Ok at the end of my review, I’m supposed to basically say how the saving grace of this movie is the soundtrack. But I’m saying it out now because I want to post a vid of my fave song from it (the pixies’ ‘hey’) just before I put on the ‘keep reading’ tag. So here it is and an awesome live version at that:
and now the ‘keep reading’..
Almost by accident I watched Broken Flowers, and the fact that I had 0 expectations I think, adds to how I think this is probably one of the best movies I’ve ever watched.
I came about it when I checked out Rotten Tomatoes for some reason or other, and happened onto a Bill Murray movies compilation, which of course I checked out and, having realized I had watched most of them, focused on those I hadn’t.
This is the part I describe Broken Flowers but it’s not gonna be easy. It’s the story of an aging Don Juan, Murray’s character cheekily named Don Johnston, who lives a fairly empty life after having done well for himself and gone through several, obviously failed, relationships.
Johnston never shows any frustration, regret or for that matter, joy in the way things have turned out for him though. Rather, he lives everyday pretty much the same, falling asleep in front of his fancy TV and stereo in his upper middle class home alone.
Ari Gold is my hero. He’s the guy I’ve always been but was too shy to let come out because I was too worried about offending people whom I really shouldn’t care about anyway.
Whew what a mouthful. ‘Nyway here he is.
Continue reading Knock off the hippy shit, strap on a helmet and start shooting.
If there’s any type of movie I’d say that best reflects my idea of Hollywood, it’s the big grand musical. Now I’m fairly aware that saying that sounds very gay, which I’m sure makes my homophobic girlfriend cringe. But hey, I’m not gonna lie. Big grand musicals are the epitome, to me, of what a ‘spectacular performance’ is. There’s great music, terrific melodies, and basically actors interpreting what they feel through feats of song and dance. Any story of great romance, deep despair, hate, fear, or anything for that matter, is made more meaningful and dramatic via moving performances filled with music and dancing.
Thus, I still remember happily the few magical musicals I chanced upon at a young age, such as Oklahoma, South Pacific, the King and I and other Rogers and Hammerstein classics. Then there’s Oliver Twist (which had me saying ‘Please Sir, may I have some more?‘ over and over again), Annie and My Fair Lady. Until today, when I type on a keyboard to test it, I usually write ‘The Rain In Spain stays mainly in the plain‘, rather than the standard ‘The quick red fox…‘.
But (I’m almost apologetic to admit due to their near boilerplate commonness) the ones I particularly remember best are The Sound Of Music, whose 2 songs ‘I Have Confidence‘ and ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain‘ I used to sing to myself (if I could remember the lyrics) whenever I took on a job interview; the less common Fiddler on the Roof, whom I admired for its ability to present a political view whilst providing pure musical enjoyment, and finally, Grease, for taking you to a certain place and time, in this case the late 50’s America, with its terrific songs, performances and costumes that added a hundred more colors to the standard boy meets girl.
And due to the fact it had almost the same location and time of Grease, I approached Hairspray, justifiably or not, with that as my barometer. I love Grease, I loved John Travolta’s oozing, greasy masculinity and Olivia Newton John’s openness and virginal innocence, I loved the song ‘Greased Lightnin” and hated it when they cut that song out from the TV version of the movie, and I have been waiting for a long long time to watch something of anywhere near the calibre of those three. It was therefore with great anticipation that I waited on the promises made by Hairspray.
And my conclusion?
Read the rest at Movie Exchange!
If there’s any type of movie I’d say that best reflects my idea of Hollywood, it’s the big grand musical. Now I’m fairly aware that saying that sounds very gay, which I’m sure makes my homophobic girlfriend cringe. But hey, I’m not gonna lie. Big grand musicals are the epitome, to me, of what a ‘spectacular performance’ is. There’s great music, terrific melodies, and basically actors interpreting what they feel through feats of song and dance. Any story of great romance, deep despair, hate, fear, or anything for that matter, is made more meaningful and dramatic via moving performances filled with music and dancing.
Thus, I still remember happily the few magical musicals I chanced upon at a young age, such as Oklahoma, South Pacific, the King and I and other Rogers and Hammerstein classics. Then there’s Oliver Twist (which had me saying ‘Please Sir, may I have some more?‘ over and over again), Annie and My Fair Lady. Until today, when I type on a keyboard to test it, I usually write ‘The Rain In Spain stays mainly in the plain‘, rather than the standard ‘The quick red fox…‘.
Whatever’s the latest Harry Potter movie, it’s almost always the best one. Some people will argue, but in this case, I’m quite positive that a lot would agree that it is.
Just to get it out of the way, I think the fifth movie was great. I have read the book about three times already, and even after the release of the Half-Blood Prince, it remains my favourite. The effects of the movie were amazing and Daniel Radcliffe has gone a long way with his acting. Maybe appearing on stage naked really did help? I don’t know. Plus, there’s Gary Oldman, and anything with him in it, I would take.
Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge) and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) were perfect for their roles and I am so glad that they managed to squeeze in Fred and George’s departure from Hogwart’s.
However, there are a bunch of things that didn’t work for me and as a true nerd, I will enumerate them because there is no one around me who is as enthusiastic about all this, and it sucks talking to the wall about a boy wizard.
First, the scenes that they cut off:
Writing this, I realized that there are many ways you can approach Ratatouille, which is probably it’s main weakness. First and foremost, you can write about the lead character Remy, which is a rat, and approach how inappropriate this is for a movie about food.
Second, you can talk about the food, and the fact that this is probably the best food movie I’ve ever watched in a long long time, and how the scene where the lead bad person Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole) is brought back to his youth after he eats some of Remy’s Ratatouille (which apparently is a peasant dish. I wouldn’t know since I wouldn’t even know where to find some), is somewhat similar to how I feel whenever I have some Sinigang sa Miso – a simple sour fish broth which is probably equally humble yet I’d elect to have as my very last dish on Earth if I were to be a prisoner on death row.
Third is, as I’ve mentioned above, Disney – Pixar’s absolutely superb movie making magic, and the fact that they have in the last few years produced some of the most fantastic movies in the likes of Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Toy Story and A Bug’s Life – all understated, fully animated features that to me, represent hope for great movie making in the classic style. Here is a movie company that understands the use of full animation as a tool rather than an end in itself, a Hollywood movie company apparently staffed by artists who know that just making something colorful and loud and hiring big stars to voice them does not necessarily a great movie make – no matter how much money it ends up making anyway.
And those are just some of the things I think about when thinking about Ratatouille. All interesting for sure, but unfortunately, a sign that I do not really know what to make of it.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, is the kind of movie that reminds me why I’ve decided at some point, to establish standards in my choice of movies. Not that it’s earth – shattering mind you. Far from it. Rather, Fantastic Four II is the kind of movie that’ll make you answer, when someone asks if you like it, that ‘it’s ok..‘, or ‘it’s entertaining..‘, with your voice trailing off, or some response to that effect.
And since you can’t really pinpoint why you don’t like it, but find it a stretch to call it a bad movie either, you just smile, shake your head or shrug your shoulders, and forget about it. Proof of it? The day after you’ve forgotten you’ve watched it, and by next week any memory of it is completely erased altogether.
Which is, you see, the exact opposite of two of the best most entertaining movies I’ve ever watched, which happen to both be based on superheroes. And that is Superman, the first one with Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder, and Batman Returns, with Michael Keaton and Michelle Pfeiffer.
And here’s the part where you sit back for a moment, if you’ve happened to be around at the time they were released (1978 and 1992 respectively), where, you will likely nod your head in agreement, and appreciate along with me, the sheer entertainment these two provided.
And then you realize as well, how Fantastic Four II completely pales in comparison to those two. So much so, one might argue, that it shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same movie review as the other two.
And I am getting closer to the point I am trying to make.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, is the kind of movie that reminds me why I’ve decided at some point, to establish standards in my choice of movies. Not that it’s earth – shattering mind you. Far from it. Rather, Fantastic Four II is the kind of movie that’ll make you answer, when someone asks if you like it, that ‘it’s ok..‘, or ‘it’s entertaining..‘, with your voice trailing off, or some response to that effect.
And since you can’t really pinpoint why you don’t like it, but find it a stretch to call it a bad movie either, you just smile, shake your head or shrug your shoulders, and forget about it. Proof of it? The day after you’ve forgotten you’ve watched it, and by next week any memory of it is completely erased altogether.
Which is, you see, the exact opposite of two of the best most entertaining movies I’ve ever watched, which happen to both be based on superheroes. And that is Superman, the first one with Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder, and Batman Returns, with Michael Keaton and Michelle Pfeiffer.
And here’s the part where you sit back for a moment, if you’ve happened to be around at the time they were released (1978 and 1992 respectively), where, you will likely nod your head in agreement, and appreciate along with me, the sheer entertainment these two provided.
And then you realize as well, how Fantastic Four II completely pales in comparison to those two. So much so, one might argue, that it shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same movie review as the other two.
And I am getting closer to the point I am trying to make.
Sunshine is a story about a group of scientists and astronauts sent out to space 50 years from now to fix the sun via exploding a bomb into it. First they have to get there of course, and no they don’t resort to doing it at night, so let’s get that old, old joke over with before you even start thinking it, and to those who wouldn’t have thought of it, my apologies, but consider my getting it over with as a favor to you just the same.
At any rate, the drama here is the actual getting there and ‘delivering the payload’, which we hear very often throughout the film. Cillian Murphy, the guy I suspect who’s gonna play the Joker in the next Batman series, plays a Physicist who has to decide if they should check out whatever happened to the first attempt 8 years before them, a similar ship named Icarus (theirs is Icarus II), whom they happen to discover mysteriously floating around in space – completely functional – along the way. These being the practical scientists that they are, they decide that two chances at exploding a bomb into the sun are better than one, and proceed to variate their mission into fetching it. But of course it turns out, as it often does, the mystery ship isn’t as innocent as they think, and it proceeds thereon to make their path that much harder as they go along their way.