About Schmidt

It’s weird. The preview for this movie made it look horribly depressing, and although the movie’s tone wasn’t entirely unlike that of the preview, it was surprisingly entertaining. I guess the humor is more of a mood thing, kinda like in Fargo, so it would have been hard to make it look funny in just a quick soundbite. Plus, I’m not a big Jack slave like most people seem to be, but I liked him in this. It wasn’t his typical role.

Perhaps in part due to my low expectations, I liked it. It’s a solid 8/10.

Das Experiment

Oh, man. This is a German movie based on Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment done at Stanford in the 1970s. Basically, students were assigned to either be guards or prisoners for two weeks in a mock prison. The experiment was stopped after six days because everyone started losing touch with reality, including the experimenters, and the guards became sadistic.

ANYWAY… this movie is based on that. My biggest criticism is that it completely exaggerates the reality of what happened. Yes, I know this is to be expected of an adaptation but it was way too much. The first half is absolutely captivating as it is true to the story, and the tension is very cleverly spun. But in the second half, the movie sadly becomes a big ol’ American action flick. It degenerates and keeps getting more and more violent, losing all of the well-crafted “psychological” creepyness of the first half. Not even the disturbing violence in Reservoir Dogs made me as nauseous as I got watching this movie. I was actually dry-heaving.

In other words I didn’t like it, in fact it totally pissed me off. What a shame.

Jackass

I didn’t want to see this, but I was outvoted by a cottage full of friends, so what to do? I must say I laughed my ass off at parts, and I was gagging at some.

Think of it as candid camera, but with an edge. For example, at one point one guy goes to the plumbing department of a Reno-Depot, and takes a dump in one of the toilets there, in front of the bemused patrons. Another guy sticks a matchbox car up his anus and goes to a rural clinic where they take an x-ray. The look on the face of the elderly nurse is priceless.

So, I’m not sure I recommend it, but when forced to see it I was amused.