A Whole Lotta Nothing

Going to the movies

We're crossing the parking lot and up ahead, two gentlemen in their 70s or 80s are approaching the ticket window. We slow down, half out of respect, half because it means less Army and Sprite commercials to watch inside.

It's our third movie in a movie theater that we've seen in 14 months. Fiona is wonderful and life-changing, but I do miss seeing movies. We have very few opportunities to see a film when someone is watching her.

My first thought is what on earth are they doing at a movie theater at 11:30 AM in July? It's nothing but blockbusters, superheroes, and comedies this time of year. These men look distinguished, almost certainly war veterans. The Greatest Generation. World War Two movies ended months ago.

We're seeing Pirates of the Caribbean 2 only because the first one was so brilliant and light and enjoyable. When you see one new movie every six months, it's tough to pick exactly which one. Superman was out because it started later and overlapped with some meetings. I haven't heard rave reviews for anything else. I haven't even heard of half the movies.

The men seem upbeat. As they're taking the curb, one pauses for the other as he carefully places his cane and ascends the step. We've still got 15 minutes so we trail behind, watching.

I heard the average price to make a movie in Hollywood is now $96 million. I remember the uproar a decade or so ago when Waterworld was the first film to crest $100 million. Spiderman 3 is supposed to run $300 million. A third of a billion dollars? For a movie? And a sequel no less?

They're at the ticket window. They're joking around with the teen girl behind the glass. At 11:30 AM on a weekday, the cost of matinee tickets and senior tickets is identical, but I overhear one insisting on buying a matinee, not senior ticket. The other laughs.

I have a feeling Pirates isn't going to be quite as good. The first one only worked because I had no expectations. I loved Oceans 11 for the same reason and it had the same wonderfully fun upbeat style I could rewatch a thousand times but its own sequel was crap. It tried too hard to duplicate the first. It was desperate. Maybe lightning can strike twice here with Pirates, but I doubt it.

We're right behind the guys at the window and it's taking a while. I'm scanning the choices, trying to figure out their purchase. Devil Wears Prada is probably the most serious or dignified choice and it's still a comedy. Perhaps they're Superman fans from reading comics during the Depression? Maybe they're former executives from an automobile company ready to enjoy Cars? I'm leaning towards them, straining to hear what their choice will be.

I remember our first summer in Oregon, three years ago, when we didn't have air conditioning in our rental apartment. When the thermometer passed 100, we'd be here, watching 2 hours of fluff but enjoying the relief. Maybe that's what these guys are here for, but all the nearby retirement communities seem to be modern enough to be comfortable in the summer.

The joking has subsided. They've got their money out and they're ready to pay. After tailing them for several minutes, I'm dying to hear what brought them out on such a hot day at such an odd hour during this weird time of year for film.

...

"Two for Little Man."

Cars

Thoughts from seeing Cars today (only the second time I've gone to the movies since Fiona was born -- she was in daycare):

- Oh my god, the Ratatouille preview was awesome. Is that the sweet sound of PATTON OSWALT DOING COMEDY?! I can't wait for Patton's big film.

- The One Man Band short is mildly amusing, but forgettable compared to their earlier works.

- My god there are a lot of children in this theater.

- Disney once had a short cartoon about cars-as-people where an old junkyard is revisited by 50s teens and they soup up a rust bucket. The way the eyes and mouths work on these cars is pretty similar.

- The look of the film is mostly cartoonish. Here and there you see amazing super realistic digital effects (accurate reflections, atmospheric effects) but for the most part the lighting feels purposely "wrong" so everything looks like a cartoon. The Incredibles looked like little plastic/clay figures in real space -- it was hyperreal but I guess talking cars are clearly fiction and the look was tailored to avoid realism.

- The film is clearly aimed at kids, with a few adult joke nods but not many. The Incredibles was total adult material while Monsters Inc. and the Toy Story series felt equally aimed at children and adults. I expected the film to work on multiple levels but it feels mostly like a very good children's flick.

- The story is nice, but fairly simple and not particularly strong for a Pixar film. I know they spend 5-6 years working on scripts there and every Pixar film has been amazing. This is probably their weakest effort, but it's still good. It just felt a bit weak for a Pixar project.

- I loved Tony Shalhoub and it was great to hear Paul Newman do another classic older hero role.

- I'm a car nut and I loved the little nods to car history but overall, I'd give it a 3 and a half out of 5 stars. Maybe it's because I expect 5/5 movies from Pixar, which has always delivered.

AVIs worth downloading

I've enjoyed a bunch of movies/shows in the past couple weeks and figured I might as well share. I like to watch a lot of documentaries and I like small films that never play where I live that I have to remember to catch up with later.

I love watching behind-the-scenes movies on the craft of comedy (I loved Comedian a few years ago). The Comedians of Comedy (only available as a rental from Netflix but it's also on Showtime now) and The Aristocrats were both great glimpses into the mind of comedians.

Murderball, Mad Hot Ballroom, and Rize followed the classic documentary formula of showing a world the viewer never knew, and following the subjects of the story through a competition. All had their strong points but if I had to choose one, I'd say Murderball was my favorite.

On the TV front, I have to eat my words and agree with Michael that The Office has reached a level the original series did. The last couple episodes have been fantastic and Steve Carrell is as unwatchable as David Brent was in season two of the BBC series. My other favorite TV show right now is My Name Is Earl. I love anything Jason Lee does, but I really think he's hit a groove on this one. The stories aren't always tight but every week but there's always one moment that reaches the genius of something you might see on Arrested Development. And finally, Drawn Together on Comedy Central is really pushing the censorship limits. Every episode this season leaves me dying with laughter while at the same time horrified that they got the jokes onto TV.

. for Ossie

For me, Ossie Davis was a highlight of every Spike Lee film, and every film he appeared in for that matter, so I'm sad to see him go. I can't imagine Ruby Dee without Ossie -- are there any other marriages between actors that exceeded 56 years? Doubtful.

Oscar baby

Thanks to various situations where I was stuck in an airplane, hotel room, or at the end of a sold-out movie ticket line, I seen four of the worst movies in recent memory. Mr. 3000, Shark Tale, Fat Albert, and Taxi were good representitives of all the complaints people have about stupid movies with a dumb premise that use every hackneyed plot point you've seen a hundred times before. Taxi was so bad I tried twice and couldn't watch more than ten minutes of it. Pure dreck.

To balance out the cosmic karma, I've gone on a quest to see every movie that is up for a major academy award this year (a first for me). I've looked to the golden globes and early predictions to get up to speed, but after a long weekend binge, I've tackled the following:

Ray

I didn't think Jamie Foxx had it in him, but he was great, though the story glossed over quite a bit and was fairly straightforward. I'm a longtime fan of Ray Charles (and have the boxsets to prove it) so I liked this film, though wouldn't classify it as top five for the year.

Spanglish

Adam Sandler does a good job but the best work came from the girl playing Cristina. There were several amazing emotional scenes, but a few so-so other scenes kept this film from being really something.

Finding Neverland

Johnny Depp, as always, did well, and it was a nice little story but nothing to write home about. I don't know why it's on anyone's list as a possible best picture, there was nothing wrong with it, but it just didn't transcend the "good film" level to greatness.

Million Dollar Baby

Great stuff, and I could see this film rightfully landing in the Best Picture category.

Friday Night Lights

I don't even like football but I loved this movie. It's hard to place it against all other films that came out in 2004 (a sports performance isn't always the best way to demonstrate good acting) but it was definitely the best football film I've seen.

Aviator

Meh. I don't see what all the fuss is about this film, is it all because Scorsese directed it? Sure it looks good, but the story bored me to tears. It glossed over all the records Hughes broke and his innovations while zooming in on how freaky-deaky he could be. I take back what I said about Finding Neverland -- that movie should be in best picture lists and not this one.

My goal for the next couple weeks are to catch these films:
- Sideways
- Closer
- Hotel Rwanda
- Kinsey
- Lemony Snickets

I'm pretty confident I'll be able to meet the Oscars goal early.

update: I'm plucking titles out of the second list and posting short reviews in the first list as I see them.

Incredibles

I finally got to see The Incredibles last night and it was absolutely fantastic. If you've seen it, click through for more, if not, I'd say stop reading at this point and go see it.

The movie was just about perfect in all aspects. The story was great, the visuals were amazing, the action was good, and the family stuff was touching. There didn't seem to be any scenes tacked on just to show off the advances in CG work (well, maybe the dialogue between the mom and kids in the water was just there to say "look at us! we can program wet hair now! w00t!").

If I had to point out things that kept it from being a 100 out of 100 film, and keep in mind I'm really reaching here, it'd be this one thing:

The final robot fight scene felt too short to me. The first Robot vs. Bob scene was good and the Family vs. The Guards fight scene was longer and much more exciting. It felt like when the family finally got to the city to destroy the robot that it would be the longest and most dramatic fight scene, since it meant the climax of the film, but it was over with fairly soon. When they showed the long shot of the hole through the robot, I was almost 100% sure that it would patch itself, ala Terminator 2, and there would be another minute or two of tense fighting before the final defeat. I expected it since this was supposed to be a new revised robot, sharper than the last one we saw get in a fight, but no go on self-healing armor. So the fight was just over as quickly as it started.

Maybe prolonging the scene introduced the unfortunate knowledge that the robot was hurting actual people in the city. All the cars thrown and buildings smashed meant dead folks, so maybe the director felt the actual carnage had to be kept low, so the robot fight was shortened.

Also on the city fight scene, I felt it was a little weird that the camera followed a mysterious black plane heading towards what looked like NYC, when the bad guy launches the robot attack. It was a little too sept 11th to me and felt kind of unsettling. That the Family took a second plane directly towards the city was also weird, but I'm probably reading too much into it and am still too 9/11 sensitive about that kind of imagery.

As for the things I loved about the film, they are numerous, but here are some personal highlights:

- I loved all the mid-century modern buildings and furnishings throughout, especially at their home. The Family lived in what appeared to be an Eichler Home, the furniture looked like it was designed by Ray and Charles Eames. The rug prints and kitchen decor were all period perfect. Even his new car looked like a mix between beautiful old jaguars and volvos.

- I loved all the little bits that served as an homage to Star Wars. The Guards vs. Family chases scenes in the forest were right out of Return of the Jedi. The change over to a desert area turned into a episode 1 Pod Race homage. The Guards all looked like stormtroopers, and all the garage/bay areas and hallways were similar to stuff in Star Wars. I also loved the little transports on the island, being similar to Disneyland's Monorail/PeopleMover/Doom Buggies.

- The film was equally touching and funny. There was plenty to laugh at, and it was well timed so that there was always some point of relief after a long spat of worry. Whenever the Family characters worked together, and got to be superheros I almost had to fight back tears of joy before I realized a silly superhero film done a computer shouldn't make me feel so much. The voice acting was fantastic, and the rendered actors fit the delivery. I often wonder if you can get better performances out of actors doing voice-only work, since they can let go of any nagging feelings of how they might look on stage/screen. I'm not an actor and haven't worked with many, so I don't know if it's true, but it seems like I would personally have an eaiser time delivering a scene if I was confined to the recording booth, vs. having to do it on set with 50 crewmembers staring at me.

Overall, a fantastic film, better than any Pixar has done. I'll definitely see it again, and probably own it on DVD. I'm not sure if it's as kid friendly as their past films, it was definitely more of an action film, without much carnage, so maybe it'll still be a hit with the kids.

I'd also recommend this great interview with Brad Bird (the director) about how studios are going ga-ga over CG now that Pixar has proved you can make a killing doing it, but he stresses that storytelling and acting are what make Pixar films great, not just how big their rendering farm is. I hear story development at Pixar takes at least five years and that they refine each and every scene, something other studios rarely do.

Blogumentary published. Now rebuilding.

Chuck's long awaited Blogumentary had its premiere last weekend, and he's collecting donations to offset the cost of the movie. I kicked in enough to get the free mystery gift.

Every great movie ends with an awards ceremony

After four tries, I finally got to see Return of the King today. It seems living in a small town of 30k people that only has one cineplex showing the movie on a single screen makes for many sold out shows.

The showing I caught was turned up really loud and at several points I was terrified by the action. The first couple hours were scarier than any horror movie I've seen. I haven't read the books, so I can't remember the names of them (were they modors from azkiban or raelians from babbiton?), but those giant flying pterodactyl things with the guy from Scream riding them were really scary. Whenever they flew over the crowd I felt like an 8 year old wanting to bury my face in my hands and leave the theater, totally terrified.

It also struck me how epic the whole journey was and I wondered why I've never heard of Tolkien re-enactment groups, since the whole thing felt so Civil War-ish. A quick search on google reveals there actually is a Middle Earth Historical Reenactment Society and a House of Cardolan group that specializes in these sorts of things.

Gettin' the Led out

I crapped on School of Rock when I saw the first trailer for it, but lately I've heard one postive review after another. Apparently it could have been the crappy film everyone's seen a thousand times before, but Linklater pulled it out and let Jack Black run with it.

I just got back from seeing it, and although there were one or two cheesy parts that felt like every 80s movie ending I'd ever seen, the rest of the film was pure Tenacious D rocking with Jack Black (sadly, Kyle Gass was nowhere to be found). Basically it was like all of JB's parts from High Fidelity mixed in with a bunch of kids and a cheesy plot, but somehow it all worked and was quite entertaining.

The Animatrix

The Animatrix finally came out on DVD on Tuesday and it also became available on Directv as a pay-per-view movie. I paid the $3.99 and Tivo'd it last night, which is faster than waiting for Amazon to deliver a DVD. I've seen two or three of the preview versions on the Animatrix site, but the full sized digital version viewed on a TV looks much better.

After watching the first half of it, I wonder why it wasn't released before Matrix Reloaded opened in theaters. It includes some backstory on how everyone at Zion found out about the tunneling machines, and how the war with the machines first started the Matrix. Seems like the kind of thing fans would have scooped up before Reloaded, when enthusiasm ran high for the film. Now that it is out I'm sure Reloaded's lukewarm reviews will greatly harm sales of Animatrix. Searching around online, I see that ripped copies of the complete animatrix DVD were available right around May 1st. It's not like the disc wasn't ready before Reloaded, it just wasn't sold which I find really odd.

Matrix moves

I saw the Matrix Reloaded yesterday and my first impression was to agree wholeheartedly with this review that criticizes the plot and scenes from the point of view of an avid moviegoer. But more thorough searching revealed a pretty good positive review that judges the film on religious merits and it references everything from ancient christianity to buddism. I'll have to wait until I've seen the third one to tell if the second was any good.

Oh yeah, if you haven't seen it, stay through the credits, even though they are seemingly the longest ever, including each and every driver and caterer that was used in the making of the film -- basically it was ten minutes of this. Friends told me there was a trailer to the third film at the end (which there was, and it was a good short look at it), but apparently that hasn't gotten out as the packed house vacated less the 7 or 8 of us that stayed (preview stills from my phone: 1, 2, 3, 4).

update: Whoa, even in a fantasy world of sci-fi, featuring the most racially diverse cast I've seen in ages, you can be accused of stereotyping. While there have been cases where albino actors have been portrayed in a negative light, the guys in the matrix are clearly from a world of fantasy with no real-world equivalents (the studio claims they are vampires, but that's a stretch). I wonder if there's a Goatee Anti-Defamation Leauge, since pretty much every evil villian sports the cliche facial hair. Also, here's the trailer for Matrix Revolutions in case you missed it.

More movie finds

Sundance is currently playing Revolution OS, the independent film about the rise of linux. The usual cast of characters show up in all their nerdy glory and Stallman takes his usual digs at the open source movement ("it's not really free!"). I was disappointed that he didn't sing the free software song in his robes, but at least the song did show up in the credits. It was funny to see the movie almost go out on a high note, by covering IPOs at the peak of the bubble (including interviews with Rob Malda, who gets a spot in the IMDB because of it, dammit), but they saved it at the end, by including stock prices from summer of 2001. Interesting all around and a great snapshot of a time and of a movement.