Lord of War, Mission: Impossible: III, & Pretty Persuasion

Lord of War was not nearly as good as I was hoping it could be, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. Nic Cage doesn't overact and it's not just a simple black and white story. That helps, but the movie itself relies far too heavily on narration. And almost entirely upon the acting talents of Nic Cage. Which, thankfully, he doesn't ruin. It isn't a great film, by any means, but it was a fairly dark little film. As evidenced by the CGI'd opening sequence of a bullet going from a factory to Africa to end up in a kid's head to the sounds of For What It's Worth.

Mission: Impossible: III needs more colons. Preferably on screen with a little colonoscope action! Somehow, this one was actually just as ridiculous as the first two in the series, but not nearly as annoying for me. Yeah, maybe it was that J.J. Abrams was able to add some actual heart? Or maybe it was the MacGuffin not being explained but given a ridiculous name, The Rabbit Foot. But I'm not the only one who likes this one the most, as it has the highest rating of the trilogy on the IMDB (although M:I:II is better than M:I:I if only because it makes some damn sense (and the twin pistol action)). Normally I am not one to quote IMDB scores as a measure of quality (The Shawshank Redemption is a film for people who haven't seen enough good movies), but I think that it shows it's good to possibly get a director who's known for, you know, actual characters (J.J. Abrams) rather than hacky crap (DePalma) or doves fluttering around guys shooting with twin pistols (Woo). It just felt a lot more like an extremely high budget Alias episode, with a little less estrogen. Just a little, because as we all know, both Jennifer Garner and Tom Cruise both enjoy being penetrated. Also there was a brief quote of music from Lost, which I noticed and said it sounded just like a Michael Giacchino composition. And then it turned out there was a reason: he wrote the music. Sometimes I'm just an enormous film nerd. And other times I'm also a tv nerd.

Pretty Persuasion is all "Boo Nazis". A sentiment I completely agree with. It's also a film about manipulative little girls who threaten sexual harassment. It's a very dark satire with a huge amount of foul language. I am not sure I enjoyed the very ending, because it leavens what would otherwise be a relentlessly black film. It's not quite as bad as I was expecting from Marcos Siega, but it was also darker than I was expecting. Which is a good thing. I am not sure that I needed to see all the reaction shots of oral sex, and I really didn't need the slurping sounds. It's sick twisted, mocking everything and everyone, and I highly recommend it, if just for James Woods. His foul-mouthed, racist electronics magnate really steals every scene he's in.