Hey, I watched a couple of movies recently.

Dirty War
TiVo recorded this off the HBO a few nights ago, and I thought I’d give it a look. The story revolves around a firefighter, an anti-terrorist team, the Prime Minister of not-so-Jolly Olde Englande, and muslim terrorists who manage to detonate a dirty bomb in downtown London. As you might well imagine, hilarity most certainly does not ensue.

Dirty War is kind of a middle-of-the-road movie. Not dismal, but not great, either. The premise doesn’t seem terribly far-fetched and the outcome is rather grim. Even so, there’s a bit of a “happy ending” tacked on with respect to the firefighter.

Ray
I wasn’t all that thrilled with the idea of watching Ray, but I’m glad I did. The movie itself wasn’t a masterpiece of cinema, but Jamie Foxx was absolutely incredible as the late Ray Charles. Time and again I forgot that I was watching Jamie Foxx, and that may be the biggest compliment one can pay an actor who is portraying a real-life person.

Laura wanted to watch the extended version of the movie, but the added scenes are inserted in such a way as to completely ruin the flow of the film, so we watched the theatrical version instead.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Wes Anderson has directed some quirky movies. He likes Bill Murray and the Wilson brothers (see Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums). I like quirky movies, Bill Murray and the Wilson brothers. Even so, The Life Aquatic kind of caught me off guard. It’s definitely quirky and definitely stars Bill Murray and Owen Wilson. I just wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Here’s the thing: the more I think about The Life Aquatic, the more I enjoy it. The movie is funnier to me now that it was when I was actually watching it, and that’s just plain weird. I need to watch this movie again.