"Shrek" (2001)

"Hollywood" needs more accents.

I don't care for "stupid humor".  Although, I do appreciate that for many people, stupid humor is the perfect way to relax.  For us "dry humor" folks, dry humor seems hard to find.  ("There's 'um... Well, there's...um...or maybe....)  Yeah.  Not sure this movie fits the "dry humor" label, but it was fun to watch the humor built on cultural references and to watch a movie that wasn't loaded down with the humor that I have trouble laughing with.  I don't try to be hard to please.  Maybe dry humor is in the minority part of the population.  Anyways...

It was nice having a main character with an accent other than the "American Standard Midwest".  I liked hearing that little bit of different in Shrek's voice.  (Scottish?)  Not that the donkey is midwestern, but City Eddy is a well known flavor.

And of all the different renditions of Robin Hood that have been put into to film, I'm not so sure that the cameo appearance in this film isn't closer to the original flavor of the book than all the rest of the full fledged adaptations.  (Okay, I haven't seen all the versions yet.  So, my opinion could easily change.  I can think of one version I haven't seen that could be a challenger.)  Robin Hood dramas are nice--and understandablely a good selection for an adaptation.  At the same time, most of the book is much lighter "ha ha pulled a fast one", "let's swap stories" stories.  And Shrek's Merry men appearance is definitely on the lighter side.

Let's see.  Nice to have a lady dragon.

This movie was good fare.  A nice watch.

"Aeon Flux" (2005)

Female lead.  Lots of acrobatics.  I think the movie does a fine job submitting its own answer to "How would a female action lead look?" meaning, how would she fight different, to prove she is all woman, but still show "She can do it, too" just like a man?  (Here come the criticisms launched at the accusation that she should even have to be compared to a man--either as what she is as like him, or as what she is not in relation to him.  A sign as the negative of the picture to show that she is or isn't the positive--or both is AND isn't.)

So, how about instead the beauty of a body in fluid motion--a dance for something other than a dance competition.  And any screen fight instructor will tell you that fights are choreographed, a word used for dancing.

Interesting use of color throughout the movie.

I think for me, it's just the pleasure of seeing a capable woman who didn't need to be rescued/saved by a man during the fight.  And yet, as a Christian, we're ALL saved by a man.  It's what mankind--men and women--all realize inside them somewhere, that we're in need of a savior.  And even Aeon Flux--you find out at the end--is saved by a man, an old man.  Although, he saved her because he saw something worth saving.  And Christ's bride--the church--has nothing as part of her own self worthy of being saved; and yet Christ loved his bride enough to die for her.  Our need for a savior is buried deep inside us.  It can't BUT come out in what we create.

And Aeon Flux is just a nice action movie to watch on a Saturday night--enough shoot 'em up action with fluid motion acrobatics to keep you watching, with enough Sci-Fi to make things interesting--without so much gore you get sick of it or too much science mumbo-jumbo to scramble your brain.