What to be said about this week. The biggest news comes with the death of Roger Ebert. I mentioned it on twitter, but for those that missed it I intentionally refused to write about the death in any sort of expanded way for the reason that I feel anything I would say would only not be insufficient in the eyes of his fans but also in the eyes of him and what his work did for so many. I, while definitely needing to attribute a lot of my ability to self title myself critic from time to time, have a lot to thank him for what he did with the word and profession. What I feel have been the best obituaries written that I’ve read come from Matt Singer (at CriticWire) and Ryan McNeil (at The Matinee), so go give those a read.
Otherwise, this is what I saw this week:
G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (2013) 
As silly as you expect it to be with enough of an action kick for me to forgive it for how incredulously stupid the story itself is. I will give anything just to have the North Korea gags as well as the ninjas on the mountain side fight scenes. Read my full review here.
THE RIGHT STUFF (1983)
An interesting look at a very specific piece of American aviation history as it leads into the space. A lot worth liking but overall as a film I can’t say I enjoyed myself with it that much. More on this film in a week or so.
KILLING THEM SOFTLY (2012)
Ughhhh!!! I can’t say I’ve been more disappointed by a film recently than this one. It seemed to have all the elements you want in this kind of movie but somehow it ads an overbearing message that ruins it for me. With all these great characters just being ignored in order for Andrew Dominick to hit us over the head with this looming government and economic discussion which feels more like a poorly constructed lecture.
HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY (1948)
How many ways can I express my love for this movie? It’s a great story that manages to view a world that is seldom discussed in cinema. Read my full review here.
REWATCHED
As I continue on my Criterion pile I get a chance to watch Kubrick’s Paths of Glory again. Still as effective as before and just amazes me how much he can pull off.
In the realm of TUMP I find myself revisiting My Son My Son, What Have Ye Done and Smashed for your ear enjoyment. Smashed is a film I first saw at TIFF last year and was definitely mixed on, you’ll have to wait till Tuesday to hear more as to how my opinion may have changed.
My count for the year of 2013 is updated to 64 First time watches (12 from 2013); 41 Rewatches; 105 Total Films
The reason I enjoyed Killing Them Softly because I live in a country where people feel that government activity is lingering over us whether it's relevant to us or not. Also the final scene in the movie made Killing Them Softly from a good movie to a great movie. Grade A-
Well if I saw that movie I'm sure I'd agree with you Kashiki. The final monologue is kind of biting.. it works as one of those awesome badass monologues, but nothing more to me. I get the government/economic angle, I come from a country where my government is running the countries economy into the ground. Weirdly I feel the film tries to be hopeful continually reminding us that even though these Bush years were there we're walking into the Obama years as the progression of the story. But more than any NPR scored issues I had with Killing Them Softly the direction hurt. The constant slow motion and redundant scenes/characters (pointing at Gandalfini) it just didn't work for me.
If Killing Them Softly was released right after the 2008 Election, I don't think I would of thought very highly of it because I was 14 years old at the time and hopeful but I felt the edge of Killing Them Softly was very cynical and the only hope I could see was when Jackie killed Markie restoring the confidence in the mob underworld. I did vote in the 2012 Election but it wasn't a fun experience.