Sperhauk had NetFlix send him The Element of Crime. It's a 1984 Lar Von Triers movie that's out on a Criterion dvd. Von Tiers is a director that's not on my radar at all. He's a guy who makes art house dramas, his stories wrapped up in metaphors. There are lashers of praise over at the IMDb where it scores a 6.7. The movie meter indicates it's down 13% this week, hopefully due to my vengefull vote of 1 last friday. I sure didn't like the movie and it's poor story telling abilities deserve a boot in the nut sack. Lars himself called the movie pretentious. I don't use big words like that, it's a dull piece of crime fiction. That's the crime, someone needs to be punished. Some guy is living in exhile in Cairo in a post apocalypse kind of world. He goes back to Europe, where it's very wet, to investigate the murders of several girls. He's some sort of detective. His mentor lives in the town where the murders are happening. The mentor wrote a crime study called The Elements of Crime that he's now denouncing. The detective uses the studies' concept and tries gets into the mind of the criminal to solve the crime. It takes 104 minutes to get to the end of the credits, it seemed much longer. I wouldn't want to watch this again. It's too dreary. Luckily Criterion dvd's are pricey and they don't seem to be discounted much either. It's a $39.95 list price that's going for 36 bucks on Amazon. I hope that keeps other people from seeing it. Boot to the groin.
Joe picked St Trinian's off of Netflix. It's a 2007 remake of The Belles of St Trinian's. Both movies are based on the cartoons of Ronald Searle. Rupert Everett plays the female head of the school Miss Fritton, in drag, as well as her brother, a rather shadey character who drops his daughter off at the school in the opening of the movie. Alastair Sim played the brother and sister characters in the 1954 original. They both make rather freightening women. The 'save the school from bankruptcy' plot is the same in both movies but the method to raise the money differs. The girls are planning to steal Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring from the National Gallery in the 2007 film. The original had the girls fighting amongst the forms in support of two different race horses. No matter, theft or gambling, it's the same bunch of anti-social larcenous girls we have come to love from the first series, writ for the modern hi-tech age. Those of us who were familiar with the original series that is. I found a lot of people (7 out of 9) didn't know the movies. That's just the way it goes. That's why there are blogs. The Minister of Education wants to close the school down on top of it's impending financial doom. He'll certainly be sorry he crossed swords with the hockey stick wielding belles. The girls rally together with the help of Russell Banks, a local petty criminal, and brainstorm up a plan. There's lots of mayhem and action to keep my interest. I was laughing a lot. Certainly the movie is more accessable than our previous feature. I'd pick this up to watch again, and keep an eye out for the sequel.
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