Media Monday
I woke up at 2:30 A.M. and have not had even the slightest bit of luck going back to sleep.
Yesterday was spent taking care of Brandi who had come down with a cold on Super Bowl Sunday and managed to go through three boxes of tissues by mid-Monday. We took this time to finish watching several movies after finishing the last of our blockbuster rentals and then discovering the video on demand function on our cable service.
First we had Live Free or Die Hard which was fun if not particularly deep. My main gripe with the film series is that in the first Die Hard there were a lot of layers to the story that had to do with what was going on with America at the time (Japanese company, fears of a takeover, etc) and McClane was human. The scene of him walking barefoot across the glass and wincing was very humanizing. All of the films since have really turned him more into an inhuman superhero.
Then we watched The Fountain. I thought the film was fantastic. It was difficult at times, especially at first, with the flashbacks between the different periods of the film but I thought they came together nicely. The non-CGI effects were pretty fantastic too. Apparently they used chemical reactions to create the nebulae rather than CGI so that they could "stand the test of time." Ultimately I thought that some of the symbolism towards the end was too overt (cf. The ending of The Matrix Revolutions) but I still enjoyed it a lot.
We've also recently finished some other movies:
- Year of the Dog was very...dark and awkward and really did not live up to the expectations I had after seeing the trailer or ready the box. It actually referred to the movie as a comedy but I didn't find too much to laugh. Dark comedies are fine, hell I love them, but there has to be some humor there.
- Paris Je T'aime was a nice film. It was uneven but that is to be expected of a collection of shorts. Some were very evocative of France and how it has changed in the last decade or so while others were much more reminiscent of what we think of France and how it manages, or fails to, live up to our expectations. Also, Steve Buschemi love.
- Futurama: Bender's Big Score. When Futurama is at its best, it is a wonderful show that is nearly at the level of the Simpsons. When it isn't though, well, it can be flat. The movie had a lot of bright moments but overall I felt it was forgettable.
- Casshern. I was lent this by a co-worker and I managed to watch most of it one morning before going to sleep. It is supposed to be a live action translation of an anime and so they use a lot of the same conventions, like motion blur to give a greater sense of speed, but it just comes off as weird. This was one of the blue screen only movies that tied with Sin City and Sky Captain: World of Tomorrow to be the first. Out of the three, Sin City is definately the best and without having actually seen Sky Captain, I'd have to assume that this bring up the rear.
- Zu Warriors. This was also lent to me by the same co-worker and, well, I have to begin to question his taste in movies. This was greenlit, along with Hero and Shoalin Soccer, after Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon did so well. This one never actually made it to the theatres here in the US going straight to DVD and it's easy to see why. The story is a tangle of Taoism and Buddhism and general Eastern mysticism and it occludes most of the story instead of making it interesting. They use the old Pai Mei stereotype (White Eyebrows) for the master, played by Sammo Hung. The effects are just passable and the film is very dark. Ziyi Zhang is in it, albeit in a really minor role, but she is front and center on the sleeve and I have to believe it is to capitalize on her connection to CTHD.
Yesterday was spent taking care of Brandi who had come down with a cold on Super Bowl Sunday and managed to go through three boxes of tissues by mid-Monday. We took this time to finish watching several movies after finishing the last of our blockbuster rentals and then discovering the video on demand function on our cable service.
First we had Live Free or Die Hard which was fun if not particularly deep. My main gripe with the film series is that in the first Die Hard there were a lot of layers to the story that had to do with what was going on with America at the time (Japanese company, fears of a takeover, etc) and McClane was human. The scene of him walking barefoot across the glass and wincing was very humanizing. All of the films since have really turned him more into an inhuman superhero.
Then we watched The Fountain. I thought the film was fantastic. It was difficult at times, especially at first, with the flashbacks between the different periods of the film but I thought they came together nicely. The non-CGI effects were pretty fantastic too. Apparently they used chemical reactions to create the nebulae rather than CGI so that they could "stand the test of time." Ultimately I thought that some of the symbolism towards the end was too overt (cf. The ending of The Matrix Revolutions) but I still enjoyed it a lot.
We've also recently finished some other movies:
- Year of the Dog was very...dark and awkward and really did not live up to the expectations I had after seeing the trailer or ready the box. It actually referred to the movie as a comedy but I didn't find too much to laugh. Dark comedies are fine, hell I love them, but there has to be some humor there.
- Paris Je T'aime was a nice film. It was uneven but that is to be expected of a collection of shorts. Some were very evocative of France and how it has changed in the last decade or so while others were much more reminiscent of what we think of France and how it manages, or fails to, live up to our expectations. Also, Steve Buschemi love.
- Futurama: Bender's Big Score. When Futurama is at its best, it is a wonderful show that is nearly at the level of the Simpsons. When it isn't though, well, it can be flat. The movie had a lot of bright moments but overall I felt it was forgettable.
- Casshern. I was lent this by a co-worker and I managed to watch most of it one morning before going to sleep. It is supposed to be a live action translation of an anime and so they use a lot of the same conventions, like motion blur to give a greater sense of speed, but it just comes off as weird. This was one of the blue screen only movies that tied with Sin City and Sky Captain: World of Tomorrow to be the first. Out of the three, Sin City is definately the best and without having actually seen Sky Captain, I'd have to assume that this bring up the rear.
- Zu Warriors. This was also lent to me by the same co-worker and, well, I have to begin to question his taste in movies. This was greenlit, along with Hero and Shoalin Soccer, after Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon did so well. This one never actually made it to the theatres here in the US going straight to DVD and it's easy to see why. The story is a tangle of Taoism and Buddhism and general Eastern mysticism and it occludes most of the story instead of making it interesting. They use the old Pai Mei stereotype (White Eyebrows) for the master, played by Sammo Hung. The effects are just passable and the film is very dark. Ziyi Zhang is in it, albeit in a really minor role, but she is front and center on the sleeve and I have to believe it is to capitalize on her connection to CTHD.