Sliding Doors

Here's an oldie but a... movie.

I saw this movie when it was new, and I was young, and I thought the premise was clever, which it is; problem is - oh. my. gosh.

And I might add blarg.

I like John Hannah. You might know him better as Jonathan from The Mummy, (Evie's (Rachel Weisz) brother.) Anyway, I like him.
And that's about it. The 90's were an unfortunate era of Gwyneth Paltrow acting British. In fact, my biggest criticism of this movie is that it should have just been set in New York. Gwyneth Paltrow is much more believable as a New Yorkian.... Actually, maybe San Francisco. I'm not sure anyone would believe she lived in New York either.

Like I said, it's a fun premise, but it's dull. Instead of having a scene where her exboyfriend is talking to his friend somewhere interesting, it's ALWAYS at some stupid bar. ALWAYS. It's like they only had 4 filming locations.

Still interested in seeing it? Okay, let's see. Synopsis. Gwyneth Paltrow's life splits into two dimensions: one where she makes a train, and one where she doesn't. In the life where she makes the train, she catches her live-in boyfriend cheating on her, cuts her hair, meets John Hannah, falls in love, gets a better job, then dies. The other her misses the train, takes an excruciatingly long time finding out her boyfriend's cheating on her, finally dumps him and meets John Hannah. In a nut shell, she takes a real long time doing something that could have taken two days.

Belle

We have to begin with comparisons. Take, An Ideal Husband for instance, written by Oscar Wilde. The movie centers around a political law. Take also a book I just finished reading by Shannon Hale, The Princess Academy: Palace of Stone, which also has a political law included in its climax. What both of these stories had in common is that the characters in the story were directly related to whether or not the bills passed. The problem with Belle, was that the characters wanted the bill to pass, but alas, their lives really wouldn't have changed if it didn't. Which made the audience... feel tired. 

I liked most of the actors, and it was a nice movie, but it was also exactly what I was afraid it would be. Dull. I felt it thought it would be more successful because it was about a noble black woman in that day. Problem is, it was less about that and more about being bored.

Live. Die. Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow

Sometimes, Jimmy, when a movie doesn't do too well in the box office they rerelease it under a different title, hoping you're an idiot, and wouldn't realize it's the same movie. Or they really think their movie bombed because of the title. Truth is, I don't know why this movie bombed, it was better than so much other crap out there. All right, it took fifteen hundred years to get going and the ending was cliche, and it took its two hands, picked up the Space Time Continuum, and hurled it out the window, but aside from all its faults it had Emily Blunt in it! She was fantastic! So I tell you it wasn't that bad, and I liked it a lot better than Pacific Rim.