This weekend I watched so many movies my eyes threatened to explode. The first one was Better Luck Tomorrow, which was fucking awesome.

SEE BETTER LUCK TOMORROW!

It's about bored smart kids in the central valley and their ever escalating scams. A very well done and original film. Astonishingly, MTV footed the bill for distribution. My opinion of them has changed. Better Luck Tomorrow is not some shitty Tom Green movie or trash like that... go see it. Everything I expected it to do it didn't do... I love the screenwriter. This movie rules.

On the other hand, I want to punch the guy who wrote Anger Management. Yes, there were a few funny moments, but all the things designed to piss of Adam Sandler's character pissed me off, too, and the ending really pissed me off.

I also watched a shitload of neo-noir movies for a paper I'm procrastinating on. I've seen most of them before, but capsule reviews follow...

Blade Runner - This movie is awesome. But the euro cut is better than the director's cut, even if it has the stupid happy ending. Hell, the director's cut doesn't even have the blood when Roy sticks his finger's in Tyrell's eyes. If you can get the euro cut, watch that. Other than that... Philip K. Dick is a god (he fucking ascended, he didn't die!), the movie does his short story justice (unlike Total Recall...), and the direction and acting is great.

Dark City - This movie is cool, and when The Matrix isn't ripping off William Gibson or Philip K. Dick stories, it's ripping off Dark City. Dark City has a lot more class and is better directed, better acted, and the CG is unobtrusive and well done... unlike The Matrix's. And The Matrix is way overplayed and overrated. Some interesting direction, but nothing mind-blowing.

Muholland Drive - A mind-bending movie. Constructed from the scraps of the pilot for an unfortunately unrealized TV show and featuring bucks from the French and lots of in-jokes and references to the Hollywood classic Sunset Boulevard and French new wave pile of shit Contempt. I think I finally have a workable theory of what the fuck happens in the movie, but I promise it is not obvious and will take several watches to figure out. David Lynch is a great director, by the way.

L.A. Confidential - I'm kind of iffy about this one. I had never seen it before, but I remembered the Mystery Science Theater 3000 boys calling it the French film, La Confidential. Heh. Maybe it'd be more funny if it really was. I kinda like Russel Crowe in general, and he's okay here. The director is nothing special, and the script is pretty standard action/mystery fair, but with a brutal flair that makes it stand out. Humorously, the plot twist is identical to the one in Minority Report, which, by the way, while entertaining, was another pretty shitty adaptation of a Philip K. Dick book. Watch for Kim Basinger as a ho... exactly like her roles in Cool World and Batman. Heh.

12 Monkeys - Less noir than I remembered it, this movie is kinda twisty and confusing like Mulholland Drive, but not to the same degree. Brad Pitt is suprisingly good as a whackjob, and Bruce Willis plays the same character he does in every fucking movie he's in. The direction is well done and interesting, the plot is somewhere between confusing and wacky sci-fi and farce... I have trouble deciding whether it's funny or serious sometimes. Challenging, but in a good way... like Mulholland Drive.

See Better Luck Tomorrow! I'm serious! Don't miss this movie! It's awesome!