Land of the Lost and Maiden Heist April 25th, 2010
Originally Written 01/24/10
Land of the Lost was a better movie than I was expecting, though admittedly I had low expectations. There were some groaner parts, but overall it was amusing and entertaining, if not high cinema.
They did some nice touches to reference the Sid and Marty Kroft TV show and I liked the visuals of lost world outside space and time. There were some fun creature designs too. The characters weren’t that great, but it was a fun little adventure. It’s nothing special but makes for a good popcorn flic.
The Maiden Heist was a fun find in the video store. Christopher Walken, Morgan Freeman and William H. Macey play three security guards working an art museum, each one of them fascinated, no obsessed with a specific painting or statue. When they find out a large part of the gallery is being shipped to a museum in Denmark, they decide to save the pieces love by stealing them and replacing them with forged copies.
What follows is the planning and bumpy execution of an amateur museum heist. It’s quirky and uneven and a bit forced in places, but it had some sweet moments too. It was also fun to watch the three commanding actors having fun playing understated roles.
Sherlock Holmes and Daybreakers April 25th, 2010
Originally Written 01/17/10
I saw Sherlock Holmes last week. I hadn’t realized Guy Ritchie was directing it until my friend Paul mentioned it before the showing. You could definitely see his touches in the movie. Some of the high-speed photography during the fight sequences were a bit distracting, but besides that they were stylish.
The grittier view of Sherlock Holmes worked fairly well. Besides looking at his vices and inner demons, I did like how it showed his mind analyzing the scene and planning actions in slowed-down cut-aways before a couple of the fights. That worked in giving him believability when he deduced everything at the end of the film. The relationship and interplay between Holmes and Dr. Watson’s more-reserved nature was fun too.
Overall it was a decent story, but it didn’t totally grab me. I wasn’t astounded by it, but I didn’t hate it either and it was sufficiently entertaining. I’d give it 3/5 stars.
Then this week I took advantage of leaving work early enough to see Daybreakers which was kind of a disappointment. When I first saw the trailer for it, it looked like a good cheesy vampire movie. I wasn’t expecting Citzen Kane but it could’ve been better.
It started off well enough, with a fun story of how a plague had transformed most of the world into vampires. It was a nice twist that the humans were the freaks and having them hunted for blood allowed for good use of themes of dwindling natural resources and corporate greed. They started off well, with some really nice visuals of the muted world of the future, with high-rise buildings with shuttered windows and the cold wash of fluorescent lighting. Unfortunately after that it went downhill fast.
The rest of the movie was overwhelmed by amped-up action and science too stupid to even really be funny. There were moments I enjoyed and seeing Sam Neil play a creepy villain was fun, but overall it kind of felt like a chore to watch. It’s too bad because I wasn’t expecting high cinema and it could’ve been more effective as a fun rental if they’d done a little more with it and toned the exploding vampires down a bit. I’d rate it a 2/5 stars.
Avatar April 25th, 2010
Originally Written 12/19/09
Avatar was a fun movie. Plot wise there were lots of familiar and predictable tropes so there weren’t many surprises. It got heavy handed with the themes of the evil imperialists against the magic natives at several times though. There were some sympathetic characters and the interplay between the scientists and the marines butting heads was entertaining.
The biggest fault of the movie was it didn’t fully set up the reason for strip-mining the planet. I believe one of the trailers mentioned something about saving Earth, but that wasn’t in the film, save for a throw-away line near the end about a dying world. Otherwise it was just that the fantastic mineral unobtanium (which was a perfect name for this film) was worth a lot of money and it was all for a greedy corporation. Aside from that, the film did have some characters you could care about and there was some good drama to it. Plus there was plenty of epic action, so while it’s not going to win any Oscars it was definitely engaging and fully entertaining.
The movie’s strengths of course were its visuals, which is to be expected. It was a huge spectacle of modern CGI wizardry, but it also had soul to it. The world they created was in equal turns breathtakingly beautiful, definitely alien and absolutely dangerous. The designs of the flora and fauna were amazing and showed a lot of care went into their design. Every scene immersed you in this wonderful alien landscape and it was a beautiful ride. The first night scenes with a forest aglow with bioluminsecence was very emotionally evocative.
Then of course there are the exotic Na’vi. They were beautiful to look at and there were several shots of fan service appreciating their alien beauty. Beyond that though, the character design was well thought out and intriguing. The size difference between the humans and 8-foot giants was an interesting twist and their slender and elongated forms played well into the design of the lower-gravity world.
Story wise Avatar is much better than Ferngully but not as good as Dances With Wolves, both films it shares plot themes with.
For ratings,
Story: 3/5 stars
Visuals: 5/5 stars
Overall 4/5 stars
Fantastic Mr. Fox and Where the Wild Things Are April 25th, 2010
Originally Written 12/07/09
Fantastic Mr. Fox is probably the most accessible Wes Anderson film, though it’s still quirky in places, especially with the odd dialog and affected character deliveries. However, the the visual flairs that his films are known for were a treat to watch. The stop-motion puppetry was a little jarring at first, and the tall and thin character designs looked a little odd, but it was easy to get pulled into the world they created.
The movie both embraced, and at points highlighted, the limitations of the medium, but in a nice way and the film was wonderfully charming. There were spots where the previously mentioned dialog dragged things down a bit, but on the whole it was a lot of fun. The film might not be for everyone, especially if you don’t appreciate at least some indie film styling. It might also be a little weird for young kids, but older children and hip teens and adults could dig it.
Where the Wild Things Are was a surprisingly good adaptation and expansion on a children’s picture book. It’s more of a film for adults who remember what it was like to be a kid, with all the joys and heartaches than it is a kid’s movie as it might be a bit emotionally intense for at least young kids. It’s a lot like other Spike Jonze’s films (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind) where the story is more about characters’ relationships than a lot of action happening, so based on that you’ll either love or hate the film.
It was very engaging and moving, emotional, sweet, disturbing and sad, and I appreciated how evocative it was. The character design and animation of the Wild Things was wonderful, giving them both physical realness, but with some cartoony physics, to make interesting and fantastic visuals.
Paranormal Activity April 25th, 2010
Originally Written 10/22/09
I saw Paranormal Activity tonight. I had mixed feelings about the film, but it was interesting to watch and discuss afterwards at dinner.
What the film gets right, it does quite well at. It was effective at being understated and not needing to explain too much for the most part. The nighttime shots started out slow and built the tension very effectively and there were several scenes that were quite creepy and unsettling.
But there were some threads that seemed too overstated, both in trying to show and trying to explain too much. A scene with a ouija board was too deliberate and kind of over the top at the end. And while the movie built the tension well, there were some parts in the middle act that dragged on too much and took away that energy.
The camera-POV style of shooting, like Blair Witch or Cloverfield was pretty good, but at the same time the characters didn’t totally work for me, especially the annoying boyfriend. Paul and I both wanted to slap him but we also came to independent questions as to whether or not there was some subtext on relationships, with the hapless woman and the controlling alpha male. I have to think some of that was deliberate, which made for an interesting layer to the horror story.
The movie was a mixed bag and it didn’t totally work for me, but it was worth checking out. It’d be a good rental if you like this kind of film.