Yep. I explored similar problems with his remade Funny Games. He would make a great genre director, but his pretensions won't let him.

Just watched this again on TMC. Remember the scene in dumb and dumber with the explosive diareaha? This movie takes that idea a step further. I'll go so far as saying that it was funnier than the hangover.

Well, The Hangover sucked, so that ain't saying much. What was Traci Lords' part?

SPOILER:
A pissed of chick at a bar Tucker (the main character who knows how to make crude humor funny)pissed off put visine in his beer when he wasn't looking. He takes his beer and heads to the restroom and see's traci lords character waiting outside the ladies restrooms. He starts hitting on her and she falls for it and starts drinking his beer and he finishes it. both end up heading back to his hotel room all over each other and when they get to the room both get wicked stomach cramps. They try to act like nothing is wrong but end up in such pain they both end up heading for the bathroom and she wins and he's waiting in pain while you hear her shitting her brains out. She finally comes out and he's totally disgusted with the smell and the sounds she was making while he was waiting doubled over in pain. As soon as she comes out he goes in and she takes off. He can't shit in the toilet because it's clogged from the dump she just took and it's all over the floor. It's good laughing for a while after that part too.

Europa (Von Trier) - C

Strangely unengrossing Von Trier from early in his career; it felt like a soup of tropes borrowed from any number of VT's more compelling arthouse contemporaries and I didn't feel as though it was saying anything of particular coherence or interest. It seemed to try to but for me, the thing just didn't sing. Dogville felt like a riddle I wanted to solve, rich with suggestive substance; Antichrist a little less so, but which was suspenseful and aesthetically compelling. Europa bored me, by contrast; it felt almost like a parody of a run-of-the-mill pretentious arthouse film. Its ideas and characters lacked spark, and Von Trier's style, for as many things as he does right, feels oddly cobbled together for me. Like he knows what to do but tends to lack a particularly vibrant vision/voice of his own. For art-film nerds only. Which I kind of am, but I didn't really enjoy it much. This particular film reminded me somewhat of Guy Maddin's work, but I'd recommend BRAND UPON THE BRAIN or even SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD over Europa.

K

Necromentia — C

Hell is a hallway! Who knew? Micro-budget straight-to-DVD is a kinda inventive reworking of the Hellraiser idea, with some Saw/Hostel torture stuff thrown in. Some surprisingly good acting and no additive CGI (only editing effects), sadly undercut by a poor attempt at a Memento-esque reverse order story structure. Similarly, some pretty neat creature makeup (once again, non-CGI) ruined by showing too much of it.


Date Night — B

Carrell and Fey make a very powerful comedy duo. Personally, I would have preferred a more dialed-down level of disaster that didn't involve crime bosses, corrupt cops, high speed car chases, etc. I'm guessing this was greenlit after The Hangover, as it had that kind of feel to it, but everyone here was much funnier than anyone in The Hangover, which was just jaded and crass ("faux dark," I call it).


Ondine — A

Beautifully done. That's really all I can say. Great acting, great cinematography, an enchanting mystery revealed at a natural pace. The comedy parts were funny, as well as the tragic parts sad, because of the familiarity given to the characters. The best movie I've seen in a while.

Just watched it again. I think this movie is going to find it's way into my stocking for xmas. courtesy of santy. Classic movie right here.

Splice — B-

Pretty much a straightforward science-monster story, except for the having sex with it parts. Some courageous work from the French girl who played the monster.


Centurion — D

More crap history (Picts dressed like Vikings, hot warrior chicks, etc.) and CGI blood sprays. Even several of the actors were also in 300. Blah.


Don't Look Up — F

A stupid mess. Eli Roth has a bit part in it.


Avatar — B-

By-the-numbers story. Would have been better without so much CGI on the figures — torsoes and limbs changing size and proportion, joints that bend incorrectly, mouths and eyes that stretch too wide, gravity and inertia that don't work quite right, etc. They should have done it like the creature in Splice, part live actor with CGI add-ons. The robots and planes looked great, though.


The Joneses — C

Didn't really skewer the consumer mentality and wasn't as funny as I was hoping. Duchovny's character pretty much sabotages the whole thing from the get-go.


Please Give — C

I saw "Amanda Peet" and "nudity" on the listing and rented it. Well, that was a disappointment. I really like the actors here that I'd heard of before — Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Amanda Peet — and they all do a fine job, but I don't really know what to make of the story. I think the writer/director, Nicole Holofcener, is trying to be a female Woody Allen. Odd little cameo by Sarah Vowell.

But without the CGI there'd really be no movie. So, yeah, that would have been better.

You could have just googled "amanda peet nude" and saved yourself some time.

K