WARRIORS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH; THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES; I <3 HUCKABEES; DIG!; WIMBLEDON; TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE; THE YES MEN; STAGE BEAUTY; THE GRUDGE; SHARK TALE; GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE; BIRTH; RAY; THE INCREDIBLES; SIDEWAYS; SEX IS COMEDY; TAE GUK GI: THE BROTHERHOOD OF WAR; KINSEY; SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS; IMMORTAL; CLOSER; PRIMER; OCEAN'S 12; GET SHORTY; LEMONY SNICKET; HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS; A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT; POLAR EXPRESS; THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU; MILLION DOLLAR BABY

WARRIORS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH

Friday, October 1st, 2004

I saw Warriors of Heaven and Earth, which i guess you could call a noodle western. It's set along the Silk Road, just at the edge where the Chinese civilzation and 'Turkish' tribespeoples meet, around 700 AD, just before the rise of China's 'golden age' Tang dynasty. The story revolves around two men, a former soldier, who mutinied rather than kill innocent people, and a Japanese man, assigned to the Chinese court, who will be allowed to return home after one last assignment, killing the ex-soldier. They both get involved with protecting a caravan with a young Buddhist monk and a secret from warlords and Turkish bandits.

I'm sure there are things i missed, or don't quite grasp, that i would immediately understand about something set in Europe, like the religious situation, or styles of clothes or whatever. I do know there was a mistake when someone claimed to have smelled the Turks smoking tobacco, as that came from the Americas after Columbus. But it's possibly a translation issue. I read an article recently about subtitling. For example, in Hero, what was subtitled "our land' actually read "all under heaven". Regardless, the whole thing was very much like a western with swords (and very little of the floating martials arts of movies like Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), caricatures in place of character, and so on, with a dollop of Buddhist Raiders of the Lost Ark thrown in. So, not as good as Hero, but it was a lot of fun.

"Somehow i must arrange to have a bath in the desert, so i can get someone as old as my grandfa... uh... older... brother...to accidentally interrupt me."

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES

Saturday, October 2nd, 2004

Yesterday, i saw The Motorcycle Diaries. It's an adaptation of journals written by Ernesto (Che) Guevara and Alberto Granado, college students seeking fun and adventure before graduation, travelling across Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Peru in order to do their medical residency at a leper colony. It doesn't say a whole lot about their views before the trip (apparently Che was already 'left-leaning'), although it's true this trip radicalised Che's views. He began to see Latin America not as a collection of countries, but as a single society, in which the poor and sick were brutally oppressed (not too far off the mark, really). The movie doesn't really get too deep into anything, but it was a pretty enjoyable, over-romanticized trip.

I was surprised by how many people were at this 5 pm show. Not packed, but busier than most movies i've seen in the past few months.

SILVER CITY

Monday, October 4th, 2004

I went to see Silver City. It's been getting only fair reviews, saying, for example, it's political satire isn't strong enough - one review i read compared it unfavourably to Will Farrell's little bit as Bush. But i don't know if satire is the main point of the movie.

It centres around a shambolic private investigator, played by Danny Huston, who's hired to get info about a dead body that washes up during a political ad shoot in the countryside. The ad is for a Dubya-like dolt running for Governor, who's the son of a powerful Senator, and is the front for some big corporations wanting deregulation and privatization of publicly owned land, and they're afraid some of his enemies staged the body to embarrass him.

I quite liked Danny Huston's character, and i could see him in a sequel (it felt a lot like TV detective show, a bit like Rockford Files in the Rockies). It was pretty funny, but the politics behind it all is actually pretty dark, scarier than ordinary satire. I thought it was pretty good.

"We'll make a real cowboy out of you yet."

I <3 HUCKABEES

Saturday, October 9th, 2004

Today i saw I <3 Huckabees. Reviews are mixed on this, but i really enjoyed it. It starts with a man (Jason Schwartzman) going to an Existentialist Detective agency (Lily Tomlin, Dustin Hoffman) to understand certain coincidences in his life, but it goes on to his involvement with a ecological group taking over by a department store (Huckabees) executive/best friend/enemy (Jude Law) and his girlfriend/store spokesmodel (Naomi Watts), another client of the agency (Mark Wahlberg), and ends up in a war between rival existentialist agencies, one romantic (barely existentialist), the other nihilist (headed by Isabelle Huppert).

I'm not sure how seriously you can take the existentialist talk, although if you have a bit of background in it, you can at least make some better sense of their conversations. And it's refreshing to have characters actually ask questions and interested in meaning, rather than just follow a story formula. Plus, the movie is just funny.

"Passive aggressive."
"Shut up!"
"Aggressive aggressive."

"How am I not myself?"

DIG!

Sunday, October 10th, 2004

The movie i went to see yesterday was DiG!, a documentary about the rise of two bands, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. They start off as friends and influencing each other, and as their paths increasingly diverge, they increasingly become rivals.

The focus is on Anton Newcombe, the lead singer and writer of BJM, while it's narrated by Courtney Taylor, his opposite with the DW. You can't really trust what Courtney Taylor says, but it's pretty clear that while The Dandies had a grip on their careers and drug-taking, the other band didn't. Given his father's history, it's easy to suspect the Anton perhaps is schizophrenic as well. I liked the insight one of the Dandies had about how normal their home lives had been (families still together and what not) compared to BJM's. Joel, in particular, seemed stoned out of his gourd even when he was sober (if he ever was).

It was mostly pretty good, and it got me interested enough to stop on the way home to look for more of their CDs (i already have the Dandies' 13 Tales and Monkey House). What i didn't like about the documentary was that it ended the story with Anton years ago - in fact, not knowing their history beforehand, i felt we were headed for some sort of crash, perhaps even OD or something. What has he been up to in all those years?

WIMBLEDON

Monday, October 11th, 2004

This afternoon, i finally made it to see Wimbledon, the last half decent movie in the burbs i hadn't seen (unless you count Shark Tale, which i don't). It was much what i expected. Wasn't sure how they'd treat Dunst's character's career, as his seemed to be the focus, but otherwise, it was pretty predictable, but reasonably enjoyable.

In tennis, love is nothing.

There were only 4 other people in the cinema, and i noticed two of them snuck in outside food (as did i, bless Lick's homeburgers).

TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE

Friday, October 15th, 2004

This afternoon, i saw Team America. It was pretty damn funny. I'm curious about how cut the version i saw was, because the sex scenes were pretty graphic. Funny, but graphic. Oddly, for all the hullaballoo, there was hardly any right-wing bashing (awww...), and they made more fun of lefty actors and Michael Moore.

(poor Hans Blix) "America, fuck yeah!"

THE YES MEN

Sunday, October 17th, 2004

Today i saw The Yes Men, a documentary about a small group of men who perform these ambush stunts to expose what they consider the dangerous policies of the World Trade Organization. One of them was an original perpetrator of stunts like switching the voices for Barbie and G. I. Joe. The other put men in skimpy bikinis as civilians (who occasionally started making out) in a video game.

They started a while ago by getting the domain gwbush.com, and making it a spoof of georgewbush.com. This movie was based on their website gatt.org, taken from General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs, predecessor to the WTO. It's actually a spoof site, but quite often they get contacted by people wanting speakers at trade meetings and such - and they go! They take the position of the WTO, and push it to a ridiculous extreme, and 95% of the time, no one questions them, whether it involves a proposal to literally buy and sell votes, a gold body suit with a phallus-like employee monitor, or recycling human feces into food for the third world. They get interviewed on TV programs, and no one catches on.

It's a lot like The Corporation, in that it pokes holes in the current system, without a coherent alternative of its own. Is free trade inherently bad, good, or neutral? Is free trade the problem, or the fact that rich and powerful countries don't play fair?

A funny Canadian connection occurs when they announce at one lecture the dismantling of the WTO, and a Member of Parliament brings this up - of course, the dolt was a member of the Canadian Alliance.

STAGE BEAUTY

Saturday, October 23rd, 2004

Today i saw Stage Beauty, starring Billy Crudup and Claire Danes. It's set in the Restoration period, when only males were allowed to act - Crudup plays women's roles. Danes plays his assistant, who is also involved in semi-secret acting. She loves him, but he believes her to be his enemy. Appropriately, the movie hinges around the play Othello and the death scene between Othello and Desdemona.

I enjoyed it quite a lot. There's something of a love story, but we're never really sure of Crudup's sexuality, which is alright i suppose, since it's from an era before words like homosexuality or gayness (politically speaking) even existed. Actually, i thought the King (Charles II) and his mistress Nell Gwyn provided the most fun. Royalty hasn't been this much fun since The Madness of King George III.

Before the dreary Protestants took over again...

"Whenever one is about to do something truly horrible, we always say the French have been doing it for years."

THE GRUDGE

Sunday, October 24th, 2004

Today i saw The Grudge. I wish i'd seen the original Japanese version, but it only played at an indie theatre at inconvenient times for one week, so that was that. The audience was fairly noisy, as Canadian audiences go, as it was reasonably full, and immature.

The movie was pretty scary, in an unnerving way. I don't really like scary movies, but at least this was not one of those obvious formula movies. My only real complaint is that it didn't really seem to finish - it just stopped. That is, other than the fact Buffy's character was out of the story (i'm dancing around spoilers here), there was no resolution. The question becomes, why do we follow her character, except to resolve the story?

Something i find a bit odd is the American in Japan angle. Supposedly, the creators wanted to retain the cultural relevance of the Japan supernatural. However, there wasn't anything particularly odd about that from a Western point of view. We're used to the idea of hauntings (essentially what it is), and hauntings by outraged spirits. It's not particularly Japanese, unlike, say, the cultural attitudes in Shall We Dance. Not only is the setting still in Japan, but they used the same director and many of the same actors (i'm sure it saved on many special effects). I'll say one thing - those are pretty powerful spirits.

Japan would be less scary if people didn't live all the time in pale, dim, blue light, and, damn, there's so few of them, they're always alone, even in large buildings.

Don't just sit there! Use your Slayer strength!

I'd intended to see Vera Drake, the new Mike Leigh film (wonder if it's cheery?), about a woman in the 1950s charged with being an abortionist (yes!). But, damn... it may be good, but that's pretty unrelenting.

SHARK TALE

Thursday, October 28th, 2004

"Lola! I'm not a nobody! I'm a weiner!"

Yesterday, i saw Shark Tale. It was about what i'd expected, which is, not so good. It's a shame, because there's all kinds of talent and potential in it, but it never comes together.

First, what was with the faces of many of the fish, especially Oscar? They just stuck a human head at the front of a fish. That was weird.

And, i can't say i'm enthralled with all the 'bling bling' and such. It's almost an unintentional parody of hiphop culture. In fact, it almost verges on racism, with stereotyped Italian mobsters, 'black' hip hop urban characters, and thuggish reggae Jamaicans. And the women are either frumpish 'best friends' or slutty vamps.What the movie should have is actual characters, and by that i don't mean just Will Smith being Will Smith, and Robert Deniro being Robert Deniro. I really didn't have much sympathy for Oscar, let alone any understanding of why Angie felt strongly about him.

There wasn't even much in the way of parody of products (they were actually product placements), and the 'crazy crab' was pretty forced humor - you get the pleasure of seeing him throughout the end credits.

Jack Black was pretty good - i didn't even know it was him. We needed more Lenny, less Oscar.

Oh, and there was a gaggle of young boys who were too young for the theatre, probably around 7-8 years old. They could hardly stay still or be quiet from the get go. I would've been more annoyed if i'd liked the movie more. Plus, on the way out, a woman with them aplogized for their behavior, which was pretty cool (who does that nowadays?).

GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE

Friday, October 29th, 2004

"No matter how far a jackass travels, it won't come back a horse."

Yesterday i went to see Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence.

My first question is, what the hell was it doing at First Markham Place? That's seem a pretty random suburban location. It's way out in this power centre, so no one lives within a kilometre of it, although there's a Chapters with a minute's walk. It was okay for me - i didn't have to pay for parking, but it seems like it would be doomed. As it turned out, i was at the first showing, and there were maybe only 5 people in the audience with me.

Anyway, it was pretty good. At first the difference between the mostly CG movie and the 2D characters was disconcerting, but i got used to it. It's an amazing looking film. That dog had to be rotoscoped (and well).

The plot's a bit crazy (how did the yakuza fit into it again?), but it was still fun, in a dark, angsty, philosophical way. Batou takes the 'action' in action hero a bit too seriously. There's an interesting debate about whether what anyone is experiencing (especially because they all seem to have implants) is real or imagined (imagineered).

The story begins with gynoids (female sexbots) going crazy and killing their owners. So, it's a detective story. I'll say this much about the 'why' - we tend to look for vast conspiracies, but most conspiracies are pretty mundane. Ubermen aren't trying to take over our world - just some guys are trying to get laid and make a buck. That's not the movie, that's just life (Darwin is about sex, Adam Smith is about the money).

BIRTH

Saturday, October 30th, 2004

Yesterday, i saw Birth. A man dies, and ten years later a young boy shows up, claiming to be him, and trying to convince his 'widow' Anna not to marry her new fiancé. Like Ghost In The Shell 2, it's a mystery/detective story, although rather than a whodunnit, it's more of a whoisit. It's visually stark and emotionally dark - we are detached from feeling, outside of Anna's grief, until the boy shows up. Like the other movie, it asks questions about truth, or more importantly, what we are prepared to believe (that's as audience members, as well as people). The turning point is a remarkable scene where we see nothing but Nicole Kidman's face for two minutes, as she wrestles with the possibilities.

RAY

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

Today i saw Ray, the biography of Ray Charles. It looks at two main periods, his early childhood of poverty, losing his brother, going blind, and a mother who wouldn't let him be weak, and the first half of his career, as he pushed musical boundaries and mixed genres, and took increasing control of his career (lessons many of today's musicians could follow). It doesn't flinch from his womanizing and drug abuse, but keeps the focus on his music. Jamie Foxx makes a very good Ray Charles.

THE INCREDIBLES

Friday, November 5th, 2004

The Incredibles was absolutely awesome. One of the year's best movies, maybe the best. I think better than Iron Giant. The characters have more personality than most 'real' actors. Emotional conflict, comedy, superb action.

It's good to see old cartoon characters getting new jobs.

*********************************************************************

Sunday, November 7th, 2004

Today, i saw The Incredibles again. Yeah, i'm pathetic. The action sequences with Elastigirl and the kids were stunning. So was the end credits design. I think the two old men who speak near the end of the movie were Ollie Thomas and (now late) Frank Thomas, two of the 'nine old men' from Disney's past (documentary on the two of them!). There are still some technical issues that haven't quite been solved yet. Sometimes their clothes didn't look quite right (more like rubber), and when they travel across the water like a boat, the wake is placed just on top of the regular waves, rather than disrupting it. The Boundin' short was pretty cute.

*********************************************************************

Okay, four times in the first week.

SIDEWAYS

Saturday, November 6th, 2004

Today i saw Sideways. It's about a depressed, failing writer/English teacher/wine-lover (played by Paul Giamatti from American Splendour), not yet over the failure of his marriage, who takes his aging actor buddy, not yet ready to settle on one woman, on a vacation the week before the buddy gets married. It's a matter of opinion which of them is more pathetic, although it's the buddy who provides the majority of laughs. They're all too human, seriously flawed, and unlike a typical film, don't really 'learn their lesson' at the end. What they do, however, is get a little bit ahead of where they were before, which isn't too bad for a week.

I enjoyed the movie, and it was pretty funny - a bit depressing, but a little more optimistic than About Schmidt.

"Why do I fall in love with every woman I see that shows me the least bit of attention?"

SEX IS COMEDY

Saturday, November 13th, 2004

The movie i saw yesterday was Sex is Comedy, which is also its name in French. Its working title was Scènes intimes, which seems a more appropriate reflection of the movie. For one thing, it wasn't all that funny. It's almost a mockumentary, done by the director of Fat Girl/À ma soeur! (so she's already annoying me), and in fact based on the making of Fat Girl, especially the sex scenes involving the older daughter, and played by the same actress - and in this movie only referred to as The Actress.

More of the movie revolves around the director's relationship with the The Actor, who's a petulant and egotistical little shit, and a large part of the movie hinges on how once movies start shooting they are at the mercy of such shits. If the director really had to deal with someone like him, she has my sympathy.

On the other hand, i found the character of the director to be rather indulgent. You could sense when the writer/actual director decided she needed to switch the character from being a font of insights on the movie making process to a font of emotional outbursts. The Actor and Jeanne the director were clichés of a French movie character, where everything is so damned serious, even what should simply be ridiculously funny (like the prosthetic penises for the sex scenes).

The movie comes alive towards the end during the shooting of the main sex scene, and when it changes from focussing on The Actor and director to The Actress. She doesn't even say very much, but we're actually getting into an actor's emotional involvement with the role and actions they perform. The movie may be flawed, but at least it's trying to deal with stuff more interesting than a dancing Richard Gere or Surviving Christmas With The Kranks. Plus, if you're into it, you get to see some naked boobies and pubic hair.

TAE GUK GI: THE BROTHERHOOD OF WAR

Sunday, November 14th, 2004

Today i saw Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (Taegukgi hwinalrimyeo), the third Korean movie i've seen, and also an epic. The first was a classical story set in Korea's golden age, the second was a Buddhist 'epic' set some time in the 20th century (but barely - it was mostly timeless). This one was set mostly during the Korean War. I'd only glanced at the first few sentences of reviews and the Metacritic rating, so i was a little surprised about the setting. For some reason i'd assumed it was like the recent spate of Asian movies, set in the long ago past.

Anyway, it's very much a modern war movie, and since the director is apparently known as Korea's Steven Spielberg, it's not surprising it's compared a lot to Saving Private Ryan. It's certainly bloody and brutal (probably moreso), and in some way it's cliché-filled and we've seen a lot of this before. But war's inhumanity doesn't change, and it's a well-told story. There's no denying its emotional impact.

Plus, we're used to seeing wars from a western (mostly American) perspective, so it's interesting to see a movie about Korea which essentially sees it as a civil war. It's no accident that the main emotional conflict are brother versus brother. It's not so much that each reflects the two different sides on the battlefield, as they represent two different reactions to war - one whose mind is completely on what he wants to save, both in his family and self, who's horrified by the brutality, the other whose devotion to duty (both familial and paritotic) leads him to begin losing sight of what he's fighting for, hardened by the brutality. These aren't only conflicts between people, but within individuals.

"CUT! Let's do that again, from the top."

KINSEY

Saturday, November 20th, 2004

Today i went to the Varsity to see Kinsey, the movie about Albert Kinsey, the man who almost single-handedly invented sex research. I expected a lot of conflict in the movie with the kind of people who are currently protesting women's naked backs on football programs, but what i didn't expect was how funny it would be. And i don't mean just sexual innuendo, although there's plenty of that. The spectacle of two entomologists trying to get it on was hilarious. It's hard to believe that people today actually blame Kinsey for what they see as society's ills (talk about shooting the messenger). As if homosexuality, adultery and extra-marital sex weren't around before. Liam Neesson was great. Actually, i enjoyed all the performances.

Something i would've liked to have seen more of, and this may be just as much fault with Kinsey the man as the movie, was more context for the sexuality. Sure he described what was happening, but there wasn't a whole lot on the why. Kinsey confessed he didn't know how to study love, because he couldn't quantify it. But there's much more to sex than love. The other part that was just briefly touched on was on the morality of sexuality. Kinsey comes off as an advocate of free love, but to argue something is okay just because everyone does it doesn't answer what happens when everyone, for example, steals, or abuses children. Kinsey states he believes sex is wrong if done by force, but there's nothing on how he comes to these beliefs. If you study other animals (our close relatives the chimps, for example), sex by force is all too common. In fact, it's even true of our society.

"How did you know i had sex with ponies?"
"You just told me you had sex with horses."
"Horses? I said whores!"

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS

Sunday, November 21st, 2004

Spongier, squarier. I went to see the SpongeBob SquarePants movie. It was a lot of fun. Almost too edgy for kids in some places (oh my starfish in garters!), but then again, people are taking their little kids to see The Incredibles. Which i snuck into after, seeing the end part, after Bob and Helen get married. Ahem. David Hasselhoff was in SBSP - even when's he trying to be funny, he's wooden.

"THE HELMETS CAN'T HANDLE THIS LEVEL OF ROCK AND ROLL!"

IMMORTAL

Saturday, November 27th, 2004

Today i saw Immortal, a French science fiction epic (although it's mostly in English and set in New York), based on a series of graphic novels. It was more interesting than good. The dialogue was pretty stiff, not much to the story (not really sure what was going on with the god angle). Odd mix of 3D and live action. Will the future really be that grim and rusty? It's the same futurism we've seen from Bladerunner to The Matrix. Isn't it more likely our future will look like colorful but shoddy plastic?

Monumental space alien Egyptian god boobies. I guess that says it all.

IMDB recommended City of God from this one. Incredible!

CLOSER

Friday, December 3rd, 2004

After work, i went to see Closer which was not only good, but refreshingly smart. It's about two couples (hardly anyone else even speaks) whose paths and relationships cross. It starts off like a typical romance, with a chance meeting between between two attractive characters (a bit like Garden State, in fact). But it's less about love and truth than it is about lies and betrayal. It jumps in time quite a bit, from meetings to betrayals to endings, over four years. It starts off quite funny (the funniest scene is the online sex chat)., but gradually gets darker as things unravel.

One review pointed out that their jobs are all about surface: Jude Law plays tries to be a novelist but writes obituaries for a living, Julia Roberts (who doesn't annoy me here) is a successful photographer, Clive Owen is a dermatologist, Natalie Portman is a stripper/sometimes waitress.

It's an interesting study of how people act and react in relationships. I don't think any of the characters understand why they do what they do. One is the most pathetic - the catalyst for the betrayals, with phony guilt and nasty joker, who bawls when things don't go his way, and quickly changes his heart when it's easy. Another lets betrayal happen, even when she seems to know better. A third is dangerous and threatening, although i think we feel empathy for revenge. The fourth is the most intriguing one, who seems to know much of it is a lie, but is also the only one who doesn't behave with any sort of malice.

I remember these quotes from the trailer, but not from the movie:
"Why did you swear love eternal when what you wanted was excitement? Love bores you."
"No. It disappoints me."
The last in particular would go a long way to explaining the character's behavior.

I was surprised to see how much skin she exposed, as she has a reputation for avoiding that (and apparently even more was left out), but baring skin wasn't the point of the scene.

I think i'm in love with Natalie Portman

PRIMER

Sunday, December 5th, 2004

The movie i saw was Primer, a 'realistic' take on two engineers who invent a time machine in a garage. It's a science-fiction (but not futurist) thriller.I found it somewhat confusing - they tended to overlap in speech, and speak too fast. By the end i had no idea what was happening.I actually understood the physics better.Still, it was pretty interesting. I'm sure it would make more sense in a future viewing, and dropping the natural assumptions. There needs to be a way to tag the characters.

I hate it when people rhyme 'primer' with 'dimmer' - it should rhyme with 'rhymer'.

OCEAN'S 12

Friday, December 10th, 2004

I saw Ocean's 12, which is odd, because i haven't seen Ocean's 1 through 11. It was enjoyable, but no Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind. We need more Eddie Izzard.

I went to sneak into the middle of another movie, but it was virtually over. Damn.

GET SHORTY

Saturday, December 11th, 2004

I watched Get Shorty, on DVD, which was pretty good. It felt a tiny bit slow in some places, but otherwise no complaints. There's a new movie coming out some of the same characters Travolta's Chili most notably, so i'll probably see that.

LEMONY SNICKET

Friday, December 17th, 2004

Today i saw Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. The reviews have been a little weak (mostly favourable), but i thought it was pretty entertaining.

It has a quirky sense of humour, a bit tongue in cheek, a bit Edward Gorey. Jim Carrey was very good, and at first (and from the trailers) i thought he was playing several different characters (not having read the book), but it turned out he was playing an actor. His seaman actually had a Newfoundland accent - pretty funny.

I thought the bit at the beginning was a short, but it integrated rather nicely into the story. The endtitles, like those of The Incredibles, were a piece of art of their own, and similar in idea - a miming of the action from the movie, this time in a very gothic and Gorey style.

People would pay to get Violet's lips. Hope they're not implants.

"Now that we're a family, I can be the ullllll-timate DAD."

There's another Blue Sky/Fox 3D movie in the works called Robots coming out (they did Ice Age). The story looks weak, but the art design is amazing.

HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS

Sunday, December 19th, 2004

People who live in dagger houses shouldn't throw glass. Or something like that

Today i saw House Of Flying Daggers. I quite liked it, especially how it played around with our expectations, and with who the heroes are. It's true the physics is unreal, but the same could be said of Hollywood action movies in which heroes are able to outrun exploding fireballs. And we get to see the actual choreography of the fight scenes, rather than blurry music video style cuts. Interesting combination of martial arts and dancing. Amazing visuals and choreography.

Its name in Chinese is Shi mian mai fu, which apparently literally means 'Ambush From Ten Sides'.

You know, the boy disguise never did work.

Beautiful visuals indeed.

A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2004

Today i saw A Very Long Engagement (Un long dimanche de fiançailles), another Jean-Pierre Jeunet film, and like Amélie, also with Audrey Tautou (still very charming) and some of the same actors. It's about a stubbornly hopeful young woman looking for her fiancé after the Great War, while it seems obvious to everyone else that he had been executed as a deserter during the fighting. It's got a lot of the usual Jeunet magic, but more heart-wrenching. A beautiful movie.

The subtitles kept spelling fiancée (as applied to Audrey/Mathilde) wrong, and the IMDB spells fiancé (as applied to the man) with an extra e. It's an easy gender thing, just as blond is masculine, and blonde is feminine. I, however, have ashen hair.

POLAR EXPRESS

Friday, December 24th, 2004

Polar Express was, as i suspected, not very good. The faces and eyes look dead, especially compared to The Incredibles. When you smile, not just the mouth moves - the whole face should move. The eyes looked vacant - something they couldn't motion capture. Pixar made those eyes move all the time - they looked alive. The motion was just generally weird - elbows pointing way up. Everything was creepy. Motion capture sucks. And there's a whole lot of lame CG stuff that they threw in because they can, like extreme roller coaster type motion.

And i didn't get the point of the story. Kids should take rides with strangers? If poor kids weren't so bitter, they'd get presents from Santa. Kids with glasses are annoying know-it-alls? What's with all the pressure to force kids to believe in Santa? If you think of all the good Christmas stories, that is not what they are about. L said it's very different from the book. The book is apparently quiet, while the movie certainly wasn't - it was all loudness. What was with that 'ghost' character? Bleagh.

"What are you lookin' at, kid?"

THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU

Saturday, December 25th, 2004

I thought The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou was pretty good. Fun little bits of CG sealife oh, plus the lizard). Willem Dafoe was hilariously needy. The character Anne-Marie, the only female on Team Zissou (other than Anjelica Huston/Zissou's wife and sometimes backer, and Cate Blanchett/the reporter), often walked around topless. Interesting. Very interesting. I was surprised how the relationship between Zissou and his supposed son (Owen Wilson) ended up.

"This is an adventure."

MILLION DOLLAR BABY

Friday, December 31st, 2004

Yesterday, i saw Million Dollar Baby. Hilary Swank plays a women in her early 30s who wants to box, Clint plays a crusty old boxing trainer, Morgan Freeman plays his less crusty assistant around his gym. Well, you can see where this will take us. Actually, it was really, really good, and i enjoyed the emotional performances. The story ended up where i didn't expect it to go - it's not a boxing movie, not really. I found the cartoonish portrayal of the mentally disabled man who hung around the gym, and Swank's family pretty tacky though.