Tag Archives: Film

Review: Man of Steel

Posted on by
23

(This was movie #1 of my 4 movie marathon day.)

The superhero movie as we know it was born in 1978 with Superman, starring Christopher Reeve.  The posters claimed “You’ll believe a man can fly” and we were given a movie that seems very dated by today’s standards.  Reeve, clad in spandex, soared on wires in front of a blue screen in many ways seems silly to modern audiences.  Clark Kent was the squeaky-clean all-American, still standing up for “truth, justice and the American way” 40 years after his introduction in the comics.  It was undeniably goofy, but timeless in a way.  It gave us a modern yet dated world, where reporters dressed like they were in the 1930s yet boarded helicopters from the roof of the Daily Planet.

Of course, superhero films have gone through many incarnations since then. Continue reading →

Friday Favorites: Favorite Scene – The Birdcage

Posted on by
3

Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.

The Birdcage is, for my money, a perfect movie.  I’ve seen it dozens of times and it has lost none of its wit, heart or humor.  I watch it fairly often on DVD, and I can’t pass it over when I see it on TV (truly, the sign of a great movie).  I could easily pick half a dozen scenes and lines as favorites (John Wayne, “It’s ASPIRIN with the A and the S scraped off,” the soup bowls, “Why you gotta be such a bitch to everybody?”), but for me there’s no scene better or more representative of The Birdcage than this one:

Continue reading →

Movie Marathon Planning

Posted on by
11

Movie Marathon Planning Schedule

Last year for my birthday I had a movie marathon.  I saw Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Brave and The Avengers in the theater in one day.  Yes I paid for a ticket for every film.  I decided to do it partially because it just seemed like a fun idea, but also because I wanted to break my previous record of 3 films in a day in the theater.  I picked the day in advance, knowing which films would be available for viewing and waited for the showtimes to be posted.  It all worked out, I was able to schedule everything in what I anticipated to be an ascending level of quality (I had already seen The Avengers by this point).  Everything went smoothly and I had a great time and some friends even joined me for Brave.

So, naturally, I decided to repeat the event this year, making it an annual birthday tradition.  I decided on having it this Saturday at the newly refurbished theater that is the closest to my house (a different theater than the one I went to last year).  I chose a range of movies that would give me a variety of styles and hopefully a good scattering of showtimes.   Continue reading →

Trailer Tuesday: In a World…

Posted on by
2

Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies, since I’ve always found them to be endlessly fascinating.

In my opinion, there aren’t enough women in Hollywood who are creating movies.  Sure, there are the Tina Fey’s and Amy Poehler’s and Kristen Wiig’s who write their own material, but it’s not nearly enough.  Enter Lake Bell, and In a World…  Take a look:

In a World… premiered at Sundance and received positive reviews.  The trailer has the quirky style you expect from an indie comedy.  As the main character’s father says, “I just love that, it’s so random.”  Lake Bell wrote, directed, produced and starred in the film as Carol, the daughter of a famous trailer voiceover performer (think Don LaFontaine), who wants to follow in her father’s footsteps, despite it being a male dominated industry. Continue reading →

Not Exactly a Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

Posted on by
5

Much as was the case with The Cabin in the Woods, I missed The Amazing Spider-Man when it was released in theaters last year.  There are a bunch of possible reasons for this, but the most obvious was that it just felt too soon to reboot the Spider-Man story.  Sam Raimi’s trilogy had only ended 5 years ago, and the first movie was only 5 years before that, and I just felt that if they weren’t continuing the story that they’d be better off leaving Spider-Man alone for a while.  However, over the weekend I watched it (thanks to a free weekend of HBO) and I generally enjoyed it.  While it’s too far removed from the film’s release to give it a full review (though I’d generally give it a B+), I thought I’d do another “Not Exactly a Review” filled with my disorganized thoughts.

I’ve always believed that films should be appreciated on their own merits, and that it’s unfair to judge a film either positively based on the reflected glow of other films (The Dark Knight Rises benefitting from the praise for The Dark Knight) or negatively simply because it is being compared to something universally loved.  However, it is fair, and in this case unavoidable, to compare this film with the Raimi trilogy, given the close time frame and wide appeal of the previous films.  The Amazing Spider-Man tries to blaze its own trail, succeeding in some ways and failing in others. Continue reading →

Friday Favorites: Favorite Scene – Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

Posted on by
4

Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.

Today’s Friday Favorite, from the final film of the trilogy, is one that I actually spent a long time discussing in part 1 of my Pirates of the Caribbean analysis.  As the final battle approaches, Elizabeth, Barbossa and Jack head to parley with Beckett and Davy Jones (with Will alongside, having lead the East India Company fleet to Shipwreck Cove).  Watch the scene below (in two parts, of varying quality, sorry) and then read on for my analysis: Continue reading →

Not Exactly a Review: The Cabin in the Woods

Posted on by
7

It seems a bit silly for me to review a film that came out over a year ago, just because I finally got around to watching it.  So instead of a traditional review, I’m instead going to offer up some disorganized thoughts about The Cabin in the Woods.  (For the record, I give the film an A.)  I didn’t see it in the theaters mostly because we generally don’t go see horror films, both out of personal taste and a general lack of quality.  I’ve never been one for the sort of “jump out and get you” scares, but prefer more cerebral horror.  Give me Hitchcock or The Exorcist over Saw any day.  (We also don’t see a lot of comedy in the theater, but that’s a story for another time.)

Obviously I should have known better, considering the script was by Joss Whedon and one of his frequent collaborators, but the trailers didn’t help the situation.  They presented it as a standard “cabin in the woods” type thriller with a sci-fi/conspiracy twist.  That sort of thing has been done before.  So after it was released I read the plot on wikipedia and it seemed more creative than I had originally supposed, but still not enough to get me to go see it.  However, I recently read the script online out of curiosity which changed my mind, and I finally rented The Cabin in the Woods.  Here are my thoughts: Continue reading →

Friday Favorites: Favorite Moment – High School Musical

Posted on by
2

Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.

High School Musical is the sort of film that feels like it was made just for me.  I’m sure everyone has a couple of those, that feel like the opening credits should contain the words “This one’s for you!”  When I first saw it I was living alone in California, and at the time I watched a lot of the Disney Channel.  I would always catch pieces of it, previews for it, or song clips from it, but it was almost a year after it premiered before I finally caught it in its entirety, and I was immediately sucked in.  (I went out the next day, bought the DVD, and watched it two more times that night.)

It was the opening song that caught my attention, but what cemented the movie in my brain was the character of Kelsi. Continue reading →

Why I (Probably) Won’t See After Earth

Posted on by
1

After Earth seemingly has a lot of things going for it that would get me to buy a ticket.  I love science fiction, in particular post-apocalyptic stories (which is why I continued watching Revolution, despite the downturn in quality).  I’m a big fan of Will Smith; I had a poster of him from Independence Day on my wall when I was young, I still think Men in Black is one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen, and his performance in Ali is spectacular.  I’m also a big M. Night Shyamalan fan, even enjoying Lady in the Water and The Village.  And while I was more enthusiastic about Oblivion than I was about After Earth, I still planned on seeing both.

At this point, though, I think it’s safe to say that I no longer have any enthusiasm to see it.  That’s not to say that I won’t.   Continue reading →

Trailer Tuesday: Much Ado About Nothing

Posted on by
Reply

Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies, since I’ve always found them to be endlessly fascinating.

When Joss Whedon announced that he had secretly filmed an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing with his acting troupe at his house as part of a stay-at-home vacation, I freaked out.  I wasn’t alone in this either.  The idea of Whedon doing Shakespeare is perfectly brilliant.  We should have all known it was bound to happen, considering the references to the Bard in his shows and films (“We few, we happy few…” “We band of buggered.”).  Take a look at the trailer and read on for my thoughts:

Continue reading →