Rand Wacker

I’ve seen a couple of movies this week which I hadn’t heard much about before but I thought were pretty good. My general mode of operation these days is to expect very little from a new film, especially one I see in a theater. That way, I’m usually someone pleased by the experience and don’t feel like I wasted my money. This leads to me liking movies which I would normally hate.

The first (a commercial title), is “Basic”, with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, and a whole host of other actors you’ll recognize and like. It’s Travolta being Travolta, Jackson being Jackson, and an somewhat interesting murder mystery on an Army base in Panama. I don’t remember this film getting much advertising though, so that usually means that the studios thought it was good enough to succeed on word-of-mouth, which it was.

Then, Tivo caught “The Prime Gig” on IFC. A tiny film starring Vince Vaughn, Ed Harris, and Julia Ormond. I had never heard of this one, but it was definitly worth seeing, just for the acting alone. A quiet film about telemarketers (yeah, it’s not all that bad), or just salesmen in general.

I’ll also give a plug to “Whale Riders”, a beautiful picture from New Zealand which I saw more than a couple of times my last trip there. I haven’t been actively pushing it to my friends since it’s rather simple and I didn’t know if I liked it so much because of my connection with the land down under, but it’s getting thumbs up from people who’ve seen it, so I definitly recommend you check it out.

Maybe if “Whale Riders” does well they’ll get around to releasing “Stickmen” here, which was as funny and fresh as any early Guy Ritchie film.