Five Movies that Have Very Little in Common

The last five movies I've seen, working forward are:

Monsters Inc. - The first time I saw it, I thought it was good, but a little sub-par for Pixar. However, watching it a second time with Blake and Regan I've decided that Pixar has nothing to be ashamed of in this film.

Kung Fu Hustle - If you don't like martial arts movies, you should stay away. However, if you do like martial arts movies you really need to check this out. The escalating weirdness straddles the line between humor and action without ever loosing its balance.

Green Lantern - Somehow they spent $200 million making this. I thought CGI had gotten cheaper. Anyway, a decent superhero flick, but if you've got a HDTV and a surround sound, you can certainly wait for the bluray.

X-Men first class - There's a lot to like here. I think there maybe should have been one fewer mutant on each side of the battle. Also, I looked up some of the characters, and the ones whose powers I thought I had seen before were relatives of those characters from earlier movies. I thought the payoff at the end of the film was the best part of the movie, and since I think the hardest thing to do when telling a story is to end it well, I think that's high praise.

Black Swan - The was without a doubt an interesting and well made film. However, the story is only shown through the eyes of one character, and you can't always trust what you see. The one thing I had heard from everyone I knew who had seen it was that it was disturbing, but it didn't really bother me. I might watch it again to see how things seen now that I know how it goes.

The Craft, Dog, and the Tipping Point

I went to Dayton for the first time since Feb, and had a good trip. I got caught in traffic Saturday morning heading up, but I left early enough that it was probably a wash between heading straight up 71/75 and taking 275 around. That road is a complete mess right now. They've got it torn up to the point that you can only use one lane, and even that gets blocked sometimes to let construction equipment onto the road. On the drive I listened to The Tipping Point, and that book is really fascinating. For example, if you want to found your own army, organize the men into fighting units of no more than 150 men, otherwise you'll have discipline problems.

Suzanne and Jon have been watching episodes of Dog the Bounty Hunter, and that's interesting for different reasons. I would have never guessed at how much help they get from the friends of the fugitive. The "wisdom" of Dog is usually enough to make you laugh more than once an episode, so the show is pretty easy to watch. I took pictures of Abby, and I think I converted Suzanne to Gimp over Photoshop. (Gimp does have the advantage of being free.) I even learned about the red eye reduction tool when Suzanne asked about it. I haven't been zapping red eye in my photo editing, but I guess I don't have an excuse not to now.

Chip and I completed a minor woodworking project; I needed a new flap to cover the crawlspace on an addition to my house. I wanted something more sophisticated than a sheet of plywood, and the final result ended up looking almost impressive. Now I just need to get it painted and put in place. We also watched The Craft, yes it's kind of cheesy, but it's also the style of movie I enjoy. It kind of freaked me out how much Robin Tunney http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000677/ looks like Kristen Stewart http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0829576/. It's really surprising that I had never seen that before. Also ironic was the use of of the theme song from Charmed in this movie. (However, since this movie predates Charmed by 2 years, it would be more accurate to say that it's ironic that Charmed picked a song used in this movie for their theme song.)

Finally, I stopped by Michele and Dan's on the way home. Karina was completely wild. I did get to see Ethan take 2 steps. (One step on 2 different occasions.) She introduced Ethan after Thomas and Percy the trains and a toy airplane, however, that's more credit than he usually gets from Karina. She probably spent a good half an hour or more spinning in circles and talking about the need to spin faster and faster in musical terms. She also told me Pluto is a dwarf planet and repeatedly made use of the word Gondola as a synonym for boat.

What if the Lord of the Rings movies had been cast like Tarintino films?

I first thought of what the movies would have been like if Samuel L. Jackson had been given the role of Gandalf.

Gandalf [facing the balrog]: You shall not pass mother...

So (not that the Tolkein estate would ever allow a travesty like this to come to pass) here's my casting proposal:

Gandalf: Samuel L Jackson
Saruman: Ving Rhames
Elrond: Christopher Walken
Galadriel: Uma Thurman
Aragorn: Bruce Willis
Boromir: John Travolta
Legolas: Brad Pitt
Gimli: Kurt Russel
Eomer: Tim Roth
Eowyn: Daryl Hannah
Faramir: Michael Madsen
Denethor: Harvey Keitel
Arwen: Rose McGowan

Recent Movies

I'll work backwards.

The Hangover - I gave this to Michele and Robert for Christmas. I thought the first 10 minutes or so were kind of dumb, but then the movie hit its stride. It's not the funniest thing I've ever seen, but I did laugh a lot.

Avatar - Go see it in 3-D. You've seen the story before, but not done in this way.

Iron Man - Robert Downey Jr. is perfect as an irresponsible rich guy who has a change of heart after nearly being killed by one of his own weapons. It doesn't change his personality, just the decisions he makes.

The Wrestler - Awesome movie. There is wrestling in it, but by showing you how it's faked it really reveals the physical impact of putting on a show. The main character is easy to pull for despite the fact that he makes few good decisions and has a hard time following through on those.

Let the Right One In - Another awesome movie. If you can stand sub-titles, watch it with the Swedish language soundtrack. I actually switched the English off about 15 minutes in, and decided that the inflection and tone of the original actors is much better than whoever read the lines in English. A pre-teen boy, who is the target of bullies, makes an unlikely friend when a vampire girl who appears to be roughly his own age moves into his apartment complex.

Ghost World - I don't know what I think about this one. It's got Thora Birch, Scarlet Johanson, and Steve Buscemi. It's odd, but I'm not sure if it's good or bad. If any of this inspires you to watch the movie, let me know what you think.

Curse of the Golden Flower - I was expecting a martial arts epic. The movie is really a movie about political intrigue in the Chinese royal family with a smattering of martial arts thrown in at various times. I liked it, but I liked things like Hero or Kung Fu Hustle more.

Winter of Frozen Dreams - I didn't care for this one. It's a movie based on a true crime, and I think a 30 minute documentary would have been more interesting that the 90 minutes dramatization I watched.

The Spirit

Now I loved Sin City and 300, so I was really looking forward to this movie when I first saw the previews for it. In fact, I thought it was a trailer for Sin City II when I first saw the styalized black and white images on the screen.

I saw this movie a few days ago at The Village 8, a cheap theater in Louisville. I should have known bad things were going on when a movie that opened on Christmas day was already in the cheap theater on Jan 19th. However, I was already there, and Village 8 gives you free refills on a large soda.

The good: Scarlett Johansson is absolutely drool inducingly gorgeous as Silken Floss. Her acting may have even been the best in the movie, or it could have just been that when everyone else is overacting and saying ridiculous things, playing a deadpan straight faced character makes you look good in comparison. Also, all the Sin City style is there. That's it, end of the good list.

I suppose Eva Mendez is hot too, but her character is so annoying you probably won't care. Another thing about her character is that the name is apparently Sand Serif from the printed material, but sometimes the other characters call her San Serif and other times Sand. Couldn't the director have at least made them say her name consistently one way or the other?

There is too much wrong with the movie to make an exhaustive listing, but despite all that, I was entertained. The problem was that it was in a MST3K or USA Up All Night kind of way. When the movie made me laugh, I was definately laughing at it, not with it.