It's not often today that you can get your money's worth for anything. Gas is over $3.10 a gallon, because we need to make sure oil company executives get massive bonuses for record profits; milk is almost half again as expensive, because, you know, we have to import and buy so much on the spot market. Darn those foreign cow coalitions... we pay too much for healthcare, auto insurance, home mortgages, pretty much everything.
So: Why is it that after paying $17.00 a ticket for the special Imax glasses to go with the Imax 3D movie, I feel happy? Well that's EASY! Blue stripey girls are ... wait sorry... DRAGONS are hot! (ha ha). More specifically, Blue/Black dragons that spit (Plasma balls? Lightning? Whatever..) are hot. I was more than satisfied with the Imax versions visual effect, and combined with a superbly told charming and funny story, the film is there firmly in my current Top Ten. The writing is excellent, and the actor voicing Hiccup delivers his lines with the perfect punch amd wry humor, and the right amount of frustrated teen when called for. Toothless the dragon always does a great job, though he was not given much dialogue to work with. Having Vikings with Scottish accents just goes to show how well travelled the Vikings really were, and Craig Ferguson and Gerard Butler are charmingly brash, overbearing and simplistic as required. The twin brother and sister keep their squabbles funny, every time they do it, and the kid who simply HAS to have been drawn to look like Jack Black acts like him as well.
The big surprise for me was Astrid; I was absolutely certain that Kirsten Dunst was doing the voice. That of course COULD be because Astrid looks exactly like Kirsten, and copies a number of her gestures, such as the lock of hair hanging over her right eye, the glare, and the smile. When I saw that it was America Ferrera who did the voice all I could think was "Well, that explains it, she is a great actress too!" I have to say, if you are going to see a 3D Imax film, this is the one. The flying scenes took me back to the opening night of "The Empire Strikes Back" with the little airborne speeders racing over the ice and snow. Yow! There is a good reason I think 3D is more than a fad; the visuals here are the primary one.
I also saw "Kick-Ass". Be warned; if potty mouthed 12 year old girls in pony tails are going to shock you, don't be eating or drinking when Hit Girl first shows up. The people in front of you will get really pissed. This movie was funny as hell, and about as politically correct and sensitive as a Beavis and Butthead meet South Park film would be. This film makes no excuses for the level of profanity, masturbation jokes, violence or cleavage shots; and while they don't all get used, I am reasonably certain that all the guns Neo and Trinity did not use were grabbed up by the armourer Damian Mitchell, and the props head. Rudolf Vrba did a great job on the fights; by the time Hit Girl starts, well, kicking ass, nothing she does ( a wall run and flip? ) looks remotely silly. Aside from the fact she is a homicidal maniac, she does a good job being second place in the cute department (for a 12 year old; back off folks (GR) ). As the love interest Lyndsey Fonseca (who is a respectable 24... pfftthhhbbb..) is extremely funny, and VERY pretty. Christopher Minz also has a good part, and actually ties back to "How to Train Your Dragon" as the voice of Fishlegs..
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Movies!
“Avatar”! Whooooo-hoooooo! Yessss!
Oh. Sorry. Not the usual analytical fare you are used to. Ummm…. Yow!
OK. Don’t go for the plot. There is one; it’s just so been done that looking at the plot is like looking at a “Dick and Jane” book. They run, Spot joins them, they go bankrupt. Seen it already. Then again “Titanic” was just as simple. Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back, boy drowns. There is some variant here. Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back….. except they are blue and stripy with little glowy dot patterns. They don’t have icebergs. Or a big-ass ship. (OK, they don't. The military guys do). Or, ……. Well, whatever. OK, that isn't entirely fair. "Citizen Kane" or "Grapes of Wrath" it isn't. It is however an engaging story.
As far as the aliens go, they are a wonderful blend of striped tabby (they hiss when angry) and American Plains Indian. If you don’t wonder “did I drop acid and go to Dances with Wolves?” at one point, you did not watch Dances with Wolves enough times. Three should do it. The nasty Marine Colonel is straight from Central Castings list. “Please send over one gung-ho military commander with scars who is evil and one dimensional”. Poof. He stands around drinking coffee while ordering a bombing run. Oooooooh, evil… Michelle Rodriguez (Lost) is a tough fighter pilot. No effort there. Still, she works just fine.
Sigourney Weaver is, well, Sigourney. This role really did not do much to stretch her talents to the limit. “Sigourney, can you be flinty, cynical and tough please? And see if you can give me a soupcon of sexy, OK?” No problem Jim. Zoe Saldana, who played Uhuru in the re-imagined “Star Trek” is not really stretched much either. Giovanni Ribisi plays the naturally utterly-corrupt-corporate-puke out for a profit (see "Aliens"), but does some nice camera takes later on. “Am I doing the right thing? Should I stop the Colonel? Oooh, the stock just went up 2 points!” They all do good jobs, but again none of these characters take them deep into subtext.
So what. Flying things with four wings are cool. Floating mountains are cool. Gunships from Halo are cool. Blue stripy girls with tails and bows and arrows who hiss when they are angry are cool. Things that are pretty are cool. Stripy blue girls are cool. Tails are cool. Girls who are stripy and blue and have tails….. sorry. Looking down off the edge of a mountain that is also floating 2000 feet in the air is cool. Well, unless you have vertigo or are afraid of heights. In that case, skip the 3-D version I think. A few people I know will especially hate the “OK, we are going to jump out of this tree now. Follow me!” bit.
Go for the spectacle; I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Unless you think the Disneyland fireworks show is dull, just because you have seen it 50 times (how could you go so seldom?). In which case, go back to watching “My Dinner With Andre”. Or Gunthy-Renker. One more thing; it’s the second week in the run, the theatre was sold out, and everyone applauded at the end. Gotta love it! As for the 3D version, they used it brilliantly. I honestly can't remember a single thing poking out at me "Hi! I'm a 3D effect branch! Cool, huh?" merely for the sake of showing me it was a 3D version. Instead the 3D was used (liberally) to enhance the environment of the film. When one character looked off the edge of a cliff, I think half the people in the theater grabbed their chair arms in reflex...... "ooooohhhhhh damn......."
Also I saw "Sherlock Holmes" and "Up in the Air".
Sherlock Holmes is exactly what you see in the previews. Robert Downey Jr. is an in-your-face butt-kicking Holmes, who uses his famous wits (two scenes) to calculate exactly how best to disable his foes. Then he does it. Boom. Jude Law as Watson is far from the hapless Watson of the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce versions (good as those were). He also is not quite as tolerant of Holmes as we have come to expect. This is a brawling pair of dashing English crime-fighters from 1890's London. There are plenty of classic Holmes-esque twists, turns, and sub-plots. Plus some cool blowing up stuff. Blowing up stuff is cool. 1890's London is cool. Women in bustiers are cool. Blue stripy girls are ....Ooops. Sorry..... Wrong movie. I really can't say much more on this one without issuing spoiler alerts, so you will just have to see and judge yourself. Best Holmes film ever? Probably not. Fun to watch? You betcha!
Up in the Air is pure Clooney. He takes this guy and makes him someone you know in about 15 seconds. Vera Farmiga is spectacular as the female counterpart; no spoiler here, when they start comparing credit cards and frequent flyer cards, what should be dry as Melba Toast all but sizzles. Plus it's funny. Anna Somethingorother (sorry, no clue of last name...) is cute, talented, and takes off carrying her portrayal like a star NFL Running Back with the football, right to the end zone. She starts off like the annoying know-it-all college grad with a shiny degree who knows all the answers: Clooney starts yanking off the blinders and showing her the real world before they even get on the first plane. Should seem mean, but is done so deftly that while you might think "Wow, he's really being a jerk" you still laugh. And then realize just how right he is, each and every time. Again, no spoilers. Watch this one.
Oh. Sorry. Not the usual analytical fare you are used to. Ummm…. Yow!
OK. Don’t go for the plot. There is one; it’s just so been done that looking at the plot is like looking at a “Dick and Jane” book. They run, Spot joins them, they go bankrupt. Seen it already. Then again “Titanic” was just as simple. Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back, boy drowns. There is some variant here. Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back….. except they are blue and stripy with little glowy dot patterns. They don’t have icebergs. Or a big-ass ship. (OK, they don't. The military guys do). Or, ……. Well, whatever. OK, that isn't entirely fair. "Citizen Kane" or "Grapes of Wrath" it isn't. It is however an engaging story.
As far as the aliens go, they are a wonderful blend of striped tabby (they hiss when angry) and American Plains Indian. If you don’t wonder “did I drop acid and go to Dances with Wolves?” at one point, you did not watch Dances with Wolves enough times. Three should do it. The nasty Marine Colonel is straight from Central Castings list. “Please send over one gung-ho military commander with scars who is evil and one dimensional”. Poof. He stands around drinking coffee while ordering a bombing run. Oooooooh, evil… Michelle Rodriguez (Lost) is a tough fighter pilot. No effort there. Still, she works just fine.
Sigourney Weaver is, well, Sigourney. This role really did not do much to stretch her talents to the limit. “Sigourney, can you be flinty, cynical and tough please? And see if you can give me a soupcon of sexy, OK?” No problem Jim. Zoe Saldana, who played Uhuru in the re-imagined “Star Trek” is not really stretched much either. Giovanni Ribisi plays the naturally utterly-corrupt-corporate-puke out for a profit (see "Aliens"), but does some nice camera takes later on. “Am I doing the right thing? Should I stop the Colonel? Oooh, the stock just went up 2 points!” They all do good jobs, but again none of these characters take them deep into subtext.
So what. Flying things with four wings are cool. Floating mountains are cool. Gunships from Halo are cool. Blue stripy girls with tails and bows and arrows who hiss when they are angry are cool. Things that are pretty are cool. Stripy blue girls are cool. Tails are cool. Girls who are stripy and blue and have tails….. sorry. Looking down off the edge of a mountain that is also floating 2000 feet in the air is cool. Well, unless you have vertigo or are afraid of heights. In that case, skip the 3-D version I think. A few people I know will especially hate the “OK, we are going to jump out of this tree now. Follow me!” bit.
Go for the spectacle; I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Unless you think the Disneyland fireworks show is dull, just because you have seen it 50 times (how could you go so seldom?). In which case, go back to watching “My Dinner With Andre”. Or Gunthy-Renker. One more thing; it’s the second week in the run, the theatre was sold out, and everyone applauded at the end. Gotta love it! As for the 3D version, they used it brilliantly. I honestly can't remember a single thing poking out at me "Hi! I'm a 3D effect branch! Cool, huh?" merely for the sake of showing me it was a 3D version. Instead the 3D was used (liberally) to enhance the environment of the film. When one character looked off the edge of a cliff, I think half the people in the theater grabbed their chair arms in reflex...... "ooooohhhhhh damn......."
Also I saw "Sherlock Holmes" and "Up in the Air".
Sherlock Holmes is exactly what you see in the previews. Robert Downey Jr. is an in-your-face butt-kicking Holmes, who uses his famous wits (two scenes) to calculate exactly how best to disable his foes. Then he does it. Boom. Jude Law as Watson is far from the hapless Watson of the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce versions (good as those were). He also is not quite as tolerant of Holmes as we have come to expect. This is a brawling pair of dashing English crime-fighters from 1890's London. There are plenty of classic Holmes-esque twists, turns, and sub-plots. Plus some cool blowing up stuff. Blowing up stuff is cool. 1890's London is cool. Women in bustiers are cool. Blue stripy girls are ....Ooops. Sorry..... Wrong movie. I really can't say much more on this one without issuing spoiler alerts, so you will just have to see and judge yourself. Best Holmes film ever? Probably not. Fun to watch? You betcha!
Up in the Air is pure Clooney. He takes this guy and makes him someone you know in about 15 seconds. Vera Farmiga is spectacular as the female counterpart; no spoiler here, when they start comparing credit cards and frequent flyer cards, what should be dry as Melba Toast all but sizzles. Plus it's funny. Anna Somethingorother (sorry, no clue of last name...) is cute, talented, and takes off carrying her portrayal like a star NFL Running Back with the football, right to the end zone. She starts off like the annoying know-it-all college grad with a shiny degree who knows all the answers: Clooney starts yanking off the blinders and showing her the real world before they even get on the first plane. Should seem mean, but is done so deftly that while you might think "Wow, he's really being a jerk" you still laugh. And then realize just how right he is, each and every time. Again, no spoilers. Watch this one.
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