Johannes Schult

Stranger Than Fiction was the delightful comedy I had hoped for. It wasn’t flawless and I might have preferred a different ending. But Dustin Hoffman totally owned the screen and delivered some incredibly funny lines. I guess some of them are only funny in an academic context, e.g. the part about “little did he know”. I’ve seen plenty of movies with Emma Thompson, so I was surprised I wasn’t biased. It’s a pity that she and Hoffman didn’t get more screen time together. Her character was quite unique and therefore refreshing. As stupid as it may sound: I could relate to her, as far as that’s possible.

I just read the previous sentence, and boy, it does sound stupid. Anyway, I watched a couple of DVDs last week. Children of Men was a bit disappointing story-wise, but the camera work was nothing short of amazing. Michael Caine was superb and his joke about the Englishman eating stork fillet was hilarious. Having Deep Purple in the soundtrack didn’t hurt, either. The premise was fascinating and distressing. Compared to V for Vendetta, the plot was too simple and the resolution too arbitrary for my taste, though.

Some Kind of Monster was entertaining; a solid mixture of music, business, music business, and psychology. Some of the coolest scenes were on the second DVD (e.g., Lars Ulrich getting upset about Jason Newsted), so I was glad I didn’t watch it in the theatre in the first place. In case you think I’m watching too many movies, just take a look at Cinemania. It’s a documentary about five movie nerds who spend almost every waking hour in front of the big screen. Crazy stuff.

We Feed the World suffered from a slow pace. Still, the documentary about food production raised important issues and illustrated why I stopped eating meat a few years ago. And then there was a movie which can possible make you abandon fish: Airplane! I was surprised to see Julie Hagerty playing the female lead role. The DVD had an audio commentary track by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, and producer Jon Davison. They basically laughed all the time. It wasn’t the annoying kind of laughter; neither was it the pointless kind of commentary that made Wedding Crashers even more boring. The guys just had a good time. The whole thing was almost as funny as the cast commentary on She’s the Man. (NB: Julie Hagerty is in that movie, as well!) Speaking of which: She’s the Man continues to be a source of joy and rapture. Even if it’s just a single line like Olivia warning Viola: “Beware the old guy chewing gum… it’s not gum.” Made me laugh for a couple of minutes, once again.