Category Archives: Watchin’

Big Screen: Tropic Thunder

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So hilarious. Brilliantly satirical.

Two things alone are worth the price of admission:
1) The fake previews, ESPECIALLY the RDJ/Tobey Maguire one; and
2) Tom Cruise’s performance. He deserves a fucking Oscar for that. I thought I was going to start crying, I was laughing so hard watching him during the closing credits. The boy may be totally and completely insane, but you’ve got to give someone credit who’s willing to put it all out there like that.

If you need to know more, you can re-read the DadReaction to this flick.

Big Screen: The Dark Knight

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I liked it a lot, it definitely lived up to the hype for me, which these days is almost harder to do than to just make a decent movie.

  • Loved Bale despite his (as always) weird gray all-the-same-length-across the-top front teeth. He continues to invest this character with an amazing sense of grim grief. It was just etched onto his face from scene 1.
  • Loved Heath Ledger. Loved. Outstanding performance. Certainly worth the praise it is getting. No question. On the one hand, it makes it even sadder that he’s dead now; just think what he could have done. On the other hand, to go out on the back to back performances of Brokeback and this? Wow. Talk about going out on a high note. Overall the performance just blew the fucking top off, but I have to say his mannerisms when he visits Dent in the hospital were just pitch fucking perfect. And when he walks out and is waiting for that last explosion? The move he makes with his arms there? Oh, Heath.

But I thought the last half hour dragged, too much time setting up the Two Face character. If he lived to be the villain of the next movie then it would make sense to me. But since he didn’t, it made it feel long. I thought they could have edited some of that down. Yes, I understand that bringing him down was certainly one of the Joker’s goals, but I thought the whole bit with the bombs on the ships just lagged. Didn’t need it, we already KNOW the things that pointed out to us (or we should) and it just seemed like wasted time. While neither Iron Man nor Wanted made me get shifty in my seat, the last half hour of this had me really feeling the time. There was stuff they could’ve cut (and I think should’ve). Coulda been a little tighter.

That said, still tremendous. Super dark and delightfully so. Really a tour de force in the sequels department; takes the first movie and ratchets up quite a few notches. The additions of Ledger and Gyllenhaal really sent it over the top. Kudos. I’ve seen it twice already, I wouldn’t be reluctant to see it again. But then that’s nothing new for me and good movies; I am a repeat big-screen viewer and proud of it.

Big Screen: Wanted.

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Sooooo much fun. Completely exhilarating! Great trip to the movie theater. Very different from Iron Man, but just as completely what I am looking for in an action movie. My two favorite movies of the year so far. No fucking doubt about it.

I LOVED IT. Dad LOVED it. Nipper loved it. Michelle liked but didn’t love it. The Chicago Reader hated it (prompting this response from Michelle: Damn! I liked it a little more than that dude. Who apparently doesn’t understand the difference between REALITY and a FUCKING MOVIE.).

Where it suffers in comparison with Iron Man:

  • The underlying mythology isn’t as strong. With Iron Man, it’s very clear why he decides to do what he does, what’s driving him, it makes sense in a very cause-and-effect way. When he sits in front of the press and says “somehow we’ve become comfortable with zero accountability” it’s like a jolt to your (any actual smart, responsible person’s) heart, a direct attack on the fucked up situation of today. With Wanted, it’s more smoke and mirrors. A very “In the Name of the Rose” or “DaVinci Code” type background. I mean, that’s fine, except that no one ever questions “who’s running the loom?” No one ever wonders who’s in the background pushing the buttons? The assassins committed to this society BELIEVE the loom is doing it all on its own? (Although in other ways, this does work for me. That whole “secret society buzz” has a very comic book feel to it, so I think it works in the movie, I just think it doesn’t work AS WELL as Iron Man’s themes.)
  • The situation isn’t as personal, or it technically should be, but it’s not presented that way. While RDJ’s character in Iron Man is in many ways someone living a life who just doesn’t care, when he does begin to care, it’s very personal. His name on the weapons, his legacy, etc. In Wanted, McAvoy sort of falls into things with an extreme lack of knowing what’s really going on. Things eventually become personal, but not at first, and they become personal via lies and misinformation that creates a kind of distance from any emotional effect. In other words: Iron Man becomes a MORAL QUEST. Wanted is about a gang of slaughterers. Fun, but kinda sick. Iron Man engages you on another dimension. As my Dad put it: It’s probably not good to kill people you don’t even know.
  • The Hero’s Glamour Factor. While RDJ’s character may not be on the moral highground to begin with, he’s not a frustrated loser working a shithole job and getting blindsided by his best friend either. He’s a little easier to fall in love with in that “beginning of the movie, suck you in, make you want to watch him” way. Much as I love Bright Abbott dearly, oh, man, I hated seeing him be the swindler of McAvoy.

Where it SHINES in comparison to Iron Man!!:

  • Hello, four words: Female Fucking Action Hero. Jolie* is just as much a focus as McAvoy, or any of the other assassins (even moreso). As Dad points out, “she is a MAJOR part of this movie, her part is outstanding and she’s outstanding in it.” Whereas in Iron Man while Gwyneth Paltrow is actually good (a rare enjoyment of her on my part), and has great chemistry with RDJ, her role is soooooo sidelines. And very retro, the female “secretary” role, even with sass is STILL the female secretary role. I mean, she goes to the final confrontation in 5-inch spiked heels to stand on the sidelines and shriek in distress. She’s good when she’s in it but she’s so auxiliary.
  • The Sets, particularly the Factory. While they make sense in the storyline, Iron Man’s modern office buildings and desert caves don’t really do as much for me as the sets in Wanted (although RDJ’s house is pretty cool). The textile mill/factory is really majestic in a way, I LOVED all the car chases through the El structures and the stuff on the El itself (I love you, Chicago! You’re so pretty!). And the train scenes at the end with his dad? And when Jolie drives her car onto it! VERY COOL!

Where both movies are GREAT:

  • Effects, effects, exhilarating effects. Even my Dad who is not generally fan of CGI bullet fights (Peckinpah and Walter Hill did it better, OLD SCHOOL, and he will happily talk your ear off about it), even he loved the “fight” scenes in Wanted. How about the final showdown at the textile mill, where McAvoy is picking up other people’s weapons as his way to reload? AWESOME!
  • Wit, sarcasm, banter. Both movies have enough of this to be interesting BEYOND the effects and the drama and the Super Heroness of it all. Comic relief so you don’t become bogged down by the horribleness of some of it.
  • The “training” scenes. RDJ in his laboratory with his robot helpers and McAvoy gettin’ schooled by Jolie. Like the scene where he’s trying to grab the shuttle? And then when he finally does? All done with nice touches of humor.

I could go on (and on…) but believe it or not, I actually have something else to do right now. Shocking!

Need I even say it? Highly recommended. (BOTH)

*And if you enjoy Jolie in this, I recommend you check out Mr. & Mrs. Smith (which I LOVED a ridiculous amount!) as well as the two Tomb Raider movies, because she is great in these mixes of physicality/sass/sex/etc.

DVD: Rendition

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Powerful. Emotionally moving. And extremely fucking depressing.

This IS what is going on ALL THE TIME in our world today and fuck who wants to live in a world like that.

p.s. Do Peter Sarsgaard and Jake Gyllenhaal have some clause in their contracts that they have to be in at least 90% of each other’s movies?

Big Screen: The Fall

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Visually stunning.

Similar to Pan’s Labyrinth, the audience watches the fairytale playout of a child’s imagination. Lee Pace is quite good here, very John Cusack-feelin’. Gorgeous, rich, saturated landscapes in beautiful locations (with every new scene, I thought: “WOW, where was THIS filmed???”). A sweetly charming (and ongoing) visual Indian vs. Indian joke.

Enjoyable enough plot; truly beautifully filmed.

Big Screen: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

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As lame and predictable as you would expect. Total schmaltz. Some of it was fun because it pointed back to those old (much better) movies: say, for example, the bit with the snake. But some of it was so ludicrously off pitch, it stuck out like a sore thumb: say, for example, the bits with the gophers. And the monkeys.

I always expect lame dialogue from anything that George Lucas is in anyway connected to, but the animal bits were pure Disney channel. Trying to attract a younger audience? Then perhaps you should have rethought using your original star, who certainly looks his age, if not more.
It was fine for staying in out of the alternate periods of a) torrential rain and b) torrential heat that strafed the city yesterday. Enjoyable enough for that, I guess. But unless you find yourself in similar straits, I couldn’t recommend it.

Big Screen: Sex and the City

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Bittersweet. Disappointing.

  • Given the events of the middle, I thought the unspoken “message” of the end was complete crap.
  • Charlotte really got gypped in terms of storylines; hers had no tension whatsoever.
  • It felt both superficial and rushed, and considering it went over two hours, it should have been neither.

That said, the other six girls in our group (no I do not know seven girls to go to the movies with in Chicago; I knew one of them) all seemed to like it. So take from that what you will.

Big Screen: Redbelt

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A David Mamet script PLUS Jujitsu? Come on now, people, you can’t go wrong with that one. Really compelling interesting story. Really cool fights (woot).

A lot of good performances here (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tim Allen (unexpected), Alicia Braga), including one from Emily Mortimer (whose character undergoes one of the biggest transitions), and a really great one from Max Martini (yum), whom you may recognize from The Unit.

I’ll tell you what. He, Dean Winters and Tahmoh Penikett need to do some kind of brothers/mafia/cops movie together. Ah, that would be wonderful.

Big Screen: Iron Man

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A full Family Reaction even featuring the extremely rare MomReaction!! (No, we did not see it together.)

DadReaction: Eye popping effects, but with a lot of character. And not so effect heavy that you lose the humor as in some action movies. Downey is really great here. He’s a stronger character as an actor and so much more entertaining than, say, Spiderman. Christian Bale brought a lot of grimness to Batman but Downey is very funny, lively and self deprecating. Really uses his wise ass attitude so well here, and it makes the idea of a superhero movie so much cooler. His and Paltrow’s characters attraction feels very real, even though it’s an under the table sort and they dance around it. Jeff Bridges was good too.

MomReaction: There’s a really topical social edge to this movie about collateral damage and what you do to the world, what weapons do to the world. They don’t hide behind the story: War is bad. Guns are bad.

GirlReaction: Fanfuckingtastic. Everything you could want in an action movie AND MORE. Lovedlovedloved it.