Wednesday Night Movies x 4!

Ok – it's going to be a bit shorter this week 'cos I've got 4 movies to catch up on. Ah, fuck you – I never said they had to be long.

One flew over the cukoo's nest.

Is it worth watching?

By god, yes. It is one of the best-acted, emotionally-tense, philosophically-minded movies I've ever seen. I avoided seeking it out for years because people told me it was depressing, and I interpreted that to mean 'harrowing' in a 'Requiem for a Dream' way. Don't worry – it isn't anywhere near that upsetting. There a couple of sad bits, plenty of worrying bits, a cruel bit, but plenty of happy, hopeful bits and a bittersweet ending, too.

This crux of this movie is toying with the ideas who is really mad. Some characters have crazy or unsettling personalities, but not a cruel bone in their body; most of the mentals have intelligence and Joy du Vivre. I want to go into more depth and discuss the characters specifically, but can't really do so without spoiling I... part of the joy of the film is thinking these things as you're watching, and if you know they're there they won't have the same effect. So watch it yourself.

If you want a fun film, or a family film, avoid. If you've got any respect for the medium of film and all the sub-skills that entails (acting, pacing, direction etc), then you definitely absolutely have to see it.

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN

Is it worth watching?

Hmm.... yeah, IF you're into your comedy, particularly your older comedy of the Blazing Saddles / The Producers type, I'd say see it. The humour is a bit dated – some of the lines are pretty hammy to modern tastes – but it's tricky to avoid cliches when you're one of the first to pioneer them; it takes years of imitators to make it that way.

It's black and white, too, which is a bit of a stylistic liberty, and something of a bold one - can you imagine someone trying it today? Ok yes you can, and so can I, but I meant “it's pretty unlikely innit? 'specially as it's been done before, with this movie.”

ROCKY 3

Is it worth watching?

If you liked any other Rocky movie, then yes. It's cheesy and camp and predictable, and the performances by Hulk Hogan and Mr. T are gloriously poorly acted... well.. they basically play a slightly 'evil' version of themselves. They plot's simpler than a Pixar film, but it actually holds together as movie pretty well – and we found ourselves whooping and cheering through the montage sequences and the tense “omg he's not going to win this fight – oh yay actually he did!” scenes.

District 9

Now THIS is a movie! I was entranced from the off and stayed that way; never quite sure where the movie was going till almost the very end. I love the fact it's a major hollywood movie not set in America, for one thing. I love the fact it tackles major political and social themes, and probably reflects fairly accurately how a nation would react and cope with a huge alien presence. I love the camerawork – flicking between camcorders, news footage and regular film with an almost seamless visual style that never leaves you in much doubt as to which you're watching.* I love the fact that the lead character is a douche you only sympathise with a fair bit into the film. (In fact, all the humans in the film are douches – they're flawed or unpleasant and much more believable characters because of it.)

More than any other film in this roundup, I recommend you watch it. While 'one flew over...' is an excellent film, it's 'serious cinema', and I mean that as a criticism - It's excellent drama and character-led plot development, which is all perfectly worthy and respectable but can feel like an exercise in art appreciation rather than something you'd watch for fun. But District 9 has guns, explosions, spaceships, and novel alien machinery and weaponry, which makes it a movie – something you can eat popcorn to and shout “cool!” when something dies in a novel and spectacular way.

Oh, and as @Stexonlegs insists, it's NOT about race. Okay? Get that? It's not.

(p.s. It might be a little about race but only metaphorically)

*there was a bit of doubt at one point, but not much.