The Movie Thread

[Lightnin' Rod]

Oddly, I have no desire to see it, despite being an animation geek. I never read the comic books or watched the TV shows as a kid. It was never on my radar. But I'm amused that the bad guy appears to look just like Spielberg -- is that true to the original comics?

I have no idea about the original comics.  It's just a well-made, entertaining movie.  I think you could say the bad guy looks like Spielberg; his voice is Daniel Craig.

And speaking of Mr Craig, I just saw ...Dragon Tattoo. Thought it was pretty great -- but then I'm a big David Fincher fan.  I've neither read the books nor seen the Swedish films made of them, so it was all new to me.  And I kinda wanted to hate Rooney Mara (another child of privilege who wants to be a movie star; see also: Armie Hammer) but damn she's really impressive.  It's loooong -- over 2-1/2 hrs -- but never boring.

I read the novels, which, while good, were rather creepy.  I understand that creepy sells, especially sex creepy, but DAYYYYMMMM! that was all too creepy for my tastes.  That something like that would capture the imagination of the reading world makes me somewhat queasy.

Anyway, I don't "go" to the movies much anymore.  I prefer to wait for them to come out on cable.  See my reviews in the next post.

[Lightnin' Rod]

The Rise of the Planet of the Apes ****

At Christmas dinner (or maybe it was after dinner, when we were playing Yahtzee!), my sister asked if I'd seen TROTPOTA (excuse my Klingon).  I had not.  She, and my nephew, Bruce, had and they loved it.  So, I put it on my PPV list for this week.

Very good.  Four out of Five stars.  Nice story, excellent two-handed performances.  Excellent CGI and Andy Sedarkis (Ceaser lives!). 

Spoiler ALERT!!!
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And the coda that explains why the mini revolt actually results in the apes taking over the Planet was ingenious an well portrayed.  See it now!  Or wait til it comes on your premium channel of choice.

[Lightnin' Rod]

Midnight in Paris ****

Nevermind the Yahtzee! crowd, my next foray into the world of film was Woody Allen's ode to Paris in the 20's, and Paris and life in general.  Again, four out of five stars, for a completely different kind of movie (as compared to my previous review).

Actually, I have it on right now.  My 24hrs of rental on On Demand is up in about 50 minutes, so it ends 20 minutes before the end.  I wonder what is going to happen.  Kind of cool considering how the film plays with time and time periods.

If I were to go to one time in place in history, it would probably be the 20's in Paris too.  All the luminaries Gil meets are the luminaries I would like to meet too:  Papa, Fitzgerald, Zelda, TS Eliot, Toklas, Stein, Picasso, Dali, Man Rey, Djuna Barnes, Faulkner (not shown, but referenced).  These are the artists and authors that inspired me to my degree in english lit. 

Spoiler alert!

The portrayals, especially Hemingway, are quite cliched.  I doubt Hem spoke exactly like he wrote, much as Gil doesn't speak like the opening of his novel, but speaks like Owen Wilson with a W. Allen accent.  But that is fine, even excellent, because the fantasy '20s that Gil finds himself stumbling into isn't real.  It's his romantic vison of it.  Duh.

So, again, see it.  Very nice.

ETA:  Also, it's very funny, in it's sly, WA way.  Highly recommended.

[RGMike]

So I saw War Horse today. Some love it; others think it's sentimental drivel. I'm not a "horse person", so I'll say it's beautifully shot and a number of my favorite unsung British actors (Peter Mullan, Eddie Marsan, Emily Watson etc) are in it and they're all swell.  It's being said that Spielberg is channelling John Ford; it's more like Ford by way of early-'60s Disney (Darby O'Gill & the Little People comes to mind... and what was that Disney flick about the white stallions?). It's genetically engineered to be called "stirringly old-fashioned" and that's not entirely a bad thing.  I'm betting it wins Best Picture.

[RGMike]

A sobering NYE: Just watched "We Were Here", the very powerful documentary about the early days of the AIDS epidemic in SF. On the short-list for the Best Docu Oscar. Currently avail on Comcast On-Demand. Highly recommended.

[Here'sToYa!]

Saw Adventureland last night -- highly recommended (and it woulda been a better choice for you, Gaz, as it takes place in Pittsburgh in 1987).  Sweet and funny with a killer sndtk -- everything from "Bastards of Young" to Shannon's "Let the Music Play".

I saw it last night as part of our stay-in NYE celebration. Agree with everything you say, RGM. 10@10ish vibe from the soundtrack, even if a few of the songs would never make it on air.
We made it a bit more than halfway through Social Network, too (and past midnight, yay!). It's interesting, but a bit "-ist" in several ways (and I usually am not too up in arms about that sort of thing). Most obvious is that women, and particularly Asian women, are portrayed as bimbos/trophy girlfriends. I guess the female lawyers are just as harsh and mean as their male counterparts, and one of the girlfriends gets to ask a couple of questions and seem interested in ideas in the first Justin Timberlake dinner scene, but mostly the women just wear tight clothes and hang out on nerd arms or in nerd beds. Maybe this is done deliberately to reflect the world view of the central characters. Maybe the movie is just shallow.

[RGMike]

We made it a bit more than halfway through Social Network, too (and past midnight, yay!). It's interesting, but a bit "-ist" in several ways (and I usually am not too up in arms about that sort of thing). Most obvious is that women, and particularly Asian women, are portrayed as bimbos/trophy girlfriends. I guess the female lawyers are just as harsh and mean as their male counterparts, and one of the girlfriends gets to ask a couple of questions and seem interested in ideas in the first Justin Timberlake dinner scene, but mostly the women just wear tight clothes and hang out on nerd arms or in nerd beds. Maybe this is done deliberately to reflect the world view of the central characters. Maybe the movie is just shallow.

Rooney Mara gets her revenge in Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. 

[RGMike]

It's been a good week on Comcast On-Demand. In addition to the aforementioned We Were Here, I also caught up with Melancholia (yet another weird Lars Von Trier head-scratcher); The Debt, which I watched mainly because it was the only one of Jessica Chastain's half-dozen movies this year that I hadn't seen yet -- it's actually pretty good; and tonite I saw Warrior, the MMA drama that was in-and-out of theaters rather quickly in September.  It's very good, well-acted (though Tom Hardy, who I loooooooove, and who is incredibly hot in it, lays on the angry/inarticulate/blue-collar shtick a bit thick, like he watched Rocky too many times). But any movie that gets the generally meat-headed MMA crowd to reconsider what is or is not a "hero" is def OK in my book.

[urth]

Um, forgive my naivete, but what's "MMA" mean?

[Here'sToYa!]

Um, forgive my naivete, but what's "MMA" mean?

Mixed Martial Arts aka Ultimate Fighting Championship

[RGMike]

so, having seen pretty much everything else that's out there, I gave in and saw Tin-Tin today, in 3-D. As I've said, I never read the comic books or watched the TV shows, so I have no nostalgic investment in the characters. (And neither, apparently, do most Americans; it's making far more $$$ in Europe than it is here.)  To be honest, I found it rather monotonous. It's Raiders Jr., essentially, so it all seemed very... recycled. Capt. Haddock was one of the more annoying characters I've encountered in a while. I'm still not sold on motion-capture technology, tho' it's less creepy-looking than, say, Polar Express.  The opening credit sequence, reminiscent of the one from Catch Me If You Can, was pretty cool.

But I still say the bad guy looks like Spielberg:



and this is what he looks like in the orig comic books:

[ggould]

so, having seen pretty much everything else that's out there, I gave in and saw Tin-Tin today, in 3-D. As I've said, I never read the comic books or watched the TV shows, so I have no nostalgic investment in the characters. (And neither, apparently, do most Americans; it's making far more $$$ in Europe than it is here.)  To be honest, I found it rather monotonous. It's Raiders Jr., essentially, so it all seemed very... recycled. Capt. Haddock was one of the more annoying characters I've encountered in a while. I'm still not sold on motion-capture technology, tho' it's less creepy-looking than, say, Polar Express.  The opening credit sequence, reminiscent of the one from Catch Me If You Can, was pretty cool.

I can't say I disagree with your analysis, I guess it just worked for me a little better.

[RGMike]

Starting Friday (1/6) at the Roxie: Everyday Sunshine: the Story of Fishbone, a docu about that underappreciated band.  They'll be at the theater Fri nite to play some tunes and answer questions:

http://www.roxie.com/events/details.cfm?eventID=F5B1DCF5-1143-DBB3-C6BB2A869378A598

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChXk4R0mGNw

[radical347]

Fullmetal Alchemist is coming to Bay Area theaters!!! 

New People World in San Francisco 1/20-26:
http://www.sffs.org/content.aspx?catid=928,942&pageid=2712

Camera 3 in San Jose, 1/21 & 1/25:
http://www.cameracinemas.com/specialevents.shtml#fullmetalalchemist

[Here'sToYa!]

Starting Friday (1/6) at the Roxie: Everyday Sunshine: the Story of Fishbone, a docu about that underappreciated band.  They'll be at the theater Fri nite to play some tunes and answer questions:

http://www.roxie.com/events/details.cfm?eventID=F5B1DCF5-1143-DBB3-C6BB2A869378A598

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChXk4R0mGNw

Dang suburban living . . . I'm sure I won't be there.