movies

scott pilgrim vs the world

A small party of us (really, I suppose, a double date) went to see this on Saturday night. I hang my nerd badge up in shame as I haven’t read the comic (yet), which is shameful and annoying. I’ve only been reading and hearing how wonderful it is for the last 3 years.

This review at the Awl sums up everything that I thought was wrong with Scott Pilgrim vs The World: namely that it comes across as a self-centered, sexist piece of rom-com for kids aged 18-27.

What the piece doesn’t mention is the actual style of the movie, which was, undoubtedly, fantastic. It is the best “videogame movie” since Run Lola Run — and that movie came out 12 years ago. Sadly, RLR was more of a game than a videogame, whereas SPvTW is more of a platformer turned into a movie.

But regardless — when was the last time you saw a movie whose plot centered around boss fights? Where there were coins and level-up and extra men in a movie? (I never saw Super Mario Brothers, The Movie, so maybe it had them. I hope it didn’t.)

B-
hurt by the lameness (flatness) of the female characters, but saved from total apathy by the really great style.

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Life: Setting zombies atwitter.

I really, REALLY need to stop watching zombie movies right before bed. Mind you, it’s not that the movies themselves are grippingly scary, but they do tend to set the mind awander. Inevitably after watching John Q. Public become John Q. NomNom, I can’t help but lie awake for far too long planning my zombie apocalypse “survival” strategy. How to survive the first assault. Siege tactics. Resource acquisition. It is as if the long-dormant engineering degree is, much like a zombie, not completely dead and buried in my brain and longs to claw to the surface of the conscious mind and start …. planning. Dun dun DUNNN!

Sadly, though I’d like to admit this hasn’t ever happened before, it does occur with some frequency. (No, not, y’know, zombie apocalypses, but rather staying up a little too late and then getting ‘pulled in’ to a cinematic fright fest of the fearfully undead.) To wit, what to do? Just ignore it on the 99.98% probability there won’t be a World War Z in my lifetime? Well, that just sounds too logical. So the engineering mind staggers to the fore, thinking of home integrity, ways to board windows, sawing the steps off the deck, avenues of retreat and where to place ladders and weighing wether or not my wife would leave me were I to pack an emergency “Go!” bag, you know, just in case. I could always pass it off as disaster preparedness. Hmm…

So, as you can see, it sets the brain aflutter with possibilities and potential. Yes, I said potential. As in, what a perfect opportunity to loot a Walmart. I mean, I think if anyone looks deep enough within, we’ll all find that we secretly would like to ransack that place, right? And it’s the perfect one-stop shop for all your end-of-world needs, too. Food? Check. Guns? Check. Ammo? Check. Camo? Check. Fertilizer for blowing shit up? Check. Seeds for all the optimists? Check. And Twinkies, too (for all you “Zombieland”/Woody Harrelson fans).

But, terribly, what this all leaves me with is something perhaps more terrifying than undead moans in the night. And that is this: Once upon a time a few millennia ago we humans used our brains and ability to plan to rise up. We made plans to run game into traps, to kick the bear’s ass from afar with stones and spears, to cultivate our own food rather than roam about searching for it. The ability of the mind to plan is simply stunning. That we now use our minds for little more than trivia, video games or, for the truly “leading” minds, thinking of nothing more than the next fiscal quarter numbers or the turn of the next election cycle … well that is simply stunningly sad.

So, maybe we could use a zombie apocalypse? I sure hope not. But even that might not get those that remain to really start thinking–like we used to do. For a moment there, I thought, or hoped, that after 9/11 we’d take a chance on change, on bettering humanity. But we’re still in that same shit show, sliding down a tightening spiral. Years ago people actually wrote. They wrote letters pages long during wars, books of beauty while travelling the road, and sonnets, sweet sonnets that made me love the words of the English language.

And years from now, our ancestors will only be able to learn of us from 140 character tweets.

Well, if they’re not caught by zombies, that is.

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movie night

I stopped posting on here about watching movies weekly, but it doesn’t mean I stopped watching things. In fact, the entire thing has evolved into a weekly double-feature with friends.

The first week was Crank and Crank 2. b and c-, respectively. The first one is almost worth watching, if you need a stupid, trendy, low-brow action movie. The second one hurt.

Last week was I’m Gonna Get You Sucka and Big Trouble in Little China. c and b-, respectively. Both are well past their sell-by dates, one more than the other.

Last night was The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. b+ for both of them. Both of these are fun films, for very different reasons. And out of the six movies, they are the ones I would most recommend.

Next week — High Noon and A Man Called Sledge.

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vice’s take on criterion and wes anderson

viceland mocks Criterion for having Michael Bay movies in their collection. Yes, yes, welcome to 2002, everyone. We all know there are some turns buried in the collection. But the write-up about Wes Anderson is about as dead-on as it gets, for me:

Wes Anderson doesn

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Year-By-Year With Friday The 13th

This is old, but the fascination of myself and John with Friday the 13th continues. He sent this to me yesterday; I’m passing it on as a Halloween treat. The A.V. Club does a year-by-year with Friday The 13th

Sadly, because it’s old, it doesn’t include the newer film — but I’ll go so far as to say (again) see the new one and then part 10. Done and done.

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‘paranormal activity’

I saw Paranormal Activity late in the day today because 1. Rachael was in class and 2. because I thought it was still only playing in a few select cities. (2. turns out to be totally false.)

How was it, you might ask?

Actually, firstly, you might ask ‘what is it?’
It’s a teeny tiny film made for 11k in a week in 2007 that Paramount/Spielberg bought (to remake) and have since decided to screen and show. It’s a horror film ala Blair Witch. The trailers for it are on the official site, but youtube, apple and all have them too.

OK, so it’s a freaky ‘demonic poltergeist/possession/haunted house’ movie. And how is it?

Well, considering the hype, considering April texted me last week saying it made her cry it was so scary, I expected big things. And it turned out to be good, not great. Well worth seeing, but not as freaky as I expected.

And I really don’t want to ruin anything, simply because it’s a pretty basic movie, plot-wise. So saying much would totally color your fun.

Worth seeing, even in the theater — which is high praise coming from me. A solid ‘B’ mainly because it reminded me just a little bit too much of the aforementioned Blair Witch…without offering too much new in the scares department.*

Just see it.

* Please note I’d say there are some exceptions to this. But no, I’m not going to say what they might be.

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‘cashback’ (2006)

This is a movie I might have written, at some point in a parallel timestream: a British art student, who is completely fascinated with the female form, develops insomnia after breaking up with his girlfriend, gets a job in a supermarket, discovers he can stop time and falls for a girl who works there.

It’s a complete piece of shit and I would thank my alternate self to never ever make something like this.

Firstly (and most importantly): it totally and unabashadely rips off Nicholson Baker’s The Fermata. Which, fine ok, they can’t seem to make it into a movie which is a bummer, but holyfuckingshit, you aren’t allowed to take the basic premise and slap your own shitty movie on top of it as some sort of loser tribute. You aren’t Dan Brown, ok? I didn’t watch your movie so you could repeat Baker’s book back to me without all the cool shit. So you’re an art student who freezes time to take off women’s clothes to draw them. Oh, that’s much different than The Fermata, where he freezes time to take off women’s clothes to look at them. Asshat. (I realize this could be viewed as “coincidence.” But it isn’t. Watch the climax of the movie, realize he talks about bringing her into the frozen world, that he sits there for days, again between seconds and then go back and read the end of The Fermata. It’s a rip-off, plain and simple.)

Secondly, I am coming to the belief that there is a strain of man that loves women so earnestly and honestly that it pains them. Ok, fine. My rule is that you’re allowed exactly one (1) creative work telling the world how much you love the female species. This was yours. If you ever make something like this again, you deserve the label ‘no talent assclown’ and should be boycotted from creative works forever. This whole “women captivate me” thing is farm leagues and lazy. How do I know? Been there, done that. You used your free pass.

Thirdly, your movie doesn’t have to be every single little thing you’ve ever thought. I realize that every little bit I described up there in the first paragraph doesn’t actually make much of a movie. You know what else doesn’t work? Cramming 4 different plots and moods into 1 film just because you can’t come up with a compelling plot. Heartbreak? Ok. Working night shifts in a grocery? Fine. Stopping time? Uh. And then a movie about how you have always loved women? Get the fuck out of here.

I actually stopped this movie about 15 minutes before it was over. I don’t know that I’ll finish it, which, for me, is unusual. You know the crap I will watch (see: the film club stuff. Also: the Halloween movies, Barbarella [more than once], Transformers, Battlefield Earth). And this? This was an hour and a half of uninspired (or perhaps, maybe, overly inspired) drivial.

d-

It’s also currently streaming on Netflix, in case you feel like hating on on a badly written movie.

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