At the movies
Saw Tropic Thunder last Friday. Very funny, though my standard Ben Stiller complaint holds: he likes playing stupid guys. Granted that holds true for a lot of actors (Will Ferrell, anyone?) I somehow seem to want him to break that mold. The movie's a comedy about filming a war movie with actors who can't act. The moment I knew I'd love it came pretty early on when they showed Downey Jr. doing an Inside the Actor's Studio bit doing an scathingly perfect Russel Crowe impersonation though I liked the slapstick bits too. Coogan in the jungle was hilarious. There was a surprising amount of cameos as well. Tom Cruise was in the movie enough that I wouldn't even consider his role a cameo. Probably as much screen time as Dame Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Woody Allen doing slice of life. He's been on a role since he discovered Europe and that women have the same insecurities as men and this is no exception. It's an almost believable male fantasy told from the female point of view. One could argue it's about discovery and the realities of romance but Javier Bardem gets to make out with Rebecca Hall (Vicky), Scarlett Johansson (Cristina) and Penelope Cruise (she's not named Barcelona). Fantasy. Possibly mine.
Batman: The Dark Knight. It's Batman Begins but done much better (and Batman Begins was very well done.) Director Christopher Nolan explores the psyche of the hero again but also examines the mind of the villain and of the common man when faced with extreme circumstances.
Wall-E. The best movie of the summer. Batman was good but too dark. Wall-E was able to evoke emotion with his vocabulary of 3 words and the range of motion of his "eyes." I did my best not to cry when seeing it with Jason and Pete but saw it again alone and Eve at the end just got to me. It's a kid's movie that adults can enjoy and has a much more positive message than Dark Knight.
Wanted. The reason I like comic books is that I can suspend disbelief and buy into the premise of the hero/villain/whatever. The premise of Wanted was that certain individuals could curve bullets. OK. I had friends who, just from the previews, hated the concept but I had no problem. Until I saw the film. There is a "jump the shark" bullet curve near the end which even took me out of the film and I bought into Jason Statham doing the car flip to get rid of the bomb thing in Transporter 2. The movie deviated from the comic enough that they should have just changed the name of it. Kinda like Constantine. It's OK but there was much better summer fare.
TV:Fringe is X-Files all over again.
Saw the new At the Movies. It looks like it was produced in someones basement and the reviewers seemed just all snark. Now snark's tolerable if you can back it up with a decent amount of intelligence but the ratio has to be high on the smarts and low on the snark. We'll see but it doesn't look good.
Other things.
Had a great weekend in Michigan City with friends last weekend.
Spent the week leading up to labor day in Chicago being loner tourist guy.
Took Sarah out for Sushi and she loved it apart from almost gagging a few times.
Completed the majority of FF:Tactics A2 (215 of 300 missions). Enough that I don't care about the game and have started to play sudoku and Advance wars Dual Strike (I didn't like Days of Ruin and still haven't finished it.)
It's starting to get cooler so lets see if that gets me back on track.
Saw Tropic Thunder last Friday. Very funny, though my standard Ben Stiller complaint holds: he likes playing stupid guys. Granted that holds true for a lot of actors (Will Ferrell, anyone?) I somehow seem to want him to break that mold. The movie's a comedy about filming a war movie with actors who can't act. The moment I knew I'd love it came pretty early on when they showed Downey Jr. doing an Inside the Actor's Studio bit doing an scathingly perfect Russel Crowe impersonation though I liked the slapstick bits too. Coogan in the jungle was hilarious. There was a surprising amount of cameos as well. Tom Cruise was in the movie enough that I wouldn't even consider his role a cameo. Probably as much screen time as Dame Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Woody Allen doing slice of life. He's been on a role since he discovered Europe and that women have the same insecurities as men and this is no exception. It's an almost believable male fantasy told from the female point of view. One could argue it's about discovery and the realities of romance but Javier Bardem gets to make out with Rebecca Hall (Vicky), Scarlett Johansson (Cristina) and Penelope Cruise (she's not named Barcelona). Fantasy. Possibly mine.
Batman: The Dark Knight. It's Batman Begins but done much better (and Batman Begins was very well done.) Director Christopher Nolan explores the psyche of the hero again but also examines the mind of the villain and of the common man when faced with extreme circumstances.
Wall-E. The best movie of the summer. Batman was good but too dark. Wall-E was able to evoke emotion with his vocabulary of 3 words and the range of motion of his "eyes." I did my best not to cry when seeing it with Jason and Pete but saw it again alone and Eve at the end just got to me. It's a kid's movie that adults can enjoy and has a much more positive message than Dark Knight.
Wanted. The reason I like comic books is that I can suspend disbelief and buy into the premise of the hero/villain/whatever. The premise of Wanted was that certain individuals could curve bullets. OK. I had friends who, just from the previews, hated the concept but I had no problem. Until I saw the film. There is a "jump the shark" bullet curve near the end which even took me out of the film and I bought into Jason Statham doing the car flip to get rid of the bomb thing in Transporter 2. The movie deviated from the comic enough that they should have just changed the name of it. Kinda like Constantine. It's OK but there was much better summer fare.
TV:Fringe is X-Files all over again.
Saw the new At the Movies. It looks like it was produced in someones basement and the reviewers seemed just all snark. Now snark's tolerable if you can back it up with a decent amount of intelligence but the ratio has to be high on the smarts and low on the snark. We'll see but it doesn't look good.
Other things.
Had a great weekend in Michigan City with friends last weekend.
Spent the week leading up to labor day in Chicago being loner tourist guy.
Took Sarah out for Sushi and she loved it apart from almost gagging a few times.
Completed the majority of FF:Tactics A2 (215 of 300 missions). Enough that I don't care about the game and have started to play sudoku and Advance wars Dual Strike (I didn't like Days of Ruin and still haven't finished it.)
It's starting to get cooler so lets see if that gets me back on track.