Film Review: Where The Wild Things Are

Before going into this movie I really didn’t know what to expect; as a child I was never exposed to the book, and never had any casual run-ins with it as I got older. So when I found out they were making a movie of it, I didn’t really pay much attention to it.
However, that all changed when the release date for the movie grew close, and it started to garner a lot of good press. Needless to say, I went into this movie with a certain sense of intrigue – and rightfully so; this movie had me completely captivated from the very beginning. Director Spike Jonze has done a great job of adapting what is essentially a fairly simple coming-of-age children’s book into a full-length movie, and Where The Wild Things Are is clearly far more than just a kids movie.

Film Review: Paranormal Activity

Get used to this view.

Just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past six months, Paranormal Activity is a 2007 film that was just recently released in US theaters and released on DVD/Blu-Ray last week. It’s shot documentary-style, like an unfunny version of The Office. It follows the story of a couple who think they are haunted. Obviously, some shit goes down, because otherwise this would be a very, very boring film.

That being said, if you watch this film at home, it can quickly turn into something very, very boring. A quick text to a friend or pause for some mid-movie tinkling can ruin the experience. Where Paranormal Activity succeeds is in its slow, measured and terrifying escalation, all convincingly done through the two actors (who use their real-life names, btw) and virtually no special effects. I love the fact that this movie was filmed for $15,000, in one week and in the director’s home. I wonder if he has trouble sleeping at night now? For being a handheld-cam movie, there’s hardly any shaky moments, which is a blessing. The version I saw was had the theatrical ending (of the three that are available), but by the time the ending comes around, it doesn’t really matter. It’s the experience that brought you there that counts.

Amazingly enough, I thought Paranormal Activity lived up pretty well to its hype; I was never truly scared, but I was definitely uneasy the entire time. Definitely a movie you can only truly enjoy once, I’d say it’s a worthy rental.

Dances with Smurfs

Just got home from watching Avatar, which I saw in RealD 3D (I’m not sure what the difference in 3D technologies is at the moment). Got some free Ray-Bans out of the deal.

I don’t think it’s worth it to do a full review, considering that there has been so much written about it already, but I will say that it met my expectations. If you’ve seen a trailer, then you know what it’s about. No surprises there. I was mostly going for the visuals, and this was my first 3D cinema experience aside from Captain Equal Opportunity as a kid. Truth be told, 30 minutes into the film I stopped noticing the 3D stuff unless it really stood out.

It looks nice. Definitely worth the trip to see it.

You Better Na’vi Late

Tyler and I are going to see Avatar right now. You are more than welcome to meet us there, but if you are coming from Scotland, Australia, Texas, or pretty much anywhere outside of Los Angeles, you better hurry, it starts in an hour. See you there!

I still hope there is some serious airbending.

Film Review: Triangle

Watched this film after a recommendation from someone at my work. I was expecting a horror film, and I was pleasantly surprised with this compelling, cerebral thriller. Don’t get me wrong – this film is horribly acted, and it suffers from some really unintuitive leaps in storyline – but it’s the best low-budget thriller/suspense film that I’ve ever seen.

A group of cliche horror characters board a sailboat for a fun and relaxing jaunt off the coast of Florida, and shit gets crazy, and I’m not going to give anything away. It hasn’t been released in the US yet, and I’m not going to tell you where to find it, but when it is available for rental or purchase, check it out. Let me know if I’m dumb for liking it.

Notflix.

Here’s something that’s both interesting and annoying. Right now, Netflix.com is down, which affects not only the browsing of the site, but also the Xbox 360/PS3 playback. The only things available for me to watch are what I’ve already put in my Instant Watch queue, which I know now is just a lot of crap.

So now, I’m stuck here watching “Holly’s World” on E!. It is simply the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

Film Review: Moon

Not to be confused with that vampire/werewolf film everyone loves, Moon is a story set in the near future where we humans, being smart little buggers, figure out how to extract helium-3 from the moon as a source of clean energy. Sam Rockwell plays the part of the only employee onboard a helium-3 extraction site, who is at the end of a three-year contract. Things start to go crazy, and it’s an unexpected and engaging film.

I don’t want to talk too much about it but I’ll say that I was afraid that is was going to go into predictable 2001 or Solaris territory, and it doesn’t. Frankly, I don’t know how they pulled it off (especially on a budget of only $5 million – egads!) but they made a truly original statement from a tried-and-true premise. One of my favorite films of the year.

The A.V. Club’s Best-of-the-Decade Lists

The Onion’s A.V. Club recently released their “Best o’ the Decade” lists, and I found their list of the 50 best films of the decade to be really good. In fact, I’m so impressed that I’m making it my 2010 New Year’s resolution to watch the films I haven’t seen on this list.

Then again, their 15 best video games of the decade list is horrible. Katamari Damacy as #2? Puhleeeaaaze.

Film Review: G.I. Joe – Rise of the Cobra

Imagine, if you will, that there are these magical people in Hollywood that can perform real magic. Now imagine that these magicians (I like to call them magickers) were able to take some beloved G.I. Joe figurines from the 1980s and transform them into real people (not being able to give them brains, mind you). Now (stay with me here), imagine that these life-sized figurines were given a budget of $175 million and told to make a live action film about themselves. And that’s how we came upon G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra.

I’m not joking here, folks. I tend to rag on “refresh” films like Transformers which seem to only be after money, but this here film is certifiably, filthily bad. This film is so bad that it took me three days to watch it, because I kept turning it off in disgust. But alas, I gave it a college try if only for the slight chance it would redeem itself. Didn’t happen. It’s not even true to the series, which I vaguely remember from my childhood. Although I do remember that Cobra Commander wasn’t played by Shigeru Miyamoto.

The only thing I can give G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra credit for are the following three revelations:

1. This film probably made 30-year old rednecks say “wow” every five minutes
2. This is the best film to feature a Wayan brother in ten years
3. This film has already made $300 million, so apparently I am a fucking idiot anyway

Film Review: Up

Up is the latest Pixar film, and I saw the 2D version. If you have a soul you probably already like Pixar films, and have either seen this or plan on seeing it. If that’s you, you’ll like this film. There’s not much to not like, honestly. Pixar monopolized the family-centric computer animated film industry several movies ago, and now they’re just rubbing it in our faces; but I’m okay with that, since these films are still really good.

Up follows the life of one man, who does what we all yearn to do some days: attach a bunch of helium balloons to a house and fly to South America. The film builds several relationships and addresses issues that are a little darker than your typical Pixar fare (death, mainly) with delicate and unsurprising tact. And though it’s a good film, it’s not the best Pixar product (I still side with Ratatouille) but still better than any film made by the other studios. In summary, Ratatouille>Up>Dreamworks.

Film Review: Monsters vs Aliens

Monsters vs Aliens is the latest in Dreamworks’ fantasy in which they hire all of Hollywood to voice one movie. I’m not kidding, look at this cast: Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert, Paul Rudd, Julie White, Jeffrey Tambor, Amy Poehler, Ed Helms, Renée Zellweger, and John Krasinski. Yeah, you read right – Julie White.

It’s a fair film, with its share of inside jokes and visual treatsies. One thing that struck me about the film is that the main character (Reese Witherspoon) deals with some heavy stuff, and has a bit of an existential crisis. Also, there are some real-deal gay issues somewhat subtly presented by John Krasinski. It’s pretty deep for a cartoon. Other than that, though, it’s mostly just quick and witty dialogue, punctuated by Rainn Wilson and Stephen Colbert (who plays an excellent POTUS).

Chances are you know what you’re up against with a film like this, and it didn’t disappoint. Much better than the game demo I played, which was so bad I didn’t do a writeup about it.

And The Award For “Most Unoriginal Name Goes To…”

It’s a real cop-out when something is named “Pandora.” Oooh, Pandora’s Box, I get it, that’s really foreboding, oooh. Let me guess, a bunch of bad stuff happens there.

Exhibits A and B: The planet in Borderlands is called Pandora, as is the planet in the movie Avatar. Real original guys, why don’t you just name them Planet Danger, or Negative Connotation World? Let’s try a little harder from now on, shall we?

Film Review: Visioneers

Visioneers is a futuristic-ish film in which everyone lives mundane lives, but then they start exploding. America’s new funnyman Zach Gandalwhatsit Galifianakis plays the main character, George Washington Winsterhammerman, who starts showing some early signs of explosion. From there, we get an existential crisis film that’s dark and pretty amusing.

The film does a great job of not explaining much at all. It’s set either in the near future or in an alternate reality. George Washington Winsterhammerman has a famous family heritage which is never explained. All of this comes together in a thoughtful, simple tale that works pretty well. It’s a bit slow (wife is passed out next to me from it), but its pace is justifiably conveying George Washington Winsterhammerman’s life. I like writing that. George Washington Winsterhammerman.

I still haven’t seen The Hangover but I’m pretty sure that this film is a far cry from that one. Either way, this one’s worth watching.

Netflix on the PS3 Lets Us Watch a Movie By Putting a Disc in the Tray…Wait, What?

So, I’m sure you’ve all read the deets about Netflix’s arrival at Playstation International Airport in the coming months, and have already picked your side: For, Against, or Indiff. Even though I’ve already been using this service on the 360 for a long time now, I think this is great, but I’m really not down with having to get this Netflix disc, and leaving it in the tray to watch something. It just seems like yet another thing that the PS3 is making unnecessarily difficult (e.g. downloading demos, talking to friends online, sending/receiving messages, and so on…), and I can’t imagine that it will be easier to manufacture thousands of these discs to send out, rather than just making an integrated app.

I’m sure that there are people in the know out there that will be able to explain and/or defend this disc business, but hey, I’m just Joe Everyday Consumer, and I just don’t get it.

Film Review: Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

I think I can speak for many Battlestar Galactica fans when I say that the series ended somewhat abruptly, leaving me wanting a bit more insight into those last few episodes. Thankfully, right after the last episode aired there was a preview for an upcoming DVD called The Plan which was supposed to highlight the cylons’ perspective on this whole mess.

Instead, what we actually get is a recap of the entire series with a couple new scenes and one new character. Trust me, if you followed the show closely, this “film” is a waste of time. It’s basically the writers’ attempt at proving to us that they actually had this storyline planned the whole time (word to the wise, if you want to make people believe that, you shouldn’t have admitted that you made it up as it went in interviews). The film is mostly just snippets of scenes we’ve already seen, and it jumps around so much that anyone that hasn’t seen the series would be completely lost.

This is a product that really has no audience, since it’s too vague for newcomers and it hardly has any new content for devotees. Chances are fans are going to watch it anyway, but be warned – there are no revelations in The Plan.

Best line: “No more Mister Nice Gaius!”