The Beast with a Billion Backs, The Last King of Scotland, Fay Grim, Notes on a Scandal, & The Family Stone

The Beast with a Billion Backs is the second Futurama movie, and as such, there are countless flamewars across the internet about whether it's better than Bender's Big Score, but it's still going very far into the "we're not on network tv so we can do crazy sex jokes constantly" thing that makes them very enjoyable. I think a little bit of the novelty of new Futurama wore off a little, and I probably need to rewatch this (which will be very easy once it arrives in my grubby little hands), but I sort of preferred Bender's Big Score to this. Maybe I just didn't care for the Kif-Amy plot.

The Last King of Scotland's compressed timeline bothered me. You really are never sure what year it is, and the expulsion of the Asians was well before the hijacking, but that's just nitpicking. James McAvoy was quite good, as was Forest Whitaker. I have to say that McAvoy's character was a moron (not just for his blind eye towards Idi Amin, but his utter inability to fall for an available woman, or even one that isn't just a stupid idea, as the first woman on the bus he has sex with, and then the two married women). But I liked it, even with the liberties it took with the facts.

Fay Grim is Hal Hartley's follow-up to Henry Fool, a film I watched years ago, in a brief bit of Hal Hartley-itis, and it had been a long time since I had seen a true Hal Hartley film (No Such Thing wasn't nearly as much of a Hartley film as Henry Fool or Trust or Amateur), so it took me a while to get into the rhythm of his language, which is far more unnatural than David Mamet. It's also far more plot driven than I was expecting, which a very international setting, Jeff Goldblum, and quite a bit about the dangers of terrorism. Definitely not a movie for all tastes, and I'm not sure whether rewatching Henry Fool would have increased or decreased my interest in the film. Hartley is fascinating, and I like that he's working, but I'm not as sure that I like him.

Notes on a Scandal is quite good, although the evil twist in the film just pissed me off. SPOILER! I hate that gay people in films are either the comic relief or are some evil twisted person bent on destroying some straight person. Why must you do that? END SPOILER. That being said, Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench were quite good, and I will always love me some Bill Nighy.

The Family Stone is another film that I watched due to a roommate. And man, I hated it. Although I do think that there's absolutely no choice between Sarah Jessica Parker and Claire Danes. And I won't object to Rachel McAdams ever, although Luke Wilson can be very up and down. And Craig T. Nelson and Diane Keaton are also in a very solid cast that is in a very unsolid film. I also want to point out that it was utterly unnecessary to see Diane Keaton's scarred chest from her double mastectomy. That was just bushleague. I do like the pro-gay message of the film though. Gay deaf people are people too!