Showing posts with label Films. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Films. Show all posts
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Charlie Chaplin making his film debut as a ladies man who should be in cuffs.[/caption]
A hundred years ago it was a good time to go to the movies.
Yesterday marked the one hundredth anniversary of Charlie Chaplin's first appearance in a film -- a one-reel silent film called Making A Living, released on February 2, 1914.
When the 24-year-old, London-born, Chaplin signed on with American film producer Mack Sennett and the Keystone Film Company in 1913, movies were a burgeoning phenomenon. Chaplin was already an established vaudeville star with the Fred Karno panto troupe in both England and the United States.
In that first movie, Making A Living -- a "farce comedy," Chaplin's famous tramp was nowhere to to be seen. The 13 minute film had him playing a mustachioed, swindling Lothario with a monocle and a top hat, who runs afoul of the Keystone Kops.
Charlie Chaplin making his film debut as a ladies man who should be in cuffs.[/caption]A hundred years ago it was a good time to go to the movies.
Yesterday marked the one hundredth anniversary of Charlie Chaplin's first appearance in a film -- a one-reel silent film called Making A Living, released on February 2, 1914.
When the 24-year-old, London-born, Chaplin signed on with American film producer Mack Sennett and the Keystone Film Company in 1913, movies were a burgeoning phenomenon. Chaplin was already an established vaudeville star with the Fred Karno panto troupe in both England and the United States.
In that first movie, Making A Living -- a "farce comedy," Chaplin's famous tramp was nowhere to to be seen. The 13 minute film had him playing a mustachioed, swindling Lothario with a monocle and a top hat, who runs afoul of the Keystone Kops.
Last night the fog really helped make this cul-de-sac between West Broadway and 8th Avenue look very expressionistic, like something out of the 1927 German silent film masterpiece Metropolis. At least something out in the suburbs of Joh Fredersen's mega city. Click the images to enlarge them.
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Justice delayed is justice denied? Karl Urban as Judge Dredd, handing out the sentence.[/caption]
Dredd is an excellent 2012 film adaptation of the long-running British science fiction comic strip Judge Dredd. It's the second try; the first adaptation, Judge Dredd, made in 1995, sank without a trace, under the weight of Sylvester Stallone's ego.
For the 2012 remake, Karl Urban (Star Trek, Almost Human) leaves his ego in the trailer and unleashes his inner Dirty Harry to give a remarkably nuanced performance as an honourable police officer shaped into a relentless killing machine by a brutal future.
Justice delayed is justice denied? Karl Urban as Judge Dredd, handing out the sentence.[/caption]Dredd is an excellent 2012 film adaptation of the long-running British science fiction comic strip Judge Dredd. It's the second try; the first adaptation, Judge Dredd, made in 1995, sank without a trace, under the weight of Sylvester Stallone's ego.
For the 2012 remake, Karl Urban (Star Trek, Almost Human) leaves his ego in the trailer and unleashes his inner Dirty Harry to give a remarkably nuanced performance as an honourable police officer shaped into a relentless killing machine by a brutal future.
It's not fair. Some Hollywood studio should be forced to remake Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film The Birds. Why? So a whole new generation can feel the same slight unease I do whenever I see a whole flock of birds sitting on some overhead power lines -- silently -- watching. Click the image above to enlarge it.
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Forty-three years before the iPhone, the original "Angry Birds."[/caption]
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Robert Redford stars in All is Lost, the "perfect storm" of a movie[/caption]
I read this review of the new survival-at-sea film All is Lost in The Vancouver Sun newspaper yesterday, and I found it pretty riveting. An almost wordless performance by the iconic American actor Robert Redford, in a movie that sounds like the rarest of birds -- pure cinematic storytelling, which couldn't be done in any other medium besides film. Sounds almost like something from the glory days of silent film, and look what's ruling the box office: Gravity -- a survival-in-space drama, tightly focused on it's two leads, Sandra Bullock, and George Clooney. Wow. Storytelling, and gravitas, and Robert Redford. It's Autumn, when a young film producer's fancy turns to thoughts of Oscar.
Robert Redford stars in All is Lost, the "perfect storm" of a movie[/caption]I read this review of the new survival-at-sea film All is Lost in The Vancouver Sun newspaper yesterday, and I found it pretty riveting. An almost wordless performance by the iconic American actor Robert Redford, in a movie that sounds like the rarest of birds -- pure cinematic storytelling, which couldn't be done in any other medium besides film. Sounds almost like something from the glory days of silent film, and look what's ruling the box office: Gravity -- a survival-in-space drama, tightly focused on it's two leads, Sandra Bullock, and George Clooney. Wow. Storytelling, and gravitas, and Robert Redford. It's Autumn, when a young film producer's fancy turns to thoughts of Oscar.
Started watching The Internship, a comedy released this summer about two over-the-hill sales guys landing internships with Google. After 20 minutes, I considered gnawing my leg off to escape, before realizing I wasn't chained down, and could just turn it off. I even had a bad dream about Google. Oh well, I know I should avoid cheese before going to bed.
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Art alert! The dumpster camera's lens cover didn't open all the way! Ha! It works.[/caption]
The sequel to the 2012 film, The Hunger Games is coming. Hunger Games: Catching Fire is scheduled for release next month. At least one person can't wait. I found this "Hunger Games" poster in a container bin last night on my way to bed. Attached to the bottom right-hand corner of the poster is a facsimile of the mockingjay pin worn by the lead character Katniss Everdeen.
The movies are adaptations of the first two novels of a trilogy written by Suzanne Collins, aimed at teenage readers. I enjoyed the first movie -- the novels, not so much; I personally felt they were marginally better written than a Dan Brown novel -- that's like Da Vinci Code for "badly written." Fortunately for Ms. Collins, I'm in a minority. I will watch the movies though. I thought the screenwriters of The Hunger Games film actually improved on the novel. I liked the casting of the film, particularly Woody Harrelson as Kaleb, though, after reading the novel, I thought Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen was just a tad too well fed.
Art alert! The dumpster camera's lens cover didn't open all the way! Ha! It works.[/caption]The sequel to the 2012 film, The Hunger Games is coming. Hunger Games: Catching Fire is scheduled for release next month. At least one person can't wait. I found this "Hunger Games" poster in a container bin last night on my way to bed. Attached to the bottom right-hand corner of the poster is a facsimile of the mockingjay pin worn by the lead character Katniss Everdeen.
The movies are adaptations of the first two novels of a trilogy written by Suzanne Collins, aimed at teenage readers. I enjoyed the first movie -- the novels, not so much; I personally felt they were marginally better written than a Dan Brown novel -- that's like Da Vinci Code for "badly written." Fortunately for Ms. Collins, I'm in a minority. I will watch the movies though. I thought the screenwriters of The Hunger Games film actually improved on the novel. I liked the casting of the film, particularly Woody Harrelson as Kaleb, though, after reading the novel, I thought Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen was just a tad too well fed.
A binner named Jo-Jo picked this up -- he wasn't thinking it had any value, it just caught his fancy. I didn't know what it was either, but I could see it was a print, rather than original handwriting, and it looked very artful. Well, yes, it's a facsimile of "Marty's letter" from the movie Back to the Future (1985). Click the image to enlarge it.
Japanese don't like Kaiju movies. They only made them for export.
They've had giant robots battling aliens up to here, thank you very much.
Actors were too old to be believable as child pilots -- not one had blue hair.
They've had giant robots battling aliens up to here, thank you very much.Yanks piloting Gundam-like mecha is Japan's worst nightmare.
Character names sound ridiculous in Japanese (oops! they sound ridiculous in every language).
First reports declared it Gainax's weakest-ever reboot of
Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Film did good in China -- too good.
Actors were too old to be believable as child pilots -- not one had blue hair.
Japanese audiences turned off by American habit of dropping atomic bombs on everything.
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All downhill from here. Frame from Murray Siple's NFB documentary Carts of Darkness (2008)[/caption]
Stand in downtown Vancouver, or farther South on the steeper parts of Fairview Heights, and look North, across the waters of the Burrard Inlet -- you are looking at the North Shore, aka, North Vancouver, a steep slope covered with rich homes, and mansions, which catch the sunlight, and glitter like gems, all in settings of natural greenery, These properties all run along, and are connected together by, steep, and winding, streets and avenues. Naturally, there are binners who collect bottles and cans on this well-to-do slope. Some of these fellows have been righteously crazy dudes, who turned bottle collecting with supermarket shopping carts with no brakes on steep, winding roads, with names like "Mountain Avenue," into a kind of extreme sport.
Back in 2008 a former snowboarder, turned documentary filmmaker named Murray Siple, made the documentary about this North Shore binning culture, called Carts of Darkness, for the National Film Board of Canada. I've only just noticed that the NFB posted the entire documentary on YouTube -- embedded below. I think this is a great bit of documentary filmmaking, whether you care a whit about binning or not. It's also an interesting look at binning in Vancouver. While, I've never collected containers on the North Shore, it looks nearly identical to areas I do bin, particularly parts of the Arbutus Ridge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sGyq5l-dfI
All downhill from here. Frame from Murray Siple's NFB documentary Carts of Darkness (2008)[/caption]Stand in downtown Vancouver, or farther South on the steeper parts of Fairview Heights, and look North, across the waters of the Burrard Inlet -- you are looking at the North Shore, aka, North Vancouver, a steep slope covered with rich homes, and mansions, which catch the sunlight, and glitter like gems, all in settings of natural greenery, These properties all run along, and are connected together by, steep, and winding, streets and avenues. Naturally, there are binners who collect bottles and cans on this well-to-do slope. Some of these fellows have been righteously crazy dudes, who turned bottle collecting with supermarket shopping carts with no brakes on steep, winding roads, with names like "Mountain Avenue," into a kind of extreme sport.
Back in 2008 a former snowboarder, turned documentary filmmaker named Murray Siple, made the documentary about this North Shore binning culture, called Carts of Darkness, for the National Film Board of Canada. I've only just noticed that the NFB posted the entire documentary on YouTube -- embedded below. I think this is a great bit of documentary filmmaking, whether you care a whit about binning or not. It's also an interesting look at binning in Vancouver. While, I've never collected containers on the North Shore, it looks nearly identical to areas I do bin, particularly parts of the Arbutus Ridge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sGyq5l-dfI
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The American Jaeger Gypsy Caravan playing hide-and-seek with a Kaiju in Hong Kong.[/caption]
To be blunt, the actual movie didn't really start for me until about 20 minutes into the running time: The anti-kaiju wall is breached in Sydney, Australia. We get an exciting snippet of the Aussie Jaeger whupping a Kaiju in broad daylight!
When I say it starts, I don't mean it starts cleanly. This obviously finely crafted machine has been left in low gear too long, so it coughs, and sputters a bit as it revs up. When the Jaeger program boss Marshall Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) is trying, gruffly, to woo the American, former Jaeger pilot, Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) back into the Jaeger program, he caps his sales pitch with: "Haven't You heard? The World is comming to an end! Where would you rather die: Here, or in a Jaeger?" I thought dying in my seat at that low point would've been a mercy.
But then, The Marshall's personal assistant, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) finally arrives -- only 23 minutes late -- the gang's all here, and the movie begins to show real signs of life. The Jaeger program has it's back to the wall; all that's left has been garthered up in Hong Kong -- that's only four Jaegers -- the elegant Chinese Grab Hand, the very, old-school Russian Bucket Head, the macho Australian Rocket-Chest (Bustgunner was taken), and the swaggering American Gypsy Moth. Everything, and everyone connected with the Jaeger program is cooped up in something called the Shatterdome, which includes two wacky Kaiju researchers, a so-called "Kaiju-groupie," (Charlie Day), and his very pent-up boss, Dr. Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman). I din't warm up to Charlie Day immediately, but Burn Gorman, Owen Harper from Torchwood, among other things, was a treat to watch from his first scene. The pair's interplay is good comic relief from all the histrionics.
Giant robots need dysfunctional people -- we know this, and with so many of them together under one roof, we get real emotional fireworks, and not-so-pent-up physical aggression, and several helpings of back-story trauma, until the movie finally, fully, roars to life with an incredible scene where Mako Mori relives her chilhood encounter with a Kaiju (played poignantly by Mana Ashida). The difference with Mako the child, is that Mako the adult is in a Jaeger with her finger on a plasma cannon -- wow!
The rest of the movie pretty much just rocks. It moves fast enough that you no longer have time to ponder the flaws and inconsistencies. The emotional intensity, and the scale of the visuals are finally in synch. The movie just flies. The final battle scenes -- progressing from bay, to port, to downtown Hong Kong are relentless, and breathtaking. One scene, in the city battle, which is already famous, culminating in a Newton's Cradle on a desk, should leave you gasping at director Guillermo del Toroo's skill, and chutzpah. Oh, and a mecha finally uses a sword to dispatch a Kaiju.
The climactic ending, was satisfyingly explosive, allowed the audience to see Mako Mori in her shiny black plugsuit one more time, and left everything up in the air for a sequel. Great stuff! Click the Mako Mori stills to enlarge them.
The American Jaeger Gypsy Caravan playing hide-and-seek with a Kaiju in Hong Kong.[/caption]Pacific Rim, if you haven't heard, is a recently-released, would-be Summer blockbuster film, directed by Guillermo del Toro, starring almost no one you've heard of, and released by Legendary Pictures. It tells a science fiction, action-adventure story built around two Japanese genres: mecha (Japanese for "kids in giant robots") and kaiju (Japanese for "guys in rubber monster suits"). Based on the trailer, and the track record of previous American efforts with anime, I was sceptical ►, and so, apparently, have been North American movie audiences ►. I've finally seen the movie -- three times.
To be blunt, the actual movie didn't really start for me until about 20 minutes into the running time: The anti-kaiju wall is breached in Sydney, Australia. We get an exciting snippet of the Aussie Jaeger whupping a Kaiju in broad daylight!
When I say it starts, I don't mean it starts cleanly. This obviously finely crafted machine has been left in low gear too long, so it coughs, and sputters a bit as it revs up. When the Jaeger program boss Marshall Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) is trying, gruffly, to woo the American, former Jaeger pilot, Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) back into the Jaeger program, he caps his sales pitch with: "Haven't You heard? The World is comming to an end! Where would you rather die: Here, or in a Jaeger?" I thought dying in my seat at that low point would've been a mercy.
But then, The Marshall's personal assistant, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) finally arrives -- only 23 minutes late -- the gang's all here, and the movie begins to show real signs of life. The Jaeger program has it's back to the wall; all that's left has been garthered up in Hong Kong -- that's only four Jaegers -- the elegant Chinese Grab Hand, the very, old-school Russian Bucket Head, the macho Australian Rocket-Chest (Bustgunner was taken), and the swaggering American Gypsy Moth. Everything, and everyone connected with the Jaeger program is cooped up in something called the Shatterdome, which includes two wacky Kaiju researchers, a so-called "Kaiju-groupie," (Charlie Day), and his very pent-up boss, Dr. Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman). I din't warm up to Charlie Day immediately, but Burn Gorman, Owen Harper from Torchwood, among other things, was a treat to watch from his first scene. The pair's interplay is good comic relief from all the histrionics.
Giant robots need dysfunctional people -- we know this, and with so many of them together under one roof, we get real emotional fireworks, and not-so-pent-up physical aggression, and several helpings of back-story trauma, until the movie finally, fully, roars to life with an incredible scene where Mako Mori relives her chilhood encounter with a Kaiju (played poignantly by Mana Ashida). The difference with Mako the child, is that Mako the adult is in a Jaeger with her finger on a plasma cannon -- wow!
The rest of the movie pretty much just rocks. It moves fast enough that you no longer have time to ponder the flaws and inconsistencies. The emotional intensity, and the scale of the visuals are finally in synch. The movie just flies. The final battle scenes -- progressing from bay, to port, to downtown Hong Kong are relentless, and breathtaking. One scene, in the city battle, which is already famous, culminating in a Newton's Cradle on a desk, should leave you gasping at director Guillermo del Toroo's skill, and chutzpah. Oh, and a mecha finally uses a sword to dispatch a Kaiju.
The climactic ending, was satisfyingly explosive, allowed the audience to see Mako Mori in her shiny black plugsuit one more time, and left everything up in the air for a sequel. Great stuff! Click the Mako Mori stills to enlarge them.
Pacific Rim may also be starting slow at the box office. It seems obvious the film was built to succeed in the international market, but in large chunks of the world it still hasn't opened. It doesn't hit theatres in Japan, for instance, until August 5th.
◄ The fourth in a series of posts. Previously: Patlabor: The Movie
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Nono, the starry-eyed girl, is on fire![/caption]
DieBuster is a six-episode OVA produced by Gainax to help mark their 20th anniversary as a studio -- it is a sequel to their ground-breaking 1988 six-episode OVA GunBuster (my review).
Tens of thousands of years after the events of Aim for the Top! GunBuster, when the Human race desperately fought malevolent space monsters to a standstill, the Space Monsters are still out there; still a threat. Humans are restricted to the massively terraformed planets and moons of their solar system. When they look into their night skies, they see the wall of Space Monsters as the so-called Red Milky Way. The only thing keeping the Monsters at bay is a fraternity of psychically-gifted teenagers known as Topless, and the ancient, and awesome biomechanical Buster machines only they can pilot.
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Nono, the starry-eyed girl, is on fire![/caption]| Title: | Aim for the Top 2! DieBuster | ||
| Studio: | Gainax | ||
| Air date: | October 3, 2004 – August 14, 2005 | ||
| Episodes: | 6 |
DieBuster is a six-episode OVA produced by Gainax to help mark their 20th anniversary as a studio -- it is a sequel to their ground-breaking 1988 six-episode OVA GunBuster (my review).
Tens of thousands of years after the events of Aim for the Top! GunBuster, when the Human race desperately fought malevolent space monsters to a standstill, the Space Monsters are still out there; still a threat. Humans are restricted to the massively terraformed planets and moons of their solar system. When they look into their night skies, they see the wall of Space Monsters as the so-called Red Milky Way. The only thing keeping the Monsters at bay is a fraternity of psychically-gifted teenagers known as Topless, and the ancient, and awesome biomechanical Buster machines only they can pilot.
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The Jaeger is © Legendary Pictures. Minions are © Felonious Gru. Click on the image to enlarge it[/caption]
Pacific Rim's lacklustre opening weekend shows anime themes still don't have mass market appeal in North America, but there's always the rest of the world to consider.
Pacific Rim, which opened July 12, came third in North American weekend box office receipts, with only $38.3 million US, behind Despicable Me 2, with $44.8 million US, and even the Adam Sandler comedy Grown Ups 2, with $42.5 million US. according to The Hollywood Reporter. ► Pacific Rim finishes it's opening weekend with an estimated worldwide box office total of $91.3 million US. Despicable Me 2, in it's second week of release, finished the same weekend period with a worldwide box office of $100.5 million, making it's total global box office $472.4 Million US.
Various sources estimate Pacific Rim cost at least $190 million US. Various sources report the budget for Despicable Me 2 was 76 million US, and for Grown Ups 2, around $80 million.
The Hollywood Reporter article attributes what success Pacific Rim had to "fanboys," citing strong IMAX sales, which they describe as "the favored venue for fanboys." Basically it's a weird movie which has appeal for geeks and otaku fanboys, but not the mass audience of normal people necessary for blockbuster success.
Everyone expects Pacific Rim will perform well in Japan, and other Asian countries. In fact, the filmmakers may have anticipated the cool North American response. With it's story featuring an international alliance of 21 nations -- each getting their own nationally-themed Jaeger robot, for a kind of anti-kauju World Cup -- Pacific Rim might be a rare American film designed, and engineered to succeed, first and foremost, in the international market.
The Jaeger is © Legendary Pictures. Minions are © Felonious Gru. Click on the image to enlarge it[/caption]Pacific Rim's lacklustre opening weekend shows anime themes still don't have mass market appeal in North America, but there's always the rest of the world to consider.
Pacific Rim, which opened July 12, came third in North American weekend box office receipts, with only $38.3 million US, behind Despicable Me 2, with $44.8 million US, and even the Adam Sandler comedy Grown Ups 2, with $42.5 million US. according to The Hollywood Reporter. ► Pacific Rim finishes it's opening weekend with an estimated worldwide box office total of $91.3 million US. Despicable Me 2, in it's second week of release, finished the same weekend period with a worldwide box office of $100.5 million, making it's total global box office $472.4 Million US.
Various sources estimate Pacific Rim cost at least $190 million US. Various sources report the budget for Despicable Me 2 was 76 million US, and for Grown Ups 2, around $80 million.
The Hollywood Reporter article attributes what success Pacific Rim had to "fanboys," citing strong IMAX sales, which they describe as "the favored venue for fanboys." Basically it's a weird movie which has appeal for geeks and otaku fanboys, but not the mass audience of normal people necessary for blockbuster success.
Everyone expects Pacific Rim will perform well in Japan, and other Asian countries. In fact, the filmmakers may have anticipated the cool North American response. With it's story featuring an international alliance of 21 nations -- each getting their own nationally-themed Jaeger robot, for a kind of anti-kauju World Cup -- Pacific Rim might be a rare American film designed, and engineered to succeed, first and foremost, in the international market.
My personal review of Pacific Rim ►
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Eep Crood reaches for the light. Shoulders like a linebacker, but so cute. Click the image to enlarge it.[/caption]
I just wasn't prepared for watching The Croods, the Dreamworks 3D animated comedy about a prehistoric family, which was released into theatres this last March, 2013. I didn't have any tissues, or a paper bag to breathe into -- nothing. By about the 54 minute mark, when the entire clan reach what looks like an ocean, and go swimming -- I was all teary-eyed, and giggling uncontrollably, and just plain shocked by how emotional I was getting. At that point I surrendered, and let the film have it's way with me.
It was an emotional, button-pushing rollercoaster. Hard to single out any single aspect for praise, which is good. Emma Stone's voice work on Eep was wonderful, as was Eep's character design, and the way she was animated, but the story, the dialogue, the voice work, and animation was fabulous across-the-board -- it was all of a piece -- the entire movie. Even Nicholas Cage impressed! Apparently I enjoy his work as long as I don't have to watch him doing it (he was mostly hidden in costume in Hit Girl). But, while I think The Croods is a great time, I don't think it's quite as good as Madagasgar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, released in 2012. Mad' 3 astonished me with it's wall-to-wall, end-to-end zaniness. Compared to Pixar, I still feel Dreamworks bakes too much sugar and high fructose corn syrup into their animated confections, but they are definitely perfecting their recipe.
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My dark mocha looks funny! Click the image to enlarge it.[/caption]
Red hair and freckles must test well with focus groups; how else to explain the prominent flame-haired heroines in a spate of recent animated films: Merinda in Pixar's Brave (2012); Captain Chantel DuBois in Dreamworks Madagasgar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012), and Eep Crood in Dreamwork's The Croods (2013). I don't mind in the least, I think ginger makes everything better.
I pondered this while sipping a decidedly brown haired, extra hot dark mocha at the Waves coffee shop at the corner of West Broadway Avenue and Spruce Street.
Eep Crood reaches for the light. Shoulders like a linebacker, but so cute. Click the image to enlarge it.[/caption]I just wasn't prepared for watching The Croods, the Dreamworks 3D animated comedy about a prehistoric family, which was released into theatres this last March, 2013. I didn't have any tissues, or a paper bag to breathe into -- nothing. By about the 54 minute mark, when the entire clan reach what looks like an ocean, and go swimming -- I was all teary-eyed, and giggling uncontrollably, and just plain shocked by how emotional I was getting. At that point I surrendered, and let the film have it's way with me.
It was an emotional, button-pushing rollercoaster. Hard to single out any single aspect for praise, which is good. Emma Stone's voice work on Eep was wonderful, as was Eep's character design, and the way she was animated, but the story, the dialogue, the voice work, and animation was fabulous across-the-board -- it was all of a piece -- the entire movie. Even Nicholas Cage impressed! Apparently I enjoy his work as long as I don't have to watch him doing it (he was mostly hidden in costume in Hit Girl). But, while I think The Croods is a great time, I don't think it's quite as good as Madagasgar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, released in 2012. Mad' 3 astonished me with it's wall-to-wall, end-to-end zaniness. Compared to Pixar, I still feel Dreamworks bakes too much sugar and high fructose corn syrup into their animated confections, but they are definitely perfecting their recipe.
Why are redheads suddenly so animated?
[caption id="attachment_3044" align="alignright" width="150"]
My dark mocha looks funny! Click the image to enlarge it.[/caption]Red hair and freckles must test well with focus groups; how else to explain the prominent flame-haired heroines in a spate of recent animated films: Merinda in Pixar's Brave (2012); Captain Chantel DuBois in Dreamworks Madagasgar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012), and Eep Crood in Dreamwork's The Croods (2013). I don't mind in the least, I think ginger makes everything better.
I pondered this while sipping a decidedly brown haired, extra hot dark mocha at the Waves coffee shop at the corner of West Broadway Avenue and Spruce Street.
Here's a really good blog post about seeing the film, and what's behind John Cleese's writing credit ►
Mr. Hallorann. What is in Room 237?
Nothin'. There ain't nothin' in Room 237. But you ain't got no business goin' in there anyway. So stay out. You understand? Stay out.
No one listens anymore. Last week I watched a 2013 documentary called Room 237, all about Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining, and some of the ways people interpret the film. I had read that the documentary was popularizing the practice of watching the film backwards -- In fact, it details the practice of running it both forwards and backwards, superimposed simultaneously, which is ... interesting.
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Bloody hell. This backwards and forwards stuff is scary! Click the image to enlarge it.[/caption]There was the interpretation that the Shining was about the American slaughter and subjugation of aboriginal people. Apparently Bill Blakemore laid the groundwork for this in his 1987 essay The Family of Man. Certainly there is scads of overt native symbolism in the film: The Overlook Hotel is filled with Apache/Navajo art, and built on top of First nations' graves. Hmm?
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See, Danny represents the Apollo launch, oops, I’ve given away the secret. The black helicopters will be coming for me.[/caption]The third interpretation caught me off guard, but really shouldn't have: Stanley Kubrick faked the U.S. Apollo Moon landing footage, and used the vehicle of The Shining to "say" that he'd done it. The proponent of this theory, Jay Weidner, had the most ground to till; several Kubrick films: Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as The Shining; then there's all that lunar footage -- more than enough for his own documentary, which he did in 2011, entitled, Kubrick's Odyssey - Secrets Hidden in the Films of Stanley Kubrick; Part One: Kubrick and Apollo.
Weidner can really go places with all the liberties Kubrick took with his adaptation of Stephen King's novel, For example, in the book, it's Room 217; in the film, 237 -- Mean distance from the Earth to the Moon: 237,000 miles. Shazam! He can do this all day.
I can see how Kubrick's well known penchant for perfection would drive this search for hidden meanings, and I have no doubt there are hidden meanings throughout Kubrick's great body of work. All I got from this documentary though, was a strong desire to watch The Shining again. I did. I still think it's still a great film.
Roger Ebert's review of Room 237 ►
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This film doesn't even have good stills! But click the image to enlarge it anyways.[/caption]
Blockbuster movies starring the Pacific Ocean have a poor track record. It's been little more than a year since audiences told Universal Pictures, "We sunk your battleship!" Now comes Pacific Rim, a science fiction, action-adventure film, set to open July 12. The trailers I've watched make it look an awful lot like Transformers, and Battleship, and Cloverfield, all rolled together -- and, did I mention "awful?"
This film doesn't even have good stills! But click the image to enlarge it anyways.[/caption]Blockbuster movies starring the Pacific Ocean have a poor track record. It's been little more than a year since audiences told Universal Pictures, "We sunk your battleship!" Now comes Pacific Rim, a science fiction, action-adventure film, set to open July 12. The trailers I've watched make it look an awful lot like Transformers, and Battleship, and Cloverfield, all rolled together -- and, did I mention "awful?"
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Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, with "The Suit," from Iron Man 3.[/caption]
I was lazy this evening. Rather than go binning, I tinkered with my laptop, tidied up files, found WiFi, played on the Internet and then watched Iron Man 3. I enjoyed it, and would enjoy it more on a big screen. It's very formulaic. The story looks to have been written by focus groups, and tries to play to all the franchise's considerable strengths, particularly in contriving maximum face time for both Robert Downey Jr. and the Iron Man suit(s). Downey Jr. has lots of full-on action scenes sans the suit, and the suit effectively becomes a co-star, along with War Machine/Iron Patriot (Don Cheadle), Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), and Ben Kingsley, who's a treat to watch as The Mandarin. All conventional Summer blockbuster fare, without the two leads and their undeniable on-screen chemistry. Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, are so damned appealing, particularly together -- their Tony Stark and Pepper Potts are the Nick and Nora Charles for today's generation.
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Chinese take-away, "good food!," and improvised spoon.[/caption]
After the movie, I went out and about. I didn't find much in the way of returnable containers, but in bang-bang succession, I found an untouched take-away order of rice and sweet and sour pork, all bundled up on the hood of a car, then some wraps in a container advertising the contents as "good food!," and a bit later a Starbucks sandwich and "Protein Pack," both unopened and fresh. I ate it all. But first, I had to deal with the fact that I'd mislaid my titanium spork. Not a big deal, you find cutlery or you make it, in this case I did the latter. Gave the result a clean, and had a nice late supper, then off to bed.
Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, with "The Suit," from Iron Man 3.[/caption]I was lazy this evening. Rather than go binning, I tinkered with my laptop, tidied up files, found WiFi, played on the Internet and then watched Iron Man 3. I enjoyed it, and would enjoy it more on a big screen. It's very formulaic. The story looks to have been written by focus groups, and tries to play to all the franchise's considerable strengths, particularly in contriving maximum face time for both Robert Downey Jr. and the Iron Man suit(s). Downey Jr. has lots of full-on action scenes sans the suit, and the suit effectively becomes a co-star, along with War Machine/Iron Patriot (Don Cheadle), Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), and Ben Kingsley, who's a treat to watch as The Mandarin. All conventional Summer blockbuster fare, without the two leads and their undeniable on-screen chemistry. Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, are so damned appealing, particularly together -- their Tony Stark and Pepper Potts are the Nick and Nora Charles for today's generation.
Who's up for Chinese?
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Chinese take-away, "good food!," and improvised spoon.[/caption]After the movie, I went out and about. I didn't find much in the way of returnable containers, but in bang-bang succession, I found an untouched take-away order of rice and sweet and sour pork, all bundled up on the hood of a car, then some wraps in a container advertising the contents as "good food!," and a bit later a Starbucks sandwich and "Protein Pack," both unopened and fresh. I ate it all. But first, I had to deal with the fact that I'd mislaid my titanium spork. Not a big deal, you find cutlery or you make it, in this case I did the latter. Gave the result a clean, and had a nice late supper, then off to bed.
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