Netflix Dump

A couple of movies that have passed through the USPS lately...

The Science of Sleep
What a great movie! There's so much about it that I don't understand, but the way the film mixed dreams, reality, lucid dreams and the film's own reality was pretty brilliant. It comes from Michel Gondry who directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Where Charlie Kaufman's writing helped Eternal Sunshine have a little rhyme and reason to it, Gondry wrote The Science of Sleep and brilliantly keeps you confused the whole time whether what you're seeing is real or dream or just the reality in which the film lives. It's highly recommended.

The Departed
I like gangster shows and films and I like clandestine stories too. This latest film from Martin Scorsese does the gangster genre, the cop genre and adds the thriller suspense plot twists to it to make an excellent film. It was originally a Hong Kong film called Infernal Affairs (Wu Jian Dao). Jack Nicholson is great in the film. Leonardo DiCaprio is pretty amazing as usual. Mark Wahlberg does a great job (he's nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the role) but I think Matt Damon's performance is overlooked. He may never have a Will Hunting performance again, but I think this was one of his best roles.

Never Cry Wolf
I saw this movie several times as a kid, but only had vague memories of it. It's the story of Farley Mowat and his adventures in remote Canada. Farley Mowat was sent by the government to study wolves to see if they are the cause of caribou shortages. It's fascinating and beautifully told and filmed.

Game 6
This movie didn't come in the mail, but rather was my testing of the new feature of Netflix to stream movies on your computer. The service worked flawlessly (though it requires using Internet Explorer and isn't compatible with Firefox. The movie surrounds Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, the game made famous by the Red Sox collapse culminating with Bill Buckner letting the routine grounder slip by him giving up the winning run. It stars Michael Keaton and Robert Downey Jr. Though the movie only briefly touched on the idea, I was thinking that it was going to explore the impact of that game by showing an alternate reality in which Buckner got the ball and put Mookie out at first base. Somethings would be significantly different, but much would be the same. This isn't a baseball movie, so put that idea that the players on the team are actors like a Costner movie. The events of the movie surround the game. It's a good story and I liked the characters a lot. I can recommend the movie and I can recommend the service of watching the movies on your computer.