11 posts tagged “movie”
We just returned from our first viewing of Star Trek and all in all, we were both pretty pleased. They did a very good job with the story and with the acting. Still, while we both enjoyed it, we each found our own little peeves about the production.
Junkii's Peeve: Shakey-cam is cheating
Action sequences - and fight scenes especially - can be truly exhilarating, or they can be a muddled mess. Nowhere was this more true than in Michael Bay's Transformers crapstravaganza. But Star Trek borrows from that school of directing for its fight and action sequences, and it suffers for it. Lesson for directors: if you're going to direct an action movie, do it with steady-cams so that we can appreciate the work of the stunt actors and martial arts choreographers.
Rockr's Peeve: Too much lens flare! I honestly don't think there's a 5-second segment of this film that doesn't include lens flare. And once you start to notice it, it becomes truly distracting. What's the point? It's fine to use lens flare when there's purpose - like when a sun comes into view - but just throwing it in willy-nilly makes it look like your principal photographer hasn't got a clue how to shoot film. Clearly the lens flare was added for effect. Unfortunately the effect is just distracting.
Swear to god, we must have been two of the last people on the planet to see Wall-E, but we finally did on Friday night. And it was good. I don't want to take anything away from it. It was a good solid Pixar movie.
Pixar has yet to make a blunder (with the exception of Cars, but even that wasn't dreadful).
Still, by all accounts, Wall-E was supposed to be the BEST PIXAR MOVIE EVER! And for me it fell well short of that mark. I think Ratatouille and The Incredibles are both way better than Wall-E. Wall-E is almost all slapstick, whereas my own favorites have plots and dialogue. Yes, there are heart tugging moments in Wall-E, and there's even a slight "environmentalism/ appreciate the planet" message tucked in there for good measure, but it's pretty much mostly just sci-fi slapstick. Fun, but ultimately empty calories.
Wall-E was clearly this year's favorite animated film, but you know, for my money, I thought Kung-Fu Panda was better.
This year for our Boxing Day film marathon we decided to do a little film study while enjoying our time together. Instead of just re-watching something we'd seen before, we thought we would finally get around to watching what is widely considered one of the very best films of all time - The Godfather (and it's sequels). It didn't take quite as long as last year's LOTR marathon, but we still didn't finish until after 1am (although that had more to do with the time it took us to prepare a yummy stuffed roast leg of lamb for dinner).
Was it worth it? yeah. Watching the Godfather was very rewarding. It had such an intricate plot that we really needed subtitles on just to make sure we didn't miss anything - especially in the second film.
Well, if we're being honest, we kind of messed up with the first part. We watched a version that didn't have subtitles - not even in the Italian sections. So it was a little frustrating for me, and even more so for Junkii who had more trouble understanding dialogue. But we muddled through it together, pausing and replaying scenes we had trouble with. For the second and third parts we ran to the video store and rented the newly released and restored Blu-Ray editions. We threw on the subtitles and, voila! A much simpler film viewing experience.
As for the film - it felt like something complete. It wasn't simply a bunch of disconnected scenes from a life, like Goodfellas - another highly regarded mob movie that I personally found dreadfully hard to get through. Godfather had more than just an interesting story arc though. The actors did a fabulous job developing their characters. Al Paccino (Michael) and Talia Shire (Connie) were especially good over the course of the three films, and Andy Garcia (Vincent) in the third part did amazing work. We were both impressed with the way these characters changed, in a very believable way, through the course of their lives.
Okay, the 2nd and 3rd parts had their flaws - the flashback sequences in part 2 for instance could have been eliminated entirely in our opinion - and yes, it was a bit slow in places, but overall we both really enjoyed the trilogy. For me, that says a lot because honestly I've never been a fan of mob dramas.
Would we watch it again? probably not - at least not as a trilogy. But it was definitely time well-spent. Next year we'll have to find something else to watch. Or we might just go back to LOTR.
Over the past few months, I've discovered Turner Classic Movies. It's one of those cable stations that shows old movies, but it shows them all uncut and commercial free. Nice. So I've been taking the time to watch some classic black & white films that I had never bothered with before - partly because I didn't have access, but mostly because I thought old films were boring.
Turns out that's not true. I guess there is a reason why films like Casablanca, 12 Angry Men, and Psycho have stood the test of time. These all have some pretty interesting story lines and some of them even had wonderful cinematography and vision. Hitchcock filmed some really breathtaking shots!
Pretty much without exception though, overacting abounds in these movies. It's the biggest obstacle to my enjoyment of some otherwise great cinema.
As I understand it, there was a large contingent of actors who grew up doing radio and silent film - and they had to be very melodramatic and over-the-top in order for the emotion to come across. And when talkies finally came about, they were the stars of the day and they had an impact on the work of younger actors, which led to more melodrama. James Stewart just chews the scenery. It can be pretty off-putting.
But I'm still finding it a useful exercise watching these classics. Thankfully for me, bad acting has always been something I can overlook - more so than a bad plot or bad dialogue for instance. Maybe that comes from years of watching indie films with their interesting story lines, but cheap actors.Whatever it is, I'm happy about it. It means that, with TCM, I have a steady stream of interesting films to tap into, all free of charge.
The Simpsons telly show jumped the shark years ago.
Both Mel and I were devotees of the show for ages. In fact, I used to record every episode on VHS and store them for future viewing. That got unwieldy and I stopped after 8 or 9 seasons, but it's a testament to my love for the show. It's also a testament to the drop in quality that I never started collecting the DVDs when they came out. And that I taped over or tossed my collection long ago
The show started it's downhill slide by Season 8, and now it's just dismal. We held out as long as we could, but this season (what is it, 17? 18?) we finally called it quits. We removed the season pass from our Tivo. Ashes to ashes.
It was sad. I should have liked to see it through 'til the end, but it's just such a waste of time now. It might offer one good laugh in a half hour episode. Which is probably why it took us so long to see the Simpsons Movie. I can't say I'm sad we waited.
The film was okay, but it could have been so much better. Had they made it around season 4 or 5, when the show was at its peak, it probably would have been one of the funniest animated films of all time. As it stands, it improved on the current state of the TV series -- it at least had a single coherent plot rather than a mishmash of ideas, like the show -- but it still pales in comparison to the best seasons. It was just a blip for this fading franchise.
Worst thing is, the producers are in denial about the show's prospects. Last time I read an interview from Matt Groening, he said something to the effect of, "We have tons of great stories for the Simpsons, so there's no reason to call it quits anytime soon." Bullshit! The sooner you put it to rest, the better. It's just sad now.
For several years now - long before the Lord of the Rings films were released, anyway - we've been going to the movies as part of our Christmas day tradition. Last year, for example, we saw Pan's Labyrinth before heading to a fantastic turkey dinner with friends.
Having family and friends to eat, drink, and share with is always wonderful - it really makes Christmas special - and we wouldn't trade that for the world. But sometimes, in the middle of Christmas's warm glowing warming glow, we like to steal a couple of hours to be by ourselves; and films offer us a great excuse to do just that.
This year, we were alone for Christmas. First time in the new house, but all our friends and family are either not based in Ottawa or are gone home to visit their own families. Which is fine - we're quite happy to spend the whole time with one another. But we still made time for our tradition.
We were hoping to see the Golden Compass - a nice fantasy film in the vein of Lord of the Rings or Narnia (which, let's be honest, sucked) - but one of our friends wants to join us for that, so we resisted temptation. But what to see instead?
We opted for a viewing of Sweeney Todd. Neither of us knew much about it except that it was a musical, was directed by Tim Burton in his inimitable style, and that it involved murder. Neither of us knew just how dark and depressing it would turn out to be. I don't want to give anything away - it's really an excellent film and it would be a shame not to experience it for yourselves - but it's not exactly Christmas-day fare, if you get my meaning.
In fact, we were even a little traumatized by the whole thing and had to find something to wash the blood off.
Luckily, we had rented a few films the day before and had been holding on to Stardust to enjoy on Christmas night. Which we did, and it was fantastic film. Which sort of surprised me, because I remember it didn't get very good reviews when it was released.
In any case, we were both pleasantly surprised by this enchanting fairytale. It might not quite rival Princess Bride for humour and quotability, but it definitely holds its own, and the characters in this imaginative universe are all charming. Robert DeNiro's pirate captain is so fun to watch.
Blood-curdling has its place, but heart-warming is definitely the way to go on Christmas day.
Now, I'm off. Today we're hoping to watch the Lord of the Rings series (extended editions) from start to finish. I'll let you know how it goes.
Wrong. Even
if the plot was interesting, this was in essence an action movie, and what I
want from an action movie is well-choreographed chase and fight scenes. What I
got instead was the lazy man’s guide to how to make an action movie – i.e. take
Matt Damon, and have him pretend-fight some baddies all while aiming a camera-on-a-fishing-pole
in his general direction and jumping on a trampoline. The benefit is that you
get what looks like action without ever having to choreograph anything. Throw
in some heart-pounding music and you’ve got yourself an action movie.
Needless to say I was left unimpressed, not to mention nauseous, by the whole experience. So when Ultimatum came out this year by the same director, and my Brother-in-Law told me it was more of the same only shakier, I wisely steered clear.
Now, enter Transformers. Here’s a movie that rates 7.6 on IMDb – so I’m expecting a decent action movie with a few plot twists and maybe an interesting character or two. I might not approve of the action in Bourne, but at least the plot was interesting, and the series warrants its respectable rating on IMDb. Transformers is an altogether different animal.
And by different I mean horribly, horribly unwatchable.
And it’s sad because it was a property with great potential. With the amount they spent on special effects, you’d think they would want to show them off. Nope. Not once do we see a nice clear shot of one of the vehicles changing into a robot. Not once!
In every instance where there was a transformation, the camera is rotating, or zig-zagging, or it’s in super-macro, or it’s out of focus. That was fine for the first one or two times, but come on! Even Jurassic Park showed us the whole dinosaur once in a while.
But it doesn’t stop there. No. Any time there’s action, all you see is quick zig-zaggy shot of rifle, quick zig-zaggy shot of smoke, quick zig-zaggy shot of robot hand, quick zig-zaggy shot of helicopter, Quick zig-zaggy… well, you get the picture. And in fact, if you do get the picture, that’s pretty much it. For 2.5 hours.Yeesh.
Oh, forgive me… it’s not ALL action. There are scenes of cardboard characters doing cardboard things. The socially-awkward geek trying to hit on the shallow girlfriend of the sexy football jock. The socially awkward geek buying his first car with his loving but clueless father. The ass who runs the super-secret government wing that deals with aliens. This is a straight ahead action movie with no room for interesting plot twists, or character development. And since the action is unwatchable, what are we left with?
The answer: truckloads of product placement for Chevy, Pontiac, Nokia, HP, Cisco, Hummer, Porsche, and dozens of other things you might like to purchase. Which is sad, because with the money they made from the product placement, they might have at least made an effort to find someone with vision to direct this, and maybe properly choreograph an action sequence or two. Instead, all you’ve got is a 2.5 hour advertisement.
We're into week three of my quiz at Filmsquish.com, and you'd have a ways to go to catch up to the leaders, but hey... doesn't hurt to try. You can check out the previous weeks' answers and the newest clues here.
This Christmas, the Golden Compass is coming to theatres. If you read my review from a few months back, you'll remember I really liked this set of books. They compare very favorably to the Harry Potter Series and get into some really interesting theological stuff. I've even got Mel hooked - and he rarely reads fiction.
In any case, I won't spoil anything in the movie by saying that, in the world of the Golden Compass, a person's soul lives outside their body in the form of a daemon - an animal spirit that accompanies them through life.
While a young person's daemon is changeable, as a person ages their daemon eventually settles into one form, according to their character and nature. A person's daemon is usually of the opposite sex.
Here's my Daemon
You can find your own daemon here.
