Saturday, November 3rd, 2007
I really enjoy musicals, but I’m a bit of a snob for “book musicals.” I like The Sound of Music, but the original John Waters Hairspray and High School Musical were disappointments because all of the song and dance routines are ancillary to the plot. West Side Story is the perfect antidote for those films. The plot advances more through dance than through song, which is fine because the choreography is great. It’s a very 60s movie (Austin Powers, mod 60s; not hippies 60s), which kinda slapped me in the face at first, but I quickly came to like that aspect of the production.
This movie is a classic for good reason and highly recommended if you like musicals. I could easily watch it again.
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
There’s such a long list of dystopian sci-fi films and books that it’s hard to determine exactly where THX1138 falls in the overall scheme of things. It borrows heavily from Brave New World and 1984, but it also is reminiscent of Metropolis, The Island, and The Matrix. Except that all of those things are good—okay, not The Island, but it at least had explosions and good chases.
For whatever reason, the subtitles turned themselves on about five minutes into the movie, and that was a good thing. I could understand all the soft-spoken parts (there are a lot) as well as the background vocals (there are a lot of disembodied announcer, too), which helped me to understand a lot more about what was going on in terms of both the plot and the future society in general.
Taken solely on its own merits, THX1138 would be a forgotten film. It’s preserved solely by another small film made by the same director a few years later. Ultimately, it’s only a footnote.
Sunday, September 23rd, 2007
I recently downloaded pilots for some of this fall’s new tv shows from Amazon Unbox to watch on my TiVo. I’ve used the Amazon service before, so that’s a story for another time. But the shows I watched ran the gamut from the worst to the best of what television offers.
Continued reading >
It looks like Internet radio will survive, but it’s not out of the doghouse yet (see savenetradio.org for all the gory details). In the past, I’ve regarded this issue with only passing curiosity—just another example of how old media doesn’t get new media—but this time around, I actually have a bit of a stake in it. I’ve been exploring Internet radio as a source for discovering new music, simply because I’m getting pretty desperate for new tunes but can’t afford to put any money towards expanding my collection. So I’ve pitted the two top, free “find new music” services against each other: Last.fm versus Pandora.
Continued reading >
Saturday, March 31st, 2007
Caroline was out of town for a baby shower last weekend, and that gave me the chance to catch up on my shows, including Lost (although I still haven’t seen this week’s episode yet). My constant fear—and debate topic with other fans of the show—is that the producers and the network, in an effort to milk a successful show for every last ounce of profit, will drag it out way past its prime, much like The X-Files. If the recent episodes are any indication, the writers are already starting to run out of gas.
Continued reading >
Saturday, March 3rd, 2007
I’m fascinated by movies that are structurally more like literature than cinema. SLC Punk is a good example: it’s highly non-linear yet easy to follow, and it reveals the protagonist’s inner thoughts (not with an annoying voiceover, but by cleverly breaking the fourth wall). Oscar-nominated Little Miss Sunshine similarly feels like a work of literature rather than one of film.
Continued reading >
Wednesday, January 17th, 2007
They just don’t make movies like this anymore. Something like a third of the film is just people walking. But it’s still some of the most tense walking ever. That’s to say nothing of that famous car chase. This movie has no automatic weapons. Nothing blows up. No Michael Bay sweeping camera shots. The characters are flawed and gritty. And (spoiler alert) in the end, the bad guys get away.
Highly recommended.
Saturday, October 28th, 2006
This movie is so mediocre that I keep forgetting I’ve seen it. As comic book movies go, it’s no Daredevil, but it’s not X-Men either. The backstory and development of the characters and their powers is interesting, but the movie fails to be compelling overall. The film’s antagonist, Dr. Doom, is obsessed with destroying his enemies, and really, no one cares.
Look, when you’re writing a comic book movie, take a lesson from the Star Trek film franchise. Nobody cares when the bad guy(s) threaten either the protagonists and some backwoods part of the galaxy (see ST: Nemesis or ST: Insurrection). But when the planet Earth is on the line, then the audience gets really involved (Star Trek VI or ST: First Contact).
By that logic, this movie would have been a helluva lot better if Dr. Doom had tried tried to take over the world or destroy New York or something. As it stands, I give it 2.5 out of 5.
Monday, August 28th, 2006
Imagine Godzilla taking a dump. It would be a turd the size of a city bus, and its name would be The Dukes of Hazard. That’s the nicest thing I can say about this movie. Nothing can redeem it. Not the gratuitous boobs. Not Willie Nelson. Punching Burt Reynolds in the face. Twice.
Avoid at all costs. It really is as bad as you’ve heard.
Next up: The Fantastic Four.
Saturday, July 29th, 2006
Paris Hilton is a car crash I just can’t look away from; she’s just too damn trashy. Of course I had to watch House of Wax, which is I guess is her big-screen debut. No surprise, the girl can’t act her way out of a paper bag. I will say that her scenes are pretty entertaining, mainly because they’re so bad. I laughed out loud when she was killed by taking a metal pipe to her forehead, which Paris herself described as looking like a big dildo sticking out of her head. That’s class.
As for the movie itself, it’s pretty formulaic and predictable. It has a few gross-out scenes, but the attempts to make the audience jump fall flat. Chad Michael Murray and Elisha Cuthbert aren’t as annoying as I expected. Overall, it’s pretty bad: I give it 1.5 out of 5.