We watched Righteous Kill last night, the cop film with Pacino and De Niro. If you get the chance to see it and it will cost you money, save your cash for something else. The surprise twist at the end is based on a trick the writers play on the audience throughout the entire movie. We were invited to witness events and yet crucial pieces of information were withheld. The movie wouldn’t have worked if we’d been privy to that info–which is the type of information you would naturally expect in any book or film. Two great actors, one sorry ass film.
On the other side of the equation, we went out to a movie theater for the first time in months to see Milk, which I would highly recommend if you haven’t seen it already. Sean Penn inhabits this role, and Josh Brolin couldn’t be buttoned up any tighter if he were in a suit of armor. The cinematography does a creditable job of recreating certain scenes as if they were filmed in the 1970s. The character arc is intriguing, if tragic–how a closeted 40 year old transformed himself into such a public advocate who made a difference in American policies in the span of less than a decade.
Yesterday was a wonderful spring day. We sat on the back deck most of the afternoon, cooked on the barbeque. I’m sure there are people in the northern lattitudes who don’t want to hear that.
I finished Spade and Archer yesterday. Review forthcoming. The title is something of a misnomer. Archer does come into play early on, and we find out how the two ended up in business together, but he’s not on the page very often and we don’t get much of a feel for who he is. His wife gets more screen time. It does a fine job of setting up The Maltese Falcon, though, as well as creating its own story. There’s one bit that bogs down with too much detail about Chinese politics without much payoff, but that’s my only quibble.
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