Friday, December 26, 2008

My Curious Case of Cold Feet

As I'm typing this, my toes are cold. My hands and feet are the first two (four?) body parts of mine to drop in temperature when I get cold. On the coldest evenings, I'll take a couple baths (one after I get home and another a few hours later when the warmth of the first one has dissipated).

Yesterday afternoon, while attending a screening of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", both sets of my toes were cold. In order to reduce this, I typically take one of my shoes off and put that foot under my opposite knee. Not only does this warm one of my feet, but for some reason, it also seems to reduce the coldness in my other one.

Shit, now that I've brought up "Button", I might as well say how I felt about it. Since it was directed by David Fincher ("Fight Club", "Zodiac"), I was expecting a masterwork. If you weren't aware, the story revolves around a man who is aging backwards.


It starts out in the present-day with one of the main characters going back and telling what happened way-back-when. I'm sure most are familiar with this structure (it was used in my favorite movie of '94, "Forrest Gump, my fave of '97, "Titanic", and my fave of '98, "Saving Private Ryan"). "Button" took the cake, though, in that it went from present-day to past and back again way too many times (On a couple instances, I actually rolled my eyes at the screen. The screen was like, "Kiss my ass").

At close to three hours, the movie was a real tour de force and had a number of moving moments, but just didn't quite do it for me. I agree with this reviewer who said, "I liked "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," but I wanted to love it." I do recommend it; just make sure to keep your expectations in check.

Later that evening, I watched a movie OnDemand from '06 that actually stars both Pitt and Blanchett as well (my wife said, "Weren't they both in the movie we saw today?"). It's called "Babel" and deals with people who are having problems communicating because of language differences (hence, the title).



It was a bit better than "Button" in my eyes. If you're ambitious, check it out.

NOTE: I'm taking a fortnight off to recycle myself. Hope you don't mind. Look through my voluminous archives if you get to missing my one-of-a-kind style (Be warned, however: my earliest writings are quite primitive).

6 comments:

houstonmacbro said...

I'm always amazed at how the studios hold their 'best' movies until the end of the year. Do they really think Oscar judges cant remember anything from earlier in the year?

Eric Curtis said...

I think I'll pass on this one, at least going to the theater to watch it. The last three hour movie I saw in the theater was A Thin Red Line. My butt was so numb after awhile that I was just preying for the credits to start to roll. Watched it again a few years later and enjoyed it so much more.

I was going to check out The Spirit this week, but the reviews have been beyond dreadful.

Valkyrie looks pretty good, and I read a book based on the events.

Thomas said...

Houston, great point. Because of this, the colder my feet are, the more likely it is that I'm watching a superior flick.

Eric, I saw "Red Line" in '98 myself. Wait a minute, if that was the last 3-hour movie you saw in theatres, then you missed out on the "Rings" movies. The first was my favorite movie of '01 and the third my fave of '03.

While going into the "Button" auditorium, I saw a guy wearing a long black trench coat, the kind I'd not seen since the 80's (he was also wearing a black fedora).

I overheard him telling an employee that there was a problem with screening room number 12. I quickly surmised that he was attending "Spirit" (the main character wears the exact same outfit).

I bet he was chagrined when he realized it was showing in one of the smallest theatres. Shit, he may have been the only one in that auditorium.

Valkyrie looks solid. I may check it out next week.

Brian Mongold said...

I'm dying to see Valkyrie, but something always comes up right before we go see it.

I'm definitely going to pass on this movie. BTW, did you see I posted about the story behind Eazy Cheezy? I posted it just for you Thomas. :)

Sarah said...

i liked benjamin button well enough [and am not particularly a fan of mr. pitt]. i think i would have enjoyed it even more if i hadn't been exhausted from all the holiday festivities. 3 hours is a long time when you are fighting to stay awake.

Lauren Elizabeth said...

I pretty much felt the same way about the movie. I liked it ok, but I wanted it to be great.