"Little Person" Movie Roundup

Mostly when Tam and I watch a group of movies centering around a particular topic it's on purpose. Hitchcock fest during Evan's first week of life, Babylon 5 and Firefly obsessive serials, and throw in attempts to see all of Terry Gilliam and Coen Brother's flicks...she's sleeping, so the list is missing something.

Anyway. A few weeks ago I made the mistake of renting "Tiptoes". It sounds like it might be good, ('Funny, Even' said the back cover. Uhh..Nope) a number of notable actors and intriguing storyline: Unknown little-person genes. Hilairity does not ensue, but the acting gets worse, character building goes from nowhere to wtf, and WAY too uncandid look at a slice of too many varieties of little folk seemingly filmed by the crew from "After School Specials". It's not even steroetype soup. And the ending sucked sour grapes. 1/2 a coughed out grape seed.

This weekend Tam rented "The Station Agent", which was also a Independant/Sundance gamble, but managed to be appropriately packaged up in subtltey, succinct, and consistent decent acting in a "it is what it is" plot. Granted, we missed an 1/8 of the flick 2/3 way through due to a previous renters crappy player scratching spirographs all over the DVD, but in the end, we had found it interesting enough to check out the deleted scenes, which added an appropriate "That makes sense, interesting, but not needed." to the flick, and does not answer: When we're blimps invented? This one deserves a solid 3 out of 5 ice cream trucks.

How many qualifies a roundup? I'll shoot for 3.

Snow White. Grotesque and unsuitable for children at so many levels. I am convinced that all things goth can be traced back to this movie alone. I give it Snow White's age divided by Pi minus 1 freakish (PHB?) witch hat.

Update: I learned "midget" was inappropriate, but they used Dwarf so many friggin times in the last half of Tiptoes that I thought that was the right word. Arg. The Station Agent didn't try to qualify. Thanks, Tam, for covering the Audience Comprehension portion of my world.

The Ladykillers

It's a Coen brothers film, so that should give you an idea of what to expect. I, for one, do not like the majority of their work; The Big Lebowski being the major exception. Now having that already in the record books, The Ladykillers was pretty much a complete bore. As much of a bore as I found O Brother, Where Art Thou?. That's a really big bore for all you playing along at home. I figured that having Tom Hanks in the lead role and Marlon Wayans on the side (who can be a great actor in the proper role), it had to have it's pluses. It had a few, but not even enough to count on one hand. Unless you only have 2 fingers on one of your hands and no thumb. Tom Hanks played a southern gentleman, properly filling all the known stereotypes that we learned from watching Warner Bros. cartoons as children. And really that's all I got out of the film. I did like the character of The General, though. Mainly because he really didn't talk much and when he was in the center of the action it was pretty entertaining (there was your 2 fingers worth of entertainment).

If you loved O Brother, Where Art Thou?, then you'll probably love this pile. If you are part of the oppostite spectrum, may I suggest you find a different film to rent.

I'll give The Ladykillers 1 out of a possible 5 burnt apple pies because The General was actually pretty cool.

Slasher

Another for the docutainment category.

Watch as the roving car salesman circus comes into the "Bankrupty capitol of America" (Memphis) and unrolls a hype car sale.

Interesting stuff. Yes, this guy isn't the crook, but you pretty much realize the rest of the industry is. Lots of great one-liners, and enough implications for a jam-packed "Where are they now" just as soon as you've forgotten it.

The parts where you learn the annoying factors of buying a car are the longest, but that just might be my own personal buyer's remorse emerging. Not sure if I want to visit Memphis after this movie or not. It's a great movie to watch while eating or other background task. Kicks the heck out of a PBS documentary, primarily as it doesn't have that meldroneous background music warbling in the other half of your psyche and no real social implication to make you feel like the grand american oppressor/ee.

Moral: You can walk away. It'll be just as good on the $1 rack, and of course it'll have scratches then.