A weekend of films

My girlfriend and I watched a few movies this weekend, mostly thanks to HBO's OnDemand programming. In an apartment with no cooling besides a solitary fan, it's a way to get some form of entertainment without having to move around and work up too much of a sweat. Anyways, here's what I thought:

Jet Li's Fearless: I remember seeing previews for this, largely because it was advertised as the title actor's last martial arts epic. We'll see if that holds up, but the film is definitely entertaining to watch from an action standpoint - the fight scenes are very well choreographed. The balance felt a bit off, as the movie spent more time on Huo Yuanjia's time as a fighter solely focused on being the best in his province instead of his redemptive arc. While a great portion of the movie doesn't appear to be remotely related to the real-life Huo Yuanjia, it was an entertaining film to watch.

Ocean's Thirteen: Maybe I missed something from Ocean's Twelve (which is the worst-rated of this high-wattage star ensemble series), but I didn't find this movie as compelling as Ocean's Eleven. The first film had a definitive plot, and it was also a bit more realistic - namely, that Ocean wasn't able to pull off everything perfectly. Here, the crew somehow gets a drill underground (a real WTF moment), and Al Pacino's character, billionaire casino mogul Willy Bank, gets played like a fiddle. Is it a fun movie to watch? Sure...but the wholly unrealistic nature of parts of the movie left me scratching my head. I also felt like some of the actors, particularly George Clooney and Matt Damon, were phoning it in a bit.

Finding Nemo: Okay, I finally got to watch the fish movie, and it wasn't that bad. I found the first scene of the movie (no spoilers) to be somewhat gratuitous in terms of adding drama to the film, but the rest was pretty good. It's easy to see why Ellen DeGeneres was highlighted for her voice work in this film, but I think most of the props have to go the animation team in creating beautiful seascapes.

Mr. Bean's Holiday: British humor is typified by awkward situations, and Rowan Atkinson's iconic character is...well, the epitome of that. There's plenty to laugh - and cringe - at during the movie, but surprisingly, everything works out to a happy ending. The Bean shorts are some of my favorite comedy moments (and Atkinson excels at making the most out of visual humor, given that the character says very little, if anything at all), and this movie doesn't disappoint in adding to a comic collection.