Insurmountable Pile 'O Movies

If I don't regularly post these massive, recently seen movies posts, the backlog will become too great. I'm even going to redact a couple flicks from this so the length isn't too extensive (still too many amassing).

First off the sad but great films: Life Is Beautiful and Kite Runner. La Vita was high-spirited and funny for the most part. I just had no idea about the presence of the concentration camp in the film, quelle surprise! The message was solid and kept a nice spin through the sad reality though. The Afghan tale was rather sad throughout but heavily grounded. 'Twas a beautiful and thought-provoking film very deserving of its accolades.

Now a pair of movies based in fighting/MMA: Never Back Down and Redbelt. The former was very close to what I thought it would be: an exaggerated (hopefully) high school experience fraught with teen angst and well-filmed action sequences. Onto my favorite of the two, Redbelt. It was more story-driven, focused on the essence and honor in fighting, and featured the always amazing Chiwetel Ejiofor (see Serenity).

As for comedies, let me present Be Kind Rewind and Darjeeling Limited. Jack Black and Mos Def together? Cheesy movie recreations? A film that doesn't take itself seriously? Yes, please! It was a delightful film that had me delving into the bonus features. I wasn't sure about Darjeeling; Wes Anderson can be hit and miss. Plus his style is rather dry (see Tenenbaums or Zissou). Jason Schwartzman surprisingly didn't deter my enjoyment, and the soundtrack was on par with Wes' other films (which is to say awesome).

Finally, an oldie and a recent unknown: Bullitt and RocknRolla. The oldie features classic Steve McQueen with car chases and no-nonsense police work; it was that and little else. I'm not saying it was bad...just okay. Guy Ritchie then brought his natural flare to what's supposed to be the first in a trilogy. I hadn't heard much about this, but Netflix thankfully recommended it. I think Ritchie basically makes the same movie over & over but better each time. The only thing this could've had to make it better would be Brad Pitt & Jason Statham.

-- "Instead of telling our young people to plan ahead, we should tell them to plan to be surprised."