The Killers x3, The New World, & A Woman Is a Woman

The Killers is an interesting remake of the earlier movies, in that it doesn't even really use Hemingway's story at all. It just kept the very basic idea of it, and then sort of futzed around similar to the 1946 version, except with car racing rather than boxing. Plus, this one had a really really evil Ronald Reagan, in his last performance before going into politics. I'd like to think that this type of role is why he left movies. Because he was pretty bad. Then again, I vastly preferred using the Hemingway story rather than beating up a blind lady, but the rest of the movie was actually pretty much better than the earlier one, although the Lee Marvin-Angie Dickinson pairing was much better three years later in the amazingly good Point Blank. That movie, by the way, is my favorite Lee Marvin film. Yes, ahead of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Dirty Dozen, and The Big Heat. All of which are classics. You know, the problem with Ronald Reagan in a movie is that all I can think about is Nancy Reagan, married to Ronald Reagan while she was three months pregnant, and famous in Hollywood for giving the best head anywhere. Once you hear something like that, it realy does ruin any positive view you have of their "moral cleanliness". Stupid hypocrites. At least Democrats are the pro-sex party. Yay for us!

You know, I also saw the earlier version of the Killers and Tarkovsky's version as well. Those followed Hemingway's story better, but were just not as good as Siegel's version. Well, Tarkovsky's version was only of Hemingway's story. Doesn't work as well in Russian as it does in English.

The New World is exactly what you'd expect from Malick. Dear god, it is the most beautiful film I've seen in a long long long time. I still hate Colin Farrell with a deep passion. At least Christian Bale gets the girl. Who is hot. Very hot. And way illegal, damnit. More people, however, should look as good as she does. Ignore the IMDB photo galleries, because she's wearing too much makeup. Most people, in my opinion, look better without makeup. Or at least the extremely attractive people do. Anyway, more miscegenation, especially when they can give us beauty like Q'Orianka Kilcher, a mix of Swiss and Quechua.

A Woman Is a Woman really messes with your head, which is, of course, what Godard is trying to do. The whole soundtrack dropping out entirely is very disconcerting. Very disconcerting. Especially when it's playing a good tune, and then it goes out. And the jump cuts, and other cuts where clearly more time takes place than the cut would suggest are just really all about Godard being all "I'm better at messing with you than you are about figuring out what's going on". And of course, he's Godard and clearly is. It never feels anything less than a film, with even multiple breakings of the fourth wall. Bizarre. It's a great movie though, alternately hilarious and depressing. Not as good as Godard's best films, but it's better than some of his others.