This past week was Ed Norton week, largely because I watched Primal Fear, and I decided to make a theme out of it. So it was either courtroom dramas or Ed Norton.
Primal Fear was a great movie, and I really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed seeing Laura Linney. It might not be the best courtroom drama, but it’s worth watching if you haven’t seen it.
Originally, I wanted to watch The Italian Job for my second Ed Norton movie. Alas, I couldn’t find it for free through any of my streaming services. In my searching, I came across The Score. I haven’t seen this one before, and since it’s a heist movie, and heist / bank robbery movies are some of my favorites, I figured it would be a good replacement.
The Score was really disappointing for me. I actually got bored, and I missed a lot of the details of during the time they were planning the crime. Apart from the climax of pulling off the heist, this is usually my favorite part of these movies. So it’s really saying something to say I didn’t pay attention.
There are so, so many good films in this category. Ocean’s 11, Bandits, Point Break, Fast Five, The Real McCoy (I had to look this one up, I couldn’t recall the name, and it took me a good 20-30 minutes. It didn’t show up on any of the lists I came across, I swore Meg Ryan was in it, and then I realized it was someone I was confusing with Meg Ryan, and finally, I found it on a wikipedia page that lists heist movies by decade. That said, it’s from 1993, so it’s been a looooong time since I’ve seen it, and I don’t know if it holds up), just to name a few.
Next up, Rounders. Why is Ed Norton always the bad guy in these movies? And this was really more of Matt Damon movie, in my opinion. However, I really enjoyed this movie. So far, it was my favorite of the bunch.
The last second to last entry I have for Ed Norton week is American History X. This was a great movie, but very brutal, and such a gut-wrenching, tear-jerking ending. Also, why is Ed Norton a total jerk in most of these movies?
Last up – The lllusionist. This was the only movie I’d already seen. When it came out, The Prestige came out right around the same time. Both movies are set in early 1900s London, about magicians and their rivals. I could never get them straight in my head, and now that I’ve re-watched The Illusionist, I recall going to see it, but meaning to see The Prestige. The Illusionist is not a terrible movie, but I found it dreadfully slow and not very interesting on the magician side of things. I’ll have to The Prestige and see if that one is as good as I remember.
In an unrelated topic, when I get to quarantine post 103 (one hundred daily posts in a row), I think I’m gonna take a break and blog less often. We’ll see, I still have a ways to go.