recent movies 2009-09-23

2009-09-23

Although nobody cares to explain why the obsessed is obsessed in Obsessed, we get quite a treat with a seriously-gorgeous, not-too-incompetent Beyonce and a perfect gentleman of a husband as well a decent cast and direction. Someone worked real hard to get that guy as perfect as it gets by the way, and in way I don't remember in movie history.

I figured the popularity of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was way overblown after watching it for the first time, but there's one superb scene where the private detective (a real good performance) questions the suspect, whose tense emotions are well-enhanced by the camera angle (which would be a bit of a spoiler for one who hasn't seen it). Rest of the stuff is just banal and the end-scene (the explanation), though well-acted, doesn't help.

You can imagine what I thought All That Jazz was about especially since I had no idea what the story was, and yeah it's not about jazz at all. It's luckily sprinkled here and there with good dance sequences, but since it was done in the US 80's (okay, that's 1979, but it's close enough), there's bad costumes, hair styles, and music all over the place, and is nearly unbearable with its eccentricity and the depressing ailment moments. The music-infused delusions the protagonist goes through don't help either, regardless of how innovative the whole treatise may be. Highlights: the sex dance sequence, and the daughter & lover sequence, and even some decent comic touches, EG some of the hospital scenes.