Yeah!
It’s been a while since I was so actively rooting against a film to win an award. I guess that’s the kind of ire that Avatar formed in me. I mean, you wait for years and years for someone to make a cool movie, and you get… this. Hopefully, Cameron can pull his act together and make a real movie in his next project. If not, he’ll just join Michael Bay in my permanent list of people who makes movies that I will avoid.
I keep wondering if our minivan can handle the hitch that it will take to haul a camper around the the countryside for our next vacation. It will probably work, I just hope that it doesn’t cost too much. I’m a big fan of the new commercial featuring the couple that brags about the awesomeness of their Sienna. If it truly is that awesome, then it should handle a hitch just fine. I do know that while on vacation, we won’t be watching the movie Hitch. That’s something completely different and unrelated to a hitch to haul around a camper.
I don’t think that I’ll be rushing to the theaters next week to see the new Alice in Wonderland flick. Even the amazing 3D effects, Johnny Depp, and Tim Burton combined couldn’t save this return of the classic story from an early March release. Shouldn’t this have been a summer blockbuster, or at least a holiday hit. The producers and distributors must know something that the rest of us will soon find out. Alice in Wonderland in 3D may not be very wonderful.
Who says that all of the great ideas have already been done? It’s time for the world to meet “Axe Cop”. Just keep Michael Bay away from it. There’s nothing that man can’t ruin with just a glance.
“Leap Year” is the best romantic comedy so far this year.
Make sure you don’t count romantic comedies that were released at the end of last year and were still out when this year started.
And make sure you don’t think I mean it is the best romantic comedy there will be this year (let us all hope).
But for sure, when you’ve got a yearning for a chick flick (whatever your motivations) and you’ve already seen “It’s Complicated”, you can go see this and you won’t leave feeling disappointed. Because the end is way better than the beginning and the beginning is what makes you feel disappointed so by the time you get to the end, you feel somewhat surprised that it ended as well as it does.
I am a huge Amy Adams fan but this movie does her no justice. Her character (Anna) has no direction and her back story is limited. Our exposure to her father could easily have been left on the cutting room floor – and he’s the character that reveals the reason for the the entire plot line. The other main character (Declan) is verbally abusive and too offensive for me to really get on board with the shift from enemy to love interest – unless I purposefully forgot the first half of the movie.
Which I managed to do. Thereby making my 6 bucks worth my time last night.
Where will we be in ten years?
It’s an interesting question to pose at the beginning of 2010. Ten years ago, most of us were still getting used to the idea of MP3 players and cell phones. Now they are ubiquitous and far smaller, faster, cheaper, and nicer than the clunky 2000 models. Movies were just entering their current Fantasy genre craze, and politics were just about as they always were.
Ten years out I see wearable computers becoming the norm that fully access the web, the phone, and any other information that is just about anywhere. The best models will have screens built into sunglasses that can be controlled by eye movements. Movies will be in the middle of a sci-fi genre resurgence. And politics will still be just about as they always were.
Well, you learn something new everyday. Today, it was that George Lucas and the entire LucasFilm behemoth actually owns the word “droid”. Huh. Very interesting. I suppose he owns the copyright on terms like “Jedi” and “Hoth” too. Geez. Speaking of George Lucas though: Do you think that he’ll ever get around to directing another movie. Not just another Star Wars movie or TV show or whatever, but an actual other movie. I don’t think he will. He’s got more money than most small nations, has shown no interest in doing so in decades, and has been involved with some critically panned movies over the past couple of decades. If only he could be forced to start with something original and care enough to tell a good story. If only most people in Hollywood could.
I really can’t believe how many people are praising the merits of Avatar. As I said in my previous review of the movie, I think that it is pretty much terrible. I am in the strange position of still encouraging people to see it because it looks so good, but it is a terrible story. It’s an uninteresting story that we have all seen or heard many times before.
The thing I find amazing is that people are calling Avatar a ‘good’ movie. I think the phrase that you’re looking for is a bad movie with great special effects. Or maybe, a boring movie with amazing special effects.
The world makes its money with expansions. Buy a car, fine. You can get out the door without it hurting too much if you know how much you should really be paying. But they get you with the expansions. All the little features that add on to the bill. Video game systems have come down in price recently, but you don’t get the full set that you used to. Used to be that the Nintendo came with 2 controllers, a gun, 2 games, and everything else that you needed. Now the systems only come with 1 of the 4 controllers that you need, no gun, and usually, no game. Even board games are released with only a portion of the game before the expansion gives you full access to the entire board game. And what are movie sequels, prequels, reboots, etc., but expansions.
Expansions, they’ll get ya. That’s right Blondie. Get ya, get ya, get ya. One way or another.
I saw Sherlock Holmes last night and liked it. (I liked the Iron Man preview even better but who wouldn’t?) Jude Law did a good job for his part even though I never pictured him as the Watson type and Robert Downey Jr looked his usual crazed self which worked well for the role of Sherlock. It is possible that I’m too interested in Harry Potter but everytime they talked about Lord Blackwood I thought they were going to say Lord Voldemort. He even looked a bit like Voldemort with his smooth face and slicked back hair.
The pace of the movie is quick and sometimes that makes it hard to follow but Holmes almost always explains what he was doing (or is about to do) at a more reasonable pace so if you see the movie try to accept the fast pace as a cinematic delight instead of an annoyance — you won’t be lost for long.
You can see on imdb.com that there is an ‘Untitled Sherlock Holmes Sequel’ in the works so you won’t be surprised that the ending of this movie is a set up for that.
I’d recommend this movie if you like Sherlock Holmes, mysteries or any of the actors as they all do good jobs.