Flight 93/Hard Candy/Silent Hill/Lucky Number Slevin

I've gotten waaaaay behind on writing my silly-little-mini-movie reviews. So here we go.

United 93

I didn't need United 93 to remind me about 9/11. I think about it daily. Living in New York part of the year I am constantly reminded. Every time the clock hits 9:11 I think about it. Every time I'm on a plane or in an airport I think about it. I have friends and relatives serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Anyway, I think about it ALL the time. I will never forget and I don't need movies to remind me.

But still, I was excited to see this movie not because of the subject but because of the director, Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy). I was absolutely riveted by The Bourne Supremacy and not just because the action sequences but I loved the hyper-realistic acting. I trusted from that movie that United 93 would be riveting and it is.

United 93 is intense, frightening, realistic, shocking, disturbing and on and on. It's a very well-made movie and a great document regarding a day in all our lives but mostly the movie is an indictment of American beauracracy. It takes forever for the traffic controllers to even admit they are dealing with a hi-jacking. It's horrifying watching all these well-paid governemt officials running around their offices like chickens with their heads cut off. No one can seem to comprehend that someone would use an airplane as a missile! What the fuck??? We knew they were planning it at some point, we all know about the famous memo. They should have known right away what was going on. That was the rage I felt watching 93. Ultimately, the terrorists succeeded because our airline industry failed. Our government failed. Communication failed. Cockpit doors should never be opened. Period.

Anyway, United 93 probably won't change your opinions or teach you anything new but I gaurantee it will piss you off all over again! I cried during parts of the movie but for the most part I sat there pissed off, watching a tragedy unfold that never needed to happen.
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Hard Candy


United 93 was very upsetting to watch but I saw Hard Candy the night before and I was even more disturbed. I regret seeing these movies back to back. I knew I'd be seeing United 93 the next day and Hard Candy was an interesting warm-up act. Both movies deal with terrorists intent on destroying people they view as evil.

If you don't know the story of Hard Candy it's a about a girl who meets a guy on the internet with the intention of destroying him because she believes he committed a horrible crime. It's a very upsetting movie. I felt physically ill for the entire showing.

It's basically a 2 person film and the acting is excellent which is also a problem in a way. It would be easier if I could have sided with the girl the entire time but instead I sympathized with both characters and hated them both by the end. I'm telling you, it's a very disturbing film. I was so horrified during the castration scene that I came home and looked up castration on the interent to understand it better. I now know more about castration than I ever needed or wanted to know. If you've got two hours to kill and you like watching relentless torture you might love Hard Candy.
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Silent Hill

This movie was fucking horrible. Boring nonsense. Not scary. Not creepy. Incoherent. A total piece of shit. It's based on a video game and I can't think of a single great movie based on a video game, though I do enjoy watching Angelina Jolie run around in the Tomb Raider movies, but I digress. Silent Hill might appeal to lesbians and/or teen-age boys with female-cop sex fantasies but as a gay man I was fucking bored. And more people will see the shit that is Silent Hill than will see the brilliance that is Thank You For Smoking. Ugh!
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Lucky Number Slevin

I was more intrigued by my companions response to this movie than I was the movie itself. I got kind of bored but I didn't hate it or anything. I just lost interest but I was sort of intrigued for the first hour. I really enjoyed the stylish production design and the actors and some of the story-telling techniques but then ultimately I lost interest and got restless.

My companion, however, was outraged. He found it immoral. The story involves mob families and lots of people get killed. My friend found it glib and despicable. Personally, I couldn't muster the energy or passion to hate it or be offended. i just wished it was shorter. And i loved see Josh Hartnett in a towel for the first 30 minutes. Am I the only one on the planet who thinks Josh Hartnett looks and sounds like a young Tommy Lee Jones?