Reel Insight 16 and Matineecast 21

 This week I was a guest on the Lammy Award winning Matineecast.  The Mad Hatter from The Dark of the Matinee and I discussed The Town and did our top 5 cops and robbers movies.  Check it out on itunes.

And of course, Rachel and I discussed Sigourney Weaver, the return of some good TV, and had a lot of fun.  Check out Episode 16 of Reel Insight.

Snow Cake - Alan Rickman plays Alex, a guy just released from prison who picks up Vivienne hitchhiking.  They're hit rapidly by a tractor trailer and Vivienne is killed.  Alex feels incredibly guilty for the accident and goes to see her mother.  Sigourney Weaver plays Linda, an autistic woman who lives alone, and loves snow, and won't allow people into her kitchen.  It's Weaver's best performance in ages, and very much outside her norm.  She's innocent, but hyper, and stong-willed and requires routine, but she plays it really well.  The straightforward nature of her character allows her to see the death of Vivienne as a practical and not emotional thing. 

Heartbreakers - I didn't expect to like this, but it's funny and the acting is good.  Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt are a mom and daughter con team.  Weaver marries men, and then Hewitt seduces them and Weaver divorces them, getting a nice divorce settlement.  They're smart and savvy about setting up the cons, looking pretty far ahead.  Hewitt wants to go off on her own after one last con, but of course, she falls for a guy and the con doesn't go quite as she expects. 

Aliens - I had only seen snippets of the Alien series because I'm not a big fan of horror, but I am a fan of sci-fi and was assured that this second in the series is less horror and more thriller/sci-fi.  And they're right, it's awesome.  It doesn't have the best dialogue (other that "Get away from her you bitch") and the fight scenes are pretty great.  Particularly for it's time, terrific film.

The Year of Living Dangerously - I had heard that Linda Hunt won a best supporting Oscar for her performance as photographer, Billy, in this Mel Gibson movie from the early 80s.  Gibson stars as an Australian journalist in Indonesia in 1965 investigating the corruption and power struggles going on there.  He meets Weaver, a British woman who is about to be transferred back to London - so of course they believe everyone who isn't Indonesian living in Indonesia at this time is a spy (and we're never really sure whether she is or not).  Billy fights for the real story to be told - about the starvation and poverty, and is killed for his efforts.  Terrific flick.  

Jeffrey - Not so great movie about a gay man (Stephen Weber) who decides to give up sex because it's become too dangerous (with AIDS).  Of course, then he meets the love of his life. Patrick Stewart and Bryan Batt play a gay couple struggling with some of the same issues, but flamboyantly.  It's not a great movie, but it's not bad either.  Weaver plays an evangelist of some variety - hard to tell if she's bad or good, but she tries to help Jeffrey.