WWTBAM Bored

Since I haven't seen "The Dark Knight" yet, I can say this with certainty: so far this year, I have a clear frontrunner in my personal "Best of 2008" list.

"In Bruges" was written by the playwright responsible for two of my favorite plays of the last 10 years, "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" and "The Pillowman". It stars Brendan Gleeson (Mad-Eye Moody from the Harry Potter movies) and Colin Farrell as two hitmen hiding out in Bruges ("It's in Belgium") after a botched hit in London. Their boss, Ralph Fiennes (another Harry Potter alum) shows up, too. And then there's Clemence Poesy (a THIRD Potter actor, she played Fleur in "Goblet of Fire") as Farrell's love interest. Did I mention it's a comedy? OK, it's a really dark comedy, but it's very funny at times.

I will warn you that this is not for everyone; it's bloody, and there's an awful lot of foul language. But it's a good story, and all of the actors do an excellent job. It's too bad it came out at such a crappy time of year (January), and has an odd title. By it's out on DVD now and I highly recommend it. And if you're not offended by the language, be sure to check out the bonus on the DVD called "F**king Bruges" -- the whole movie, except they cut out everything that wasn't a swear word. It's about 4 minutes of nonstop profanity, and it's hysterically funny.



BTW

We just got this movie from Netflix yesterday, but haven't had a chance to watch it.

I try to see all of Ralph Fiennes's movies.

It's in my Netflix queue.

I liked the movie but I wouldn't put it real high on my list. It's one of those films that tries to be non-pretentious in such an obvious way that it becomes pretentious.

One's wife is in Belgium presently and the tour is planning to spend a day in Bruges.

We laughed when we go the itinerary and saw the city listed. We've since put it on our Netflix list.

Notice, I said 'one's wife.' I'm home with kids. That sounds fair....






Actually, her parents go as part of a 'sister city' program from their small town in Louisiana, but her dad couldn't go due to a new job, so this was a pop-up opportunity for her to spend time with her Mom and be in Europe too.

My two tops this year (at least I saw them in the theaters this year - they may have had release dates just before 2008) and I would say they should not be missed are:

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

and

Young@Heart

The first is based on a true story and the second is a documentary - both should not be missed IMNSHO.

---Jay (# of days == # of Articles in the US Constitution - supposedly - I don't believe it though, a quick glance shows hundreds of occurences of just the article 'the' not counting all the other articles such as 'a' and 'an' - somebody needs a fact checker!)