Semester’s end

It’s the end of the semester, so there has been some busy times recently, along with some really bored times. I’ve been reading a book sporadically during that time, and I should be done shortly, with a review. The lab I was taking finished a couple of weeks ago. I took the opportunity to watch a few of movies I wanted to see. They’re coming, so I’ll ramble out of their way.

I finally saw A History of Violence. I wanted to see that when it came out, but I never saw the thing on the online listing for the local theaters. That kills me. Don’t carry the good movies, even at a bad time. No wonder attendance is down. It had really good reviews, and it deserved them. It’s a good movie. I wouldn’t say it’s a big crowd drawer, or one I would buy and watch a bunch. But it does what it does quite well. It’s one of those movies that feels as much like a play as it feels like a movie. And in this case that’s a good thing. It leaves you with lots of questions, few tidy endings, and maybe a little light headed. Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello do a nice job. Bello and Viggo get a little rough and tumble and some people get dead. Definitely earned that R rating. It’s definitely worth seeing if you like, as a friend calls them, films.

I also rented The Cooler, which I had been staring at on the shelf for 2+ years. For some reason I really like William H. Macy in almost everything he’s done. I feel about him like I felt about Roddy McDowal. In this one Macy plays Bernie Lootz, a Cooler at a casino in Vegas. He has such horrid luck that he can “cool” people on a hot streak by walking up to the table or placing a $1 bet. He saves the casino a tone of cash. At least that is until he meets a woman, Maria Bello, and gets “lucky.” Interestingly, you get to see some of Bello’s punnany in this movie as well, and some of Macy’s ass. What is it about these movies and sex shots. Anyway, I recommend this one as well, but it’s not as play like as Violence.

Then I went for the bad movie of the week, Into the Blue. I rented this because I like swimming and treasure hunting. It also doesn’t hurt to have Jessica Alba and a good dose of fairly mindless action to balance the other two movies. Not quite as many gratuitous fan shots as I expected, but they made good use of the ones that were there. Oy.