Two ISDs (Impossibly Shortened Deadlines) in a row, and li’l Stevie’s worn out, my apartment is still hovering around 90% cleaned up, the blog hasn’t been updated in weeks, and I’ve got lots of people whining about it (half of whom don’t even maintain journals themselves). Even though Livewire’s going into the busiest time of the year right now, I still feel a lot more relaxed. I can finally move forward with buying a video camera and equipment. I can finally take the Christmas decorations off my desk. I can finally drink beer without worrying that it’s a crutch.
The first thing I wanted to cover as soon as I got back to writing, is the movies I’ve seen. Just a few, couple-paragraph reviews.
Simone and I saw the Phantom of the Opera movie. While others claim to have forgiven Schumacher for killing the Batman franchise with Phonebooth (which also sucked), I have to say that I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt only after seeing “Phantom”. It was very close to being as beautiful as the stage musical, and made up the slack with accents to the story. There are scenes in the film that are nowhere in the musical, and help explain some of the nuances. I have never read the book, so they might be in there.
I had heard that there was a new song composed for the film, but it wasn’t used in-line… only as closing credits music. If it had been worked into the story, then it probably would have been a stronger contender to win an Oscar. Despite that, the music had all the power of the first time I saw it performed. And I had forgotten how “Music of the Night” makes me feel… just a beautiful song.
I went to The Ring Two with John, and was impressed how suspenseful it was… however, as John says, there was only one real “jump out of your seat” scary scene. I would have liked to see the Samara story explained in more detail, but it was pretty clear how she came to be… leaving just enough loose threads to come out with another sequel (or prequel, like they did in Japan). Like the first, Hollywood “The Ring”, the plot was closely tied to the original. After recently seeing the Korean adaptation, I don’t mind it so much since they all seem to have a unique style.
I saw Robots, and while it was visually more beautiful and innovative than Ice Age, I think I enjoyed it less.
…and the world needs more Scrat.
Outside of Phantom, The Ring Two, and Robots I haven’t seen many films. I haven’t even rented that many. The Incredibles was better than I thought it would be, but for some reason I rarely go into a 3D animated movie with high expectations. Maybe I’m just skeptical of the hype. It was about the best “Bond-ish” film in several years… including the Bond films. But I think the success of the film lies in the characters (I say that about every film). They were well developed, and well performed. Perhaps a bit ironic, when the emphasis is put on how great the visuals are.
Simone and I rented Ghost in the Shell - a movie she had never seen. The first time I watched it was in CTRL-A. To be blunt, I was bored by it! But I was also more into the Samurai Pizza Cats/Ranma ½, humourous stuff. The second time I saw it was at the Bloor Cinema during an anime convention (yes, I’ve been a geek for a long time). I was able to absorb the movie more for what it was - a cyber-noir drama.
I’m not sure of the grand total of views, but I am now better able to catch on to the little things throughout the film. The movie’s ten years old (yeah, ten years!) and the style has been copied so many times that it no longer looks original. It’s sort of like Star Wars or Citizen Kane in that way. I’ve got the sequel, “Innocence”, but I haven’t watched it yet. Doing so is difficult, now that I no longer have Murdoch set up, but I’m interested in following up the story. The original film is still haunting, but doesn’t grab my attention like it once did.
There have been very few movies released in the last six or seven months that I’ve been interested in seeing. The only Oscar nominated film that I was even wanted to see was Sideways. Following an uninteresting Autumn, there hasn’t been much to rent over the Winter… and still nothing much littering the theatres. As I’ve noted before, when there are eight IMAX theatres in Canada, and they’re all playing 35mm prints of Hitch, it’s a very uninteresting time for movies. After such a long stretch of nothing, that probably explains my lack of enthusiasm for Sin City. But if that’s true, then why am I excited about Hitchhiker’s Guide and Star Wars Ep. III… both coming out in less than two months?
I might see Sin City before it leaves theatres, but not necessarily before Hitchhiker’s Guide.
I’ve been relying on TMN for my movie-watching a lot. Cube Zero should be on soon, and that’s one I’m waiting for. Yesterday I watched “Happy Times”, made by the same director as Hero and House of Flying Daggers… but not a kung-fu movie. A conventional drama with some innocently funny moments. Beautiful, but not as emotional as another Asian film I watched.
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring runs like a Buddhist life… slow, but purposely so. A Korean film that tells the story with very few spoken words (maybe a few dozen lines in total), and is filled with extrodinary peace. There were some scenes that made me very upset, as I felt that they were unnecessary in order to tell the story, and partly ruins any repeat viewings (I’m trying to be vague here, in order to refrain from ruining the story). As furious as it made me - and I was furious - I found myself filled with an unusual calm by the end. Still angry, but also more balanced than I had been in weeks.
The same night, my car stereo was stolen.
I’m still waiting for Yin-Yang to balance out.
The last film I’ll mention is Cold Creek Manor, which is also playing on TMN. Really, just your stock, thriller flick. Halfway through the movie, I figured out The Twist Ending… which never happened. The predictable ending happened. I hate it when I figure out a clever conclusion, and the real story is a far cry from being as innovative. Every scene, I was looking forward to see what the next twist would be, only to be “surprised” when the plot simply followed a predictable pattern. The only interesting notes are that it was filmed in Cambridge, near Kitchener, and that Christopher Plummer gives the only exceptional performance, even though he never gets out of bed.
Well, that catches me up for now. Back to work in order to ramp up for the next ISD.
