Codes, War Crimes, Banana Humor [Movies]

For whatever reason, I’ve gone on a movie kick lately. Part of the reason is I’ve got my AppleTV set up to work okay. I’m still not happy with the configuration. Anyway, so I finally watched The Da Vinci Code the other day. Boy, did Tom Hanks look old. I recall the novel being a page-turner, but the movie didn’t seem nearly as complex. And I guess the subject matter–whether the Holy Grail was actually Mary Magdalene, Jesus’ wife and pregnant mother of his child–but it is a novel and the storyline isn’t exactly new.

After a wonderful dinner at Hattie’s in Oak Cliff (bacon-wrapped, jalapeno-stuff quail for me and tenderloin(!) for Holly), Holly and I went to see The Reader–Holly chose it, kind of. It was widely applauded and I think Kate Winslet won an Oscar for her role as a German woman who has a summer liaison with a young German boy in the late 1950s. A decade later, the boy sees her for the first time as a war criminal defendant for her role as a death camp guard during WWII. It is a serious, heavy story–that Holly didn’t care for at all. I could have done without seeing so much skin.

I’m not going to go into it, but Woody Allen is not the Woody Allen I vaguely recall as a kid. I don’t know that I ever saw any of his films as a kid, but I was aware of the neurotic Jewish funny man and his reputation for making very funny films. All of that to say that, after watching Bananas, I’m not sure I get it. Humorous? Yes. A visionary? I have no idea considering the movie is older than me, but I doubt. Will I watch more Allen films? Probably.