Mundane Movie Update Post

I had a brilliant movie filled weekend!

I realised that Charlie Kaufman is a less sung master, Robin Williams can't be praised enough, Nicolas Cage CAN act (and brilliantly at that), the french maestro Truffaut's creations can be genuinely boring, that I do love Jack Black's brand of humor and am not scared of putting his name in the same sentence with Truffaut, and finally, I realised that penguins can spark existential thoughts and shy away from giving answers that they don't know that they just might know!

Movies in Question -

March Of The Penguins - Morgan Freeman (Voice)
A fascinating documentary on the lifecycle of Penguins! The existential thoughts? Well, you wonder what motivates them to take up that arduous journey? You wonder what makes them put their life at stake looking for a mate, having an egg, taking care of it at all costs, and then going away from each other?
What makes us feel that our feelings and emotions aren't as much a part of a mechanical universal plan as are the obvious trials and travails of the penguins? And by a mechanical plan I don't mean a super-intelligent being having programmed us. Just look at the commonality between every living thing. They procreate, multiply and further their species. All have a seemingly hidden purpose that they are not aware of. And most likely, there isn't any purpose at all. We humans are also equally unaware if a purpose at all exists, and we garb the procreating instinct under love, relationships, soul mates, affection, bond etc etc.
*end it* ;)

The Big White - Robin Williams
A simple touching film about a man who loves his wife a lot. A LOT. No... I mean, really... A LAAWWT!

Domicile Conjugal (Bed & Board) - Dir. Francis Truffaut
This movie almost bored me. Its too real. Its too obvious and its just too.. well may be french.
Newly wed couple, regular life-like neighborhood with various life-like 'characters', regular life, dedicated husband, husband slips for a mysterious looking Japanese woman (what a twist), wife doesn't like it (the other possibility being?), regular quarrels, husband leaves the house, experienced next door married woman assures the wife that husband will come back, husband realises that he really can't spend quality time with the Japanese woman due to certain cultural differences, calls his wife to tell her how bored and incompatible he is with the Japanese woman, comes back to wife, gets into the routine again, they start living the way regular married couples do, and start doing things that they used to see their long married neighbouring couple doing.
I have NO views on the story. I just saw it. Didn't get bored enough to leave it. Just kept watching and then it ended, and I started another.
I think if someone watches it just before getting married, they would get quite screwed in the head. They wouldn't know what the heck to make of it! What was the point?
Even I don't know what the heck to make of it, but the good thing is, I am not getting married. ;)

School Of Rock - Jack Black
I remember having noticed Jack Black for the first time in "High Fidelity" and I loved the character! This guy can be so full of energy! And then I saw this awesome cameo of his in "Melvin Goes To Dinner" (Its an amazing must watch film about 4 almost strangers, ending up in a restaurant together and getting into a series of highly unexpected, long and engaging conversations about almost everything under the sun!). "Envy" is another underrated spoof on life that had him in a lead role!
'School of Rock' has infinite entertainment value if viewed right after 'Domicile Conjugal'.

Adaptation - Nicolas Cage, Wri. Charlie Kauffman
Brilliant and extremely intelligent piece of work. Pulling off such a script and the screenplay and not getting lost in it or not messing it up is an extraordinary feat in itself!
Over and above the fact that its an emotionally intelligent film, one must also watch it if they love exploring intricacies and looking for logical flaws ;). As per me, there is ONE. Not exactly a flaw, but an angle, if taken care of, could have made the movie even more brilliant. But no point mentioning it unless some of you have seen it and can discuss!

Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind - Wri. Charlie Kauffman
I realised that Kaufman is also the brain behind "Being John Malkovich", "Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind" and a lesser known brilliant movie called "Human Nature". Having seen all others, I had to pick up "Confessions..." straight away. And I wasn't disappointed at all. But "Confessions..." gains its impact from the fascinating life of Chuck Barris (An (in)famous game show creator of 60's and 70's), whose 'unauthorised' autobiography the film is based on, rather than the scripting brilliance of Kaufman (who obviously does a great job again!). It stars George Clooney too, who plays a character that possibly never existed in Chuck's life!... Fantastic film.

And yes, I also saw Airheads (Brendan Fraiser, Adam Sandler and Steve Buscemi (of the tarantino group)). It was ok, decently entertaining, but didn't deserve a mention up there.