Rango
...also known as "Tropes Are Not Bad: The Movie." Seriously.
So, beginning of the story. Yesterday there was a huge thunderstorm and we lost power. For eight hours. Since it wasn't back on when the sun went down, and the lack of air conditioning was getting annoying, we decided to go see a movie at the dollar theater. It being Saturday, it was actually the $2.25 theater. Scandalous.
Not being able to look up shows or show times, we just drove out there and looked at the marquis. Rango was the only interesting looking thing playing. So we got dinner at Wendy's (and it was the best Wendy's we've ever been to, completely incidentally. The service and the food were both unusually good) and went over to see our movie. And got rather severely rained on. Fortunately, I had a hat!
I have to say, I loved this movie. It's funny, the three movies I have absolutely loved at the Dollar Theater have all been Westerns (The Warrior's Way, True Grit, Rango). Maybe I just like westerns? So, okay, Rango was every western ever. As in you knew, you knew every single thing that was going to happen in the movie. And it was still exciting and suspensful and whatnot. You know who the bad guy is before you meet him. They pull out every hackneyed cliche in the book. And...it's good. It's impressively good. It has restored my faith in Lucasfilm somewhat. I think the thing was...I kept expecting it to be Dreamworks Bad, and it just wasn't. The animation was very good, very nearly if not Pixar level. And it had Bill Nighy in it! And Ned Beatty and... Claudia Black (in a very minor role). It made Joel-Henry rescind his hatred of Johnny Depp too. (I do think this is the best Johnny Depp movie I've seen. Which is to say, I liked it better than Corpse Bride, and I really loved Corpse Bride.) The main thing was...they didn't overplay things in a stupid way. Like the fact that he's a Chameleon. They never explicitely mention it, and they never call attention to the skin pigment thing, although it happens a couple of times. And then there's the owl chorus. I expected to hate them, but they were awesome. Actually, my very first thought in the movie was "Okay, I'm probably going to end up getting this sound track." And it was freakin surreal at times. In a good way! That fish...
Overall, this movie was at least three times better than it expected to be. It was like watching every western ever at the same time. There was really nothing wrong with it.
When we got back home the power was still out. So we went to bed.
So, beginning of the story. Yesterday there was a huge thunderstorm and we lost power. For eight hours. Since it wasn't back on when the sun went down, and the lack of air conditioning was getting annoying, we decided to go see a movie at the dollar theater. It being Saturday, it was actually the $2.25 theater. Scandalous.
Not being able to look up shows or show times, we just drove out there and looked at the marquis. Rango was the only interesting looking thing playing. So we got dinner at Wendy's (and it was the best Wendy's we've ever been to, completely incidentally. The service and the food were both unusually good) and went over to see our movie. And got rather severely rained on. Fortunately, I had a hat!
I have to say, I loved this movie. It's funny, the three movies I have absolutely loved at the Dollar Theater have all been Westerns (The Warrior's Way, True Grit, Rango). Maybe I just like westerns? So, okay, Rango was every western ever. As in you knew, you knew every single thing that was going to happen in the movie. And it was still exciting and suspensful and whatnot. You know who the bad guy is before you meet him. They pull out every hackneyed cliche in the book. And...it's good. It's impressively good. It has restored my faith in Lucasfilm somewhat. I think the thing was...I kept expecting it to be Dreamworks Bad, and it just wasn't. The animation was very good, very nearly if not Pixar level. And it had Bill Nighy in it! And Ned Beatty and... Claudia Black (in a very minor role). It made Joel-Henry rescind his hatred of Johnny Depp too. (I do think this is the best Johnny Depp movie I've seen. Which is to say, I liked it better than Corpse Bride, and I really loved Corpse Bride.) The main thing was...they didn't overplay things in a stupid way. Like the fact that he's a Chameleon. They never explicitely mention it, and they never call attention to the skin pigment thing, although it happens a couple of times. And then there's the owl chorus. I expected to hate them, but they were awesome. Actually, my very first thought in the movie was "Okay, I'm probably going to end up getting this sound track." And it was freakin surreal at times. In a good way! That fish...
Overall, this movie was at least three times better than it expected to be. It was like watching every western ever at the same time. There was really nothing wrong with it.
When we got back home the power was still out. So we went to bed.