nomadreader

The backstory: The Tourist  is nominated for three Golden Globe Awards: Best Picture, Comedy; Best Actress in a Comedy, Angelina Jolie; and Best Actor in a Comedy, Johnny Depp. Also, it's set in Venice, which is my favorite city in the world. The basics: Angelina Jolie, a mysterious British woman living in Paris and being trailed by British police, receives a note from her lover, and the reason she is being tailed. He instructs her to get on a train, find a man around his height and build, and convince the authorities it's him.  My thoughts: Few things make me happier than films with frequent aerial shots and films shot in Venice, and The Tourist delivered both with gusto. The film has a somewhat unusual pace, but it appealed to me as a fan of old-fashioned spy capers. In some ways it defies genres. It's part adventure, part mystery, part romance, part comedy and part travelogue. Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp are both superb. I would not classify it is as a comedy, but...

Welcome back to my Monday morning recap of my no-longer-Friday-night date with myself. I've been working Friday nights for the past few months, and I've missed both enjoying a movie and dinner and recapping them. I've decided to keep this feature on Monday morning, and I hope to find time each week to squeeze in a film at my favorite independent movie theater in Albany and my favorite restaurant, New World Bistro Bar. The backstory: I'm a huge fan of Angelina Jolie, and I've been eager to see Salt  ever since Tom Cruise dropped out and Angelina took over his role. I'm thrilled the day has come when gender-blind casting of a summer adventure film can exist. To further entice me, part of the film was shot right here in Albany last summer. Who knew our I-787 interchange closely resembles D.C.'s? It was fun to see some of our local landmarks in the trailer. The basics: Evelyn Salt is a CIA agent accused of being part of a brilliantly cool (for a fiction...

Hot on the heels of my lukewarm response to The Garden of Last Days , I saw Wanted . I adore Angelina Jolie, and I appreciate the interviews of her leading up to Wanted . After her mother's death, she knew she needed to work, but she didn't want to do a serious movie. She wanted to have fun and kick some ass. I'm a firm believer in balancing the serious in life with the fun. Fun movies may not be brilliant, but they're certainly useful and entertaining. Wanted immediately grabbed me. It started like a reimagining of Office Space. I love cubicle drones gone crazy. James McAvoy was stellar. It was my first time seeing him act, and I cannot wait for more. About an hour into the movie, I leaned over to nomadreaderboy and asked for a home theater system. It seemed to be the kind of escapist movie fare I could watch over and over again, but it needs a big screen. Unfortunately, suddenly Wanted tried to be deeper than it needs to be. It begins to take itself too s...