still among the living...
Sorry to have taken so long between postings, but real life has sort of gotten the best of me lately.
Before I forget, I wanted to give a strong recommendation to the film "Blood and Chocolate", which I actually paid full price to see Thursday night and considered it a good investment. (Fair warning: when I saw it, there were NO previews with this film, so it started exactly when it was advertised -- if I hadn't been uncharacteristically early, I'd have missed the first ten minutes and many key plot points, just like everyone else in the theater did when they came in!) It's a lot cheerier and more fun than "NightWatch" was (for my personal taste), but still quite dark and bloody at times. However, the good special effects and the acting and the Bucharest locations, plus the very strong romantic aspects, were what I really appreciated.
Speaking of special effects which were NOT at all impressive, but a movie I enjoyed anyway, I have to give props to Amber Benson (Tara of BtVS) and Jonathan LaPaglia (whom I'll always think of as Frank B. Parker of Seven Days) for making "Griffin" one of the rare, actually watchable Sci-Fi Channel "original movie" offerings. Plus, Sarah Douglas (Ursa from "Superman II" and my little brother's first object of dominatrix-lust when he was in junior high) as Jonathan's magic-wielding Queen Mama and the source of most of his power and incentive. Though the special effects related to the Griffin itself were laughably bad (flat, flatter, flattest, and no attempt at verisimilitude that I could see!), that was a thankfully minor part of the film. What it was really about was a tough warrior princess (Amber) and a psychic-intuitive prince (Jonathan) doing a meet-cute and joining forces (with a little help from his much-more-powerful mama) to bring divided kingdoms together. I actually watched the whole thing before I taped over it, and that's something I don't often say about Sci-Fi Channel original movies, when I bother to watch them at all.
Finally, with my parents coming for their second visit in as many months tomorrow morning, I'm reminded of the one film we all saw together last month: the justifiably well-honored "Letters from Iwo Jima". As a bonus feature, since it was almost all in Japanese with English subtitles, Dad's hearing wasn't a problem (even with his hearing aids in, he has trouble picking up much of the dialogue in most films -- especially higher-pitched voices -- and most theaters don't come with the closed-captioning he's become addicted to on TV). The cultural insights were fascinating, I thought, highlighting that the very culture which had brought these men to this island and gave them such courage was also the source of many of the frustrations and f-ups that the commanding officer played by Ken Watanabe was plagued by. Tragedy and grandeur and sheer, stupid, wastefulness, all on a very personal and intimate scale.
Before I forget, I wanted to give a strong recommendation to the film "Blood and Chocolate", which I actually paid full price to see Thursday night and considered it a good investment. (Fair warning: when I saw it, there were NO previews with this film, so it started exactly when it was advertised -- if I hadn't been uncharacteristically early, I'd have missed the first ten minutes and many key plot points, just like everyone else in the theater did when they came in!) It's a lot cheerier and more fun than "NightWatch" was (for my personal taste), but still quite dark and bloody at times. However, the good special effects and the acting and the Bucharest locations, plus the very strong romantic aspects, were what I really appreciated.
Speaking of special effects which were NOT at all impressive, but a movie I enjoyed anyway, I have to give props to Amber Benson (Tara of BtVS) and Jonathan LaPaglia (whom I'll always think of as Frank B. Parker of Seven Days) for making "Griffin" one of the rare, actually watchable Sci-Fi Channel "original movie" offerings. Plus, Sarah Douglas (Ursa from "Superman II" and my little brother's first object of dominatrix-lust when he was in junior high) as Jonathan's magic-wielding Queen Mama and the source of most of his power and incentive. Though the special effects related to the Griffin itself were laughably bad (flat, flatter, flattest, and no attempt at verisimilitude that I could see!), that was a thankfully minor part of the film. What it was really about was a tough warrior princess (Amber) and a psychic-intuitive prince (Jonathan) doing a meet-cute and joining forces (with a little help from his much-more-powerful mama) to bring divided kingdoms together. I actually watched the whole thing before I taped over it, and that's something I don't often say about Sci-Fi Channel original movies, when I bother to watch them at all.
Finally, with my parents coming for their second visit in as many months tomorrow morning, I'm reminded of the one film we all saw together last month: the justifiably well-honored "Letters from Iwo Jima". As a bonus feature, since it was almost all in Japanese with English subtitles, Dad's hearing wasn't a problem (even with his hearing aids in, he has trouble picking up much of the dialogue in most films -- especially higher-pitched voices -- and most theaters don't come with the closed-captioning he's become addicted to on TV). The cultural insights were fascinating, I thought, highlighting that the very culture which had brought these men to this island and gave them such courage was also the source of many of the frustrations and f-ups that the commanding officer played by Ken Watanabe was plagued by. Tragedy and grandeur and sheer, stupid, wastefulness, all on a very personal and intimate scale.