Boiling Point, Yi yi, Bush's Brain, & The Hospital

Boiling Point is Takeshi Kitano's second film, and it's my least favorite of his. In fact, you could say that I was supremely disappointed in it. If you don't want a spoiler for the film, just go on to the next paragraph. Why, exactly, did he decide to make the movie into one big dream sequence? What the hell? There were some nice scenes in it, but I hate movies that end up being completely in the head of one of the characters. Boo to him. If this were the first of his movies I'd think he was a terribly hacky director. Good thing I've seen almost all of his other films.

Yi Yi is long. Long long long. Three hours of Taiwanese family drama. Bits and pieces kept reminding me of things from other movies, especially other Asian films, but this had everthing in it. It was very well made, well acted, and interesting, just left me somewhat cold.

Bush's Brain is another film that had little to no new material for me. I think mainly because, while I haven't read the book, I have been reading liberal blogs for years now. It's good to have an hour and a half of how bad Karl Rove is, but eh now. I guess it would have been good to get this thing out to more people before the 2004 election. Oh, yeah, it was released in a bunch of blue states and Texas. Well, that seems like a very useless release. Why no red states? Probably because the movie never would have played there. Oh well.

The Hospital is one of those movies that probably would have been more effective if it hadn't been made in the 1970s. Well, it's quite possible that Paddy Chayefsky is a one hit wonder. I haven't seen Marty or The Americanization of Emily, so maybe he has done other good movies besides Network. Too bad this movie is a complete mess of a 70s film. Yeah, it may have been a good decade for films, but it also has more than its share of complete freakin' messes. The comedy doesn't work, the satire only intermittently works, and it's all way too heavyhanded. Good thing he eventually did get work again, since Network is outstanding.