Shopgirl, Dead or Alive, Dead or Alive: Final, Meet the Fockers, George Carlin: Life Is Worth Losing

Shopgirl was really good. I know that a couple of the other people who saw it didn't like it, but I did. Seems a little flip, but I completely agree with Roger Ebert's review of it, where he said "One of the things you cannot do in this life is impose conditions on love. Another impossibility is to expect another's heart to accommodate your own desires and needs." I'm actually finding that I agree with a lot of his reviews, making me feel bad for my vulgar references to him. Because he's 100% correct. The main complaint mentioned was that it was a middle-aged man's fantasy, which just doesn't make any sense if you've actually paid any attention to the movie. I think she was just bitter because of the cracks about Vermont. Which were hilarious.

Dead or Alive was, except for a scene with a small tub of excrement and the last scene of the movie, a fairly typical but very good yakuza film. It started out with an amazing sequence, one that just shows how good Miike can be, especially when he isn't so busy doing crazy, disgusting stuff. He's even talented when he's doing crazy things, but he sometimes lets the craziness overwhelm the talent. From the interview on the disc with Miike, he is very right with "Maybe a movie is worthwhile if it has a single incredible shot. I want the audience to feel that kind of possibility." Wong Kar-Wai fills his movies with incredible shots. Miike fills his movies with things you'd never expect to see. Oh, wait, I also didn't like the bestiality. Never like the bestiality. So the bestiality, excrement, and that last scene just really hurt the movie.

Such as in Dead or Alive: Final. What the hell is with the ending robot-monster thing? Plus, the gay stereotype was pretty over the top. Plus, the movie never seemed to go anywhere. At least the three movies aren't really linked in anything but a brief set of clips from all three movies before the end. Just bleh, because it could have been much better, but Miike clearly didn't spend anything to get a good movie. Plus, that one character who speaks English while everyone else speaks either Chinese or Japanese doesn't make any sense.

Meet the Fockers is actually less funny than the first one. Nothing funny at all in it. Not that I thought the first one really required a sequel, but at least that one had some funny bits. I didn't laugh at all at it. Oh, and Teri Polo is terrible.

George Carlin: Life Is Worth Losing has one of Carlin's hilarious poetic monologues at the beginning. Making the first five or so minutes better than most comics could dream of. Carlin's hilarious, and anyone who says different should be forced to watch a fourteen year old telling knock knock jokes in Inuit for two weeks.