Mace's Movie Blog

The Descendants and Once Upon a Time

2011-12-13T23:47:00.000-08:00

The Descendants

The Descendants is about Matt King (George Clooney), a real estate lawyer, whose wife is in the hospital after a boating accident. He has to reconnect with his two daughters Alex (Shailene Woodley) and Scottie (Amara Miller) and also make a big decision about his inherited family land.

I had the pleasure of watching this movie last weekend. It's a fine, grown up adult movie with really great performances. Clooney, who just keeps getting better and better, is excellent in this. I was also very impressed by Woodley and Miller. It's nice to see children not depicted as cliches or stereotypes.

All in all, a really intimate story that felt immensely personal. There are moments from it that you stick with you long afterwards, in particular Matt's final exchange with his wife.

Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time is a new series on ABC about fairy tale characters trapped in the quaint town of Storybrooke. Emma Swan, a newcomer to the town, is the only one who can break the spell.

I love fairy tales so I was really excited about this show. I like that it has leaned more towards the darker elements of the stories instead of just going for the candy coated Disney versions that I loved when I was a kid. Both can be done well (see Enchanted for the later).

So far, Once Upon a Time is interesting. There are overarching mysteries and characters that you really want to root for: Emma, her son, Snow White, the Prince, and even Rumpelstiltskin who actually plays a large role. There've been a few moments that have just blown me away and I'm really hoping to see more of those moments, like the ending of the pilot when the clock starts ticking or the Snow White and Prince Charming story. A few weak points: their version of Cinderella has so far been the weakest of the stories and also sometimes Regina, the queen just falls flat.

The Godfather

2011-11-24T14:13:00.000-08:00

So I finally watched the Godfather (I and II only).

Some thoughts:

As a big Simpsons fan, I watched some of the episode commentaries. At one point, someone said that they'd done so many parodies of the Godfather that they could probably do a Simpsons version of the Godfather with just Simpson clips. After watching the Godfather and having those awesome "oh that's where that reference comes from," it looks entirely possible.
On the note of those classic moments- those very famous scenes and moments- they are all completely worth it in the Godfather Part I. Even though I knew roughly what was going to happen (e.g. what the movie producer would find in his bed), it didn't take away from how great the scenes were.
Part I >>>Part II.

There's the storytelling where I liked how they kept certain aspects of the story ambiguous throughout so that there was always that mystery, whereas, early on in part II, we find the answer to one of the big questions so it's not nearly as satisfying as it should be when we see the characters finally figuring it out.
Brando. Brando. Brando. In a lot of ways, he really made part I. After watching part I, I just wanted to snatch up all the Brando movies I could find and watch them. Part II really felt like it was missing something and even though we got to see Vito Corleone's early days (by De Niro who does very well), there wasn't quite enough of Vito.
I experienced the Benjamin Button effect watching part II. Let me explain, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Forrest Gump but not nearly as good) is an okay movie, but the last 20 minutes or so are really quite good (compared to the rest of the movie). I'm not sure if I would have thought the last 20 minutes were good on their own, but having gone through the whole 2 hour long + movie, it really was a good ending.
In part II, the flashback at the end to the Corleones when they're all still back in New York was fantastic. My favorite scene of the movie hands down. It really makes you miss how things used to be and it was nice to see some old faces again and quite sad to see how things have changed.
In some ways, the Godfather is an awesome Thanksgiving movie. It's about family and there's constantly food around and...anyhow, I'm stretching it. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

On TV Shows: Underappreciated

2011-11-20T03:08:00.000-08:00

Party Down:

Party Down was a fantastic show on Starz (Wait Starz has TV shows? Yes, apparently.) that only lasted 2 seasons, for a total of 20 awesome episodes. Party Down is about the Party Down catering company- a group of aspiring Hollywood hopefuls (many of them delusionally so) who half-assly cater various parties. There's Henry Pollard (Adam Scott who's now on Parks and Recreation) a failed actor who's known for his one line in a commercial, aspiring comedian Casey (Lizzy Caplan), always trying his best caterer manager Ron Donald (Ken Marino), blindly optimistic Constance (Jane Lynch), nerdy sci-fi writer Roman (Martin Starr), and dumb blonde Kyle (Ryan Hansen) who's in the "handsome business." Lydia (Megan Mullally), a single mom, joins the second season.

Party Down starts falling into a great groove three episodes in. Everyone is funny and likable. It's TV-MA so it can and often does do a lot of great raunchy humor. The characters really meld well together and they establish a really great dynamic and rhythm. Scott and Caplan also have fantastic chemistry, and Henry and Casey probably fall on my list of all time favorite fictional couples. It's also a treat for former Veronica Mars fans b/c a lot of the characters make guest appearances on the show. Hansen and Marino were consequently characters on Veronica Mars.

Party Down is a really great show. It's one of those shows I still get excited about when I hear that someone has watched it before. Catch it on Netflicks sometime.

Community

There's recent news that Community is probably not going to get a 4th season. I can see how Community is a unique comedy that doesn't appeal to everyone- it's quirky and very meta, but it is a really great show. I've rarely seen a show that's delved so deeply into the meta and done it well.

Community is about a group of friends who all go to the same crazy community college. I still like Season 1 of Community the best. Every episode was balanced funny and touching aspects. The show features very unique characters you don't often see featured on TV shows like a senior citizen (Chevy Chase) or a nerdy athlete (Donald Glover) or a movie nerd who potentially has Asperger's (Danny Pudi). The characters grew over time and by the end of season 1, all of them have become quite likable- you buy them as a group of friends and each of the characters are funny in their own way. I'm still very impressed with how they really do try to get all the characters to interact with each other.

Season 2 felt very experimental- the show went off and tried lots of different tones. Some worked well like the fake documentary episode and the fantastic Dungeons and Dragons episode, while others had more mixed results like the more serious the Group takes a trip to the bar episode. It was still fascinating to watch, and even got into some uncomfortable territory when the Group starts excluding one of its own members.

Season 3, so far, seems more balanced than season 2 and features one of the best Alternate Universe episodes ever. Here's to hoping it doesn't stay off the air for too long.

Better Off Ted

Better Off Ted is another short lived comedy that was canceled just after ~26 episodes. It was really funny, entertaining, featured a really strong cast of characters (including Portia de Rossi), and had an insanely cheerful score.

Better Off Ted is about an evil corporation- Veridian Dynamics. There's the protagonist and moral center of the show, Ted (Jay Harrington), who as one reviewer described perfectly, is a cross between Woody (Toy Story) and George Clooney. There's also his super aggressive boss Veronica (really great performance by de Rossi), adorable meek scientists who are joined at the hip (figuratively) Phill and Lem, and rebellious product tester, Linda.

A few trailers

2011-09-20T01:10:00.000-07:00

I'm procrastinating so here's a quick update:

Here are three of the best trailers I've seen in the past few months.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo : One of the best trailers I have seen in a long time. It's eye catching- the cutting and the music (I cannot wait to listen to the full version of that song- it sounds amazing) are really well done. Although watching the trailer again after watching the original Swedish version of the film, if you know the story, I feel like you can place the scenes you get quick glimpses of really quickly. I thought the original film was fine. It was a solid movie with an interesting mystery, but it was definitely one of those movies that relied more on plot than characters. There are various reasons why I'd rewatch a movie, but I can't imagine myself wanting to go out of my way to rewatch this one (not that it was a bad movie, it was interesting and solid) since I already know what happens.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: There's a newer trailer for this one floating around online but I far prefer the first one. It really uses the music well to establish this great, taut, tense mood. I'm really looking forward to seeing this movie.

Take Shelter: this looks intriguing.

Also a kudos for the Muppets for their parody trailers.

Here's to hoping there're good movies as well.

Art

2011-09-12T23:25:00.000-07:00

I work in a pretty technical field so I don't think about art, in the general sense often. I still remember in one of my literature classes as an undergraduate, one of the most striking things I learned was the power of art. My professor gave a simple example: in World War II, after both of the atomic bombs had been dropped, there were the devastating statistics, of course, of just how many people died and how many people would continue to die much later from radiation poisoning. But it really wasn't until she and many other people saw this picture, a school girl's tin lunch box where the peas in her lunch had carbonized that they really connected to something human and emotional about the bombings. (see here)

In light of a recent decade anniversary, here is a youtube video from Story Corps. I've seen a few of Story Corps videos and they are fantastic. They are a national project to record people's stories and memories. There's some really moving stuff of the site.

Oldies

2011-09-06T02:15:00.000-07:00

They don't make em like they used to. I've been getting into older stuff lately. I've been watching black and white films and episodes of the The Twilight Zone that I hadn't seen yet. I watched Sunset Blvd and The Apartment recently (aka my Billy Wilder kick) and they really made me miss how much more dialoguecentric films used to be. Of course I think it's awesome that film-making technology has advanced so much, but in a lot of ways, that has also made films a lot more visual, which is fine but I do miss smart, sharp, banter. On that note, one youtube movie reviewer I've enjoyed watching is The Blind Film Critic, who really provides a pretty fresh perspective on movies. The explosions in the old movies really had to come from the words and the characters and not the special effects. I was pleasantly surprised that I could take bathroom breaks while watching the movie and not miss out on too much when I came back and that if I wasn't looking at the screen the whole time, I could still get a general sense of what was going on.

Sunset Blvd

Sunset Blvd is a film noir about young Hollywood screenwriter, Joseph Gills (William Holden) and his relationship with aging, former silent film star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Gills is struggling financially when he first encounters Desmond and ends up becoming employed by Desmond. You've probably heard one of the many famous quotes from this movie or seen clips of this film at some point. It's dark and Desmond is one of the most ambiguous characters on film ever. I can't remember deciding whether or not I wanted to hate, pity, or like a character so much since watching Gollum in Lord of the Rings. There are also so many little things in the movie, little details (the funeral, the story of that movie Desmond plans to star in, the unlocked doors) that make the whole movie intensely creepy- and that what we get to see in the movie is only just the surface. All in all, it's a classic and definitely worth seeing if you're a fan of movies.

The Apartment

The Apartment is about CC Baxter (Jack Lemmon), a businessman who tries to get ahead in his company by letting executives at his company use his apartment for their own private affairs. It's humorous in the first half or so but then suddenly turns quite serious when we learn more about the elevator girl that Baxter likes, Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine).

A little bit of trivia: The Apartment (1960) was the last black and white film until the mostly black and white Schindler's List (1994) to win the best picture Oscar.

It's been a while since I've watched a movie where I found myself wondering and genuinely caring if everything was going to be all right for everyone in the end. You're really not sure how things are going to turn out in the last act. While the movie got more serious in the second half, I did appreciate the levity they incorporated. I'm still a bit torn about the ending and I wonder where the director, Billy Wilder, would have chosen to end the film if there really weren't any rules. Also features one of my favorite creative uses of a tennis racket. (see video above)

Twilight Zone

What's there not to like? It has one of the creepiest opening sequences ever, great acting, fantastic writing, and stories that are relevant regardless of the time. It's like reading really great short stories.
I wanted to highlight a few of my favorites.

The After Hours- This was the first twilight zone episode I'd ever seen. I saw it during one of the Sci-fi channel's yearly marathons and even though I was reluctant to watch something in black and white, the story really drew me. The After Hours is about a woman who is looking for a special thimble in a department store. She ends up on a strange, non-existent floor in the store. The suspense and atmosphere in this one is really fantastic.
Lonely - This one breaks my heart, and it really makes you think about how people define what constitutes life. Lonely is about a prisoner who is imprisoned on an asteroid. His only company are the guards who deliver supplies to him four times a year. After a disappointingly short visit, one of the guards gives him a female robot to keep him company. The space suits are goofy but don't let it distract you from the rest of the story.
The Shelter- I'm surprised that fewer people cite this one on the notable twilight zone episodes. It doesn't have any sci-fi elements, it's about a suburban neighborhoods that has just received a potential nuclear bomb threat and only one family on the street has a proper nuclear shelter. The episode really hits at the core theme of many twilight zone episodes-fear bringing out the worst in people. Definitely more believable and better executed than the more famous, The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.
Other notable episodes:

The Eye of the Beholder and Number 12 Looks Just Like You: The Eye of the Beholder is the quintessential Twilight Zone episode and if you haven't seen it, it's a really great place to start. It does what Twilight Zone does best: twists your perception of things. Both are about beauty and the importance that our society places on it. Number 12 is thematically quite similar to Eye of the Beholder about a girl who refuses to go through an operation that will make her "pretty" and look like everyone else around her. It really hits hard when she realizes that no one understands her desire to keep her looks so that she can preserve her identity.
A Stop at Willoughby and Walking Distance: Some of the two more "realistic" twilight zone episodes. Both are well told and highly relatable. I'm sure that everyone at some point has just wanted to escape into their fantasy land as the overworked, stressed businessman in A Stop at Willoughby wishes to do or wanted to go back to the past, where another businessman actually gets to do in Walking Distance.
Perchance to Dream and Twenty Three: Two really great, haunting episodes about dreams. Both are taut and suspenseful.
One for the Angels: I initially thought this one was a bit on the cheesy side, but the characters really grow on you. It also gives you a nice, warm and fuzzy feeling at the end which is rather rare for the series. Death comes to tell a salesman that he is going to die at midnight but the salesman opposes- he still has a lot he wants to do! Namely he wants to make a fantastic sales pitch. Death makes him a proposition: he will not collect the man's soul until he's completed the pitch.
The Silence: I keep thinking about this one, because it gets under my skin and reminds me of "The Gift of the Magi", that frustrating short story you probably read at some point in grade school , about the couple that buy each other presents by sacrificing something extremely precious to each other to get those presents. The Silence, I think, is the polar opposite of that. In The Silence, an older member of a country club gets annoyed at an extremely talkative young member of the club and makes a bet with him: if he can go for a whole year without talking, he will receive a large sum of money.

Summer 2011 Movies: Super 8 and Harry Potter 7.2

2011-08-06T01:16:00.000-07:00

Most of the movies I write about in this blog tend to be a bit older, but in the past month, I've had a chance to watch two good films currently in theaters.

Super 8

Super 8 is about a group of friends who witness a mysterious train crash as they are filming a movie. Super 8 refers to 8 mm film, which is the film that people used to use to film movies. It really plays up the nostalgia factor, which it does effectively some of the time, to try to be this generation's ET. Even the score by Michael Giacchino (Star Trek, Ratatouille), who is quite good, is a bit reminiscent of ET. Both scores convey a sense of mystery and innocence.

There is a lot to like about Super 8. For one, it is one of those movies about kids, in this case, 12-13 year olds, that treat the kids with respect. All the kids in the movie are believable and their interactions and dialogue very real. Elle Fanning, as Alice, is, in particular, fantastic and I was surprised that she is actually only 12 because she portrays Alice with such poise and maturity that you'd think she was much older. There are a lot of little things that make me love how well they fleshed out the kids characters: at one point, Alice refuses to drive the protagonist, Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) to their filming site b/c his dad is the sheriff and his first reaction isn't to persuade her to drive him, but to be surprised that she actually knows who he is. In a tenser situation, when the kids are doing some important research, one of them starts playing video games. There's also a great scene where Alice and Joe talk about their friendship and you can't imagine it happening in any other way.

It's unfortunate then that the movie doesn't do the same with the adults, who are one-dimensional cut-out characters. The general main plot of the movie, while it does a great job with the build up (why are there appliances missing? why are all the dogs running away), it wraps up tepidly. Besides the beginning train sequence which is fantastic- it is one of the best old school action scenes I've seen in a while, the other action in the movie isn't great. It relies too much on the same sort of suspense sequence. While I didn't mind that they did the cliche "mysterious creature approaches as unobservant townsperson goes about their business until they notice something amiss", it got old pretty quickly.

I would have not minded if they down played the main plot of the movie. I liked the character development of the kids more and would have preferred to watch a movie more focused on them- about them making their movie.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

It's the very last one, and it's a good one.

A major part of Harry Potter culture is waiting in line with fellow fans. For this last movie, we definitely weren't disappointed in that aspect. I went to a Friday night (opening night) showing and even though we got to the theater an hour early, there was already a very long line. I dressed up as did quite a few other people for the show.

Over the decade of Harry Potter movies, I've learned to manage my expectations for the movies. I still think that Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban are the two best Harry Potter movies, mainly because they can stand on their own and there were extra elements that distinguished them from the books. In POA, it was seeing the time travel paradox in action and seeing my favorite rendition of Hogwarts: messy, old, but very much magically alive. In HBP, it was seeing the characters actually be friends with each other, added humor, the Draco plot making a lot more sense, and the characters be in many ways, much more likable then their counterparts in the book. Harry, for example, is actually extremely focused on his task to get that memory from Slughorn.

On the other end, there was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which really just seemed like a collection of the major scenes from the book put together in a movie. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 7.1, while it followed the book closely, and did maintain some semblance of plot, it really did not flow well and was too bleak and hopeless. The first half of the Harry Potter 7 book was super hopeless and dark, but even that had more levity than the movie. If I'd made the movie, I would have included the Wizarding Wireless Network, all those words at Godric's Hallow cheering Harry on, and Harry pulling out the Maruder's Map just to see Ginny's dot on it. Also, you can still make a perfectly good movie about dark times without filming a movie completely in bleak, gray tones (See Lord of the Rings.)

(*SPOILERS start here*)

HP 7.2 is a much better movie than HP 7.1. It flows better, is more focused, and the soundtrack is really great- much better than 7.1. The movie doesn't incorporate too many additional scenes, but instead amends some of the existing ones.

The trio's Gringott trip is a fun one as Hermione uses Polyjuice Potion to become Bellatrix Lestrange. Helena Bonham Carter does a great job pretending to be Hermione pretending to be Bellatrix. It really bothered me in the books when the good characters used any of the Unforgivable Curses. I'm glad they took most of that out in the movie, but I still cringed when Ron uses it on the teller in Gringotts.

They do touch upon Dumbledore's past and his penchant to keep secrets, but it's so brief that I think it would have been better if that had all been taken out all together. They also downplay how terrible Hogwarts becomes after Snape becomes headmaster- they do hint at it in the beginning but shrug, the movie can only be so long.

The beginning of the Battle of Hogwarts is well done. The scene where the Hogwarts professors cast a protection spell is a welcome addition and then there's a scene where the trio runs through the battlefield and there're magical spells being cast all around- the music swells beautifully, and it's really an amazing scene- the scene to rewatch from the Battle of Hogwarts.

I'm glad Neville is semi-featured in this movie. In the books, it was amazing and really moving to see him grow, lamentably in the background of course, from this shy, clumsy awkward kid to the badass de-facto leader of students at Hogwarts who chops off Nagini's head in a moment of complete despair when everyone thinks Harry is dead. On that note, I'm disappointed in the way they amended the Nagini's death scene. I understand that they wanted to do it concurrently with Voldemort's defeat, but I thought it was handled more aptly in the book. In the movie, Neville still shows that he's brave but he does it Samwise Gamgee style and Samwise did it better.

There is, also, of course Snape. The Prince's Tale is one of the best chapters in the whole book series. In the book, you actually get to meet Lily, see her friendship with Snape, and see that despite everything, she and Petunia still cared for each other. In the movie, it's just glimpses in Lily and since it's all from Snape's perspective, you do really wonder if they'd been more than just friends.

Anyhow, it's a decent movie and a great way to end the series. Also has a fantastic soundtrack- a great improvement on 7.1.

Goodbye Harry and friends- it's been a fantastic ride.

A Change of Pace: On Fan Fiction

2011-07-10T00:27:00.000-07:00

Fan Fiction and Harry Potter

An article from Time about fan fiction and Harry Potter. How very appropriate because Harry Potter has one of the largest, if not the largest, fan base that I have seen online. I used to be involved in the fan fiction world myself, mostly as a reader, and I still peak back at it sometimes.

I think the article does a good job with giving a good overview of the fan fiction world, but I wanted to add a few things:
-One very positive thing about fan fiction is that it helps a lot of people write. A lot of times, it's about the community of writers and readers that you encounter. You have these characters that everyone knows and so you already have an audience (encouragement for writing and good for feedback) and also, characters you can flesh out and explore. Writing about characters that exist is much less daunting than characters you create on your own.
-What about the fictional books that are based on famous novels? E.g. I have seen quite a few books out there that do an alternative take on Jane Eyre and lots of sequels to Pride and Prejudice.

In honor of the last Harry Potter movie coming out (sniffle sniffle), I wanted to share a link to one of my favorite Harry Potter fanfics out there: Summer Holidays by Penknife. A lot of people, myself included, were really frustrated with the epilogue in the last Harry Potter book after a decent ending in the last chapter. While it was nice to see Harry happily settled down, their children have ridiculous names and the epilogue, as a whole, just seemed tacked on and *too happy*.

The Others, Adaptation, and Se7en

2011-07-09T00:10:00.000-07:00

The Others
The Others is about Grace (Nicole Kidman, who is really great in this movie) and her two light sensitive children who live in an old, Gothic mansion- made scarier as it is constantly shrouded in darkness as a result of the children's condition. When intruders start appearing in the house, Grace isn't quite sure what she should do.

I caught the last half an hour or so of this movie a very long time ago and have wanted to see the whole movie for a long time since. I loved the ending but hate the way DVDs advertise it- come on- spoilers much? The Others has a lot of truly eerie moments: the pictures of the dead, when Grace and her children finally learn the truth about the servants in their house, and the final sequence when your mind is literally blown away but you're also terrified by what's going on. It's a decent movie, not really worth watching more than a few times. I do applaud the movie for really creating a creepy, eerie atmosphere; it's so refreshing to see an actual horror movie based on genuine chills as opposed to another gory horror movie.

Adaptation
Adaptation follows tormented, self-loathing Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) who is struggling with his adaptation of Susan Orlean (Meryl Strep)'s book The Orchid Thief.

I really wanted to like this movie. I really did, b/c I've liked many of Charlie Kaufman's other stuff. I loved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind- one of my favorite movies EVER, and really enjoyed Being John Malkovich - it's so out there but it's so much fun, but I just could not get into Adaptation. I tolerated it up until they end up in Florida and people are trying to kill each other. It's too much, too regular action movie for it to be believable in the realm of the Adaptation world. Adaptation does contain some great quotes though and it has one of the best perspectives on love I've heard in a very long time.

Charlie Kaufman: How come you looked so happy?

Donald Kaufman: I loved Sarah, Charles. It was mine, that love. I owned it. Even Sarah didn't have the right to take it away. I can love whoever I want.

Charlie Kaufman: But she thought you were pathetic.

Donald Kaufman: That was her business, not mine. You are what you love, not what loves you. That's what I decided a long time ago.

Speaking of Adaptation, one helpful screen writing tip that Adaptation offered was that endings really matter. Even if you have a mediocre movie, if the ending is solid, then you have a good movie. This really applies to Se7en, which I finally saw recently.

Se7en

Se7en is follows two police officers, world-weary Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and hot-heated rookie Mills ( Brad Pitt) as they try to figure out who has been committing all of these horrific crimes that follow the Seven Deadly Sins. Even though I already roughly knew what happens, I was still very curious to see the movie. Up until the last act, it was an okay film- mainly memorable for how gory and unique the murders are and a fine performance from Freeman. The cat and mouse game between the detectives and the killer was intriguing, but certainly not the best that I've seen. It was a bit frustrating to watch how rushed and excitable Mills was-makes him seem more naive than he should be and also, later on, how far behind the detectives really were. Like Somerset says cynically, their job isn't to solve murders, it's to track down what happens and organize them into neat little piles.

And then it got to the last 30 minutes of the movie, and I was absolutely blown away. It's amazing how that final car ride changes everything, how the tension just keeps rising and rising as they get closer and closer to their destination. And that's why Se7en's so memorable and talked about years after it's been in theaters.
Se7en is a great film but definitely not for people who scare easily.

Films Currently in Theaters

I also recently wrote reviews for Horrible Bosses (good movie! Lots of fun) and Cars 2 (not so great...oh Pixar, you've let me down!).

Kubrick and Nolan

2011-06-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

Two posts in two days? I guess I'm on a roll. (more accurately, I'm on a short break).

Insomnia

Today I watched Christopher Nolan's Insomnia and now, I can proudly say that I have seen all of his movies. It's interesting seeing brief glimpses of his future filmmaking style, like the brief flashes of memories in Insomnia, which are later abundantly used in Inception and Batman Begins. Insomnia is a solid movie, a crime drama that takes place in a small, isolated town in Alaska. Al Pacino plays Detective Dormer who goes to Alaska during the summer, so it's light outside all the time, to solve the murder of a 17-year old girl. Supporting cast features Robin Williams and Hillary Swank. Insomnia is like a long episode of old school Law and Order with Detective Lenny Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), and starts getting interesting when you find out what the movie really is about. Insomnia asks interesting questions about morality; does the end really justify the means? And while it does twist the question around a bit, in a lot of ways, the ending took the easy way out. It's certainly a solid movie with some genuinely suspenseful moments such as Dormer's interrogation of the dead girl's best friend and it's fascinating to see common Nolan motifs lightly touched upon in this movie that are more heavily explored in his later films, but I wouldn't say it's particularly memorable.

There've been a lot of comparisons b/n Nolan and Kubrick, mainly b/c Nolan hasn't really made a bad film. I had trouble getting into Following, but liked its intensity and really loved the first 20 minutes of it. I love Inception and the Batman films. I found Memento really fascinating and the jury's still out for The Prestige, but I definitely do want to see it again. I think that Kubrick is really in a class of his own, but it's nice seeing a director out there who makes good action movies and makes fun, intelligent blockbusters.

Lyndon Barry

On Kubrick, I have seen most of his films and am just *blown* away by how each of his films are in a different genre and how he nailed each and every one of them. Eyes Wide Shut loses steam towards the end, but it's still filled with so many absolutely fascinating, memorable, cinematic sequences. On that note, I also watched Lyndon Barry recently. While I didn't like it as much as I liked The Shinning, 2001: A Space Odyssey, or A Clockwork Orange, it's a decent film, howbeit quite slow. The DVD summary wasn't lying when is said that Lyndon Barry was like a slow-moving painting. Lyndon Barry does have one of my favorite dueling scenes ever. The incredibly tense scene is here, and it is imho, the best scene in the whole movie:

I am fascinated by how much work went into the filming of the movie. Some of the candlelight scenes in the movie were really *only* lighted by candles. I didn't care much for the omniscient narrator, though I did like the necessary humor he added to the earlier half of the movie. The movie picked up steam and started going somewhere after Barry meets Lady Lyndon, but ultimately, it was hard to really like or root for any of the characters. Barry, while an interesting antihero, is really not a good person nor a particularly bright one. Lady Lyndon is silent and placid and her son, who should by all means get loads of sympathy given his situation but is weak and whiney. Overall, Barry Lyndon is for the hard core Kubrick fans; it has a few really fantastic scenes but is generally a very very slow movie.

True Grit and Bridesmaids

2011-06-15T19:47:00.000-07:00

True Grit

LaBoeuf: You give out very little sugar with your pronouncements. While I sat there watchin' I gave some thought to stealin' a kiss... though you are very young, and sick... and unattractive to boot. But now I have a mind to give you five or six good licks with my belt. Mattie Ross: One would be just as unpleasant as the other.

I finally saw True Grit and was pleasantly surprised by how much of an old school adventure story it was. True Grit follows 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) as she seeks to bring her father's murderer, Chaney, to justice. She hires US Marshall Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to track him down, and they are joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon with a mustache!), who is also after Chaney.

From the action-packed, rather-dark trailer, I was expecting True Grit to be more like Unforgiven, but the movie that True Grit reminds me of the most is actually Miyazaki's beautiful Porco Rosso- both feature young girls who experience the adventure of a life time with fascinating characters (Rooster and Porco). I haven't always liked Westerns, but one thing that made me really start to enjoy Westerns is that they slow things down (long horseback rides) so that characters have to interact with each other. I like that the characters, despite their faults, are all decent people and that the main trio, Mattie, Rooster, and LaBouef genuinely see each other for who they are and truly respect each other in the end. From the trailers, I thought Damon looked very silly with his Western get-up, but he's fine in the movie and disappears into LaBouef. Bridges is decent, though he is oftentimes hard to understand (subtitles definitely needed). At the heart of the movie, though, is Steinfeld, who rightfully won an Academy Award nomination for her actin. She anchors the movie and portrays Mattie as one of the strongest, most sensible female characters I've seen in a long time.

True Grit is less tense than I expected it to be. It's a notch above the usual adventure movie, and I was especially surprised by how moved I was by the ending. Definitely worth watching as an old school, slower paced Western.

Bridesmaids

I'm a bit late on reviewing this one, but Bridesmaids is one of the best "raunchy" comedies I've seen in a while. It's refreshing to see a female-centric comedy that is not so much focused on romance but rather friendships. In some ways it is the female version of "The Hangover" movies, but it's so much more.

Annie (Kristen Wiig)'s life is falling apart: she lost her dream business, has a super douchey f- buddy (Jon Hamm), and the only good thing going on in her life is her relationship with her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph). Lillian makes Annie her maid of honor, but soon, Lillian's new friend, Helen (Rose Byrne) starts taking over her role as Lillian's best friend.

The performances are what really make the movie. I haven't been a big fan of Wiig on SNL; many of her characters are outrageous and obnoxious. Kristen Wiig is fantastic as Annie, though. She's down down to earth and believable as a woman who is really hurting herself with her low self-esteem. The supporting cast is fantastic, as well. I especially liked Melissa McCarthy's insanely confident Megan, Wendi McLendon-Covey's weary mother of three Rita, and Chris O'Dowd as a cop and Annie's love interest. Jon Hamm is also hilarious in the few scenes that he's in. He IS Don Draper, of course, but it's always nice to see him branch out and do comedy.

Battle LA, Full Metal Jacket, and The American

2011-03-13T22:39:00.001-07:00

Even though it's the slow movie season (not yet summer and post-Oscar season), I've managed to see quite a few movies in the past month. Also I haven't updated in a while so be prepared- there'll be a lot.

Battle: Los Angeles

I saw this movie today. When I first heard about this movie, at the very best, I expected it to be along the veins of District 9 (gritty, more "realistic" look) and at the very worst, I expected it to take itself seriously enough that it falls just short of the being campy and the sort of movie "that's so bad it's good." A recent movie that falls into this terrible category is I Am Number Four, which I reviewed recently.

I wasn't expecting much from Battle: LA since it got PANNED by reviews- rotten tomatoes gave it a dismal rating of ~30 %. I was, however, pleasantly surprised by Battle: LA. It's actually a pretty good solid movie. It's entertaining, captures your attention, and is action packed. Usually, I'm all for character development, but as it stands, in this movie, I really would have preferred less since everything back story related was terribly cliche and even maudlin at times. At times, the movie's almost a Marine's commercial.

It was very refreshing to see a smart alien species attacking earth. I'm probably one of the few people who actually *liked* War of the Worlds, but I was very disappointed by the very anti-climatic ending. We should believe that invading aliens who were smart enough to get to earth but not smart enough to do their research on earth died naturally form disease? Oh well.

The Campy quote of the movie:

"They're falling down like bowling pins!" Michelle Rodriguez's badass character (but when does she ever not play someone badass) as they drive over aliens with tanks.

On the note of Marines, there's Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.
Full Metal Jacket

Private Joker: The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.

It's always fascinating seeing great directors take on movie genres and see them do something new, say something new with the genre. There are a ton of war movies out there, and I've seen quite a few, but I don't think I've seen anything quite like Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.

I started on a Kubrick movie watch ~2 years ago when we got one of his box sets. I've worked my way through it, leaving Full Metal Jacket for the end b/c war films aren't really films I go out of my way to see unless they're really good.

In a lot of ways, Full Metal Jacket is a lot like Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo in the sense that the first half is flawless. And while the second half of both movies are still very good, it doens't quite get back to how good the movies were during that first half. In the first half of Full Metal Jacket, we see a group of new Marines go through bootcamp- essentially the drill instructor Hartman (R. Lee Ermey who is really fantastic) yelling commands at them non stop. What really works well here is the environment- it's so insular and so closed off from the world that you can understand how the mantras, the patriotic songs, the insults can and do become the whole world to many of the soldiers like Gomer Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio). In the second half, the soldiers ship off to Vietnam and encounter combat, and while it's still a very intense movie, it seems to have lost some of that earlier claustrophobic intense boot camp energy. It's a fine film overall. Features a badass younger Adam Baldwin (but seriously, he still looks exactly the same), fine performances all around, and of course, an incongruous, fascinating song mash up (Mickey Mouse against a warzone backdrop.)

The American
(the one with George Clooney in it)

A common critique of modern movies is that they're insanely fast and too explicit. The American has the opposite problem; the movie proceeds at a snail's pace and is extremely restrained. I think it's better though to be slow and restrained since that can come off as classy and polished. The American is about an assassin and custom-weapons manufacturer (George Clooney) who goes to a remote Italian city to manufacture a custom rifle for a fellow assassin. The first five minutes of the movie are cold, brutal, and exciting but is really misleading for the movie. The next hour and a half is essentially about George Clooney doing nothing. It picks up towards the end and last tenth of the movie is actually quite good and memorable. Why couldn't the rest of the movie be like the end? The cinematography is gorgeous in this film- it makes the whole film seem like a fancy European car commercial. If you're short on time, just watch the last fifteen minutes or so of this movie- you'll get the gist of it.

Two upcoming movies to watch out for:

I saw the trailer for Bad Teacher before Battle: LA today. Red band version here. It looks promising. It's refreshing to see Cameron Diaz play the role of a bad girl. Or maybe I'm just a little bemused by a nerdy, shy Justin Timberlake.

Sucker Punch since the graphics just look amazing.

Oscar Night!

2011-02-27T17:32:00.000-08:00

So it's Oscar Night again, and as a big movie fan I am moderately excited. Only moderately excited b/c I've only seen a few of the nominated films. I do like this new system of 10 nominated pictures since you get a broader range of movies/a better favoring of the critically acclaimed movies of the year.

I refuse to see The Social Network, on principle, since come on, it's a movie about freaking Facebook. I do want to check out some of the others like The King's Speech and True Grit (definitely going to check them out on Netflicks when they come out)- I have a weakness for period pieces. I have however, seen Inception (AWESOME), The Kids are All Right, Black Swan, Toy Story 3, and How to Train Your Dragon. Even though Toy Story 3 is a great movie and probably will win, I actually am rooting for How to Train Your Dragon, mainly because it holds up better over multiple viewings and has one of my favorite movie scores in a long while. Do sample Forbidden Friendship, New Tail, and Where's Hiccup? The Inception soundtrack is equally fantastic. Sample Time and Dream Within a Dream - initially when I first previewed the soundtrack before the movie (I'm a big Hans Zimmer fan and was excited to hear his latest score) I found the music a bit jarring but after watching the movie, I found it to be one of the best soundtracks I've heard in long time since it just goes *so well* with the movie especially with matching the main theme to a distorted version of "La Vie en Rose". See Inception Music Comparison

Batman!

2011-02-14T00:49:00.000-08:00

I just had the pleasure of watching Batman: Under the Red Hood. It's been a while since I've watched an animated version of Batman and it made me remember my old high school days when we'd get an excellent block of superhero cartoons on Saturday nights. As a quick disclaimer, I don't claim to be an expert on comics at all- I just watched the cartoons and learned about the comics through wikipedia.

I was a fan of Justice League (Season 1 and 2), more so the original rather than Unlimited (Season 3 and later). Justice League featured all your favorite superheroes, Superman, Batman, and Wonderwoman, as well as Hawkgirl, Green Lantern (Jon Stewart- no not the one from Comedy Central), the Flash, and the Martian Manhunter. I didn't watch Unlimited as much mainly b/c there were too many characters to keep track of and many episodes only featured a few of the main league members I was familiar with. The show was fantastic- really good storylines, animation, and a kick ass theme song- all in all, they really did a good job with making things feel epic and crafting very mature stories. Two episodes that I remember liking a lot:

Hereafter- where there's a big battle and everyone thinks that Superman has died except he's really been transported to the distant future where a super-villain, who's immortal, has destroyed the world and now regrets it. I remember one of my high school teachers gushing on about this one.
Wildcards- Pure entertainment. The Joker has placed bombs in various casinos and is doing a reality show of sorts as the Justice League goes around to disarm the bombs.

And then, of course, there were the Teen Titans, my favorite at the time and a show I still have a soft spot for. Teen Titans featured Robin (yes, Batman's Robin) leading a team of teenage superheroes, Starfire, Raven, Cyborg, and Beast Boy. Animation-wise, it was done in an anime-ish style, but what really stood out was that it was a firmly character-centered superhero cartoon and that each character was well developed and likable. Season 1 was probably the best overall since it had the most coherent arc, but seasons 2-3 were pretty great too. Season 4, I watched less of, since again, they introduced many new characters and I think I'd gone off to college then so there was less time for TV.
A few favorite episodes:

Masks/Apprentice: Season 1 developed an arc in which Robin was slowly becoming obsessed with the Titan's mysterious arch-enemy Slade. Essentially a 3-part episode that everything in season 1 was leading up to. Masks was the very first episode I watched and I remember getting hooked right then and there. Robin, in an attempt to get closer to Slade, tricks his team, and in the end, it's his effervescent, light-hearted best friend Starfire who's firm words bring him back to reality.
How Long is Forever?: During a fight, a time-traveling villain causes Starfire to go into the future, and it's a dark, dark future w/o Starfire around.
Nevermore: The first episode that really focuses on Raven and fleshes her out, who's quiet and sarcastic, but generally mysterious.
Haunted: One of the darkest episodes of the Teen Titans. Robin starts seeing Slade everywhere, but no one else can.

Which is a long winded explanation for, how I've heard a little about the various Robins. Batman: Under the Red Hood is dark and has a lot of Nolan-esque elements. It pushes the envelope- implied and explicit violence, and a few elements are slightly reminiscent of Dark Knight- especially this exploration of Batman's moral code and what it really means, which is always fascinating. The Joker, while still humorous, is less the Joker from the Batman Animated Series, crazy, funny, and over-the-top, and a little more serious like Heath Ledger's Joker. The voice-acting is generally fantastic and I actually thought that Kevin Conroy (the voice actor who usually does Batman in the cartoons) was voicing Batman in this one as well, but it was actually someone else (Bruce Greenwood). I would have been happier if they hadn't featured the Black Mask as much, who wasn't all that interesting and just chewed up screen time. (One question though- maybe it's b/c I'm so used to the Nolan voices but isn't it pronounced R-ah-s instead of Raz?) Generally a good movie, although the ending left me a bit unsatisfied.

Black Swan and Moon

2011-01-20T01:05:00.000-08:00

Black Swan

Thomas Leroy: That was me seducing you. It needs to be the other way around.

Black Swan, as everyone probably knows, is about Nina (Natalie Portman), a ballet dancer who is cast as the swan princess in Swan Lake and subsequently loses it as she has a hard time mastering the role of the black swan, the evil twin of the swan princess. I finally saw Black Swan in theaters last Sunday night and it was a treat, even despite how it's been massively parodied by SNL and others. Black Swan is creepy and disturbing- not a good idea to see it at night if you get scared easily like I do. I can think of a few scenes, in particular the second hospital scene and this other scene when Nina, post freaking out, buckles at the knees- her legs at odd, distorted angles that just haunt you for a long while afterwards.

That being said though, the performances really make the movie. I'm not a big Natalie Portman fan at all. I've never been terribly impressed by her performances in any of her movies, not even in Closer, which she was nominated for an Oscar, but I absolutely loved her in "Black Swan." I remember reading a review somewhere about how you really end up rooting for Nina, wanting her to succeed so badly throughout the movie, and I think that's absolutely true. Nina is shy and dedicated and within the first few minutes of the movie- you're hooked, you want her to succeed b/c she works so hard and she deserves it. It is an insanely charismatic performance. Mila Kunis, Lily as Nina's main rival, is also fantastic- Lilly is laid back and sexually unrestrained and completely comfortable with who she is. Also, despite how sleezy Thomas (Vincent Cassel), the ballet company's creative director, is (I mean come on, "To prepare for the role you should go touch yourself etc etc"), somehow, probably b/c he provides some humorous lines to the otherwise very claustrophobic movie, is still entertaining and moderately likable. Overall, great movie but I actually would say that you don't really need to see this movie in theaters (gritty resolution)- hold off and wait for it to come in netflix form.

Moon

I finally got around to seeing this movie, which I kept hearing lots of good things about. Moon is about Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), a very lonely worker on the moon base who is going to go home soon from his three year contract. Moon is a very neatly constructed film and Sam Rockwell is really captivating, carrying the movie mostly on his own with some help from the moon base robot GERTY. Moon is a pretty clever movie- I like how they nonchalantly they introduced the main conflict in the movie and that the main conflict as well as the way they deal with it isn't what you were expecting at all- and that's all I feel like I can say without spoiling it for anyone. One of the plot threads, I have to say- it was pretty obvious where they were going with it, but I did enjoy the questions of identity that Moon raises. It's definitely worth a watch and pretty impressive given it's very low budget. For scenes outside of the moon base, the graphics seem a little unreal and skimmed, but everything else inside the base looks great.

The Kids are All Right

2010-12-29T23:27:00.000-08:00

The Kids Are All Right

I really was looking forward to this movie b/c I kept hearing great things about it, especially the performances. While I thought the performances were really good, Annette Bening was really fabulous in this- I've really not seen any of her other movies besides American Beauty but I didn't like her much in that, while I absolutely loved her in this. Julianne Moore was also great- Bening and Moore play a lesbian couple, Nic (rule and order oriented) and Jules (flightier), respectively, parents to two teenagers. When their children, Joni and Laser, contact their sperm donor Paul, everyone becomes a bit enchanted with him (Nic less so than everyone else though).

I was disappointed that in the first half of the movie, Paul is really put front and center, perhaps b/c most of the characters are enamored with him. It reminded me of why Knocked Up didn't really sit well with me b/c somehow the women can't ever "win;" sure they have a right to be mad at their significant others for being irresponsible, but don't the guys just seem funnier and don't they seem to have more fun? It reminds me of how with TAs, for example, if you're a male TA and you're not a very strict grader, then you're considered "laid back" and that is totally cool, whereas if you're a female TA, it's hard to be anything but nit picky or a pushover (when you're less strict.) And I seriously am not much of a feminist by any means.

The Kids Are All Right didn't quite go as far as that but it made me really uneasy when Jules, thankful for just being around someone who really appreciates her, starts an affair with Paul. Later scenes in the movie made me feel for Jules's situation a bit more (For example a scene at the restaurant bar when she asks Nic if she sees her, if she's still attracted to her is heart breaking. And I do understand where Jules is coming from- her spouse, Nic, is a successful doctor, while she's mostly been at home raising the kids or doing odd jobs), but still, it doesn't really make sense to have a LESBIAN character suddenly go straight for a guy. And in that sense, the movie disappoints me b/c I was expecting a movie about lesbian parents to be more progressive. The movie becomes much stronger when it brings the focus back on the family.

Scrooge-like

2010-12-25T00:27:00.000-08:00

When some people get frustrated, they bake/cook. Those people are, consequently, really awesome to have as house-mates or roommates. When I get frustrated, I write and after a while of scribbling or furiously typing, I start feeling better. (even though it is xmas). I don't currently have a terrible amount of backlog since I got back into reading books (sort of) so if anyone has any book recommendations, especially something dark and Gothic, I would really appreciate hearing them. I'll start off with the most recent and work backwards.

Blood Diamond

Danny Archer: T.I.A. This is Africa.

Notables: About blood diamonds and child soldiers in war-torn Sierra Leone. Features Leonardo Di Caprio with a Rhodesian accent (interesting huh?).

Blood Diamond is a solid movie. I like that it was about issues we don't usually see movies about: child soldiers and blood diamonds. I like that it doesn't ever really get too preachy and that Danny Archer, our anti-hero remains an anti-hero, the devious smuggler that he is throughout it. The skinned baboon, just when we thought that Danny was an okay guy who will eventually *do the right thing*, was a chilling reminder of what type of person he really was. The cinematography, the relatively frequent shots of the African backdrop was also stunningly beautiful. Dijmon Hounsou was fantastic as distressed father Solomon Vandy and really, the moral center and heart of the movie. While I generally liked Jennifer Connelly's character journalist Maddy Brown, I'm still not sure if I see the character as anything more than a very cool and very kick ass Robin Scherbatsky had Robin decided to become a journalist, instead of a news anchor. Ultimately, though, I don't think Blood Diamond will come off as being too memorable b/c while it is a good movie, I think it could have really benefited by having a less polished, big-budget- movie feel. It doesn't spare us details in the violence but had it been gritter, in this case, it really could have made the movie more resonant and memorable.

Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously

And then too there was the matter of the blog. Old Sam could write whatever he wanted because no one was ever going to read it. But I had an audience, disembodied and tiny though it might be. I wasn't much afraid of writing something that would make me look pathetic or incompetent, nor of getting myself sued. But I didn't want to look, you know conceited. Because under the sheer terror, I was pretty damned proud of myself. - Julia Powell

Julia Powell's memoir is entertaining and chronicles when Powell pursued the Julie/Julia project: to make all 586 dishes from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol 1 and keep a blog about it. Powell has a really great writing voice that's entertaining, sometimes profane ("Bitch rice" in reference to this very particular way Julia Child makes rice has got to be one of my favorite terms ever), funny, self-deprecating, and very relatable. Even towards the end when she's getting all these interviews about her project and she's finally become satisfied and happy, more or less, with her life, it really comes as a natural progression- she addresses her successes in a very approachable way and you think, that yes, if you were in her situation you'd feel and act similarly. You actually feel happy for her and I think that's a very hard feat to accomplish b/c usually when I read books where the protagonist somehow pulls their lives together over the course of the book, it feels sudden and like "okay, perhaps for this particular protagonist, it works out well that way, but there's no way it'll work like that in real/my life."

My Cousin Rachel

He swing between earth and sky upon his gibbet, or, as my cousin Ambrose told me, betwixt heaven and hell. Heaven, he would never achieve, and the hell that he had known was lost to him. Ambrose prodded at the body with his stick. I can see it now, moving with the wind like a weather-vane on a rusty pivot, a poor scarecrow of what had been a man. - Daphne du Marier

Damn. What a beginning. What a fabulous, moody, dark tone My Cousin Rachel had and maintained for at least the first 10 chapters or so. I ordered this book off amazon.com since it got 4.5 stars and I'd read Daphne du Marier's other novel, Rebecca, a long time ago and remembered really liking it-especially how gorgeous the writing was and also just how tautly constructed the story was. The first 10 chapters of My Cousin Rachel are fantastic. Philip Ashley narrates the past, when he was more innocent and naive, and It's a dark world the characters inhabit. Ambrose Ashley never really comes across as harsh a character as he does in the first chapter and proves himself to be a likable, quirky sort of uncle. The book really is at its best when Ambrose first leaves for his yearly vacation and he, a sworn bachelor, suddenly gets married to his cousin Rachel. There's something that never seems quite right although it's hard to put in words. It's unfortunate that the novel loses its momentum, the eeriness when Rachel arrives and Philip starts getting charmed by her. I spent a good amount of time being utterly frustrated by how idiotic Philip's decisions and reasoning became as time progressed and while the novel does pick up again towards the last few chapters (post birthday), I remain frustrated by all the ambiguity.

Speaking of ambiguity...
Eyes Wide Shut is extremely ambiguous, and I'm still not quite sure what to think of it. It has some incredibly sexy scenes- the opening- wow! (and I'm a straight girl lol) and the infamous orgy scene just drips with sensuality but is disturbing- really worth seeing though. The pacing feels off sometimes, the long conversation near the end really kills the mood of the movie. Eyes Wide Shut is at its very best near the beginning of the middle, when Dr. Bill Harford (Tom Cruise), haunted by his wife Alice Harford (Nicole Kidman)'s declaration that she would have cheated on him, risked and given up their whole marriage and family just to be with this sailor they saw once at a hotel on vacation, starts on his infamous trek across town. On the trek, he encounters various women who all show an interest in him until finally, culminating in a visit to the infamous mansion. Regardless of the ambiguity though, I applaud this movie for having a Xmasy backdrop.

And with that, Merry Christmas to all and to all-

Tangled

2010-11-30T23:18:00.000-08:00

Tangled *Some Spoilers*

Flynn Rider: Alright blondie.

Rapunzel: Rapunzel.

Flynn Rider: Gesundheit

On paper, Tangled sounds ridiculous. It's the retelling of the Rapunzel story except that this time around Rapunzel's hair glows and has magical healing powers. But somehow, despite all the odds, Disney makes it work. Really well. It's a pity that Disney wants to back away from its princess and fantastical image b/c Disney does epic, ideal fairy tales so remarkably well. Tangled is funny, has likable characters, and a smart, complex villain, Mother Gothel. (When Gothel finally says, "Fine, I'll be the villain", I'm almost reluctant to see it end that way.)

I know that a lot of reviews have said that Tangled reminded them of Beauty and the Beast, but Tangled reminded me most of A Hunchback of Notre Dame, a happy fairy tale version of it. One of the most fascinating parts of the movie is Rapunzel's relationship with her mother. Gothel is in many ways like Frollo, except she's seemingly much kinder to Rapunzel, showers her with love and teaches her that the outside world is a wicked place and won't tolerate, in Rapunzel's case, how special she is. Rapunzel's relationship with Gothel almost up to the end, is complicated and I'm glad that they depicted it as such. Rapunzel herself is beautiful, naive, and at her very core, a dreamer as all Disney princesses should be. I do really appreciate the fact that they played up her naiveness since she really hasn't seen the world at all. Mandy Moore and Zachery Levi both do a fabulous job voicing Rapunzel and Flynn. My main qualms with the movie were the music. Moore, while she's a fine singer, somehow lacked that signature Disney singing voice. I may be biased though b/c I've heard quite a lot of her other music (when she was a pop singer). Donna Murphy (Gothel) and Levi both have it though. It's also such a pity they didn't have Levi sing more b/c he's really got a fabulous singing voice. Rapunzel is magical, delightful and goes to show that Disney hasn't lost it at all.

October and November Movies

2010-11-30T18:08:00.000-08:00

Shutter Island *Spoilers*

Shutter island is about US marshal Teddy Daniels who is sent to investigate the disappearance of a patient who's gone missing on Shutter Island, the location of an asylum for the criminally insane but he finds more than he bargained for.

Teddy Daniels: Which would be worse, to live as a monster, or to die as a good man?

The central question at the heart of Shutter Island although it's not quite apparent until the very end is the quote from Teddy Daniels above. It's a very sympathetic look at why people choose to indulge in their delusions and fantasies. It's also certainly a fascinating question, and to an extent, I wish Shutter Island somehow focused on this question, this conflict rather than the mystery of what was going on in the asylum. It's a bit sudden really when everything is revealed- we get hints certainly that something is really off w/ the whole situation but not really enough information so that we could have conceivably realized that Teddy was really just deluding himself about everything. I could see how he could have deluded himself into thinking conjuring up an escaped patient who killed her children (as his wife did in his real life), but it's a stretch to add Andrew (his real self) as the arsonist who killed his wife (when it was his wife who set the apartment on fire). Memento utilized a similar technique but somehow, the pieces fit together better in the end.

Shutter Island is a fine, solid movie, although it doesn't quite have any distinguishing features that make it memorable like other movies in its genre: Memento had its reverse chronological story telling, Inception draws you into a new world and makes its ambiguity work wonders, and Fight Club has that whole other theme of rebellion. Perhaps if Scorsese had employed more of his trademark touch to the film...it would have been more memorable. Shutter Island has some eerie scenes like Daniels's flashbacks to his war days, his nightmares, and his visit to Ward C and some really truly beautiful scenes like his dream of his wife evaporating into ash. I'm not sure what to make of the music. While I loved "On the Nature of Daylight," I disliked the main theme and how it blared through the beginning- the introduction to the island wasn't too creepy and the obviously menacing music didn't really help it.

Where the Wild Things Are

Based on the beloved children's book, Max, an angry, rebellious boy, travels to an island with monsters- the wild things, where he's made their king.

Max: There were some buildings... There were these really tall buildings, and they could walk. Then there were some vampires. And one of the vampires bit the tallest building, and his fangs broke off. Then all his other teeth fell out. Then he started crying. And then, all the other vampires said, "Why are you crying? Weren't those just your baby teeth?" And he said, "No. Those were my grown-up teeth." And the vampires knew he couldn't be a vampire anymore, so they left him. The end.

Where the Wild Things Are has a very unique feel to it. Its trailer really depicts the feel of the movie well-not super plot driven but a series of scenes paired with music; I personally really liked the trailer, one of the best ones I've seen in a while.

As for the movie, I like how from the beginning we see just how *wild* Max truly is. He wears his wolf costume at the beginning and engages in a savage biting fight with his dog. I was really surprised by how emo everyone was in this movie. Each of the Wild Things has a personality and they fall just short of being likable or sympathetic because each of them are just too down on themselves and life; they're like stuffed animals that have been neglected and beaten up too many times. Carol, KW, and Judith, in particular stand out. Carol for his temper and his special friendship with Max, KW for her gentleness, hopelessness, and resignation, and Judith for her direct bitterness. I did like how the wild things on the island talk about issues that people avoid like favoritism. Overall, Where the Wild Things Are is fascinating visually but character-wise and mood-wise feels very constrained because everyone is so damn emo.

Chungking Express

He Zhiwu, Cop 223: We split up on April Fool's Day. So I decided to let the joke run for a month. Every day I buy a can of pineapple with a sell-by date of May 1. May loves pineapple, and May 1 is my birthday. If May hasn't changed her mind by the time I've bought thirty cans, then our love will also expire.

I really liked this movie, especially it's light hearted tone and how in spite of its somewhat dark themes of two policemen getting over breakups and officer two being especially sad about his breakup to the point that he hilariously goes around his apartment comforting his objects, the movie maintains a humorous tone. It's not for everyone, it's a bit on the quirky side, but it has memorable, likable characters, that you end up really caring and rooting for.

Date Night

Phil Foster: He turned the gun sideways! That's a kill shot!

When I was taking a short story writing class in undergrad, I remember my professor told me that the narrator of one of my stories was the most reasonable, level headed character he'd read in a while. I wasn't quite sure what he meant at the time because aren't there a lot of reasonable narrators out there? But after watching Date Night, I think I know what he meant.

On the surface, Date Night isn't really that unique of a movie. A couple, the Fosters (Claire and Phil), masterfully played by Tina Fey and Steve Carell, go out on a date night in the city, take another couple's restaurant reservation when they can't get one, and then are chased by the mafia or some crime organization who think they're the other couple. What makes this movie special are Fey and Carell's performances because they do such a good job of making the Fosters seem really reasonable- the most reasonable, down to earth characters I've seen in a movie in a long while, and it's refreshing. When they're out eating, they make up conversations for other couples and they get star struck like we would if we saw a celebrity dining in the same restaurant. I especially like Fey in the movie. There's one scene when the Fosters are talking in the car and she says what she fantasizes about is sometimes drive somewhere to be alone and quiet and Fey injects a sort of shyness into Claire that makes that believable for her character. Go watch Date Night for the performances- it's funny and down to earth.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I SPOILERS

2010-11-19T03:44:00.000-08:00

**SPOILERS**

   Just came back from the midnight showing of HP7 part 1 and I wanted to jot down some quick thoughts about it. More movie reviews to come shortly since I've watched quite a few movies in the last few weeks but just haven't had time to write up things about it. Overall, HP7 was all right. It was a faithful adaptation of the book-I could find myself retracing the book chapter by chapter, but it didn't blow me away and it didn't add anything new to what was already in the books. HP7 seemed to lack heart, unlike the first part of the book which was actually so full of feeling and emotion that it's a pity the movie didn't take advantage of that. It's not critical to the plot but I just remember how heartbreaking it was to read that letter Lily wrote to Sirius, thanking him for Harry giving him his very first broom and Kreacher's story of how RAB stayed in the cave and commanded Kreacher to go home with the locket. I'd also hoped that they'd given us more glimpses of hope like the people writing notes to Harry along Godric's Hallow and since they had Ron listening to the radio that we'd at least get a few glimpses of the radio broadcast that the Weasley twins made to give hope to the Resistance. I keep thinking back to the 6th movie, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which was such a strong adaptation, where not only did it make the plot more coherent intersplicing Draco's story with Harry's, but it took out weaker parts of the book and made them more stronger somehow. The raising of the wands to clear out the dark mark (such a beautiful scene) instead of an elaborate funeral for Dumbledore and Hermione and Harry talking about what it's like to have the person they love like someone else come to mind.
     I was excited to see that at the beginning they show Hermione casting the oblivation charm on her parents but was mildly disappointed that we didn't get to see Harry's last good bye to the Dursleys, which in the book was flawless. I couldn't imagine really how Rowling could have handled their last good bye b/c although they've never liked each other, they're still family at the end of the day and she captures that sentiment well. The gathering of the 7 potters was funny, one of the few lighter moments in the film and it's interesting which characters are well cast and which characters I pictured vastly differently in my head. Hagrid, McGonagall, Luna, Fred and George, and Snape - I don't really question b/c they fit the roles so well. On the other hand, Mad Eye and Voldemort...they were vastly different in my head but the actors do such a good job of portraying them that I don't question their interpretations of the characters. In particular, I always had a hard time picturing how someone with a soft-spoken, high-pitched voice could be terrifying and Ralph Fiennes does a fantastic job with that role. Weaker characters include Shacklebolt (who I had hoped would be more Mace Windu-like), Lupin, and Tonks.
   Finally, some quick thoughts on the movie:
-The director does such a good job with ghostly images. I liked the ghost of Dumbledore and the dementors but I was disappointed with the Bathilda Bagshot scene- her whole house and how it smelled like death and when she melts into Nagini is one of the creepiest images in the HP series and it wasn't very creepy at all in the movie.
-I still can't decide if I liked how they used animation to do the Tale of the Three Brothers. It's a fine tale and I liked the haunting illustrations but I wonder if it should have been at the beginning of the movie before they cut to Harry to really establish this tone that the end of the series is about death.
-I was not ever a big fan of Harry and Ginny's romance in the books, since Ginny, as a character really wasn't well developed so I enjoyed how brief and to the point their moment was in the movie...but again, I feel like the movie missed it's opportunity to really make the movie more emotional. As much as I wasn't a big fan of Ginny/Harry, I did like how he'd stay up and look at her dot on the Maruder's map.
-The Harry and Hermione dance scene was painfully awkward. And while I appreciated the movie trying to give a lighter edge to some pretty dark moments camping, it didn't really come across that way. But I do appreciate how Daniel Radcliffe does such a good job of portraying Harry's overall awkwardness.

   Overall, I'm looking forward to the last movie and hoping that they make that last battle absolutely epic. I'm hoping that they fill in areas of the book that we didn't get to see like getting more glimpses of what Hogwarts was like during Harry's 7th year.

Never Let Me Go (book) and The Town

2010-10-07T00:56:00.000-07:00

Never Let Me Go (book)

"Once I'm able to have a quieter life, in whichever centre they send me to, I'll have Hailsham with me, safely in my head, and that'll be something no one can take away."

I actually hadn't heard of the book until I saw the movie trailer for "Never Let Me Go" and the premise just looked so fascinating that I decided to pick up the book. I wish that I had tried reading the book without spoilers b/c the first part of the book does such a good job slowly drawing you into their world and the whole mystery surrounding their childhoods at Hailsham, which at first just seems like an isolated boarding school, but the more you learn the less normal it seems with its odd traditions like the Gallery, Sales, and collections. Paraphrasing Kathy, the protagonist, when they finally find out what they're meant to do, they aren't surprised b/c they've been told and haven't been told all their lives.

"Never Let Me Go" is well written and it really captures what it means to grow up, especially that process of learning more things and realization. It makes me think about mortality too and priorities and ethics and the age old question of whether ignorance is bliss or if it's better to know. And it really puts a new spin on memories. Arguably, by the time Kathy is narrating her story, the best years of her life have already happened. It's sad and tragic but at the same time, these memories, these precious memories- no one can take that away ever and that in itself is a very comforting, optimistic thought.

The Town

Doug MacRay: I need your help. I can't tell you what it is, you can never ask me about it later, and we're gonna hurt some people.
James Coughlin: ...Whose car we takin'?

I saw this in theaters and generally liked it. It's a solid movie. You enjoy it while you're watching, cringe at a few of the more manufactured/deus ex machina moments, and then don't think too much of it after you leave.

The Town is about a small group of skilled bank robbers from Charlestown, Boston led by Ben Affleck's character Doug, the architect/master mind of the group. The Town starts off strongly with a well coordinated, intense robbery. You're at the edge of your seat until she reaches water and the main titles appear- it's a fantastic beginning and it's unfortunate that the movie never quite reaches the heights of the beginning sequence sans the other bank robberies which are all very well done. The movie's really at its best (neat, intense, and taut) in the robbery sequences.

June and July

2010-07-11T19:41:00.000-07:00

Notes on a Scandal

Barbara Covett: People like Sheba think they know what it is to be lonely. But of the drip, drip of the long-haul, no-end-in-sight solitude, they know nothing. What it's like to construct an entire weekend around a visit to the launderette. Or to be so chronically untouched that the accidental brush of a bus conductor's hand sends a jolt of longing straight to your groin. Of this, Sheba and her like have no clue.

Notes on a Scandal is about a spinster Barbara, in her early 60s or so, who's a high school teacher. Barbara is very lonely; she doesn't really have any friends and seeks to have a female companion. When Sheba, a new teacher joins her high school staff, Barbara singles out Sheba to be her companion and finds a way to worm into Sheba's life when she finds out Sheba has been having an affair with one of her students.

The acting in the movie is fantastic. The characters all feel very real and are portrayed believably. I think Judi Dench's performance as Barbara is the one I really related to the most b/c I think everyone's felt that lonely before (to a less degree of intensity, certainly) and everyone is afraid that they'll be that lonely someday. And although I really do feel for Barbara's loneliness and her inability to connect with others (it just ends up being a vicious cycle of her being aloof and unkind), I only end up pitying her in an intellectual sense and not really an emotional sense b/c Barbara is just so disgusting as a human being. She is manipulative, domineering, and intensely needy and she's so emotionally stunted that even though she does some terribly manipulative things to Sheba in the movie, she just doesn't understand that she's done anything wrong, which is both sad and scary. Cate Blanchett is also great in this movie, although it certainly is different seeing her playing someone who's less outspoken, weaker even, than many of the strong, independent characters. Loved the scene at the end when Sheba finds the diary and when Barbara realizes that her perception of herself is grossly different from how everyone else sees her.

The Last Kind of Scotland

Idi Amin: Look at you. Is there one thing you have done that is good? Did you think this was all a game? 'I will go to Africa and I will play the white man with the natives.' Is that what you thought? We are not a game, Nicholas. We are real. This room here, it is real.

There are few movies that disturb me, and The Last King of Scotland does, especially towards the end when we learn what happens to Kay and what subsequently happens to Nicholas. The images sit around in my head, and it's immensely disturbing. The Last King of Scotland follows Nicholas, a young doctor working in Uganda, who becomes personal physician to the president of Uganda, Idi Amin. Though Nicholas knows that all isn't well with the country, he takes Amin's explanations as to what's happened as the truth, and is a passive observer to many terrible atrocities. He's not a good or moral man by any means (in his personal life as well, he has no problem with getting into affairs with married women), but when you see Amin's punishment for him...it's-he- no one deserves that kind of punishment... Forrest Whitaker as Amin is amazing. Amin is so charismatic, so charming that it's easy to see how Nicholas and all his other associates get drawn in b/c we, as the audience, are so drawn in as well.

Lust, Caution

Lust, Caution takes place when the Japanese have essentially taken over the Chinese government. A group of students try to assassinate Mr. Yee, a Chinese traitor (in their eyes) who's a high ranking official helping the Japanese. Lust, Caution was, back when it was first released, first famous for it's NC-17 rating and explicit sex scenes. I'm a bit late in watching this but I liked it as a whole- liked how understated it is. It's been a while since I've watched a movie that's made me sit down and think about it for a while- not b/c I'm confused about plot points or what's going on but b/c it raises questions about the characters. For example, why does she do it and why doesn't she just walk away when she could have- gone to England where her father was.
I loved the mood of this movie and how it maintains this very subtle, melancholy tone throughout it b/c there is very little hope for any of the characters- it's all a very dire time. It's also surprisingly hard to watch the movie at times- the characters are brutal to each other, as is the stabbing scene (which I'm surprised so few people have commented on).

I like Ang Lee's pieces as a director, though maybe his earlier stuff more so than his more recent stuff, and I do greatly admire how truly diverse a lot of his films have been (from a martial arts movie to period dramas). My personal favorite is still (but I consider that in a category of its own b/c it seemed to lack certain bits of Ang Lee-ishness to it) Sense and Sensibility- it's hilarious and moving, and has fantastic performances, but I've also always really enjoyed "The Wedding Banquet." I don't think Lust, Caution will be in my top list of Ang Lee movies but it's still a fine movie, worth watching.

Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me

Despicable Me
(possibly my favorite moment from the film)
Dr. Nefario: Here's the new weapon you ordered.
[Shoots minion with the fart gun]
Gru: No, no, no. I said DART gun.
Dr. Nefario: Oh yes. Cause I was wondering... under what circumstances would we use this?

I have to say that in terms of recent movies in theaters, (granted I haven't gone to too many movies this year in theaters yet, maybe 4 or 5), but I have been really impressed with animated films. (As for non-animated films, there haven't been too many movies that have felt original and unique.) I saw How to Train Your Dragon and liked it a lot. And recently, I watched Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me. Despicable Me is a great summer movie. It's entertaining and funny and loaded with plenty of more grown up jokes so that it isn't just for kids. My favorite one of these is probably the movie's jab at the Lehman Brothers. While Toy Story 3, on the other hand, goes beyond that. I love how they delved into really dark territory- the day care center and how it's essentially under military rule. And at the end of the day, I really like how animated films can still be considered serious, good films despite being humorous.

Another Set of Good Ones

2010-06-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

Man I've not updated for a while again.

How to Train Your Dragon

Hiccup:[voice-over] This is Berk. It's twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery. My village. In a word? Sturdy, and it's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunset. The only problems are the pests. You see, most places have mice or mosquitoes. We have...Dragons!

How to Train Your Dragon is delightful. It has well developed, unique characters and really does a good job of being understated with its themes and doesn't try to shove them in your face. I also really liked all the different kinds of dragons; I can imagine it was a very fun movie to animate. A well deserved 98% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Hiccup: Astrid, if something goes wrong, just make sure they don't find Toothless.
Astrid: I will. Just, promise me it won't go wrong!

Frost/Nixon

David Frost: Are you really saying the President can do something illegal?
Richard Nixon: I'm saying that when the President does it, it's *not* illegal!

While I do have my doubts about Ron Howard sometimes (eg. "A Beautiful Mind" was a fine movie. I enjoyed watching it but at times, that movie really felt like it was pushing the whole "triumph of love and the human spirit" angle too excessively), I like that Frost/Nixon was more understated. An inebriated Nixon calling Frost was a bit over the top, but otherwise, it's a generally solid political movie. It's not as memorable or brilliant as "All the President's Men," but it's smart and terse.

On an unrelated note, perhaps an actor's acting abilities should be judged by the range that they have. I find it amazing that Michael Sheen can go from David Frost to Wesley Snipes of 30 Rock.

In the Mood for Love

Chow Mo-wan: In the old days, if someone had a secret they didn't want to share... you know what they did?
Ah Ping: Have no idea.
Chow Mo-wan: They went up a mountain, found a tree, carved a hole in it, and whispered the secret into the hole. Then they covered it with mud. And leave the secret there forever.

I watched this movie (once and then again) twice a while ago and wish I'd written a review of it sooner. "In the Mood for Love" is a great movie. It's artistic, beautifully filmed, and deeply romantic-Maggie Cheung looks gorgeous throughout the movie in her many qi paos.

The Hurt Locker

Sergeant JT Sanborn: I'm ready to die, James.
Staff Sergeant William James: Well, you're not gonna die out here, bro.
Sergeant JT Sanborn: Another two inches, shrapnel zings by; slices my throat- I bleed out like a pig in the sand. Nobody'll give a shit. I mean my parents- they care- but they don't count, man. Who else? I don't even have a son.
Staff Sergeant William James: Well, you're gonna have plenty of time for that, amigo.
Sergeant JT Sanborn: Naw, man. I'm done. I want a son. I want a little boy, Will. I mean, how do you do it, you know? Take the risk?
Staff Sergeant William James: I don't know. I guess I don't think about it.
Sergeant JT Sanborn: But you realize every time you suit up, every time we go out, it's life or death. You roll the dice, and you deal with it. You recognize that don't you?
Staff Sergeant William James: Yea... Yea, I do. But I don't know why.
[sighs]
Staff Sergeant William James: I don't know, JT. You know why I'm that way?
Sergeant JT Sanborn: No, I don't.

I can't say if it really did deserve an Oscar for best picture, but I think it's a well-made film (although some people would say it's cliched and like a lot of other war films out there).

Michael Clayton

clip

I have to guiltily admit that it actually took a few tries to get all the way through Michael Clayton, which isn't really commentary on the quality movie but more commentary on our attention spans and on how busy and how overworked us grad students are. The problem was that it takes a bit of time to get into the movie and it doesn't start to become compelling until ~30 minutes in. While there are some elements of Michael Clayton that seem contrived, George Clooney as a jaded company man who has family issues (he's distant from his family and he's also short on money b/c of a failed business venture) and previous gambling problems, the movie, on a whole works very well as a taut, neatly plotted and well acted thriller. And while most thrillers are loud and action packed, this one distinguishes itself by being generally quiet. (*mild spoiler* even early on, when Michael Clayton's car explodes, there's an explosion and just that- Clayton doesn't escape his car at the very last minute; he's already out of his car, looking at these horses on the side of the road.) There are few over the top dramatic outbursts (granted Arthur Edens has a few outbursts but he is mentally unstable) but even the fantastic concluding scene, is quiet and restrained. With solid performances from George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, it's a very good, solid movie- an intellectual thriller so to speak.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Clip

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs isn't really on the same level as a lot of the really great animated films like the Pixar movies, but it doesn't try to be. It's funny and borderline ridiculous at times, but overall, it's generally a fun movie to watch.

Children and scaredy cats be warned: contains ratbirds! (possibly one of the worst hybrid animal combinations ever right behind mouse-a-roaches) and scary implications regarding the American diet

There Will be Blood

Clip

The infamous milkshake scene lives up to its hype; it's ferocious and everything you expect it to be, but given the sparseness of the film...I think given the back of the DVD summaries, I was expecting more plot? More events? DVD summaries seem to place a huge emphasis on the rivalry between Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis) and Eli Sunday (Paul Dano). And while that was indeed a critical piece of the movie, it certainly wasn't the main thread of it...it was more of Daniel Plainview's degeneration as a human being as he became more and more successful. The movie's oftentimes too quiet, too empty when it's just Daniel Plainview. I found Paul Dano's performance as Eli Sunday particularly affecting...you don't like the priest very much at all and there's something slithery, something that disturbs you, makes you uneasy about him that you just can't quite describe. While the milkshake scene is one of the crowning points of the film, I really liked the baptism scene more (second part of the clip) which really tilt the Plainview-Sunday rivalry (b/c you know that Sunday, honestly, doesn't really have much of a chance in the end).

I recall listening to a podcast or something where the three main Washington Post movie critics were saying that the movies (the year that There Will be Blood was contending for Best Picture at the Oscars) nominated were all really strong and having finally seen them all I'd have to agree (maybe not Juno though...personally just wasn't a big fan of that). The movies for 2008 (fyi) were: No Country for Old Men, Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, and There Will be Blood.

Fargo

Norm Gunderson: They announced it.
Marge Gunderson: They announced it?
Norm Gunderson: Yeah.
Marge Gunderson: So?
Norm Gunderson: Three-cent stamp.
Marge Gunderson: Your mallard?
Norm Gunderson: Yeah.
Marge Gunderson: Oh, that's terrific.
Norm Gunderson: It's just a three-cent stamp.
Marge Gunderson: It's terrific.
Norm Gunderson: Hautman's blue-winged teal got the 29-cent. People don't much use the three-cent.
Marge Gunderson: Oh, for Pete's sake. Of course they do. Whenever they raise the postage, people need the little stamps.

While a lot of people talk about how much they like the dark humor mixed with really gruesome, horrific images and of course, the "Minnesotian" accents, I'm surprised by how little people talk about the soundtrack b/c it's a really great soundtrack. Generally, I liked the movie, especially how cold and remote the scenery is.

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes: You've never complained about my methods before.
Dr. John Watson: I'm not complaining. How am I complaining? When have do I ever complain about you practicing the violin at three in the morning, or your mess, your general lack of hygiene, or the fact that you steal my clothes?
Sherlock Holmes: We have a barter system.

Sherlock Holmes is a less actiony movie than I expected. Well it is as actiony as it probably gets for Sherlock Holmes and perhaps too actiony if we're considering Sherlock Holmes from the books, but it's a fun movie. I'm a big fan of character-driven action movies as opposed to the usual non-character driven action movies and I was expecting it to be more of the later. I think my favorite part of the movie has to be the Holmes/Watson relationship and even though I do like Robert Downey Jr.'s Holmes a lot (he's insanely brilliant but flawed and needy), I liked Jude Law's Watson a lot more b/c he's the stable, sane tolerant one in the relationship and I wish that they'd focused more on the Holmes/Watson relationship rather than other ones. I was pleasantly surprised by how they handled Watson's engagement with Mary and how they resolved how she fits in with the duo. I also really liked the soundtrack and thought it went well with the movie. (although initially listening to the soundtrack, having not heard it while watching the movie, I found it quite odd.)

Holmes isn't a very good movie for you to watch, though, if you are looking for a good mystery that you can solve alongside- I think the movie did a fine job of establishing a mystery and I'm so glad there wasn't anything supernatural involved, but the general clues are probably just shown briefly in a few scenes, mainly the laboratory scenes and all very chemistry based- that it would probably be quite difficult to try to solve the case alongside Holmes. And I wasn't a big fan of the Holmes/Alder interactions...while I liked Alder's introduction, her plot line was rather cliched and I would have liked that time to have been dedicated to more entertaining purposes like more Holmes and Watson moments.

Catch Up Post

2010-03-20T00:15:00.000-07:00

So I'm a bit behind (3 months or so) on updating this thing...though I doubt many people read this at all. Re-watched a lot of great old movies and saw a few new ones too.

Avatar

"I'm a scientist, remember? I don't believe in the fairytales." - Grace

I think that everyone's pretty much said what's been needed to be said about this movie. Amazing visuals, decent soundtrack, and cliche storyline. It probably didn't deserve all the critical acclaim that it received like its predecessor Titanic (and maybe even less so than Titanic b/c despite all the corniness associated with Titanic, Titanic did have its moments, more so than Avatar), but I do give James Cameron props for his attempt at creating a world (complete with a new world and fascinating animals and I have to add, given my neural inklings, I did think it was very cool how the Navi could telepathically link with their animals) b/c that's never easy to do. It's a certainly decent attempt, and I do always appreciate movies that try creating a new world b/c I don't think enough movies try to do it.

This also makes me think back to Pirates of the Carribbean...although it's certainly not the most innovative movie ever, I do give it mad props for its ability to create a world from essentially scratch. I can't think of any other fandoms (large fandoms with a decent sized following) that's done the same thing off the top of my head that's done the same thing in which the starting source was a movie. (lord of the rings, harry potter, etc etc don't really count b/c they of course, started from the books).

A Christmas Carol

I think that this movie could have been great had it been able to decide whether or not it wanted to be dark and dramatic or comedic. And since it did both, it remains a toss up and not really that memorable save for how generally creepy it was...the two feral children coming out from underneath Present's robes and the ghost of Christmas Present, bones blowing away in the wind.

Casino Royale

Vesper Lynd: Am I going to have a problem with you, Mr. Bond?
James Bond: No, don't worry, you're not my type.
Vesper Lynd: Smart?
James Bond: Single.

I'm not too pleased with how they handled the ending b/c it was just mostly such an unsatisfactory ending nor am I too pleased with where they took Bond in the next movie (I'm glad it didn't go back to typical Bond which I find mostly unwatchable) but generally, I really liked the re-vamp, the story, Bond's wit, the banter, etc. There are actors whom I causally put on my "yes, I'm fans of them now, and even if they're terrible in X movie, I will always still remember how awesome they were in this one particular movie" and b/c of their performances in Casino Royale, Daniel Craig and Eva Greene have spots on this little list of mine.

Titanic

Jack: Listen, Rose. You're gonna get out of here, you're gonna go on and make lots of babies, and you're gonna watch them grow. You're gonna die an old... an old lady warm in her bed, but not here, not this night. Not like this, do you understand me?

Cue Celion Dion's massively overplayed song. Of course Titanic has its corny moments and cliche story and possibly worst subplot ever ("this ship is really really unsinkable"), but the later half of the movie when the ship starts sinking is still a fantastic action sequence (especially Rose struggling to rush through the flooding hallways, ax in hand) and filled with genuinely touching moments (the musicians, the old couple who decide to stay on the ship, the mother putting the kids to bed, etc).
The Rose/Jack storyline, while cliche (class clashes, rebellious, independent thinking rich girl) does have its moments and it's a very touching sentiment that he expresses as he's freezing to death in the ocean. It seems like a wasted avenue that who Rose became wasn't explored further, especially at the end, when you see all those framed pictures at her bedside, they're all pictures of her- where's her family?

The Hangover

Black Doug: I always wondered why they were called roofies, 'cause you're more likely to end up on the floor than the roof. They should call 'em floories.

While it was entertaining and funny in some parts, I didn't find it particularly memorable and I still don't really see what the *big* deal was. Perhaps b/c it was a quintessential guy movie.

Up in the Air

Ryan Bingham: I don't spend a nickel, if I can help it, unless it somehow profits my mileage account.
Natalie Keener: So, what are you saving up for? Hawaii? South of France?
Ryan Bingham: It's not like that. The miles are the goal.
Natalie Keener: That's it? You're saving just to save?
Ryan Bingham: Let's just say that I have a number in mind and I haven't hit it yet.
Natalie Keener: That's a little abstract. What's the target?
Ryan Bingham: I'd rather not...
Natalie Keener: Is it a secret target?
Ryan Bingham: It's ten million miles.
Natalie Keener: Okay. Isn't ten million just a number?
Ryan Bingham: Pi's just a number.
Natalie Keener: Well, we all need a hobby. No, I- I- I don't mean to belittle your collection. I get it. It sounds cool.

What I really appreciate about this movie is that it's not really a preachy, message movie...instead, it's very Indie-esque and feels small and personal. It's a fine movie but I don't think I personally am able to fully appreciate what it depicts yet...the loneliness that you feel as you get older and how painful it is to get laid off.

Coraline

It's still a really good movie/very creepy on a re-watch. There is just something off putting about the whole atmosphere- the neighborhood enshrouded in mist and fog, the quirky neighbors, the other world, the other mother at the end not wanting to be alone, but it's creepy in a good way. Coraline, also, although she's very prickly and hard to like in the beginning, you can't help but to like her by the end b/c she's grown up a bit.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
I think I need to rewatch this movie to fully appreciate it. I've been meaning to see this movie for ages- I've seen numerous pop culture renditions of that scene at the end where the Chief throws the water fountain out the window and escapes and numerous allusions to Nurse Ratched's sinister nature, but I have to say, that as usual, the movie (its tone, what happens) really turns out to be very different from what I'd imagine it would be like.

There is always something very alluring about placing a story in a closed area (a ward, a stay away camp, a hospital with terminal patients, etc)- something about cutting them off from the rest of the world. Nurse Ratched is not as overtly sinister/evil (if even that) as I would have expected- it's ambiguous as to what her actual intentions are and I do admire how she is able to very understatedly maintain order in the ward w/o ever really shouting just calmly saying the rules that are listed.

I think that my two favorite scenes in the movie have to be the world series scene and the scene where McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) ends up breaking the window at the nurse's station to get cigarettes for his fellow wardmate. It's...there's something very magical about those two scenes. It's mostly in the momentum of the characters. The energy that McMurphy exudes is infectious and inspiring in the World Series scene, and you watch those two scenes and recognize why this movie's become a classic.

Milk
While I'm not a big fan of the documentary style footage/camera work, Milk was a generally good movie with strong performances. I know that this isn't what main point of the story was supposed to be about but I've always wondered what it was that drove Milk and his first partner away from each other. They seemed happy at first about the idea of Milk running for public office but then there's a threat, a dinner scene in which his partner chases everyone out, and then suddenly they're at odds with each other over Milk's political aspirations.

Amadeus

Fabulous movie...there's rivalry, beautiful music, fantastic performances, but at the heart of it all, this great love and appreciation for classical music. Two clips:

1.

2.

The Thirteenth Tale

2009-12-30T23:25:00.000-08:00

People disappear when they die. Their voice, their laughter, the warmth of their breath. Their flesh. Eventually their bones. All living memory of them ceases. This is both dreadful and natural. Yet for some there is an exception to this annihilation. For in the books they write they continue to exist. We can rediscover them. Their humor, their tone of voice, their moods. Through the written word they can anger you or make you happy. They can comfort you. They can perplex you. They can alter you. All this, even though they are dead. Like flies in amber, like corpses frozen in ice, that which according to the laws of nature should pass away is, by the miracle of ink on paper, preserved. It is a kind of magic.

First and foremost, one thing that Diane Setterfield, the author, does very well is to make The Thirteenth Tale essentially a tribute to writing, to reading, to book lovers, and to the famous romantic Gothic novels a la the Brontes. The protagonist is an avid bibliophile and that mood, that feeling, and what it means to write and why reading can be oh so very special is all handled very well. (Personally, that's what I liked the most about this book.)

And then w/o considering the books Setterfield is trying to pay tribute to through emulation- the novel stands on its own, strongly. The story, the mystery is well crafted, and I didn't give Setterfield as much credit as I should have while I was reading (b/c for a lot of modern books that have been on the best seller lists, imho- they're decent, solid writing sometimes, but oftentimes they take the easy way out). Setterfield has certainly done her share of the work thinking and mapping out the story and I do admire her for that. Sure there are characters and plot points (eg. the protagonist's own family history and the whole Aurelius storyline) that really seemed more like plot devices than genuine character development but ultimately, it works and many of the characters do feel well-fleshed out. And you end up caring about some of them despite their faults that it is very sad when you reach the fire and understand why Miss Vida Winter's story had ended there.

The Mostly Miyazaki Kick

2009-12-24T15:26:00.000-08:00

Tonari no Totoro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roiTC-LATgM

Probably my very favorite of Miyazki movies b/c I loved it as a kid and also b/c it's just a really great movie. It's magical (but more in a Shintu spirit/more spiritualistic form) and whimsical and ultimately quite melancholy. Rewatching it this time, I felt particularly affected- quite saddened in general about these two girls growing up w/o their mom and especially at Satsuki (SPOILER) breaking down completely to the grandmotherly neighbor after the telegram b/c she's just been so strong and so put together. And despite how ultimately short Totoro's appearances are in the film, he makes such a lasting, lasting impact.

Hot Fuzz

[Doris knocks down a female shop assistant with a yellow "Slippery floor" sign]
DS Andy Wainwright: Nice one, Doris.
PC Doris Thatcher: Nothing like a bit of girl on girl!

Through a good deal of the movie, I thought that the who-did-it question was so very obvious, as expected, b/c this is a parody movie and parody movies don't generally need a very good, logically thought out plot with non-obvious answers.

MILD SPOILER

Oh how very wrong I was. The majority of the movie is pretty funny, full of ironic British wit and general slapstick. Eg. b/c I can't have a post about Hot Fuzz w/o quoting the protagonist, Nicholas Angel- it just seems wrong.

[Nicholas Angel is having a crackdown on underage drinkers in the pub]
Nicholas Angel: Oy! When's your birthday?
Underage Drinker #1: 22nd of February.
Nicholas Angel: What year?
Underage Drinker #1: Every year!

But wow, the last 30 minutes or so of the movie, after Nicholas walks in on the townspeople were epic. Purely epic and from then on I understood why this movie got the amount of good buzz that it did. So yes, I highly recommend the last 30 minutes of the movie, especially if you're someone who likes movies that mislead you. Often.

Kiki's Delivery Service It's always tricky watching a dubbed version of a movie. I wish I'd been able to watch the subbed version b/c I can imagine that in a lot of ways, it'd be more subtle and less direct than the dub. The English dub of Kiki's isn't bad per say, but there were definitely moments when I'm sure that in the original, everything wasn't quite as spelled out. Eg. Kiki voicing at one point that she really felt like an outsider.

This wasn't ever really one of my favorite Miyazaki movies growing up (probably due to the fact that I had a subbed version in Mandarin and I can't/couldn't read it very well) but I do like it a lot. The scenery is beautiful- a quaint European city by the ocean. Kiki works in a bakery with lots of tasty looking bread...there are no monsters or demons, just a little witch delivering various items. One thing I love about Kiki's world is how nonchalant everyone is about magic and while it wasn't in the scope of the movie, I'd be curious to learn about the backstory of witches and their training- if they left the towns after their one year of training when they were 13, if they stayed, if they had more training away from home, etc.

It goes to show how great a director Miyazaki is when the movie effortlessly shifts tones. It's generally a very episodic, leisurely paced movie, but in the final sequence with the dirigible- there's such great tension. And then of course there's the ending...which is just very beautiful and gives the story such a great sense of completion and finality.

Massive Catch Up Post

2009-12-20T23:20:00.000-08:00

500 Days of Summer

Paul: Robin is better than the girl of my dreams. She's real.

In a lot of ways, I wanted to like this movie, but couldn't quite bring myself to. It was really hard for me to connect with the characters b/c while they weren't your atypical indie romantic comedy leads, they just...something just seemed like it was missing. Essentially "500 Days of Summer" just focuses on the two main characters Tom and Summer and while Tom's friends and sister made appearances, they really weren't there long enough for me to see who they really were like as characters- as characters with more to do than just being involved in Tom's life. And it's so hard to have a movie with just two main characters- it really gets myopic at times. While I don't mind a fragmented narration (actually I love it when movies/shows mess with time) nor an omniscient narrator in a movie when it's done well, these two elements don't work quite so well with the movie either.

What I did like about the movie that I wish they'd hit on harder is the idea of whether or not love was a result of fate or a result of random chance/coincidences- kind of reminded me of one of the main themes of Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Other great moments in the movie: there is this great, profound sense of sadness seeing side by side, Tom's wishes of what would happen at Summer's party versus what actually happened- and then as he walks away and the background melts into animation- quite a beautiful moment. The other one, is when Paul, his friend who's had a girlfriend forever, talks about how he feels about his gf. I couldn't find the whole quote but essentially he talks about how his dream girl would have had larger breasts and liked sports more, but that "Robin is better than the girl of my dreams. She's real." That is...I think, is a very romantic, a very mature take on love that's very rarely seen in movies, and now I wish that the movie had perhaps, gone into that idea a bit more- perhaps let us see what Paul's relationship was like with Robin.

Ponyo on the Cliff

Lisa: So, what's your Mother like, then?
Ponyo: She's big, and beautiful! But, she can be very scary.
Sosuke: Just like my Mom.

Perhaps I'll come off sounding Scrooge-like by saying this but I felt a bit too old for this movie. It's not that I don't like movies about kids- I love love love Totoro for example b/c it's so magical and so precious and makes you feel nostalgic about the days when you could really let your imagination run wild but Ponyo was a bit more on the fantastical juvenile side and just sort of felt like a bit of a mashup of elements of his earlier films. Eg. the water reminded me of a less horrific version of the demon worms, the final task reminded me of the final task in Spirited Away, etc. A stand out moment in the film was perhaps when Sosuke and his mom were signaling to his dad away at sea. So essentially, while the movie made me crave ham+ramen, it doesn't really make me want to go back and re-watch it again.

I Love You, Man

Peter Klaven: I will see you there, or I will see you on another time!

Another entry into the genre of guy-oriented romantic comedies, which I prefer over female-oriented rom coms (naturally). I haven't watched too too many of these but I still think that the very first of these was the best: The 40-Year Old Virgin, which somehow despite all its crudeness still managed to be very cute and endearing. I Love You, Man is another solid entry into this category and I liked it more than I thought I would (gauging from expectations after watching the trailer). Essentially Peter has trouble making friends with other guys and sets out to find a best man for his upcoming wedding. Also has Adam Sandberg playing an amusingly flamboyantly straight gay guy.

Vicky Christina Barcelona

Juan Antonio: Maria Elena used to say that only unfulfilled love can be romantic.

Second time watching this movie- it's still a great movie. Barcelona is beautiful. Penelope Cruz is absolutely fantastic in this- as Maria Elena, she's crazy, funny, and ultimately full of this despair/sadness. What I love the most about this movie though, is how it really infuses this sense of summer within it.

Julie & Julia

The main reason to watch Julie & Julia is for Meryl Strep's performance as Julia Child. Even with an accent that will tend to come off as obnoxious, Strep's Julia Child is still lovable, adorable, and fearless. In general, Julia Child's storyline always tended to be the more interesting one, doing a good job in the background of showing the partnership that the Childs had, supporting each other as they had ups and downs in their careers/endeavors. In particular, I loved this one scene where at a Valentine's dinner, Paul Child tells everyone how much Julia means to him and she looks at him, thumping the paper heart attached to her blouse.

2009-08-23T22:06:00.001-07:00

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Ron Weasley: [about Ginny and Dean] What do you think he sees in her?
Harry Potter: She's smart... funny... attractive...
Ron Weasley: Attractive?
Harry Potter: Well you know... she has nice... skin.
Ron Weasley: So you think he is going out with her because she has nice skin?
Harry Potter: Well, I dunno, I'm just saying it could be a contributing factor.
Ron Weasley: Hermione's got nice skin. You know, as far as skin goes.
Harry Potter: I-I've never thought about it before. But now that you mention it, yeah. Very nice.
Ron Weasley: [long pause] ... I think I'll be going to bed now.

I have to say that I am a bit miffed b/c I wrote a long and detailed review about what I thought of the latest HP and thought I'd posted it but hadn't yet, so long story short it's all gone. Grr...Oh well.

In short, I liked HP6 a lot. It might just be my favorite Harry Potter movie to date (although it's a bit of a tie between Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.) Azkaban was, in a lot of way, more subtle and I loved Alfonso Cuaron's take on Hogwarts, b/c his Hogwarts is not only beautiful but you get the sense that it's very magically alive with all the moving staircases and magical portraits.

What Half Blood Prince excels at is characterization and the portrayal of relationships between the characters. In a lot of ways, I think I actually like the movie versions of the characters over the ones in the books b/c they feel more real, more human. In particular, Hermione's a lot less prissy and up tight and Harry is much more focused. And while I'm not much of a fan of the Ginny/Harry romance in the books, I root for them in the movie and their kiss scene is actually a very tender, intimate moment whereas in the books, it's just sort of over the top. Also, while in the books, when Hermione sends the charmed birds on Ron, it's a very mediocore moment, not very memorable save for the fact that it's probably the angriest we've ever seen Hermione- In the movie, though, it's a really moving moment, and I absolutely love how through that you get to explore the Hermione, Harry friendship.

Other things I liked about the movie:
-It's ultimately a very good adaptation. The movie stands on its own feet, and while there were things I wish it included (which I will get into later), for the most part, I don't feel as if I'm at too much of a loss for not having certain things included.
-They included Luna! Luna was probably the best part of movie 5; I remember really liking the weird chemistry she had with Harry. While there's none of that chemistry in this movie, I'm really glad (and pleasantly surprised) that they give her a minor role in this one.
-The raising of the wands in remembrance of Dumbledore is very well done and a good adaptation of the funeral scene, which may have seemed a bit cheesy and too much in movie form (although it's certainly not in the book)
-They fit in Draco's story very well, instead of very abruptly as it is in the books (which is, I think, is a problem in the books mainly b/c they're all from Harry's perspective and towards the end of the series when things got darker, it would have been more effective had we been able to see others' perspectives as well.) And Tom Felton does a great job with Draco; I actually felt sympathetic towards him whereas in the books, he just comes off as annoying and pitiful. Felton's certainly come a long way from the slightly buck toothed wanna be (adorable) stuck up bully in movie 1.
-The locket retrieval scene is pretty flawless. The cave is very well done, epic looking even at times and reminiscent of LOTR. I imagined the Inferi to be different (more chilling) and Dumbledore to have suffered more, but all in all, fantastic stuff
-As is Harry on Felix Felicitus

Things I wish they'd included/things that could have been better
-One of my favorite parts of book 6 is at the beginning where Fudge and Scrimgeour are talking to the Muggle Prime Minister and telling him about all the damage that Lord Voldemort has been causing. At one point, the prime minister interjects with something along the lines of, "but you guys have magic- I can't understand why you're having all these problems." To which Scrimgeour replies with "well, so do they" which gah just raises the stakes a lot.
-No Merope/the Gaunts, some of the creepiest parts of book 6
-No Scrimgeour. Not that I particularly like him but I would have liked to see Harry been called Dumbledore's man through and through
-Why isn't Ron there in the last scene?? It should end with the trio, not with just Hermione and Harry.
-While there are some lovely parts to the score in this movie, I do miss the days when John Williams was scoring the HP movies.

Post Grad

I hope this doesn't ruin my credibility as a wanna be movie connoisseur but despite its abysmal 8% (or something like that) rating on rottentomatoes.com, I didn't think it was such a terrible movie. Perhaps b/c I am a post grad myself and to some extent we can all relate to the situation that the main character, Ryden, felt when she's at a party and all her friends have things lined up after graduation except her. It sucks to feel like you're being left behind. It was rather enjoyable to watch as chick flicks go, not too many cringe worthy moments although plenty of awkward ones.

2009-08-20T18:53:00.000-07:00

Knocked Up

Pete: I wish I liked anything as much as my kids like bubbles.
Ben Stone: That's sad.
Pete: Totally sad. Their smiling faces just point out your inability to enjoy anything.

Ok, so I could have picked a funnier quote but I like emo moments and I liked this moment a lot...
Generally, I liked it. Thought it was funny and found its depictions of relationships interesting, if not realistic. I don't know if I ever bought that Ben and Alison would actually work although it's far more realistic that it might after Ben grows up a little. It was interesting to an extent seeing how women and men viewed the same situation so differently but, ultimately, that's what I had trouble with in this movie. It seems that consistently, the guys get the better, funnier lines/situations and while I do agree that girls do take things more seriously than necessary, it doesn't mean that girls don't have as much fun/that all girls take everything more seriously than necessary.

Some Like it Hot

Osgood: I called Mama. She was so happy she cried! She wants you to have her wedding gown. It's white lace.

Daphne: Yeah, Osgood. I can't get married in your mother's dress. Ha ha. That-she and I, we are not built the same way.

Osgood: We can have it altered.

Daphne: Oh no you don't! Osgood, I'm gonna level with you. We can't get married at all.

Osgood: Why not?

Daphne: Well, in the first place, I'm not a natural blonde.

Osgood: Doesn't matter.

Daphne: I smoke! I smoke all the time!

Osgood: I don't care.

Daphne: Well, I have a terrible past. For three years now, I've been living with a saxophone player.

Osgood: I forgive you.

Daphne: [Tragically] I can never have children!

Osgood: We can adopt some.

Daphne/Jerry: But you don't understand, Osgood! [Whips off his wig, exasperated, and changes to a manly voice.] Uhhh, I'm a man!

Osgood: [Looks at him then turns back, unperturbed]: Well, nobody's perfect!

I know it's a very famous quote, but it's such a great exchange that I can't help but to quote it. Some Like It Hot is a classic and rightly so. It's very funny without being lewd (it's sort of sad that it's hard for comedies today to be funny w/o the innuendo, not that I'm opposed to it, but I mean, this goes to show that comedies can work w/o the dirty jokes too.) Tremendous fun and very enjoyable. Really good banter.

Porco Rosso

A clip from the movie that's just too beautiful not to share. One of my creative writing teachers once told us that in a story, it's important to make the audience feel as if their characters have been existing, living lives beyond what's contained in the story- kind of like a refrigerator light. It's on (during the story) but you want the audience to feel like it's on all the time, even when the door's closed. I think Porco Rosso is a very good example of this. The characters have been around for so long, there're so many stories, but we only get a quick glimpse.

District 9

First new movie I've seen in theaters for a while. It's a good movie, a fine movie, though I don't think it deserves to be at #29 on the imdb top 250 movies list.

x-post from my lj

Today, I got to see District 9, which I recommend. It's got a pretty memorable trailer. Loved the documentary-esque approach they took to make the movie. The main character's named Wikus (what an awesome name!) and played very well by an actor who later from imdb, I found out he's never been in any other movies (which makes it all the more awesome). It's low budget (but still very well done) and as a bio dork, I very much liked the fact that (mild spoiler- only the aliens could use their own weapons since their weapons recognize their DNA- go aliens! Very smart aliens!). Of course, if there are aliens out there (and I think there should be b/c the universe is just too huge and vast of a place for life not to exist anywhere but here), I doubt their genetic make up would be DNA based or if it is, perhaps some different nucleotides. At least. Okay, but major tangent aside, found the beginning bit where they loop all the interviews on the aliens in documentary style and where Wikus goes around trying to evict the aliens particularly intriguing- especially from a sociological POV. But I suppose it's always easier dealing with issues as complicated as xenophobia and racism and apartheid when it's much further removed from reality. (Aliens in this case. House elves, werewolves, giants, and practically anything else that's a non-wizard/witch in Harry Potter.)

Aladdin

Merchant: Ooh, look at this. I have never seen one of these intact before. This is the famous Dead Sea Tupperware. Listen. Pbbtt! Ah, still fresh.

Aladdin is still a very fun, very enjoyable movie even after all these years. What I like the most about it is that so many of the characters are so darn likable: Aladdin, Genie, Jasmine (and a nod at feminism b/c she's smart, strong, and knows use her femininity to her advantage, Sultan (and his random toys), Raja, carpet, etc. (can't say I'm much of a fan of Iago or Abu though...they tended to get annoying.)

The Disney Kick

2009-08-15T19:21:00.000-07:00

Enchanted

Prince Edward: [threatening Robert with his sword] Have you any last words before I dispatch you?
Robert: You have got to be kidding me!
Prince Edward: Strange words!

I absolutely adore this movie and think it's one of those things that can always cheer me up when I'm feeling down. It's saccharine and a lot more chick flicky than movies that I typically like, but somehow (probably the Disney magic) it works. Perhaps what makes it so entertaining to watch is seeing the worlds of the Disney characters clash with those in our world- cynicism and all the rest with hopelessly optimistic idealism. Love all the random Disney references- the fairy tale book in the beginning, "Part of your world" playing briefly by a fish tank, etc. Amy Addams is absolutely fantastic in this, and I think that's a huge part of why this movie works as well as it does and makes it mean a bit more than just a typical chick flick. It does make me a bit sad that Giselle doesn't really sing anymore at the end, but I have to say- absolutely loved what happens to Nathaniel. And the slow dancing scene- always swoon worthy especially when Patrick Dempsey sings for a tiny bit.

Pocahontas

John Smith: Look, don't do this. Savage is just a word, uh, you know. A term for people who are uncivilized.
Pocahontas: Like me.
John Smith: Well, when I say uncivilized, what I mean is, is...
Pocahontas: What you mean is, "not like you."

I think that the movie could have worked a bit better had it been a bit less serious b/c Disney humor is quite good. A bit slow at times but the savages scene and finale are still pretty fantastic to rewatch. I do appreciate the fact that Pocahontas and the other characters in this movie are a lot more mature than other Disney characters. And maybe it's b/c they don't get their happily ever after, but I think that John Smith and Pocahontas might be one of my favorite Disney couples.

The Little Mermaid

What do they got? A lot of sand
We got a hot crustacean band
-Sebastian, Under the Sea

Little Mermaid has some a few fantastic moments- eg. when you see the underwater kingdom for the first time, Ariel on the rock with the waves crashing behind her, "Part of Your World"... And on that subject "Part of Your World" is perhaps one of my favorite Disney song ever- it's so lovely, so fun of longing. I almost wish the second half of the movie, when Ariel's on land, is a bit slower in the pacing b/c somehow the first part of the movie feels more a bit more memorable. Irregardless of that though, it's still a classic and Sebastian is endlessly entertaining- one of my favorite sidekicks.

2009-08-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

Raiders of the Last Ark

Indiana: It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage.

As someone born near 1990, I don't think I can fully appreciate how great this movie is and what a big cultural phenomenon it was at the time. I suppose our best equivalent are the Pirates of the Carribbean movies- also highly entertaining as well. (or maybe not?) A few scenes in Raiders were actually quite reminiscent of a few scenes from the first Pirates. Eg. Marion in the tombs w/ the skeletons scene and vaguely, the scene in which Belloq asks her to put on the dress and she steals a knife).

It's very entertaining and very fun- an ideal summer blockbluster/popcorn flick. I like the low-techness of the action scenes. Although it took a bit of getting used to (the giant boulder is just not as big as I imagined it would be), the lack of CG, especially bad fake looking CG from the past, is a lot of fun and perhaps a reason why the Indiana Jones Stunt Show at MGM is still such a great show.

And on route to hopefully becoming a scientist one day, I wish that there was some form of entertainment whether it be a TV show or a movie that really glorifies and makes doing research endlessly exciting and sexy- like Indiana Jones did for archaelogy (never mind the inaccuracies of the depiction).

The Untouchables

Capone: Baseball! A man stands alone at the plate. This is the time for what? For individual achievement. There he stands alone. But in the field, what? Part of a team. Teamwork... Looks, throws, catches, hustles. Part of one big team. Bats himself the live-long day, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and so on. If his team don't field... what is he? You follow me? No one. Sunny day, the stands are full of fans. What does he have to say? I'm goin' out there for myself. But... I get nowhere unless the team wins.

I have to admit that I was actually kind of disappointed with The Untouchable b/c while it's all right, has some good moments, it could have really been great w/ its story content had the tone of the film been more set and more focused. Had it gone the serious route, it would have been fantastic b/c there were a few scenes that were genuinely quite shocking- to the level of the Joker does a magic trick in The Dark Knight. Eg. the beginning where the little girl notices that one of the men whose left has left behind a suitcase, Capone after his baseball monologue, the end of the train station confrontation, interrogating the first book keeper.

I also had a lot of problems w/ the score of the movie. While Ernnio Morricone has written some very gorgeous scores, I don't think his score fit very well with the movie. It's too epic at times when something more subtle and less romantic was needed. Also Sean Connery's character, Malone- how he's introduced and how he comes to become Ness's right hand man is somewhat too contrived and too convenient. While I know it's necessary to forward the story and perhaps it's what happened in reality, I wish that the movie had maybe approached it in a different manner since we don't know very much about him or his backgrounds or motivations. The Canadian liquor standoff, while entertaining, especially the accountant, it almost turned into a Western and had the movie really found footing w/ a tone (it's too serious to be a mildly comic/fun crime movie and not nearly serious enough for a gritty crime movie), it could have been so much more b/c the Touchable scene really was quite poignant.

The French Connection

I'm okay with movies switching POV for character development, but am not a big fan of movies that use POV switches just for plot forwarding. The French Connection is slightly guilty of that when they protray what's going on w/ the mob and drug sellers, b/c the drug sellers never really become anything more, for the most part, than one dimensional antagonists. The grittiness of the movie, however, really more than makes up for that. It has some really fabulous chase scenes, that are rightly famous, and very well done. I'm not sure that I'm too satisfied with the ending though, but it's a decent movie that's worth watching.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (the book)

An analogy: The Lion King: Disney Movies:: Goblet of Fire: Harry Potter books

The Goblet of Fire- I've gotten how *good* it was. It's got all the elements that make you love Harry Potter: plenty of magic (the dragon!), candy for the fans (the Quidditch cup), humor (Divination homework), adventure, and most of all, friendship. And while it has hints of more terrible things to come, darker things to come- Harry's isolation, people becoming skeptical of him- it's the last "happy" Harry Potter book. The last few chapters, after the Quidditch cup, are some of the most fabulous, the most touching in the whole series. It really got to me this time at the end when Molly hugs Harry and tells him it's not his fault and him giving the twins all the gold.

An Incongrous Mix

2009-08-03T16:08:00.000-07:00

Yin Shi Nan Nu (Eat Man Drink Woman)

Another one of Ang Lee's earlier movies. Although they're a lot of great Chinese quotes from the movie, I don't think I can quote any of them b/c I only have access to the English translations and my Chinese isn't really good enough for me to search for the quotes and be able to read them. While the subtitles for this movie are decent (they get the point across), there's oftentimes something slightly off w/ the original meaning and connotation.

I love the (almost) excessive use of food in this movie. All of it looks very very delectable. The first three minutes of the film are to die for w/ the gorgeous food pron or rather images :). I would say that this is definitely a movie worth watching multiple times. There's almost too much to absorb at once. It's funny what you notice each time and how different your perceptions are.

This time around, I found it a rather sad story and kind of especially poignant for where I am in my life right now (where a lot and seemingly everything around me is changing dramatically). It's a sad story b/c everything's changing and everyone's moving on with their lives without you- even the people you'd thought would have always been there. There are a lot of story lines, a lot of characters, a lot of different personalities, motivations and wants to keep track of and it can be hard the first time around to keep them all straight. Particular moments I really liked: the father and his old friend talking- felt very genuine, the two elder sisters coming to an understanding, the chaotic dinner, and the very last dinner.

A Clockwork Orange

Prison Chaplain: Choice! The boy has not a real choice, has he? Self-interest, the fear of physical pain drove him to that grotesque act of self-abasement. The insincerity was clear to be seen. He ceases to be a wrongdoer. He ceases also to be a creature capable of moral choice.

Minister: Padre, there are subtleties! We are not concerned with motives, with the higher ethics. We are concerned only with cutting down crime and with relieving the ghastly congestion in our prisons. He will be your true Christian, ready to turn the other cheek, ready to be crucified rather than crucify, sick to the heart at the thought of killing a fly. Reclamation! Joy before the angels of God! The point is that it works.

Another fabulous film by Stanley Kubrick. What I love about his films is that despite all of their vastly different topics (so far I've seen 2001, the Shining, Dr. Strangelove, and this), they always stick with you after you've seen them and make you think and question.

The first 40 mintues or so of this movie are perhaps the very definition of subversive. Lots of phalic imagery, "ultraviolence," sex, and incongrous elements placed together. eg. soothing, classical music coupled with fierce fighting, the infamous "Singing in the Rain" scene, and a nearly unbelievable fight scene featuring a giant dildo and Beethoven bust. It's surprising how after Alex "becomes good," despite all the terrible things he does in the beginning, you still feel sympathic towards him when he's released back into society and treated terribly.

Midnight Cowboy

Joe Buck: Uh, well, sir, I ain't a f'real cowboy. But I am one helluva stud!

The movie has really great performances by Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. Loved Joe Buck's endless optimism and found the last man, the man struggling with his religion and temptations, very fascinating. Definitely a solid, good movie, but not really my "cup of tea" so to speak.

The Shining: Redrum

2009-08-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love it when things live up to their expectations. Like the shower scene in Psycho, the awesomeness of the twist in the Sixth Sense, Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, Hal in 2001. And The Shining is no exception. The Shining's been so deeply integrated into pop culture that even though I've already seen numerous parodies of it (redrum, "Here's Johnny," blood pouring from elevators, eerie twins) and know how it ends, it's still immensely creepy and one of those horror films that really linger...that make you still feel slightly ill at ease long after it's over. I wish that more great directors made horror films and while I don't watch too much horror, I wish that more movies in that genre were based on actually creepy sensations rather than the slashers that many of them fall into.

I think you know you're in for something quite special right when the movie starts. It shows this gorgeous river and mountain and follows this winding country road. It's a gorgeous view but in the manner that it's filmed there's something not quite right about it- the way the camera films the scene. The camera work is probably one of my favorite aspects of the film. There are so many gorgeously filmed scenes. I love how it gives you the whole view of the room each time and lets you figure out what you want to carefully observe and focus on and how it follows the characters around the winding corridors of the Overlook Hotel. And although I was not completely sold on Jack Nicholson (he always carries this air of well...Jack Nicholson), when he loses it, he loses it and it's fabulous to watch. Also, despite the number of times you've seen a parody of the infamous "Here's Johnny" scene, it's dead scary when it actually happens and the events that happen afterwards were really pure hair-raising terror.

Mischief Managed!

2009-07-15T18:03:00.000-07:00

So I (probably along with a lot of other people I'm sure) have been on a big Harry Potter binge.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Finished HP and the Chamber of Secrets, which used to be the definite least favorite of the HP books but through many rereads and what happens later on, I like it a lot more now. I like how in a lot of ways, it's a harbinger to many things to come much later in the series when it's much darker: people's distrust of Harry after the attacks start, a peak into Horcruxes... The Basilisk through the pipes and Tom Riddle's diary are still pretty down right creepy, in a good way.

A Very Potter Musical

"You think killing people might make them like you, but it doesn't. It just makes people dead."
-Voldemort from Harry Potter the musical.

I've also recently discovered (found out from mugglenet) this fantastic Harry Potter parody musical.
It's really well done and really really funny in a lot of parts. HP has a huge fandom and it's always interesting seeing people's various takes on the characters. Harry plays the guitar, Cho Chang's Southern, Queriell and Voldemort miss being stuck to each other, Ron's constantly eating and sort of like a frat boy, and Draco wants to go to Pigfarts which is in space and is played by a girl but it's all good! Really a must see for all hard core Harry Potter fans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmwM_AKeMCk

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
I'm not a huge fan of the movies. I haven't seen the 6th one yet but am planning to soon. The movies-They're all right, don't compare with the books, and are great eye candy, but I decided (on my massive HP spree) to rewatch movie 3. I remember liking it, especially how unlike the first two movies, it was the first one to really stand on its own right.

Rewatching it, I am in awe with how beautifully filmed it is. It's probably my favorite HP movie take on Hogwarts. There are so many gorgeous scenes. The numerous portraits in the hallway, the giant pendulum swinging in the great hall, the lake, Buckbeak in Hagrid's giant pumpkin patch, Buckbeaks executioner- how eerie he looks sharpening his axe outside. Love the parts especially where you see the seasons changing, Hedwig flying overhead, and the whomping willow shedding its leaves.

In terms of the characters, I'm finding myself actually liking Ron and Harry quite a lot. They really grow on you, as well as the interactions b/n the trio. Hermione-there's something...she just doesn't quite feel as Hermioneish to me as she should be.

I find that I like the movie the best when it deviates from the books somewhat and comes up with new scenes, new moments. In particular, I loved this one scene where Harry, Ron, and the other Gryffindor boys in their year are in their dorm room, trying these magical candies- it's a simple scene but there's something really natural about it that we don't quite get enough of in the books since Harry's too busy fighting LV- wizards just being wizards and hanging out like regular kids. I love this other scene where Ron's having a nightmare about spiders making him tapdance; Harry's still up and tells Ron to show the spiders whose boss, and Ron falls straight asleep. Also loved the random Hermione, Ron moments scattered throughout the movie- especially at the shrieking shack.

Hermione: It's meant to be the most haunted building in Britain. Did I mention that?
Ron: Twice.
Hermione: Oh. Do you want to move a bit closer?
Ron: Huh?
Hermione: To the Shrieking Shack.
Ron: Oh, no. I'm fine here.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

2009-07-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

He didn’t know what he was going to- but it had to be better than what he was leaving behind.

There's nothing quite like rereading old favorites.

Finished rereading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone today. Still a great book that makes me smile. In particular, I loved reading through those character defining moments...Hermione's now infamous (roughly paraphrasing) "We could die or worse get expelled" line, Harry's humbleness and desire just to be normal, Ron's loyalty (of course all three of them were going to find the Philosopher's Stone together), Dumbledore's brilliance and quirkiness (wool socks in the mirror of erised), Neville's awkwardness and clumsiness- of course we all know people like Neville who are kind but awkward and you want to be their friend but just can't quite do so, so you hope that he'll make other friends.

One of my favorite moments from the book has to be Neville finding out that he has magical powers- of course he tells it and it doesn't seem like a big deal (understated) but it *is*. Also loved all the really lovely lonely descriptions of Harry before he finds out that there are people out there who actually do care about him. And at the end of the day, it's not really about the magic but about the friendships. Another particular favorite moment towards the end of book 1. <3>

It seemed to be a handsome, leather-covered book. Harry opened it curiously. It was full of wizard photographs. Smiling and waving at him from every page were his mother and father.

“Sent owls off ter all yer parets’ old school friends, askin’ fer photos…knew yeh didn’t have any…d’yeh like it?”

Harry couldn’t speak, but Hagrid understood.

2009-06-30T15:22:00.000-07:00

Xi Yan (The Wedding Banquet)

You're witnessing the results of 5,000 years of sexual repression.

- Guest at wedding banquet, Ang Lee's cameo

Xi Yan is fabulous. Sure, the plot's a bit of a stretch: the protagonist is Wai-Tong, a gay Chinese businessman living in the US with his American boyfriend Simon. His parents won't stop hounding him about getting married b/c his dad really wants a grandchild so finally one day, Simon suggests that Wai-Tong marries one of his tenants, Wei Wei, which will kill two birds with one stone: satisfy Wai's parents and also allow Wei Wei to stay in the US. there's this really awesome line from the movie where Simon finally manages to convince Wai-Tong to do this: by bringing up tax breaks for married couples. And while the scenario of the fake marriage is a bit far fetched, the characters are all so well developed and you end up caring about them all that it doesn't matter in the end. You just hope that everything works out. It seems like they will, but then again...you've never sure.

I miss the more intimate feel of some of Ang Lee's earlier movies. Xi Yan does a really good job depicting the dynamics of an Asian family, especially the cultural gaps b/n generations. It showcases so many fantastic moments: Wai Tong finally telling his mom and expressing how much he really wanted to share his world with them, the mom scrambling for the purse, the dad walking faster than Wai Tong, Simon helping Wei Wei cook behind the parents' back, Wai-Tong's overenthusiastic college buddy at the wedding, Simon wiping Wai-Tong's mouse with a napkin after he kisses Wei Wei, the mom talking to Wei Wei about how her son will be straight once he sees his son and Wei Wei trying to explain to the mom that this isn't how it works, and the dad talking to Simon and how neither of them understands.

Princess Mononoke

Cut off a wolf's head and it still has the power to bite.
-Lady Eboshi

Ashitaka is not a cheerful, worry-free boy. He is a melancholy boy who has a fate. I feel that I am that way myself, but until now, I have not made a film with such a character. Ashitaka was cursed for a very absurd reason. Sure, Ashitaka did something he should not have done - killing Tatari Gami. But there was enough reason to do so from the humans' viewpoint. Nevertheless, he received a deadly curse. I think that is similar to the lives of people today. I think this is a very absurd thing that is part of life itself.
-Hayao Miyazaki

I feel like despite how great the dubs are compared to a lot of other anime for Miyazaki movies, there's always quite a lot lost in the translation and that there are a lot of subtleties that you won't quite get unless it was in its original language. While as a Miyazaki fan, it's probably blasphemous to say this, I can't quite bring myself to like this film that much. It's epic. It has lovely animation, a gorgeous gorgeous score (probably my favorite out of all of Joe Hiashi's stuff), and a good message. However, it's difficult for me to feel connected with the characters. I do like what the characters stand for and how most of them are quite multi-dimensional- like Lady Eboshi, who's so cruel to nature and rather harsh in her tactics, but ultimately compassionate to her fellow humans- she buys the contracts of prostitutes from brothels and employs and cares for lepers.

Les Triplettes de Belleville

Is that it, then? Is it over, do you think? What have you got to say to Grandma?
-Madame Souz

A very weird, bizarre movie. Sketchy Belleville mafia members who look like rectangles, grenades for getting dinner (frogs), a kick butt grandma, an awesome car scene, faux Disney castle, using a dog as a tire, etc. It was a generally enjoyable, although the animation is a bit odd, even creepy at times.

Fantasia 2000

It's cute, great animation, but doesn't measure up to the original Fantasia, which is probably one of my favorite movies ever.

The Dark Knight

Sometimes the truth isn't good enough, sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded...
-Batman

What I love about this movie is that it's one of those movies where you notice something new each time you watch it. The first time, I was ensnared by Heath Ledger's Joker and the overall darkness of the film, psychologically and otherwise. That scene where the Jokerfied corpse hits the mayor's window still makes me jump and shiver. The second time, I was fascinated by Dent and Gordon's respective forces and their ideologies. Eg. Dent referring to County as Gordon's fortress. The most recent time, by the idea of what it means to be an outcast hero and filling in the finer points of the plot and how it all connects, and even though I miss Batman Begin's Bruce Wayne (the energy and ferocity he had in the first one where he was fighting X prisoners at once), I did love how longing and desperately hopeful he looked when he prodded Dent at dinner and found out that he was willing to take up Batman's mantle.

I still don't love it as much as the first one, but I do love the complexity, the intermittent scenes in which three story lines or more are progressing all at once. The warehouse sequence and the first string of Joker attacks are all fantastic. And the ending, the last fifteen minutes or so when it's Batman, Dent, and Gordon at the old warehouse and the last narration is pretty flawless b/c it brings everything back together: Fox finding that the computer system self destructs, Alfred burning Rachel's letter...

In Short:: Sci Fi Kick and others

2009-06-27T21:40:00.000-07:00

I, Robot

Pleasantly surprising and quite likable. What I liked most was that despite the fact that it was a summer block bluster, it wasn't always a typical one. In particular, I like how the movie kept throwing surprises at you; Sonny not being evil, the CEO not being the villain, the wink, what actually happened during Spooner's accident, etc. Although I initially was sort of turned off by all three of the main characters, they all ended up growing on me. Especially Sonny, the emo robot. Some of the things he said were quite pensive and thought provoking.

Sonny: [Looking around at the robots while he is about to be "killed"] They all look like me. But none of them are me.

As for Dr. Susan Calvin, she sort of annoyed me throughout the beginning when she kept explaining everything in a very inaccessible way that not even scientists/doctors talk to each other like that, so how could Will Smith's cop character understand any of that? It's hard to find scientists protrayed in movies well, and while Dr. Calvin wasn't perfect, she sort of became more real and way more likable as the movie went on.

Susan Calvin: [about Spooner's motorcycle] Please tell me this doesn't run on gas! Gas explodes, you know?

As for Calvin and Spooner's interactions, I like how they referred to each other by last name and how they don't actually hook up w/ each other at the end. There's, of course, the smiles at the end, but I like that they don't force it on you.

Detective Del Spooner: You must be the dumbest, smart person in the world.
Susan Calvin: And you must be the dumbest, dumb person in the world.

Now I really want to go and read the original Asimov short story.

**
2001: A Space Odyssey

HAL: I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.

A very good movie, very well done. People have described it as a "movie painting," and I think they're absolutely right; I can't think of a better way to describe it. It provokes thoughts, emotions, questions, and it's definitely a movie I will need to re-watch. In particular, I like how the movie is able to convey so much with so little dialogue and how it is quite haunting and eerie in some parts. Eg. the space scenes when all you hear is someone breathing.

And as for Hal, he's one of those characters who you hear so much about that it's hard for them to live up to the expectations bestowed upon them, but Hal is superb. He's very eerie...very stunning, very memorable...again raises questions always raised by AI in sci fi.

**
The Great Mouse Detective

An adorable take on Sherlock Holmes as a mouse. Not particularly memorable but still a good movie nonetheless.

**
Frenzy

Bob Rusk: I don't know if you know it, Babs, but you're my type of woman.

Likely my favorite Hitchcock film. Vertigo's still probably the best of his movies, but Frenzy has everything that I love about Hitchcock: plenty of dark humor, suspense, mystery, etc. The characters are far from perfect, but they're all so likable and believable. In particular, I liked the interactions between the detective and his wife. And the ending is just fantastic; it brings you to a moment, a really tense, suspenseful moment that you weren't quite sure the movie could pull off given it's earlier humorous tone, but it's really something quite special at the end when all the three main male characters are together in a room.

And he shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit

2009-06-26T20:39:00.000-07:00

All my life I memorize their faces
Knowing them as they will never know me
All my life I wonder how it feels to pass a day
Not above them
But part of them...
Give me one day out there
All I ask is one
To hold forever

-Quasimodo, Out There

So many times out here
I've watched a happy pair
Of lovers walking in the night
They had a kind of glow around them
It almost looked like heaven's light
I knew I'd never know
That warm and loving glow
Though I might wish with all my might
No face as hideous as my face
Was ever meant for heaven's light

-Quasimodo, Heaven's Light

It's really hard to think of another character as deserving of a happy ending as Quasimodo. It's heartbreaking to think of how lonely his life was- locked up in the tower, carving figurines of the townspeople with talking gargoyles his only friends and Frollo teaching him how hideous and terrible he was every day. It's the cruelest, worst sort of manipulation. And at the end, there's not even enough Disney magic to get him the girl.
I think that as a kid, that's partially one of the reasons why I never liked Esmeralda so much b/c I wanted him to end up w/ her. Re-watching it now, I realize what a fabulous character she is. She's brave, smart, and most of all kind and good. I love the part where she's in the church praying for others while everyone around her is praying for themselves...and she does it b/c she can get by with what she has and that's enough for her.
There are some very dark/interesting themes in Hunchback. I sort of like how they used the church but then also see it as sort of inconsistent. I'm glad they didn't use it as a deus ex. machina. The priest was powerful enough at the beginning to prevent Frollo from killing Quasimodo but then, if the priest himself was so protective of the outcasts, why didn't he do anything to help Quasimodo? Why didn't he step in to help raise him?
I also really appreciated how they handled the love triangle. Phobeus, although sometimes is a bit like a typical guy, is decent, kind, and a hero too. It was heart breaking to see Quasimodo break down when he sees Esmeralda and Phobeus together for the first time, but then the scene after that in the Court of Miracles when Phobeus steps back and gives Quasimodo a lot of the credit really says a lot about his character.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

2009-06-25T19:51:00.000-07:00

RIP Michael Jackson. A lot of people have already put in their two cents on this so I won't really contribute anything further. I am however a bit sad that I first heard about his passing via a facebook status update...

If I were still at MIT, I think I'd be tempted to do the Thriller dance down the Infinite Corridor, something we'd planned to do, but never got around to doing.

**

Timon: Gee. He looks blue.
Pumbaa: I'd say brownish-gold.
Timon: No, no, no. I mean he's depressed.
Pumbaa: Oh.

I re-watched The Lion King today. I haven't watched that movie in ages, and I've forgotten how fantastic it is. While I love Pixar and what it's doing with its animations (Wall-E, Ratatouille, Up, Monster's Inc, etc), a part of me still really misses the Disney cartoons from the 90s: Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, and Aladdin. This is probably an over generalization, but I miss how it was okay for things to be more *epic* back then. There were a few boy bands and pop stars who dominated the charts instead of artists with catchy songs that disappeared quickly. And cartoons were more...I feel like Pixar movies tend to be more about individuals, and center around how these individuals change the world around them (sometimes this results in huge changes in the actual world) but the movie isn't necessarily about how they're going to change the world, more around their personal growth. Okay, so maybe the old 90s Disney movies were like that too, scratch that.

I think The Lion King epitomizes Disney epicness in a very good way. It's probably, imho, the best Disney movie from that time, and it's a close second favorite (right behind Mulan, which I hold a soft spot for). Animation-wise and musically (catchy songs and Hans Zimmer score =<3), it's so very beautiful like in the beginning when the birds flock over a waterfall to get to Pride Rock and when Simba's alone and calling out for Musafa in the barren cavern. Also, I really love how when Simba's walking up Pride Rock to claim the throne, you see it from his perspective; he quivering and staring at the ground- what a journey it has been. From a story telling perspective, I really like how well they balanced humor and actual, drama. eg. Timon and Pumba's little interludes during "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" and Rafeiki fluctuating between guiding mentor and insane monkey when he shows Simba Mufasa again.

Intro and Traffic

2009-06-24T21:06:00.001-07:00

So a brief intro. Since I have a lot of free time this summer and will be watching a lot of movies and hopefully reading a lot of books, I'm going to be using this blog to review the stuff that I read/watch. (mostly keeping this to keep a personal record)

Today I watched Traffic from way back in 2000, which was really good. For the most part, I enjoy ensemble movies b/c it's always fun seeing characters and storylines intertwine. It's also good when the individual story lines themselves wouldn't have been as compelling like in Love Actually.

What I really liked about Traffic is the storytelling- the pacing is fabulous and it does a really good job seamlessly weaving all of the different stories together. It's also impressive that the director, Steven Soderbergh did so much of the filming himself. I also like that the movie really assumes the audience's intelligence; it throws a lot of information, a lot of characters, at you at once and is quite subtle and not preachy (like Crash...which was good but definitely overrated). I definitely think I need to rewatch the movie for the Mexico storyline b/c I don't think I quite caught all of it.

Favorite scenes:
-Del Toro "seducing" the assassin in the gay bar. It's a short scene but a really good/amusing/pretty hot one.
-Loved all the interactions b/n Chelade and his DEA partner and Ruiz, the witness they arrested/were protecting. I can't find the quote online but Ruiz and Cehlade's character have this conversation about how everything that the DEA does is really pointless in the long run b/c there will still always be people doing drugs so why should it matter that they catch a few drug runners since none of it matters.
-*spoilers* the bug planting scene
-When the "drug czar" finally finds his daughter