- I don't have a whole lot to say about the movie of Angels & Demons except that it's a decent, semi-grown up summer thriller that's a lot better than the Da Vinci Code movie. Basically, it captures the book very well (despite a few minor additions and omissions), for better or worse. This means that all the pros (the fun, connect-the-dots plotting, the enjoyably twisty narrative, the genuine suspense, the good pacing) and all the cons (the barely-there characters, the illogical situations, the hackneyed attempts at social commentary, the flat self-seriousness) from the book are present. Though, in the movie's favour, you don't have to deal with Dan Brown's clunky prose style while watching it. Tom Hanks (with a much, much better haircut and a thankful lack of double chin) is a good fit for Langdon, even if his academic asshole routine gets grating at a certain point, and Ewan McGregor is nicely hammy as the interim pope. All of the other actors really make no impression one way or the other, staying out of the way of the plot; that's a good thing. Ron Howard's direction is his usual clean-but-sterile craftsmanship (he does do a lot of spin-the-camera-around-the-actors shots, though, for some reason) but that's not really a negative; flashy direction wouldn't benefit here (see the sequences in Da Vinci which attempted to illustrate Langdon's claustrophobia for proof). It is a bit long (and there's some besides-the-point padding in the middle) but not so much so that I was actively annoyed. All in all, it's worth seeing once but I wouldn't (and didn't) pay full price for a ticket.
- I'll keep my thoughts on Relapse, the new Eminem album, to point form, as it doesn't deserve much more:
- Production, mostly by Dr. Dre, is fine but leans really hard on those cold-steel percussion figures and chunky synth runs that he's been dealing in since "In Da Club" hit it big. It works on "Old Time's Sake", possibly because that song features Dre, but nowhere else. The big departures from this formula do work: "Bagpipes From Baghdad" is mediocre but through no fault of its snake-charmer beat, "Underground" has a clumsy rhythm but a moody ambiance and "Deja Vu" has a dusty guitar-and-drums musical makeup that feels very 90's New York rap.
- Em sounds really tired and bored, for the most part. There's no joy to his voice; when he makes the jokes that should be gleefully offensive pranksterism, they sound like he's just going through the motions because people expect it of him.
- Evidence of this; there are two songs on here where the whole joke is "I am a rapist" and neither are remotely funny or even really offensive in a way other than, "man, that sucks".
- However, when he does get fired up, he proves that he can still rap. "Insane" hearkens back to his Slim Shady LP days, in both rapping and lyrics, "Deja Vu" (the best song on the album) is a brilliantly self-effacing account of his troubles in the past four years, "3 A.M." is a lame horrorcore throwback that's redeemed only though delivery and "Must Be The Ganja" grinds a tired lyrical concept but Em, surprisingly, makes it work.
- The skits are, predictably, awful.
- "Beautiful" samples a goddamn Queen + Paul Rodgers track; that's all I have to say about that.
- Overall, better than Encore but nowhere near as good as it needs to be to get me to truly care about Eminem again
I'll post later in the week about the new Green Day album, the 24 and Lost season finales and Terminator Salvation. But, for now, in order, here's my thoughts: Pretty good, weird/confusing in a bad way, weird/confusing in a good way and overly grim but still well-done.
Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
STOLE A THOUSAND BEGGAR'S CHANGE
- I feared the worst with Star Trek when it was announced that it was being directed by J. J. Abrams and being written by the guys who wrote the, completely godawful, 2007 Transformers film. And when I saw the first trailer, it seemed to confirm a lot of my fears: too-big special effects, unnecessary sex appeal, stony serious-mindedness, broad comic relief of the annoying variety. My thoughts going into the theatre were basically "well, it can't be as bad as Transformers and it has Simon Pegg in it". Make no mistake, I was really looking forward to this film but only really because it was an updated Star Trek (I'm not what you'd call a Trekkie, but I like the original series pretty well and thought it could do with a new coat of paint) and not due to a true liking of any of the creative talent involved. For my money, the best thing Abrams ever did with his life was being vaguely involved with Lost as none of his other things, whether TV (I didn't care for Alias, Fringe is okay) or film (Cloverfield is gimmicky, MI:3 is a decent action movie greatly improved by Philip Seymour Hoffman) have really impressed me. Also, I don't really care what else screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have written because they wrote Transformers and I still want to kill them for that.
However, against all those odds, they pulled this one off. It's got enough of a hip sensibility to not seem dated but the thing I love the most is how the movie doesn't ignore the essential optimism at the heart of the Trek world in favour of post-modern deconstructionism. It would be very easy to make this movie "dark" and "edgy" (a sort of Dark Knight take on Trek) and call it at that but, thankfully, the writers don't do that. They do add bigger, more SFX-heavy action sequences (the best of which is a thrilling space-skydive set piece, which includes a redshirt, natch), some romantic tension between Uhura and Spock and a more general light-hearted approach to the material (technobabble is kept to a minimum). The only real issues with the film are a weak villian and that the middle section is a bit slow. Also, no Shatner cameo, but Nimoy has a pretty big part, so, it's forgivable. In fact, with it's general good-heartedness, as opposed to the oppressive darkness of the recent Batman films, and lack of prejudice (especially surprising coming from the scribes of Transformers, which may be the most racially-backwards mainstream film of the past decade) Star Trek might be the first blockbuster for the Obama-era and it'll be interesting to see if this becomes the biggest earner of the summer because of that. Its we're-in-this-together spirit and sense of maybe-this-will-all-work-out embodies a new hope, in the same way that Dark Knight's moral chaos and breakdown of order was a wail from Bush's tail-end.
More importantly than that, though, it's well-acted, well-directed (albeit with a bit too much use of close-ups during action scenes, probably learned from working of TV shows), has excellent special effects (especially coming after Wolverine's cheap green-screened look) and respects the earlier Trek (particularly in terms of character personas/quirks) works without being slavishly beholden to them. It's something that you can love whether you're a Trekkie or someone with no idea of the story beyond the multitude of parodies. It's a big, fun, sloppy space adventure with loads of humour and, even if the actual plot is a little weak, it sets the franchise up for many further adventures with this crew, which I, for one, would be happy to take.
However, against all those odds, they pulled this one off. It's got enough of a hip sensibility to not seem dated but the thing I love the most is how the movie doesn't ignore the essential optimism at the heart of the Trek world in favour of post-modern deconstructionism. It would be very easy to make this movie "dark" and "edgy" (a sort of Dark Knight take on Trek) and call it at that but, thankfully, the writers don't do that. They do add bigger, more SFX-heavy action sequences (the best of which is a thrilling space-skydive set piece, which includes a redshirt, natch), some romantic tension between Uhura and Spock and a more general light-hearted approach to the material (technobabble is kept to a minimum). The only real issues with the film are a weak villian and that the middle section is a bit slow. Also, no Shatner cameo, but Nimoy has a pretty big part, so, it's forgivable. In fact, with it's general good-heartedness, as opposed to the oppressive darkness of the recent Batman films, and lack of prejudice (especially surprising coming from the scribes of Transformers, which may be the most racially-backwards mainstream film of the past decade) Star Trek might be the first blockbuster for the Obama-era and it'll be interesting to see if this becomes the biggest earner of the summer because of that. Its we're-in-this-together spirit and sense of maybe-this-will-all-work-out embodies a new hope, in the same way that Dark Knight's moral chaos and breakdown of order was a wail from Bush's tail-end.
More importantly than that, though, it's well-acted, well-directed (albeit with a bit too much use of close-ups during action scenes, probably learned from working of TV shows), has excellent special effects (especially coming after Wolverine's cheap green-screened look) and respects the earlier Trek (particularly in terms of character personas/quirks) works without being slavishly beholden to them. It's something that you can love whether you're a Trekkie or someone with no idea of the story beyond the multitude of parodies. It's a big, fun, sloppy space adventure with loads of humour and, even if the actual plot is a little weak, it sets the franchise up for many further adventures with this crew, which I, for one, would be happy to take.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
HERE COMES THAT FEAR AGAIN
- Lost last night was, for the most part, one of those piece-mover sort of episodes where it's more about getting everything ready for the big blowout next time than giving pay-off in and of itself. That said, I didn't mind so much with this one both because it's the pre-season finale episode (which always tends to be like this) and because it was snappily paced with enough brain-melters (what does Alpert mean by that "watched them all die" comment?) and little asides (Sawyer talking to Juliet about how to make money, Hurley admitting to Chang that he's from the future) to make it not be a slog. The episode's other highlight (other than a wet 77-era Ellie) was certainly Locke's final statement, which opens a big new can of narrative worms. A friend who I was talking with today floated the theory that Jacob is actually Jack, which would both make sense (Jack is in the past and could potentially become a hero/leader to the Others by detonating that bomb) and provide a juicy new twist to the Jack/Locke rivalry. At any rate, the episode got me pumped for the season finale next week, which was its job.
- I have a really tough time articulating my feelings about X-Men Origins: Wolverine; overall, I'd say it was okay but that's sort of misleading because it's an average: The movie ping-pongs from really good to groan-worthy, often from scene-to-scene. The real problem, as I see it, is that while the directors/actors/writers of this thing know how to make convincing action scenes and decent comic book intrigue, they completely fail at capturing any sort of emotional resonance. That wouldn't necessarily be such a bad thing if the movie didn't dwell on "heavy" scenes and kept moving from one set-piece to another (for a good example of this, see the newest Die Hard movie which also can't summon up a father-daughter moment of any draw but tries so infrequently that it doesn't matter). But, thing is, it doesn't move on, it keeps hammering dramatic flat notes. Wolverine's (not really) dead girlfriend is only mildly annoying, and sorta necessary to the film's plot, but by the time they introduce a young Cyclops tortured by his powers and Silverfox's imprisoned sister, I was throwing up my hands. It's sort of a shame that so many cheeseball elements (the "NOOOOOOOO!!!" scream over a dead loved one, the showdown at a nuclear reactor) thrown in here because there are some parts which I enjoyed. The early scenes where Logan is with Team X are fun and provide the best action in the movie, there's a pretty damn good boxing match between The Blob and Wolverine and I'll admit that I nerded out for Gambit (who was underused, though Taylor Kitsch's performance seemed a bit unsure of where to go with the character). There were also bits of comic relief, usually one-liners, that worked (but only sort of point out how overly serious the movie is otherwise; if this is the trend that The Dark Knight is starting, then I may have to reconsider how much I like that movie) and Ryan Reynolds (who works his smug asshole shtick to good effect as Wade Wilson/Deadpool) and Liev Schriber (who sneers convincingly as Sabretooth) deserve gold stars for their efforts. Also, as much flack as Hugh Jackman gets for being very much a "star" (as opposed to an "actor"), I think that he owns Wolverine as a character and this movie did nothing to dissuade me thinking that (though he could have kept his shirt on more). There were some bad choices in terms of casting too, though. I dunno if it was an intentional decision to have two of the people on Team X be from Lost but it was really distracting and Will.i.am's performance was just as bad as you would expect. In terms of action, I am very glad that, for the most part, the film didn't fall victim to fast-cut, jerky-cam syndrome (the bit where Deadpool walks into the drug lord's office spinning his swords is particularly great, mostly because it's done with a minimum of cuts) but a lot of the CGI looked real cheap (the final battle atop the reactor, especially). In the end, it's better than the last X-Men movie (not that that's saying a whole lot) but I feel like it's one of those things that I'll be entirely comfortable never seeing again. It had enough action to get me through and the promise of Gambit and Deadpool-related spinoffs is almost enough to convince me of Wolverine's worth by itself. But, considering that last summer movie season started off with the compulsively re-watchable Iron Man and that the best movie in this series (X2) is a movie I've seen probably 20 times, at least, that's kinda disappointing. Here's hoping that my other two big anticipations for this summer (Terminator: Salvation and Star Trek) don't leave me quite so cold.
- I have a really tough time articulating my feelings about X-Men Origins: Wolverine; overall, I'd say it was okay but that's sort of misleading because it's an average: The movie ping-pongs from really good to groan-worthy, often from scene-to-scene. The real problem, as I see it, is that while the directors/actors/writers of this thing know how to make convincing action scenes and decent comic book intrigue, they completely fail at capturing any sort of emotional resonance. That wouldn't necessarily be such a bad thing if the movie didn't dwell on "heavy" scenes and kept moving from one set-piece to another (for a good example of this, see the newest Die Hard movie which also can't summon up a father-daughter moment of any draw but tries so infrequently that it doesn't matter). But, thing is, it doesn't move on, it keeps hammering dramatic flat notes. Wolverine's (not really) dead girlfriend is only mildly annoying, and sorta necessary to the film's plot, but by the time they introduce a young Cyclops tortured by his powers and Silverfox's imprisoned sister, I was throwing up my hands. It's sort of a shame that so many cheeseball elements (the "NOOOOOOOO!!!" scream over a dead loved one, the showdown at a nuclear reactor) thrown in here because there are some parts which I enjoyed. The early scenes where Logan is with Team X are fun and provide the best action in the movie, there's a pretty damn good boxing match between The Blob and Wolverine and I'll admit that I nerded out for Gambit (who was underused, though Taylor Kitsch's performance seemed a bit unsure of where to go with the character). There were also bits of comic relief, usually one-liners, that worked (but only sort of point out how overly serious the movie is otherwise; if this is the trend that The Dark Knight is starting, then I may have to reconsider how much I like that movie) and Ryan Reynolds (who works his smug asshole shtick to good effect as Wade Wilson/Deadpool) and Liev Schriber (who sneers convincingly as Sabretooth) deserve gold stars for their efforts. Also, as much flack as Hugh Jackman gets for being very much a "star" (as opposed to an "actor"), I think that he owns Wolverine as a character and this movie did nothing to dissuade me thinking that (though he could have kept his shirt on more). There were some bad choices in terms of casting too, though. I dunno if it was an intentional decision to have two of the people on Team X be from Lost but it was really distracting and Will.i.am's performance was just as bad as you would expect. In terms of action, I am very glad that, for the most part, the film didn't fall victim to fast-cut, jerky-cam syndrome (the bit where Deadpool walks into the drug lord's office spinning his swords is particularly great, mostly because it's done with a minimum of cuts) but a lot of the CGI looked real cheap (the final battle atop the reactor, especially). In the end, it's better than the last X-Men movie (not that that's saying a whole lot) but I feel like it's one of those things that I'll be entirely comfortable never seeing again. It had enough action to get me through and the promise of Gambit and Deadpool-related spinoffs is almost enough to convince me of Wolverine's worth by itself. But, considering that last summer movie season started off with the compulsively re-watchable Iron Man and that the best movie in this series (X2) is a movie I've seen probably 20 times, at least, that's kinda disappointing. Here's hoping that my other two big anticipations for this summer (Terminator: Salvation and Star Trek) don't leave me quite so cold.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
FIND MY HARBORCOAT, CAN'T GO OUTSIDE WITHOUT IT
Long time, no post:
- There's been two pretty good episodes of 24 since I last posted. Highlights:
- Jack gets into a car and finds an open laptop on the seat.
- Jack's white-fu showdown with Quinn AKA Bizarro Jack Bauer, climaxing in Jack throwing a screwdriver through a bulletproof vest.
- "If you want to kill me, you have to look me in the eyes", "Alright"
- Senator Mayor AKA Red Foreman AKA the sniper dude from Robocop died; single tear. I was disappointed that he didn't call Jack a dumbass or tell him that the Tigers were playing tonight, though.
- Colm Feore's back!
- Jon Voight is basically the guy who runs Blackwater.
- Tony got captured!
- Good firefight at the loading docks.
- The bad guys clearly know who they're up against because they send an attack helicopter to take out Jack.
- Jack's exposed to the gas: OH NOES.
- Lost was pretty good last week but I don't have much to say about it. It was just a good, solid episode; nothing particularly great but it moved everything along very well. I was also very intrigued by Sayid meeting a young Ben at the end of the episode.
Films I saw over the March Break:
Step-Brothers:
As dumb comedies go, this is a pretty good one. John C. Reiley and Will Ferrel work very well together and that chemistry is able to redeem some, though not all, of the cruder bits. There's also some surprisingly witty banter going on. I'm getting really tired of Ferrel's shtick but I'll give this one a pass.
Punisher: War Zone:
Let me put it this way: Would you like to see a film where someone shoots people while spinning on a chandelier and then rams a chair leg through some dude's eyeball? If you said yes, this one is for you. The "plot" was so simple as to be non-existent, the acting (with the exception of a hilariously over-acting Dominic West as the crime boss) was flat and bland and the film generally reeks of the kind of b-action stink usually reserved for mid-80's Chuck Norris fare. But the action scenes are impeccably constructed with lots of "bam" moments and good variety (firefights here, semi-kung-fu there), so, if you feel like turning your brain off and enjoying some mindless violence for a while there are definitely a lot worse ways to spend your time.
Transporter 3:
A big problem with modern action movies is the choppiness of the fight scenes and this is my big complaint here: everything is cut at such a furious clip there's so sense of scale or chance to absorb anything. The Statham redeems it somewhat and some cool stuff couldn't be ruined by the direction (the car chase was pretty cool, Statham using his shirt to fight a guy was funny) but, overall I just wasn't feeling this one. That said, the acting was good all around and the premise allowed for some good moments. Still, when the point of your movie is action, the action scenes need to be great and, here, they weren't.
Rocknrolla:
Guy Richie's gig is wearing a bit thin on me but this is his best movie since Snatch, not that that's saying very much. Still, the acting worked well, the characters were enjoyably quirky (if a bit less crazy than Richie's other films) and it represents a step forward for Richie in a couple of ways. First, there's actually a female character in one of his movies for once! She's kinda stereotypical but I liked the way Thandie Newton played her. Second, and this was very surprising to me, the gay dude wasn't played as an offensive stereotype; he was just another member of Gerard Butler's group, sexuality near-irrelevant save a couple of quick bits of jokey banter and a rather hilarious dance scene between him and Butler. The plot was a bit too twisty for its own good (I got lost somewhere in all the property-dealing talk) and I think that one more movie of this type is all I can tolerate from Richie. But, for now, this an entertaining bit of gangland whimsy, though I'd still say to watch Snatch before any of his other films.
Know1ng:
Rating for this movie without The Cage: 3/10 (bad Christian symbolism, cheesy SFX, okay acting, end-of-days plot that would have been old hat in the 80's)
Rating for this movie with The Cage: 8/10 (More crazy twitches and nutso eyes than you can shake a stick at. He also unveils some new Cage hand motions. No "Put the bunny back in the box" or "Get off the bike"-level quotes, though)
That's all for now, I'll talk about Resident Evil 5 when I've played a bit more.
- There's been two pretty good episodes of 24 since I last posted. Highlights:
- Jack gets into a car and finds an open laptop on the seat.
- Jack's white-fu showdown with Quinn AKA Bizarro Jack Bauer, climaxing in Jack throwing a screwdriver through a bulletproof vest.
- "If you want to kill me, you have to look me in the eyes", "Alright"
- Senator Mayor AKA Red Foreman AKA the sniper dude from Robocop died; single tear. I was disappointed that he didn't call Jack a dumbass or tell him that the Tigers were playing tonight, though.
- Colm Feore's back!
- Jon Voight is basically the guy who runs Blackwater.
- Tony got captured!
- Good firefight at the loading docks.
- The bad guys clearly know who they're up against because they send an attack helicopter to take out Jack.
- Jack's exposed to the gas: OH NOES.
- Lost was pretty good last week but I don't have much to say about it. It was just a good, solid episode; nothing particularly great but it moved everything along very well. I was also very intrigued by Sayid meeting a young Ben at the end of the episode.
Films I saw over the March Break:
Step-Brothers:
As dumb comedies go, this is a pretty good one. John C. Reiley and Will Ferrel work very well together and that chemistry is able to redeem some, though not all, of the cruder bits. There's also some surprisingly witty banter going on. I'm getting really tired of Ferrel's shtick but I'll give this one a pass.
Punisher: War Zone:
Let me put it this way: Would you like to see a film where someone shoots people while spinning on a chandelier and then rams a chair leg through some dude's eyeball? If you said yes, this one is for you. The "plot" was so simple as to be non-existent, the acting (with the exception of a hilariously over-acting Dominic West as the crime boss) was flat and bland and the film generally reeks of the kind of b-action stink usually reserved for mid-80's Chuck Norris fare. But the action scenes are impeccably constructed with lots of "bam" moments and good variety (firefights here, semi-kung-fu there), so, if you feel like turning your brain off and enjoying some mindless violence for a while there are definitely a lot worse ways to spend your time.
Transporter 3:
A big problem with modern action movies is the choppiness of the fight scenes and this is my big complaint here: everything is cut at such a furious clip there's so sense of scale or chance to absorb anything. The Statham redeems it somewhat and some cool stuff couldn't be ruined by the direction (the car chase was pretty cool, Statham using his shirt to fight a guy was funny) but, overall I just wasn't feeling this one. That said, the acting was good all around and the premise allowed for some good moments. Still, when the point of your movie is action, the action scenes need to be great and, here, they weren't.
Rocknrolla:
Guy Richie's gig is wearing a bit thin on me but this is his best movie since Snatch, not that that's saying very much. Still, the acting worked well, the characters were enjoyably quirky (if a bit less crazy than Richie's other films) and it represents a step forward for Richie in a couple of ways. First, there's actually a female character in one of his movies for once! She's kinda stereotypical but I liked the way Thandie Newton played her. Second, and this was very surprising to me, the gay dude wasn't played as an offensive stereotype; he was just another member of Gerard Butler's group, sexuality near-irrelevant save a couple of quick bits of jokey banter and a rather hilarious dance scene between him and Butler. The plot was a bit too twisty for its own good (I got lost somewhere in all the property-dealing talk) and I think that one more movie of this type is all I can tolerate from Richie. But, for now, this an entertaining bit of gangland whimsy, though I'd still say to watch Snatch before any of his other films.
Know1ng:
Rating for this movie without The Cage: 3/10 (bad Christian symbolism, cheesy SFX, okay acting, end-of-days plot that would have been old hat in the 80's)
Rating for this movie with The Cage: 8/10 (More crazy twitches and nutso eyes than you can shake a stick at. He also unveils some new Cage hand motions. No "Put the bunny back in the box" or "Get off the bike"-level quotes, though)
That's all for now, I'll talk about Resident Evil 5 when I've played a bit more.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
CINDERELLA, SHE SEEMS SO EASY
Watchmen is a good movie but I sort of wish I hadn't read the comic before seeing it. You might be asking why because I like the comic a lot but the answer is very simple: With one exception late in the film, it's just the comic word-for-word, event-for-event. This meant that I knew every action and plot twist before it occurred and, thus, I became disinterested at points. It almost felt as if I were watching the movie for a second time. Now, I'm sure the more hard-edged Watchmen fans will love this ultra-faithful approach (and it's clear that director Zack Synder has a great love for the comic) but, I dunno, I wanted some level of surprise or shock.
That said, if you, like most of my friends, haven't read the comic, you'll probably like this one a lot. Watchmen, for all of its minute flaws, has always had a interesting, vaguely-noir, plot and nuanced characters and the film gets that across very well. Also, I think the change that was made, although it was probably for budgetary reasons, actually makes the ending more credible, but that's just me.
Technically speaking, it's also a very well-made movie, with excellent costume design and sets that capture the look of Dave Gibbons' original comic artwork. The CGI looked good for the most part (although the glass castle on Mars looked kinda cheap), as well. And although I did get restless during the talky bits, I have to say that all of the actions scenes were first rate. The fact that the combat was varied (some of it was a bit more kung-fu, some of it was more brawling) was nice but the thing I liked the most is that it was handled skillfully. There was none of the fast-cut/shaky-cam syndrome that affects many modern action scenes; the camera stayed still so you could see all the actors' movements and the cuts were paced logically. Slo-mo was also used to good effect, if a bit too often. Say what you will about Synder's sensibilities but all three of his movies have shown that, if nothing else, he's a great action director.
In terms of acting, I thought that all of the performances were at least "good" with some being "very good" or "excellent". Jackie Earl Hayley's Rorschach might have been using the Batman-voice but it felt far more appropriate for him, and I thought the actor really captured the combination of paranoid psychopath vigilante and wounded, rejected sociopath at the heart of the character. Patrick Wilson was good as Nite Owl, although I thought that he could have been a bit more nerdy/nervous. I'm not sure how much Billy Crudup's performance has to do with the finished product of Dr. Manhattan, but I'm willing to say he was on-the-money. Matthew Goode was a little less preening/self-obsessed than I'd imagined Veidt being but I liked his aristocratic calm at everything. I loved Jeffery Dean Morgan's Comedian, he had just the right mix of weariness and belligerence. The biggest problem, acting-wise, was Malin Akerman's Silk Spectre. Now, it's clear that she got cast for her looks and willingness to dress in a stupid costume while doing fight scenes, more than anything else, but, while I certainly didn't think her performance was bad, she felt flat and nervous, emotionally.
I thought that the gore got a bit gratuitous at points. The entrails dripping off the ceiling after Manhattan explodes a group of dudes, when Rorschach kills the pedophile with the butcher knife and when the mob goon gets his arms cut off being the main examples. The Nite Owl/Silk Spectre sex scene was also a bit much.
All that said, though, I liked the movie though I wish more of it might have resembled the opening montage set to "The Times They Are A-Changin'" (speaking of which, the movie had a very good, period-appropriate, soundtrack, with the exception of the exceedingly confusing My Chemical Romance cover of "Desolation Row" which closes the film), where Synder didn't have material to work with directly from the comic book so he spring-boarded with some ideas of his own. It's very cool and makes me wish that Synder would do something original rather than word-for-word comic adaptations (he also did the movie of 300 which had a similar approach to the move from page to screen) and horror remakes (the 2005 Dawn Of The Dead, which was okay but not as good as the original, probably because it lacked black-fu), he's certainly shown he's at least a shade better than most Hollywood hacks (even if his tagging as "visionary" on the Watchmen poster made me laugh) and I think he should be given an opportunity to do something of his own vision.
That said, if you, like most of my friends, haven't read the comic, you'll probably like this one a lot. Watchmen, for all of its minute flaws, has always had a interesting, vaguely-noir, plot and nuanced characters and the film gets that across very well. Also, I think the change that was made, although it was probably for budgetary reasons, actually makes the ending more credible, but that's just me.
Technically speaking, it's also a very well-made movie, with excellent costume design and sets that capture the look of Dave Gibbons' original comic artwork. The CGI looked good for the most part (although the glass castle on Mars looked kinda cheap), as well. And although I did get restless during the talky bits, I have to say that all of the actions scenes were first rate. The fact that the combat was varied (some of it was a bit more kung-fu, some of it was more brawling) was nice but the thing I liked the most is that it was handled skillfully. There was none of the fast-cut/shaky-cam syndrome that affects many modern action scenes; the camera stayed still so you could see all the actors' movements and the cuts were paced logically. Slo-mo was also used to good effect, if a bit too often. Say what you will about Synder's sensibilities but all three of his movies have shown that, if nothing else, he's a great action director.
In terms of acting, I thought that all of the performances were at least "good" with some being "very good" or "excellent". Jackie Earl Hayley's Rorschach might have been using the Batman-voice but it felt far more appropriate for him, and I thought the actor really captured the combination of paranoid psychopath vigilante and wounded, rejected sociopath at the heart of the character. Patrick Wilson was good as Nite Owl, although I thought that he could have been a bit more nerdy/nervous. I'm not sure how much Billy Crudup's performance has to do with the finished product of Dr. Manhattan, but I'm willing to say he was on-the-money. Matthew Goode was a little less preening/self-obsessed than I'd imagined Veidt being but I liked his aristocratic calm at everything. I loved Jeffery Dean Morgan's Comedian, he had just the right mix of weariness and belligerence. The biggest problem, acting-wise, was Malin Akerman's Silk Spectre. Now, it's clear that she got cast for her looks and willingness to dress in a stupid costume while doing fight scenes, more than anything else, but, while I certainly didn't think her performance was bad, she felt flat and nervous, emotionally.
I thought that the gore got a bit gratuitous at points. The entrails dripping off the ceiling after Manhattan explodes a group of dudes, when Rorschach kills the pedophile with the butcher knife and when the mob goon gets his arms cut off being the main examples. The Nite Owl/Silk Spectre sex scene was also a bit much.
All that said, though, I liked the movie though I wish more of it might have resembled the opening montage set to "The Times They Are A-Changin'" (speaking of which, the movie had a very good, period-appropriate, soundtrack, with the exception of the exceedingly confusing My Chemical Romance cover of "Desolation Row" which closes the film), where Synder didn't have material to work with directly from the comic book so he spring-boarded with some ideas of his own. It's very cool and makes me wish that Synder would do something original rather than word-for-word comic adaptations (he also did the movie of 300 which had a similar approach to the move from page to screen) and horror remakes (the 2005 Dawn Of The Dead, which was okay but not as good as the original, probably because it lacked black-fu), he's certainly shown he's at least a shade better than most Hollywood hacks (even if his tagging as "visionary" on the Watchmen poster made me laugh) and I think he should be given an opportunity to do something of his own vision.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
I HATE MYSELF FOR LOVING YOU
So, guilty pleasures, they're something that everyone has: Things that you know are bad but you like them anyway. Whether it's a bad action movie or a vapid reality TV show or cheesy romance novel, there's just no accounting for taste sometimes. I'm going post some of my guilty pleasures and why I like them (and why I shouldn't) in the hopes that others will too. So, to the two people who follow this blog: You're ON NOTICE. And please don't make fun of me for some of this.
(Quick note before I start: Guilty pleasures entail that you like the thing entirely unironically, it has to receive the response it seeks from you. Thus, I'm not going to put stuff like Bad Boys 2 on this list because I'm laughing at that movie, not with it.)
Crank: It's pretty much everything I'm against socially in movie form: it's sexist and racist and homophobic and generally reeks of a sort of frat boy, "let's get drunk and laid", nihilism. Add that to the fact that they're are people who take this movie way too friggin' seriously (i.e. seriously at all) and that the action scenes aren't particularly well-staged (it suffers from the all-too-common problem of too many fast cuts in many modern action movies), except for a couple of good gags (the guy falling off of the fire escape, for example), and this movie should be awful, right? Well, there are two things that make this movie work at all: 1) The Statham, 'nuff said. 2) The fact that the filmmakers are just trying to keep topping themselves in terms of out-there insanity. I mean, really, what is there to say about a movie where a guy driving a car through a mall is the least ridiculous thing? In terms of sheer "WTF?"-factor Crank has basically any movie this side of Asia beat. It's also got a certain sense of humour about itself and I love the wild, free-wheeling visual style that incorporates pretty much every little filmic trick in the book to enhance the crazy plot. It's the Annie Hall of action films, in that way. Crank is pretty-much just a teenage male fantasy brought to life but it'll hold anyone's attention in a social setting (if only because they're so offended) and it's probably the purest "guy movie" out there. Still, unless you're of a particular mindset (read: full of testosterone), you're not gonna like this and you basically don't want your wife, girlfriend or mom to know that this movie even exists.
The Notebook: Now, let's take a trip to the exact opposite end of the estrogen-testosterone scale with this movie, an adaptation of a novel by Nicholas Sparks (more on him in a bit) that is probably the most direly cheesy and melodramatic romance you'll ever see. In fact, words like "melodramatic" don't even begin to describe The Notebook; we need to invent new terms just for this movie. But, as I've said before, I'm a sucker for this type of over-the-top melodrama when it comes to romance and I'll admit I caught up in this one. Actually, it's sort of odd because I resisted it for a long time just based on the poster (because, well, yeah) and a plot synopsis. Also, the reviews weren't great. But, in one of those weird coincidences that happens sometimes, I was clicking around the dial one day and stopped to watch for a minute (mostly due to the costume design) without knowing exactly what it was. Before I knew it, I was, against all of my masculinity and better judgement, absorbed into this story. It's bad on any rational level (the characters are cliched, the plot progression doesn't make logical sense, everything is exaggerated to the point of hyper-reality), and a lot of the characters' actions exist in this romantic-in-theory-but-would-be-pathetic-in-real-life area that so many love stories inhabit (the scene where Ryan Gosling hangs off the Ferris Wheel bar to ask Racheal McAdams on a date is particularly eye-rolling). Still, there's a sort of undeniable pull that this movie holds for me; the variety of hyper-cheesy romance pushed here trumps the more-"realistic" fare of, say, He's Just Not That Into You (hi, Lana!) for me because I'd rather be enraptured in a fantasy that allows me to forget about my troubles for a while than have to deal with a more bitter story that makes me, to some extent, confront my issues (exceptions when said relative realism is extremely well-written as in Annie Hall or Say Anything). Also, it's very well-directed with excellent production/costume design and well-acted, for this type of material, to boot. And we all need to indulge our stupid romantic fantasies sometimes, right?
Every Nicholas Sparks novel that I've read except A Walk to Remember: Sparks is really bad writer; I mean that, he's really terrible. He doesn't have a feel for natural speech, he's extremely melodramatic and he repeats himself an awful lot if you read more than one of his books. However, his utterly overblown romantic stories touch a nerve for me (and, clearly, a lot of other people because he sells a lot of copies). They're perfect to lose yourself in if you're feeling bad and, as overblown as his descriptions are, I'm willing to forgive him because he's clearly working on more on an emotional level than anything else. And, if nothing else, he's a master of emotional manipulation, that or I'm easy. But when he wants me to feel sad, I feel sad, when he wants me to feel all warm and fuzzy, I feel all warm and fuzzy. I haven't read the book of The Notebook (I figure it's redundant given that I saw the movie) or Nights In Rodanthe (mostly because I thought that the movie of it looked awful) but otherwise, I have an unnatural love for his stuff. With the exception of A Walk to Remember, that is; I didn't like that one mostly because of the overbearing Christian message of it, which was sort of disappointing because the premise wasn't awful but, I dunno, it just didn't work for me.
There are lots of other things I could put on here but those will suffice for now. Perhaps this will be a running feature on here, who knows.
(Quick note before I start: Guilty pleasures entail that you like the thing entirely unironically, it has to receive the response it seeks from you. Thus, I'm not going to put stuff like Bad Boys 2 on this list because I'm laughing at that movie, not with it.)
Crank: It's pretty much everything I'm against socially in movie form: it's sexist and racist and homophobic and generally reeks of a sort of frat boy, "let's get drunk and laid", nihilism. Add that to the fact that they're are people who take this movie way too friggin' seriously (i.e. seriously at all) and that the action scenes aren't particularly well-staged (it suffers from the all-too-common problem of too many fast cuts in many modern action movies), except for a couple of good gags (the guy falling off of the fire escape, for example), and this movie should be awful, right? Well, there are two things that make this movie work at all: 1) The Statham, 'nuff said. 2) The fact that the filmmakers are just trying to keep topping themselves in terms of out-there insanity. I mean, really, what is there to say about a movie where a guy driving a car through a mall is the least ridiculous thing? In terms of sheer "WTF?"-factor Crank has basically any movie this side of Asia beat. It's also got a certain sense of humour about itself and I love the wild, free-wheeling visual style that incorporates pretty much every little filmic trick in the book to enhance the crazy plot. It's the Annie Hall of action films, in that way. Crank is pretty-much just a teenage male fantasy brought to life but it'll hold anyone's attention in a social setting (if only because they're so offended) and it's probably the purest "guy movie" out there. Still, unless you're of a particular mindset (read: full of testosterone), you're not gonna like this and you basically don't want your wife, girlfriend or mom to know that this movie even exists.
The Notebook: Now, let's take a trip to the exact opposite end of the estrogen-testosterone scale with this movie, an adaptation of a novel by Nicholas Sparks (more on him in a bit) that is probably the most direly cheesy and melodramatic romance you'll ever see. In fact, words like "melodramatic" don't even begin to describe The Notebook; we need to invent new terms just for this movie. But, as I've said before, I'm a sucker for this type of over-the-top melodrama when it comes to romance and I'll admit I caught up in this one. Actually, it's sort of odd because I resisted it for a long time just based on the poster (because, well, yeah) and a plot synopsis. Also, the reviews weren't great. But, in one of those weird coincidences that happens sometimes, I was clicking around the dial one day and stopped to watch for a minute (mostly due to the costume design) without knowing exactly what it was. Before I knew it, I was, against all of my masculinity and better judgement, absorbed into this story. It's bad on any rational level (the characters are cliched, the plot progression doesn't make logical sense, everything is exaggerated to the point of hyper-reality), and a lot of the characters' actions exist in this romantic-in-theory-but-would-be-pathetic-in-real-life area that so many love stories inhabit (the scene where Ryan Gosling hangs off the Ferris Wheel bar to ask Racheal McAdams on a date is particularly eye-rolling). Still, there's a sort of undeniable pull that this movie holds for me; the variety of hyper-cheesy romance pushed here trumps the more-"realistic" fare of, say, He's Just Not That Into You (hi, Lana!) for me because I'd rather be enraptured in a fantasy that allows me to forget about my troubles for a while than have to deal with a more bitter story that makes me, to some extent, confront my issues (exceptions when said relative realism is extremely well-written as in Annie Hall or Say Anything). Also, it's very well-directed with excellent production/costume design and well-acted, for this type of material, to boot. And we all need to indulge our stupid romantic fantasies sometimes, right?
Every Nicholas Sparks novel that I've read except A Walk to Remember: Sparks is really bad writer; I mean that, he's really terrible. He doesn't have a feel for natural speech, he's extremely melodramatic and he repeats himself an awful lot if you read more than one of his books. However, his utterly overblown romantic stories touch a nerve for me (and, clearly, a lot of other people because he sells a lot of copies). They're perfect to lose yourself in if you're feeling bad and, as overblown as his descriptions are, I'm willing to forgive him because he's clearly working on more on an emotional level than anything else. And, if nothing else, he's a master of emotional manipulation, that or I'm easy. But when he wants me to feel sad, I feel sad, when he wants me to feel all warm and fuzzy, I feel all warm and fuzzy. I haven't read the book of The Notebook (I figure it's redundant given that I saw the movie) or Nights In Rodanthe (mostly because I thought that the movie of it looked awful) but otherwise, I have an unnatural love for his stuff. With the exception of A Walk to Remember, that is; I didn't like that one mostly because of the overbearing Christian message of it, which was sort of disappointing because the premise wasn't awful but, I dunno, it just didn't work for me.
There are lots of other things I could put on here but those will suffice for now. Perhaps this will be a running feature on here, who knows.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
TRULY, YOU BREAK MY HEART, BUT I'll BE THERE BESIDE YOU
- Lost last night was pretty good, if a bit confusing. Once again, it did feel like a shotgun blast of facts in a certain way, but it was clearly anchored to Locke's story and it was invested with enough panache by the actors that I never felt bored. I do like the interesting way that they're playing Ben and Widmore off of each other , such that the audience doesn't know which one to trust. Lost has always played with a lot of ambiguities but this is a particularly interesting one; I'm definitely excited for next next week.
Also, Locke is a pretty hardcore driver.
- Monday's 24 definitely made up for last week's boringness. So much insane shit went down that I probably don't remember every awesome thing but here's a brief summary:
- Jack driving through a park
- A van doing a freakin' barrel roll
- Renne slapping Jack ("Do you feel that?")
- Renne pulling her gun on Jack
- Dubacku having a microchip UNDER HIS SKIN
- Oily FBI programmer dude shooting his girlfriend while making-out with her
- "I want to see my attorney"
- The totally out-of-the-blue appearance from Tony at the end, introducing the next threat ("This is real, Jack.")
- "OPEN HIM UP"
The one complaint I have is that the episode continued in the pattern of this season in that by the end of the episode the entire threat is over but then there's an arbitrary, tacked-on thing at the end of the episode to keep the plot going. In this case, it was especially glaring.
Also, Janeane Garafalo was in there for, like, 20 seconds at most. I am not impressed by this.
- Slumdog Millionaire is, in essence, a fairytale but it's a pretty good one and it's told with an eye-popping visual style, acted with verve and strength and blessed with one of the best scores in a long while. It's basically Danny Boyle dressing up old-school Hollywood pictures with hyper-active directing (even the way the subtitles are done feels innovative and fresh) and a modernist setting; he's daring you not to fall for these elements that are older than you (the long-lost, destined, love, the brother vs. brother conflict, the rags-to-riches plot arc), and you do fall for them. Partly because they're so durable but also because they're invested with wide-eyed sincerity by the actors and a genuine interest by the director. I'm glad that this movie won Best Picture at the Oscars because I think it shows that people are ready to accept movies that make them feel good as genuine art again ; especially when compared to last year's winner, the cold-hearted No Country For Old Men (which, to be clear, I do like), it's a tribute to the human spirit and the power of true love. And, I'll admit, I got a little choked up when our man Jamal and the love of his life Latika finally meet in the train station at the end of the movie for their big kiss and the answer to the question that runs throughout the entire movie ("How did Jamal win all this money?", in essence) is flashed on the screen ("It is written"); it was one of the most powerfully emotional moments of cinema I've seen in a long while.
Of course, the movie cleverly undercuts this over-the-top sentimentality of that scene in the following dance number as the credits roll, but, to me, that just makes it even better.
Also, Locke is a pretty hardcore driver.
- Monday's 24 definitely made up for last week's boringness. So much insane shit went down that I probably don't remember every awesome thing but here's a brief summary:
- Jack driving through a park
- A van doing a freakin' barrel roll
- Renne slapping Jack ("Do you feel that?")
- Renne pulling her gun on Jack
- Dubacku having a microchip UNDER HIS SKIN
- Oily FBI programmer dude shooting his girlfriend while making-out with her
- "I want to see my attorney"
- The totally out-of-the-blue appearance from Tony at the end, introducing the next threat ("This is real, Jack.")
- "OPEN HIM UP"
The one complaint I have is that the episode continued in the pattern of this season in that by the end of the episode the entire threat is over but then there's an arbitrary, tacked-on thing at the end of the episode to keep the plot going. In this case, it was especially glaring.
Also, Janeane Garafalo was in there for, like, 20 seconds at most. I am not impressed by this.
- Slumdog Millionaire is, in essence, a fairytale but it's a pretty good one and it's told with an eye-popping visual style, acted with verve and strength and blessed with one of the best scores in a long while. It's basically Danny Boyle dressing up old-school Hollywood pictures with hyper-active directing (even the way the subtitles are done feels innovative and fresh) and a modernist setting; he's daring you not to fall for these elements that are older than you (the long-lost, destined, love, the brother vs. brother conflict, the rags-to-riches plot arc), and you do fall for them. Partly because they're so durable but also because they're invested with wide-eyed sincerity by the actors and a genuine interest by the director. I'm glad that this movie won Best Picture at the Oscars because I think it shows that people are ready to accept movies that make them feel good as genuine art again ; especially when compared to last year's winner, the cold-hearted No Country For Old Men (which, to be clear, I do like), it's a tribute to the human spirit and the power of true love. And, I'll admit, I got a little choked up when our man Jamal and the love of his life Latika finally meet in the train station at the end of the movie for their big kiss and the answer to the question that runs throughout the entire movie ("How did Jamal win all this money?", in essence) is flashed on the screen ("It is written"); it was one of the most powerfully emotional moments of cinema I've seen in a long while.
Of course, the movie cleverly undercuts this over-the-top sentimentality of that scene in the following dance number as the credits roll, but, to me, that just makes it even better.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
HEART LOCKED IN A GRAN TORINO
So, Gran Torino is a pretty awesome movie. It's not as action-y as the trailers make it look (though 'ol Clint kicks some serious ass for a 78 year-old), in fact, it's a really appealingly old-fashioned melodrama with a good dose of comedy.
Much has been made of Eastwood's supposed retirement after this role (personally, I'll believe he's retired when he dies), but if this is truly it, Gran Torino is a great career caper, with a character who reminds us of why we always love Eastwood (the twitches, the growls, the scowls) and a winning story at its core.
There's also been some ire directed towards the film for its, uh, liberal use of racial slurs but, really, they're used in service of a point about the greater realities of race relations in the modern world (and I've heard a lot of older people in the real world talk in the same ways, so, let's not pretend this is unheard of). Now, I will admit some of the stuff made me uncomfortable (in particular, the part where Eastwood calls a group of black teenagers a bunch of "spooks", and , even there, it was more an issue of a stereotypical portrayal than of what was actually said) but it's necessary for the film to show us that; to show us how this guy is changed by his friendship with the Hmong family next door even while he drifts further away from his own family. And, for the most part, the race-baiting was in the context of friendly insulting, as best demonstrated in a hilarious scene where Eastwood takes the Hmong teenager to a barber shop to teach him how to talk like a real man. The comedy worked, the drama worked, the action worked.
I have only a few, mostly minor, complaints: some of the supporting acting could have been better and some of the tonal shifts between the comedy and the drama were a bit abrupt. Also, I don't buy that any family would let their teenage daughter wear a belly shirt to a funeral (disclaimer: most of the girls I know wouldn't be caught dead in one of those, so, I may not be the best person to judge this), even if it did make for a hilarious scene where Eastwood glowered at her.
It's a movie that leaves you with a smile but a bit of melancholy, and the end credits song is awesome. I'm sure that one could write a paper on all of the dynamics (race, class, age, heck, even gender) going on in the theatre in which my friends and I (who were sitting right behind one of our school's English teachers) saw it, given that it was jam-packed with middle-class white people of greatly varying ages (seriously, there were, like, grandparents and 14 year-olds in there), all laughing and/or going "did he just say that?" in unison at all of the racial remarks. But you could also just forget about that and get swept up in a great story with Eastwood's, all always, great direction backing it up.
Much has been made of Eastwood's supposed retirement after this role (personally, I'll believe he's retired when he dies), but if this is truly it, Gran Torino is a great career caper, with a character who reminds us of why we always love Eastwood (the twitches, the growls, the scowls) and a winning story at its core.
There's also been some ire directed towards the film for its, uh, liberal use of racial slurs but, really, they're used in service of a point about the greater realities of race relations in the modern world (and I've heard a lot of older people in the real world talk in the same ways, so, let's not pretend this is unheard of). Now, I will admit some of the stuff made me uncomfortable (in particular, the part where Eastwood calls a group of black teenagers a bunch of "spooks", and , even there, it was more an issue of a stereotypical portrayal than of what was actually said) but it's necessary for the film to show us that; to show us how this guy is changed by his friendship with the Hmong family next door even while he drifts further away from his own family. And, for the most part, the race-baiting was in the context of friendly insulting, as best demonstrated in a hilarious scene where Eastwood takes the Hmong teenager to a barber shop to teach him how to talk like a real man. The comedy worked, the drama worked, the action worked.
I have only a few, mostly minor, complaints: some of the supporting acting could have been better and some of the tonal shifts between the comedy and the drama were a bit abrupt. Also, I don't buy that any family would let their teenage daughter wear a belly shirt to a funeral (disclaimer: most of the girls I know wouldn't be caught dead in one of those, so, I may not be the best person to judge this), even if it did make for a hilarious scene where Eastwood glowered at her.
It's a movie that leaves you with a smile but a bit of melancholy, and the end credits song is awesome. I'm sure that one could write a paper on all of the dynamics (race, class, age, heck, even gender) going on in the theatre in which my friends and I (who were sitting right behind one of our school's English teachers) saw it, given that it was jam-packed with middle-class white people of greatly varying ages (seriously, there were, like, grandparents and 14 year-olds in there), all laughing and/or going "did he just say that?" in unison at all of the racial remarks. But you could also just forget about that and get swept up in a great story with Eastwood's, all always, great direction backing it up.
Monday, February 9, 2009
YOUR TIME IS TICK, TICK, TICKING AWAY
More point form stuff:
- So, Raising Sand won the best album award. I'm not that upset, out of the field it would have been my second or third choice. I'm kinda miffed that "Please Read The Letter" won for best record, becuase that was one of the sort-of bad moments on that album. But, "Gone, Gone, Gone" (the album's best song, in my opinion) won last year, so, I guess that's fine.
I am also fully aware that the Grammys don't mean anything, but it's still fun to dissect the results, even if I never watch the telecast.
- I watched the first part of that NBC miniseries XIII last night and it's okay (and, hey, it's got Val Kilmer). However, given that basically the only good thing about the video game was its visual style, I wonder if rotoscoping might have made the show better. Either way, it was a decent way to pass two hours and I see no reason not to watch the conclusion next Sunday.
- My computer is making a godawful buzzing noise as I type this.
Movies I've seen in theatres so far this year:
- Curious Case of Benjamin Button: It's kinda long (though it changes enough that I never got bored), it's super-sentimental and the end bit is sort of inane when you get down to it but I liked it a lot even so. The slow-mo and lens-flare antics were outside of Fincher's usual enviroment but he worked well-enough with them, and the romance in it was the sort of meta-physical, totally unrealistic nonsense that I dig. And that scene with the piano near the end (no spoilers) nearly brought me to tears.
- Taken: If you ever wanted to know what 24 would be like with Liam Neeson as Jack Bauer, this is the movie for you. The action was solid and frenetic without being confusing, Liam Neeson was a pretty convincing badass and the story was solid-if-formuliac with enough turns to keep you going. Small thing that is either a flaw or hilarious, depending on who you are: Every Arabic person is a slimy prositution runner or an evil hitman.
- I'm seeing Gran Torino on the 'morrow with some friends, it should be a fun time.
- Why, exactly, does the government give you a T4 form if you didn't pay any tax?
- Pretty boring day at school today, I have a couple of homework things to do though.
In fact, I should probably do that homework.
Comments welcome.
- So, Raising Sand won the best album award. I'm not that upset, out of the field it would have been my second or third choice. I'm kinda miffed that "Please Read The Letter" won for best record, becuase that was one of the sort-of bad moments on that album. But, "Gone, Gone, Gone" (the album's best song, in my opinion) won last year, so, I guess that's fine.
I am also fully aware that the Grammys don't mean anything, but it's still fun to dissect the results, even if I never watch the telecast.
- I watched the first part of that NBC miniseries XIII last night and it's okay (and, hey, it's got Val Kilmer). However, given that basically the only good thing about the video game was its visual style, I wonder if rotoscoping might have made the show better. Either way, it was a decent way to pass two hours and I see no reason not to watch the conclusion next Sunday.
- My computer is making a godawful buzzing noise as I type this.
Movies I've seen in theatres so far this year:
- Curious Case of Benjamin Button: It's kinda long (though it changes enough that I never got bored), it's super-sentimental and the end bit is sort of inane when you get down to it but I liked it a lot even so. The slow-mo and lens-flare antics were outside of Fincher's usual enviroment but he worked well-enough with them, and the romance in it was the sort of meta-physical, totally unrealistic nonsense that I dig. And that scene with the piano near the end (no spoilers) nearly brought me to tears.
- Taken: If you ever wanted to know what 24 would be like with Liam Neeson as Jack Bauer, this is the movie for you. The action was solid and frenetic without being confusing, Liam Neeson was a pretty convincing badass and the story was solid-if-formuliac with enough turns to keep you going. Small thing that is either a flaw or hilarious, depending on who you are: Every Arabic person is a slimy prositution runner or an evil hitman.
- I'm seeing Gran Torino on the 'morrow with some friends, it should be a fun time.
- Why, exactly, does the government give you a T4 form if you didn't pay any tax?
- Pretty boring day at school today, I have a couple of homework things to do though.
In fact, I should probably do that homework.
Comments welcome.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
WELCOME BACK TO THE STAGE OF HISTORY
If you really need a detailed background on me, just check out my Facebook page. But since if you're reading this, you probably already know me, I'm not going to give much of an introduction.
I'm feeling sort of lazy right now, so, I'm going to write out my current thoughts in point form:
- People I know are really into that movie Zeitgeist but, for the most part, I don't get it. The religion section makes sense, sure, but it also presents things that anybody could tell you as if they're grand revelations. The 9/11 section makes a few decent ponts (mostly in regards to the lack of preparation) but is mostly Loose Change-esque BS. And don't get me started on the banking part. The level of paranoia that went into that movie is just insane, and I'm not even a guy who is particularly trustful of the government but you can take that shit to a level even I'm not comfortable with.
There's also the general problem with all of these conspiracy movies: Namely, if the conspiracy is so well-organized and wide-ranging as they claim it is, why are the movies themselves allowed to exist?
- I'm of two minds about Valentine's Day: One the one hand, it's obviously commercial Hallmark-holiday BS. On the other, I'd probably feel a lot better about life in general if I had someone to celebrate it with.
- The last episode of Lost was sort of boring, barring Sayid's take-down of that med-tech. I still like the show, but as it's starting to come to a close, I'm worried that the drive to answer all the questions could make the individual episodes less entertaining. We're probably not gonna see another "The Constant" (which is great but only somewhat connected to the overrall plot; in fact, it could almost be a stand-alone thing). However, Jin still being alive at the end of the episode made my day.
- Why is 24 going into an inane "Find the president's husband", kidnapping plot? That's season one stuff; the death of one dude doesn't cut it anymore, 24 writers (even if that dude is Colm Feore). This had better be just a front for another massive-scale-damage plot by the terrorists. Dubacku's conversation with his girlfriend at the end was hilarious, though.
- "You Found Me" is basically the perfect melding of every form of popular music made by white people in the past 5 years. It's like Coldplay and Keane got together and got some uber-sincere emo-band guy to sing and write lyrics, it's awesome. I have zero interest in listening to The Fray's actual album, but this one song is pretty great.
- Crank 2 looks even more gleefully insane and offensive than the first one, which is saying something. It's like the directors went "What minority groups did we not offend last time?". The answer: Latinos and Asians. At least judging from the trailer, which features kung-fu master dudes with long eyebrows, dragon-tattoo sporting Yakuza goons, a guy who looks like the one dude from Ichi The Killer and fat Cubans driving sportscars. It's a gaggle of stereotypes and stupidity and I wouldn't have it any other way. One potential flaw: Amy Smart's character is now a stripper; that doesn't make a whole lot of sense since she was the "nice, naive girl" who provided contrast to the Maxim model-types otherwise featured in the first film.
- Coldplay should win Album Of The Year, not because they made the best album but because it's the best out of the ones nominated. Radiohead's album was fine but it was also regressive for them. What I heard of Ne-Yo (i.e the singles) was bland, formulaic modern R & B . Raising Sand was inconsistent; the good parts were great but you could tell when they were inspired and when they weren't. Same story, Lil Wayne (he also fell into the typical rap-album trap of "make one song for everyone", it's just less noticeable with him because he's more versatile than, say, Nas). My vote for best album would probably be either Kanye's 808s and Heartbreak or The '59 Sound by The Gaslight Anthem.
- I also do not care about this whole Coldplay/Joe Santriani situation. Santriani might be a brilliant guitar player but Coldplay run circles around him in terms of making actually good songs. In the words of Metallica, sad but true.
I guess that's all I have to say for now. If you'd like to comment on anything, leave a, uh, comment.
I'm feeling sort of lazy right now, so, I'm going to write out my current thoughts in point form:
- People I know are really into that movie Zeitgeist but, for the most part, I don't get it. The religion section makes sense, sure, but it also presents things that anybody could tell you as if they're grand revelations. The 9/11 section makes a few decent ponts (mostly in regards to the lack of preparation) but is mostly Loose Change-esque BS. And don't get me started on the banking part. The level of paranoia that went into that movie is just insane, and I'm not even a guy who is particularly trustful of the government but you can take that shit to a level even I'm not comfortable with.
There's also the general problem with all of these conspiracy movies: Namely, if the conspiracy is so well-organized and wide-ranging as they claim it is, why are the movies themselves allowed to exist?
- I'm of two minds about Valentine's Day: One the one hand, it's obviously commercial Hallmark-holiday BS. On the other, I'd probably feel a lot better about life in general if I had someone to celebrate it with.
- The last episode of Lost was sort of boring, barring Sayid's take-down of that med-tech. I still like the show, but as it's starting to come to a close, I'm worried that the drive to answer all the questions could make the individual episodes less entertaining. We're probably not gonna see another "The Constant" (which is great but only somewhat connected to the overrall plot; in fact, it could almost be a stand-alone thing). However, Jin still being alive at the end of the episode made my day.
- Why is 24 going into an inane "Find the president's husband", kidnapping plot? That's season one stuff; the death of one dude doesn't cut it anymore, 24 writers (even if that dude is Colm Feore). This had better be just a front for another massive-scale-damage plot by the terrorists. Dubacku's conversation with his girlfriend at the end was hilarious, though.
- "You Found Me" is basically the perfect melding of every form of popular music made by white people in the past 5 years. It's like Coldplay and Keane got together and got some uber-sincere emo-band guy to sing and write lyrics, it's awesome. I have zero interest in listening to The Fray's actual album, but this one song is pretty great.
- Crank 2 looks even more gleefully insane and offensive than the first one, which is saying something. It's like the directors went "What minority groups did we not offend last time?". The answer: Latinos and Asians. At least judging from the trailer, which features kung-fu master dudes with long eyebrows, dragon-tattoo sporting Yakuza goons, a guy who looks like the one dude from Ichi The Killer and fat Cubans driving sportscars. It's a gaggle of stereotypes and stupidity and I wouldn't have it any other way. One potential flaw: Amy Smart's character is now a stripper; that doesn't make a whole lot of sense since she was the "nice, naive girl" who provided contrast to the Maxim model-types otherwise featured in the first film.
- Coldplay should win Album Of The Year, not because they made the best album but because it's the best out of the ones nominated. Radiohead's album was fine but it was also regressive for them. What I heard of Ne-Yo (i.e the singles) was bland, formulaic modern R & B . Raising Sand was inconsistent; the good parts were great but you could tell when they were inspired and when they weren't. Same story, Lil Wayne (he also fell into the typical rap-album trap of "make one song for everyone", it's just less noticeable with him because he's more versatile than, say, Nas). My vote for best album would probably be either Kanye's 808s and Heartbreak or The '59 Sound by The Gaslight Anthem.
- I also do not care about this whole Coldplay/Joe Santriani situation. Santriani might be a brilliant guitar player but Coldplay run circles around him in terms of making actually good songs. In the words of Metallica, sad but true.
I guess that's all I have to say for now. If you'd like to comment on anything, leave a, uh, comment.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
