two good movies I saw recently, both available on DVD:
Hotel Rwanda : 2004, nominated for 3 academy awards,including Best Actor (Don Cheadle) and Best Supporting Actress. Tells the story of a Rwandan hotel owner who hid over 1000 Tutsis from Hutu soldiers bent on slaughtering the entire ethnic population during the 1994 genocide. Powerful and moving, with great performances by Cheadle and Nick Nolte as a helpless U.N. official who can have his men guard the Belgian hotel Cheadle's character managers but the soliders "can't use their guns" against teh Hutu rebels. Parts are a big gruesome, but it's so compelling that it's worth watching.
In a totally different vein is Just Like Heaven the 2005 romantic comedy with Reese Witherspoon playing Dr. Elizabeth Masterston, a totally dedicated ER doc entirely submerged in her work. She meets David (Mark Ruffalo), whom she thinks in squatting in her San Francisco apartment. The problem is, he's renting and Elizabeth is in a coma after being hit by a truck on the way home from work one raining evening. Together she and David try to put together her past before her sister, Abby, disconnectes her from life support. Funny and moving, very enjoyable (especially around Valentine's Day...even if you, like me, are single).
I'm also working my way through my Best Picture winner and nominee collection: so far I've watched Casablanca (1943), My Fair Lady (1964), The Sound of Music (1965). Good to review the awesome movies of the past, especially since this year's crop of Best Picture nominees is so disappointing. But there are still good movies to be had!
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5 comments:
Hey, nothing wrong with being single - even on Valentine's day :-) Yea for being single!
We just need our good guy friends (who of course are also all single) to be good friends and get all of their female friends valentine's cards and take us out to dinner :-)
heh. heh. You can keep dreaming, Andrea :) It'll never happen. They spend their money on new cars!!
*sigh* I know. They are no fun! I don't think they'd even be that good to their girlfriends (if they had any). Oh well, you never know, I'll keep wishing. :-)
"Hotel Rwanda" was an excellent film. If you have the time and money get a copy of the PBS documentary "The Ghosts of Rwanda." It is top notch, but don't watch it if you can't handle some gruesome stuff. Romeo Dallaire, the UN official who inspired Nolte's character, has also written some great books on the genocide. On another topic, "Casablanca" is by far the greatest film ever.
I don't know...my vote for best film ever has to go to The Wizard of Oz --great songs, good story, eternal message, and shoes to die for...literally! But I'm partial-it's been my favorite movie since I was two years old and my parents paid $88 for the VHS copy (can you believe it? I got the 3 disc set for $30!). But Casablanca definitely has much going for it.
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