Last night, we went to see The Spirit and though the film style is reminiscent of Sin City, I would not recommend that people see this thinking it will be like anything else by Frank Miller.
As this is his directoral debut, there are some problems with the directing, but nothing that can't be overlooked.
Arthur the Cat is adorable and so if Muffin, the puppet cat.
For those unfamiliar, The Spirit is based on an old graphic novel by Will Eisner. Eisner is a classic of the golden age of comics, where the good guys are always good and noble and the bad guys are kinda stupid. As long as you expect that going in, then you won't be disappointed.
The movie is a bit hokey. No one actually acts or talks like that. And, it's a weird world with 1930s-era vehicles and buildings, but cell phones too.
Samuel L. Jackson plays The Octopus, the main villain in this romp. He is obsessed with immortality and eggs. The later is a running gag through the film and pretty funny.
Eva Mendes is a psuedo-villain in the piece and also one of The Spirit's love interests. For people obsessed with this lovely lady, she is terribly hot in the black lace number near the film's finale.
The short synopsis of the movie is that The Spirit is a masked super hero that guards Central City from evil-doers like The Octopus. The movie is basically his creation myth and as superhero movies go, it follows some good rules. There is only one main villain. It's quippy. The action scenes are short and comic book funny too.
The problem with this film is that it will be unfairly compared to Miller's huge hits "300" and "Sin City", most specifically the later because it is filmed largely in black and white with spot color--a little bit of blue and a little bit of red.
The comparison is unfair as this is a much older story and targets a very different audience. If you don't mind a bit of hokey and a fairy tale for adults, this is a fun movie.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Burn Before Seeing
Okay, so I'll preface this with the fact that I am not a big George Clooney or Brad Pitt fan. Still, "Burn after Reading" ranks right up there with "Napoleon Dynamite" on the list of movies that I've seen and wish I could steal my time back. I could sleep or play tiddleywinks and it would have been more productive.
Th concept is that this movie is supposed to be a farce about the intelligence industry, specifically the CIA, and about life in Washington D.C. What it taught me is that everyone in D.C. sleeps around, no one has any moral values and that the bad guys win in the end.
It is also showed me that clooney, who I still don't like, can at least make fun of himself as the sleep with everyone in sight Treasury agent and that Brad Pitt was very poorly cast in this movie. Pitt's a little too old to play the self-absorbed gym rat with any believability.
This movie had a cast that should ahve made it a hit. John Malkovich was wasted in his role. It's not that he wasn't excellent, he was. But the movie around him sucked rocks.
I compare it to "Napolean Dynamite" because both movies kept me watching under the pretense that it would eventually get better and I would car about at least one of the characters. It never did.
Frances McDermand is believable as a 40-something plastic surgery obsessed woman using online dating to get laid and in hopes of finding love. I suppose the fact that every man she hooked up with was married was supposed to be social commentary. It came across as pathetic.
Tilda Swinton, whom I adore as an actress, plays Malkovich's cold-hearted beast of a wife. Again, believable portrayal, but the story fell flat.
I want movies that make me love the characters or hate them and then give me some sort of satisfaction at the end. This failed on all accounts. Most of the characters were unlikeable, but not bad enough to hate. No one got what they deserved...ever.
I see enough of that in real life. The bad guys/girls got away with everything from murder to high treason and the "good guys" such as they were got murdered/put in a coma.
Worse yet, the movie dragged on for what seemed like forever.
The fact that this movie got nominated for two Golden Globe awards speaks volumes about the lack of quality in the industry and the nature of the politics of Hollywood. Hopefully, "Burn After Reading" will be shut out at the awards show, as it richly deserves.
Th concept is that this movie is supposed to be a farce about the intelligence industry, specifically the CIA, and about life in Washington D.C. What it taught me is that everyone in D.C. sleeps around, no one has any moral values and that the bad guys win in the end.
It is also showed me that clooney, who I still don't like, can at least make fun of himself as the sleep with everyone in sight Treasury agent and that Brad Pitt was very poorly cast in this movie. Pitt's a little too old to play the self-absorbed gym rat with any believability.
This movie had a cast that should ahve made it a hit. John Malkovich was wasted in his role. It's not that he wasn't excellent, he was. But the movie around him sucked rocks.
I compare it to "Napolean Dynamite" because both movies kept me watching under the pretense that it would eventually get better and I would car about at least one of the characters. It never did.
Frances McDermand is believable as a 40-something plastic surgery obsessed woman using online dating to get laid and in hopes of finding love. I suppose the fact that every man she hooked up with was married was supposed to be social commentary. It came across as pathetic.
Tilda Swinton, whom I adore as an actress, plays Malkovich's cold-hearted beast of a wife. Again, believable portrayal, but the story fell flat.
I want movies that make me love the characters or hate them and then give me some sort of satisfaction at the end. This failed on all accounts. Most of the characters were unlikeable, but not bad enough to hate. No one got what they deserved...ever.
I see enough of that in real life. The bad guys/girls got away with everything from murder to high treason and the "good guys" such as they were got murdered/put in a coma.
Worse yet, the movie dragged on for what seemed like forever.
The fact that this movie got nominated for two Golden Globe awards speaks volumes about the lack of quality in the industry and the nature of the politics of Hollywood. Hopefully, "Burn After Reading" will be shut out at the awards show, as it richly deserves.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Hello and Welcome!
I realized recently that I watch a lot of movies. Too many in fact. I own two years of the 8 movies to die for and the recent collection of 8 Ghost House movies released for Halloween.
We are truly frequent buyers when it comes to the local Best Buy and virtually every night, there is a movie of some sort on our television. Between Netflix, Starz and a personal collection of about 500 movies, I am rarely lacking for something to watch.
In addition, I also have eclectic tastes, owning everything from Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Ratatouille. So, I decided to start this blog about movies. Mostly, it will be about reviews of movies that I have seen recently, but I will also on occasion drift back in time to revisit old favorites or I might venture out to the web and find out the news of the day on upcoming projects.
Most often, the things that you will find here will be horror. It's a household favorite. But few things are skipped over completely.
Last night, the film of the day was "A Mighty Heart" with Angelina Jolie. Now, to be honest, I like Angelina Jolie. From Beowulf to Hackers, she is one of my favorite actresses. I liked Wanted.
I didn't particularly like her in this movie. Jolie plays Mariane Pearl, wife of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl kidnapped and beheaded in Pakistan just after the war in Afghanistan began.
The story is interesting, but Jolie cannot hold the French accent of Mariane Pearl. I thought she did a great job of reflecting the sort of stiff upper lip that Mariane exhibited through most of the crisis, but the accent and lack of it were distracting.
The real problem with the movie is that it slips between English and Urdu randomly and without subtitles. We didn't want to leave the subtitles on during the English sequences, but had to in order to avoid missing parts of the Urdu. And, well, we knew how it ends.
Although I am sure Jolie took this role to be considered a more serious actress, I think she has given better performances in more mainstream, but less acclaimed films. The film got a lot of attention because it was written by Mariane for her son, so that he would know how hard everyone searched for his father and how much his father stood by his principles.
As a good look at international cooperative efforts and the attacks on journalists across the world, this is a great film, but for pure enjoyment, skip it.
We are truly frequent buyers when it comes to the local Best Buy and virtually every night, there is a movie of some sort on our television. Between Netflix, Starz and a personal collection of about 500 movies, I am rarely lacking for something to watch.
In addition, I also have eclectic tastes, owning everything from Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Ratatouille. So, I decided to start this blog about movies. Mostly, it will be about reviews of movies that I have seen recently, but I will also on occasion drift back in time to revisit old favorites or I might venture out to the web and find out the news of the day on upcoming projects.
Most often, the things that you will find here will be horror. It's a household favorite. But few things are skipped over completely.
Last night, the film of the day was "A Mighty Heart" with Angelina Jolie. Now, to be honest, I like Angelina Jolie. From Beowulf to Hackers, she is one of my favorite actresses. I liked Wanted.
I didn't particularly like her in this movie. Jolie plays Mariane Pearl, wife of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl kidnapped and beheaded in Pakistan just after the war in Afghanistan began.
The story is interesting, but Jolie cannot hold the French accent of Mariane Pearl. I thought she did a great job of reflecting the sort of stiff upper lip that Mariane exhibited through most of the crisis, but the accent and lack of it were distracting.
The real problem with the movie is that it slips between English and Urdu randomly and without subtitles. We didn't want to leave the subtitles on during the English sequences, but had to in order to avoid missing parts of the Urdu. And, well, we knew how it ends.
Although I am sure Jolie took this role to be considered a more serious actress, I think she has given better performances in more mainstream, but less acclaimed films. The film got a lot of attention because it was written by Mariane for her son, so that he would know how hard everyone searched for his father and how much his father stood by his principles.
As a good look at international cooperative efforts and the attacks on journalists across the world, this is a great film, but for pure enjoyment, skip it.
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