Wow. Literally months since I last posted anything here. Makes me a little sad as a lot of different things have gone on about which I wished to record here but just didn't have time and/or motivation. Sad but oh well. Lots of things to put forth here but I'll begin with important stuff like movies. Here's what I've seen so far this summer and what I've thought of it. A disclaimer up front, one of the movies is very violent and very dark and I will give it a rather glowing review anyway. This is not representative of my view on violence but more of a sense of respect for how well the film was made.
1. Indiana Jones (A-) - Good movie, just about what I want in summer fare and with good ole Harrison Ford back in the hat, how could you go wrong? Plus I really enjoy Shia Lebouf and he does just fine as a wannabe James Dean. Sure the ending is bizarre and ridiculous and yes, stumbling into a nuclear testing site and saving yourself via a refrigerator borders on absolute lunacy, but have you seen the first three? It's not like the break from reality just started in the fourth movie.
2. The Strangers (B+) - Another good movie (this is the violent/dark one I mentioned earlier, definitely better to be viewed by mature audiences), that really shows what you can do with just six people in the cast and a single location in which to shoot. Too many thrillers these days go for the easy scare or thrill but this one really took its time, and the ending didn't drag on very long which is good. Best scene: Liv Tyler gets a drink of water and out of the darkness in the background, a man in a burlap mask looms into view, just barely. The whole audience gasped. Great stuff. Hitchcock would have been impressed.
3. The Happening (C) - Average stuff, especially for Shamalamadingdong. I love the man's work, even Lady in the Water, but this honestly was not a good movie, sadly enough. Opening sequence in Central Park was great. The sequence in the old lady's house near the end was really cool too. The dialogue was terrible and the acting bordered on non-existent. I kept thinking that M. Night was fooling with us, making a dark comedy, but it just never happened. At one point I actually thought Mark Wahlberg would have a conversation with a plant, that's how weird things got, and this was not a good thing.
4. The Incredible Hulk (B) - An improvement over the last one definitely. I think Edward Norton helped and this time the Hulk gets a real bad guy, not just the US military, so that makes the last 30 minutes very entertaining. I'll be interested to see if the Justice League really comes together around this (with Robert Downey's appearance at the end bringing Iron Man into the mix).
5. Prince Caspian (B) - Better than average but it seems as though the focus was basically just having really big battles. Just read the book and some interesting stuff was left out. I realize that talking lions aren't a big box office pull, but there's some interesting food for thought from Aslan in the book that just gets left out in the cold here. Overall, entertaining, but I had hoped for a little bit more, maybe a bit of theological stuff.
and the best (so far) for last
6. Wall-E (A) - Wow. Really good film. If you can go 30-45 minutes basically without dialogue at the opening of a movie and still keep adults AND children involved, you've done something very well. Saw this opening day in the morning with my family so the theatre consisted of me, my wife, my 4 year old girl, 2 year old son, and 200 summer camp kids. Everybody laughed and had a good time and applauded at the end. I love Pixar. Interesting side story to this, I got in line to get some popcorn and ended up behind about 30 boys. Their leader told me to go on ahead of the group so when I got up to the front, I apologized to the kid at the front of the line (looked about 11 or 12) and explained what had happened (I hate it when people do that to our youth when we're out somewhere without asking or even acknowledging the kids). He said no problem. Then I heard him say to himself, "Oh crud. Mom didn't give me enough for a popcorn and a coke." Then he turned and asked his friend if he had 50 cents. The friend did not and I could hear the despair in the young man's sigh as he wrestled with which to get. So, being so wealthy, I pulled out a George Washington and laid it on my friend and told him to make sure to get butter on the popcorn. His response was, "Wow. Thanks Mister!" I love that.
T-minus 14 days until I go to see The Dark Knight on IMAX. Yeah baby!
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