Am trying to slip some movie-watching into the last few days of the year, finally see some of the flicks I'd heard so much about, weigh them on their own merits. Spoilers below, I guess, but these films have been out long enough that I'd have to think if you had a strong interest in their revelations, you've seen them already. Anyway. ( This time out: Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, Wanted, Cloverfield )
In case you were interested and somehow missed 'em, Quantum & Woody of Solace brings us a trinity of theatrical trailers: Watchmen, Half-Blüd Prince, and Star Trek.
We've done this two or three times now, be it us at work in Topeka or on various fora frequented by m'self and
rewil, but since
ravenskye8 reminded me....
It's the old game of mashing movie titles together:
ravenskye8 contributes An Inconvenient Truth About Cats and Dogs, The Empire Strikes Back to the Future, Children of a Lesser Godzilla and The Muppets Take the Manhattan Project ("I have become Beaker, destroyer of worlds....").
Now I'm not even going to try to come up with any new ones; I'm migraine-y and exhausted, so I leave that up to y'all. I just dug the old database out of the archives so I could toss up the few we had oh those many years ago. Though I still don't know that we can improve on D.C. Cabaret or Children of a Lesser Godzilla. ( Pity the fool. )
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It's the old game of mashing movie titles together:
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Now I'm not even going to try to come up with any new ones; I'm migraine-y and exhausted, so I leave that up to y'all. I just dug the old database out of the archives so I could toss up the few we had oh those many years ago. Though I still don't know that we can improve on D.C. Cabaret or Children of a Lesser Godzilla. ( Pity the fool. )
Here's a hint for theater owners: if you're going to transition your movie marquee from Hancock to The Dark Knight, might I suggest you expedite the process lest you be caught between titles? (I guess we should be thankful Iron Man was already out of theaters.)
Since I'm the last human being (well, last comic book reader, at any rate) to see The Dark Knight, I won't bother with a proper review. Which is good, because my mind's pretty much shattered anyway. So some quick and random observations: ( blah blah blah )
A detailed analysis of the Watchmen trailer, with a few details I missed. De-spoilered and accessible for those who haven't read it.
I confess I'm breaking down and finally going to see The Dark Kniggit in great part because I want to see this on the big screen.
I confess I'm breaking down and finally going to see The Dark Kniggit in great part because I want to see this on the big screen.
Great article from "Rope of Silicon" (of which I've never heard) on just how faithful -- at the risk of Hollywood accessibility [read: lowest common denominator] -- the Watchmen adaptation will be. Some low-yield spoilers (actually, if you haven't read the book, this is a good place to get an idea of the texture of the piece -- it's all backstory that gets revealed), but a very encouraging quote from Jeffrey Dean Morgan:
"The arcs The Comedian goes through are substantial to where his very being is questioned and he questions himself," he said. "At first glance you think you are playing this bastard, just a mean son-of-a-bitch but the more I looked at the layers to this guy… How do you read a book about a guy that does the things he does and yet you sympathize with him? How the hell does that happen? I found that fascinating."
Just in terms of simple acting, I'm intrigued, already finding myself drawn back into a narrative which left me devastated when I read in oh-so-many years ago....
"The arcs The Comedian goes through are substantial to where his very being is questioned and he questions himself," he said. "At first glance you think you are playing this bastard, just a mean son-of-a-bitch but the more I looked at the layers to this guy… How do you read a book about a guy that does the things he does and yet you sympathize with him? How the hell does that happen? I found that fascinating."
Just in terms of simple acting, I'm intrigued, already finding myself drawn back into a narrative which left me devastated when I read in oh-so-many years ago....
All right, f-list, I realized after reading a certain review that I absolutely have to see The Dark Knight. (For the Tiny Lister scene, specifically.) But I need to know how soon to see it. Is this a skip-work thing, a drop-everything-and-go thing, a maybe-when-the-crowds-clear thing? I need to know. I've read many reviews and quick reactions (many of which were simply "I can't form coherent thoughts right now," which is kinda encouraging), and I'd like it filtered through people I understand. And for lack of such, I ask you, the friends-list (ba-dum-ching).
After thumbing through some more reviews (especially some of the expectations and assumptions of the negatives) and spoilers, I'm no longer considering The Dark Knight an outside possibility for Oscars.
No, I don't think that possibility is outside anymore. I think that Ledger's work will be good enough to insure him the nomination, and the combination of that work and the sentimentality of the Academy will win it for him. Though I'm still hearing good stuff about Revolutionary Road and it has the sheen of your typical late-season Oscar runner, I don't see Ledger not winning. And if the film holds together half as well as the (admittedly bordering-on-hyperbole) reviews indicated, don't see any reason this film stops at one win.
No, I don't think that possibility is outside anymore. I think that Ledger's work will be good enough to insure him the nomination, and the combination of that work and the sentimentality of the Academy will win it for him. Though I'm still hearing good stuff about Revolutionary Road and it has the sheen of your typical late-season Oscar runner, I don't see Ledger not winning. And if the film holds together half as well as the (admittedly bordering-on-hyperbole) reviews indicated, don't see any reason this film stops at one win.
I skipped Batman Begins in the theater, but did catch it on DVD and enjoyed it muchly. I admit The Dark Knight won a small part of my soul just on the ostentatious nature of the title -- how are people going to know it's about Batman? I heard the boardroom suits say. But I had reason to hope given the caliber of the new performers and the style of Christopher Nolan's first shot at the genre. And then 2008 rolled around, Heath Ledger dies, and I expect the typical pity-vote heart-tug for an actor who certainly had more Oscar-worthy days ahead of him, but I didn't think it possible based on a (sniff) comic book film.
And then came this priceless gem in an early review of TDK:
Nolan dispenses with the stylized Gothic sets we're accustomed to in the series: he makes no attempt to hide the fact that Gotham City is modern Chicago. Gone, too, is the antic sense of humor that Tim Burton brought to the show. There's not a touch of lightness in Bale's taut, angst-ridden superhero, and as the two-and-a-half-hour movie enters its second half, the unvarying intensity and the sometimes confusing action sequences take a toll. You may emerge more exhausted than elated. Nolan wants to prove that a superhero movie needn't be disposable, effects-ridden junk food, and you have to admire his ambition. But this is Batman, not "Hamlet." Call me shallow, but I wish it were a little more fun.
Oh for fuck's sake, David Ansen. Why not clamor and whine for Adam West while you're at it?
It's one strong flavor of dumb to lament the passing of a style of film that was gone in the film's antecedent a few years ago. It's entirely another equally robust tang to decry a film for what it's not and not attempting to be. We might as well harangue Iron Man for not having enough song and dance numbers or The Piano for not enough stagecoach chases. And then there's the added dimension of just being wrong. I can't call you shallow, Dave. Maybe you would rather watch The Love Guru? I am to understand there are many jokes about small people, and how they are not tall.
There are enough reviewers capable of studying and evaluating a film's merits based on its aspirations and its content. Ansen apparently wants to see a different movie.
And yet -- despite the massive amount of fail in that review for criticizing (let me pause for effect here) a Christopher Nolan film for not being as wacky as a Tim Burton film (*shakes head slowly*) -- I still wasn't prepared to get excited for TDK. I know early impressions from insiders have been positively glowing, and it's the cinematic event of the summer, but we've seen these stars burn out before their time (remember 1999? Wild Wild West? Of course you do; we went to see South Park instead and I thank God for that every single night of my life), anticipation to be so incandescent that the real event is somewhat less attractive. I was sure the genuine snooty guardians of genuine culture that toil for our corporate media overlords would be sure to eviscerate the film when it....
Oh, no.
The London Daily Mirror claimed today (Tuesday) that it was publishing the first major newspaper review of the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight. It's a rave. Critic David Edwards remarks that Heath Ledger is "a dead cert" to win the Oscar for his portrayal of The Joker. Edwards says that the late actor "is the brilliant heart of a superhero movie that's like nothing you've ever seen before. ... the finest superhero movie in years." In the U.S., Time Inc.'s Entertainment Weekly is out with a review by Owen Gleiberman that also extols Ledger's performance. "In this, the last performance he completed before his death, Ledger had a maniacal gusto inspired enough to suggest that he might have lived to be as audacious an actor as Marlon Brando, and maybe as great," he writes. Likewise Richard Corliss in Time magazine calls Ledger's performance "magnificent." His Joker, says Corliss, "is simply one of the most twisted and mesmerizing creeps in movie history." In his review for the Associated Press, Christy Lemire writes that The Dark Knight is "an epic that will leave you staggering from the theater, stunned by its scope and complexity." And Peter Travers concludes in Rolling Stone: "The haunting and visionary Dark Knight soars on the wings of untamed imagination."
Okay, but I'm not going opening night. You can't make me.
And then came this priceless gem in an early review of TDK:
Nolan dispenses with the stylized Gothic sets we're accustomed to in the series: he makes no attempt to hide the fact that Gotham City is modern Chicago. Gone, too, is the antic sense of humor that Tim Burton brought to the show. There's not a touch of lightness in Bale's taut, angst-ridden superhero, and as the two-and-a-half-hour movie enters its second half, the unvarying intensity and the sometimes confusing action sequences take a toll. You may emerge more exhausted than elated. Nolan wants to prove that a superhero movie needn't be disposable, effects-ridden junk food, and you have to admire his ambition. But this is Batman, not "Hamlet." Call me shallow, but I wish it were a little more fun.
Oh for fuck's sake, David Ansen. Why not clamor and whine for Adam West while you're at it?
It's one strong flavor of dumb to lament the passing of a style of film that was gone in the film's antecedent a few years ago. It's entirely another equally robust tang to decry a film for what it's not and not attempting to be. We might as well harangue Iron Man for not having enough song and dance numbers or The Piano for not enough stagecoach chases. And then there's the added dimension of just being wrong. I can't call you shallow, Dave. Maybe you would rather watch The Love Guru? I am to understand there are many jokes about small people, and how they are not tall.
There are enough reviewers capable of studying and evaluating a film's merits based on its aspirations and its content. Ansen apparently wants to see a different movie.
And yet -- despite the massive amount of fail in that review for criticizing (let me pause for effect here) a Christopher Nolan film for not being as wacky as a Tim Burton film (*shakes head slowly*) -- I still wasn't prepared to get excited for TDK. I know early impressions from insiders have been positively glowing, and it's the cinematic event of the summer, but we've seen these stars burn out before their time (remember 1999? Wild Wild West? Of course you do; we went to see South Park instead and I thank God for that every single night of my life), anticipation to be so incandescent that the real event is somewhat less attractive. I was sure the genuine snooty guardians of genuine culture that toil for our corporate media overlords would be sure to eviscerate the film when it....
Oh, no.
The London Daily Mirror claimed today (Tuesday) that it was publishing the first major newspaper review of the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight. It's a rave. Critic David Edwards remarks that Heath Ledger is "a dead cert" to win the Oscar for his portrayal of The Joker. Edwards says that the late actor "is the brilliant heart of a superhero movie that's like nothing you've ever seen before. ... the finest superhero movie in years." In the U.S., Time Inc.'s Entertainment Weekly is out with a review by Owen Gleiberman that also extols Ledger's performance. "In this, the last performance he completed before his death, Ledger had a maniacal gusto inspired enough to suggest that he might have lived to be as audacious an actor as Marlon Brando, and maybe as great," he writes. Likewise Richard Corliss in Time magazine calls Ledger's performance "magnificent." His Joker, says Corliss, "is simply one of the most twisted and mesmerizing creeps in movie history." In his review for the Associated Press, Christy Lemire writes that The Dark Knight is "an epic that will leave you staggering from the theater, stunned by its scope and complexity." And Peter Travers concludes in Rolling Stone: "The haunting and visionary Dark Knight soars on the wings of untamed imagination."
Okay, but I'm not going opening night. You can't make me.
I keep hearing good things about The Incredible Hulk. Not enough for me to want to see it in theaters yet. But it looks like they're laying all their cards on the table in an effort to fill seats next weekend. Check out the latest commercial with a surprise guest star....
Pic of the Minutemen from Watchmen.
Again, my reaction is that is-it-Christmas-morning? chill of happy anticipation with the creeping realization that this really is going to happen and my God it might not suck. Hell, if it's half as good as Iron Man's adaptation -- though it's safe to say these two movies will have very little in common; Iron Man felt more like Real Genius than a comic book movie (Brass Rat sighting!)-- it's going to be a good flick.
Again, my reaction is that is-it-Christmas-morning? chill of happy anticipation with the creeping realization that this really is going to happen and my God it might not suck. Hell, if it's half as good as Iron Man's adaptation -- though it's safe to say these two movies will have very little in common; Iron Man felt more like Real Genius than a comic book movie (Brass Rat sighting!)-- it's going to be a good flick.
The newly-added hourglass charm, as the back of the Lucky Charms box tells me, has the power to stop, speed up, or reverse time. Apparently I'm doing it wrong, though, because I've consumed several of the pleasantly flavorful marshmallows and my abilities at temporal manipulation remain relatively limited. I do find myself wondering if this is tied into the Frozen Donkey Wheel on Lost at all. It'd be a hell of a product placement, though maybe not too appealing to have Ben endorse it.
In lieu of new BSG last night, rewatched Battle Royale instead. That'd make a good series. Preferably as a reality show, of course, but even as a scripted show....
In lieu of new BSG last night, rewatched Battle Royale instead. That'd make a good series. Preferably as a reality show, of course, but even as a scripted show....
Tags:
The first image of Snake-Eyes from the G.I. Joe movie, via ol' pal Larry Hama. And knowing Ray Park's going to be under that suit? Suddenly I'm actually looking forward to this.
Also, #11 seed K-State upends USC by 13 frickin' points. And finally some answers on Lost? It's not a bad Thursday.
Also, #11 seed K-State upends USC by 13 frickin' points. And finally some answers on Lost? It's not a bad Thursday.
Tags:
Sorry for the blogspam this morning, but this is too perfect not to share:
"Yeah, suck on that, Diablo Cody! You show D’Leh a hamburger phone and he’d try to eat it!"
MightyGodKing sees 10,000 B.C. Worth it for that line alone.
"Yeah, suck on that, Diablo Cody! You show D’Leh a hamburger phone and he’d try to eat it!"
MightyGodKing sees 10,000 B.C. Worth it for that line alone.
Sorry if my comments went nutty on y'all this morning; my LJ connection went wonky and some of my comments...propagated themselves an inappropriate number of times. Temporal loop.
However, there've been some character shots posted online from the upcoming Watchmen movie. ("Look! It's Jeffrey Dean Morgan! And he's not dead!") Yet.
(Edit: link to the official site: One Year to Midnight. I'm a sucker for references to the Doomsday Clock.)
The first thing that strikes me is how much Morgan's Comedian rings true, and ditto for Rorschach (well, his is a pretty simple design, but effective). The second thing that I realize is that amid everything else that's happened in the last (gulp) 23 years between the book's publication and today has been Tim Burton's Batman movies -- the influence of which you can obviously see in the Nite Owl and Ozymandias outfits (sculpted abs!). Veidt looks way young, which I'm okay with -- he does look a bit too much like Seth Green in that shot (which would've been an interesting bit of casting...), but I'm willing to cut Snyder some slack. The Eye of Horus belt buckle...I don't know how I feel about that.
Not sure about the Silk Spectre's outfit; we don't see much of it, what's there is hair. Lycra, hair, skin and fists. The shopping list of gods.
So the original drowning-in-primary-colors costumes are more or less gone, and I'm good with that. The comic managed to give the heroes plausibility that I don't think would've extended to a cinematic incarnation in the same outfits. A little reimagination is just fine here (just keep the ending). It's just a little...unnerving to see them, realizing, oh my God this is really going to happen....
However, there've been some character shots posted online from the upcoming Watchmen movie. ("Look! It's Jeffrey Dean Morgan! And he's not dead!") Yet.
(Edit: link to the official site: One Year to Midnight. I'm a sucker for references to the Doomsday Clock.)
The first thing that strikes me is how much Morgan's Comedian rings true, and ditto for Rorschach (well, his is a pretty simple design, but effective). The second thing that I realize is that amid everything else that's happened in the last (gulp) 23 years between the book's publication and today has been Tim Burton's Batman movies -- the influence of which you can obviously see in the Nite Owl and Ozymandias outfits (sculpted abs!). Veidt looks way young, which I'm okay with -- he does look a bit too much like Seth Green in that shot (which would've been an interesting bit of casting...), but I'm willing to cut Snyder some slack. The Eye of Horus belt buckle...I don't know how I feel about that.
Not sure about the Silk Spectre's outfit; we don't see much of it, what's there is hair. Lycra, hair, skin and fists. The shopping list of gods.
So the original drowning-in-primary-colors costumes are more or less gone, and I'm good with that. The comic managed to give the heroes plausibility that I don't think would've extended to a cinematic incarnation in the same outfits. A little reimagination is just fine here (just keep the ending). It's just a little...unnerving to see them, realizing, oh my God this is really going to happen....
Found while be-bopping through Wikipedia, traversing the bio of Shirley Henderson, whose most notable role is of "Moaning Myrtle" in the Harry Potter movies:
During the filming of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Henderson was the oldest actress (at age 37) to portray a Hogwarts student.
*spittake*
During the filming of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Henderson was the oldest actress (at age 37) to portray a Hogwarts student.
*spittake*
.