I watched this for two hours for that???!!!!

Last week was a bit weird for us, movie-wise. We watched a total of four movies: Cache, Deep Blue Sea, The Chronicles of Riddick, and Incident at Blood Pass. We watched Cache and Incident at Blood Pass on purpose, and the other two were simply on TV when we needed a break. Frankly, none of themwas what I would call a great movie. Deep Blue Sea and The Chronicles of Riddick stunk for some pretty obvious reasons (plot, characters, super-intelligent sharks jumping out of the water to kill people, strange alien religions). But I had high hopes for Cache and Incident at Blood Pass.

I was intrigued by Cache because it relates to the decolonization of Algeria, an issue I deal with in most of my courses. But there are a few things that bothered me about the film. First of all, it doesn't really talk about Algeria. There is a somewhat oblique reference to that conflict, but the film is really about guilt. That's all fine and dandy, but it deals with the guilt of a person who, even if he did what they say he did, did it as a six-year-old boy. That should not have caused the reaction that is apparent in the film. Another problem with the film is more basic: it's boring. There are about two scenes of the movie in which something actually happens (and those are rather disturbing). The rest is a hodgepodge of inane conversation and clips of videos of nothing. The ending, which was left deliberately vague, demonstrates that the filmmaker had completely lost touch with reality. Our collective reaction was, "What the hell just happened?" We watched an interview in which the filmmaker "explained" the movie, but it cleared up nothing. Overall, it was an incredibly frustrating experience. I should have read more user reviews on Netflix.

Today we watched Incident at Blood Pass with Toshiro Mifune. It is part of the Yojimbo series, and the basic plot is that a ronin (independent samurai) is sent to a remote area to await further instructions. He slowly becomes aware of a plot and his part in it, and eventually he acts. I really love Mifune. Some of his other films are amazing. The acting in this film is excellent as well. Unlike Cache, one comes away knowing what happened. But one is struck by a lack of motive. It is never clear why the Crow organizes all of this, and one wonders why Yojimbo makes his final decision. At the end, that makes it feel as though the film lacks a real resolution. I'm OK with ambiguity, but there should be a sense of closure or finality or something so that the viewer doesn't feel empty at the end of the film.

Watching "challenging" films is very tiring. Right now I'm kind of in need of escapist film, but it has to be good (not like Deep Blue Sea or Riddick). I'm hoping that Man on the Moon fits the bill. That one's coming soon.