1. Very not bad. Lots to like.
2. Not perfect. Lots of stuff to make you go "huh?"
3. Well paced, doesn't let up.
4. Nice mix of character and action beats.
5. For the most part, the cast works well.
6. Zoe Saldana is gorgeous.
7. I was eventually won over by Christopher Pine, but did enjoy watching him get punched in the face. Over. And over. And over.
8. Karl Urban essays McCoy flawlessly.
9. Zoe Saldana is gorgeous. Really. Not kidding.
10. Simon Pegg doesn't work as Scotty, but doesn't ruin it.
11. Eric Bana is game, but doesn't get a lot of space to breathe as villain.
12. Uh, black holes don't do that.
13. Pike is awesome.
14. Zoe Saldana is gorgeous. Seriously.
15. Syler/Spock is doubleplus excellent.
16. This movie is NOT for Trekkies/Trekkers -- though it makes it palatable enough for us. It's for people who aren't diehard fans, and it delivers a compelling experience for them, that those of us who think that tiny little scoutship years before the construction of Enterprise wouldn't be carrying 800 people won't mind. Yes, I AM that nerd, thank you.
17. Definitely worth a watch, and certainly not an insult to intelligence and assault on goodwill (like Wolverine, or worse offenders like the Star Wars prequels, Spider-Man 3, or the Matrix sequels).

Originally posted on erictrautmann.vox.com

100 Movies Meme

1. Watch 100 movies or more in 2009.
2. Keep track of how many I watch and write a little something about each one.
3. First time movies only. It doesn't count if I've seen it before.
4. If you want to recommend any movies to me, please do! Old movies, new movies, good movies, bad movies.

Still way off my pace from last year; I've spent more time watching TV series on DVD lately.


14. Stephen King's The Shining. Not the Kubrick version, but the King-scripted TV miniseries starring Rebecca DeMornay and Steven Weber. The five- or six-hour length doesn't help it much, though for TV it's reasonably well done. Some inexplicable new scenes added, and others deleted. Much more literal than the Kubrick version -- and in fact, more literal than the book as well. I thought Weber's casting as Jack would work better than it did, and it was clear that the real "actor" in the film was DeMornay, who ran rings around everyone else in the cast (despite her being fundamentally miscast as Wendy). Builds too slowly to fill the miniseries length, but the last act is pretty good.

15. Fantastic 4. Hadn't bothered to see it when it came out, and it was marginally less stupid than I thought it would be. Doctor Doom was AWFUL, as was the Thing makeup. Some moments were pretty cool, though, especially the first time Johnny manages to fly. "Don't even think about it." "I never do." Cute.

16. Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Better. Not great, but better. I still think Julian McMahon makes a terrible Victor Von Doom, but the character dynamic is pretty good, especially between Reed and Sue. Special effects are better, as well, and the Thing costume is considerably better (though with modern CGI, a Thing that doesn't look like foam rubber seems like a better option). The Surfer looks magnificent throughout, of course. Deeply silly but inoffensively so.

17. The Aviator. I'm not generally a fan of Leonardo Di Caprio, though his more recent works -- The Departed, Blood Diamond,, Gangs of New York -- are infinitely better than his "teen heartthrob" nonsense. The Aviator is a surprisingly vast film, covering a lot of time, and a lot of larger-than-life scenarios. At it's best, the film really soars -- specifically in the moments where we see Howard Hughes in the air. The attempts to depict Howard Hughes' obsessive-compulsive disorder fall rather spectacularly flat, unfortunately, but overall a grand, epic biopic, beautifully staged and shot. Very good.

18. Gangs of New York. Possibly my least favorite Scorsese film. Meandering, self-indulgent, shot rather strangely. Interesting cast turning in interesting performances, in service to an over-obvious and at once over-sentimentalized yet relentless grimy and grim tale. The contemporary feel to the soundtrack kicked me right out, as well. Daniel Day Lewis is, as always, riveting to watch, but something about the whole exercise is labored and pedantic, two words I never thought I'd say about a Scorsese picture.

19. Solaris. Surprisingly sedate film, very measured in its pacing, and a bit of a surprise for me in regards to George Clooney. Very somber science fiction, but with quite subtle and lush visuals.

20. The Blues Brothers. I'm embarrassed to admit I'd never seen this, save for the odd scene or two on TV. I was never a huge Belushi fan (another sacrilege), and after the couple of Blues Brothers appearances I'd seen on SNL, I tend to think of them as the Rhythm & Blues Brothers. The film is occasionally amusing, the music is decent, and is clearly intentionally kind of brain-dead. I have a bit more appreciation of Belushi these days, but overall I thought it was kind of, well, enh.

21. Deep Impact. Kind of interesting in a "the world is ending" / On The Beach way. Pretty, generally well-acted, and the science was certainly less objectionable than the appalling Armageddon, which soundly trounced Deep Impact in the box office. Not bad background movie to play while doing dishes. :)

22. Gran Torino. Reportedly Clint Eastwood's last starring role, and pretty much what you'd expect: Dirty Harry, retired, yelling at the pesky neighbor kids to get off his lawn. While brandishing a big goddamn gun. Smart, well-acted, and typical of Eastwood's late-period oeuvre. The Asian cast, a Hmong family that has moved next door to former soldier/unrepentant bigot ("I used to stack f---s like you five feet high in Korea, used 'em as sandbags.") and recent widower Walt Kowalsky, is stellar. A couple of minor plot complications dilute a powerful ending unnecessarily, but overall, a fine swan song to Clint's acting career.

---

( (Older entries below cut) )

Gakked from Brannon...

[Edit: Bumped to include new content]

100 Movies Meme

1. Watch 100 movies or more in 2008.
2. Keep track of how many I watch and write a little something about each one.
3. First time movies only. It doesn't count if I've seen it before.
4. If you want to recommend any movies to me, please do! Old movies, new movies, good movies, bad movies.

Update 15

HA! Made it!

I'm positive there's a half-dozen or so films I watched this year that I forgot to include. Anyway:

95. Internal Affairs. Purchased for five bucks as part of a 3-pack containing Serpico and Narc. Kind of dated, but not a bad police/corruption procedural.

96. Narc. Seriously grimy, relentlessly bleak cop film. Any movie that starts with a strung out, drug addicted cop shooting a suspect and accidentally killing a bystander's unborn child? Not a comedy.

97. Guess Who. Watched this a few weeks back with my wife. The continuing careers of Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher continues to mystify. Completely unnecessary remake, and completely unfunny.

98. Last Holiday. Another one I watched with Gab. I like Queen Latifah's screen presence, but I'm rarely a fan of her films. This is probably the funniest one I've seen; an inoffensive, genial little flick.

99. King of California. Another one I forgot to list a while back; Michael Douglas playing a burned out, borderline crazy freak, dragging his teenage daughter on a quest for missing gold. Interesting film, with a really bleak ending. Similar indie film to Smart People. Seems like a lot of indie directors are trying to do the whole Royal Tennenbaums thing, with none of the charm and half the wit.

100. Lord of War. Not what I expected. Marketed as a dark comedy, this one is actually just pretty dark. Also? Jared Leto has really weird eyes. Not as weird as Nic Cage's hair, but still.

( Read more... )

Oh. My. GOD.

It's an actual SEQUEL. Like, it actually references Casino Royale.

Like an ongoing narrative.

Like the books did.

Holy. Crap.

SO AWESOME.

Link to trailer here on 007.com. (Requires a pretty hefty Flash player update, though.)

...please don't let Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull suck as bad as I fear it will.

Please?

I admit it. I can be really picky about geek-film. My ONLY hope, and my well-managed expectation, is that -- fates be willing and the creek don't rise -- Spielberg and Lucas won't concoct a film so awful that they diminish my enjoyment of the prior movies. (Exhibit a: Episode II: Onslaught of STUPID.)

PLEASE.

Begging here.

I want to love it, I want to love it sooooo bad.

Update. Oh, man.

So, it met my diminished expectations, in that I fondly recall Raiders, but no, not good. It is simultaneously silly and in many spots, actually boring.

Also? I wish to punch Shia LaBoeuf in the junk. Repeatedly. Hate. Epic hate.

Just a heads-up: tomorrow is the best day of the year. A day in which, in participating comic stores (including, naturally, Olympic Cards & Comics, at it's new location of 4230 Pacific Avenue, Lacey, WA 98503) hand to you free comic books just for walking in the door.

We're open from 10 am 'til midnight, and there's free comics to be given away (including a pretty good Hellboy issue), door prizes, and some special guests.

Joining us at noon-12:30 for guests Greg Rucka, Jen Van Meter, and Brandon Jerwa; I'll be scrawling illegibly on Checkmate issues, as well.


---

In other news: midnight showing of Iron Man last night.

Eric's capsule review: Superb. Possibly the best comic book movie I've seen. Captures the spirit of the comics quite effectively, great SFX, good supporting cast, I even liked Gwyneth Paltrow, which I could not have predicted.

Stay through the credits to the very end, by the way.

Gakked from Brannon...

[Edit: Bumped to include new content]

100 Movies Meme

1. Watch 100 movies or more in 2008.
2. Keep track of how many I watch and write a little something about each one.
3. First time movies only. It doesn't count if I've seen it before.
4. If you want to recommend any movies to me, please do! Old movies, new movies, good movies, bad movies.

Update 6

42. Fear. Early vehicle for Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon. Not a bad film per se; it's conventional in the extreme, and not exactly Oscar material, but it's reasonably entertaining and stylishly directed. Supporting performances by Alyssa Milano, William Petersen, and Amy Brenneman elevate the production. Worth the four bucks I paid for it.

43. Iron Man. Stellar popcorn action flick. Smart performances, a strong script, great special effects. This ranks up there with The Rocketeer as “best comic book film adaptation EVAR.”

44. The Public Enemy. Watched as part of a boxed set of Warner Bros. gangster pictures—classic crime film. I particularly enjoy how, for films like this, Warner Bros. includes a “Night at the Movies” feature—an introduction by Leonard Maltin, newsreels, trailers for films of the period, animated shorts, comedy shorts, plus a stellar print of the original film. I swear, someone could make a serious living running a theater that does modern iterations of this kind of thing.

45. White Heat. More gangster movie fun, with the tour de force, definitive Jimmy Cagney performance. I've never paid much attention to Cagney before, mostly because of the amount of parody he's been the target of. His Cody Jarrett is a terrifying psychopath, and the weird dynamic between Cody and Ma Jarrett makes for a surprisingly sophisticated film, well ahead of its time.

46. Angels With Dirty Faces. Not as wild about this one—it seemed to flit back and forth between comedy, romance, and gangster noir, and seems to be forced in all of them. That said, the Cagney performance is fabulous—his Rocky Sullivan is incredibly likable, at least until his final reel shootout with the police. Not as good as Public Enemy or White Heat, but watchable. The opening sequence in particular, with young Rocky living in a claustrophobic tenement neighborhood, is very effective.

47. Juno. Didn't like it. Subject matter left me pretty raw, frankly.

48. We Are Marshall. By-the-numbers sports flick. Nothing spectacular, nothing awful.

49. Charlie Wilson's War. Surprisingly entertaining; great performances by Hanks, who masters a sort of crinkly likability, and the always excellent Philip Seymour Hoffman, who's sort of a human incarnation of a hurricane (with profanity and rage as it's “calm” eye). Worth a look; not a terrific film, but watchable and generally pretty smart.

50. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Fun adaptation, but suffers from the same problem as the Potter films: there's nothing the films can do that I didn't do better in my head when I read the book. Well made and entertaining, and worth a look.

51. Hitman. Okay, so, I'm freakin' obsessed with the HITMAN videogame franchise. The games are generally mediocre at best, but there's something very compelling about the visual of Number 47, the titular hitman. So, on a whim, I rented the flick and was surprised that it's not a bad film. It's also not a GOOD film, but it's entertaining in the same way as THE BEASTMASTER was, i.e. BEST MOVIE EVAR when you're ten years old. Hitman does some goofy stuff, but eschews dumb bullet cam CGI and wire-fu for a moody and well-conceived visual style, good use of some of the visual design for the game's signature mechanics, some fairly smart gun battles, and pretty decent casting. Timothy Olyphant, in particular, works pretty well as 47. (Also, note to filmmakers: INTERPOL does not do what you think it does. It's not nearly as sexy, guys. Really. Knock it off.)


Older entries below the cut.

( Read more... )

Gakked from Brannon...

[Edit: Bumped to include new content]

100 Movies Meme

1. Watch 100 movies or more in 2008.
2. Keep track of how many I watch and write a little something about each one.
3. First time movies only. It doesn't count if I've seen it before.
4. If you want to recommend any movies to me, please do! Old movies, new movies, good movies, bad movies.



Update 4


25. Perfect Stranger. Also selected as a candidate for "bad movie night." Massive piece of crap, so, an appropriate choice. But still. Jesus.

26. Art School Confidential. Very funny, very scathing, well acted, well scripted. I'm not the world's biggest Dan Clowes fan (case in point, Ghost World, which I hatehatehate), but the Clowes script here is fantastic. Painful and hilarious.

27. Why We Fight. Documentary on American military build up and "empire expansion" in the post Eisenhower period, with emphasis on the current Iraq conflict. Not bad; clearly a polemic of sorts, and overlooks Afghanistan, but gripping.

28. The Hunting of the President. A less well-made documentary, focusing on the "Right Wing Conspiracy" to topple President Clinton. More interesting are the extra scenes of Clinton himself addressing an audience at a screening of the film.

29. Grindhouse presents Death Proof Hm. Violent, misogynist, and paced in a rather stately way, but I actually found myself enjoying it. Most people who recommended Grindhouse to me indicated that Planet Terror was the winner of the two films, citing Death Proof's slower pace. Haven't seen PT yet, but I really enjoyed the way Death Proof builds; it's also fascinating to me how Tarantino can so completely recreate the look of bad '70s cinema. Plus, fast cars and smoking hot women. So, there's that.

30. The Number 23 scores a zero. What started as an interesting, almost Lovecraftian concept has a muddled, cop-out ending. Jim Carrey is annoying in the lead role, though his dual role in the film as the lead character of the book that is driving its reader insane is actually the better of the two.

Older entries below the cut.

( Read more... )

Ed Zwick's next film, Defiance, seems quite interesting.

And I'm starting to reaaaaaaaally like Daniel Craig, having just re-watched The Road to Perdition yesterday. He is excellent. Almost makes up for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

Between that, Lone Star (which I found at Fred Meyer, of all places, for, like 5 bucks) and Blade Runner: The Final Cut, it's been a good month of rediscovering movies I'd forgotten I love.

1. Possibly the most violent film of Stallone's career, and the one that glamorizes violence the least. Surprisingly effective, and surprisingly less "comic book superhero commando" than the other Rambo sequels. Ugly, ugly movie, but thoroughly engrossing in many parts. Actually, if you remove II and III from the equation, this one makes an almost note-perfect sequel to the original First Blood, which remains a long-time guilty pleasure film for me.

2. Dear Doug Liman: thank you for making sure that every action movie for the next ten years will feature "shaky cam." Jerk.

3. If the film is intended to show that war has ugly consequences, which I suspect was the intent, then perhaps having the main character find redemption by killing everything he sees is, er, suboptimal.

4. Holy crap. A supporting cast.

A guarded thumbs-up, but certainly not for everyone. Even *I* was squicked out by the graphic violence. But I'd take this any day over killporn like Saw or Hostel.

The red-band trailer for Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem actually looks promising; still think that the AvP films would be better off as straight science fiction, though. More Colonial Marines, says I.

(R-rated trailer)

Not sure if this is just a fanboy effort, or the start of a marketing effort for Zack Snyder's alleged "Watchmen" adaptation.

The Veidt Method.

If it's the latter, than it is the weakest such effort I've seen.

Edit: And, as usual, Warren Ellis noticed it before I saw it. Sigh.

Edit the second: A WhoIs lookup shows that the primary site registrant contacts work for an outfit called Type40 Internet Marketing & Promotions.  The Type40 site is crappy flash and no content, so I'm definitely thinking it's a Hollywood thing.

Edit the last: Source references in this site, and a "Rorshach's Journal" site (that's really quite lame, and I'm not linking it here, are from the Lord of the Rings fansite theonering.net; some digging around reveals that it's just fanboys, apparently trying to land a gig doing the viral marketing for the "Watchmen" film. Good luck, guys.

As I finished up Checkmate #17 (available in August from fine, fine comics retailers near you!), I decompressed with a video rental binge, which I haven't done in quite a while. (I also tend to have a movie or TV show playing in the background when I'm writing page and panel descriptions.)

So, in the absence of anything meaningful or interesting to say, I shall fall back on the tried-and-true LiveJournal method: blather about movies.

I rarely swear in my 'blog (since Mom reads it occasionally), but I ran across the following today, and the only suitable response is "What. The. Fuck?"

John Rambo, the latest installment in Stallone's quest to regain some kind of box office legitimacy, is "attacking soon." And Aint-it-Cool got 3+ minutes of uncensored, insanely violent footage.

Not kid safe, obviously.

After Rocky Balboa, which was oddly watchable (though I watched it immediately after Spider-Man 3, so it would have to be apocalyptically bad to even register as a bad film), I am actually -- and I can't believe I'm typing this -- kinda curious to see how this film turns out.

It's got to be awful. Doesn't it?

And, with Rocky and Rambo getting a new lease on life, can't we all see the new adventures of that unsung, hard-as-nails cop, Marion Cobretti?

(And why the hell isn't there a Red Dawn remake in the works? Why? Why?!!!)

Dear God, please make this stop, already.

It's interesting. Lucas created a trilogy that inspired me as a youngster, then created another trilogy so unutterably awful it sucked all the fun out of the original movies. Can this actually drain what tiny shreds of amusement I derived from the prequels?

Signs point to yes.

Honest.

Funny link here to The 10 Things We Learned From Spider-Man 3.

Best one has to be "If you want to kill someone real bad, then go to church and pray and maybe, if you’re lucky, God will provide you with an alien suit made of pure evil."

Heh.

I do.

Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent? Hell yeah.

In a recent appearance, a noted film director had the following to say about Spider-Man 3:

"It's silly. It's a silly movie," he said. "There just isn't much there. Once you take it all apart, there's not much story, is there?"

The director is George Lucas.

The man who gave us Ewoks says SM3 is silly. And the best part? He's right.

And, let's face it, the man knows hackwork when he sees it break box office records.

Spider-Man 3?

SUCKITY SUCK SUCK SUCK