Movie Review: Watchmen

Used some of the comp time I racked up this weekend to see Watchmen with Mr. E. There were five other people in the theater, which has upsides and downsides: Yes, we didn't have to listen to other people talking, but I felt like I couldn't talk myself, since, well, they'd know who was talking. :D

This was the third time Mr. E saw the movie, which is an endorsement in itself. (He didn't even make it through Starship Troopers once -- he had to walk away and get a popcorn refill before he started yelling at the screen.)

I was looking forward to this, and I guess my anticipation was rewarded. I'm not completely enamored of Zach Snyder's directorial style -- that slow then fast thing gets old fast, at least for me. And while I like a fight scene as much as the next nerd-girl, I don't remember them being quite that gory in the original. Dr. Manhattan's little Manhattan wasn't as distracting as I feared it would be, and the attempted rape was judiciously handled.

I did appreciate the attention to detail, and the period touches. The movie starts with a pretty good impression of The McLaughlin Group, which I appreciated since I watched it back in the mid-80's. (Nerd, remember?) One of the reasons I wished I could have chatted with Mr. E during the movie was because I was playing "spot the frame from the graphic novel", and I got a lot of hits.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie, and will probably watch it at least one more time on the biggest TV I can get my hands on, remote in hand, looking for all the details scattered throughout. NOT RECOMMENDED if you're squeamish about graphic violence and sex.

Holiday weekend omnibus post

Mr E and I went to see Wanted on Friday (Kid A was off at Silverwood with friends). Big, loud, hyperkinetic, and bloody, AKA my kind of movie.

Then we checked out the gluten free selections at Huckleberry's. Bottom line: they have a slightly better variety than Yokes, and for some products the prices are lower.

Maximum force family togetherness on Sunday; went shopping with mom and sisters, while Mr E and Kid A hung out with Cousin D (who needs to eat something! he grew six inches and looks like stretch armstrong). Amazingly enough, I'm a size 8. Whodathunkit? Then dinner at Mom's -- big T-bone steaks and all the fixin's (except for the French bread).

That's why I trust Roger Ebert's reviews...

... he's one of us.

Fanzines beget blogs

Fanzines were mimeographed magazines that were circulated by mail among science fiction fans in the days before the internet. They still are, for all I know, although now they're generated by computer printers. I first learned about them in a 1950s issue of Amazing Stories and eagerly sent away 10 or 20 cents to Buck and Juanita Coulson in Indiana, whose Yandro was one of the best and longest-running of them all. Overnight, I was a fan, although not yet a BNF (big name fan). It was a thrill for me to have a LOC (letter of comment) published on such issues as the demise of BEMs (bug-eyed monsters), and soon I was publishing my own fanzine, named Stymie.

Movie Review: Iron Man

Wow.

Just, wow.

Snappy writing, good score (from a composer I wasn't previously familiar with) , good special effects, only a little of that darn shaky-cam*... it was full of win for Mother's Day.

*look, if I wanted to watch a documentary filmed with a hand-held camera, I would.

Movie Reviews: Revolver and Forbidden Kingdom

Revolver
A thin veneer of heist/con movie wrapped around a thick incomprehensible core of Freudian psychobabble. (A man's only enemy is his ego? What?) Personally, I blame Madonna. Please, please, please, Guy Ritchie, go back to your roots.

Forbidden Kingdom
Yay! Jackie Chan and Jet Li, together at last! Boo! The standup has this teenage kid I don't recognize in the middle of the hero lineup! Eeep! The same teenage kid isn't mentioned in the TV ads at all!

However, it turned out to be a fairly solid wuxia film, using the "modern kid is sucked into fantasy Chinese world by magic maguffin" conceit, beautifully filmed on location in China. And the teenage kid wasn't that bad.

Movie Review: In Bruges

Not exactly the fish-out-of-water/buddy-hitmen movie the ads led me to expect. Recommended nonetheless, with the caveat that the prosthetics effects house did a very good job (spelled "ewwww" by Mr E. I wasn't looking). Thinking back, there was some tasty foreshadowing.

Gave myself +2 nerd points for figuring out that Carter Burwell did the soundtrack by a third of the way in.

Since AMC is showing this one as part of their indie-film series, the previews were not what I expected. Ordinarily in front of an action film you get guy movie preview, chick movie preview, date movie preview, horror movie preview. This time we got quirky indie preview, quirky indie preview, quirky indie preview, and Will Smith as homeless and feckless superhero preview. Almost threw me off my stride, it did.

Movie Review: Shoot 'Em Up

This one counts as a guilty pleasure. Big, loud, bloody, and stupid. Mr. E spotted the secret toy surprise early on, which made it even more enjoyable. (I shan't spoil it unless asked to. :D )

Movie Review: "War"

An enjoyable shoot-em-up/punch-em-up starring Jet Li and Jason Statham, with a surprisingly satisfying ending and a Hong Kong cinema feel. Well worth renting.

Move Review: National Treasure 2

We paid $5, which was about what it was worth.

Can't explain why my disbelief fell so hard as to dent the concrete flooring without spoilers. Just consider that a working knowledge of history is a major detriment to the aforementioned disbelief. :D

Move Review: Stardust

Great fun; I'm a sucker for a movie with opening and closing narration. I haven't read the original, but the story certainly felt like it had been written by Neil Gaiman, as it uses many of his repeating tropes (a young person from the ordinary world crosses over into a magical world, discovering the truth about themselves in the process of their adventure there, etc.) Yes, a lot of the acting was over the top, but it was fun to watch Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro masticating great hunks of beautiful scenery. Recommended as long as you're in the mood for a fairy tale of Victorian England.

Weekend Media Consumption -- The Bourne Ultimatum

I really wanted to like this movie. I liked the two previous Bourne movies, I like spy thrillers in general, and it featured a character archetype I'm a sucker for (the amnesiac reluctant warrior). But... For reasons known only to him, Paul Greengrass shot the entire thing in unsteady-cam. It's a little jiggly in the ads, but on the big screen... I'm trying and failing to come up with a description for the camera work that doesn't insult folks with neurological problems. Even during quiet scenes, the image jumped and jerked around the screen. I went in to the theater with a little headache, and left with a big one. It might be tolerable on the small screen.

Transformers

Big, dumb, and loud, as I expected. Some nice laugh lines. The climactic battle gave me a headache. (I hate jerky-cam.) Overall, not entirely a waste of time.

"Live Free or Die Hard"

If I had thumbs, it would get two thumbs up. Plot and action were only mostly improbable, the laugh-lines were not forced in, and I actually didn't hate Justin Long's performance, much to my surprise.

(Hey, my standards are low, but they're mine.) :)

On the "looking forward to it" front from the previews: War -- Jet Li and Jason Statham? *squee*