Friday night I rented four movies from Redbox; American Gangster, Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Beowulf, and Hitman. Friday night I watched the Assassination of Jesse James, Hitman, and Beowulf. Saturday morning I watched American Gangster.
Of the four movies, American Gangster and the Assassination of Jesse James were by far the better movies. Hitman wasn't awful, just lifeless and relatively boring action sequences. I wonder why the hyper-kinetic, choppy camera is taken to represent good and accurate violence? Beowulf was visually stunning but again, this type of animation does not translate emotion that well. The "actors" or computer assisted avatars do not display reserved emotions but have to act in large, broad strokes.
The Assassination of Jesse James was the best movie of the four. As a study on the effects of celebrity in North American culture that existed over 120 years ago along with the violent undertones of celebrity in our culture that still persists. These themes are still relevant and I wonder if there has been some scholarship about the links between our celebrity culture and violence. Obviously, there is a set of celebrities that achieve their fame through violence. Here in Colorado, we have the Columbian School Shooters, and in the movie, Robert Ford is killed in Creede, Colorado.
American Gangster was enjoyable, not as an "gangster" movie, but as a police procedural and as a history piece. I watched the extended and unrated version of the film. Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington act was enjoyable and the only part of the film that felt forced was what must of been the alternative ending. All in all, not a bad film.
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