Archive for July, 2006

2001: A Space Odyssey

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by
Chalupa
on July 31, 2006
in Adventure, Based on a novel, Cold War, Epic, Future, Sci-fi and Technology
. 0 Comments

Sometimes I really like Kubrick films and other times not so much. This was one I hadn’t seen yet, and I would have to rate it as mediocre. Much of the film was comprised of long, agonizing shots that made you want to grab the remote and hit the “FWD >>” button. The ending was also a bit confusing which doesn’t surprise me.

On a more positive note, I think Kubrick did a lot with this film that shaped the way science fiction films, TV shows and video games were/are made. For instance, a computer that talks and has a personality. Who can forget HAL 9000? Another thing I noticed was ships in space. They weren’t all sleek and aerodynamic. There’s also something to be said for how they portrayed the vacuum of space and how the “astronauts” lived. I would say this is another movie to count as a notch in your belt and be able to better understand pop culture references. However, it probably won’t leave you salivating for more.

An Evening with Kevin Smith

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Chalupa
on July 31, 2006
in Comedy, Documentary and Filmmaking
. 0 Comments

If you’re a fan of Kevin Smith, maker of Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Jersey Girl, then you’ll probably like this one. Back in 2001 Kevin went around to several colleges where he fielded questions from his fans. In fact, I was supposed to go to one of these with my buddy Perry, but I had to finish writing a program for a class I was taking. Another one of my friends, Tara, ended up going instead. The cool thing is that you can see Perry and Tara in several parts of the film.

If you’re unaware, Kevin’s movies are crass, rude, offensive, vulgar and include lots of swearing and homosexual content. If this kind of stuff greatly offends you, I’m pretty certain that you will not enjoy this documentary of sorts. However, if you do enjoy Smith’s humor you’ll be delighted to hear stories about his run-in with Tim Burton, his discussion with Jon Peters over a Superman script, the documentary he shot for Prince and many other stories.

THX 1138

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 31, 2006
in Based on a comic, Based on a short film, Drama, Drugs, Future and Sci-fi
. 0 Comments

This is definitely one of those classics you always hear about. Immediately after the movie starts all I can think of is Star Wars. This is of course, a George Lucas film so why should we be surprised? Light panels, characters, clothing, sound effects, etc. It all screams Star Wars. The story is a bit weird and at really reminds me of The Truman Show. I can’t really scream accolades about this because it just didn’t impress me that much. It’s worth watching to be able to talk about it though.

Oh, and if you were wondering, there is a Baldwin involved. Another interesting name I caught in the credits was Caleb Deschanel. I looked him up and he’s Zooey’s dad.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 31, 2006
in Coming of age, Drama, Korea, Reincarnation and Suicide
. 0 Comments

I wasn’t really sure what to expect by this movie and my initial response after watching this was, “huh?” I’m not schooled in eastern philosophy or buddhism so I know that I missed out on the meaning of a lot of things. There’s also not much dialogue in the film, it’s mostly imagery.

The movie starts off with a monk living out in the middle of nowhere in a floating house on a lake. A young boy lives with him who is being trained to be a monk. Eventually the boy grows up, becomes tempted by worldy desires, and leaves the old monk. Then, later on the boy returns a grown man and learns yet another lesson from the monk before leaving again. Now the old monk is all alone again and eventually dies leaving the small monastary empty. In the last “season” a new monk comes to tend the monastary. I’m not sure if this is just some random monk, the old monk reincarnated, or maybe even the grown boy that the old monk taught.

Like I said earlier, there is a lot of Eastern symbolism that I know I wasn’t understanding. There are several things including statues of Buddha and another statue of what I believe was a goddess of some sort. I was trying to read some things on the IMDB message boards, but that turned into a lot of people giving their opinions and telling the other person they were totally wrong.

This movie definitely has an Eastern religious theme to it. If you don’t know much about that topic, aren’t really into foreign movies and need dialogue to keep the movie flowing for you, I would stay away from this one.

Wordplay (vs. Spellbound vs. Word Wars)

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nathanshorb
on July 27, 2006
in Uncategorized
. 3 Comments

Let’s make sure we’re all caught up to speed, first.

Wordplay is a documentary in theaters right now that’s getting quite a bit of buzz. Everyone seems to love it, and it’s about the world of crossword puzzles. The puzzlemakers, the puzzlesolvers, the New York Times editor Will Shortz, and the competition that ensues.

Spellbound is the immensely popular documentary about the National Spelling Bee. It follows several kids and their parents as they win all the competitions and fight for first place. This one was nominated for best documentary at the Oscars a few years back.

Word Wars is more of an underground documentary that never really rose to the surface. It’s about the game of Scrabble and introduces us to some very interesting competitive characters.

So, as you can already tell, the three movies are very closely related, and comparing the three is pretty much inevitable. It’s a lot of nerdy people playing with words and fighting for first place. That’s about all there is to it.

In the end, Wordplay leaves a little to be desired, and that could possibly be only because it has to live up to the success of Spellbound and Word Wars. Many times Wordplay feels like an inside joke, and if you enjoy crossword puzzles as much as everyone in the movie does, you’ll absolutely love the movie. But if you aren’t a crossword fanatic (I don’t think I’ve ever completed one in the newspaper), there’s not enough left in the movie to carry it all the way.

In Spellbound, you have cute kids, and that’s about all you need for a successful film (ie: Mad Hot Ballroom). As if cute kids weren’t enough, each one is full of life and personality, and between them and their parents, there are a lot of laughs to be had. Furthermore, everyone can relate to spelling. Even if you can’t remember the spelling bee in elementary school, we all deal with it every day; there’s some common ground there, which is important in a movie. There’s enough here for us to enjoy the movie even though it’s about something as boring and nerdy as spelling bees.

In Word Wars, we have freakishly eccentric characters. While the movie definitely has its flaws, its characters are beyond belief, and that’s enough to carry it.

But in Wordplay, the characters are odd, and not odd enough for us to laugh or find them endearing. They’re plain. Sure, you might find your favorite, but you won’t be cheering for them like you did in Spellbound. There’s not enough to laugh about, not enough to get excited about, not enough to talk about afterwards. It was fun while it lasted, but I was glad when it finished.

Seeing how these people’s minds work is fascinating, the film succeeds there. (”Move the D in Dunkin Donuts and you get Unkind Donuts. I’ve had a few of those before. Move the H in Noah’s Ark and you get No, A Shark!”) And it also makes you desperately wish you could play with words the way these people do, or at least finish one simple crossword puzzle. The film succeeds there, as well. (In fact, I plan on starting one in today’s paper right after I finish this post.)

Who would win in a fight? You’d be proud of all three in the end, as they all put forth a valiant effort, but first would go to Spellbound, second to Word Wars, and third to Wordplay.

Michael Collins

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 24, 2006
in Assassination, Based on a true story, Biography, Drama, Epic, History, Politics, Thriller and War
. 0 Comments

If you know much about the Irish fight for independance, you’ve probably heard of a man by the name of Michael Collins. Well, this is the topic of this film. Collins is played by the great Liam Neeson (Excalibur, Schindler’s List, Batman Begins) who does a wonderful job in this role as expected. Alan Rickman, Aidan Quinn and Julia Roberts also help to round out the cast in this historical film.

Some parts in this might be a bit too much for some. The violence isn’t too bad, but maybe not suitable for some children. If you’re at all interested in Irish history this seemed to be a good one. I’m not sure on how factual everything was, but it seemed to give a good impression on how things were.

Shogun Assassin

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 24, 2006
in Action, Adventure, Assassination, Drama, Graphic Violence, Japan, Martial Arts, Samurai and Thriller
. 1 Comment

If you’ve seen Kill Bill, than you probable remember in part 2 where BB wants to watch a video before going to bed. The video she wants to watch is Shogun Assassin. In my latest quest to see some of the samurai movies Tarantino loves so dearly, I also put this one on the list just because it’s referenced in the movie.

The whole film is narrated by a small boy talking about his father. His father used to work for the shogun, but his father became too powerful and the shogun became afraid. The shogun then tried to kill him but his plans went awry and he then made an enemy of his most powerful servant. The samurai then took to the roads with his small son. The shogun sent groups after groups of assassins and ninjas after this man, but nobody seems to be able to kill him. This guy makes Chuck Norris and Rambo look like girly-men.

This whole movie is in english so there’s no subtitles to deal with if that bothers you. It’s also short and sweet - kinda like Replacement Killers. If you liked Kill Bill, you’ll probably like this one too.

Onibaba

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 21, 2006
in Drama, Horror, Japan, Murder and Samurai
. 0 Comments

Another Criterion Collection member, yes, I’m on a kick. This film is set in feudal Japan and involves a woman and her daughter-in-law trying to eek out a living in a swamp. The husban/son has gone off to war with a friend and was supposedly killed on the way home. The son’s friend starts hanging around and soon starts making his move on his buddy’s wife.

The mother-in-law becomes jealous and afraid that her daughter-in-law will leave her and tries to come up with way to scare her into staying. The two of them have been living by killing worn-out soldiers in the grass fields and selling their armor and weapons for food. Without her daughter-in-law, the old woman won’t be able to keep this up by herself. The old woman eventually kills a samurai wearing a mask. She decides to take the mask along with his other possessions and starts wearing the mask to scare her daughter-in-law in the grass fields. The daughter-in-law takes her for a demon and is temporarily scared into staying away from her newfound lover. However, the tables are eventually turned as the old woman finds it hard to remove the mask.

Yojimbo

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 21, 2006
in Action, Based on a book, Based on a novel, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Samurai and Thriller
. 0 Comments

If you’ve seen Last Man Standing or A Fistful of Dollars and liked them, you need to see this movie. Yojimbo is where the original story came from. Essentially a man-for-hire comes to town where two factions are fueding. He plays both sides and they eventually kill each other off.

If you’re into samurai movies, westerns or classic films, this needs to be on your list of films to see. This is another film directed by the legendary director Akira Kurosawa and also happens to be in the Criterion Collection.

The Hidden Fortress

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 20, 2006
in Action, Adventure, Comedy, Japan and Samurai
. 0 Comments

If you didn’t know, I’ve been on a samurai movie kick lately. I’ve been watching a lot of movies that influenced Quentin Tarantino in his films Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2. It’s been an interesting ride to say the least. The Hidden Fortress is another film directed by the legendary director Akira Kurosawa and also happens to be in the Criterion Collection.

The plot details the escape of Princess Yuki (Misa Uehara) and General Rokurota Makabe (Toshirô Mifune) after their clan has been decimated by a neighboring clan. Along the way, they run into two greedy peasants who are on a search for legendary gold that was hidden somewhere in the burned out castle. The peasants lend some Three Stooges-esque comedy to the film as the princess and general try to make them cooperate. I may be exagerating on this, but it also seems like the two peasants are made to be bumbling fools just because they’re peasants. I don’t know if this is made to fit with the time period the film was made or maybe it’s this way just because. The more “noble” characters in the story do seem to be the ones making all the decisions, have all the wit and able to be capable leaders.

All in all, I think this was another decent film. Not amazing or awesome, just good. I gave it a 3/5 on netflix. Worth watching if you consider yourself a movie fan.