Two nights; Two movies

Friday night: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Saturday night: New York I love You

Friday...........

Actually, it should be Saturday wee hours since I caught The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus the Friday midnight slot and boy......what a time slot to watch the movie cos it's really like Dorian Gray tripping on acid. One look and you can tell the heavy Monty Python influence thanks to director Terry Gilliam but I walked out of the cinema not knowing exactly what to say about it...the accumulated fatigue from the insane week and ungodly hour obviously didn't help but this morning, after some deliberation, I've decided it's actually quite an awesome movie. I wouldn't suggest you watch the movie for the plot or storyline but watch it for the spectacular and stunning visual effects, the excellent cast and the last acting effort of my very much beloved and unfortunately very dead Heath Ledger. Of course the cameo of the smoking hot trio aka Johnny Depp, Colin Farrel and Jude Law really gives the movie an extra edge and a refreshing surprise.
To summarise, it's a fantasy movie with Dr Parnassus (played by Christopher Plummer) having a dirty deal with the devil Mr Nick (played by Tom Waits the singer...oh I LOVE HIM!) Dr P took the audience through his little world of imagination into the special mirror that exposes every human's deepest desire and setting them free from it. As nothing good would ever come out of dealing with the devil, the same goes for Dr P who in the end lost his bets with the devil.......I would bet you my Chanel bag and a box of Laduree macaroon that Gilliam wrote the script while under the influence of some serious Grade A acid washed down with a line of coke cos the whole movie has a dream-like quality of a good hallucination.
Heath's performance was superb as expected and somehow, I felt sad watching the movie because his death was indeed a great shame and I remember feeling incredibly sad the morning I knew of his passing. He died while the movie wasn't even half done and then Gilliam quickly cast the drool-worthy trio in. Gilliam's direction wasn't shabby at all.....and it's quite an interesting movie which will make you feel as if you're tripping on acid, not knowing what you'd expect next....I give it 3.5 stars out of 5...

Saturday......

 

New York I Love You had an insurmountable feat of filling a very very big shoe of its successor Paris Je'taime which happens to be one of my favorite movies...thing is, Ah Meow from work told me New York I Love You sucked big time and I was preparing for the worst when I walked in to the cinema...and I perhaps got to thank her for telling me that it sucked ass cos well, I was expecting worse. It didn't turn out to be half as bad as I thought though it by no means can measure up to Paris Je'taime....

For those who're not familiar, the movie's a montage of short films by 11 different directors and the stories all revolve around love with the Big Apple as the backdrop. Now it fell short to its successor because this film is meant to be an art house film but then you can literally see the "trying too hard to be artsy and non-hollywood" element in it. And some of the stories and the way it's shot and directed were a wee bit trite that makes you feel that this is indeed mainstream Hollywood pretending to be art house. The cinematography and directions are really typical Hollywood that's all commercial BUT, I absolutely applaud the segment directed by Shekhar Kapur...that to me, is the BEST film inside and it features Shia LaBeof as a hotel bell boy with a really bad limp from scoliosis and Shia did a pretty good performance and actually acted as opposed to his silly role in Transformer. Now I went from not liking him a lot to actually not liking him less....I hate to say this but I'm mildly impressed by his performance and well, congrats Shia, you're now a real actor in my book....Kapur's segment is so emotionally charged that I actually had tears in my eyes cos the sadness Shia LaBeouf and his costar Julie Christie portrayed was hauntingly poignant and I could literally feel it. The two feeding on each others' melancholy. It's absolutely beautiful

 Thing is, it's got a pretty decent cast of famous names but I wonder if that's the reason why I like it less cos the direction's already mainstream, the familiar collection of Hollywood mainstream faces makes it feel very commercial....Also, despite the fact that it tried to have a better flow of linking one story to the next, all the stories don't gel that well and you can tell the obvious attempt to make them sync and gel in. Paris Je'taime on the other hand had a very fragmented approach where you can really tell the end of one segment and the start of another but yet, they flow so seamlessly....

Overall, it's still a good film I would say and if I have never watched Paris Je'taime, I would probably love it even more. I like it but I'm not immensely impressed but I'll give it 3.5 stars out of 5 also. It's worth watching actually.....

Now a stupid frivolous note....I went to Mulberry to see the Alexa and I now have a very very serious itch that I have no idea if I would scratch...it's painful....arghhhh why must the Alexa be so nice!!!??? 

P.S...someone just asked me "You mean that Mr Nick in Dr Parnassus is a singer??? What the hell did he sing? I never heard of him" Here's your bit of education...that Mr Nick is Tom Waits and he's bloody good! He's a singer song-writer and click here to listen to my favorite Tom Waits' song Hold On.....he's got this very very rough nice voice...very soothing....the type you'll drink and smoke alone to...