I caught Training Day recently. It’s a good film that dramatizes a real ethical dilema and contains some great acting by Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. Snoop Dogg has a cameo as a drug dealer (big stretch for him, eh?) that’s suprisingly good. Macy Gray does well in her even smaller part. I found Dr. Dre a bit stiff, though.
I also caught 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was the first time I’ve ever seen it, and I was terribly dissapointed with it. I scanned around the net to see what others thought of it and there seems to be a clear division between those who think it is the best film ever made and those who were simply bored with it. I’m in the second category. The movie itself is visually stunning. Every shot is beautifully composed. Unfortunately, filmaking is, or should be, about more than setting up beautiful shots. The acting is stiff. The story, in as much as there is one, is minimal and only minimally interesting. And the pace is ridiculously slow. I say all of this as someone who likes good science fiction films and as someone who generally likes Stanley Kubrick’s work (hell, I even liked Eyes Wide Shut). There’s a lot of snobery out there about this film (people who like it tend to think that people who don’t are stupid rubes incapable of “getting it”). I gave it a fair shake. I went into it wanting to like it. I hear the book it’s based on is good and the movie is enjoyable if you’ve read the book. But since I haven’t had that pleasure, I have to judge it on it’s own. And, to me, it comes up wanting.