Tag: Movies

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Making it up as he goes….

OK, this is all over the place, but I’m probably not a geek in good standing if I don’t post it too, so: Indy’s back.

I’ve generally been ambivalent about a fourth Indiana Jones movie, but if they can make another good one, then I’m fine with it. I loved all three of the originals, although I don’t like Last Crusade as much as I did initially and I’ve found that Temple of Doom is actually better than I thought it was when it first came out. Raiders is, of course, a classic — and by pure chance, I listened to its score last week and was struck anew by how good John Williams was between 1975 (Jaws) and 1985, when he was just cranking out one amazing score after another with almost no let-downs.

I’m also kind of curious to see what happens when Indy IV comes out. If it’s good, we’ll hear about how Spielberg and Harrison Ford still got it, but if it’s a clunker, I’d bet real money that the villain is somehow George Lucas.

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Movies, movies, movies

OK, I should comment on the revised version of the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest American Movies.

:: First, what the hell is an “American” movie, anyway? I’m befuddled by how Lord of the Rings can be considered an American movie. Is it because New Line’s an American company? Well, so what? Disney owns distribution rights to Studio Ghibli movies, so let’s get Princess Mononoke on the list.

:: Second, like Roger Ebert, I was wondering what happened to Fargo. When I first saw Fargo, my initial reaction was, “OK, it’s good. Not that good, but good.” But it sure stuck in my head, and now I’m of the “Yup, it’s that good” mindset.

:: Here’s a good article about the list that sums up some stuff. Before I get to the movies actually on the list, here’s a list of the movies that were on the original list but fell off this time around. I’ve bolded the titles whose fall from grace piss me off, for lack of a better term:

Dr. Zhivago
The Birth of a Nation
From Here to Eternity (Great, great movie.)
Amadeus (Ditto.)
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Third Man
Fantasia
Rebel Without a Cause
Stagecoach (My favorite John Wayne movie.)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Manchurian Candidate (The original, duh.)
An American in Paris
Wuthering Heights
Dances With Wolves (I know, I’m alone in pretty much the entire world in thinking that this movie’s better than Goodfellas, but that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.)
Giant
Fargo
Mutiny on the Bounty
Frankenstein
Patton
The Jazz Singer
My Fair Lady (Yeah, I like West Side Story too, but I’ll take MFL over WSS any day of the month.)
A Place in the Sun
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

And next, the entire list, with occasional comment:

1. “Citizen Kane” (1941) (I know, iconic movie that was staggeringly influential. For me, it’s a “see it once and that’s about it” kind of thing.)

2. “The Godfather” (1972) (I’ve got to admit, I’ve never seen this all the way through and I have virtually no interest in doing so. I just don’t get the allure of mob stories, whether it’s this or The Sopranos or whatever. These aren’t honorable people, they’re not good people living morally within some kind of code, they’re bad people, and I’m just not interested.)

3. “Casablanca” (1942) (This should be number 2, for me.)

4. “Raging Bull” (1980) (Not a fan of boxing, either, really. I heard a comedian on TV once say something along the lines of, “You gotta wonder about a society that considers masturbation ‘self-abuse’ and boxing a sport.” I’m sure this is a great movie, but not a priority of mine.)

5. “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952) (Best musical ever.)

6. “Gone With the Wind” (1939) (Three hours of my life I’ll never get back. I do not understand this movie’s beloved status.)

7. “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962) (I’m buying this on DVD tomorrow. We’ve got it at The Store for eight bucks.)

8. “Schindler’s List” (1993) (Thank God this placed above Saving Private Ryan, which I consider staggeringly overrated.)

9. “Vertigo” (1958)
10. “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) (Top twenty? OK. Above Star Wars? Not on your life!)

11. “City Lights” (1931) (For me, a little Charlie Chaplin goes a long way. I’d have been fine with including Modern Times, and calling it good.)

12. “The Searchers” (1956) (Another one of those iconic movies that’s full of iconicky goodness and that I didn’t much enjoy watching.)

13. “Star Wars” (1977) (Number One, dammit. And I do not want any of what George R.R. Martin is smoking.)

14. “Psycho” (1960) (Not even close to my favorite Hitchcock movie. More icon than movie, for me.)

15. “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) (No argument from me. Haven’t seen it in far too long. I adore this movie.)

16. “Sunset Boulevard” (1950)
17. “The Graduate” (1967)
18. “The General” (1927)
19. “On the Waterfront” (1954)
20. “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946) (How can I have a sentimental streak as wide as I know my sentimental streak to be, and yet not like this movie? How can that be possible? And yet, ’tis true. Don’t like it.)

21. “Chinatown” (1974) (Heresy to say this is some circles, but Jerry Goldsmith never wrote a score as good as this again. Great film; haven’t seen it in far too long.)

22. “Some Like It Hot” (1959)
23. “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940)
24. “E.T. — The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) (Yup.)

25. “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962) (Should have been quite a bit higher.)

26. “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939) (Never seen the whole thing. I only mention it in light of the hilarious Mel Gibson remake from that episode of The Simpsons.)

27. “High Noon” (1952)
28. “All About Eve” (1950)
29. “Double Indemnity” (1944)
30. “Apocalypse Now” (1979)
31. “The Maltese Falcon” (1941)
32. “The Godfather, Part II” (1974) (OK, here’s a sequel. So why not The Empire Strikes Back?)

33. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975)
34. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937) (OK.)

35. “Annie Hall” (1977) (I just don’t get Woody Allen. And this movie beat out Star Wars for Best Picture. On that basis it is an evil, evil movie.)

36. “The Bridge on the River Kwai” (1957)
37. “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946)
38. “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948)
39. “Dr. Strangelove” (1964)
40. “The Sound of Music” (1965) (Fine by me. This movie is adored.)

41. “King Kong” (1933)
42. “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967)
43. “Midnight Cowboy” (1969)
44. “The Philadelphia Story” (1940)
45. “Shane” (1953)
46. “It Happened One Night” (1934)
47. “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951)
48. “Rear Window” (1954)
49. “Intolerance” (1916)
50. “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001) (OK, I got this list from the afore-linked Roger Ebert article. The show did not specify Fellowship, but quite properly identified The Lord of the Rings as a whole. Apparently I was wrong, and they just faded the title out because they couldn’t get the whole thing onscreen at once, which negates my point here. These aren’t three separate movies, and for the AFI to treat them as such is idiotic.)

51. “West Side Story” (1961) (Fine, fine film. Truly great. And I can name a dozen musicals I love more, and several I think should outpace it on this list.)

52. “Taxi Driver” (1976)
53. “The Deer Hunter” (1978) (Watched this in college when my roommate Chris had to watch it for a history class about the Vietnam war. This movie made me want to kill myself.)

54. “M*A*S*H” (1970) (Loved it.)

55. “North by Northwest” (1959) (Loved it. Need to watch it again.)

56. “Jaws” (1975) (Ditto.)

57. “Rocky” (1976) (OK, here’s the exception for boxing. Like this one. Don’t love it. It’s good.)

58. “The Gold Rush” (1925)
59. “Nashville” (1975)
60. “Duck Soup” (1933)
61. “Sullivan’s Travels” (1941)
62. “American Graffiti” (1973) (Haven’t seen this is far too long, either. I think it’s great.)

63. “Cabaret” (1972)
64. “Network” (1976)
65. “The African Queen” (1951) (OK, does Bogart get enough love as an actor? Just compare him in this movie to Rick in Casablanca. I’m thinking of that bashful grin Bogey does when he admits to Katherine Hepburn that his first name is “Charley”. There’s some range for you!)

66. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981) (Well, duh.)

67. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966)
68. “Unforgiven” (1992) (This is when I realized that Eastwood wasn’t just the guy from Every Which Way But Loose.)

69. “Tootsie” (1982)
70. “A Clockwork Orange” (1971)
71. “Saving Private Ryan” (1998) (Sigh. The D-Day stuff is stunningly great. Everything after that? Meh followed by treacle.)

72. “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994) (Not nearly high enough.)

73. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969)
74. “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991)

75. “In the Heat of the Night” (1967)
76. “Forrest Gump” (1994) (OK, I’ll admit to liking this movie. I don’t think it’s quite the indictment of the Left that many think it is, and I find it absorbing every time I see it. But still: it’s on the list and Fargo‘s not? I call shenanigans.)

77. “All the President’s Men” (1976)
78. “Modern Times” (1936) (As I said. This is legitimately great.)

79. “The Wild Bunch” (1969)
80. “The Apartment” (1960)
81. “Spartacus” (1960)
82. “Sunrise” (1927)
83. “Titanic” (1997) (I’ve blogged about this before in greater depth somewhere, but let me just say that I still don’t get the angry backlash against this movie that’s pretty much held sway ever since, oh, the day after it won “Best Picture”. Sure, the love story is pure melodrama, but there’s nothing wrong with melodrama sometimes, and all the stuff about the ship sinking is just amazing stuff. Great movie, in my opinion.)

84. “Easy Rider” (1969)
85. “A Night at the Opera” (1935)
86. “Platoon” (1986)
87. “12 Angry Men” (1957)
88. “Bringing Up Baby” (1938)
89. “The Sixth Sense” (1999) (Well…really? Top 100? It’s good, but…well, really? If this movie is on the list again in ten years, I’ll be shocked.)

90. “Swing Time” (1936)
91. “Sophie’s Choice” (1982)
92. “Goodfellas” (1990) (Meh.)

93. “The French Connection” (1971)
94. “Pulp Fiction” (1994) (OK, here’s my exception to my general antipathy toward movies with criminals as protagonists. But this is because of the film’s theme of redemption, when Jules realizes he must leave the life and “try real hard to be the shepherd”.)

95. “The Last Picture Show” (1971)
96. “Do the Right Thing” (1989)
97. “Blade Runner” (1982) (Sorry, but…no. Yes, its production design is amazing, but the story isn’t all that interesting, to me. I always find this movie uninvolving and kind of dull. Roy Batty’s final speech before he dies is pretty poetic, I’ll admit, but it’s preceded by two hours of “Meh”.)

98. “Yankee Doodle Dandy” (1942)
99. “Toy Story” (1995) (I think they picked this because it was Pixar’s first, as opposed to Pixar’s best. Finding Nemo is far, far better. So is The Incredibles.)

100. “Ben-Hur” (1959) (Yes! My favorite biblical or “sword-and-sandal” epic.)

And finally, here are some movies that haven’t made either list that, in my mind, damned well should have made at least one:

The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Sea Hawk
The Empire Strikes Back
An Affair to Remember (Oh, stop. It makes me cry like a little girl, and that’s fine by me.)
Superman
When Harry Met Sally…
The Music Man
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
As Good As It Gets
The Princess Bride
Say Anything (Shut up. It makes me cry like a little girl too.)
Pinocchio
The Iron Giant
Somewhere In Time (OK, maybe not. But it too makes me cry like a little girl.)
Bull Durham (Hey, wait a minute — there’s no baseball anywhere in the official list! What the hell–!)
Heavy Metal (OK, definitely not. But oh, my beloved Taarna….)

OK, I think I’m done now. We’ll revisit this in 2017, when this blog is beamed directly into your brain.

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O for a giant can of Raid….

Someone arrived here via a search-engine query for “King Kong giant bug picture”. I’m assuming they’re looking for photos from the sequence in the Peter Jackson King Kong movie where Our Heroes are on Skull Island, and after some adventurous stuff in which their numbers have already shrunk, find themselves at the bottom of a deep chasm…at night…when the huge insects and other beasties of unusual size come out to play. This scene actually scared the crap out of me.

And thanks to YouTube, it can scare the crap out of you, too. It starts off OK…until around the 1:55 mark, when the flare that’s keeping the bugs at bay flickers out….

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I thee web

So. Spiderman 3.

Here be Spoilers! Major Spoilers! I hold nothing back!

(But before I start: Hey Jen, was that you I may have glimpsed emerging from the theater with three people? I only got a brief glimpse before your party (if that was you) headed across the parking lot, and I wasn’t about to shout out “Hey Jen!” if you weren’t there and it was someone named Ashley or Morgan or something like that.)

And now, onto the movie.

I said, “Onto the movie. Here’s where I start SPOILING things. I’m not holding back. I’ll put all this in my pseudo-invisitext, but really — SPOILERS!

Once again, my reaction is split down the middle. Maybe not exactly down the middle, but I’m of two minds here. One mind loved the movie and had a blast watching it. The other mind — my inner Comic Book Geek — kept ticking off the things that annoyed me about the way these movies keep re-jiggering the whole Spiderman backstory.

I read some reviews the indicated the the film was overstuffed with plot, and it probably was; surely one less villain would have been fine. I’d have been OK with saving Venom and the whole black suit thing for Spiderman 4; Thomas Haden Church’s Sandman is compelling enough, and he continues the fine tradition in these movies of giving the villains reasons for their villainy — i.e., no one in a Spiderman movie is evil for the sake of being evil, which is very welcome. With both Sandman and Venom here, I thought that both characters ended up getting a bit short-changed — especially since you can’t have Venom until late in the film, after Peter has worn and rejected the black suit.

And it’s not just Sandman and Venom. We’ve also got the standard trials-and-tribulations of Peter Parker, because one of the best things about the whole Spiderman character was the conceit that while Spidey’s this awesome hero and stuff, in his everyday life, Peter Parker can never quite get his shit together. His love life and professional life and school life are always seemingly on the verge of snowballing out of control. I love that, and the movie wouldn’t have been a Spiderman movie without that stuff — but it adds running time. Plus, there’s the Harry Osborne storyline that’s been simmering for two movies already; they couldn’t put that off another movie. And then there’s Gwen Stacy — but we’ll get to her in a bit.

So yes, the movie is overstuffed. It’s very well done, so I was generally unaware of the overstuffing. Sam Raimi keeps things moving, and whenever things start slowing down, he either tosses in one of those signature action sequences or — even better — gives us a bit involving the frankly wonderful supporting cast of quirky characters that fill the margins of the movie. (Seriously, this movie is worth seeing just for the supporting cast — and there is one cameo appearance to which I almost cheered. ‘Nuff said.)

As is usually the case with movies like this, the best performances came from the villains. I knew that Topher Grace was in the movie, and I was a big fan of That 70s Show, so it shocked me to realize that I was watching Grace’s second scene in the movie before I realized it was him as weaselly Eddie Brock. Church was also superb as Sandman, and it was a shame that neither got really enough screen time. At least with Sandman, Raimi finally managed to break his long-standing habit in these movies of killing the villains so they can never be seen again.

(Really, what’s up with that? One of the charms of the comics is recurring villains, and now we can’t really see Doc Ock again. That’s a bummer.)

And now it’s time to really geek out a bit. Two things kept bugging me about this movie. First was the revisiting of Uncle Ben’s death, and the other was Gwen Stacy.

Everybody knows that the most important moment in Peter Parker’s life, when he learns his Great Life Lesson, is when Uncle Ben is shot at the hands of a two-bit crook whom Peter had let get away just hours before. This is when Peter learns that “With great power comes great responsibility”. However, in Spiderman 3, it’s revealed that the crook that had been identified as Uncle Ben’s killer in the first movie was actually just an accomplice for Flint Marko, the guy who becomes the Sandman. So in the movie, Peter is somewhat obsessed with catching and killing Marko — until the end, when Peter forgives him, and lets him go.

I had a hard time with all of this. Granted, the major bulk of this is spun out while Peter’s using the black costume, which feeds his hunger for vengeance, but I just didn’t like how they decided to retcon Uncle Ben’s death. The central guilt Peter feels for his uncle’s death is by far one of the two most important factors in the psychology of the character, and here the film seems to imply that no, maybe if Peter had stopped Marko’s accomplice, his uncle would still have been killed. This isn’t stated explicitly, but the implication is there, and it troubled me. Peter Parker should always be thinking, in some tiny part of his mind, “If only I’d stopped that guy.”

And then there’s the other most important component in SpiderPsychology: Gwen Stacy.

First of all, they got her looking perfect in this movie. That’s exactly how I always figured Gwen Stacy would look in real life. They even got her trademark black headband in there.

But…I’m trying, folks, but there’s a big chunk of my GeekBrain that will not accept a Spiderman reality in which (a) Gwen wasn’t Peter Parker’s first true love, and (b) Gwen doesn’t die at the hands of the Green Goblin. The first movie bothered me in this regard as well, when it constructed its climactic battle scene to resemble Gwen’s death in the comics (Green Goblin, the Brooklyn Bridge), but with Mary Jane as the damsel in distress and with her surviving. But now, in Spiderman 3, along comes Gwen, the real deal. And the first time Spiderman has to come to her rescue, it’s because she’s falling from a great height, and he snags her with his webbing to break her fall.

So again the Spiderman movie people tease with elements of Gwen’s iconic death scene — but they couldn’t kill her now, because the movies have already established that MJ is Peter’s first true love, not Gwen. So as pretty as Gwen is, she’s just not Gwen Stacy. Not in the true sense. The producers could just as well have named her Carolyn Smith. She doesn’t even have that much screentime, so having Gwen Stacy here doesn’t really serve any purpose except to add a damsel in distress.

If I have another complaint, it’s a fairly minor one — but a lot of the film’s plot developments hinge on pure chance (a meteor hitting the Earth just thirty feet or so from where Peter and MJ are cavorting in the woods), or on characters’ relationships going awry and having those characters refuse to just speak up and explain themselves. And there’s a moment when Harry Osborne’s butler or manservant or whatever he is finally comes clean with some information he’s apparently been sitting on for years; I wanted Harry’s response to this to be something along the lines of, “You know, had you said this years ago, you might have saved me a whole lot of trouble.”

On the whole, I enjoyed the third movie more than I did the first, but not quite as much as the second. I’ll take it. And really, it’s worth seeing just for the amazing Sandman effects alone.

OK, we’re done with spoilers. It’s a very fun movie. A great time was had by all.

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Cinematic wisdom

For no real reason, I think there should be a selection online of the greatest advice ever given in the movies or TV shows. Hence this post. I’ll start listing some as they come to me, and feel free to add some in comments — I’ll update as needed.

(These will of necessity be in no particular order.)

1. “Try not! Do, or do not. There is no ‘try’.” (The Empire Strikes Back)

2. “Don’t tug on that! You never know what it might be attached to.” (The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension)

3. “Don’t drink it all at once, and try not to drink it all alone.” (Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Family”)

4. “Look eye! Always look eye.” (The Karate Kid)

5. “People will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.” (Field of Dreams)

6. “Your half-assed underparenting is a lot more fun than your half-assed overparenting.” (The Simpsons)

7. “No matter where you go in life, always keep an eye for Johnny the tackling Alzheimer’s patient.” (Scrubs)

8. “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.” (A League of Their Own)

9. “Poise! Poise!” (Seinfeld, “The Chaperone”)

10. “God doesn’t cause car accidents, and you know it. Stop using me as an excuse.” (The West Wing, “Two Cathedrals”)

11. “Stay away from the mounds, or the termites will eat all the wood in your body.” (BJ from The Amazing Race IX)

Fire away! I’ll update as I think of more. (No need to keep it at one selection per film or show, either.)

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Movies….

I’ve seen this quiz a few times in the last couple of days. It’s straightforward enough:

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.

Casablanca.

2. Name a movie that you’ve seen multiple times in the theater.

When The Wife and I were first dating, we saw Aladdin together four times.

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.

Hmmmmm. Not really sure, anymore. Harrison Ford used to be gold, but then he stopped picking good movies to do. Liam Neeson, maybe.

4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.

Adam Sandler (although he was quite good in Spanglish, where my dislike of the film had nothing to do with him).

5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from.

I’m always good for a Star Wars quote or two. (Big surprise.) And Wayne’s World; for years, my standard reply to anyone telling me that they have something for me is, “If it’s a severed head I’m gonna be very upset.”

6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.

Singin’ in the Rain.

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with.

My Fair Lady.

8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.

Princess Mononoke.

9. Name a movie that you own.

Just one? Odd question, so I’ll name the first DVD I see. [glances at shelf] I own Ben Hur.

10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.

Morgan Freeman. (Maybe not quite in the same vein as what the question is getting at, but who watched The Electric Company and saw in that guy Red from The Shawshank Redemption?)

11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?

Dammit, every year The Wife and I agree that we’re going to take The Daughter to the drive-in, and we never do. Anyway, my family went to Star Trek III at the drive-in.

12. Ever made out in a movie?

People do that at movies? You can do that at home! Why pay to see a movie and then make out?

Seriously, no, I’ve never done this. Hand-holding, sure, but that’s it. I’m watching the movie.

(When we saw Titanic, the couple in front of us starting necking during the friggin’ previews. They barely came up for air the whole movie. God, they were annoying.)

13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven’t yet gotten around to it.

Oh, God, too many to name. Portrait of Jennie, I suppose. A friend tells me this is the most romantic movie ever.

14. Ever walked out of a movie?

No. But I’ve shut off movies I rented before.

15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.

Dances with Wolves. First time I saw that, I started when the soldiers shot Two-Socks. I’m not that bad with it anymore, but I still cry when Wind In His Hair climbs the promontory just to shout his farewell to his friend.

16. Popcorn?

I can’t see a movie without popcorn. I happily munched my way through a medium popcorn during the first half hour of Schindler’s List. (But I did not make out during Schindler’s List!)

17. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?

Fairly rarely anymore. I love going to the movies, but the price of doing so has reached the point where it’s now a special occasion. Alas.

18. What’s the last movie you saw in the theater?

Casino Royale.

19. What’s your favorite/preferred genre of movie?

Anything that entertains me, really. I just like movies.

20. What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?

Snow White. My mother tells me that it scared the living shit out of me, and having seen it in recent years, I can see why. There’s some grim stuff in that movie.

21. What movie do you wish you had never seen?

Highlander. Never has the gulf between the expectations I had based on the gushing by my friends and my actual experience of watching the movie been so wide.

22. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?

Not sure what we mean by “weird” here…but I seem to be pretty weird in my steadfast admiration for The Phantom Menace.

23. What is the scariest movie you’ve seen?

The Silence of the Lambs.

24. What is the funniest movie you’ve seen?

Ask me this question tomorrow and I’ll say Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But you’re asking today, so I’m saying A Fish Called Wanda.

Your turn.

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