Arthur (2011)

Michelle and I wanted to see a comedy, and since Michelle likes the 1980s original, we decided to watch Arthur. Truth be told, I had extremely low expectations. I expected to get two hours of Billy-Madison-style manchild mixed with a poorly told love story. Instead, we witness great character growth with well-done, albeit a bit over-the-top, humour, even a few one-liners that bore timing and delivery remarkably similar to High Grant.

I haven't seen Brand in other films, and my impression was that he'd be more like say Bruno, but instead he's witty and endearing. The movie hints at further depth to this 'no work, all play' boy-in-a-man's body, and we see Brand sparkle with this at moments, and all out shine with it by the end. Mirren and Garner provide antidote to Brand's constant humour, while tertiary characters provide Brand with fuel.

Gerwig was amazing as the down-to-earth love interest, and really struck me as the long lost child of Elizabeth Shue--I've now spent an hour or so with Google trying to determine some familial relationship, to no avail. Resemblances aside, she really captures the audience with stability in her performance, you just can't wait to segway into the next scene with her.

As an aside, this sort of comedy is something that I've always hated about the genre: the inevitable climax. I like the character growth films develop from this peak, but have always hated the emotional valley we have to go through before being lifted back up and watching the credits role. Maybe I've always misinterpreted what a 'comedy' should be.

Piranha (2010)

Look, the long and short of this--if you pardon the pun--is that with quotes like "they took my penis", floating silicon from torn apart bodies and floating digital penises, this movie is excessive horror mixed with copious amounts of nudity, often combining both in a surprisingly distrubing way.

Further, watching the 2D version of this showed just how focused on the 3D they were, in that a significant portion of the films elements were clearly digital, and clearly designed to "pop out at you" in 3D.

Thor (2011)

Chris Hemsworth played George Kirk in Star Trek (2009) and to me his performance felt forced and stiff. In that role, he had a familiar quality to me, and searching IMDB and Google, I can't seem to find any performance that I would have seen him in. I did find a quick note from someone saying that Hemsworth reminded them of a young Nick Nolte, so I'll go with that for now.

In Thor, Hemsworth didn't feel stiff nor contrived, he felt right at home. In a lot of ways, his Austrailian roots showed through, in so far as he kept reminding me of Heath Ledger. Not a bad thing, but if he can't separate himself from Ledger a bit, it might be hard for people to accept his acting for what it is, rather than compare him to Heath.

Natalie Portman was great in this. She compellingly portrayed a driven scientist who's spent her life researching atmospheric phenomena, yet she digs deep into her vulnerable side to become the girl smitten by a new love interest, and contrasts it all with some sass when she looks upon a transform Thor and says "Is this how you normally look?" To his affirmative response, she says "I like it!" There's attitude in the delivery, and she really pulls it off.

There were no real surprises in the plot points, but the movie pulled you along with a great pace, and even better special effects. Asgard strikes us as a completely fantastic place, but never looks out-of-place.

The cast, padded with a few well-known stars, namely Russo and Hopkins, gave performances that were real yet fantastic, and through it all never felt over-the-top. I think there was a very real risk of these performances going over-the-top given the source material, and we can see this in other films like the Stephen Lang's performance in Avatar which to me was very overdone and cardboard like. Lang could have made the Colonel's performance more like R. Lee Ermey's Sargent Hartman from Full Metal Jacket who had a lot more realism and believability (mind you, he was a retired Sargent). I can't help but wonder if Tim Colceri, who was originally cast to play Sargent Hartman, would have delivered a performance similar to Lang's had he maintained the role.

One of the aspects of Thor that I didn't fully expect was how inspirational it was. Natalie delivered passion, and you always felt like she was striving towards something, and that left me with the verve to go and do something great. Not many super-hero movies leave me feeling that way, as they're often too far fetched, which speaks to the well-grounded nature of Thor.

Just Go With It (2011)

On Valentine's Day, we try to go see a movie. Our first Valentine's Day was Message in a Bottle, the others since were a mixed bag of romance, romantic comedies, and other flicks too. In recent years I've been trying to put a push on seeing the romance movie of the year, or at least a romance movie. Recently, it was He's Just Not That Into You (2009), which I didn't get a feel for at first blush, but has grown on me since. Then it was Valentine's Day (2010), which I can give or take. This year, it was a toss up between Just Go With It (2011) and No Strings Attached (2011). I read reviews in each, and both left me feeling lukewarm. In the end I figured I'd enjoy Ashton Kutcher a bit more than Adam Sandler... ultimately I made the right decision, but that's not because Just Go With It isn't a great movie.

This Devlin is great--if you pardon the movie reference. :) If you liked 50 First Dates (2004) then you'll definately like this. From the reviews and the trailers I sort of expected there to be this brother-sister sort of banter between Jennifer and Adam, but that was only in the scene from the trailer. Instead, the movie opens and you forget about the plot for a bit, feeling an instant connection to Jennifer and Adam's characters, not to mention their chemistry together. All throughout the film you feel this, and it really pays off.

Adam's love interest is supposedly the main attraction, yet the camera doesn't love her as much as it loves Jennifer here, despite the age disparity, in almost every way the filmmakers have made Jennifer Aniston the love interest of not only Adam's character, but of the viewer too. For the guys out there, there's a great bikini scene where Brooklyn dives into the water, meanders under a waterfall, etc., then 5 minutes later the Jennifer's on camera diving in the water too. The difference is that there's a lot of focus on Jennifer, and I'm pretty sure the camera is zoomed in a lot tighter to her body. Maybe they air brushed the scenes some, but she comes off looking far more attractive than Brooklyn.

I believe Jennifer Aniston recently made a public statement that she was going to start avoiding the low-budget fare her post-Friends acting character has generally followed to date, and if that's true, she's done well with this one. Here we have the Rachel we all knew and loved back in the 90s, except she's mature, filled with character and a knock out. If Jennifer can find a few more to follow suit--if you pardon the half-pun--I think she's on the right track. Wanderlust (2011) might be a nice continuation of this.

Last but not least, Orson Scott Card has written a review of Adam Sandler's more serious movies like 50 First Dates, and specifically this movie. In it he talks about the regular interjection of the comedic style Adam's known for. While I agreed with Orson's review at the time I read it, after seeing this film I think it works. If you don't like Adam's style, don't watch his movies. Granted, Adam's foray into more serious roles has not mimicked actors such as Jim Carrey or Steve Carell, but everybody has to find their own way, and I, for one, appreciate Adam's more recent acting roles.

Mars Needs Moms (2011)

I'm constantly looking for new movies to watch with my kids, especially ones that I'll enjoy too. I've reviewed some recently that just weren't enjoyable by adult audiences and I think that's hard to swallow given how much credence is allotted to box office success, and if the parents aren't in theatres, the kids aren't either.

Mars Needs Moms delivers a movie that I enjoyed, and my kids did too. I didn't check the MPAA rating before I started watching it, but looking now it's PG, which would have clued me in to the possibility that the thematic elements might be concerning. As it were, my youngest got a little freaked out during some scenes, but all-in-all was probably OK.

I read an article awhile ago that said the effects can take awhile to sink in for children. I remember about 2 months after seeing Despicable Me, my youngest started wearing a toque everywhere like the main character Edith, so I can definitely see that the effects take a while.

Noting the MPAA rating now, I've been struggling with a way to determine age appropriateness for animated films, and I think G ratings are going to generally be for younger ages (say, 5 or 6 and under) where as PG ratings might be for older kids. This is something for me to keep my eye on in the future.

The movie itself was good. Throughout the movie I kept wondering if it wouldn't have been better as a live action film, since it really had the live action feel. While the credits rolled, they showed all the actors on a motion capture stage in full motion capture gear, so the whole thing was motion captured, which clearly improved the final product. With movies like Avatar doing this too, I can't help but wonder how many movies in the future will follow suit, if you pardon the pun. Maybe Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within would have been a much better film too!

Sucker Punch (2011) [Updated]

I liked it! Sucker Punch is getting a lot of flack from movie critics and watchers alike, but I think it works.

It is not your traditional movie, it's stylized. Some are suggesting a new subgenre be proclaimed, such as video game style, or music video style or something. While it's unique, and could be a subgenre, I'm not shouting that from roof tops just yet.

I think the film suffered from it's PG-13 rating. I mean, you've got short skirts, fishnets and burlesque style, yet we're targeting a 13 and over crowd? I'm anticipating a director's cut to flesh out the dirty bits a bit more... maybe Snyder will add an extra hour of footage like he did with Watchmen.

Adding this footage might be a double edged sword. One of the elements that was prevalent throughout the movie is the musical score. If you look at Vampire Diaries, each episode essentially has a sound track for it. That's crazy, considering there could be 20 episodes or more to a season, but it's also a great way for an artist to get on the scene--if you pardon the pun. Now, Vampire Diaries is definately targeting teens, but probably has a cult following of housewives too. Sucker Punch, on the other hand, would have been much better without a teen-focus, if that was in fact Snyder's intent. We'll just have to wait for the extended cut to see for sure.

Call me voyeuristic if you must, but one of the key elements of the film is that the main character, Baby Doll, can dance hypnotically, and the ladies use this dance to provide a distraction while they get up to nefarious things. I would have liked to see that dance woven into the scenes where the ladies are up to no good. I figure in this day and age, there's enough choreography out here you could convince me that a dance is hypnotic with "all that gyrating."

I'm glad Sucker Punch managed to take thirty million from the box office. I think Zack Snyder has spectacular style, and his film making needs to be rewarded, however there's a very real risk of him falling off the deep end. I also have to wonder how much of a future a director has if he has to slash 30-50% of his entire film before it hits theatres. Watchmen had a theatrical runtime of 2 hours and 43 minutes, and through a Director's Cut, then finally the Ultimate Cut, Snyder managed to extend that to 3 hours and 35 minutes. That's a lot of his vision he has to remove before a theatrical release.

On the other hand, maybe Snyder is just capitalizing on the modern age. Release a movie that provides a polarizing experience into theatres, then capitalize on publicity and multiple releases through extended editions. Kudos to you Snyder, if that's your plan. Kudos also, if that's not your plan, but your vision is just so deep you're willing to lose 45 minutes of footage with each theatrical release! Kudos, either way.

Update (July 1, 2011): It's interesting, while I did enjoy this film, I wasn't head-over-heels for it. As mentioned above, I felt they could have expanded on some of the voyeuristic aspects of the film. Based on this, I wanted to see what people were thinking of the blog, and stumbled across this review: http://thehathorlegacy.com/sucker-punch/

The Hathor ladies kind of blew my mind. I completely did not see the rape alegory in the film, and they've hit the nail on the head. I'm now more interested in watching the extended edition of the movie, as Snyder said it's his favorite version, and if that's the case I can't help but wonder if some of the hidden meaning won't show further.

Source Code (2011)

Excellent film! This has all the moral conflict and story development that I really enjoy, and it involved quantum mechanics to boot!

In the previews, you're told that he's got eight minutes to find a bomb on a train. Knowing this, I was really worried that all 95 minutes were going to be tied up with the different ways in which he tries to find the bomb. The filmmakers didn't do this, they mixed it up well, really well. The combination of the obvious conflicts that arise, and some moral ambiguity really kept me interested right through to the end.

Perhaps my thought patterns run a bit different, but while the main character was communicating with command, I couldn't help but think 'hey, you can communicate with the outside world... what's the big deal? Why don't you just make do with the situation?' And I still hold true to having those thoughts earlier in the film, but ultimately it's the character's plight, his joie de vivre that makes the climax what it is, and satisfies the ending. He wasn't just doing his job, he was more than a cog in the wheel... he saved the world, and got the girl.

Every 3D Movie Ever Made

Gizmodo posted a picture that Sony produced of every 3D movie ever made. I'm not a huge 3D fan, but it is interesting to see where the tech has come and gone.

See the larger version at Gizmodo.

Syriana (2005)

I first tried to watch Syriana shortly after it came out. I stopped watching it shortly into the film.

Then, late last year, I started watching TED talks during my lunch breaks. I ended up watching Jeff Skoll's TED talk, and was interested that his company produced Syriana, along with others like An Inconvenient Truth and North Country. I watched North Country and enjoyed it, and it won awards. So I've been meaning to rewatch Syriana, and I did that tonight.

I have a really hard time with media focused on the Middle East. I've read news articles in Maclean's, watched many movies on the region, and I always find them baffling. Syriana is no different. What's with movie producers and the Middle East? Can't they make a movie plot that's linear and gets it's point across? Jeff mentioned during his TED talk that Syriana was representative of the struggle for oil. OK, fine, I see the connection, a few people assassinated, some blown up oil rigs, etc. I still just don't get it. What was the result?

Here's a question for you, take it hypothetical if you wish, or take it literally and provide an answer: what was or were the basic plot line(s) of Syriana? Seriously, I want to know. It didn't seem to make it clear to me!

Blade Runner (1982) Director's Cut

Well, I watched this movie for two reasons: 1) I had a discussion over the weekend and was lamenting that I'm in a bit of a dry spell, and the person I was speaking to said I would have to dig into classics I haven't seen. 2) I was heralding my success at watching all of 2001: A Space Odyssey over a Facebook chat, and the person I was speaking to recommended this, and said it was better, etc. So I watched it.

WOW... a bit of a let down. I mean, we have have genres that we like, and we all have genres that we hate. I really think this detective genre is something I'm just not into, even mixed with science fiction. I found this movie slow, and I kept thinking "what's the point, again? Oh, right, find the Replicates." And I'd keep coming back to the same thought pattern, it was quite cyclical.

On the positive side, the special effects where great, and I enjoyed the grungy future earth they showed us.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

One third of a century into the future, what will life be like? How will where we came from affect where we're going? Will our inventions rule us, or will we rule our inventions? How will it all end?

I'm a noted Kubrick fan... I've loved Full Metal Jacket--without a word of lie--since I was 8 years old. Yes, a bit early, but c'est la vie! I've tried to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey a few times, and maybe it's just my sleep apnea, but each time I would fall asleep shortly after we got into space. Today, I was determined to watch it, and I swear the combination of beautiful scenery and spectacular classical music still threatened to make me fall asleep, but I endured, and was rewarded for it.

2001 is as trippy as any modern day science fiction movie you'll find--there is a whole segment at the end I plan to rewatch again and again, and can only hope to dream about. Despite the clearly 1960s style "high tech" they were using, the film has aged extremely well. This is an adventure, but it's not easy. I'm confident the concepts Kubrick left me with will ruminate for some time to come, but I feel challenged to consider them further.

Is this movie for you? I'm not sure. This is a fantastic display of imagination, but you have to stay the course in order to get the full experience. Kubrick fans will love it, and most already do. If you haven't seen it, grab a coffee (or a few) and sit down, it's worth the ride.

Unknown (2011)

Some actors don't want to be typecast. I remember reading that Vin Diesel didn't want to do XXX 2 because he'd just done a sequel (which, arguably was a sequel in only the vaguest of definitions--Chronicles of Riddick sequelling Pitch Black). Then here we have Liam Neeson who did Taken back in 2008, and I swear during the first 45 minutes it just felt like some merry go 'round knock off of Taken. At that time, I also figured he was being typecast, but looking at his IMDB bio, it's clear he's been doing a lot of work, so there's minimal risk there.

All that being said, once the plot thickened, as it were, this movie proved itself as unique with a compelling story, and all the bells and whistles we've grown to love of good movies (explotions, car chases, etc.).

If you're into mysteries, this one would be great for you. Michelle usually figures these things out in 20 minutes flat, but Unknown kept her guessing until the very end.

The Man from Earth (2007)

Five minutes into the movie my finger hovered over the STOP button...

Then I gave it a few more minutes, and once the premise was set, I was hooked, line and sinker too!

A 14,000 year old man who originated in neanderthal times? This is science fiction mixed with my interest in neanderthals which was inspired by Robert J. Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax trilogy. Love it!

If you're deterred by dialogue rich films, stick with it, there's depth here, and it's worth the ride.

Red Riding Hood (2011)

My 1st failure: anticipating a horror flick.

My 2nd failure: anticipating the typical horror flick formula... you know, half-naked women running around scared of the evil monster.

Instead, we take The Village--a superb film--and Twilight--sparkly vampires???--and we mash them together with a lower budget and a crappy performance from Gary Oldman. Even the love interest was subpar, but hey Amanda looks amazing.

Gnomeo & Juliet (2011)

You take some Gnomes, a bit of pun, an ancient story, some great voice actors, and it'll be just like Toy Story but in a yard?

Well, not quite. But hey, I'll watch all of these damnimations looking for great ones. Bolt, Megamind, older classics like Toy Story? This one is Gnot it.