| As part of an effort to check out some of David Cronenberg's earlier work, I watched "Dead Ringers" last night. ( Read more... ) Definitely worth seeing. |
amused – APR 23, 2008 01:44 PM | I hate to keep beating a dead horse, but you really need to check out this week's Zero Punctuation review. Hilarious. It rings so true. And here I thought I was weird because I didn't like playing Super Smash Brothers when it came out for the GameCube. |
thoughtful – APR 15, 2008 10:52 PM | We watched Apocalypto the other day. ( Spoilers ) |
| Nicola and I saw Juno last night. She loved it; I merely enjoyed it. One sentence review: it's good-hearted, quirky, light entertainment, with characters who grow on you and great acting. Now. I have several other things to say, and there will be spoilers. ( Juno Review ) So all in all, I do feel that Juno is worth watching, and you should see it. It's similar, though not totally the same, as another movie about disenfranchised teen girls from a few years ago, "Ghost World", which is probably the superior film. But "Juno" has more mass appeal, and you'll probably enjoy it more if you want some decent catharsis :). |
 I saw a strange movie on TMN today that I had never heard of before. The movie is called Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. It is extremely weird, but also extremely good. It was starring Alan Rickman and Dustin Hoffman, so I was surprised I had never heard of it. I certainly don't remember it hitting the theaters. But I was hooked right from the start by it's incredibly lush, rich visual look. And even after I was hooked, the story kept my interest. It's about a boy named Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, who lives in 18th-century France. He is born with a peculiar ability: he has the world's greatest sense of smell. He can smell a frog underwater from a mile away. One day, he catches the scent of a young peasant girl walking in the market and he becomes obsessed. He follows her... I don't want to give anything away, but eventually he becomes an apprentice to a master perfumer. Presumeably to learn how to make perfume. But Grenouille has a secret ambition; he wants to learn how to capture the scent of human beings. The movie is very dark, very creepy, but also incredibly cool. It follows its setup right through to a surprising and awesome climax. And it's quite amazing the way you watch, fascinated as this young man, who is definitely not a good guy (in fact, the movie definitely plays with his lack of humanity) goes through his plan - you don't want him to continue, but you are also too curious to look away. I definitely wanted to know what would happen if he managed to acheive his goal. I wasn't disappointed. Definitely recommended, if you like off-beat, dark fantasy stories. ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} mr_hand, I think you'd enjoy it. |
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Elton John - Funeral for a Friend (Love Lies Bleeding) | ( Beowulf ) ( No Country For Old Men ) |
| I saw "Eragon" yesterday on TV. It's bad. Stunningly bad. And I only watched the first half hour. Hard to believe that such a terrible movie could be made, after the success of Lord of the Rings (ie: with such a high bar to shoot for). Good for the kid, for writing his book and getting it published, and then getting it made into a film and a video game. He's laughing all the way to the bank. I don't actually know whether the book is bad or not because I haven't read it, but from the first half-hour of film, I can't imagine it being good. The plot is completely recycled from every fantasy cliche you've ever heard. That alone wouldn't bother me if they could at least have made it believable or had good dialog. But no. One of the first lines of the movie is uttered by the bad guy (John Malkovich, who should NOT play this kind of role) is: "I suffer without my stone. Do not prolong my suffering." Sigh. They even had a voice over. A bad one, that added nothing. God, even Star Wars didn't try to squeeze in a voice over. I don't understand how they were able to get so many big name actors: John Malkovich, Rachel Weisz, Robert Carlyle, Djimon Hounsou. And Jeremy Irons. Yes...Jeremy Irons. He plays Obi Wan Kenobe...er..."Brom". The movie might have been a lot better if they had had a half-decent actor playing the lead. But the one they got was terrible. A mugging, mincing amateur. Luc Besson wrote "The Fifth Element" when he was a teenager. It's not what I'd call high culture, but it's fun and original. It at least proves that teenagers are capable of producing works which aren't totally derivative. But perhaps I should have watched the whole thing. Only then would I know for sure whether it is truly as bad as Dungeons and Dragons was. |
| I finally finished the seventh Harry Potter book. No spoilers here, but I feel generally the same as hardcormier about it: it suffers from the same problems that have plagued the series all along and which have been multiplying since, roughly, book 5 - but if by now you haven't made your peace with the flaws in J.K. Rowling's writing, you have no one to blame but yourself. So, I can appreciate that. And let me say that the usual things about the series that are good, are good again here: it's got terrific action sequences, thrilling suspense, likable characters, and an occasional dry wit. Plus it's tinged with the bittersweet satisfaction of a long journey come to an end - simply because it's the last book in the series. However, I don't know if there are others who feel this way, but I kept hoping that her writing would improve. With books 1 to 4, I don't remember being thrown out of the story by little annoyances quite so often. So, because I'm a churl, and because to some extent it's fun, here are my three big problems with the story. Spoilers here people. Yes, I spoil the end of the book. Be warned. ( Read more... ) |
| "Knocked Up" is good ... but it's not that good. It's not what all of the critics are trying to make it into. It's a perfect example of "overpraise" syndrome: the kind of movie comedy that film critics are so relieved is good, they make it seem more than it is. When we walked out of it, the first thing Nicola said to me was: "That was written by men, wasn't it?" Yes. "I could tell." How? "Well, everything was from the Man's point of view. All of the jokes, all of the fears. The woman was basically the straight person in a comedy sketch, and her fears weren't really explored too much." I don't completely agree - I thought the female's POV was explored somewhat. But then, I'm a man. And I must admit, not as much as the male's, and comparatively speaking, she was fairly one-dimensional. Well-performed by Katherine Heigl, but one-dimensional. Sometimes I think film critics want to love a movie so much that they overanalyze it. I've seen reviews that have lauded this as the best comedy in ten years, that it encourages thoughts of roe-vs.-wade, that it is a "romantic comedy that is unfraid to face human suffering dead on". Whatever signs your check, guys. For me, things were kind of breezy and entertaining, but ultimately forgettable. The stoner jokes run out of steam pretty fast, though the running gag about a guy's beard was pretty funny. And if you've seen one funny delivery-room scene, you've seen them all. Seth Rogen is a natural though, and it was surprising how different his character is here than it was in The 40-Year-Old Virgin - a lot dimmer and sweeter. Paul Rudd is reliable for the most part (he usually is), but he and Rogen have one absolutely ridiculous scene in Vegas which was just not funny. Just because the character is on drugs doesn't make him funny. All in all, I wouldn't believe the hype. But it's an okay diversion. This is about as good as comedy gets in film these days, proving just how hard it is to sustain over a 2 hour movie. |
| Some thoughts on ( Crash ) |
| Tonight I saw what is perhaps one of the worst movies I have seen in a very long time. It's called "Stealth". The setup: Three hotshot pilots for some sort of special military program are stunned when they get a new wingman; a plane flown by artificial intelligence named "EDI". I can't remember what that stands for, but the acronym is a lucky coincidence because it allows everyone to call it "Eddy". Which is the most memorable name in the movie; I don't even know what the other character were called. Let's just call them White Guy, Black Guy and White Girl. Then there's the grizzled commanding officer who authorizes the new plane before it can be tested. Three guesses as to his true intentions. This movie probably contained every single movie cliche you've ever thought of. There are so many cliches that the cliches began to contradict the other cliches - it's like they were in such a rush to jam in every single scene they had seen in another movie, they forgot to check to see whether or not it would make sense. The dialog is painful and almost completely expository. People actually say shit like: Black Guy: [looks at the computer case] "Wait, I've seen this. This is a 'Quantum Processor', isn't it?" White Guy: "You mean the one with fifty terabits of memory?" Black Guy: "That's the one!" I almost want to stop here - I want to halt his post and leave it up to you. Think of every cliche you possibly can. It's in this movie. You've got your computerized plane (who has a voice just like HAL 9000, of course). Do you think the plane works just as planned and remains in control of the humans? Don't make me laugh. It's beyond me why Jamie Foxx would have wanted to take the role of token black guy in this movie, after appearing in two major dramatic roles. Yes, the classic movie law stating that The Brother Always Dies sure isn't broken here. If only I could get worked up a bit more about such a thin stereotype. In one scene, after the grizzled commanding officer orders his men to study up on the new plane so theycan understand it better, we get a montage showing each pilot studying in his room. Jamie Foxx is shown reading his laptop topless, dancing to rap music and spinning a basketball on his finger. I'm not joking. Ok, he's black. We get it. Just after that scene, White Guy visits White Girl in her room. She has a clothesline there, with bras hanging off it. He stands up and a bra hits him in the face. "Pardon my C-cup", she says. Ahh, romance. Let's see, what else. Oh yeah, White Girl's plane goes down. She ejects. "Where is she" they ask, back at mission command. "North Korea", the dude sitting at the computer intones gravely. She parachutes down into a forest. She makes her way to a small korean village, filled with rustic farming peasants, doing laundry by the river (because that's what North Korea's like you know). She hides from these peasants behind a boulder with her gun drawn. A small girl walks up, sees her. She makes the "shh" motion, but the little girl screams - the way we've seen this scene played out millions of times before. The peasants hear the scream and run away in fear. Next scene: three military helicopters land in the village and soliders with guns leap out. I guess these poor peasants had an emergency "call the army" phone, even if they didn't have washing machines. Meanwhile, White Guy and Eddy are both sent to Secret Evil Military Base in Alaska ("It's not listed, but I assure you it exists"), where the soldiers there try to kill White Guy. I assume because they think he'll tell people that Eddy is out of control, although he never says so. There, they bring in the original programmer who worked on Eddy (his computer is literally a random jumble of mathematical symbols). He looks at the screen and exclaims "Eddy! You've begun to... to feel!" I could go on. I could tell you that the computerized plane likes to download songs from the internet. "How many songs?" White Guy asks. "All of them". Handy that, out of all these songs that the plane magically downloads from the internet and inexplicably listens to at random times...that the songs it listens to happen to be contemporary pop hits! Hey, now we've got a soundtrack! I could tell you that the grizzled commanding officer sends the three pilots on R+R only hours after they arrive. "But we just got here" says White Guy. "Take it when you can get it". They go to Thailand for no reason whatsoever. Completely pointless. White guy takes pictures of White girl in a bikini by a waterfall. Black Guy meets a thai girl and, presumeably has sex with her although the movie is PG-13 so of course it doesn't show this. I could tell you that the grizzled commanding officer locks himself in his office and kills himself when they come to arrest him. Wow! Shocking! Haven't seen that before! I could tell you that Eddy eventually "learns the value of human life", turns good and sacrifices itself by flying into a North Korean helicopter before the North Koreans can kill White Girl. Why it had to fly into the helicopter when it has guns, who knows. I could tell you that White Guy flies from Alaska to North Korea in fifteen minutes, to the exact spot where White Girl is running. North Korea's pretty small I'm thinking. But honestly, you've seen all those scenes before, and many others of equally mind-blowing stupidity. What you probably haven't seen before, is hundreds and hundreds of things blowin' up real good, one after the other, in only one hundred and twenty minutes. But believe me, you sure aren't missing much. |
| BTW - I saw the new Harry Potter on the weekend. Book 4 is my favourite Potter book, and the movie is my favourite of the four movies. It was awesome. In lieu of a full review, here's a random blab of thoughts: ( Harry Potter 4 thoughts ) |
| I enjoyed it. But I'm sorta of two minds on it. Here are some thoughts, with spoilers: ( Revenge of the Sith ) |
| I never gave my mini-review of Kingdom of Heaven, did I? Short Review: Nicola liked it, I didn't. Long Review: I'm not sure what I think of Orlando Bloom. Nicola says, give a guy in England that name and you just know he's going to be a movie star (apparently, brits usually have boring names such as Nigel Danby, etc.) I think he's a non-presence. He's very pretty, in that modern, man-waif sort of way (a la Jude Law) but he brings nothing to his roles. I never see passion, or cowardice, or selfishness, or lust, or honour, or reluctance, or fear, or bravery or ... anything, in his eyes. He lacks humanity. Maybe that's why he was good as Legolas. It's also why he's a popular casting choice for these sorts of movies, which don't call for anything from the character. He's a blank line in the screenplay ("Insert more interesting character here"). Anyway, Kingdom of Heaven is what you get when you mix the heroic epic with politically correct ambivalence. The film is very aware of our modern sensibility that the crusades were Very Bad Indeed, and as such doesn't paint one side as "good" and one side as "bad". Instead, there are evil men on both sides, each with the same characteristics: the evil men are the religious zealots and the political warmongers....the good men are the liberal moderates and the secular. Hmmm....do ya think this film was made in Hollywood? I couldn't imagine a "safer" version of The Crusades than this. That's all well and good, but it makes it impossible to get worked up about the battle sequences, of which there are many. Remember the halycon days, when we watched Braveheart and felt stirred and galvanized by the combat sequences? We called out for joy when William Wallace bashed in the head of one of those cursed british. We didn't really think the British were evil in real life, but it's a movie! Not today. Today, the hero rides into battle saying, "Meh...I guess this is a good idea. But really I'd rather be back in France." Wow....such unbridled enthusiasm. How are we expected to get involved when the character doesn't even believe in what he's fighting for? Again, like Troy, this needed screenplay work. Either make it about politics and people who didn't believe in the zealous status quo, or make it a red-blooded battle epic. You can't make it both. A perfect example here is the lazy-writing, "motivational pre-battle speech" scene (which, I'm sorry, but has become so cliche that my eyes flutter closed whenever one starts. Lord of the Rings had like ten of them...I don't need to see that scene again), but the hero motivates the troops here by saying "We're not fighting for anything greater than ourselves! We just want to try to survive! C'mon!" In the end, it just winds up being very boring. Endless battle sequences where it doesn't matter what the outcome will be. Dreary. Perfect for Orlando Bloom. |
| "The Interpreter" is good...but it could have been a lot better. It's one of those cases where you can see the really good movie that might have been made with the same material as the movie you're watching. I think Howard Hawks said that all you needed for a good movie was three good scenes and no bad scenes. The Interpreter has two good scenes, and one bad scene, so it doesn't quite qualify. I really liked the authentic feel of the locations, and political dialogue. But it could have been even more complex, in my mind. What I really liked...what I was expecting...was to have more of the movie focus on language. She's an interpreter, right? She speaks something like twelve languages, including several really obscure ones: "Ku", an african dialect (that's important to the plot). There are a couple of places where they hint at how being an interpreter isn't just about translating things word-for-word; there are idioms which are different in different languages. For example "The shoe is on the other foot" is what you say in english, but in portugese, it's "The house is on a different plain". Stuff like that I find really interesting. The two main characters also have a conversation about the difference between the words "dead" and "gone". Penn: "How do you feel about President Zuwanie?" Kidman: "I'd like to see him gone." Penn: "You mean dead" Kidman: "No, I mean gone." Penn: "They mean the same thing." Kidman: "No they don't. If I translated gone as dead, I'd be out of a job. If gone meant dead there'd be no U.N." Stuff like that. And then of course, that interesting language play gets used all throughout the rest of the movie. But I really had hoped that the differences in language had figured in the plot a little more. Her job as an interpreter is basically only used for the above converstation, and to kick-start the plot (she overhears a conversation about an assassination attempt in a language that only she can understand). I can envision a movie where language, and it's intricacies cause the conflicts that lead to an assassination. Aaron Sorkin could write such a movie. |
| Went retro this weekend and watched two great old movies known for their surprise plot twists: "Psycho", and "The Sting". I had never seen either, but with Psycho I knew the ending (had it ruined for me several years ago), and with The Sting I figured it out half-way through, having seen lots of caper movies. However, here's the thing. This is what differentiates a good movie from a bad movie (aka, today's modern thriller; "Basic", "Taking Lives", anything starring Ashley Judd): they are actually good and watchable and fun despite the plot. Take Psycho....it's totally creepy even when you know whodunnit, totally from the acting and direction. At one point, a character starts poking around a creepy old house and I knew that there was no way she was in danger...and yet I was freaked out anyway. I will admit that the movie would have been an utter joy if I hadn't known about the Shower Scene or how it ends. But still enjoyable even knowing. Hitchcock really was a genius. You can see why so many directors want to mimic Hitchcock films. What's surprising is how often they fail. With The Sting ... the pleasure of the movie comes totally from the performances. Redford and Newman really did have chemistry together, and it's so fun watching them play their mark and use the great old con-man lingo. Ocean's Eleven definitely tapped into some of the same energy that The Sting had (having mulled it for a while, I'd say that Soderberg's Ocean's Eleven it's one of the best caper movies of the last decade. Ocean's Twelve doesn't even rank.) I would love to see a caper movie made now, featuring Redford and Newman playing the same con men characters. It being 30 years later, it would take place in the sixties sometime...Newman is 80 and Redford is like 65, but I think they are both totally still up to the task, as actors. Old coots who've still "got it" as con men, maybe with two young characters to work with them (Clooney and Pitt? No, younger...new hotshots who have to be taught a thing or two). That could be a good movie, if done right. |
| I saw an awesomely, outrageously good movie on the weekend: ( Sin City ) |
| I must say, Baldur's Gate II is an excellent game. KOTOR was more accessible to the non-RPG player...it still used D20 rules, but you could ignore them mostly, plus the Star Wars world is a little more user-friendly than the Forgotten Realms world, I think. Actually, I was a little wary about playing a game in Forgotten Realms since I've read so many books in that world, and even gamed in it a few times (in my very small amount of D&D playing). I'm quite familiar with the world, or parts of it anyway, but I have to say that they make very good use of it. And some of the character interactions are more complex than any relationship you'll find in a Drizzt book. You have several romantic plotlines you can pursue - the one I chose was with an evil dark elf female who totally runs hot and cold. One minute she's coming on to you, you have sex with her, then the next morning she totally disdains you, calls you disgusting, only to come running back a few days later. It's funny. ( pulp fantasy literature talk ) |
