Thursday, May 19, 2005

Movies: The Woodsman, The Day After Tomorrow, and Enron

Brief movie reviews:

The Woodsman: excellent, excellent film, Kevin Bacon was robbed of an Oscar nomination. He plays Walter, who was rightfully convicted of a horrible crime. Upon release he struggles with reintegrating with society and with the temptation to reoffend. Spoilers about the crime he committed are everywhere, including the DVD sleeve, but I'll hold back. Strongly recommended. A missed opportunity here - the DVD extras should have added a short called "If You Know Someone Like Walter" to give a brief lesson on how to help these people.

The Day After Tomorrow: the very mediocre, global warming disaster film from last summer. I skipped most of it so maybe there's great stuff in the middle, but I doubt it. Rented it to see if there was a snazzy, good-science exposition scene before it became ridiculously exaggerated, but no luck. Also a missed opportunity in the DVD extras, where they could've added some good science and activist information. Oh well.

Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room: an excellent documentary of Enron's deserved collapse. Showed how wrong and corrupt its leaders were while keeping them human. Briefly mentions Schwarzenegger's connection to Enron - I'd like to know more. I think I'll have to read the book it's based on. I was especially taken with how Enron CEO Skilling thought that coming up with an idea was all that counted, while making the idea happen was drudge work for non-geniuses. I might have believed that years ago, but I sure don't now.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.