Movie Monday - 9/12/2011

I watched a few flicks:

Never Let Me Go is a haunting science fiction drama about cloning humans for the express purpose of organ harvesting.  It doesn’t get into the legal or ethical dilemmas involved, and neither will I.  Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightly and Andrew Garfield star as three such clones.  The movie first shows the trio growing up in a secluded, private school.  When they get older, they figure out what is going on.  Of course, human qualities have not been knocked out of their genetic material, but they do seem to be resigned to their fates.  This movie was adapted from the novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro.  It was really good.

Rick Riordan authored a fantasy book series about the ancient gods. Percy Jackson & the Olympians:  The Lightning Thief is an adaptation of one of the stories.  Percy finds out he is the son of Poseidon.  When Zeus’ lightning is stolen, he has to rise to the challenge of bringing it back.  Uma Thurman, Catherine Keener, Melina Kanakaredis, Kevin McKidd, Steve Coogan, Rosario Dawson and Pierce Brosnan are among the host of actors in this movie.  It was cute.

In Ondine, Colin Ferrell plays Syracuse, a divorced father with a prior drinking problem, who fishes for a living.  One day, he brings up a woman in his net.  Is she a selkie or is there a rational explanation for the luck she brings him?  His daughter Annie needs a kidney transplant, and is leaning towards the magical explanation.   I thought it was a very good movie, but the heavy Irish accents were difficult to understand.

Director Nick Broomfield’s documentary Biggie and Tupac, alleges corrupt LAPD officers were involved in the deaths of these two talented rapsters.  Broomfield walks around interviewing people with his camera man not far behind.  There’s some concert and other footage of the stars when they were alive.  It was really interesting.  In the eight or nine years since this documentary was filmed, I wonder if more investigation into these senseless deaths has been made...

MK out.