible. The only redeeming quality of the entire movie was Selma Blair, who is, at least, attractive, and she was given the most thankless role. Oh, my boyfriend has a big penis and it's pierced. Plus, why did this movie exist? Who wrote that wretched script? Not even remotely funny. The only time I think I laughed was at how stupid it was. I mainly wanted to see any movie in Comedy Central's Secret Stash just to see if I could handle the commercials. I could, but I think they didn't really need to put the Penis Song back in. That entire thing was horrendously bad. Wow.

California Split was typical Altman. Even down to the completely gratuitous nudity. Why, exactly, did the girl need to be bottomless at the club? Did that add anything to the scene except some crack? Elliott Gould was outstanding. He really was made for Altman. MASH, The Long Goodbye, and this are all great roles for him. Too bad he hasn't really done much else of worth. Not Altman. Altman's got a string of great films going back to MASH (although there are a fair share of dogs in there as well (Popeye and Prêt-à-Porter come to mind immediately)), but Gould hasn't done anything else except the Muppet movies and Ocean's 11. Shame. I thought that George Segal was dead. Apparently, he isn't. Didn't notice.