movies

I watched a handful of movies recently so I thought I'd recap.

16 Blocks. Mos Def is in this and he's a really great actor. I have to admit I was searching Craigslist for a new apartment while I was watching but I did see most of it. Bruce Willis plays a washed up cop and looks older than I've ever seen him. His character is a bit stock though, nothing we haven't seen in a million other action movies. I wasn't all that impressed by him. I'd say it was a fun-to-watch action-packed movie and worth seeing but not an award winner by any means.

Eastern Promises. This one blew me away. I didn't know much about this movie going in but remembered seeing the newspaper ads with all the impressive reviews. This was an excellent movie about the Russian mob. It has a complex plot with a lot of twists and turns and incredible acting. I'm not really into violent mobster films (unless you count triad and yakuza flics) but I really liked this one a whole lot.

The Orphanage. Saw this one at Queen Anne theater on Friday. I'd seen Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone so I was really excited to see another Guillermo Del Toro film. Again, fantastic actors, especially the children, and I really like how the story unfolded and the ending was extremely satisfying. I did see elements of The Devil's Backbone being recycled in this film though so I figure if you haven't seen that you might like The Orphanage a bit more than if you have. Kinda like seeing The Others after seeing Sixth Sense if you know what I mean.