Strange threesome

I've been watching a lot of movies lately, but I've been very remiss about posting about them. Just haven't been in a posting mood. Anyway, I'll try and fill in some of the blanks with some short reviews.

Under the Mountain (2009) - rented from Netflix for Sam Neill, 'natch. Who I loved. This was an interesting movie. Sort of Lovecraft meets Lord of the Rings. Our heroes have to pitch something into the volcano to destroy the Big Bad Evil while extremely creepy minions try to kill them. There isn't enough to this movie to really make it work right. But if you check your brain at the door, the lead actors are all quite engaging and fun to watch. This is billed as a family movie, but I wouldn't let any youngsters watch it. The Wilberforces are flat-out freaky (very nice make up and effects on them), and their dialogue is nicely not-human in cadence and wording. Sam Neill was wonderful, as usual, his character a bit shady and lost, redeeming himself at the end. Mmmm.

Speaking of checking your brain at the door, I went to the movie theater and saw an actual currently playing movie! I just couldn't resist going to see The Expendables. Yeah, yeah, but I grew up on violent action movies and this sounded right up my alley. Of course, I also had this misconception that Bruce Willis was going to have more than 5 minutes of screen time (I love Bruce Willis), but you know, he got one of the funniest moments, and he got to threaten Sylvester Stallone. I'd say that's a win.

As for the movie, it was a fun popcorn flick, not too much plot, not too much character, but enough of each to backbone the explosions, shoot-'em-ups, and hand-to-hand fights. I was surprised at how much I liked the Expendables themselves. In particularly Jason Statham's character and Jet Li's character, who hands down got the funniest dialogue. There was one great action sequence (the plane escape), the rest was par for the course.

Fun, but good lord, I can handle a lot of violence, but really, do we need that much blood and flying body parts? Really? It's all very cartoonish, but still I was a bit surprised by how gory it was. Not one I'd want to own, but I'm glad I saw it in the theater.

Father is a Bachelor (1950). (Thank you, Kate!!) We're still in brainless territory, but this one is a very cute and harmless film. William Holden plays part of a medicine show act who gets stranded in a town when his boss is arrested. He hides out, does some fishing, discovers a houseful of orphans and ends up caring for them, problems ensue, problems get solved. There really is nothing more to this movie than cute, but that's okay. When the cute is William Holden, I'm fine with it. However, there's also that bunch of kids. I liked the boys, but the little girl just made me roll my eyes and wish her elsewhere. There is a hilarious scene though when WH thinks he can make her a dress to replace a ruined one. This is a bit of a musical too, with lots of singing... only someone's dubbing over WH, and it's not a good match. Sigh. All's well that ends well, though, and this was overall a pleasant, if not particularly memorable movie.

Oh, and I have this pet peeve about actors who can't chop wood. I can't remember what movie it was now, but there was some modern movie with some buff guy who was supposed to be chopping wood, and he couldn't do it. He was doing these short little choppy swings that would accomplish nothing. I've chopped wood, and when I can swing an axe in a full overhead swing and split a piece of wood in two, and some manly actor can't when he's playing a character who's supposed to be able to... well, it irritates me greatly. It's just one of those pet peeve things. Not that I had any doubts on the matter, but I'm pleased to say William Holden chops wood beautifully.