Monday Morning Quarterbackin'

Over the weekend, several savvy Facets employees spent their time watching movies. Feel free to agree or disagree with these off-the-top-of-their-heads comments. Or, thank them for bringing a movie to your attention. Bets are on for who inspires the most comments!

Michelle, Facets Gal Friday thought the 1941 classic Hellzapoppin’ at the Bank of America Cinema was “a lot of fun and a big mess”—but in a good way. She insightfully drew parallels to Monty Python because of the absurdist humor and wondered if this movie could have been an inspiration on them.

Jenny of Customer Service watched Super High Me on DVD, which is a take-off on Super Size Me, except the content is about marijuana. Though a “funny, little movie” by comic Doug Benson, a former Stoner of the Year, it did bring up some good points about the hotly contested debate on medical marijuana use.

Chris in Accounting attended the MCA’s series on Italian movies (curated by a former Facets employee). He took in the original 1978 Italian version of Inglorious Bastards by Enzo Castellari and The Passenger by Antonioni. After noting the crazy 70s’ haircuts in Bastards, his final word on the film was “Cool.”

After watching Paul Schrader’s edgy Autofocus on DVD, Lauren in Development declared, “I never knew Greg Kinnear could be creepier than Willem Dafoe, but he was.” If you’ve seen the movie, you get it.

Harmony Korine’s Julien Donkey-Boy inspired a three-way discussion between Chris in Rentals and Matt and Aaron from Shipping. Chris disliked the film, admitting that director Korine annoys him and that JD-B was too reminiscent of that late 90s indie vibe, while the boys from shipping disagreed. Aaron liked the film’s distorted video effects; Matt found Herzog “hilarious.”

Eric from Operations re-viewed Quantum of Solace, the oddly named Bond film from last year. Eric found QoS better than Casino Royale because of its superior narrative and “high-quality set pieces,” which is the raison d’etre for all Bond films. “Why the mixed reviews,” ponders Eric.

Phil from Marketing spent Friday evening in awe of Kubrick's Spartacus, only to wake up Saturday morning to learn of the death of actress Jean Simmons, who starred in the film alongside Kurt Douglas, Peter Ustinov, Larry Olivier (we call him Larry here) and Tony Curtis. He spent the rest of the day "weirded out" by the coincidence, but still amazed by the film's incredible action sequences and Ustinov's Oscar-winning performance.