Back on the wagon, and a few other movies I watched lately

Ive been gone for a while, long enough that some of the movies have even shifted up and down on IMDB since I posted last. I am watching the list movies again, and like before my free time also includes many movies.

I have not caught all the summer films that I have wanted to, but seeing the new Pirates and The Hangover 2 have been worth their time. I wont get into either too much, but Pirates 4 is about a 7.5 Depp was good but not nearly as funny as he was from the trilogy, and Hangover 2 is the same ride with a new paintjob, so 7.7 sounds about right. We all watched the Austin Powers movies and they were the same thing each time and equally funny each time out, so who cares if the Hangover is the same blueprint as the first one. I know that score is equal to what I rated Tron: Legacy to a while back, but every time I watch that film I like it more and more, it is my geek addiction I guess.

I still want to see Kung Fu Panda 2, and X-Men First Class before the new Transformers comes out later this month, and I should be able to get the next few list movies out of the way by then as well.

One thing that will make watching some of the films more enjoyable and perhaps more like they were intended was my recent purchase of surround sound. Now it was not my dream system, but it sounds very good for what it was worth, and it is by no means a all-in one home theater in a box crap.

The last blip before I get of the interwebz for a bit was a small interesting film that kept showing up on netflix called Pandorum. Now it looked very interesting from the box art, that means something right, and me and my wife thought it was worth the time. From the onset it is very dark, and you really do not know anything more than what the main character(Ben Foster) does about what is going on. His lieutenant played by Dennis Quaid also knows nothing as they both emerge from stasis pods around the same time. For those who have seen Event Horizon there are definitely similarities in the dark stuck in a space ship atmospheres. The discovery that the characters go through is engaging and keeps you wondering what the heck is going on. I personally was slightly disappointed at the ending, not for any particular reason, just thought it could have been done better, but it was an interesting watch, and the more and more I see Foster in films the more I see the range of acting he can achieve. When he first appeared as Archangel in the X3 I would have preferred not seeing him in film again, but that was X3 and not really his own fault. Score 7.0

Lets see if I can get in a list review every Wednesday and Saturday and other movie news when things of interest pop up. Next three movies are all on the older side, but lets give them a chance before I write them off.


I'm just sayin...

Movie 106* Rebecca

It has been a while, and that is all I am going to say about that. I have been putting off this movie for quite some time, mainly because from the surface there did not look to be anything interesting about this movie to me. Beggars cannot be choosers though, so I finally bit the bullet and watched this film.

Growing up in the era of the summer blockbuster, I knew this movie was not going to be paced anywhere near what I am used to with a film. In Hollywood nowadays a movie is long if it goes past an hour and a half. The movies that do go farther than that, usually have at least 3 story lines they are trying to keep you up to speed on at any given time. This movie focuses on one character for the entire two hours of film. There are very few scenes where the new Mrs. De Winter(Joan Fontaine) is not on screen. As expected, the setup for the story takes quite a while to get going.

I tried to stay open minded about the movie, but I never really got drawn in like I felt I should. Even reading other peoples reviews I understand the qualities of the film, but still do not think it is as good as many of the movies I have already watched and am to watch soon. Laurence Olivier's performance was pretty good, but his transitions from good guy to pissed off emotionally closed off man seemed to abrupt and forced to me. I think the best performance came from the main housekeeper Mrs. Danvers(Judith Anderson) who keeps her dark obsessed demeanor going throughout the film. Even Fontaine's performance seemed stale and repeated every time she came under stress.

I do see the sensory and emotional styles of Hitchcock in this film, but this being his first movie made for an American viewing audience, I think it was clearly a sign of better things to come. Again it is really hard for me not to be biased with this film spending much of my summers in theaters watching the next big thing, including Will Smiths 100 million dollar movie run, but I kind of view this movie as one where a lot of people just use the standard of older is better just because. A viewpoint that I do not share.

Overall it is definitely a movie of the time period, and the ending keeps this movie from being a snore fest. The last 45 minutes keep the pace up enough to make it bearable and actually give you some story to really chew on, rather than the few small pieces every 20 minutes given in the first two thirds of the movie.

Score: 7.9 And that is a generous "benefit of the doubt" score.

Post Academy Reaction

I made a point to sit down and watch the Oscars last night, mainly because I had not done so in a couple years. Me and my mom always used to sit down together and watch the Academy Awards, and this year I had to give her the play by play through text messages because the bus she was on returning from her skiing trip broke down. They are fine, they got home, I am sure you were concerned.

The show itself was decent. Anne Hathaway did a pretty good job as the co-host, along side a stale and boring James Franco. He looked worn out, tired, never looked at the camera, and was fairly monotone the whole night. Too bad they decided against Hugh doing it again. At least he has the energy to keep you entertained.

Other than one flub we will call it, it was a rather run of the mill, just above boring presentation. I have not seen a good portion of the best picture nominees, and did not really have any actors that really caught my eye with their performances, aside from the two that I figured were in the bad anyway. So let's get to the awards.

Best Director:Tom Hooper won for The King's Speech. It was great watching him throughout the rest of the evening, because I do not think he ever gave up his two handed stranglehold on his award. His story about his mother telling him she found his next film by watching an unrehearsed play screening was pretty cool as well. As he stated, "Always listen to your mother". Still this category irks me that Christopher Nolan was not nominated, but I guess I may just have to see the film to make a better gauge of the direction.

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter. I did praise her performance in my oscar picks post, and it is still well deserved. Again seeing her up there on stage you have to do double and triple takes to see that she indeed played the mom in the movie. She also gave us the most exciting part of the evening, by dropping the big F-bomb on live television. Of course they were able to bleep it out, but it was the only part of her speech that was not in complete disarray and disbelief on her part.

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter. I told you this one was easy. It also rounded out The Fighter in winning both supporting actor roles. Lead actor roles were not even nominated in this movie, which shows you that the headline actor is not always the main reason to watch the movie. Bale was a little long winded in his acceptance, but it was cool that he did give credit to Dickey Ecklund and his brother Mickey Ward, who were both in attendance. Now go put on some weight and get moving on that next Batman film.

Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan. A lot of people were rooting for Portman to win this award. It was well deserved and if you know some of the work she put into the, and how long they have been talking about making it, it is astounding. Hopefully she will continue making films for a long time, because I do enjoy watching her passion filled roles.

Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King's Speech. Told you Bridges was just my hope in the category. He was also nominated in this same category last year for A Single Man, which Bridges won for Crazy Heart. So I guess it is fair that Colin gets this round. From the clips shown throughout the program he definitely portrayed someone with a speech impediment pretty well, while keeping some humor with his screen partner Geoffrey Rush.

Best Picture: The King's Speech. I was clearly fishing with Toy Story 3 as my choice, but again it was not a prediction, just what I wanted to see win. This is a clear sign that I need to see this film. Winning 3 of the biggest awards at the Oscars means something, and when its available off the big screen, I will definitely be giving it a gander. A pretty funny remix with clips from all sorts of shows and movies about stuttering can be seen here. Parodies means it must be good right?

Eclectic Method - The King's Remix from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

That is about all I have on the Oscars. I was a little disappointed that Tron was not even nominated for special effects, but whatevs. Gonna watch Rebecca soon, and the review will follow.

I'm just sayin...

Academy awards

I am going to make an effort to watch the Academy Awards tonight. I have not seen a lot of the movies but, there are still people and movies that I would like to see win awards. Here are some of my choices for the major categories:
Best Picture: Toy Story 3. It is a stretch, but for those of us who have grown up watching the Toy Story movies, this was probably the best, and if you did not cry, you are a liar.

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges. More of a hopeful than anything else, but I do enjoy watching him perform. There was some talk about the odd omission of Mark Wahlberg, but it was not that much different of a performance than what we have come to expect of him

Best Actress Natalie Portman. For me the infatuation began with Star Wars, because it was Star Wars. In reality she was a good actress before and after playing Padmé, see The Professional and V for Vendetta, and hopefully now she will win an award for her performance.

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale. This one is easy. Watching The Fighter you knew that it was a good performance. Than you see footage of Dicky Ecklund at the end, and it blows you away how perfectly he portrayed that man. If anyone else wins, there is a conspiracy.

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo. Playing the mom in The Fighter, she did an amazing job. She has already won an award or two for the performance, and it is either her or Amy Adams for the top spot.

Best Director: This is the one place where I have a big bone to pick. Christopher Nolan should by all means be nominated, and likely win this category. I guess it is because Hollywood people are starting to view him like Michael Bay, with all the flashy effects and over the top stories. The difference is that Inception is nothing without the direction it was given. Just being able to convey every aspect the way it was without completely losing the audience is a feat. I personally still do not think that it is a top 10 movie all time, like it's current place on IMDB top 250, but it does at least deserve some credit for the execution of a concept.

I do not plan on being very accurate with my choices, it was more of a dream sheet. I will weigh in after the awards on what I saw, and maybe I will complain about some ones ridiculous outfit, although I could give two pennies about fashion. Also if you missed it from news sources earlier this week, here is a top ten WTF they got nominated for an oscar list.
Rebecca is the next movie on the list and it is on its way to me. Be patient, I am getting there.

I'm just sayin...

Movie 107 Return of the Jedi

So after watching Indiana Jones, you think we would get a little bit of a lull in the grand adventure Harrison Ford department. Ya, that was not going to happen. Not to mention it is another romp around George Lucas' imagination

If you are alive breathing right now, or have been some time in the last 30 years, you know what Star Wars is. Now some of you, somehow, still have not seen the original trilogy. I will let that slide, for now, because I am feeling nice. But, for those who have not seen it, and those who portend to show the movies to your children, please start with episode 4, "A New Hope", also known as the first one. Really you do not really need to watch the most recent movies, episodes 1,2, and 3, because they do not hold the same feel as the originals, and in some eyes overdo the special effects and make it feel less emersive.

It is hard for me to review the Star Wars movies. For me, and many others, there is something about these movies that never get old. The sarcastic main cast of good guys, Luke Han and Leia. You have the Droids who have emotions and are true characters in their own right, even though R2D2 talks in beeps. You have the Jim Henson, of Muppet fame, creation in Yoda that even in its crude form, transforms into a full character. Not to mention the most iconic bad guy to ever be put on film, Darth Vader.

Its not just the Characters either. In the film hour of the film, you see a swamp planet(Degobah), desert planet(Tatooine), manufactured planet(Death Star), and a forest moon(Endor). Each one looks and feels like you are in a completely different universe. Also unlike a lot of Sci-Fi franchises, there are countless other species shown in Star Wars. Not handfuls, hundreds. Big, small, quadrupeds, giants slug, you name it, its probably in one of the movies. Even the sets when they are on ships are convincing enough to not look fake.

The version I watched was the original theatrical release of the film. That is without the added "Special Edition" content that you will hear many Star Wars purists express their displeasure over. The biggest change that most people hear of is "Han shot first". It refers to a seen in the first movie where he shots a bounty hunter that has come to kill him. In the remake they had Han react to being shot at, not preemptively killing the bounty hunter. It was surprising to me that watching this movie today, with all the advances in computer graphics and special effects, that something like this could have been made without it, and 30 years ago at that. It truly makes you understand why it started such a following, and why it still draws people in today.

The Star Wars theme is again one known to many many people, and none other than John Williams composed the score for these films. Sound effects, special effects, cinematography, all of them were revolutionized by Lucas and his work with Star Wars. My only real qualm? His use of spin fades and gradient fades between scenes. They were cheesy then, still are now, but he is George fricken Lucas, and I dare you to tell him he is wrong.

Overall I will admit it is not my favorite of the three original films, but I still enjoy it every time through. This film draws the biggest movie franchise of all time to a close, we can only wish that the newest trilogy was 20% of what these movies were.

Score: 8.6 You must see the original trilogy. Probably the must see movies of the list, bar none.

Movie 108 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

This is yet another iconic movie character, Indiana Jones. McClane, Bond, Luke, Hannibal, Gump, Terminator, all of them immediately recognizable, both as their characters and the actors that play them. Characters that young and old people grow to love, both for their hero qualities and the real human qualities that we can all relate to, that make us feel that we "know" what the character is going through. Indiana is clearly no different. He defines action hero. He is not the anti-hero, he is not the feel pity for me, he is the f*ck ya I am America and can get out of every situation, no matter how dire.

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg teamed up to create these adventures. Both remembering matinee shows from when they were young, short 15 minute adventures that always ended on "to be continued..." with the protagonist always getting out of the crazy predicaments he found himself in in the next episode. There was a debate between Lucas and Spielberg on who to use as Jones. Spielberg first suggested Harrison Ford to play the part, but Lucas resisted due to already casting him in "American Graffiti" and the first two Star Wars films. After a long search they settled on Tom Selleck. They were only a few weeks from filming when CBS refused to let Selleck film "Raiders of the Lost Ark" because they were set to start filming "Magnum PI". After this setback, Lucas relented and called in Ford to film. No one can argue against that the right choice was made.

Crusade is the last of the original three Indiana movies. Luckily it stayed true to the formula of the first movie, and gave just as many thrills as smiles, and still had the grand fanciful storyline to guide the adventure. The movie includes Sean Connery as Indiana's father. Both a surprising appearance, and a memorable one. Its not the Sean Connery suave that made Bond who he was, but an aloof, archaeologist who seems to lose himself in his work continuously. Once both are on screen together, their joking father son dynamic keeps the mood light, even in moments of peril. The other smaller support characters play convincing parts, and as outlandish as the Nazi characters are, it all fits.

The cinematography is great and having Spielberg direct Lucas' ideas and vision works out like most of us would have liked "A New Hope" and "Return of the Jedi" to turn out like. I say that because most will argue "Empire Strikes Back" was the best Star Wars film, and it was not directed by Lucas. The music is again spot on, and that is expected from John Williams, whose resume looks a little like this, every Star Wars, Superman, Indiana Jones, Hook,
Schindlers List, Saving Private Ryan, all of the Harry Potters, and that's not including all of his TV credits and countless other films.

Interesting tidbit about naming Indiana Jones. Originally he was to be Indiana Smith, Indiana coming from Lucas' own Alaskan Malamute. Spielberg thought Smith was a little too generic and convinced Lucas that Jones was a better fit. If you pay close attention to the film, there is an Alaskan Malamute in the Jones' house at the beginning of the film, and Connery's character calls Indy, Jr through the whole movie. Finally revealing at the end that his chosen nick name of Indiana was in fact dogs name.

Overall this is another very fun, enjoyable movie for all. Good characters that are not exactly superbly played but still great, and cheesiness that just adds to the fun. Clearly if you have not seen the orignal three, Crystal Skull is not really a must see, it is time.

Score: 8.7 Another must see classic.

Lastly my favorite quote:[after commandeering a plane]
Professor Henry Jones: I didn't know you could fly a plane.
Indiana Jones: Fly, yes. Land, no.

Movie 109 Die Hard

So finally, a truly iconic movie. there have been times, when no matter the part of the day, I could turn the TV on and "Die Hard" would be on some channel. It is a big enough movie franchise, that I bet any of you reading this, there are people reading this right, could tell me who played John McClane without me telling you the movie. I bet you could even tell me the most famous line from this franchise, "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!" without skipping a beat. This movie coming out in a time where special effects were starting to become a thing of their own, and action movies starred guys with more muscles that words in their vocabulary.

Watching this movie is so easy. Although like most it takes a little while to start, but once it does, it is frenetic and fun all the way to the end. Supposedly Bruce Willis was the 6th choice of actor for the role of McClane. Behind Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds, Richard Gere, Harrison Ford, and Mel Gibson. Of course like many of our favorite movie characters none of those other guys even make sense, but who knows and what if's generate a lot of office conversations.

Its hard to really talk about the technical and artistic merit of the movie. If you try and nit-pic it, like I found myself doing a little, you do notice that this is the cliché movie of cliché movies. Bad lines, barely established character relationships, guns that never run out of ammo, multiple outrageous explosions, and a bad guy that has to explicitly get shot 5 times after being strangled, and falling 30+ stories after the top of the building that he was in exploded. All of this aside, it still is a joy to watch.

Willis' performance of the tough wise cracking down on his luck hero is perfect. He gets into and out of amazing situations, each time thinking he won't see the other side. Not to mention he does all this butt kicking with no shoes on, the whole movie.

The direction of the movie is done well, especially because the viewer is never left with too much down time. It is not non-stop gun fighting and explosions, but just when the movie could have started to feel like it was dragging, it would pick right up again and off on another adventure you are. The music and ambiance of the movie definitely remind anyone of the 80's, but not in the tacky way that makes us want to forget it.

Overall it is definitely a must see in your lifetime. As much as the cliché moments bothered me, the movie never tried to be what it wasn't, and performed the crime action thriller to a T.

Score: 8.5 Fun for everyone. Lower score because compared to what I consider "great" movies, this is missing a lot, but it still is perfector a genre that led to many good, and bad, action films of the 90's that may not have seen the light of day were it not for John McClane.