Terebi II

December 08, 2007

The Golden Compass

I took Renee and her friend Alexandra to see The Golden Compass this evening. I sat across the theatre from them, to give them their space. All told, as the first installment of a franchise, I think this shows a lot of promise. I hope it does well enough at the box office that they give it a second round.

Just an observation, but the folk comparing this to the launching of the Harry Potter franchise mislead a little. It's nothing like the Harry Potter books, apart from some talking non-humans.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:47 PM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2007

No Country for Old Men

Now that it's several days after the holiday, I suppose I should mention that I saw the Coen brothers' new movie on Sunday. I try to see all the Coen brothers' movies, as they usually manage to produce something that's entertaining, and often manage to rise above that minimal requirement.

I knew I definitely had to see this one, as it's based on a book by Cormac McCarthy, an author whom I've read before. He's actually a bit of work to read, at least for me. I've heard him compared to Faulkner, and while that may be an unfair comparison, it is true that Faulkner is also a writer whom I've found requires work, but is worth it in the end.

Years ago I read Suttree, more or less picking it at random from McCarthy's ouvre. Turns out now it is considered one of his watershed works, and it really moved me when I finished it. Since then, I've only take stabs at his work, and have hesitated to read, for instance, The Road, as it seemed to be hyped in a weird sort of way, and I didn't know if I'd enjoy it (as much as one can enjoy a gloomy post-apocalyptic drama).

Now I know I must make time for "No Country for Old Men", as the movie was awesome, and I can only believe that the book will be even richer.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:39 PM | Comments (0)

October 20, 2007

Holiday Fare (Early)

Renee and I went to Bridgeport Cinema this afternoon to see the 3D rendition of A Nightmare Before Christmas. The three-dimensional rendering was quite good. I for one was in heaven, as this is nearly a perfect movie for me. Lovingly crafted armature animation, a great musical, and one screwy story. What's not to like?

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:09 PM | Comments (0)

September 30, 2007

Now Listening...

I categorized this post under Music, but I will add Movies as well, as this is a note about one of my two remaining acquisitions for September from eMusic:

• La Dolce Vita - Nino Rota

It is the soundtrack album for the movie of the same name by Fellini. Nino Rota, along with Ennio Morricone, is one of the primary Italian popular composers that I've enjoyed over the years. This is a great album, and will be background music for many programming sessions.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:53 PM | Comments (0)

July 08, 2007

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

After watching the first two Pirates movies in close succession, Renee and I agreed to see the final one this weekend. This is a good thing, as it looks like the movie is shuffling off the screens, having only two matinee showings today at our local theater.

We went, we saw, we enjoyed. A benefit of having seen the rerun of Curse of the Black Pearl on television, then renting Dead Man's Chest the following weekend, is that all the characters, subplots and MacGuffins that link the three movies were fresh in our minds. I won't enumerate all the little things which held this triptych together. But they definitely enhanced my enjoyment tremendously.

In fact, bother the critics who have trashed each sequel successively. I disagree heartily with their opinion. This trilogy is, for me, the best popular entertainment trilogy I've seen since the original Star Wars trilogy (that's IV, V and VI in case you're too young to remember). There have been other very nice ones, such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy. There have been others that started out very promising, such as the Matrix, which then fall flat. The Pirates win this one.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:38 PM | Comments (0)

July 05, 2007

The Third Man

I mentioned this yesterday. I decided to watch the first half tonight and finish it tomorrow, but I couldn't stop myself from watching it straight through. This is such a wonderful movie of the period. For the picture of living on the edge I'd rate it as at least the equal of Casablanca. I'm really happy I tracked it down again.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:34 PM | Comments (0)

July 04, 2007

Movieola

Been through a recent batch of movies, and have some pending, so I thought I'd just mention a few:

Ratatouille - I went to see this last weekend, and my was it marvelous. I like cooking, and I like animation, and Pixar generally does a good job of the latter. They've also been pretty good at bringing a specific environment to life, and this was no exception. Their representation of a working kitchen felt pretty right to me. This is written and directed by Brad Bird, who created Iron Giant and The Incredibles. Recommended.

Knocked Up - I saw this one today with Jean. She picked it out. When I initially heard of it, I thought it was going to be a drama, and a tedious and depressing one at that. Then I heard it was going to be a comedy. "Good luck with that," I thought. After all, it's about two strangers getting hit with an unplanned pregnancy. But Jean mentioned it, and then I heard it was by the guy who did The Forty Year Old Virgin (Judd Apatow). That was funny in a totally irreverant way, so I was more willing to give this a chance. As it turns out, it was pretty funny, with some laugh-out-loud moments. The characters were all note-perfect as well. There was a cameo by Harold Ramis, and I couldn't help wishing he did more acting. He has great screen presence. So both Jean and I liked this one.

Recently, those television moguls have been showing multiple screenings of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Gee, I wonder why? Anyway, Renee caught a chunk of it out of the corner of her eye while working on the computer and insisted on watching the ending. So I recorded one of the multiple repeats, and we watched the whole thing together. Last weekend, we rented the second movie, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm thinking that this coming weekend, we'll go to the theater and see the third. Suits me, as I enjoyed the first two quite a lot.

Finally, in the queue for me alone, is a repeat viewing of The Third Man, which I saw years ago and really enjoyed. I've just recently gotten a strong hankering to see it again, and it was available at the library, so I'm going to be watching it in a day or two...

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:19 PM | Comments (0)

December 14, 2006

Near Dark

I got Near Dark from the library after reading that it was an original take on vampire tales. It takes place in modern-day Oklahoma and surroundings, and relates the story of Caleb Colton, a young farm boy who falls for a young woman who turns out to be a vampire, and is abducted by her 'family' after she inadvertantly turns him.

Trailer trash vampires? Yeah, it got more than a little silly here and there, but it was a fun movie. Cale was played by Adrian Pasdar, who is now, some nineteen years later, playing budding politician Nathan Petrelli in the television series Heroes. I knew I'd seen him somewhere the whole time I was watching the movie, and about midway through figured it out. Funny.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:06 PM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2006

Casino Royale

Okay, it's over six hours later, and I still can't get over Casino Royale. I took the day off to rest after getting hit hard with a cold, and I decided to go see the new Bond flick.

From the opening graphics (and the great pop hit blending in with the action, Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name"), I was settling in for at least a decent treatment. I'd tried not to get my expectations too high, after reading repeated assertions that this was a return to roots. Even to the extent of trying to be more faithful to Ian Fleming's original story. Well, it's been way too many years since I read that book, so I can no longer remember the details, but the spirit is there.

This movie, like Batman Begins, returns to the origin of the exceptional individual. Fleming's Bond is both clever and brutal. As is fitting, we're introduced at the act that transitions him from, what? No past, just a mention by M that maybe he wasn't ready, but here he fulfills the criterion, to become a 'double 0'. I know that sounds a bit incoherent, but I don't want to give away plot points.

The first chase scene is classic. No helicopters, no speedboats, not even, to begin with, an Aston Martin. This was a footrace. Fast, brutal, athletic. If you've never heard of Parkour, this sequence is as good an introduction as any. Much of the movie is like that, pure, basic animal energy. Daniel Craig is disgustingly fit, and seeing him put on a full-on sprint like a cheetah rushing to bring down a gazelle, well, it's just spooky.

Another thing I can appreciate is that the pace of the movie varies so widely. First quiet, then frenetic, then conversational. Several portions of the movie center around a high stakes poker game (Casino, duh!), and for most of those scenes, it's light dialog, hooded stares, no action. And they let it happen.

Are there gadgets? Sure. They pop up when needed, and in service to the story. We don't have a curmudgeonly Q introducing a raft of exploding household appliances and every accessory a sports car nut could ever dream of. Don't get me wrong, in the Connery days, those sequences worked. But over the years, the gadgets have come to overshadow the story. I like the Bond who moves effortlessly between the country club and the dark alley, and the clear indication that any person he meets is a potential enemy. Cold war psychosis distilled.

How about explosions? Yes, they have them too. And fast cars. And plenty of fights. But somehow it all seemed just enough, rather than more, more, MORE! And in most cases, the fights felt like a guy who really felt like they were for keeps. Brutal, and pretty short. Not glamorous. Not 'manly'.

Fleming's Bond is both more and less than human, a bit of a sociopath, but maybe a bit of a Da Vinci as well. Daniel Craig carries that mantle well.

It says something that tonight I've been thinking of Dr. No and Goldfinger, two of my favorite Bond movies of all time. Some time must pass, I'll have to see this on DVD, on the telly late at night, juxtaposed with other pop culture. But I think it'll pass the test of time.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:28 PM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2006

Icons of Fantasy

I've watched most of the movies of David Cronenberg, and there was a time in my life when I read everything I could get my hands on by J. G. Ballard. I also spent many years very impressed and somewhat disturbed by Ridley Scott's Alien. I knew that it had originally been shopped around to different directors, so finding this pastiche, the result of a contest in Interzone magazine, was a little gift from Heaven:

David Cronenberg's Alien (novelization by J. G. Ballard) (the true author of the pastiche is Lyle Hopwood)

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:32 PM | Comments (0)

August 19, 2006

SOAP

I actually took vacation time (Flexible Time Off) to enable me to see Snakes On A Plane yesterday. All I will say is that the movie was exactly what I was expecting and did not disappoint me in the least. The only thing that could have improved it is if I had attended with my old movie crew from NOVA. We've gotten out of the habit of doing movies together, but this would have been the perfect serving of cheese.

Posted by dpwakefield at 06:51 PM | Comments (0)

July 03, 2006

Saturday

Jean got her shift cancelled again this Saturday, so I was able to attend another NOVA meeting. Of course it was the Fourth of July weekend, so there were only about six people total attending. I sat and talked for awhile, browsed the web on my laptop, and eventually hooked up with a friend to go out and see a movie. We went up to Beaverton to see A Prairie Home Companion, Robert Altman's adaptation of the Garrison Keillor radio show, based on a script written by Keillor.

This is an interesting cross-product of the typical Altman ensemble movie with Keillor's wry, sometimes wicked sense of humor. I still listen to A Prairie Home Companion, after all these years, though now it is more often in the car, 'on the way', than deliberately arranged. Decades ago I made a point of tuning in, while working at a bookstore in East Lansing, or later, doing my weekend cleaning chores in our apartment in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. It's hard to believe that this show has been on the air for over thirty years, and knowing this makes the movie's plot more sensible. The angel of death walks the stage, and even by the end, it's not clear if she came only to claim a cast member or the very show itself.

Garrison is great, in his deadpan sort of way, and I finally got to see many of the regular musicians I've listened to over the years. Of course the cast is filled out with many actual actors, but they manage to fit into the Prairie Home mentality pretty easily. If you don't care for PHC, the movie won't change your mind, but if you like it at all, you should enjoy the movie as well.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:38 PM | Comments (0)

June 30, 2006

Movie Day

As it was the beginning of the Fourth of July weekend, I took some vacation time and went to an early showing of Superman Returns before going down to work. I don't think I had any expectations to speak of, so I hope my reactions were mostly unbiased. I enjoyed the movie, liked Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor, and felt that they were mostly faithful to the general concepts of the comic character. It's also nice to get the taste of Superman III and Superman IV out off my mouth after all these years. Now I can just pretend they were a bad dream.

Still, all the while I was watching it, I felt less like I was watching a sequel than a review. It felt like we were being given an overview of the principal characters to remind us of what we were supposed to know. Sort of as if this was a dry run, and that the franchise will really take off with the second movie starring Brandon Routh. Assuming they get the box office response I imagine they will, I'm sure I'll find out in about a year...

As if that were not enough, when I got home this evening, I decided that I wanted to watch something on my den television, as I'd had such a good experience watching Koi...Mil Gaya. So I dug through my pile of Asian movies I keep in store for re-run season, and pulled out the DVD I bought on Max's say-so: Bayside Shakedown. The supplied link gives a fair assessment of the movie, so I won't repeat all the same info here. Suffice to say that I enjoyed it plenty, and thank Max for the reference.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:34 PM | Comments (0)

April 26, 2006

Another Movie List

This list has been going around the web logs I read for the last few days, so I finally took a look at it.

Jim Emerson, posting on Roger Ebert's movie site, listed the 102 Movies You Must See Before... Before what? He says "They're the common cultural currency of our time, the basic cinematic texts that everyone should know, at minimum, to be somewhat 'movie-literate.'" So before you can talk credibly about movies.

I went over the list and sorted them into two, seen and not seen. On the seen list are movies I recall clearly, and movies I know I've seen but barely remember. On the unseen list, I'm pretty sure I've not seen one of these. Perhaps I'll have to make a project of checking them out (over the next few years). Then I can talk 'meaningfully' about the movies I've seen.

Seen

1. "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) Stanley Kubrick
2. "A Hard Day's Night" (1964) Richard Lester
3. "A Star Is Born" (1954) George Cukor
4. "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) Elia Kazan
5. "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" (1972) Werner Herzog
6. "Alien" (1979) Ridley Scott
7. "Annie Hall" (1977) Woody Allen
8. "Bambi" (1942) Disney
9. "Blade Runner" (1982) Ridley Scott
10. "Blowup" (1966) Michelangelo Antonioni
11. "Blue Velvet" (1986) David Lynch
12. "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) Arthur Penn
13. "Bringing Up Baby" (1938) Howard Hawks
14. "Carrie" (1975) Brian DePalma
15. "Casablanca" (1942) Michael Curtiz
16. "Chinatown" (1974) Roman Polanski
17. "Citizen Kane" (1941) Orson Welles
18. "Dirty Harry" (1971) Don Siegel
19. "Do the Right Thing" (1989 Spike Lee
20. "Dr. Strangelove" (1964) Stanley Kubrick
21. "Duck Soup" (1933) Leo McCarey
22. "E.T. -- The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) Steven Spielberg
23. "Easy Rider" (1969) Dennis Hopper
24. "Fargo" (1995) Joel & Ethan Coen
25. "Frankenstein" (1931) James Whale
26. "Gone With the Wind" (1939) Victor Fleming
27. "GoodFellas" (1990) Martin Scorsese
28. "Halloween" (1978) John Carpenter
29. "Intolerance" (1916) D.W. Griffith
30. "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) Frank Capra
31. "Jaws" (1975) Steven Spielberg
32. "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) David Lean
33. "M" (1931) Fritz Lang
34. "Mad Max 2" / "The Road Warrior" (1981) George Miller
35. "Metropolis" (1926) Fritz Lang
36. "Modern Times" (1936) Charles Chaplin
37. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975) Terry Jones & Terry Gilliam
38. "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) George Romero
39. "North by Northwest" (1959) Alfred Hitchcock
40. "Nosferatu" (1922) F.W. Murnau
41. "On the Waterfront" (1954) Elia Kazan
42. "Psycho" (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
43. "Pulp Fiction" (1994) Quentin Tarantino
44. "Rashomon" (1950) Akira Kurosawa
45. "Rear Window" (1954) Alfred Hitchcock
46. "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955) Nicholas Ray
47. "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
48. "Some Like It Hot" (1959) Billy Wilder
49. "Sunset Boulevard" (1950) Billy Wilder
50. "Taxi Driver" (1976) Martin Scorsese
51. "The Big Sleep" (1946) Howard Hawks
52. "The Crying Game" (1992) Neil Jordan
53. "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) Robert Wise
54. "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) Irvin Kershner
55. "The Exorcist" (1973) William Friedkin
56. "The General" (1927) Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman
57. "The Godfather," "The Godfather, Part II" (1972, 1974) Francis Ford Coppola
58. "The Graduate" (1967) Mike Nichols
59. "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) John Huston
60. "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) John Frankenheimer
61. "The Night of the Hunter" (1955) Charles Laughton
62. "The Seven Samurai" (1954) Akira Kurosawa
63. "The Third Man" (1949) Carol Reed
64. "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948) John Huston
65. "The Wild Bunch" (1969) Sam Peckinpah
66. "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) Victor Fleming
67. "Touch of Evil" (1958) Orson Welles
68. "Vertigo" (1958) Alfred Hitchcock
69. "West Side Story" (1961) Jerome Robbins/Robert Wise
70. 2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) Stanley Kubrick
71. "Double Indemnity" (1944) Billy Wilder
72. "The Big Red One" (1980) Samuel Fuller
73. "The Searchers" (1956) John Ford

Not Seen

1. "8 1/2" (1963) Federico Fellini
2. "All About Eve" (1950) Joseph L. Mankiewicz
3. "Apocalypse Now" (1979) Francis Ford Coppola
4. "Breathless" (1959 Jean-Luc Godard
5. "Children of Paradise" / "Les Enfants du Paradis" (1945) Marcel Carne
6. "Days of Heaven" (1978) Terence Malick
7. "Fight Club" (1999) David Fincher
8. "It's a Gift" (1934) Norman Z. McLeod
9. "La Dolce Vita" (1960) Federico Fellini
10. "Nashville" (1975) Robert Altman
11. "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968) Sergio Leone
12. "Out of the Past" (1947) Jacques Tournier
13. "Persona" (1966) Ingmar Bergman
14. "Pink Flamingos" (1972) John Waters
15. "Red River" (1948) Howard Hawks
16. "Repulsion" (1965) Roman Polanski
17. "Scarface" (1932) Howard Hawks
18. "Schindler's List" (1993) Steven Spielberg
19. "The 400 Blows" (1959) Francois Truffaut
20. "The Battleship Potemkin" (1925) Sergei Eisenstein
21. "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946) William Wyler
22. "The Bicycle Thief" (1949) Vittorio De Sica
23. "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972) Luis Bunuel
24. "The Lady Eve" (1941) Preston Sturges
25. "The Rules of the Game" (1939) Jean Renoir
26. "The Scarlet Empress" (1934) Josef von Sternberg
27. "Tokyo Story" (1953) Yasujiro Ozu
28. "Trouble in Paradise" (1932) Ernst Lubitsch
29. "Un Chien Andalou" (1928) Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)

January 02, 2006

Munich

This is the final movie in my holiday viewing schedule. Really, there aren't many others I'd care to see which are out, so it's just as well.

Munich is based on the book Vengeance, by George Jonas. It is about vengeance, about a state sanctioned vendetta designed to inform the world that Israel is not a soft target. If Clausewitz said that war was an extension of diplomacy, then this story is about an extension of war.

I'll be thinking about this movie for some time, but I don't think I want to write about it. It was worth seeing, but very dark.

Posted by dpwakefield at 02:28 PM | Comments (0)

December 31, 2005

Syriana

Can't remember now whether this was Thursday or Friday, but I went to see Syriana. This is one seriously bleak movie. It is entirely credible behavior by a series of bad actors chasing wealth and power. Fascinating and depressing all at once.

As if that wasn't enough, I'm going to try to see Munich before work starts again on Tuesday.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:35 PM | Comments (0)

December 30, 2005

Narnia

Wednesday saw Jean, Renee and I attending The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I thought this was an excellent adaptation of the book, and that it captured the spirit of the characters and story quite well. The temptation to get all saccharine must have been overwhelming, but in truth the sentimentality was limited to the areas where it was actually called for.

Tilda Swinton is fast becoming one of my favorite character actresses. She was in Constantine, as the archangel Gabriel, and here plays the White Witch with a great sense of detachment, contempt and suppressed fury. The voices of the various animal characters were appropriate, and James McAvoy, as Mr. Tumnus, was almost exactly right. His character was the one I was most worried about, as there would surely be a temptation to turn him into the fluttery children's book stereotype that pops up so often in fantasy movies. Here he gave, in just a few brush strokes, a performance that evoked a living person, with flaws, that I could actually believe in.

When Renee was five and six (and still Kelly) we read all the Narnia books together (me doing most of the reading) and they are etched in my memory. Now there is a movie of the first book, and I'm quite comfortable with their stewardship. Let's have another!

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:22 AM | Comments (0)

December 29, 2005

Holiday Cinema

Scanning over the last several posts I've spotted a pattern. Odd posts are about vacation cooking, even posts about why I haven't played my videogames yet. Either I'm suffering from seizures of deja vu, or I really have very little to say. So with that in mind...

The Producers. I can give no better review for this movie than the linked one by Roger Ebert. I've been a fan of the original Mel Brooks movie for decades, watching edited reruns on television every few years. Seeing this rendition now makes me want to purchase the DVD and see the original in all it's unedited glory. When I first heard that The Producers was being adapted as a musical, I was both excited and sad, because I knew I'd never get to see the stage version, but loved musicals and hoped they would create a movie version.

And they did, with the original Broadway stars, Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane (reprising the roles of Leopold Bloom and Max Bialystock created by Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel). I knew I was going to see this, by hook or by crook. Monday, the day after Christmas, having taken the day off, I drove to Bridgeport Village, only to get trapped in a parking lot traffic jam. Finally finding parking, I walked to the theater, and there were massive lines. It became apparent that I wouldn't be able to get into the theater in time for the show, so I gave up. I thought about going in anyway to see a showing of Munich, which started later, but it is a longer movie, and Jean would probably have wondered what happened to me, so I just went home.

I tried again on Tuesday. I went to the 11:05am showing, and Bridgeport Village was only sparsely populated. The parking garage was nearly empty, and the theater was populated only by helpful staff. Happy day! I settled in and watched the film, a silly grin on my face at least half of the time. I'll grant you I am a special case, but if you like Mel Brooks and musicals, then you will almost certainly enjoy The Producers.

I'd decided that the holiday crush I saw on Monday was over. But emerging from the theater, I saw a crowd that was maybe two-thirds as large as the post-Christmas logjam. Once again, cars filled the avenue leading to the parking garage, and though the crowd in front of the box office was maybe half the size it was on Monday, it was still surprising large for a weekday lunch hour. I guess more people take off the week between Christmas and New Year's Day than I had thought. With that in mind, I shot off an email to my friends, whom I was meeting that evening to see...

King Kong: The 1933 version that started it all runs an hour and forty-five minutes. It is a silly romp with a jerky stop-motion animated monster that at the time was state of the art, supplied by Willis O'Brien (who tutored Ray Harryhausen). The story divides naturally into three parts. The first establishes the human players and briefly sketches their reasons for going on their fateful journey. The second part reveals Kong on the fantastical Skull Island, and the third part returns to New York for a fateful finish.

This modern remake by Peter Jackson is architected along the same general lines. Only now it takes three hours to get there. Does Jackson really need three hours to tell this tale 'better' than the 1933 original? Sadly, the answer is no. I enjoyed the film, and to judge by Alan's vigorous rant during the credit roll, it held a bit more pleasure for me than him. But looking at this film with an editor's eye, I'd have to say that an hour and 45 minutes, or at most two hours, would have been quite enough.

The action scenes were very exciting, until they clearly decided that more is better. James asked Alan if he enjoyed Kong more or less than National Treasure, a clunker we all saw which was filled with egregious ten minute chase scenes (more than one) that had me waving my hands in a 'get on with it' gesture. Alan said he enjoyed them about equally, which is to say, not much.

I'd say that the aspect I enjoyed most was how Jackson attempted to turn the relationship between Ann Darrow and Kong into a mutual one (much like the 1976 version with Jessica Lange). Instead of being a sacrifice inexplicably given a prolonged reprieve, Darrow (played by Naomi Watts) becomes a willing accomplice after a series of incidents on the island. I'm tempted to call this the most extreme example of Stockholm Syndrome ever depicted, but of course Jackson is striving for more than this, and Watts generally succeeds in elevating her interactions with the imaginary beast.

Overall, I'm not ready to join the critics who give this version top marks. It's too long, too heavy-handed and just too wearying. But I'm glad I saw it, especially with a gang of like-minded friends.

This post has run on for quite a bit, so I think I'll be taking a break. I'll post about my family viewing of the Narnia flick separately...

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:17 AM | Comments (0)

August 08, 2005

Subconscious Geek

I gave Jean a laughing fit tonight. I was coming up from downstairs, where I'd been watching Firefly, now a guaranteed recording on my Replay (after all, they're setting the scene for the movie, Serenity, due out in late September). I rounded the corner into the living room, where Jean was reading and watching television. There on the screen was a very young Sean Connery, in light garb, in a typical room for the period. Somehow I just knew which movie it was, and remarked, "oh, Dr. No!"

Jean started cracking up right away, and it took me a moment to figure out over what. "You just walked in, and it was literally two seconds! He's alone in a room, no villains, no window view, and you name the movie!" My inner geek is showing. Really, I just got lucky. But we both found the unconscious remark pretty funny, in a pathetic sort of way.

Posted by dpwakefield at 10:24 PM | Comments (1)

August 03, 2005

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Monday, before they left, Dad and Bette joined Jean, Kelly and I in attending Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton's rendition of the book by Roald Dahl. Kelly and I read both Willy Wonka books when she was six or seven, and as much as I recall, this movie does a wonderful job of capturing the story. Burton injects a bit of his own ideas (Willy Wonka's father, the dental practitioner, for instance), but in toto, this was a wonderful movie version. It makes me want to rent the Gene Wilder version to remind myself what that one was like.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)

May 18, 2005

Star Wars

Okay, I'm not standing in line for tonight's midnight showing, and in fact hadn't planned on seeing it before NOVA this Saturday. But it looks like I'll be taking a long lunch tomorrow to see Revenge of the Sith, gratis. My friend Burr, who works in customer support, is going on a junket with his crew, but his boss can't make it, so she offered to give it to me.

Woo hoo!

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:14 AM

April 10, 2005

Robots

I felt good enough in the afternoon that Kelly and I went to see Robots. It's not the worst animated feature I've seen, nor is it the best. It was just perfect for an outing with Kelly, though, and we had a lot of fun together. I decided not to push my luck, and had zero theatre food/drink. That turned out for the best, since I was feeling less than stellar by the time we got home. But a treat was waiting for us, Jean was home! Yay!

Update

I forgot this until I was telling Jean tonight. They showed the Star Wars trailer before the movie. Lots of scenes of Palpatine at his slimy best luring Anakin to the dark side, lots of action, hints of characters to come, until the end, which closes with a shot of the full Darth Vader rig.

Kelly leaned over to me in the silence between trailers, and whispered "Darth Vader ... returns!"

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:10 PM

March 13, 2005

Fiddler on the Roof

It's been years since I last saw this movie. Jean and I finished watching it last night, after 'the news'. It's a wonderful musical, with lots of great numbers. I hadn't remembered the more unrelentingly depressing aspect of it, but it doesn't gloss over the history of the period.

So I guess as a counterbalance, I'll have to break out my copy of Singin' in the Rain!

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:53 AM

January 03, 2005

Napoleon Dynamite

Jean and I saw Napoleon Dynamite when it was in theatres, and really enjoyed it. Now it's out on DVD, so we bought a copy, and watched it over the holiday break. It's just as funny and engrossing the second time around.

There are extras, including deleted scenes, which make it clear to me, at least, that they made all the right cuts. The extra scenes are nice, but they don't add anything to the movie. Also, the parts of the commentary I listened to were fun, but I actually preferred my own interpretation of events to the director telling me who the woman on the bike was.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:58 PM

December 28, 2004

Phantom of the Opera

Wowser. The kindest critics really dislike this musical, if not the movie made from it. After having sat through it, I suppose I can understand that. You have to like Andrew Lloyd Webber a lot to start with, as this is not his best musical. I do like him a lot, having gotten started back in high school with Jesus Christ Superstar, and taking samples over the intervening years.

The critics were mixed in their response to Evita as well:

That's Roger Ebert, one of the fans of the film adaptation of Evita. I liked it enough to buy the 'repetitive' soundtrack, and I still listen to it. 'Phantom' is not as memorable. Maybe two songs stand out, including the title song. But I was entranced while watching it, and glad that a movie version was made, since I'll never get to Broadway.

Posted by dpwakefield at 04:30 PM

December 27, 2004

Ocean's Twelve

Can you tell I'm taking holiday time right now?

Today I took Kelly to Christmas Camp at the YMCA, and then I decided to treat myself to a movie. I went to see Ocean's Twelve. I'd seen the previous movie as a NOVA movie, I think, so I was prepped for the premise.

This movie, like the previous one, rests more on the banter than on the high tech heist flummery that is also liberally strewn about. I won't pick favorites as it is an ensemble cast and that's what makes it work. I laughed out loud several times, as did the couple who were sitting next to me in the theatre. If you've seen the first, this is more of the same, but if you liked the first, you won't be disappointed with the sequel.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:07 PM

December 13, 2004

QOTD

Mike Nichols on "Spamalot", the 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' Broadway Musical

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:47 PM

November 08, 2004

The Incredibles

Saturday was NOVA, and also the premier weekend of The Incredibles, so naturally, we had to take a crew to see it. Sunday I was telling Jean about it, and Kelly piped up "I wanna go!" So it looks like I'll be racking up the viewings.

This is the first Pixar movie which was not helmed by John Lasseter. According to reviews I've read, he was concerned that Pixar would become stale, retelling the same successful stories for years on end, like a certain animation company Pixar has worked with. Instead, he asked Brad Bird to create a movie, giving him complete creative control. Bird is responsible for another cool movie, The Iron Giant, and as a result, I was looking forward to seeing The Incredibles.

Well, I wasn't in any way disappointed. While this movie has many of the earmarks of a Pixar film, it also is new, having a viewpoint that appeals more to the adult eye. Family quarrels, boring work and ungrateful people populate this movie. Bad guys don't just get knocked down and look humiliated ("and I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you gosh darn kids!"), they die. And there are no musical numbers at all!

There are clever references to other icons of pop culture. One was a tribute to the speederbike chase through the forests of Endor from The Return of the Jedi, only done better. The villain's lair is straight out of the most extravagant Roger Moore era James Bond movie. And subtle details are constantly flying by.

I was trying to explain it to Jean, and this is the best I could come up with: It's as if they filmed the entire movie with live actors on location, with a tremendous budget. Then they sat in a theater and watched it over and over. Each time they noticed a little detail of light, or some bug moving in the background, or the way an actor stumbled when turning a corner, they wrote it down. Then they animated the entire thing. And added more stuff that can only be done with animation or CGI. It's that full of detail. Detail that happens in the background, not waved in your face, "look at me, look at all the cool stuff I can do!"

The writing is also a lot of fun. Now I did a lot of comic book reading both growing up and when I should have known better, and I still watch the usual superhero and scifi movies. So maybe I'm more steeped in the conventions than the average viewer, and can more easily appreciate the way this movie has fun with them. But I suspect that most folks who enjoyed Finding Nemo themselves, and just used their kids as an excuse to go see it, will enjoy The Incredibles as well.

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:09 AM | Comments (2)

October 27, 2004

Audrey Tatou

Heads Up, Tom!

A new Audrey Tatou movie on the horizon: A Very Long Engagement. From the same director who brought us Amelie.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:59 PM | Comments (1)

September 19, 2004

Sky Captain

Yesterday evening was NOVA. It was also time for the annual election of officers. I ran for Veep, just to give Chris Arneson some competition. I didn't seriously think I'd win, since Chris is younger, personable, and invested with more energy than I. Nevertheless, I got elected, by a narrow margin. This makes the second time I've been an officer. I was Veep for a couple of years when the founder of the club, Jeff Milburn, was Prexy. I don't expect the office will require any real work, but I'll help where I can.

Afterwards we all flocked to Tigard Cinema to see Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. This movie, like Lucas' Star Wars films and Spielberg's Indiana Jones epics, was inspired by the adventure serials of the 40's. It successfully aped the genre, the period and even made a nod to black and white film with it's sepia toned color scheme.

There's a danger in aping the original too closely, though, as this film proves. The beginning imagery is very muddy, and somebody put the interns in charge of vaselining the lens, 'cause it's pretty blurry there for the first half hour or so. The pace is not so much rapid as telegraphic, as the creators try to cram the first five chapters of Saturday Morning Serial Adventure into twenty minutes.

There was some good. The sensawunder was occasionally able to rise above the conventions, and while the dialogue was usually by-the-numbers, there were a couple of laugh-out-loud moments. I'm happy I saw it, but I'm glad I didn't sneak in a Friday lunchtime viewing before the Saturday outing, as sitting through it twice in quick succession would have been tedious.

Posted by dpwakefield at 10:48 AM

August 13, 2004

Movies

Yesterday evening, Jean and I watched Pieces of April, a nice understated family comedy which wasn't afraid to touch on mortality a bit as well. I suppose in the minds of the creators, mortality is what makes family special.

Today, while my work group was out jet boating the Willamette, I went to see Alien vs. Predator. They have pretty well put the torch to any sense of continuity to these films, but then I never cared for some of the continuity anyway. And hey, so long as you admit this is a movie about scary monsters and things that go boom!, then you're in the right place. Better than I expected.

Posted by dpwakefield at 05:15 PM

July 23, 2004

Bad Santa

Jean rented Bad Santa Wednesday. I remember when it came out that I gave it a deliberate miss, as I figured it was another one of those sappy spiritual transformation stories. You know the sort. Loser with no self-respect is brought out of his nosedive by the innocent trust of a cherubic child.

Well, that's the generic plot outline, except that the loser hardly ever gets the chance to climb out of the gutter, more or less stumbling into redemption. While recognizing some good fortune has come his way, I wouldn't say he ever decided to straighten out his act. This one is unrepentantly low-rent.

In other words, fun to watch, if you don't get turned off by swearing, of which there's copious amounts.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:49 PM

July 04, 2004

Bubba Ho-tep

Tom lent me Bubba Ho-tep to watch between meetings, and I finally did. Really cute movie, very small-scale. It's sure to be a midnight cinema classic. I was pleased to discover it was based on a story by Joe R. Lansdale, who's known for quirky horror stories, among other things.

I liked the legal wordage in the ending credit roll:

"This is a protected work and violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and maybe the wrath of Bubba Ho-tep."

Posted by dpwakefield at 05:43 PM

July 02, 2004

Does Whatever a Spider Can

My office was slow, and my development environment was kinda messed up, so I gave myself a holiday treat and took a long lunch to go see Spiderman 2 today. Was it worth it? Sure, I thought so.

The first movie was a lot of fun, true to the spirit of the original story, with casting that seemed to ring true. It may have suffered a bit due to needing to introduce the characters, introduce (or remind us of) the superhero conventions (secret identities are important to protect loved ones, for instance), and get the origin out of the way. But it was still a great romp.

This movie finds Peter Parker developing a reputation for unreliability, since he can't very well tell his friends, family and teachers that he sometimes needs to step out and save the world. I'm not sure, but I think the pace was a little faster, even a little smoother than the first one. But it had many Raimi moments, something that tickled me.

It's been several hours since I saw the movie, and I'm pretty sure I'd sit through this one again. I was sitting in the living room telling Jean about one particular attribute I enjoyed, and I could feel the geek excitement in my voice as I described it. So, yeah, anyone at NOVA wanna go see it, I'm there.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:57 PM

June 24, 2004

Fog of War

This is another movie Jean and I watched before hitting Disneyland. It's a film by Errol Morris, who is a great documentary film-maker. I've had the pleasure of listening to him talk about his craft on Fresh Air, and I've read a brief interview with him about tools he invented to facilitate his theories of interviewing, and I have to say he's damned clever.

Two other films of his I've seen that I also recommend are Fast, Cheap and Out of Control and A Brief History of Time. Sometime in the near future I expect I'll rent Mr. Death, centered on the inventor of the electric chair.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:09 PM | Comments (2)

June 22, 2004

Talk To Her

I watched this movie with Jean before we left on our Disneyland trip, and it met all my expectations. I've seen several of Pedro Almodovar's movies, and all I can say is, pick any of them for a unique trip into an alternate world where strange things happen but nobody seems to think them so. Sort of a magical realism for my generation.

Posted by dpwakefield at 04:39 PM

May 10, 2004

Double Bill

I seem to be seeing movies in pairs lately. Saturday night after NOVA the gang went to see Van Helsing. It was entertaining, but not as much fun as Hellboy.

Sunday, Jean put Kelly in charge of a movie outing for Mother's Day. Kelly had to pick a movie that Mom would like, line up the time, buy the tickets and sweets (with money supplied courtesy of Mom & Dad, Inc.) and then watch without fussing. We went to see 13 Going On 30, which was a predictable little comedy. I had fun, and got to eat popcorn again.

So two movies next week? I doubt it seriously.

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:36 AM

May 01, 2004

Winged Migration

Jean rented Winged Migration yesterday. It's a really cool sorta-documentary nature film following the migratory flights of many species of birds. The photography is spectacular. Most of the movie is just the images with music overlaid. It's slow, contemplative, almost hypnotic.

Tonight we watched the included 'making of' feature. This was like seeing a second entire cool movie. The lengths they went to to create their movie were fantastic. I kept wondering where the hell they found all the money it must have taken to do the stuff they did, for four years!

Verdict: rent it, watch the movie one night, then the 'making of' feature the following night. Even Kelly gave it two thumbs up ("awww, look at the cute little duckies!").

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:34 PM

April 26, 2004

Ella Enchanted

I forgot to mention that yesterday I was priviledged to take Kelly and her friend Emily to see Ella Enchanted. It's a slight movie, funny, irreverant without being snide, anachronistic in the way that so many television mythology shows have become (Xena, anyone?). Overall, I quite enjoyed it.

Funny thing is, just recently I watched Grosse Pointe Blank, recorded off the telly, and I was remarking to Jean that I hadn't seen Minnie Driver anywhere of late. What happened to her? And there she was, in a middling supporting role in Ella. She looks the same as she did seven years ago in GPB. So I looked her up in IMDB, and she's been in a lot of things. Things, I've never heard of, true, but she's working.

Jean suggested that she may be taking work that doesn't require her to travel, so that she can stay near her family. Makes as much sense as anything else, since I think she's a credible actress, not needing to bottom feed, as it were. Still, interesting coincidence.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:55 PM

April 18, 2004

Kill Bill, Volume 2

I went with the gang after NOVA to see Kill Bill, Volume 2. It was a great big hoot of a movie. It felt like a different genre from the first volume, and had a whole different pacing. I just recently bought some Sergio Leone music, so it was neat to hear all his music overlaid on a Quentin Tarantino picture.

Another treat for me was sitting through the credits at the end of the movie. Credits were rolled for both movies, and I saw a credit for the first movie that I didn't expect. It appears that Lucy Liu's stunt double was Michiko Nishiwaki, whom I've mentioned here previously. Along with Yukari Oshima, she is one of my favorite female martial artists. Like Yukari Oshima, she's got a patchy film career, with only a few movie credits worth mentioning, often as a villain. I guess in those days, female martial artists were not respected too much.

So now I have to buy the DVD of Volume 1 and look for those stunt double scenes!

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:40 PM

February 22, 2004

Movies Galore

Jean rented a couple of movies this weekend, one of which she watched alone as I'd seen it in the theatre. This was Lost In Translation, which I liked quite a bit. Jean wasn't so impressed, liking Bill Murray's role, but saying "I'm glad I rented it instead of seeing it in the theatre."

Jean and I both watched Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore's movie about the Columbine High School shootings and what might have led to them. My verdict, the movie is about 30% documentary, and 70% editorial. Moore can be funny, but his attempt to play deadpan comic to people he is harrassing just annoys me. Still in all, I found the movie interesting and was surprised in a couple of places.

Finally, I managed to squeeze in Returner, watching it in chunks over the course of Sunday on my computer. I can see how some say it's a mixed bag, and it is surely inspired by a raft of other sci-fi movies, a large number of them Hollywood blockbusters. But I still think it is it's own movie, and for me it was definitely worth watching. I want my buds to watch it too, but they weren't all that impressed with Versus, another movie I liked quite a lot, while acknowledging that it too had flaws.

So Kylanath, I agree this is a fun movie, but I need you to push Tom to watch it, or he won't believe me!

Posted by dpwakefield at 10:30 PM | Comments (1)

February 16, 2004

Movie Weekend

Presidents' Day is good for one thing, and that's renting movies. Jean rented two, which we watched on Friday and Saturday. In order:

The Whale Rider. This is an inside look at the lives of modern descendants of the Maori, and their quest for tribal pride and identity. Keisha Castle-Hughes is a striking child actress, both in features and presence. She plays the granddaughter of a Maori chief who was expecting a grandson to carry on the unbroken line. He is hard on her for this, but she persists in quiet and courageous way, until she wins her grandfather and her tribe. This movie reminds me in a sideways sort of way of The Fast Runner, another movie Jean picked up. It's great, rent it.

American Splendor. It's been so long since I read any Harvey Pekar, that I had to ask Jean if I'd gotten her into his stuff, or if she'd gotten me into it. She says I did it, back when I was still collecting comics. In any case, this movie stars Paul Giamatti as Harvey Pekar, a file clerk in a V.A. hospital in Cleveland, who writes stories about is ordinary life and becomes (somewhat) famous when they are illustrated in comic book form. I really enjoyed this one, and liked how they'd cut between the actors and interviews with their real-life counterparts. Very nice.

I feel like I'm missing one, but that's all for now.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:41 PM

December 31, 2003

QOTD

From What NOT to do during "Return of the King.":

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:21 PM | Comments (3)

December 30, 2003

Big Fish

I took the afternoon off, and Jean and I went to see Big Fish together. I'm a fan of Tim Burton's work, so I was looking forward to it. It was interesting and colorful, as are all Burton's movies, but it certainly wasn't one of his best. I'd rank it around Edward Scissorhands, which was a colorful movie without a lot of direction, full of imaginative imagery, that stalled out by the ending.

Posted by dpwakefield at 03:58 PM

December 19, 2003

Return of the King

I took the afternoon off to see Return of the King. At three hours and twenty minutes, I'm uncertain that I'd get to see it as a regular NOVA post-meeting outing. The earliest we'd get to see it that way would be 10pm, which after trailers, would let out around 1:30am, and I'd be lucky to get to bed by 2am, which nowadays is a bit too much for me.

So I went. It was excellent. If you've seen the first two, you're probably going to this one anyway. If you didn't see the first two, then nothing I say will make you see number three. But it was a great culmination of the series, and within the framework of a movie trilogy, this is as close as we are ever going to get to a faithful realization of Tolkien's books.

There. Go see it.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:56 PM

December 17, 2003

Battlestar Galactica

Okay, I know I made fun of this 'reimagining' before it ever came out, but the SciFi Channel's miniseries of Battlestar Galactica wasn't half bad. The preoccupation with sexy Cylons was pretty stupid, but overall, the characters were more believable in four hours than the originals were in several seasons.

There's been talk of extending the new version, either as a series or with more miniseries. I wouldn't have a problem sitting through another four hour block, but I think a series is a bad idea, as it would eventually devolve into the same sort of clunky mess that the original did.

Okay, one 'innovation' I do have to make fun of: Star Battle Shakey-Cam!

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:18 PM

November 30, 2003

Punch Drunk Love

Paul Thomas Anderson wrote and directed Punch-Drunk Love, which debuted at Cannes and earned him the Best Director prize. I don't think I've seen any of his other movies (which include Magnolia and Boogie Nights), but after this one I'm gonna have to look into them.

This is one of those small movies which is just about perfect in every way. Jean chose it when she picked up The Fast Runner, so she scores twice in one round. Anderson apparently called it "an art house Adam Sandler film", which is true, but only part of the story. I've seen a few of Sandler's films, and I never knew he could do such an understated, nuanced acting job. His character is messed up, sure, but not the frat boy loser he so often plays.

Emily Watson is wonderful, again in an understated way. The visuals are perfectly united throughout the film, and the arty transitions make the picture more surreal.

I have to close by noting that I must get the song "He Really Needs Me", which was written by Harry Nilsson for the musical movie Popeye and sung by Shelley Duvall. I don't think I'm ready yet to buy the entire Punch-Drunk Love soundtrack to get this one song, so maybe the iTunes Music Store will stock it someday soon. I really like that song.

Posted by dpwakefield at 06:08 PM

November 29, 2003

Holiday Movies

Wednesday, I left work early and went to see Timeline. It's based on the book by Michael Crichton. It's a measure of the studio's confidence in this latest Crichton vehicle that when I searched for an official website, I couldn't find one (not in the top Google picks, anyway).

Like most Crichton movies, you can read the book and feel like you just saw the movie, or watch the movie and feel like you just read the book. I did both, and after reading the book, I knew the movie was going to be one of his lighter efforts. And I was right. Just the right size to fill out a holiday afternoon, no greater impact.

Yesterday evening, Jean and I (with occasional participation by Kelly), watched The Fast Runner. This is a movie I wish I'd seen in the theatre, but as I've griped before, Regal Cinemas does not see fit to show many art/independent/foreign films in the 'burbs. And I find it difficult to make it to downtown Portland for the few they show there.

The Fast Runner seems a not to distant cousin to Italian for Beginners, another film Jean introduced me to through video rental. This was, you might recall, a Dogme 95 film, one of a collection of movies made by directors who have bound themselves to 'The Vow of Chastity'.

The Fast Runner had the same sparse presentation, intimate concern with everyday lives, and generally simple production values as Italian for Beginners. It departs from Dogme 95 in that there is occasional music overlaid onto a scene which is not produced by the characters themselves (very infrequently), and there are one or two video effects. But it otherwise felt very much like a Dogme 95 film, including the effort needed to absorb the story.

Timeline requires no effort, and in fact is fed to you with such eagerness that at several points I was shaking my head wondering who their target audience was. The Fast Runner requires your attention and doesn't talk down to you. It is a very absorbing film, and I'm glad I saw it.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:09 AM

October 14, 2003

Kill Bill

One of the things that makes watching a Tarantino film so much fun is his tendency to sprinkle it with pop culture references, and to not limit himself to the pop culture of one country. Kill Bill is no exception, and I'm really looking forward to watching it.

I have watched a lot of Asian movies, from Shaw Brothers classics to modern Hong Kong flying people movies, but apparently not nearly as many as Quentin Tarantino, who would watch one or two of these movies a day while making Kill Bill.

Anyway, I found a neat interview where he talks about all the movies which influenced and are paid homage to in Kill Bill. Check it out!

I know one Director's Cut DVD set I'm gonna buy, just for the director's commentary track!

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:44 PM

September 01, 2003

At the Drive-In

Last night we took Kelly to her first drive-in movie. It was at the Newberg Drive-In, the only drive-in in the Portland Metro area (if you call a half hour drive south of Tualatin part of the Portland Metro area). It turns out Oregon has quite a few drive-ins. This one was small, compared to ones I attended in my childhood and youth. One innovation I was unaware of is that they now use a radio transmitter, instead of the old speakers on posts.

We got there around 6:50pm, as they said on their website that parking spots would get crowded after that. Unfortunately, it wasn't until 8:30 or so that the movie started. Lots of other people around us had brought chairs, coolers, and what-not, and were making an evening of it. I saw lots of 'trailer picnics' and at least one portable television.

The movie we saw is the current retread of Freaky Friday. This version starred Jamie Lee Curtis as the mom, and Lindsay Lohan as the daughter. It was actually pretty fun. Not 'Finding Nemo' fun, but a painless way to spend an evening with our daughter. Both Kelly and Jean were disenchanted with the whole drive-in experience. Too much waiting around, long walks to the bathroom, and long lines once there. I had the good end of that stick. There was never any line at the guys' restroom. Overall, I think I enjoyed it all much more than either of my gals.

I tried hard to think when the last time was that I hit the drive-in, and I think it was in East Lansing, Michigan sometime in the early 80's. The movie was Roger Corman's Galaxy of Terror, which I saw with a housemate at the time. I remember that he got drunk during the movie, and I had to drive him home (though I didn't have my license with me). I tried to hide his keys from him when we got home, but he found them anyway and went for a drive when I wasn't looking. The cops nailed him within a block and threw him in the drunk tank overnight. Those were the days...

Before that, the only drive-in experiences I can remember hark back to my childhood in Washington, D.C. I seem to remember seeing Fistful of Dollars at a drive-in, and I have quite vivid memories of seeing Reptilicus there. I remember that one as I bawled through half the movie. My dad was really annoyed with me. Assuming we saw this first-run, I had to be four or five years old! I didn't think I had any memories from that time!

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:27 AM

August 17, 2003

Freddy vs Jason

Before today, I'd never seen a Freddy movie. I've only seen one Jason movie, and I only saw it because it seemed like a parody of itselt (this was Jason X, Jason goes to SPACE Space space! ...). That was every bit as cheesy and stupid as I'd hoped. Some of you remember me raving over the silly camp holodeck sequence and the great line as one character gets pulled out an airlock after Jason traps her ("this sucks on so many levels!").

Well, everyone at NOVA was chuckling when Freddy vs Jason started showing up in trailers, so I decided that I wanted to see it, and trundled off to the theatre today after we returned home.

I think Jason X was a lot more fun and silly, despite this one being directed by Ronny Yu. I had fun, don't get me wrong, but overall, it seemed sorta paint-by-numbers. Another one I really needed to see with the NOVA crowd...

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:09 PM | Comments (3)

July 29, 2003

QOTD

"Moriarty"

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:27 PM

July 18, 2003

Santo Contra La Invasion de Los Marcianos

Okay, I hope by now that all three of my readers realize that I have strange and eclectic tastes (mostly strange). Let this be a shining example of that credo. The other choice item arriving in the mail today was the titular movie, in English called Santo vs. The Martians. This is one movie out of probably hundreds made in Mexico celebrating the masked wrestler that is part of that culture. It was made in 1966, and probably manages to be a tad more entertaining than it's B-movie soulmate, Santa Claus Versus the Martians (only notable for the debut of seven-year old Pia Zadora as a Martian child).

What is this movie about? Well, a masked wrestler preventing the Martian conquest of Earth by sweating and grunting. Virility alone, it seems, is sufficient to repel aliens with bad intentions. In fact, this is probably a better movie for young women, as it is filled with muscular men grabbing each other and grunting. Okay, some guys enjoy that too.

My weirdness bone was tickled, but I did actually get tired of the endless scenes in which wrestling appeared necessary to advance the plot, such as it was. I'll offer this movie to friends, but I won't inflict it on them. Not without a warning, anyway.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:34 PM

July 17, 2003

Kill Bill

While the trailer is memorable, and stands alone by itself as a kind of outrageous tone poem, it appears that the movie Kill Bill may be released in two parts.

I have no problem seeing two Quentin Tarantino movies in the space of a few months, and in fact this will probably make it easier for me, since catching a three hour movie with the post-NOVA crowd is a non-starter. Still looking forward to this one, folks.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:21 PM

July 09, 2003

28 Days Later, Buzz Buzz

I really enjoyed The Blair Witch Project when it first came out, though most of my friends who saw it were disappointed. I enjoyed the unconventional home video approach, the minimal cast, the ambiguity. Yes, it had absurd elements, and was frail in the light of day (lost in the woods? Climb a tree and look around, dudes!). But it had a sense of style, and leveraged minimal equipment and budget to great effect.

But I couldn't be bothered to see the sequels/spin-offs. What is the point of taking something so original (at least I felt so) and bleaching out every last vestige of color, lather, rinse, repeat? True, I see sequels every day, but then I'm not seeking originality of voice. In these cases it's more about branding, comforting familiarity, I'd guess. Kinda like the decision to eat at McDonalds in a strange town, rather than try that intriguing Thai restaurant over there...

This meandering monologue is my way of introducing yet another review of 28 Days Later, an assuredly flawed movie that nevertheless struck that note of indie vitality I felt in Blair. This review is by John Shirley, probably best known for City Come A-Walkin', though I remember him best for his quirky 'horror' novel, Wetbones.

Another quote, more about the business of film making than the film in question:

John Shirley

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:53 PM | Comments (1)

July 08, 2003

28 Days Later

A brief but interesting review of 28 Days Later written by a renowned virologist:

Nobel prize winner Harold Varmus, current president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Posted by dpwakefield at 10:33 PM | Comments (2)

Terminator 3

I used the last of my vacation today to go see Terminator 3 (I hope to see either Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen this weekend).

What can I say? James Cameron could have made a better movie, had he been so inclined. Even some of the more talented 'franchise' directors would probably have been able to top this version, directed by Jonathan Mostow, whose last theatrical outing was U-571, about a fictional mission by U.S. sailors to steal an Enigma machine from a German U-boat. That was a rather annoying movie even after discounting the blatant removal of historical fact.

Big bangs, generally uninspired car chases, and weak attempts at humorous self-reference (see the bar scene, for instance) lead me to believe that even the NOVA gang would have had one or two nappers during the viewing. I don't feel cheated, after all I only spent six bucks, but I don't feel rewarded either.

Hoping Sinbad is better...

Posted by dpwakefield at 06:59 PM

May 19, 2003

The One

If I haven't lived up to the title of Uber Geek before, I did it this weekend, going to see The Matrix Reloaded twice. I went once with Tom and Alan on Friday, then again with Alan, James, John, Lisa, Bo, Dan and Heather on Saturday after NOVA.

I was entertained just fine, and amused by the fanboy gripes and mainstream criticism of the movie. The parallels between the second Matrix movie and the second Star Wars movie (excuse me, the fifth Star Wars movie) are striking in this regard. After seeing the first movie a bajillion times, fans had imprinted the universe on their brains, filling in the gaps with their personal visions of what lay at the periphery. Then the second movie came out, and the director's vision intruded on that sacred image. Much complaining ensued.

Secondly, the follow-up is not a self-contained movie like the first, leaving our heroes hanging, having had their butts handed to them, or at least being told that everything they knew was wrong, and all they know and love is about to be kicked to Flinders. Now they get to wait several excruciating months to resolve their pain...

The replacement actors were actually quite good. Jada Pinkett Smith as Captain Niobe was given an abbreviated role, but did with it much better than I imagine Aaliyah would have done, judging from her performances in Romeo Must Die and Queen of the Damned. Aaliyah of course died before shooting on MatrixII started, so we got Jada.

More interesting to me was the role of Seraph. This role was originally offered to Jet Li, but he turned it down since it conflicted with several movies he had lined up, including Cradle 2 the Grave (ho hum) in the U.S., and Hero in Hong Kong.

So instead we got Sing Ngai (billed as Collin Chou). He was pretty good, given his brief screen time, and I hope he gets more in the next movie. Amusingly enough, many of his screen credits are in Hong Kong movies starring Jet Li.

I could babble on for ages, but I'll cut this short so I can get ready for work. Suffice to say that this was just as much fun for me as the first movie. I'm looking forward to The Matrix Revolution.

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:39 AM