Robert Plant 'Dreamland'

Since I didn’t spend my rare free time this past Saturday with my Zune MP3 player, I used that time to watch some DVD’s from Netflix. I will share with you…

First up… Apocalypto.

I didn’t really have a desire to see this film in the theaters because of the subtitles. It’s not that I’m against reading what is going on… It’s just that for me, it detracts from the film work itself. I want to see what kind of picture the director is trying to paint. I look for symbolism and all that other film snob type of crap. I enjoy looking for the deeper meaning as opposed to just “watching” a flick.

I was surprised how Apocalypto pulled me in. The subtitles were short and to the point. The action was really good and the pacing of the long film itself kept me from checking the clock for time’s passing. Apocalypto was like a Die Hard movie for fans of the History Channel.

Even if you’re a dullard like me, the subtitles in Apocalypto do not keep you from enjoying the film. I highly recommend Apocalypto and I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on Netflix.

Next is Letters From Iwo Jima… Clint Eastwood’s companion piece to Flags Of Our Fathers.

Letters From Iwo Jima is about the battle over that Pacific Island from the Japanese perspective. There’s insight in how the Japanese viewed their position and the utter hopelessness they felt in defending the island. Sure, the film is a little slow at times and again… The subtitles didn’t keep me from enjoying the film. I gave Letters From Iwo Jima 4 out of 5 stars.

It’s a finely crafted film in just about every sense, but I can only recommend it to history buffs. The average viewer just wouldn’t care.

I tried watching a film from one of my favorite directors, Martin Scorsese… New York, New York. I had no idea that this movie would bore me to tears. After 20 minutes, I had had enough of Robert De Niro’s A-hole character. And Liza Minnelli didn’t add anything to the overall feeling either. So that joker was yanked from the player, shoved into a Netflix envelope, and placed into my mailbox for return. The faster, the better.

I only gave 1 star to New York, New York. I’m just not having that much good luck with Scorsese’s work from the 1970’s. So I’m a little wary of seeing The King Of Comedy. But it’s on the way to my home as I write this.

Now for the shocker… I have never seen Fast Times At Ridgemont High until this past weekend. Oh sure, I have seen some clips and I’ve heard some sound bites, but never the whole 90 minute movie.

For years, I’ve heard people sing its praises and quote the film. I just never had any overwhelming desire to see it. Fast Times always seemed to me like another one of those brain dead teenage comedies. In my opinion… I was right.

I kept waiting and waiting for something to make me laugh and I just didn’t find it. I was even told by Kristina that I’m obviously too old to understand what was going on… I suppose she meant the teenage mall rat culture. Although she was 6 or 7 when the movie came out and I was sort of living that life already at the age of 12 years… I understood the soap opera like lives of the characters. It just wasn’t funny. It didn’t live up to the expectations and reviews that my friends have given me.

I did manage to watch the entire flick just on the hopes of getting the one laugh that never came. And the thing that bothered me most about it… The music playing over scenes was way too loud. I found it difficult at times to hear the dialogue that was buried in the sound mix. I didn’t feel comfortable giving it 3 stars, so I went with my gut and gave Fast Times At Ridgemont High 2 out of 5 stars.

I also managed to finish up the HBO series Deadwood. That was a fantastic F’ing series and ended rather nicely. I gave the final and third season 5 stars.