First post of the spooooky month

What should I write about? I know ... MOVIES!

Netflix is great because it tracks all my returned rentals. I can refer to it to see what I've watched lately and help myself come up with easy fodder for this blog!

Brick was great, as was Dog Soldiers. My Summer of Love was as good as its perfect trailer. Ghost in the Shell made me wish someone would adapt Snow Crash as an anime. Red Eye showed off more of Wes Craven's deft use of the 2.35:1 aspect ratio (called "Scope"). Immortal Beloved was sad, as I expected, but had a couple moments of technical folly that ruined the moment. The Illusionist was really good; its only sin was the use of the terrible type of slow motion that looks choppy because the crew didn't shoot the scene at the right film speed for slow motion but decided to slow it down in post production. Alas, the movie was enchanting, even if parts of the plot were inexplicable.

I watched Palindromes tonight. It was wonderful. It was truly off the edge of the map, a surprising movie that defied convention, which, you might recall, is a quality I prefer films to have.

Speaking of defying convention, I read some movie reviews by Pauline Kael recently; she was a professional film critic. Her review of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels made me desire a sequel, but here's the catch: It would be totally serious. It would be a clever, noirish con-artist movie in the vein of The Spanish Prisoner. I don't think I'd be happy with a sequel in the spirit of the first movie, but changing the genre would be acceptable. And I believe Steve Martin, Michael Caine and Glenne Headly are up for the challenge. It would be time and money better spent than on Cheaper by the Dozen 5. It baffles me to think of all the daring, original ideas Hollywood could produce instead of wallowing in the security of lame-ass teen comedies (Mean Girls) and bad thrillers (Taking Lives).

I really need to do some research on an important topic and write an editorial in here, but ranting about movies is so much easier.