No great book stories either, just went in and bought my
books, all
in-print UK stuff.
I did, however, see a great movie (the one after which the
above
occured). But earlier that evening, I saw the play Popcorn by
Ben
Elton. It is his musings about the effect of violent movies
on society.
Basically, a Tarantino-like director is taken captive by the
Mall
Murderers (clearly based on the couple in Natural Born
Killers), who
want the director to go on TV and say he is to blame, he
"created"
thesem, just like all of the editorials are saying.
Therefore, they
should not, themselves, be held responsible for their
killings. The
bulk of the play is them arguing this point, but the debate
is not
between someone who really believes movies cause violence and
the
director who insists he reflects society, but between him and
a person
who simply wants to cynically manipulate the system to get
off. The
killers are quick to admit to the director that the movie did
not make
them do anything. So instead of exploring an interesting
topic, it sets
up a straw man, just to knock him down. And as if this
weren't bad
enough, the end is so plastic and calculatingly ironic that
it just left
a bad taste in my mouth.
So there was only one thing I could do, go see a violent
movie.
Remember in Pulp Fiction when Travolta accidentally blew the
head off
the guy in the back seat? Well, if you laughed at that scene,
as I did,
have I got a movie for you. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking
Barrels is
filled with that type of humor. In the UK, its getting
compared to Long
Good Friday a lot, for its depiction of British gangsters.
While I
agree it is very British, I don't think that is the movie to
compare it
to. That's kind of like saying Pulp Fiction and the Godfather
are alike
because they are both about American crime. True, but that's
about all
they have in common. Writer/director Guy Ritchie is kind of
like a
British Tarantino in that he is interested in the lower
classes of
criminals, not the board room version. (For the record, that
is about
all they have in common other than a common love of film,
although
different films.) In this movie there are four distinct
criminal
bunches (some amateur, some career), plus two burglars
floating around
the periphery, all of whom are trying to screw at least one
other of
these bunches. Add to this a number of incestuous
relationships between
the bunches and you get a series of single, double and triple
crosses.
It's not like Usual Suspects where you are trying to catch up
and figure
out what is going on, just the opposite. Because you are
privy to what
is going on in the various camps, you can see confrontations
coming that
are totally unexpected for the participants. There is one
scene where
several of these groups are all on their way to the same
place and you
are cringing, waiting for what will happen when they all
converge. Add
to this Ritchie's visual style (an even more stylized version
of
Trainspotting's visuals) and you have a great caper film. I
saw it twice
while I was there and can't wait for it to hit the States so
I can take
some friends.
Mark
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