The Day the Earth Stood Still

On a lark, last night, we decided it was time to head out to the movies.

Our local theater chain, Kerasotes, offers a five dollar admission price on most movies when they are in their third week of release or beyond. Operating under the theory that the special-effects in The Day the Earth Stood Still would be much more impressive and interesting on the big screen, we decided to spend the $10 and head to the movies.

While I am not as critical of Keanu Reeves as many people are, I do tend to find him rather wooden as an actor. However, this is one of those times that the choice of actor was appropriate to the role. The movie, which is a remake of an old black-and-white movie, is based on the principle that an alien sphere lands in Central Park.

The plot then revolves around the American government reaction, the reaction to similar landings around the world, and a group of scientists who are brought together to study the event. Jennifer Connelly plays Helen, the microbiologist and main proponent of peaceable coexistence with the alien.

Jaden Smith, son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, plays Helen's stepson Jacob. Jacob has lost both of his parents, including losing his soldier father presumably in the war in Afghanistan or Iraq. Jacob is convinced that if his father were still alive, his father would repel the alien invasion.

Unfortunately, perhaps because it was the intent of the producers or perhaps because it's the way the movie was originally written, the movie beats you over the head with its message that the human race is violent and must change its ways.

The acting in the movie is solid, if unremarkable, and the special effects are certainly worth seeing. The movie left me with neither the desire to run right out and own it, nor the feeling that I had wasted my time in watching it. It's simply okay.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Okay, so the rest of the world saw this when it was new back in July. Sometimes, I'm a little slow. My BFF Dawn brought this with her while visiting for New Year's so that I could see. We are both huge Joss Whedon fans though I am more of the Buffy and Angel variety while she loves all things Serenity and Firefly.
My hubby prefers Joss's comic book writing.
Regardless, we are all fans.
So, sitting around watching Dr. Horrible was part of the planned activities for the visit and then it was an unplanned part of our New Year's Eve Party. Some of the guests hadn't seen it, so it played in one room while the rest of us played Munchkin Quest in the other room.
Having seen it, we all had our favorite lines. Some of the boys are very fond of Nathan Fillion's adlibbed line about his penis being his hammer. Personally, I love the line "Captain Hammer, Corporate Tool".
For the one or two people in the world who like me missed the blog the first time around, the short film (42 minutes) is done as a video blog entry for Dr. Horrible, aka Neil Patrick Harris. who knew he could sing?
His arch nemesis is Fillion's Captain Hammer and they are competing for the love of a girl named Penny.
The project was created during the 2007 writer's strike in Hollywood when Whedon and his brothers wanted to do something, but didn't want to violate the terms of the strike. Fans of Whedon will love the project, especially those who enjoyed the Buffy the Vamptire Slayer episode "Once More With Feeling".
Whedon and his brothers prove that they love to play with sarcasm in a song and in multi-part harmony. The feeling of the short film is very similar to the tongue in cheek attitude of the Buffy episode and once again Whedon manages to make actors and actresses sing and do it convincingly. Fillion's Captain Hammer is the least adept at singing, but the style fits the overinflated ego of the superhero perfectly.
The only disappointing portion of this video is how excruciatingly difficult the easter eggs are to find and access. Since we generally use a PS2 for movie viewing, we could not comply with convulted instructions to reach the easter eggs. Worse yet, one of them requires finding a sport where an ISBN for a Mariah Carey cd is mentioned and then entering the easter egg via a mention of Mariah Carey in the commentary. Way to convoluted to be worthwhile.
However, the video application for entry into the Evil League of Evil and the sing-along commentary are definitely worth a peek.