Valjean-4

Warning: do not see this movie unless you are feeling intellectually alert. There's no violence, no major conflict, no overarching plot and no dramatic or severe characters.

But, if you are feeling intellectually alert, this movie is one of the most fun movies I've ever seen. Whit Stillman fans will recognize the quirky dialogue and references to Metropolitan and Barcelona, and people new to Whit Stillman... well, people new to Whit Stillman need to find out what they've been missing. Last Days of Disco doesn't offer anything particularly new to the genre - it is at least 95% intellectual bantar, with little plot or scenery to distract you from the conversation. But it is my favorite of the genre, if for no other reason then for what I felt were better and more developed characters, particularly the wonderfully tormented Des. Certain moments in this movie last better in my mind then Metropolitan and Barcelona - the debate over Lady and the Tramp, for instance, or Des' discourse on "to thine own self be true" ("everybody assumes that 'thine own self' is a good thing to be... what if it's not? What if 'thine own self' is fundamentally bad? Should we still be true to it?")

All told, this movie isn't spectacular - I'm not sure any Wilt Stillman movie could ever be called that - but it is interesting and amusing, which is more his style. If you're a fan of intellectual comedy, you'll like it.

The problem with Mortal Kombat: Annihilation isn't that it's stupid, with no significant plot, dialogue or characters. That is undebatably true of Annihilation, but that was also true with the first Mortal Kombat movie, and that was a great movie. The problem is the HUGE let down in the martial arts and special effects scenes. MK had some terrific fight scenes, such as the brilliant Cage/Scorpion fight in the forest, the great Liu Kang/SubZero fight, and the cool finale with Shang Tsung. Annihilation didn't have any fight scenes up to the quality of those three, many of the fight scenes made no sense, and the finale was horrible. In addition, some things in Annihilation I would really like an explanation for:

• Why did Raiden dress up like Aladdin half way through the movie? Was looking like a complete dork part of becoming mortal? And where was Christopher Lambert, anyway?

• What was the third test? Where did that Wolf-guy go? What happened to Sub-Zero?

• Why did they do that stupid thing with Jax' bionic arms? Stupid movies should admit they are stupid movies. Stupid movies which try to have serious elemends become bad movies.

• Same deal with Katana's mother.

• What was point of that huge monster that came out of nowhere to attack Sonya, then immediately went back to it's whole when Jax hit it on the head? Was it a whack-a-mole?

• How is it that Sonya and Jade began to fight IN A DESERT and they immediately fell into a mud pit?

• Why did Smoke maticulously break every window in that random building before fighting Sonya and Jax?

• What was the point of having Liu Kang turn into a dragon? He just turned into a human again, without having done anything effective as a dragon. How was that useful?

• Why didn't they spend more then $80 on the special effects for that dragon? I could do better then that with miniatures and clay animation.

• How is it that this movie could have been made so badly, with such bad cinematography and such pathetic martial arts effects, after the first one was so good?

Why is it that the only widely acclaimed Coen brothers movie is the boring, pointless and grotesque Fargo? Their best movie is clearly The Hudsucker Proxy, one of my favorite movies of all time. Hudsucker is truly a movie that does it all; it is hysterical while at the same time political, fun, while at the same time thought-provoking. No other movie comes close to combining comedy and philosophy so well, and the surreal cinematography is extraordinary. Movies today typically don't bother to be as complete as Hudsucker - every element of this movie circles around and works together. I give Hudsucker the highest compliment I can possibly give a film: every time I see it, I find new intricities and new reasons to love this film.

The One Line Summary says it all. This movie, when you think about it, is incredibly stupid, but impossible not to love anyway. In high school, my friends and I produced a sketch comedy show at my local access cable station, and High Strung reminds me of a better version of our stuff; just a guy whining about his life in an incredibly funny way for 90 minutes. And, btw, I HATE Happy the Clam!