With my impending move approaching quickly, I took the last two days to say my goodbyes as it were to a couple of places that have a special place in my heart. Ever since I discovered the Ritz Theaters in high school, I have frequented the place as much as I could. On Fridays in the summer, my friends and I would see 4 films in a row between the two theaters (now 3) in the Old City area. My college years were spent learning about indie cinema in those very plush and comfortable seats. Reservoir Dogs, Clerks, Naked Lunch, movies that changed my life were first digested in those hallowed halls. Over the past couple years, while in the Manayunk area, I've grow attached to the Bala theater about 10 minutes from my house. It's an old time Main Street cinema place that specializes as much as it can in showing movies of value and not just popcorn fair. Both institutions will be severely missed since I've already seen the movie scene down in Georgia and it's multiplex junk.
Moving on, here's what I can offer about my final films at each theater.
Kung Fu Hustle 9:50 PM at Ritz at the Bourse
My expectations for this movie were about as high as could be for a kung fu movie. I'm a huge fan of not only Jackie Chan and Jet Li, but the recent "artistic" chop sockey's like Crouching Tiger, Hero and House of Flying Daggers (alright maybe not Daggers). The trailer for this movie made it look like Snatch meets Kill Bill meets Dogville, but instead it's Naked Gun with karate. And I'm not a fan of movies that are over the top with slapstick and sight gags. The special effects were hokey, as I've mentioned many times on this here blog, I'm not into making shit look like cartoons. What this movie did do by accident was reaffirm my love for Jackie Chan. You may not get much plot, but at least his action is real. If I want to see Mummy shit, I'll rent Mummy. If I want to see fight scenes where people are clearly on wires, I'll rent Crouching Tiger. I could go on and on, like this movie and it's rambling and confusing plot, but I'll just say that I wish my last experience at the Ritz was a better one.
Layer Cake 4:30 PM at the Bala
You may have heard about this one. It's directed by the guy who produced Guy Ritchie's movies, back when Guy made movies that didn't suck. Oh wait, this guy produced Swept Away too. Oops. Anyway, it's kind of the same British look at the underbelly of gangster life but minus all the clever and funny Guy Ritchie parts. It's more subdued and noir than flashy and coy, and I'm partial to the flash and witty dialogue. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy this flick. Very well crafted, strong actors, good use of music....just not all that exciting. The cliche of "one last job before I retire" is fucking done. Please find another set up, but I will admit some of the triple crosses keep you guessing which is always nice. I hate movies that you can figure out in 10 minutes and it becomes an exercise just to get through 90 more minutes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment