Not safe for work, but brilliant!
Category: Cinema
This is Amazing
Amazing, The Raven
10 Years ago, if you wanted to come even close to approaching something like this, you would have a team of hundereds, and a budget for a 6 minute short of something north of a million.
If you go to the film-makers channel, they have a “behind the scenes” video, and there are a remarkably small number of people doing this.
I see a fairly large number of computer controlled cameras, including variants/clones of the Stedicam, so it’s more than just CGI.
The ability to use computer controlled stabilized cameras means that you can setup and shoot scenes in an afternoon that would have taken weeks in the past.
According to one source, it was shot on a $5000 budget, which would have been impossible with conventional, non computer controlled cameras.
It reminds me of some of the work I do with castings, where tooling for a complex casting now costs less than $50K, while 15 years ago, in would cost something north of $½ million.
That being said, this is a great short, but I would be very dubious of it being any more enjoyable as a full length movie.
I think that adding character development and exposition would likely weaken the impact.
OK, I Don’t Want to Clean That Podium
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It reminds me of a scene from the Police Academy movies
I’m just saying.
And, no, it is not photoshopped.
Best Apology Ever!
Writer J.D. Shapiro, apologizing for being the 1st script writer for Battlefield Earth.
Seriously, I cannot do justice to this, not can I provide excerpts that do justice, but here is a sample:
During my Scientology research, I met an employee who I instantly had a crush on. She was kind of a priestess, and had dedicated her life to working for the church by becoming a Sea Org member. She said that she signed a billion-year contract. I said, “What! Really?” She said she got paid a small stipend of $50 a week, to which I said, “Can you get an advance on the billion years, like say, a mere $500,000?” And then she said as a Sea Org member, you can’t have sex unless you’re married. I asked her if she was married. She said yes. So I said, “Great! That means we can have sex!”
It is simply exquisite!
Go read.
Asking the Important Questions
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While one might quibble about some of these choices, anything that replaces Jar Jar is a good thing™
Such as Who Would Be Cast in The Coen Brothers’ Star Wars?
Note that in one case, there is no change.
Pay Per View Review
Well, Verizon FIOS has some occasional specials, basically about 40$ off, $2.99 for a 24 hour rental, as versus $4.99, and so we went with one tonight, Race to Witch Mountain.
Dwayne Johnson … Jack Bruno
AnnaSophia Robb … Sara
Alexander Ludwig … Seth
Carla Gugino … Dr. Alex Friedman
Ciarán Hinds … Henry Burke
Tom Everett Scott … Matheson
Chris Marquette … Pope
Billy Brown … Carson
Garry Marshall … Dr. Donald Harlan
Cheech Marin … Eddie Cortez
The plot, what can I say that you don’t see in the trailer.
You have grizzled ex-con cab driver trying to lead a straight and narrow life, played by Dwayne Johnson, aka, the Rock, alien children with otherworldly powers, a beautiful scientist, evil government agents, and an alien assassin. You know where it goes from there.
The plot is basically a throw-away, there are no surprises.
One thing that is done well with the plot, is that they actually give a reason for children with extraordinary powers to need mere humans. I was pleasantly pleased to see that hole plugged in a way that flowed nicely.
Once again, Dwayne Johnson exceeds my expectations, as he did in Steve Carrel movie Get Smart.
Additionally, you have Garry Marshall, who is perhaps best known for his work on the other side of the camera, engaging in some very amusing scenery chewing.
The original children from the original “Escape to Witch Mountain” movies from the 1970s, Ike Eisenmann, Kim Richards have cameos, and the current child actors, AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig, gave decent performances.
The special effects are certainly adequate, not surprising given the state of CGI these days.
The dialog is good, with a lot of very funny deadpan humor. I will say that science fiction/UFO convention held in Los Vegas figures prominently in the movie, as does Sin City itself, and that if you don’t like people making jokes about SF fans, you might be offended, but I was amused.
Additionally, as I went through IMDB, a lot of inside movie references.
It’s a thoroughly pleasant piece of child-friendly fluff, which is exactly what it promised.
Pay Per View Review
It was my just-turned-12-year-old daughter’s turn to choose a movie, and she chose Twilight.
Kristen Stewart … Bella Swan
Robert Pattinson … Edward Cullen
Billy Burke … Charlie Swan
Ashley Greene … Alice Cullen
Nikki Reed … Rosalie Hale
Jackson Rathbone … Jasper Hale
Kellan Lutz … Emmett Cullen
Peter Facinelli … Dr. Carlisle Cullen
Cam Gigandet … James
Taylor Lautner … Jacob Black
Anna Kendrick … Jessica Stanley
Michael Welch … Mike Newton
Christian Serratos … Angela Weber
Gil Birmingham … Billy Black
Elizabeth Reaser … Esme Cullen
It’s a Vampire film, based on the book, which Natalie read, and enjoyed immensely, and it’s very much geared towards tween girls, and so she loved the book, and so chose the movie.
I really tried to talk her out of it, but she was having none of that, and it is a kind of a reward for her reading, so what can a parent do..
The plot is straight forward, Vampire meets girl, they fall in love, damsel in distress ensues.
For what it was, and I would not see this sort of film except under familial duress, it’s of fairly high quality, well shot, and well acted.
I think that the combat sequences could have been a bit better, but I’m a big fan of Kurasawa’s filming of combat in The Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress, which has a level of realism that would not match the target audience (12 year old girls).
It is what it is, and if you like what that is, and I really don’t, you’ll enjoy it.
The only surprises were that there were some legitimately funny bits to it, and I felt no need to claw my eyes out.
Pay Per View Review
It was movie night, and Sharon* chose the 2008 remake of Get Smart.
Steve Carell … Maxwell Smart / Agent 86
Anne Hathaway … Agent 99
Dwayne Johnson … Agent 23
Alan Arkin … The Chief
Terence Stamp … Siegfried
Terry Crews … Agent 91
David Koechner … Larabee
James Caan … The President
Bill Murray … Agent 13
Patrick Warburton … Hymie
Masi Oka … Bruce
Nate Torrence … Lloyd
Ken Davitian … Shtarker
David S. Lee … Ladislas Krstic
Dalip Singh … Dalip
Of all the returns to this series, I think that this was the best, and that includes the 1970s “The Nude Bomb”, which was really pretty lame.
The character is definitely not the late Don Adams’, but Steve Carell of Smart as an overeager crackerjack analyst who has a knack for screwing up generally works.
I think that the weakest of the performances were by Alan Arkin as the Chief, and Terence Stamp as Sigfried.
Arkin’s Chief is a hot-head, as opposed to the reserved, and aggrieved Chief of the late Ed Platt, and I think that had he been played closer to the original, it would have worked better.
Stamp, who makes a marvelous heavy, was simply wrong as Sigfried. He was too evil. The original Sigfried, played by Bernie Kopell, who had a cameo, was more of a sort of mirror image of Adams’ Smart.
I also miss the German accent.
For both of these, I blame the script writer more than anything else.
Anne Hathaway, as 99, did a very good job capturing the extreme competence of the character, as well as the playful sexiness of Barbera Feldon, from the original series.
Dwayne Johnson, aka “The Rock”, was surprisingly good, but more details would be spoilers.
It does touch on all the bits from the original, the cone of silence, “Missed it that by that much”, “Would you believe….”, “In KAOS, we don’t…”, he drives both the sunbeam and the Karmann Ghia, the shoe phone, “The old $$$$ trick”.
The core of the movie, as it was in the series, is the relationship between Max and 99.
There is real comic chemistry there, though the development of the romantic aspects of the relationship were too compressed.
This is not a surprise, as the development of the relationship in the original went from toleration, to amusement, to affection, to love over about 4 seasons, and 110 minutes is just not enough time.
Recommended
*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.
Pay Per View Review
It was movie night, and it was Natalie’s turn to choose, and she chose Shreck the Third. Charlie objected mildly, since he had already seen it at school, but he he enjoyed it once it was on.
Mike Myers … Shrek (voice)
Eddie Murphy … Donkey (voice)
Cameron Diaz … Princess Fiona (voice)
Antonio Banderas … Puss in Boots (voice)
Julie Andrews … Queen Lillian (voice)
John Cleese … King Harold (voice)
Rupert Everett … Prince Charming (voice)
Eric Idle … Merlin (voice)
Justin Timberlake … Artie (voice)
First and foremost, as with any franchise, the question is if it was true to series.
The answer is yes.
The plot is by no means throw-away, with Shreck trying to find a Nephew of the King, Arthur (Artie), so that he does not have to be king.
We also have the vengeful Charming, and some amusing sendups of dinner theater and high school along the way.
The use of music in this movie is the best yet. I’ll never think of Led Zepplin’s The Immigrant Song in the same way.
It is a worthy successor of the first two.
Recommended.
Pay Per View Review
Well, it was movie night again, and this time, it was my choice (it rotates), obviously, I have to choose appropriate to an 8 year old and a 10 year old. I chose The Last Mimzy.
Chris O’Neil: Noah Wilder
Rhiannon Leigh Wryn: Emma Wilder
Joely Richardson: Jo Wilder
Timothy Hutton: David Wilder
Rainn Wilson: Larry White
Kathryn Hahn: Naomi Schwartz
Michael Clarke Duncan: Nathanial Broadman
First a spoiler warning, not about my plot synopsis, but about the first scene of the movie. It portends everything that is going to happen, and could have been left out, adding more dramatic tension to the film.
The film is based on the 1940s classic SF short story, written by husband and wife Henry Kutter and C.L. Moore, Mimsy Were the Borogoves.
The roles of the children, Noah and Emma, are clearly front and center, are well acted, and the adult roles are minor, even as potential nemisis.
Joely Richardson is a bit wooden, and Timothy Hutton is a bit underused (This may be influenced by my seeing his magnificent Archie Goodwin in the A&E Nero Wolfe series) as parents.
Rainn Wilson and Kathryn Hahn (who is probably best known for her role on Crossing Jordan) do rather well as the new-age science teacher and his live-in girlfriend as slightly kooky, if very earnest, comic relief.
It is a science fiction time travel story, which weaves in current events (Department of Homeland Security, Intel, etc.)
It was a decent movie, my son was dead set against it, but agreed afterwards that it was good. It’s a pity that the first 30 seconds of the film make it far less interesting than it would have been.
Additionally, there are some unrealistic bits (Homeland Security is remarkably nice and accommodating) that are clearly there because it was sold as a kids picture.
Pay Per View Review
Our previous cable service was plain vanilla, no cable box, so now we get pay per view, and we checked out a movie list night, Happily N’Ever After, one of the more recent CGI movies to hit the small screen.
Cast:
George Carlin: The Wizard (Sort of)
Andy Dick: Mambo
Sarah Michelle Gellar: Ella
Michael McShane: Rumplestiltskin
Freddie Prinze Jr.: Rick
Wallace Shawn: Munk
Patrick Warburton: Prince Humperdink
Sigourney Weaver: Frieda
George Carlin is amusing, but he has perhaps 3 minutes screen time in this retelling of the Cinderella story, which is juxtaposed with the metaphysics of fairy tales.
Patrick Warburton and Wallace Shawn do a journeyman job of playing…Patrick Warburton and Wallace Shawn, and they are amusing.
For once, Andy Dick is not repellent
Sigourney Weaver is a wonderful evil stepmother, easily the strongest performance of the movie, with Weaver at her scenery chewing best. What’s more, she is the sexiest animated character since Jessica rabbit, and far more interesting, both libidinally and in terms of character development.
but the two leads, Gellar and Prinze are somewhat lackluster.
Freddy Prince, who plays Rick, performs well as the Prince Humperdink’s dogsbody and dishwasher, but Gellar’s performance as Ella is rather lackluster. Some of this is not her fault, as the character is written to be a bit of a ninny.. It doesn’t help that the stepmom is way hotter.
The plot, and plot device are a bit contrived, but I enjoyed it, and more importantly, my kids enjoyed it.
It’s amusing, if fluffy, and the hidden movie references will amuse the adults watching with their kids.
And of course, the happy ending.