I’ll have a review later, but the theater concession stand food gets a thumbs down.
Feeling very queasy.
Category: Cinema
I Miss Calvin and Hobbes
The interesting thing is that you run the numbers, the cartoon ended in 1995, he would be about this old now.
I feel so old.
We are Observing Christmas in the Traditional Manner
We are having Chinese food at Umami Bistro, asks going to see a movie, The Hobbit.
You do know that we are Jewish, don’t you?
Earlier today, I was clearing brush, trying to find or cat, Hummus. Even using a (borrowed) chain saw, it was a LOT of work, and I hurt.
Posted via mobile.
If You Are Going to Watch Zero Dark Thirty, For F%$#’s Sake, Torrent It
Because no one involved with the enterprise deserves a penny of money.
Glenn Greenwald rightly calls it a, “CIA hagiography, [and] pernicious propaganda.”
Spencer Ackerman, of Danger Room, admires the torture scenes and how they show moral ambiguity, but this is completely wrong.
You see, in a private letter to members of Congress Leon Panetta stated that torture had no role in locating bin Laden, though in public, he continued to defend the CIA’s torture directorate in public.
There is no ambiguity here. Our torture served no purpose but to satisfy the sadism of certain elements of the state security apparatus, along with people above them in the chain of command. **cough** Dick Cheney **cough**
There is no ambiguity. We did not derive actionable intelligence from torture. All we did was give Dick Cheney an erection.
FWIW,it should that the the European Court of Human Rights has officially declared that the CIA engaged in systematic torture. (See also here)
The fact that Obama and Holder have been complicit in indemnifying, and covering this up makes them more than reprehensible human beings, it makes them war criminals as well.
(on edit)
I am not suggesting that you torrent Bigelow’s other works, though I wouldn’t object to it. I’m not gonna watch any of it.
I Saw Skyfall Tonight
Family was in town for Thanksgiving, so we all went to see the new Bond film, Skyfall
Daniel Craig … James Bond
Judi Dench Judi Dench … M
Javier Bardem … Silva
Ralph Fiennes … Gareth Mallory
Naomie Harris … Eve
Bérénice Marlohe … Sévérine
Albert Finney … Kincade
Ben Whishaw … Q
Skyfall is a very good movie, though I’m not sure that it’s good Bond per se.
It does not feel like a Bond movie. It feels more like a police procedural, with a bit of John Le Carre and the Bourne movies.
It’s very well done though, and much more character driven than any other Bond movie that I’ve seen. We do get a much more complete picture of James Bond, who he is, and why he is who he is than we have ever gotten before.
My initial impressions:
- Daniel Craig is magnetic.
- Javier Bardem was wonderful to watch, but I wasn’t impressed by the character. As a Bond villain, he was a bit “meh”, and the attempt to graft in some sexual kinks seemed forced.
- Albert Finney had a relatively small role, but it was important all the same, it provides a lot of the insight into Bond’s character, and he’s just plain fun to watch. (He is also clearly enjoying himself while on camera)
- Ben Whishaw was good as a very geeky “Q”.
- Ralph Finnes was a complex and watchable character.
- Judy Dench was kind of playing Judy Dench more than she was playing “M”.
Recommended. I’d call it 8 out of 10.
No other blogging today.
Deep Thought
H/t JR at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.
Now I Know How HP Employees Felt When Fiorina was Fired
Because George Lucas has sold LucasFilm and the Star Wars Franchise, meaning that he will no longer be able f%$# it up. (Ewoks, and the Star Wars Holiday Special, Jar Jar Binks, and midi-chlorians, anyone?)
Unfortunately, I also feel how HP employees felt when Meg F%$#ing Whitman was hired as CEO:
In the rare bit of news that could blow Hurricane Sandy off the map, Disney announced today that it had purchased Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion—and announced that the company will debut Star War Episode VII in 2015. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers,” George Lucas said in the official announcement of the transaction, in what is a substantial understatement, given the creative quality of the prequels. “I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime.”
Disney? The f%$#ing mouse?
He f%$#ing sold f%$#ing Star Wars to the f%$#ing mouse?
Grrr………
I Would Pay Money to Hear Robert Downey, Jr. Read the Phone Directory
I watched The Avengers last night.
Seeing as how it was written and directed by Joss Weadon, there are a lot of good one-liners, but I think that it (barely) remains on the right side of the action-movie/action-movie parody line.
As to my favorite line, it’s Downey’s, “Better Clench Up, Legolas.”
It’s Friday
So have a silly video/movie trailer:
There are a couple of swear words.
Words I Never Thought That I Would Ever Say
Good for George Lucas.
George Lucas wanted to expand his movie studios in Marin County, but has been running into a torrent of obstructionism and NIMBY from the local home owners for 25 years, and so they’ve thrown in the towel, and will be selling the land to the Marin County Foundation to create low-income housing:
He’s working with the Marin Community Foundation to instead construct affordable housing for either low-income families or seniors living on small, fixed incomes. In order to smooth along the development, he’s already given them all of the pricey technical studies and land surveys Lucasfilm spent years conducting. And we think that’s just great. Because if there’s one thing rich people will hate more than having movie magic made in their backyard, it’s poor people moving in.
Heh.
Movie Reviews
Over the past few days, we’ve seen a fair number of DVDs and one in theater movies, so here are my reviews:
It’s still basically a lead-in for the upcoming Avengers movie, but it is a lot better than Thor.
That’s because whole Thor was about the character’s back-story, Captain America is about his story.
Captain America has what the oldest story of any of the Avengers, beginning in 1941, and it ran for nearly 10 years before being folded in the early 1950s.
The Nazis, the Red Skull, etc. are all a part of the original story arc.
What this means is that we have a real story here, as opposed to Thor‘s, “How did this Asgardean get to earth?” tale.
It also helps that Chris Evans gives a very down to earth performance as Steve Rogers. He sells it when he says, “I’m just a kid from Brooklyn.”
Iron Man and Iron Man 2:
The best part of both Iron Mans is the performance of Robert Downey, Jr.
He’s fun to watch, and he is believable as a dissolute character who eventually finds redemption. (Unsurprising)
One little detail that I loved is from the 2nd movie, when he is going through his father’s notes on a power supply, and we see a sketch of a representation of a 3D shadow of a tesseract.
The 4-dimensional hypercube figures prominently in the technology used by the Red Skull in the Captain America movie, and the (not entirely clear) fate of the Red Skull in that movie points back to the interdimensional “bridge” used in Thor.
It’s something you pick up on DVD or PPV, but might miss in the theater.
One thing that I have noted in all of the super-hero movies is that the villains tend to seize whatever scene they are in, and they have many of the best lines, the Red Skull’s, “Not a scratch” is prize.
That being said, Micky Rourkes Ivan Vanko/Whiplash is kind of flat, and I found Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2 to be far more engaging and funny, as is Gary Shandling’s appearance as a self serving and fatuous Senator.
As to Scarlett Johansson’s introduction as Natasha Romanoff, aka the Black Widow, it’s Scarlett Johansson in a cat suit. What more do you need?
This movie is fairly true to the original comic book/graphic novel serials, and it was a rollicking good time, with a clear sequel in the works, which is also very much in the spirit of the original.
It’s light and fluffy fare, and relishes that fact, which makes it a pleasant diversion. It’s a well acted adventure fantasy.
I’m not entirely sure why they went with CGI based on motion capture, rather than live action, except for the fact that it allowed them to create the rather caricature like faces of some of the main characters to better match those of the original Hergé comics.
We all saw the film in 3-D, and the technology is much improved over the last 3-D film that I saw in theaters, 1983’s Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn. Once the glasses were on, it just worked, even though I wear glasses myself.
It worked better, and was less obtrusive, at least when the director wasn’t intent on showing it off.
One interesting note here about our theater experience, was that there was something near half an hour of coming attractions, largely also in 3-D, which I rather enjoyed.
Pay Per View Review
Well, we got around to seeing yet another movie on PPV, Thor (2011).
Chris Hemsworth … Thor
Natalie Portman … Jane Foster
Tom Hiddleston … Loki
Anthony Hopkins … Odin
Stellan Skarsgård … Erik Selvig
Kat Dennings … Darcy Lewis
Clark Gregg … Agent Coulson
Idris Elba … Heimdall
Colm Feore … King Laufey
Ray Stevenson … Volstagg
Tadanobu Asano … Hogun
Josh Dallas … Fandral
Jaimie Alexander … Sif
Rene Russo … Frigga
Adriana Barraza … Isabel Alvarez
This really isn’t a film. It’s a lead-in to the upcoming Avengers movie. Barely worth it as PPV, but I’m really glad I didn’t drop 40+ dollars on a movie tickets for the family, and lord knows what on drinks and snacks.
The two best performances are from Stellan Skarsgård, who does a really good job of portraying a Swede (go figure), and Kat Dennings, who embraces her inner sidekick when her wailings for her lost iPod sounds just like my daughter.
Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is an affable, though rather a thick oaf, which suits the script.
Natalie Portman is winsome and smart love interest, which is kind of her sweet spot of acting.
One of the truths of these movies is that the really interesting character is the villain. Well, not this time. Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is just weak.
I’m not sure how much of this is the script, which cannot decide whether or not he is misguided or malevolent.
Anthony Hopkins plays Anthony Hopkins playing Odin. (Meh)
The movie takes place in two places, Earth and Asgard/Jotunheim.
The Asgard/Jotunheim bits are dull. It’s stilted, and dull. At least they don’t to the “thee” and “thine” bit that I remember as the speech of Asgard when I last read the comic in the 1970s.
Basically the lands of the Gods and the Frost Giants seems to be little more than an excuse for excessive CGI.
There are a couple of funny bits, some car accidents and what can only be described as a “hammer time” party.
For most of the movie, S.H.I.E.L.D. seems to be more sinister than benevolent.
Overall, I would give a 5.5 out of 10, a firm “Meh”.
Pix after the break:
Who Says Irony Is Dead?
Do you remember the theatrical release of the Atlas Shrugged Movie, imaginatively named Atlas Shrugged Part I? It was first movie of a 3 part series based on Ayn Rand’s magnum opus.
Yeah, I didn’t think so. It left theaters so fast that I don’t think that they had time to finishing the lettering on the sign.
Well, in their attempt to further
rip-off
monetize their gullible objectivist fanboi base, they made a fairly substantial DVD release that they are now having to recall:
100,000 “Atlas Shrugged” DVDs have been recalled for an important danger they posed to unwary consumers: the title sheet suggested that viewers help someone out besides themselves.
Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand that tells the story of an alternate reality version of America where all the millionaires get sick of the government taking over their inventions so they go on strike. The original title sheet for the movie said that in it, “AYN RAND’s timeless novel of courage and self-sacrifice comes to life…” This grave error posed a risk of fire. As in, it would make Ayn Rand fan’s heads spontaneously immolate upon reading it. So the producers recalled the 100,000 DVDs to replace the sheet.
The new sheet will read, “AYN RAND’s timeless novel of rational self-interest comes to life…” (Emphasis added.)
Needless to say, the idea that the overpaid* self-styled supermen succeeded in refuting Ayn Rand’s core message and now feel ethically compelled to correct this, at significant personal cost, is just chock full of Irony.
*If they are paid at all they are overpaid.
Today is Nigel Tufnel Day
It’s a Spın̈lal Tap thing
And yes, it has its own Facebook page.
If you haven’t seen the move, you’ve missed a good laugh.
If This Doesn’t Enrage You, There is Something Wrong With You
While it remains online, here is the movie The Inside Job:
Inside Job / Trabalho Interno (2010) Legendado PT from MDDVTM TV12 on Vimeo.
H/t DC on the Stellar Parthenon BBS.
I’ve watched the first 15 minutes so far.
Bummer, But the Movies are a Business
A movie based on HP Lovecraft’s novella, At the Mountains of Madness, has been canceled:
The film-world was thrown into a frenzy yesterday regarding Universal’s cancellation of Guillermo del Toro’s personal passion project, a $150 million, R-rated adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness. We live in an era where even the once-brave Warner Bros. has gone from the sort of studio that would roll the dice on The Matrix to the kind of studio that will likely reboot/remake The Matrix, where Pixar seems content to become a sequel factory (Cars 2, Monsters Inc 2), where studios are so terrified of big-budget originality that they seem to merely be parading an never-ending stream of unwanted sequels (Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief: The Sea Monsters), needless remakes (Total Recall), and inexplicable ‘reboots’ (Tomb Raider), the news was the film-news equivalent of us lefties hearing that President Obama had caved into GOP budget demands… again. There are plenty of reasons why executives are reluctant to spend blockbuster-dollars on original ideas. But the (temporary?) death of At the Mountain of Madness isn’t quite representative of the end of original thought in Hollywood. But it is a good time to stop and ask why every major studio genre picture needs to cost to bloody much?
Film Blogger Scott Mendelson is right. When one considers the fact that this film would have to be almost exclusively CGI, and a decent Linux based server farm for the rendering would cost well under $50,000.00, the idea that you need spend $150M to make it is ludicrous.
After all, the 6 minute long CGI extravaganza short subject The Raven cost under $5000.00.
Simply put, this film would not make money unless it shattered box office records for the R-Rated horror genre:
The highest-grossing R-rated film of all-time is The Matrix Reloaded, at $742 million worldwide. After that, you get The Passion of the Christ ($611 million), Terminator 2: Judgment Day ($519 million), Troy ($497 million), Saving Private Ryan ($481 million), The Hangover ($467 million), The Matrix and Pretty Woman ( both $463 million), Gladiator ($457 million), The Last Samurai and 300 ( both $456 million), The Exorcist ($441 million), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine ($433 million), The Matrix Revolutions ($427 million), Sex and the City ($411 million), and The Bodyguard ($410 million – which is arguably why that one is getting remade). That’s just sixteen films in all of modern-motion picture history that have grossed $400 million or more worldwide with an R-rating. The second-highest-grossing R-rated horror film (after The Exorcist) remains Hannibal, with $351 million. I can’t even think of an insanely successful R-rated supernatural horror picture off the top of my head… can you? Point being, even with the once-surefire Tom Cruise allegedly at the helm, an R-rated $150 million supernatural horror film would basically have to become the most successful supernatural R-rated horror film of all-time just to break even.
(Emphasis mine.)
Could someone out in Hollywood explain to me why every film seems to have to cost something north of $100 million?
Even with PR and distribution costs, it seems to me that this could be a $50 million movie, and given the relative cheapness of modern CGI this is very doable, and at that cost, you might clear a profit on the initial theatrical release.
H/t (unsurprisingly) Cthulhu at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.
Well, This is a Pleasant Surprise
Not much to watch, and Maddow was interviewing some ‘Phant, so I was flipping and AMC was showing Kill Bill.
After all the hand wringing I read over the violence, I find it stylish and quite watchable.
Normally, I Don’t Follow the Oscars
Good question
And the trailer
But Charles Ferguson, the director of the documentary The Inside Job, upon accepting his award for best documentary, raised an obvious point:
Forgive me, I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that’s wrong.
It’s a good question, and, considering the timing of the crisis, it really started in September 2008, and there was no way that anything but damage control could be done over the next few months, the answer has to be, “Because Barack Obama does not want a single financial executive to go to jail.”
There are some issues that were mismanaged by the Bush administration, they had no intention to reign in excessive bonuses, for example, but the only way that major figures, such as the recent decision to no-bill Angelo Mozillo, is if there was a conscious decision not to apply to the rule of law at the highest level.
This is very similar to, and as least as damaging in the long term as, his conscious to allow the worst excesses of torture, perjury, and civil rights violations for Bush and His Evil Minions.™
This is corrosive to society.
1:40:24 Well Spent
First, an admission: While I saw the first 3 Star Wars movies, that is episode 4, 5, and 6, I only saw Revenge of the Sith among the prequels.
I was visiting my ‘Rents in 2007, and as a family thing, we all watched episode 3, and my reaction was a big Meh.
I actually found it a bit more disappointing than Return of the Jedi, which was surprising, since I’ve seen about 15 minutes of The Phantom Menace in dribs and drabs, the dialogue drives me to change the channel after about 45 seconds.
In any case it gives me the opportunity to review the review of the movie on Red Letter Media, and “Harvey Plinkett” is a genius.
There is some profoundly disturbing humor in the review (3 parts, at link), but this is a cogent and truly intelligent review of The Revenge of the Sith as cinema, and arguably packs more in it’s a bit more than an hour and a half than your average college level film course.
This is someone who loves cinema, and can use Citizen Kane (Which he admits is unfair) as well as the first three Star Wars Movies (I call that fair) to show just how poorly done and pedestrian SW III is.
It is entertaining, even though it is over half as long as the movie being critiques (100 min vs 140 min).
It’s delivered in a sort of Ben Steinesque creepy monotone, but that contributes to the enjoyment.
I Gotta Check This Flick Out
I want the torch and pitchfork concession.
It will sell better than popcorn
This looks like a documentary that I want top see.
Somehow I think that it will be difficult for me to convince my kids that we want to see this on movie night though.