Movie #1: Machete
Seriously, this flick is going to be awesome. Highbrow? No. But gory glory? Yes. What else would we want from this faux trailer-turned-feature? By the way, if you read the NYTimes preview of it, which is a glowing a pre-review as you could ever want, look for Stephen Holden's awesome, oh-so-allusional description of Danny Trejo's head as reminiscent of a buffalo nickel.
Movie #2: A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop
Apparently Zhang Yimou (director of Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower) has remade the Coen Brother's debut movie, Blood Simple. A.O. Scott, the Times' chief movie critic par excellence (who displays a remarkable sense of judgment and objectivity. I applaud and admire the way that he is able to review movies that are so obviously terrible or that belong to categories not traditionally known for producing the most haute or well thought out films in the same manner that he'd review a Truffaut or Godard. See, por ejemplo, his most recent review of Going the Distance, which he actually concedes just isn't half bad at all) has set for us a challenge: "Let us leave, at least for now, the pleasures of side-by-side comparison to budding cineastes, who will learn a lot from studying the decisive difference that specific technical choices — having to do with editing, shot selection and sound design — can make with respect to the mood and meaning of a single story." (Here's a link to the Scott article).
So, with that in mind, I intend to take up his challenge and claim the prestigious title (yeah...prestigious) of 'budding cineaste.' Stay tuned for the review. Either way, the Coen's are just fantastic, really, really brilliant directors, and I've thoroughly enjoyed the Zhang Yimou movies mentioned above. I'm certain these movies will deliver, and I look forward to sharing my views on them with you.
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