Andromedia, Manhattan Murder Mystery, & Volver

Andromedia is probably the strangest "Let's promote a band" film since Head. But at least that one had lots of music from the band in it. This just had one Speed song, and one Da Pump music video. Yeah... Well, I just had to see this film, because it's an extremely cheesy "girl dies and is resurrected as an artificial intelligence while a yakuza, her half-brother, and a crazy Christopher Doyle (?!) try to steal the technology from her boyfriend" film. And since it's a Takashi Miike film it's even stranger than that description would make it seem to be. The acting is horrendous from everyone, the film frequently looks like crap, it was hard to understand the spoken English because it was sometimes overdubbed with Japanese at the same time, and the boyfriend was indestructible. It's so goofily stupid it almost works. But it doesn't. It's still cheezy.

Manhattan Murder Mystery is famous for the Wagner lines, and also for being the first film post-Mia for Allen. It also has a pretty good cast, with Woody, Diane Keaton, Ron Rifkin, Joy Behar (somehow far less annoying than I expect every time), Alan Alda, and Anjelica Huston. It unfortunately ahs Zach Braff as well, although it's a very minor part, and I didn't even recognize him. It is a Woody Allen film, so maybe we can blame Woody for The Shins being bad? Wait, I can actually blame Woody for lots of stuff far more important than some middling indie band not being interesting anymore. That said, it's actually fairly enjoyable, and there are some very funny lines (not just the aforementioned Wagnerisms), so it's better than I was hoping.

Volver just says one thing to me: don't let Penelope Cruz act in Hollywood films. She's so damn good in her Spanish films that it's a shame she doesn't just make them. Yeah, I'm a total Almodovar fanboy, maybe because he's one of the few directors out there who consistently makes amazing films with strong female characters. Except for Bad Education, which I didn't like that much anyway. This one is almost as good as his best, even if it steals a plot from The Flower of My Secret, but the acting is uniformly excellent from the women. The men are, of course, creepy or there only for the plot needs. It's nice to see a film that's the opposite of most. And I also want to put in a plug for the awesomeness that is Bluray. And the gorgeousness that is the menu and the end credits. Way to go the extra mile and be impressive rather than just bland. Now all I need is a TV and setup that allows me to enjoy the pretty pictures and sounds to go along with the nice presentation.