My favorite line from the whole movie was the Pentecostal, home schooling mother saying, "Nothing in Science can be proven... it's interesting if you look at it like that."
My western kick continues. 3:10 to Yuma (2007 Remake)
Very different kind of pace from the Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns I've mainly been watching all year, but that's okay too. Really exciting. For me the best part though was Russel Crowe and Christian Bale's performances. For all the action, it actually was essentially a character study. Very cool.
It wasn't horrible. Though I am glad I waited to see it on Netflix. I liked the story, but I didn't like the characters. Olive and her family - to me they came across as the writer(s) trying hard to make another Juno. Rhiannon's parents were stereotypical weirdo Californians. Lisa Kudrow really needs to stop being Phoebe/Ursula.
I think she's okay, but her voice is dull and lifeless - and she does not exceed the confines of her material at all. I watched Black Swan expecting this amazing, breakthrough performance and all I got was Padme 2.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: Definitely better than the third movie, and arguably the best of the sequels. There's still the odd subplot that doesn't have a purpose, but it's toned down, the "serious romantic plot" is almost gone without Will and Elizabeth, and the constant references to the first movie have pretty much vanished. Taking all those things away makes for a stronger story, and while not perfect, there's some great scenes, great jokes (make sure to stay for after the credits), and it's a fun ride once the obligatory opening waste of an action scene is done (yeah, they still kept that from the other sequels). I know it sounds like a lot of complaining, but it's worth seeing if you enjoyed any of the other movies.
Just saw THE HORDE, an indy French fast-zombie movie, in honor of Apocalypse Saturday, and I highly recommend it, even if you prefer classic zombies. Despite its low budget, Frenchness, and generic setup (its another "can they survive the night of the zombie apocalypse" kind of deals), it has really above-the-par cinematography and effects, and even though we've seen pretty much all the characters before, they're so human in their execution that it doesn't feel like we're watching the standard archetypes (to the point where fairly substantial gore element doesn't overwhelm the emotional element), yet the action really never slows down.
It's on Netflix streaming right now, you guys should totally check it out.
Saw Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides with Baer. Mostly an enjoyable film where they really kept Jack Sparrow as the rogue we love to hate and hate to love, instead of mushying him up with romance. There were some really cool fight scenes and a lot of laughs, but also some WTF moments - including Captain Barbosa in a wig and with a powdered face, all the way down the little beauty mark by his mouth. That was creepier than the zombies or Blackbeard.
Terrible A-plot, just ... terrible. The principle problem is that it sets up Dave, a hopeless comic aficionado, as a protagonist naive enough to seriously attempt fighting crime ala Batman; the audience knows it's horribly misguided, the screenplay knows it's horribly misguided, so why should we identify with him as a character? Because he has a ten-year-old's idealism? Speaking realistically, he's a dope. He's not actually capable of fighting crime worth a damn, and so rightfully gets the shit kicked out of him on his initial foray. But the movie couldn't end on that note (nor so early!), so it has to Batmanize the film by bringing in super heroes who, despite technically not having any actual 'powers,' can still take out endless enemies, jump off walls, etc. The screenplay is just clever enough to be aware of this incongruity, however, and tries to stave it off via
a death and a beatdown
of Dave's new friends to demonstrate that they, too, can can bleed - but that only reinforces what a colossally idiotic idea it is to become a masked vigilante in the first place! The ending, then, becomes not one of hope, but of hopelessness. If they only 'won' because Dave had the skill of
pulling a trigger, plus operating a fucking jet pack which those he's 'inspired' obviously won't have,
then heroes everywhere are going to have to get a better skill set.*
It's not a terribly entertaining or funny A-plot, either. Most of the film's humor comes from the B-plot ...
... which I actually found loads more entertaining, at least in comparison. Had this movie ditched the cumbersomely-realized A-plot, it could have functioned as a sort of grindhouse-style Leon, mixed with a parody on cop revenge plots. But no, despite people weighing down their swim trunks with urine at the time over the B-plot, it doesn't take up nearly that much screen-time. Maybe it would have grated over time, but as it was, a few utterances of 'cock' and some sublime Nic Cage laughing later, and the movie soon returned to the task of failing to make us give a shit about its hapless protagonist.
Probably the most amusing aspect of this movie, however, was not the B-plot itself, but the reaction to it at the time. Was it rather mindless? Well, yes, but if one thinks saying 'cock' once or twice is the worst thing a child actress growing up with a Hollywood career has to worry about ... at any rate, it's been a little while since the movie came out, and society still seems to be intact.
Seriously, though, where was the outrage over the screenwriter's inability to come up with a (adult) female character defined by something other than whether or not she would consent to boning the creeptastic jackass in the green tights? Where was the outrage that the movie's protagonist considered it a fine idea to go out with someone who somehow connected his being supposedly sexually molested by muggers to being a homosexual?
The movie tried to make a point about real-life vigilantism simultaneous to showing us a character who ultimately 'got the girl' and 'saved the day' ... in clichéd terms, it tried to have its cake and eat it, too. I have no idea what the source material is like, but if it's anything like this ... well, it probably isn't very good, to put it mildly.
My rating: 1 star for Nic Cage having any screen-time at all, and 5 Fuck Yous for the yahoos responsible for this sh!t.
*And while I'm talking about this,
'Hey, why don't you pick on someone your own size'? Really, movie? Augh.
Super is a much more interesting take on this story, the nature of violence/revenge, and it actually manages to push the envelope and be really disturbing.
Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tide - pretty good Toy Story 3 - fantastic How to train your dragon - not bad Scott Pilgrim vs the World - just awful
Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tide - pretty good Toy Story 3 - fantastic How to train your dragon - not bad Scott Pilgrim vs the World - just awful
Hun, I can't wait for Hollywood to realize Shia is perfect as Marty McFly in the rebook of Back to the Future. Aston Kutcher as Doc. Hollywood, are you listening????
Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tide - pretty good Toy Story 3 - fantastic How to train your dragon - not bad Scott Pilgrim vs the World - just awful
I am speechless. at your response to each one of those movies. (The only thing wrong with your reaction to Toy Story 3 is that it is not in all caps, Bold, underlined, 1foot high on my screen and shooting fireworks out of my speakers somehow because hot damn that movie is freaking good)
Oh I agree that some of the songs were really good. I like NPH and I seriously wanted to touch Nathan Fillion's hair just once. However, some friends had me believing this was not only funny, but the best short I would ever watch in my lifetime. Then again these are the same people that like practically anything by Joss Whedon. I think he could make a recording of himself imitating the mating call of a humpback whale and some of my friends would call it a work of genius.
Maybe if I was 15 I would have liked it more.
