Last Movies of the Summer

posted on september 1, 2003, tag: entertainment

S.W.A.T., which appeared as though it was 'one of those movies where everyone shoots everything and things blow up and nothing matters,' was great. It's a completely believable film from beginning to end, and believe it or not—it's a character film for the most part. There is action, but it's not even close to excessive. The situations and actions sequences are completely believable, and the film has great pacing and flow. It's the perfect summer movie, and you should definitely see it unless you're the type who only likes movies about 'people' and 'emotion' and 'minus anything that isn't romance.' If you are that type, I'm sorry to have wasted your time in this paragraph. Read below.

American Splendor was a really good movie. It's sort of hard to tell why, though, which is troubling. The best description is that it's just a really solid film from beginning to end. The acting is solid, the script, the direction—all of it. It's possible it might be nominated for Academy Awards, but I don't think it will win any. It's weird. Ebert gave it four stars, and I agree—it's probably one of the best movies I've seen in a long time—but I don't quite know exactly why I agree. I can't describe it, you should just see it. It's a part-documentary about a comic-book writer. I know that doesn't sound great, but trust me—you'll like it. If you don't, you'll probably still like S.W.A.T.. If you don't like that either, read below.

Dirty Pretty Things wasn't all that great. I don't know, the trailers make it seem like a suspense or a thriller, but it's definitely not either. It has a few moments that are 'thrilling' and maybe a moment of 'suspense' or two, but other than that, it's a lot of neither of those things ('drama'). I think it would have worked better as a thriller all the way through. Some of the ideas were creepy but they were tossed aside after 30 seconds of creepy music and then you were transported with a cut to another mood (usually not 'creepy'). I'm sure some people will love it (I know some who did), and if you're one of those, you'll probably really like American Splendor too (that's not to say these movies are at all alike, just that neither of them are S.W.A.T. (see above on both counts)). I wasn't a big fan, though.

Note: I apologize for all the 'single quotes,' in advance (even though you'll read this 'after' you've read everything else (I apologize for all the parenthesis too)).

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