Movies in review
Jul. 17th, 2006 11:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
triadruidbeen a while since I posted, but first things first: Summer movies! Best to worst, with only minimal spoilers, I hope:
Pirates of the Carribean 2: Dead Man's Chest. Not much to say here that hasn't been said already, but MAN was this a fun movie. Much like a three-man swordfight on a waterwheel, it goes so far around the corner from "over the top" that it comes back around the front side of fun again. The undead monkey is back, Jack is back and better than ever, and Ms. Swann shows just a little bit of character depth, corset notwithstanding. Still no hope for theboy scout elf Will Turner, though. O. Bloom isn't hard on the eyes, but he's definitely in the David Duchovny/Keanu Reeves school of acting. Hat on, hat off. Davy Jones is a treat, although hard to understand at times.
A Scanner Darkly. Impressive, actually. Speaking of Keanu, he's really carved out a niche in the "confused everyman" market, which he can "play" to the hilt. Okay, he's actually fairly decent in this, which is not saying much since half the time he's hidden by a "scramble suit" (actually very well executed because of the rotoscoping). The rotoscoping overall is pretty good, and the house full of Substance D addicts is just screamingly hilarious; both of my other thirds declared that they lived at that house, despite it being in different states in different years. ;) Good flick, too bad it won't get wide distribution, but it's at the Tivoli and the Glenwood this week. ::edit:: Well, maybe it will at that, it got #10 this past weekend despite being on only 216 screens nationwide...
Superman Returns. Oh boy. I'm sure Brandon Routh could do a pretty good Superman; unfortunately they only let him play a mediocre Christopher Reeve, playing Superman. Everything about this film suffered from the same curse that was laid on The Omen; it's a needless rehashing of material we've already seen, for the nostalgia/remake/easier-to-redo-it-than-come-up-with-something-new studio mindset. Aaargh! Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor was pretty good, obviously having taken some influence from Michael Rosenbaum's damaged LL on Smallville; less histrionics than Hackman, which was a good Lex in its own way. However I kept expecting him to yell "Miss Teschmacher!!!" at Kitty Kowalski, since she was essentially the SAME role. And Lois was wildly disappointing, but then she's always been kind of a set piece for Supes. Maybe the second one will be more original (the less said about the retconning of kryptonite here, the better)...
After all of that, our movie pool gets a little thin for the rest of the year. Looking forward to ... ummm... well... errr, Marie-Antoniette still looks like fun (speaking of corsets). *sigh* There's a few other maybes, like the two stage-magician-rivalry flicks coming out this year (who thought that was a niche market worth fighting about?), and perhaps the Mayan language Mel Gibson historical piece, believe it or not. S'okay, our budget for going out to such things was wearing thin anyway, and our see-on-video list is still REALLY impressive.
Pirates of the Carribean 2: Dead Man's Chest. Not much to say here that hasn't been said already, but MAN was this a fun movie. Much like a three-man swordfight on a waterwheel, it goes so far around the corner from "over the top" that it comes back around the front side of fun again. The undead monkey is back, Jack is back and better than ever, and Ms. Swann shows just a little bit of character depth, corset notwithstanding. Still no hope for the
A Scanner Darkly. Impressive, actually. Speaking of Keanu, he's really carved out a niche in the "confused everyman" market, which he can "play" to the hilt. Okay, he's actually fairly decent in this, which is not saying much since half the time he's hidden by a "scramble suit" (actually very well executed because of the rotoscoping). The rotoscoping overall is pretty good, and the house full of Substance D addicts is just screamingly hilarious; both of my other thirds declared that they lived at that house, despite it being in different states in different years. ;) Good flick, too bad it won't get wide distribution, but it's at the Tivoli and the Glenwood this week. ::edit:: Well, maybe it will at that, it got #10 this past weekend despite being on only 216 screens nationwide...
Superman Returns. Oh boy. I'm sure Brandon Routh could do a pretty good Superman; unfortunately they only let him play a mediocre Christopher Reeve, playing Superman. Everything about this film suffered from the same curse that was laid on The Omen; it's a needless rehashing of material we've already seen, for the nostalgia/remake/easier-to-redo-it-than-come-up-with-something-new studio mindset. Aaargh! Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor was pretty good, obviously having taken some influence from Michael Rosenbaum's damaged LL on Smallville; less histrionics than Hackman, which was a good Lex in its own way. However I kept expecting him to yell "Miss Teschmacher!!!" at Kitty Kowalski, since she was essentially the SAME role. And Lois was wildly disappointing, but then she's always been kind of a set piece for Supes. Maybe the second one will be more original (the less said about the retconning of kryptonite here, the better)...
After all of that, our movie pool gets a little thin for the rest of the year. Looking forward to ... ummm... well... errr, Marie-Antoniette still looks like fun (speaking of corsets). *sigh* There's a few other maybes, like the two stage-magician-rivalry flicks coming out this year (who thought that was a niche market worth fighting about?), and perhaps the Mayan language Mel Gibson historical piece, believe it or not. S'okay, our budget for going out to such things was wearing thin anyway, and our see-on-video list is still REALLY impressive.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 05:26 pm (UTC)Retconning? 'Splain please.
coming movies...
Date: 2006-07-17 05:31 pm (UTC)Re: coming movies...
Date: 2006-07-17 05:44 pm (UTC)Pedantry alert.
Date: 2006-07-17 06:35 pm (UTC)It's what happens when you fly by the seat of your pants for fifty issues, then realize you've been making up canon as you go along, and in issue fifty-one you change something that was laid out in issue three because it fits better with the storyline you have now.
See also Chuck Cunningham.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 09:12 pm (UTC)Re: coming movies...
Date: 2006-07-17 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 11:47 pm (UTC)Which is a cheesy answer, but, hey, one fills in the blanks as one chooses .
I find it fascinating to note that we had polar opposite reactions to both Superman and Pirates.
*smirk*
Date: 2006-07-18 07:16 pm (UTC)It comes out October 20th.
re: opposite reactions
Date: 2006-07-18 08:21 pm (UTC)Also, Ilsa!
Re: *smirk*
Date: 2006-07-18 08:21 pm (UTC)Re: re: opposite reactions
Date: 2006-07-18 10:43 pm (UTC)