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Playing with the random entry link, I found this post I made a while ago. I’ve noticed that my last several posts have numbered between two and three billion words each (or so it feels if you’re reading them), and postitioned once every week or two. So I’m going to try to return to making more innane comments on stuff I see around me… more frequently and under 100 words or so.

Damn. I think I’m already closing in on 100… well, here’s my comment then:

Edward Norton is a good actor, but thoroughly unconvincing as a “smart guy“.

Simone and I went to the Docks Drive-in last week. We got to see both Indiana Jones and Iron Man for $13 ea. The relatively low price and intimate setting was worth the lack of contrast in dark scenes (which is any scene in a cave… of which there were several… in both movies… )

Iron Man had probably the best special effects I’ve seen, but certainly not on purpose. The thunderstorm last night passed overhead just as Tony Stark was making the first Iron Man suit, and blowing stuff up. The biggest explosion at the end of the battle happened a split second after a lightning bolt struck just behind the screen. It couldn’t have been better if it were planned that way.

Other than that, Iron Man was a thoroughly average movie. There was nothing wrong with it, but only because it followed the template for making a comic book movie to the letter. What differentiated the movie from other comic book movies is the director, Jon Favereau, is a big fan of improvised dialogue, and Robert Downey Jr. is particularly talented when it comes to embracing a character and carrying it beyond the script.

Even still, I can’t see why this film got such critical acclaim. It’s good, but not great. It really doesn’t stand out from the crowd of comic book movies aside from the fact that it’s “not a bad movie”. Most films without anything beyond the standard template tend to suffer from the very constraints of the form and we get The Punisher or Daredevil (both of which have inexplicably spawned sequels).

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, on the other hand, was brilliant. Although they might have changed the title to “Henry Jones Jr. and the…”. He was called “Henry” just as much in the movie as he was called “Indy”. In any case, this is definitely a worthy successor to the series. There was a hiccup in pre-production over a script for the movie, but it has been worth the extra four-year wait to get the story/script just right. This is a phenomenal movie.

There’s a lot of suspension of disbelief required to enjoy the movie, even from the opening scenes. Anyone who doesn’t like the movie will have a lot of fodder to harp on; details like obvious stuntmen shots, likelihood that you’d survive a nuclear blast, etc. but it doesn’t take that much effort to force yourself into a place where you get carried along for the ride.

After reading the trivia page on IMDB, I’ve found that they’ve gone to great lengths to ensure that the filming style mimics the previous three, and the effort really shows. This isn’t the same Spielberg who made Minority Report and Munich. This is Jurassic-Park-and-earlier Spielberg. THIS is the moviemaking I miss in the summer.

Anyway, with no new release last weekend that I’m interested in seeing I’m now only two movies behind on my summer list, and I’m perfectly comfortable with the possibility of seeing neither Speed Racer nor Narnia until video release.

I’m just writing a short prologue to my usual Preview, since I haven’t the time to dedicate to this quite yet.

The release of Summer blockbuster movies are one of the few reasons I’m willing to release my grasp on the Winter season.  Every year it seems to get earlier in order to avoid a crowded, multi-release weekend. While the “Summer blockbusters” are being released before Memorial Day, they’ve been lasting shorter into the Summer months themselves… often petering out shortly after the July 4th weekend.

While this year has no shortage of early starting movies (Iron Man, Speed Racer, Narnia 2 and Indiana Jones all released on subsequent weekends throughout May), the big releases will continue well into August - typically a month reserved for tired franchises. Well, Star Wars will be releasing a feature-length TV show episode from the new series in August, so that could qualify. 

<rant>

For the record, anyone who complains about Episodes 1-3 isn’t allowed to see the Clone Wars movie. If you’re psyched up about it, then calm yourself down. It’s a fact that Lucas will never satisfy your lofty requirements for perfection. Just don’t bother sitting in the same theatre as me, or claim that you want your money back via online forums. And while you’re at it, stay away from Indiana Jones too.

Like it, or don’t go see it. It’s that simple.

</rant>

We’ve already got our first $100 million opening weekend with Iron Man, and there’s still the Indiana Jones movie (wide audience) and Batman movie (very high anticipation) to come out.

I wonder if I can get Air Miles with all the tickets I’m going to be buying?

To be honest, I was more interested in seeing Iron Man when it was just a Jon Favereau-directed, brilliantly typecasted, comic-book movie.  Since it started getting good reviews and the occasional blasphemous comments that it’s “better than Spider-man” *ptui*, then I lost interest in going opening weekend.

I’m more of a “bandwagonner” than an “anti-establishment” type of geek, but I had my mind set on watching Iron Man as an individual choice, not looking like I’m one of the crowd.  I also don’t like crowded theatres.

Last year I saw Spider-man 3 on opening night at Paramount, and again later that weekend with a theatre full of kids. It was more enjoyable watching it with the kids, because they were allowing themselves to be pulled into the storyline - as cheezy though it may have been. The twenty-somethings at the first showing wouldn’t shut the f*** up. 

I’ll wait a little bit before seeing Iron Man, but I will be seeing it soon. This summer is a little too packed to put off any movie for too long.  Speed Racer comes out this Friday, but I doubt it will top the $100 million that Iron Man brought in.

However, I have seen a few new(er) movies over the last couple of weeks. Forgetting Sarah Marshall was typical Judd Apatow material. Nothing new (besides full-frontal male nudity) but more of the same formula. If you enjoyed Superbad, Knocked Up and 40-year-old Virgin, then this is good. But again, nothing new.

The next night I was treated to yet more full-frontal male nudity with Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay . I guess weiners are the new taboo-of-the-moment to break in high concept filmmaking. For some reason, Sarah Marshall, the movie with full-frontal male nudity, simulated sex scenes but no female nudity, alcohol consumption but no drugs, and very limited swearing got an 18A rating, while Harold & Kumar got a 14A rating.

It would seem that simulated sex scenes and a few extra shots of weiner gets a higher age-limit rating than excessive female nudity, swearing and drug & alcohol abuse. I guess it really is the new taboo of the moment.

Again, Harold & Kumar was just as good as the previous film. Nothing new, but worth watching if you liked the first.

These sound like disappointing assessments, but it really is an accomplishment when a series manages to maintain its quality while spawning sequels. Not every writer/director/acting team can do that.

Following up two days of immature adult humour, I went to see Nim’s Island with my neice and nephew. Simple movie, but good for kids. Jodie Foster plays against type as a person who has several phobias, including the inability to leave her house. The irony being that she’s a successful writer of Indiana Jones-style adventure novels. She has to leave her house to help save Nim, but doesn’t get to the island until the last twenty minutes of the movie.

If her struggles paralleled Nim’s a bit more closely, then it might have worked. Instead, the effort was clearly made but did not succeed in the final film. This feels like it might have been a studio edit, but it could simply have just been badly translated to the big screen.

The last movie I’ll mention is Mr. Brooks. There was a lot of critical acclaim for this one, and it’s well deserved.  The writing is brilliant, the direction fantastic, and the acting is very impressive. For someone like William Hurt, you just hire him and have him show up and he’ll put in a good performance. However, the director managed to get another great performance out of Kevin Costner (small difficulty), Demi Moore (medium difficulty) and even Dane Cook (high difficulty).

The film changes gears as frequently as a Schizophrenic changes personalities, and I think that’s what was intended. That being said, there was very little difference between Kevin Coster and his alter-ego, William Hurt. I bought this movie on DVD and I’m glad I did, I will be watching it again.  I’ve always wanted to see Kevin Coster get his second wind after the problems he had following Dances With Wolves. With this performance he might be able to get back on the horse and make an enviable career after all.

Yesterday, among few other activities (vacation day) I watched Silence of the Lambs. This is the first time I had seen it, even though I consider myself a “Movie Geek”.  There are a number of films on my want-to-see list that have shamefully slipped through the cracks. I still have Once Upon A Time In The West on my DVD shelf, unwatched.

When the Academy Award Winning picture was originally in theatres, I was 15 and was not yet in the habit of sneaking into movies I wasn’t supposed to see. The years passed, and throughout my twenties I rented it twice but didn’t get to watching it before my rental time was up and I had to return it to the store. More recently, I found it for $4.99 (+20% off sale) and picked it up. It wasn’t until later that I realized it was full-frame instead of widescreen, but I’m willing to live with that.

The DVD sat on my shelf through the autumn and through the holidays until yesterday when I finally took it out of the cellophane, tore the security sticker off in a dozen pieces, and finally sat down to commit two hours to watching one of the greatest films of the 20th century (or at least, the greatest villian).

It was ruined.

In the 16 years since the movie was released, this landmark film had so many quotable quotes, and so many landmark moments and filming techniques that they’ve been lampooned countless times in movies I’ve actually spent the time to watch. I’m watching Anthony Hopkins in his Oscar-winning performance, but I’m hearing the Toilet Paper Vandel from a South Park episode. I’m watching ‘Buffalo Bill’ dance in front of a video camera, but I’m seeing Jason Mewes in the parking lot at Mooby’s.

Now I truly understand why people who didn’t see a movie like Star Wars in the first twenty years found it impossible to see for the first time when re-released in theatres. Mind you, that doesn’t get them a repreive from my condemnation of not seeing earlier.

But for ruining a film that earned the right to be on the very, very short list of “Big Five” Oscar Winners, I have only myself to blame.