Vampire's Kiss, Louis C.K.: Shameless, Demetri Martin: Person, & Thieves Like Us

Vampire's Kiss is Nic Cage overacting, occasionally doing a really bad Ed Sullivan impression (I think unintentionally), and also doing an English accent (also really bad). According to the IMDB, it was intentional. But man, it just got on my nerves so much. If I hadn't been playing Final Fantasy XII at the same time, I would have turned it off. Plus, with the ending, I'm not sure exactly what the point of it was, except possibly that assholes who are ridiculously attracted to women (the particularly predatory ones frequently are referred to as vampires) might just do anything to impress them. That he clearly was insane really didn't change much. Apparently, the vampire aspect is just a figment of his insane mind. Thanks 1980s. You really know how to make a bad movie. Also, Joseph Minion, who also wrote the great After Hours, clearly had no real talent. Because apparently he took ideas from someone else to write After Hours, and he did nothing else remotely good since then.

Louis C.K.: Shameless was pretty funny, but not that much was particularly new, especially if you have seen his appearances promoting the special, or his sitcom. It even uses the same theme as the show. That's not to say it wasn't funny, but standup works better when you don't already know how the jokes are going to end.

Demetri Martin: Person was hilarious. I enjoyed it immensely. I would have enjoyed it even more had I not had so many problems with the amount of commercials. Sometimes it would be a commercial, and sometimes it would be a little short film he did for Windows Vista, and sometimes it would be a full commercial break. What's the deal with commercials, Comedy Central? And what's up IMDB? Not important enough for you? Just the beginning skit is worth watching for, and then it keeps going, and keeps being funny. Watch it. Ladies.

Thieves Like Us is a film I'd have seen much sooner had it, you know, been available on DVD in the US. Is Altman just not popular enough? Damn the man. It's a slightly off-kilter story about three Mississippian bank robbers who escape from prison and go back to robbing banks. But the youngest one falls for a girl who is addicted to coke. Note that this is 1930s Deep South, so it's the Coke that comes in a bottle. Full of typical Altmanisms, although the overlapping dialogue was actually pretty limited, and it was replaced with an almost constant radio narration, occasionally commenting upon the action, and sometimes just enhancing the scene. It's clearly an Altman 70s film, in the best ways. Plus, without it, Nurse Ratched would have been someone else, as Louise Fletcher was seen by Milos Forman because of the film. Which basically means that even if you hate the film, it's a very important film anyway. I did notice similarities with They Live by Night, which, after checking the IMDB makes sense since they're both based on the same book. At least the assumed (by me, making an ass out of you and me...d...) moral ambiguities in the original novel are allowed to exist in this film, unlike the Hays Code neutered earlier film.