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I went to see the movie Sideways this weekend. It was absolutely FAN…TAS…TIC! Go see this movie if you haven’t. Now, I want to drive up to Santa Barbara for a wine tasting tour (and I don’t even like wine).

The Final Cut. is a fantastic movie. If you can get to see it, you really should. In the world of the movie, there are these implants that parents can purchase for their children. From birth to death, the implant records everything that the person sees or hears. When the person dies, an editor goes through the person’s life to distil everything down to the essence of the person. Family and friends then gather to watch these as sort of a memorial.

With that as a premise, the movie is able to explore a lot of really interesting ideas. How are our memories of an event different from the actual event? How can memories of an event shape who we are? What are the implications for society in a world where every single moment is being recorded and could be viewed at some later date?

I found it all very thought provoking because I’ve noticed in myself a tendency to experience an event very differently when I’m there with a camera. Rather than being there in the moment, it’s almost as if I’m there in my memory — constructing how I’m going to remember it as it happens.

I would love to have augmented memory — sort of a life TiVo that would let me rewind a couple minutes, hours, years whatever. That’s not what the implants in the movie are though. The people can’t access them. In most cases, they don’t even know they have them until they’re told sometime around their 21st birthday when they have to come to terms with the idea that all the things they did as kids will be viewed by somebody when they die. I would absolutely hate something like that. It’s really interesting to think about though.

If you like thinking about stuff like that, then i would highly recommend this movie.

Fellowship 9/11 is a bit tedious, but then so is the guy they’re skewering. I never saw Fahrenheit 9/11. I’m probably sympathetic to the message, but I can’t stand the messenger. Still, from what I can gather from clips and things I heard, this looks like it’s probably a very successful parody.

Is Phantom of the Paradise the worst movie ever made? It might just be.

OK, I’m sure it’s far from the worst, but it is laughably bad, and I mean that in the best possible way. They’re showing it on Fox Movie Classics. Do try to check it out — you know, if you’re into that kind of thing.

If you have a chance to see the movie, Garden State, and you like off-beat sort of semi-dark dramas, then get yourself to a theater. I liked it a bunch. You know that feeling when you’re with a group of friends, particularly friends you haven’t seen in a while, and you feel kind of disconnected from everything that’s happening around you, and you’re not sure you really quite belong? Yeah, this movie knows that feeling too and it captures it beautifully.

I went to see Spider-Man 2 last night. It was good, but when did Spider-Man become Superman? I don’t want to ruin it for anybody that hasn’t seen it yet, but the whole train thing… What the hell was that? I never read the comic books, but could Spider-Man really do something like that?

I can suspend disbelief to a point and say OK, he has the proportional strength of a spider. Is he indestructible though? Maybe if they’d kept him a little more human, they wouldn’t have had to go through all the hoops with losing his powers in order to create drama.

Also, it could have been a lot shorter. When did every movie have to run 2+ hours. Some movies benefit from longer running times. Most though, don’t. Take for instance Mean Girls which I also saw over the weekend. That only ran about an hour and a half, which was nice. It ended just when I was ready for it to end. Plus, there were a couple of really nice, dark laughs in it.

I went to see the movie, Saved, this weekend. I couldn’t tell based on the previews and what I’d heard about it whether I would like it or not. It was pretty good though. It sort of reminded me of Election.

I also watched The Terminal. Based on the previews, I assumed I’d probably be bored by that one. How interesting could 2 hours in an airport be? All the critics seemed to love it though. And, there was nothing else out that even looked interesting, so as a last minute kind of thing I ducked in to see it. It was better than I thought it would be. I didn’t quite buy into the principal drama. I liked the main character, and I sort of liked the love story, but I couldn’t go along with the general conflict. I suppose they set it up as well as they could (albeit sort of heavy handedly), but it just seemed too hard to accept.

Oh, and I can’t wait to see the Bourne Supremacy. In fact, I may just have to dig out the Bourne Identity DVD and watch that a couple of times to get myself ready.

Slate’s article How Widescreen Won talks about the way that letterbox has beat out full-screen as the movie format of choice.

One of my old blog entries cursed the full-screen format, and there’s a minor debate going on in the comments as transitory users happen upon it as a result of one google search or another. To which I say ha! In your face full screen fans.

I saw an ad for the upcoming King Arthur Movie, and my first thought was cool, I hope this is good. Seriously though, is there any chance that this thing won’t suck? I kind of want to see Troy too. This may end up being the summer of historical movies that are major disappointments to me. I’m not sure. I hope not, but well it just seems like the cards are stacked against anything other than a perilously high suck factor.

I’ve been meaning to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for a few weeks now. This afternoon, I finally managed to get to a theater. It is a really spectacular movie. I absolutely loved it.

It’s intelligent and feeling, real and fantastical. This is easily Kaufman’s best movie to date. When I saw Being John Malkovich, I thought it was interesting and unlike anything I’d seen before, but it felt more like an experiment than a movie. Adaptation was better, but it fell apart at the end. This one though was just absolutely perfect.

Well, OK. A few of the side stories could have been eliminated or greatly cut down. I would have much rather had more of the love/loss of the main characters. That’s a minor nit though. I can’t wait to get the DVD so I can watch it over and over and over again.

If you haven’t seen it yet, run to a theater and check it out.