July 14, 2013

Well it has been some time that I needed to pass along thoughts:

Man of Steel – we saw this together (seems ages ago) and I have thought about this movie more.  I liked Superman.  I don’t like Lois Lane (Amy Adams).  She redeemed herself recently with me in The Fighter but we will get back to that.   And these fights scenes and action sequences that go on and on and on are tiresome.  Like sword fighting in battles (ie: Braveheart) once it has been done, there is little more that you can add to it.   So why repeat with these tights camera shots (Bourne)?  In the end, Superman to me is just a little too nice and too perfect.   It’s the story that does not capture me.  Not like Batman does or did.   There are so many questions.   So many times the level of disbelief has to rise.  And then there is that ever-present Lois Lane, for whom he has no chemistry.  None.   The woman he would give up his powers for and turn the world spinning the other way (in the Christopher Reeves versions anyway), and they couldn’t even light a flashlight with their collective electricity.
Before Midnight – the reviews of this were excellent.  You asked whether there really was any need to spend more time with these characters.  The answer is a resounding “Yes”.   Yes, you should.  They are more interesting and full of insight into the middle aged couple and their challenges.   They have real life issues like step-children, and jobs and the myriad of life happenings that impact romantic love, and continued romantic love.   Celine has plenty of insight and also some pent up aggression towards Jessie.   Jessie has some guilt issues about being away from his son during his formative years.   Questions that are posed are taken as directions to go.  Consequences ensue.   This is another film that you take away what you bring into it.  20-somethings won’t like it or get it (as much).  They haven’t crossed some of these hurdles.  It can be insightful to them.  But the 40-somethings in the crowd will get it if they have lived and experienced.   See it.  Rental perhaps but do see it.
The Fighter – this was one that I had not seen in 2011.  I managed to see it on Demand the other night.  This was another David O Russell film (Silver Linings Playbook) and this guy knows good movies and get great performances.   Christian Bale won the Best Supporting Actor here, and it is deserved.  It is a physical role (having him lose pounds and hair) but also a challenge to create sympathy for a guy who lives in the past glories.   And abuses himself.   Then there is Mom (Melissa Yeo) who also won a Best Supporting Oscar and it was a very good role.  This shows you real people again that you don’t want over for dinner, but are fun to watch.   The sisters were just priceless.   Amy Adams showed some spunk and acting chops too by butting heads with the Mom and family.   I liked all performances and the movie.   I had not realized that this fighter story was recent.   Wish I had seen the fights now.
Pacific Rim – This was Rock Em Sock Em Robots as feared.  It is deeper than that, somewhat, but the premise remains the same.   Big sound, 3D (ugh!!) plenty of things that blow up.  Add to this healthy borrowings from Independence Day with an alien invasion that seems unstoppable with the geek who is charged with figuring out the weakness.   The geek channels Bobcat Goldthwait so well that I had to think if it was a younger version (or his son!!).  Was it believable?!   Not for a second!!   Your man, Idris Elba is good here (apparently this was to be a Tom Cruise vehicle that he backed away from – too bad Tom chose Oblivion).   This is however, NOT a 4 Star movie.  it is brain candy.  Fun while it lasts but forgotten minutes after it is over.   Not memorable.  A Rah-Rah go get ’em flick with these ugly over sized monsters coming from the deep.   Better on a big screen yes.  Good for a cheap Tuesday visit!!!
Cheers!  Come to the city again sometime….
This past week I watched 42, as you likely know the Jackie Robinson story.   I felt as though the performances here were good.  There was more of a focus on the Harrison Ford character than I had expected.   The guy playing Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) was interesting and there was less baseball really than I would have thought.   This is a baseball story, but obviously much more than that.   I do think that more could have focused on the baseball.   There is AT LEAST another movies worth on that front.  He DID win a World Series.   He was a career over .300 hitter and stole many bases.   Anyway, it was worthy of the rental.
I did catch the first episode and second of Homeland Season 1.  I noted that it was again voted for an Emmy for top series.  That would be for Season 2.   I will continue to seek it out.

June 11th, 2013

I had not seen a film over the weekend that was fresh and new for me.   I did re-watch Before Sunset which got me re-acquainted with Jessie and Celine as I prepare to spend some more time with them in a week or so.  We have a movie here in Before Midnight that has been universally praised and called one of the best films of the year, by The Star, Suntimes, and others yet is playing at only ONE cinema in all of Toronto (Varsity).  It will be playing in Waterloo at the Princess theatre (like the Kingsway) in about 10 days.   That is where I will see it.  But I digress.
Yesterday I saw Oz the Great and Powerful.   This is the prequel to the classic Judy Garland film that everyone (I had wrongfully thought) had seen and knew well.  Girlfriend informs me that she had never seen the original film.  I was aghast.   Roll the film anyway after a short tutorial on what happened to Dorothy Gale.   Here we have the same structure of  the previous film, with the opening sequence in black and white and a feel for the 1905 date indicated.  Our Oz is a shyster and a scoundrel (all self-professed) and works in a travelling circus.   He is introduced as a lady’s man and looking for obedient hired hands and assistants.   Then the inevitable tornado and trip to Oz where we are transformed into the full technicolour world.   We are also given numerous and gratuitous 3-D effects that were unnecessary and distracted from the story.   He meets various characters, and a LOT of CGI.  A distracting amount that was not all that realistic.  The talking monkey being one of them.  The whole look and feel of Oz itself is kind of this way too, in a Willy Wonka kind of way.  Too colourful.  Too pretty.  Too outrageous.   It loses a sense of realism, and looks more like a video game (like when characters jump over crumbling cliffs and mountains, just in time!)  James Franco plays Oz, and I am still not sure whether I like him.  He plays phony really well I suppose and it comes through in spades.  He can be honest with himself on what he truly is, and recognizes that this (at times) can be beneficial.  There is some ingenuity here in working this story to prepare it for the next (Dorothy’s arrival) but it is nowhere near as satisfying nor charming.   It isn’t as scary either – well, except for the poor CGI job done on the Wicked Witch of the West.   That IS scary.  And she loses her humanity.   This was a long two hours and felt it.   Never a good thing for a movie.  There are parallels to the much loved and much better classic.  It does an adequate job to bring us up-to-date but I have to admit that I like the idea of going further back and using the storyline in Wicked (the musical anyway).
There are some interesting interpretations of the story here and how the characters got to where they were, but in the end it was not as satisfying as hoped.   Some trailers I see, and think to myself “Man I hope that they don’t screw this up” because there is always so much potential!!   Our own minds can fill in gaps and think as to how you would fill in the prequel story.  I can say that I wouldn’t do it like this here.  Certainly the sidekicks are not as memorable nor as important.   I have to admit a certain fascination with the china doll and her look and feel of her hair.
There is not one memorable musical number in this prequel.  The first one had many memorable songs like classic “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, “Off to see the Wizard” “Lollipop Guild” and “Follow the Yellowbrick Road”.   As a kid, at Grandpa’s cottage he had a record of Oz songs and we would listen to them alone.   Music did not play a significant role in this prequel.   Sadly enough.
One can only hope that Man of Steel can be as successful and interesting a reboot as Batman Begins.  Sadly I don’t think that the main character is as interesting nor as dark as the caped crusader.   But in the hands of same director, Christopher Nolan it has potential.

June 3, 2013

So when is a movie review not all that helpful?   Plenty of answers to that, but for today and this review it is when the review describes a film that expects a lot of the audience and further expects them to interpret the film in their own way, based upon their own experiences.   To the Wonder is just such a film.  The latest film from Terrence Mallick, who’s previous film Tree of Life was very highly regarded in many circles.   I thoroughly enjoyed it myself.   As an aside, I had read a story about Ben Affleck who had said that after directing and starring in Argo and doing all of the activities around it, that he had fully intended on spending some quality time with Jennifer Garner and his kids.  Then along came this project and he decided that he could not pass up on the chance to work with Mallick.
Here we have a movie that has very little dialogue.  In fact Ben might have had less than 30 words to say in the entire film.   Instead there is a steady stream of voiceover, and much of it is in French.  This is a film about images and pictures.  Strung together with a soundtrack that is instrumental and conveys theme.  Much of it is subtle and melancoly.   It also has very little in the way of plot.  Much like life, things just sort of happen with no particular plan or long term view.   This is the part where the audience participation comes in.   You will fill in the gaps and spaces with your own life experience.   It then will be interpreted.  This is not a film for 18yo young people.   They would find it empty and boring and elusive with no message being spoon fed to them on what to think.   It may grow on them in twenty years.
Ben in this movie plays a guy who is in Paris and in love with this young woman with a daughter from a previous relationship.  He is American and she from France (or at least built a life in France).   Ben invites woman and daughter to come live with him in the US.  Oklahoma to be specific and the environment changes dramatically.  From cosmopolitan to rural.  Urban to suburban.  Then a series of experiences occur which are exactly that;  experiences.   Life happens.  Decisions are made and a couple other characters are introduced.  Rachel McAdams and Javier Bardem.  The latter being a priest who is struggling with his faith.  There it is.  Things happen.   Roll credits.
I like this film, and liked it more when I thought about it.  There are some incredible images here.  Almost worthy of making stills and framing.  Images of water, and streams and ocean and beach.  Sun and sky and fields and streets.   Film truly is a medium of moving pictures and this movie takes it to heart.  Frames here are quite remarkable in their own right.   I did enjoy Tree of Life more, as there were moments in this film where I was shifting in my seat.  Some images were repeated to the point of being superfluous and added very little.  For example the pictures of the young woman dancing and jumping in front of the camera and looking back with a smile.   I saw enough of that and got it the first few times.
There are no action sequences.  Nothing blows up.  No humourous quips and no tight little package at the end.   But it is still powerful and engaging and interesting.  And isn’t that what we go to the movies to have happen?    Suffice it to say that I liked it.  You may not.  Everyone’s filters can interpret this differently.  It may bring back long ago buried feelings that you didn’t want to resurface.  I simply cannot anticipate that.   And what I can do is explain a feeling I came away with and then let you decide the next step.
P.S> As the credits rolled I was thinking that I had taken the same date to see another Place Beyond the Pines story.  We both took time to process this one.  As in “What did we just see?”   But as we spoke, and talked and processed we both liked this film.   Place Beyond the Pines was never that lucky.   Nor did it deserve to be.  This I can say is worth seeing.  The other isn’t.

May 22nd, 2013

So the one thing about a long weekend when there is very little to actually do, means that there are movies to watch and get caught up on.
Midnight in Paris.   Owen Wilson.  Full stop.  I am not a fan.  Here you are engaged to the Rachel McAdams character and her girl next door, pristine, good natured onscreen persona takes a bit of a hit here.  Seems this couple is in Paris where Wilson the Hollywood screen writer is looking to get more serious and write a novel.   He is a bit stalled in the editing and reviewing process.   Not writer’s block, but looking for more inspiration.   The movie then takes a turn towards Purple Rose of Cairo where there is some surreal and unusual happenings and our hero is given ample opportunity for future material in his new career as a “serious writer”.   Suffice it to say that this was alright.  The scenery in Paris in many ways is the true star of the movie.  It makes me ache to go back to Paris once again.  And for that reason it was welcome.   Marion Cotillard is worthy to look at in whatever role she plays.  A rental as a travelog.
The Mentalist.   After watching half of this movie I decided to see what Roger thought of this movie that had multiple Oscar nominations.   Best Actor for Jacquin Phoenix, Supporting Actor for Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Supporting Actress for Amy Adams.   Two of those I understood;  Phoenix and Hoffman.  Adams surprises me.  Ebert gave this 2.5 stars.   I agreed with the review.   And echo the sentiment that there are two compelling performances here.   I will go so far as to say that without a Daniel Day Lewis performance of the ages, Phoenix is deserving of the award.   He plays a character who is a sailor but without a keel for himself.  There is no direction in his life and he seems very lost.   He starts as a seaman in the war and shows himself to be just another of the many faceless people of war.  They served.  They won, and they head back home.   Then he takes on a series of jobs where he shows his ability for concocting booze from scratch and also being unpredictable.   He ultimately meets up with Hoffman who is a charismatic L Ron Hubbard look alike.  It is on purpose.    You get some insight into the man, and those who follow him and a sense of the whatever makes him tick.   He becomes friends with the man, and together they have a strange relationship.  On one hand Phoenix is looked upon as a flawed man in need of ‘healing’.  There is a remarkable scene by Phoenix where his first healing session begins and he can’t get enough of it.   Simply remarkable.  Another in a jail cell.   It would have been a tragedy had Phoenix chosen to take his acting hiatus for good.   Because here is a man that is complex, and flawed and yet the leader seeks him out and needs him around.  Despite his issues they have this connection that is not fully explored.  And that is what the movie is about the subject matter.   Not fully explored.   We are left to form our own opinions.  I suppose I would like to see more thoughts on the whole thing rather than leave it up to interpretation.   But upon further reflection that isn’t entirely a bad thing.    There are some good Hoffman scenes too like when he is questioned by people at length about his books and his philosophy.   On to Adams, who for whatever reason grates on me.   Hollywood seems to love her.  I do not.  She seems perfect for Enchanted, as a singing and dancing princess with the 12yo girl’s voice.   She does not really strike the right tone for Lady MacBeth.   At least to me.   Here she tries.  (As an aside, if you’re going to be in a nude scene Amy, then be in a nude scene – just sayin).    Worthy performances here to catch.   A story that I am still uncertain about.
Jack Reacher.  Yet another Tom Cruise vehicle.  Presumably could be another franchise.   Here we have part Jason Bourne, part James Bond, part vigilante and part drifter.  All this wrapped up in a drama where the seemingly open and shut case for a random terrorist act is questioned and ripped apart and reviewed.   We have an act of unspeakable terror that is then taken apart but a loner who is summoned by the man accused of this act.  In comes Cruise, seemingly right on cue.   Literally and figuratively.   We know very little of him, and he does his best to try and make an entrance and then a quick exit but manages to stay around.   This plot turns around and into itself while Cruise pieces together what the D.A., the police and defense attorney all can’t seem to do.   He uncovers what appears to be some kind of scheme that won’t be revealed here.   Richard Jenkins is here and sadly underutilized.   Robert Duvall is here too.  Unexpectedly and interestingly.  This movie was more fun to watch at home because then I felt free to comment on some of the silliness.   Anyway, it passed the time.   If you want a mind bending action movie, and don’t feel like watching Jason Bourne for the umpteenth time, you can grab this one and set your mind on pause for a couple hours.   I will note further that a co-worker was a huge Jack Reacher book fan, and hated the choice of Cruise in this role.
Happy viewing!!   I WON’T be seeing The Hangover III this weekend.   Sorry Bradley Cooper I want to remember you as an ACTOR…..

May 8th, 2013

So last night (with much anticipation) I headed out to see The Place Beyond the Pines.   This has an impressive cast with Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes, Bradley Cooper and Ray Liotta.
Oh Roger, where are you to provide some insight into this film and save me some money?!  Roger on the other hand sometimes relished writing about movies that wasted his time and would take great pains to ensure that the film makers felt his wrath for having stole a couple hours of his life that he will never get back.   In this instance it was closer to 2.5 hours.
What an unmitigated mess this movie is.  It is all over the place with themes that start, stop and others utterly abandoned.    What starts out as a story focusing on the Gosling character who is a stunt motorcycle driver in a travelling circus (so they even have these anymore?) who finds out that he is a new father and feels obligated to provide for his child and woman.   She never told him about the son, and has a boyfriend who has taken her in and her Mother.   She is trying to put her life together.   He soon realizes that working minimum wage isn’t going to cut it for coughing up dough for baby stuff.   He starts robbing banks and taking off on his motorbike.   Bradley Cooper is a cop that is a judge’s son who went to law school but decided to work the street.   He ultimately chases Gosling down from a botched bank attempt and there is an issue here taken.
Now fast forward just a little and there is a Serpico like storyline with Bradley in the midst of a police corruption issue.   We know this because he was inexplicably asked to be part of a shakedown of Eva Mendes.   This gives very little away and was predictable.   So much of this was predictable and eventually went WAY beyond suspending your movie belief.   So one disjointed and presumably unrelated theme jumps over into another.   Then we fast forward 15 years.  15 years!!   Bradley who looked freshly clean shaven, more than I have ever seen him, kind of looks aged, while other characters also do too.   The Serpico corruption issue seems to have resolved itself, but to what end?   It dangles on the screen as an unfulfilled issue that is brought out in the light and left to rot.
The movies carries on into the surreal as we have a twist that not many could anticipate, but once you are there, you know exactly where it is going.   Yes, that sentence is confusing as read – but it will make sense should you choose to see this mess.   Without giving anything else away, the ending couldn’t be less satisfying.   If there was a Magnolia moment for a movie – it should have come here.   It didn’t.  As the credits roll this becomes the WTF review moment with head scratching and no idea about what I had just finished seeing.    I turned to my date.  We looked at each other and laughed with the exact same stunned look on our faces and a reaction of time lost in a theatre.   Here’s a movie on cheap Tuesday in Waterloo that had us pay $12 together.   The small popcorn and drink were $11.18 and made a LOT more sense than the movie.
I can see now why this movie although filmed before Gangster Squad was not released until after Silver Linings Playbook.  Bradley Cooper has garnered some good buzz and respect and they decide to throw this out after that.  Sadly the Hangover III will arrive and wipe out all the good will for Bradley who has shown that he can, in fact, act.   And Ryan Gosling, buddy, you are one of the best young actors in the business.  You best find material that is worthy of you and your talents.   Your agent needs to make some better suggestions for you after Gangster Squad and this.   Finally, there was a review that suggested that this was Eva Mendes’ best work in her career.   If it was, then this is a very low water mark for excellence.   There is not a stretch performance here.
Richard Roeper, you are no Roger Ebert.  I will take this as a sign that you and I should not be commiserating on films together.   One strike.   I miss Roger.

April 15th, 2013

Friday I rented with youngest son and daughter Five Year Engagement.  It was daughter’s choice.  I had thought that she chose Snow White and the Huntsman but she changed her mind!!   Imagine that!
Here we have a film starring Emily Blunt (being very British here) and the all-american big dopey guy, Jason Segal.  He was good and better in She’s Out of Your League, and likely the best film with this casting of characters.
Rom-com regular stuff here;.  Quirky and unexpected couple meet at a New Year’s Party – they make cute as Ebert used to say, and then have a relationship.  Engagement follows.   Then issue happens and the decision is made to make a change.   One party heading into a contrived new situation where she at first does not realize that she is with a cad.   He suffers through seemingly endless winters in Michigan here, and never seems to find summer.   They have a revelation, a fight, a break up and then you know the rest.
There is an effective scene here with the two sisters speaking in Muppet speak, one as Elmo and another as Cookie Monster.   Beyond that there was a fair bit of unnecessary language (young son was watching) and some sexual scenes that were more aerobic than truthful and not very enlightening.   How many people do you know who sleep together with clothes on?!   Where is Kate Winslet when you need her??!!
This was predictable and contrived but it boils down to whether you like the main characters or not.  I liked Emily Blunt in The Adjustment Bureau with (Maaaaatt Daaaamon) and not as much here.  Is this really what a post graduate study group in psychology would have been like?   Okay.
Can’t recommend it.  Jason Segal has had funnier days and there’s a part of me that thinks he’s trying too hard to be Vince Vaughn.  Maybe not.  But for me this was more formulaic.
As a BONUS I re-saw Silver Linings Playbook on Sunday night in the theatre and re-enjoyed this once again.  I picked up on the plot some more and enjoyed the manic episodes better.  They are scary and they show how serious that they can escalate.   There is a hint of medication earlier and then it dies off.   The Lawrence performance is excellent and she makes the film.  She is out there, and funny and intense and on edge and the right mix for the role.   True that she is young for it, but she pulls it off.   Bradley Cooper is 38yo.   She is but 22yo.   *Sigh*
And DeNiro is really good here as he drops back into his superstitious and manic behaviour.   Throwing his son under the bus quickly if things turn (like the fight at the game) and not listening to him at all.  His poor suffering Wife who makes her “crabby snacks and homemades”.   Priceless!!
This is a movie that I will own.  It’s better as a date movie than seeing it alone, just sayin’!!

February 11th, 2013

This past snowy Friday when I couldn’t get out to a movie, I ended up
hunkered down and doing a movie on demand.  I know, I paid for it, as
opposed to pirating it over the internet, but I like movies.   Anyway
I rented Premium Rush and I was glad that I did!  I had heard many
positive things about this movie but had not a chance to go see it
yet.   Arbitrage will be next on the On Demand hit parade.

To borrow Roger Ebert’s assessment of Speed when he reviewed that for
At the Movies; “…this was fun!”.  And it was.  Not only is there the
rush (no pun intended) of seeing this guy, and people like him, ride
bikes like maniacs around the city of New York, there is a compelling
story here.   I like the time travel done to put things in context and
fill in the holes.   The real treat for me here was the role of the
gambling addicted cop.  He is funny, and he can’t seem to buy a break
and has one bad thing after another happen.  Still like the Energizer
bunny, he keeps coming back and finding new and ingenious ways to
bring the slip of paper back to himself.  I also like the little duel
between the policeman on bike along with our hero.    He certainly
goes through a LOT for a $30 payment!!   There are some great chase
scenes and some good thinking that had some funny moments (I laughed a
few times with the cop) and the predicaments of the hero that he is
put in.

A fun ride.  I recommend if you haven’t seen already.  The acting
talents of JGL are not really challenged here, but the physical
aspects of the role are.  Yes, there are stunt riders I am certain,
but it was believable and a good use of my time on a snowy Friday
evening.

Well here are the Ebert picks for the Oscars.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2013/02/outguess_ebert_in_an_easy_year.html

We can have our own little side bet if you so choose.  Despite his
protests, I do not believe that he got them “all right”.  Quite the
contrary, I think that he missed out in the Best Supporting Category
entirely.  I also believe that Best Director may fall elsewhere as
well.   Just how many Non-Americans are part of the Academy?   Because
to me, Lincoln speaks to Americans and Americans only.   No one else
cares.    Despite all that Daniel Day Lewis wins, just simply because
he IS the Best Actor these days (where the heck did Edward Norton fall
into)??!!

[Alison disagreed entirely on Premium Rush and found it silly and sophomoric]

I laughed at the over-the-top cop with an addiction and laughed out
loud a couple of times.  It was a mood I was in perhaps.  I wasn’t
looking for great acting, and what I got was a fun story.  It moved
along well.  Discarded the crap, and put a simple bike rider in a life
changing situation all for the fee of $30.   He is a much better
actor, and deserves better scripts, and he will get them from Looper
and Dark Knight Rises and other films he makes with Christopher Nolan.

Argo did a fabulous job at creating tension for sure.  A great job all
around and shocking on the snub for Affleck here on the Directing.
He isn’t a great actor.  He is becoming a very good director with The
Town and Argo under his belt.

I did rent On Demand Arbitrage last night and enjoyed that.  It was an
interesting view of how one can manipulate and use people and then in
end smell like a rose with all smiles and bliss.   Good performances
and Gere was in good form.

April 1st, 2013 (April Fools Edition)

This past weekend I stopped at the Zip.ca red box at the local grocery store to pick up Wreck it Ralph and then the Hobbit.   I was NOT going to pay money to see the Hobbit, but at $2 for a Blu-Ray and kids coming over I could not resist.  The Red Box is the greatest thing, and by far the cheapest as Rogers on Demand usually wants $8 for a rental.   Highway robbery and finding a DVD store is next to impossible,

Wreck It Ralph was nominated for Best Animated Film and I can see why it did not win.   I saw Brave and again I think that Pixar finds a way to put together quality movies.  Yes Brave was not a box office darling and quick honestly give my son fart jokes and nose picking (Jack the Giant Slayer) and you have a winner that beats them all!!   So here we have the bad guy in a Donkey Kong rip-off who “wants to be good”.  He is tired of living on a junk heap and being thrown off the building.  He meets up with a cute girl from another game (he is seeking a Medal) and she needs his help and has some issues of her own.   In the end, through some twists and turns everyone finds their rightful place in the world.  And peace and harmony are brought back.   Did I enjoy it.  Yes, it was okay.  Did SON like it?   He thought it was alright too.   So all in all, if you want some cartoony fun, and like looking at old characters that make you nostalgic for the 80s again (QBert) then this could be your movie.   Funny that they have some Super Mario characters but not Mario and Luigi.
Then I watched the Hobbit with daughter and youngest son.   Can I say that this lived up to the expectations?; it was disappointing.   I did read the book a very long time ago.  I did enjoy it MORE than the LOTR trilogy.  I like it for reasons why I do NOT like this movie.  It was a short book.   Less descriptive and moved along at a nice pace.   We have a linear plot and things happen and get resolved.  There was some clever word play and some interesting riddles and I REALLY wanted to see what the CGI dragon would look like.   What do I get?  Forty minutes of pre-cursor before they ever leave the Shire, with eating and singing amongst Dwarves.  And then finally getting on the road before anything of consequences happens.   There is much that I cannot recall from the book, nor care to go back to check on.
Here attached is a link that captures much of my issue here.  This is purely a money grab by the studio and Peter Jackson.  Shame on you all.  Much like the Eagles getting back for the Hell Frozen Over tour.  We know you hate one another, but you need money to keep that coke habit going strong (cough Glenn Frey).   But I digress.  I like his voice and these perceptions that he makes.  Truly the bunnies did make me laugh out loud.   Then there are Orcs and this White Orc dude – buddy, if you can’t slay a wee dwarf and toss him like we all would, then you’re not such a bad ass, and one of your bloodthirsty kin-folk would have your head.   Just sayin.   So there are TWO more installments here.  I will ONLY see them if I would spend more on a coffee and donut to do so.   So would I recommend that movie experience? No.  Read the book.  It will likely even take less time.  There’s an IDEA – why not put someone on camera who just reads the book to you – and you can use your mind rather than CGI!!!   Million dollar idea there.

March 4th, 2013

I had read the Ebert review of Jack the Giant Slayer and thought that
youngest son and I could have a movie night out.   I had also seen the cut outs
at the theatre advertising this, but never put much thought into it.
I did like the idea of Ewan Macgregor being in this film.  We headed
out and (not on purpose) ended seeing this in the assigned seating
fancy 3D shaking seat theatre.  Cost for two – $32!!  Egad!   Mine was
$17.99 and his $13.99 for a child.   We put on our cheesey ill-fitting
glasses and watched.

This was fun.  We had a good time.  Son of course being the typical
boy laughed at the farting and nose-picking of the Giants.  I thought
that a rather mundane and pointless fairy tale was brought to the
screen with a story that made a little more sense.   Jack here is
portrayed by the same little kid (no longer little) from the Hugh
Grant movie About a Boy.  Hell we likely reviewed that movie when he
was a 10 yo!   Damn I am old!    Anyway, in some way I couldn’t get
that boyish face out of my head, and didn’t think of him as the
dashing guy who could whisk away the heart of a princess.   But never
mind.   I also could not get over the voice for the two-headed Giant
of Bill Nighy who was, of course, the octopus faced villain in Pirates
of the Caribbean.   He is effective, it just sounds like the same
voice and was a distraction.

Here you know the story.  Jack looking to sell the family’s only
possession (the horse and cart) ends up with “magic beans” and then
there is a beanstalk to the sky to deal with a Giant.   In this case,
MANY Giants.   And they are pissed.   There are a series of adventures
here and they are well done, and look good.   Do we need the 3D here?
No.   Does it add anything?  Not really.   But do you care about the
characters?  Yes for sure.  And you are intrigued by how the whole
thing will resolve itself when you have these Giants that clearly have
very few weaknesses.   A prickly problem and satisfyingly resolved.  I
won’t tell you how it all ends…..but the last two words are “…ever
after…”

Worthy of a viewing and good on the big screen.   These shaky seats
incidentally are not worth it.   So you throw even BIGGER subwoofers
in the theatre to have my seat actually shake…but it really adds
little.  More gimmicks to draw in people, but they are only as good as the story allows.

February 3rd, 2013

So I did end up seeing The Sessions on Thursday.  Saw it at the
Kingsway theatre which is independent small theatre on Bloor street
just east of Islington Ave.  It is SMALL.   They have the MAIN theatre
and then now (unbeknownst to me) a smaller side theatre which is a
room up in the second floor.   A theatre with around 20 seats, and
like the old Cineplex theatres in the old Eaton Centre.  Not much
bigger than a good sized room at home.   Despite the size, they still
charge $13 a pop.  Pricey.   Cheaper Tuesday at massive theatres is
around $7.50.  A bargain!!  I will go again tomorrow night.

I went in with higher expectations I think.  In the end I can agree
with you.  This was charming.  I am not completely sure what the
attraction to buddy is.   I guess the message is that you “make them
laugh” even if you have an iron lung.   Then again, perhaps women (and
attractive women) want to not have to worry about the sex thing since
buddy doesn’t even have a bed!!  But I digress.   Helen Hunt here is
effective but I am not seeing the Award nomination.  Perhaps she got
extra marks for taking all her clothes off.  Acting in the nude.
Okay.  But it was generous to offer that up to her.  William H Macy
was good and I liked his attitude.  The Catholic church would be
better off to have more caring and pragmatic Priests like him to gain
in attendance.  You could see him struggling with the concept, however
he saw the overall benefit to this.  In the end, he as a friend was
right.  We can see the transformation in him.  So a worthy movie to
watch.  Yet another victim to High Expectations for me.

This week, likely Les Mis.  And perhaps Amour.  We will see.