Clerks II (2006)

This movie has been sitting around here waiting to be watched for years. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I don't know what's different about today. Maybe I just needed some mindless humor. I'm a big fan of Kevin Smith. I like his aesthetic and I think the tubby bitch is funny. I really dug Clerks and I just couldn't bring myself to watch the sequel in case it sucked. But, it didn't. Sure, since I liked every other movie of his I've seen, I don't know why this would suck. (I have not watched Jersey Girl, so maybe that one does suck, since even Smith says it does...now I totally have to find out.) Clerks captured a certain something, maybe the smart-ass side of the Slacker generation, especially those of us on the tail-end of Generation X. The movie was good in spite of itself. The odds of that happening again were pretty goddamned small. It could fail if the now famous Smith tried to recapture his indy voice, and yes I am one of those dude's that thinks an artist can totally sell-out and only make shit after he goes all corporate, but I'm also wise enough to know that not everyone does, and in fact there are some that make barely passable art as an indy artist but make great stuff playing with the big boys. Sometimes Smith tries too hard, and I love him for it, but you watch his stuff in spite of itself because you're paying your respects. I also thought that he might go all slick for a sequel, you know pull a Richard Linklater on me. Linklater is one of those folk that was better before he sold-out. I think that's the very definition of selling out - not taking money for your work, but taking money and changing your work to fit what the producers want because you like the pay check. Well, Smith kept it Smith. This was a wordy film, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.
O'Halloran and Anderson traded a bit of their newness for better acting skills, which I think balanced out their performances with the first incarnation of these characters in Clerks. Mewes and Smith are Jay and Silent Bob, no more no less, and where else are you going to see Mewes in a full frontal nude shot? The two gems of this movie that really make it worth watching are Trevor Fehrman as Elias, and Rosario Dawson as Becky. Elias and Becky work with Dante and Randall at Mooby's which is a fast food joint. There are all the gross and funny bits you would expect, while Becky and Dante totally have a thing going on, even though Dante is engaged to Emma and is in fact supposed to be leaving with her to Florida the next day. Well, it's mostly Dawson with the chemistry, O'Halloran is a doofus as Dante, but that's okay because Dante is a doofus. I was just thinking last night about what Rosario Dawson has been up to lately, and then there she is. I realize that this film came out 7 years ago, but I sware that I didn't know that she was in it. To be honest, if I had, I would have tempted fate and watched it long ago. Even if this film had totally sucked donkey, which it didn't except for that one scene where the guy was supposed to be sucking off a donkey, I would have watched it to see her, that's how good I think she is. Not to mention totally hot.

Clerks II on IMDb

Argo (2012)

This is one of those rare films, not counting sequels, where I go into it knowing almost everything about it. I'd heard reviews, plot descriptions and at least two interviews with Ben Affleck. I knew how the movie ended. Usually when this happens, I am watching the film because either I am a fan of the franchise (see the comment above about sequels) or I'm in it for the eye candy, i.e. the special effects, and more than a few times, both. I tend to stay away from films in this situation, because I feel that you can only be disappointed. Well, I am happy to stand corrected. As mentioned, I knew what was going to happen the whole way through and yet there I was worried that someone might crack under pressure or that someone else wouldn't get to the phone in time. I can understand why this film won the best picture Oscar. I hoped I would like this film, because every time I heard Affleck talk about it, he was so...I don't know, humble. He seemed like a nice guy who worked hard to make what he thought was a great movie, but not great because he did it, but because of the story and the people involved.
Affleck pulled double duty as star and director. To pull either one of those off well is commendable, but to pull them both off well, that's just impressive. And while I'm at least a little bit biased, I want to say on the record that Ben was rocking that beard. I'm guessing the nice thing about being director is deciding to have a full beard instead of one of those big ridiculous looking mustaches.
Affleck didn't pull this off alone. He had Bryan Cranston playing his boss, John Goodman playing his Hollywood connection and Alan Arkin playing the producer who puts the fake movie together. I think I might have mentioned before that I am a big fan of Cranston and everything I've ever seen him in. He puts it all out there in every performance, and I for one appreciate it. John Goodman is another one of my all-time favorites. I fucking watched Roseanne because he was in it. That is fan loyalty. While I don't go out looking for Alan Arkin flicks, I certainly take notice when I hear that he's in a film, as I always enjoy his work.
Watching this film, I was convinced that I was in 1980. Affleck did a great job of mixing actual news footage from the time alongside some well made re-enactments of memorable scenes along with the main body of the film which looked like 1980. There were lots of great scenes in this film, but one that sticks out in my mind is right after Mendez (Ben Affleck) picks up the VW bus in Tehran and drives passed a Kentucky Fried Chicken that's as busy as ever and there are old women sitting out front in their black hijabs eating fried chicken.
And kudos for getting President Carter to do the voice over at the end of the movie. I don't know if I think he was a good President or not, but I think he is the greatest ex-President this country has ever seen. That was a really nice touch.
Seeing Argo, and not only enjoying it but respecting the job that Affleck did goes a little ways towards forgiving Jennifer Garner for marrying him instead of waiting for me. A little ways.

Argo on IMDb