Like Kurasawa I make mad films

Ok, I don't make films.  But if I did, they'd have a samurai.  And Brad Pitt.  And ideally a culminating scene with some sort of water dance by amphibious bunny rabbits set to Led Zeppelin music.  This might be why my screenplays never get picked up.

So, anyway, your Movie of the Week was going to be Rashomon, but then I didn't watch Rashomon, but accidentally sealed it up in its Netflix envelope anyway and had to carefully retrieve it without tearing the envelope because I don't have another one because I'm sending back Scratch and also the Pianist, even though I haven't watched it yet because I've decided I get the whole Holocaust thing.  Have you noticed that there are FOUR World War II movies out right now?  That seems excessive.

Anyway, instead you get to hear about a NEW movie, which is being called "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."  This is one of those movie theater type movies, which I got to see because it was my birthday yesterday, and Houseboy felt bad that I was thirty years old and still not best friends with Brad Pitt, even though that was on my "To Do Before I'm 30" list.  More on that list another time.

For now, you get a slightly obscure and subtle-ified review of Benjamin Button, because I don't want to have to do the "Spoiler Alert" nonsense.  So, it's a movie about how Brad Pitt is aging backwards and is star-crossed with Cate Blanchett, which I imagine Angelina Jolie is rather upset about.  As was revealed to me ahead of time, the old people makeup is really quite good, and I didn't spend very much time at all going "Wow that old people makeup looks good," because I just got used to it and paid attention to the actual movie.  What distracted me more actually, was the very young Brad Pitt, because dude is like 45 now, so other than the poor lighting I really have no idea how they made him look about 17 at one point.  I was also occasionally distracted when he rode his motorcycle or went sailing, and I blacked out because he's a hottie-cake.  

As to the actual plot and whathows of the movie, I give it about an 8 1/2 out of ten.  There was a particular part where I particularly disliked the way things went, and was pulled out of the suspension of disbelief that is obviously very important to a movie such as this.  But, other than that, I enjoyed it immensely.  I would agree with the director (where ever I saw that) that the actual premise of aging backwards isn't really the most interesting part of it, though that made it more than just another sweeping romantic epic like "The English Patient" or some other movie I haven't seen.  It gives it a little bit of a twist and an unusual edge, though not quite as much as, say "Lars and the Real Girl," which I have seen.  

Also, it's not giving TOO much away to say that I want to be buried with a jelly jar full of buttons.

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