First out of the box is Spiderman 3. It is by no means the best of the three, but this is certainly very enjoyable, and it shows that Raimi has stayed largely true to his vision of Spiderman. This is long (135 minutes), and even more talky than its predecessors. There is endless discussion of doing the right thing, of always having a choice, of being true to oneself, and saintly Aunt May is finally beginning to grate on me. Both Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst are too whinny and self-absorbed to really enjoy watching (unlike both the earlier movies). Maguire has become the Frodo Baggins of this franchise: he sucks the life out of it whenever he is out of costume.
But the movie succeeds because of the villains: they are all wonderful, and there is enough ambivalence and complexity about their characters that they never become cartoonish (if one can say that as a positive thing about a movie based on a comic book). James Franco returns in the Green Goblin role, and does a great job of managing his conflicting impulses. There is a great moment when he winks at Peter Parker and his entire face changes. He becomes the spine of the movie. Then Thomas Haden Church portrays Sandman, and again every scene with him conveys a tragic sense of despair. Finally we have Topher Grace as photographer and slime villain. He mostly provides comic relief, but he is so much more lifelike than Maguire that he steals every scene that they are in together.
The action sequences are astonishing, and worth whatever the CGI budget was. An aerial chase with the Goblin is particularly good. Finally, Raimi’s old pal from the Evil Dead franchise, Bruce Campbell, has a hysterical scene as a French maitre d’. It is played strictly for laughs, and I strongly recommend that you try to watch it in a French movie theater to see how the French react.
the french get to see american blockbusters before they’re released here? is this what world war 2 was fought for?
Well… the French can have it. I was kind of sold in the first half. That strange Raimi tone, where extravagant (and, yes, very well-filmed) mayhem and earnest overdetermined emotions both play with a kind of looniness that is never camp but endlessly playful. When “bad-boy” Peter vamps down the street (looking too much like that Garth Brooks emo-rock persona), when Harry (James Franco) suffering from concussive amnesia grins with loony intensity at his “best friends” in the hospital, hell even when Aunt Bea (or whoever the hell she is) starts giving Peter a teary-eyed lecture about dead Ben–I bought into the comic-book fizz and pop, where emotions and plot and character are giddily framed then as gleefully altered a rectangle later. Stan Lee drops in and tells Peter some strange little comment, then, after a long pause, says “That’s all I got” and walks away. It’s gloriously funny and wonderful.
But half-way in, I got the pained sense that the film had started simply to connect dots, to hit the “big movie” highlights rather than dance to that strange Raimi tune. Aunt Bea was really bugging the shit out of me, and then Hal Fishman shows up to read us script notes so that we can get to the climax, and the film drags to the finish line. I can’t recommend seeing it–the end was dispiriting and deflating. At least at home you can fast-forward through and maintain your focus on the earlier fun.
Instead, I’d go see Hot Fuzz, which IS as pleasurable as Chris says in his post elsewhere.
Ugh. Is Blockbuster 07 Summertime Whizz-Bang Power Hour over yet? Terrible movies are the one of the worst things about summer. And this looks pretty terrible. Actually the other two didn’t hold much interest for me either. Most of what I’ve seen of the original was from the home theater demonstration room at the Bose stereo store at the Glendale Galleria. I might have actually rented the second one, though it’s on TV all the time, and none of the scenes look familiar to me/look all too familiar to me.
I can’t tell which.
Here’s a list of more crap I’ll be avoiding until I can rent it for $1.50 and fast forward through 50% of it. (Actually I won’t even be renting any of these except maybe Pirates 3)
Shrek the Third
Pirates of the Caribbean
Ocean’s Thirteen
Fantastic Four
A Mighty Heart
Die Harded
Transformers
Harry Potter
Simpsons Movie – you know… I just don’t see the point. I went to see Aqua Teen Hunger Force partly b/c the TV show is on so late at night that I can never stay up. It was easier to go the movies. Simpsons is on TV 24/7. I’ve already wasted enough of my life watching it.
Might see:
Ratatouille – I skipped Cars. But this looks possibly good.
Evan Almighty. Not that I saw Bruce Alm. but hoping that Steve Carrell gets a good part here. I still havent warmed up to him on the Office yet.
Will see:
Knocked Up – looks very funny.
Why don’t you kids go outside and get some sun instead of sitting inside with your computer and movies all day?
where do you rent movies for $1.50?
Video Journeys! Two rentals for $3 on Tue Wed Thur.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/vqsaMDc8j0uEwiBzH6TLUg
They’re not the best video store in LA – they’re lacking the esoteric stuff, they don’t group DVDs by director or have a lot of rare or weird stuff. But they have a most of what I look for, and the people that work there are just great. They are the main reason I won’t join Netflix.
—
by the way, I just heard Kris Hackell interviewed on KTLA. hal Fishmann told her to be careful and that the LA river is dry and won’t protect her (it’s not dry – hal’s insane). The other anchor, who is a friend of Kris’ said, “I love you.” Very surreal.
Of course my city is burning down about two miles away so that’s pretty fucking surreal too. Apparently this fire is endangering Kris Hackell.
http://backgammonmotherfucker.blogspot.com/2007/05/i-work-in-this-town-part-2.html
Hal Fishman is my conduit to Spiderman *and* Kris Hackel news. Does the man never sleep?
is kris a journalist? cool!
i had no idea L.A. was burning up. miami is burning up a little, but nowhere near as seriously. those pictures are amazing. surreal’s another word for it.
So to ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ (or, playing off the cyber crime theme, ‘Die Hard 4.0′ as they call it in Europe). There is not much to say beyond that this is a pretty satisfying, old-fashioned action movie. Thank goodness that after Gio has worked so hard, and so effectively, to make the case that all movies are really about bourgeois complacency, we are back to what all movies really are about: masculinity. The plot is paper thin, and the 130 minutes of running time are essentially a series of set-piece explosions linked by McClane’s wisecracks. And the action is very well done indeed with all manner of vehicles (cars, trucks, SUVs, helicopters, a jet fighter) exploding, having their windows shot out, and disappearing down elevator shafts. The special effects seem muted to my eye, and the movie really goes to the stunt people and the guys who stage manage the fireballs. Through it all, Willis sweats, bleeds, grunts and is generally likeable. Oddly, though, this is a Disneyfied Die Hard. They apparently wanted a PG-13 rating, so there is not a single obscenity or glimpse of nudity. It is – for an action movie – a little too uplifting and clean-cut for my taste. The one weakness (given the genre) is a series of totally gratuitous ethnic slurs uttered by Willis in reference to the Maggie Q character. Timothy Olyphant starts off on the bland side (and he really misses the facial hair from ‘Deadwood’), but he grew on me. He gets into the mood of the wisecracking repartee, and he has a nice way with sarcasm when talking to his subordinates. Kevin Smith has some fun with his part as the cyber geek ‘Warlock.’ Oh, and I liked the guy from the ‘Apple versus PC’ ads. The very essence of a summer blockbuster.
I’ve went from utter disgust to relative disinterest to a now-keen desire to see Willis yet again Hard. Action–such as it is–seems absent this summer, as Spidey 3 was mostly a bust for me and I couldn’t bother with Pirates 3 and I haven’t any hope at all for Transformers. Way out in the distance I see Matt Damon getting his grim face on, but until then what hope for the fan of lunatic, semi-vicious, profanity-growling action?
Well…. let me put in a big plug for Day Watch, the sequel to the Night version of same, but honestly if you didn’t see the original you’d be just fine. Either way the plot is almost loony in its investment in a grand twisting epic battle between light and dark, and pleasurably looney-tunes-ish in evading any pretension about that “epic” ambition. Simply know this: the action, while largely cg-driven, is gloriously inventive and exciting; the plot’s acrobatics are vigorous but creative as well; and the film is composed, color-schemed, and choreographed to a lovely shiny T, never less than sumptuous and glorious to watch. This is easily my favorite summer flick, and one of my favorite films of the year (‘though from admittedly slim pickings).
“simply know this:”?
That’s action-speak. Mark my words, Chuckles, come what may.
nuff said.
There’s die hard in a building and die hard on a boat and die hard in the sky but die hard in America?!? I can’t disagree with anything Chris has to say about Live Free and Die Hard, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have a great time watching this flick on the 4th of July. It is, unabashedly, the most fun I’ve had in a movie theater in months; pure preposterous fun. The audience applauded, ahhhed and oohed, groaned and laughed, talked back to the screen and walked away highly entertained. The slacker Mac kid aquits himself quite well and Bruce Willis reignites his career (at least for a couple more big paychecks).
what’s so cool about explosions? i mean, why do they base films and then more films, again and again, on the single emotional trigger of explosions? the only emotion explosions (the filmic variety) trigger in me is boredom. even car chases are better than explosions, boring as they, too, are. fights are also boring, by the way, but they have the added negativity of being yucky. i like to see the human body severely tested, but it should be something more interesting than fights. take, for instance, that docudrama whose title i can’t remember about that mountaineer who digged himself out of an avalanche and walked back to base camp with a broken leg, crawling on jagged rocks. that’s a good way to batter around the body.
All the same? Well, you may be right.
Cool. And not even remotely boring. Come on, Gio, admit that ‘Notes on a Scandal’ would have been better with that depth charge detonation. And ‘Pursuit of Happyness’ badly needed a car chase.
mike, don’t know where to put this comment. you said somewhere that after hours is a film you can see a million times and never get tired of it. did i dream this?
chris, english soccer is pure wanking.
oh, and mike, i sat down meaning to put myself through every one of your clips, cuz, i thought, so much work went into posting them, the least i could do…
but i had to give up in the middle of the second one, because i was getting a stomach ache.
i must have ate too much chocolate.
At least try the last one. Tom Jones.
Yes, After Hours is a film I obsessively watch, at least once a year, often more–and I have probably seen it a zillion times. I’m not sure whether you’ll like it… but it at least has no explosions. (Now, because it is my favorite film, you *should* like it….)
So, a, um, friend took his kids to see ‘Transformers’ today and reports that it is really a quite respectable summer movie, even enjoyable. The action sequences are well shot, as you would expect from a Michael Bay movie. Two firefights in Qatar are particularly effective as soldiers flee and put up limited resistance to the decepticons. The transformers themselves are the least interesting part of the movie, not least because they lack irony. But many of the human actors acquit themselves well: John Turturro has a truly wonderful comic turn, Jon Voight (as the Defense Secretary) actually looks like Donald Rumsfelt, Shia LaBoeuf manages to be likeable at the same time as being awkward, and Megan Fox, looking like a younger Tea Leoni, pulls off the role of feisty girlfriend as well as it can be done. The movie oscillates unevenly between straight CGI-dominated action and incoherent, silly story of the rival transformers and their quest for “the cube.” But it works at the most basic level of thrilling action-packed adventure. It even has the same ending as ‘The Rock’ involving red flares and fighter jets swooping in low. And there are lots, and lots, and lots of explosions. So my friend says.
I hate to disagree with your friend but I must. Personally, I wish I was watching with a couple of eleven-year-olds as it might have made Transformers slightly more bearable. I thought this thing was a mess–earnest melodrama, high concept action, irony free heroes, bogus love story, over-the-top comic Men in Black-esque nonsense (John Turturro was embarrassing and seemed to be lifted out of an entirely different film; I won’t even get started with Sector Seven), mawkish coming-of-age treacle (though I did admire Shia LaBoeuf’s determiniation to see this thing through; he sells himself almost as hard as the film sells Pontiacs, Mountain Dew, Wells Fargo, GMC SUVs, Apple Computers, eBay, and on and on and on). And the plot is ludicrous while the production values were laughable (the very expensive CGI effects were impressive for the first thirty minutes or so and then slowly beat you into a cowering position). And there is a lot of humor that plays into stereotypes surrounding people of color which struck me as vaguely racist. Reynolds, I shoulda listened to you! Live Free and Die Hard is thirty times more entertaining (if one is thinking of tossing a coin).
Since he lacks no resource, Michael Bay is the sort of director who, when a character mentions that aircraft carriers are massing off the coast, actually gives you a shot of those carriers! I don’t know whether it’s real, CGI or little models, but it must be expensive. kudos to money! I suggest that Bay take this strategy much further, thereby becoming the most avant-garde blockbuster director around. Say Jon Voight mentions a ham sandwich, cut to an image of a ham sandwich! If Optimus Prime mentions Paris, give us a shot of the real Paris! When Jazz throws down a rhyme, give us a montage of hip hop forefathers, from Afrika Bombaata on! Goddammit, I don’t care how much it costs–and since every movie at the multiplex is now 3 hours plus, it’ll play fine, albeit only once a day. class it up for the folks–some Abel Gance sweep with Godardian irony! I look forward to this new strategy in the big-screen My Little Pony: Apocalypse ! Autobots hear me!
(material provided by the Online Transformers Encyclopedia)
watched transformers this evening, and quite enjoyed it for what it was. which was a very silly movie. jeff is right on about the easy playing to black movie stereotypes but wrong about the irony-free stuff. it is not high-concept irony but the film mostly seemed quite aware of its silliness. i thought the sequences with the parents were great. a very accurate, yet generous satire of suburban life in the middle of this blow-em-up movie–and highlighting quite well the stupidity of the premise: giant robots slinking around small towns. and i thought turturro was amusing enough. not a bad way to deaden the brain for a couple of hours.
jeff, of course, the plot is ludicrous: the premise is giant robots from out of space that turn themselves into automobiles for some reason.
A minimal plug–mostly an echo of Chris’ and Jeff’s comments–for the latest (last?) Die Hard. Nothing spectacular, but relatively fun–I really liked Justin Long, the wiseacre kid.
Now, off to see “The Mist.” For a lifelong Stephen King fan, this is a bit of anxious heaven–I’ve wanted to see this as a film since I read it. But I have almost no patience for Darabont’s previous record, heavy on the schmaltzy side of King rather than the freaky nasty. Here’s hoping for some freaky nasty…
i also enjoyed the latest die hard well enough, though it was remarkably free of tension, and mcclane is too much like superman at this point. i would have liked to see what the goofy pc guy could have done as the sidekick. perhaps in the next iteration?
mike, did you catch a resemblance between olyphaunt and our own john bruns?
I wish I was that good looking. Personally, I see no resemblance. More elephant than olyphant.
Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is the closest cinematic equivalent to a Baudrillard essay I’ve ever seen, full of extended exposition that may make sense in the original French, and flashes of strange surreal connection that nudge nudge wink wink about deep philosofickal meaning. I recommend it for the lone gunmen (and gunwomen!) among us, who may be looking for an excuse to go on a rampage. This’ll fire up your unlocated rage! Enjoy!
Yeah, the movie sucks like a hyperreal Reynolds captaining the Exxon Valdez . . . but that one sequence about a half hour in where multiple Johnny Depps rattle the cage and a plethora of stone crabs manage to carry a pirate ship across a desert of sand is the best work Terry Gilliam hasn’t accomplished in two decades. I didn’t stick around for anything after that sequence, but it was a beaut. I do remember somebody on this blog saying nice things (Chris?), but the first fifteen minutes or so are so badly cut and so blatantly sexist that I couldn’t get the bad taste of Bruckheimer dick out of my mouth.
Mmmm…Bruckheimer dick
I don’t remember if I said nice things about this iteration (I know I did about the earlier ones), but I just watched it again and had a blast. Sure, the second scene has Keira Knightly lightly clothed, but it’s not like she was cast in the role of Elizabeth for her acting skills, so I don’t think we can be shocked (shocked!) that a little flesh creeps into the movie; on a Hollywood sexism scale, ‘Pirates’ is pretty tame. I found Orlando Bloom’s narcissism more offensive.
I liked two things about this movie. First, there were a couple of great set-pieces. The opening scene, with the execution of lines of pirates, builds the sense of British oppression and pirate resistance. And the final battle, lasting close to 40 minutes, culminating with the wonderful scene of the British ship being blown apart, is about as good a piece of controlled mayhem as I’ve seen all year.
Second, I am fascinated that we are asked to root for the pirates as a a kind of anti-capitalism. Britain = the logic of the market while the pirates represent freedom. The British admiral (or whatever) even utters his final words as “it is just business.” This tension is everywhere these days: Tony Soprano versus Phil Leotardo; Avon Barksdale versus Stringer Bell; pirates versus the British empire.
Whatever, the last 40 minutes of splintering wood, explosions and water spray are just plain fun.
It’s not that she’s lightly clothed; first, she pulls a small canon out of what any fourteen-year-old can only imagine is her vagina (that’s certainly the punch line/money shot of that “disarm yourself” scene), and, within moments, the “good” pirates are gazing up her dress from beneath the floorboards of Yun Fat-Chow’s lair (and they turn this into an even more sophomoric joke when another pirate lumbers over to get his look just as a big, bulky Chinaman has stepped into Elizabeth’s space, leaving the pirate below with an eyefull of bulky pirate privates . . . cut to his disgruntled confusion and despair). This constitutes only the first twelve minutes or so of the film. Plus, I’m not so sure the politics of capitalism can be so easily critiqued in an overblown pirate fantasy based on a Disney themepark ride with a $300 million budget (to be fair it only cost $300 million for parts two and three). Still, I did like that scene with the stone crabs very much.
mmmmmm stone crabs….
I assumed it was her asshole, seeing as how she reached behind herself to get the gun, but I’m somewhat vague on female anatomy. I’ll check with my fourteen year old. It will force me to have that father-son conversation about vaginas that I have been putting off.
mmmmmmm…vaginas
In the world of pirates (both literal and the one’s in the audience who work in cubicles and are easily swayed by the illusion of freedom) one woman’s hole’s as good as another, no? Jeez, I can’t believe I wrote that, but I have to admit (and then I’ll leave it alone) the first fifteen minutes of this movie really offended me, primarily because I know the audiences were full of boys of all ages, and the film is completely unapologetic in its misogynistic pandering.
why did y’all force me to see live free or die hard?!? i hold jeff personally responsible, for having given this absurd, drivelly film the most enthusiastic endorsement of the gang. you owe me, man.
It was fun on the 4th of July in a crowded theatre with a big screen (and stadium seats). The audience oohed and ahhed and clapped and laughed. I wouldn’t want to watch it again though.