Matt’s Week in Dork! (7/27/14-8/2/14)

    Vacation weeks are always awesome.  I got some serious movie watching in, for the first time in a while.  And I had some adventures.  So, good times.

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.:  With Mechagodzilla nearly repaired, the Twins show up and demand that he not be used, that the Godzilla bones inside him be returned to the sea.  Crazy talk.  But it’s OK.  ‘Cause they say Mothra will step in and do any kaiju crushing that need be done.  Of course, trouble is brewing, and plans go awry.

Godzilla: Final Wars:  Danged aliens.  This movie is probably the second craziest, after Invasion of Astro-Monster.  It’s kitchen sink filmmaking at its best.  Tons of monsters, aliens, super-powered mutants, a kid and his hillbilly grandfather driving around in a truck with baby-Godzilla, super-tech vehicles, and the end of the world.  It’s nuts.  Salted nuts.  And it’s a wonderful, silly send-off for the franchise as it went into retirement again.

Ossessione:  An Italian take on a classic Noir tale.  It’s pretty good, but lacks a certain panache.  Like the leads in Double Indemnity, the leads in this film are unappealing.  However, where that worked in the former, it works less in this.  The Italian setting is probably the best part, lending a familiar story some exotic elements.

The Raid 2:  So, so danged violent.  This movie is intensely brutal, in your face, gut punchingly violent.  My second viewing may not have had the visceral impact it had when I saw it in the theater, but it’s still darned nasty.  Darned nasty.

Streets of Fire:  One of the most wonderfully 80s movies out there.  It’s a half 50s/half 80s fantasy cityscape of Rock & Roll and neon.  Greasers, bikers, ex-soldiers, a rocker-girl, and a dozen other cliché characters come together on the streets to set the night on fire.  Over the top 80s music.  Crazy fashion.  And so much cheesy dialog.  It’s no surprise that this is one of my all time favorite films.

    On Tuesday, my lady and I headed to DC, where we checked out the Spy Museum, which was pretty cool.  There are a lot of interesting displays, and the James Bond exhibit is quite nice.  From there, we headed over to District of Pi for some tasty pizza.  Then we grabbed a bus instead of a metro, so we could see the city as we headed for Silver Spring.  Once there, we checked out Piratz Tavern, where I drank me a big ol’ mug of grog.  It was pretty good.  Then we hit up Quarry House Tavern where the tater tots were excellent.  And then, after all that, thanks to my lady and her awesome connections, we went over to the Regal theater to see an advanced screening of Guardians of the Galaxy (take that, Brad!).

Guardians of the Galaxy:  The latest entry in the expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe is fun and exciting, tapping into the wild imagination of old-timey science fiction, while developing various elements of the setting.  The writing is cute and clever, while keeping the adventure thrilling.  The main villain for the film, Ronan The Accuser, like most of the villains Marvel has thrown at its heroes so far, is somewhat lackluster.  The Red Skull is probably the only solid villain so far, and it doesn’t look like he’s coming back (though he totally could and should).  I know they’re building up Thanos.  Hopefully that works out.  Fans of the previous Marvel films should find plenty to enjoy, but the film can easily stand alone.  I can’t wait to see the further adventures of the Guardians and how they’ll work into the stories of other Marvel heroes and villains.

Finding Vivian Maier:  The fascinating and sometimes dark life of a secretive woman is revealed after her death.  When a man discovers a huge pile of photo negatives, he begins a quest to find out about the woman who took them.  Vivian Maier emerges as a wonderful character, deeply flawed, but richly talented, who created the life she wanted for herself, even if it might not have been the best life she could have had.  The documentary doesn’t shy away from some of her darker ways, including what seems to be a descent into some kind of mental illness.  But it also celebrates her way of seeing the world, and her spirit of quiet self determination.  Like some of the most interesting self-made people, Maier’s early life has a romantic, thrilling nature, with world travel and mystery.  This film is a good glimpse at an artist doing art for herself, not for anyone else.  I respect and am somewhat awed by that.

Cuban Fury:  A cute story about a former salsa dancing champion who threw it all away after being bullied.  Now, as schlubby adult, he’s prompted to take up the shoes of fire again when he meets a woman he thinks is out of his league.  It’s pretty light and goofy, but it’s funny and charming.  If you’re in the mood for a pleasant romantic comedy, this one is pretty good.  And some of the performances are quite good.

Psychomania:  The child of a woman who has sold herself to Satan, now heads a biker gang.  Of course, like any good biker gang, they all want to burn the world down, and what better way but to kill themselves and come back as immortal hellions.  Yup.  Overall, the movie was OK, in that very 70s, British horror movie way.  But it’s not quite as sleazy as it should have been, and not as weird.  I like the feel, but it seems a bit too safe.

The Bible: In the Beginning…:  Nothing puts the madness and villainy of the Bible in focus quite so much as seeing it presented in images.  I found this to be true when looking at The Brick Bible (Bible stories done in Lego), and I find it in some of these Biblical epics.  This film takes on several of the bigger stories from the Old Testament.  And they’re awful.  The God of the Old Testament is a monster; tormenting, cruel, fickle, and beastly by any measure.  In the Old Testament, God seems to be like a schoolyard bully who grabs a victim by the hand, slaps the victim across the face with it, and yells “why are you hitting yourself?!” over and over.  And the morality of his people is suspect, at best.  The Tower of Babel, Noah’s Ark, the two angels and Lot, Abraham, etc.  Each story is peppered with cruelty, evil, and human misery, as, in the best tradition of Bronze Age mythology (the gods of the Greeks are as tormenting and petty, to be sure), the divine represents the whims and horrors of nature, and things outside of the control or ken of Mankind.  The production looks good, and the cast is the usual mix of quality you got in these big budget, ‘cast of thousands’ type films.  And everyone is Bible-acting, which is much like Shakespeare, but with less passion.  George C. Scott is, perhaps, going a bit overboard as Abraham.  It would probably make a good companion with The Ten Commandments, though I’ll not be doing that double header (because The Ten Commandments is super, super dull…sorry, but it is).

Space 1999 Season 1:  The first season of this show is quite good, with a solid, classic science fiction heart and a nice leaning toward the creepy and weird.  The cast is good, most of the episodes are good, and the effects and production design are generally pretty good, too.  There are elements of Golden Age science fiction, like the stories you’d hear on radio shows like Dimension X.  And there’s some of that very British New-Age stuff of its time.  Like The Starlost, some of the better original series Trek episodes, etc., it taps in to the types of sci-fi I love the most.

    Friday morning, I finished the first volume of The First Kingdom, which was really cool.  I don’t think I’ll be delving in to the second volume right away, as it’s kind of dense for a comic.  But I liked it, and I look forward to seeing what else happens to the various characters.

Battlestar Galactica Blood & Chrome:  I’m mostly cold on prequels.  Not that they can’t be done well, but they typically aren’t.  Case in point; Caprica, the previous Battlestar prequel series.  However, this one manages to get it right, with just enough revealed to make it worth the time, while still having some mystery.  Yes, we know William Adama makes it out.  But the rest of it?  Anyone’s game.  My hope for Battlestar in the future (if there is any future for it) is not another prequel, but something that takes the setting well into its future, exploring entirely new concepts and characters.  I doubt it’ll happen, but that’s my hope.  In the meantime, this is a fine taste for those missing the show.

Cyclone:  A dumb, low rent movie about an advanced motorcycle and some tools who want to steal it.  This is the kind of thing that drive-ins and straight to video were made for.  Probably best to watch with friends, so you can give it the MST3K treatment.

Alienator:  This one has a smidge of low budget charm, but that’s about it.  Dumb characters and a dumb Terminator rip-off script don’t do the job.  If you’re looking for another movie to riff on with your friends, give this one a go.  Otherwise, move along.  Fred Olen Ray strikes again.

    Friday night, I finally got Ben to come over again, and we sat down to what I think is one of the crazier Godzilla movies, but which he thought wasn’t nearly as weird as Godzilla Vs. Mothra.  I guess he still hasn’t gotten over the discomfort caused by the Infant Island Fairies.

Invasion of the Astro-Monster:  The series goes full on Sci-fi with this rocket ship adventure film.  After two buddies travel to Planet X and discover some aliens hiding from King Ghidorah, they strike a bargain to lend Godzilla and Rodan to their defense.  You know, that old story.  I love the 60s rocket ship story, along with the always fun Ghidorah.  Plus, the story is just nuts.  And Fuji and Glenn are solid leads.  I’d have liked to see their continuing adventures.

    On Saturday, my lady and I traveled to DC once more, where we had brunch (that’s a thing I do now) at District Commons, which was pretty cool.  There was even some kind of sporting thing on the TV that I totally didn’t get.  But muscled people were running around and hanging on rings and such.  Then we walked to Georgetown, which I find to be a very pleasant place, even if the main drag is overcrowded with people who walk as slow as humanly possible.  And there we hit up the AMC theater to watch Lucy.  A lovely day.

Lucy:  This movie is pretty darned dumb, but it’s also kind of fun.  The very premise is laughable, and they never manage to sell it, as Morgan Freeman does his best to throw some 1950s movie science at you through awkward exposition.  But I’ve always enjoyed these ascendance stories.  I think it’s the Nietzschean in me.  Luc Besson is like Sam Raimi.  He hasn’t grown or evolved as a film maker in twenty years.  So the movie feels like a hodgepodge of his earlier work, mixed with elements of the cheesy action movies he’s produced over the years (Transporter, District B13, Kiss of the Dragon, etc.), even featuring the almost signature crappy techno music playing over the car chases.

The Flying Serpent:  Thank goodness this movie was less than an hour long.  This is the kind of thing that made Mystery Science Theater 3000 so good, but is kind of tough to watch on its own.  A bunch of bad actors do the various things it takes to move along a dumb plot.  The puppetry and flying footage of the titular serpent is surprisingly good considering the quality of the rest of the movie, but not so good as to be worth taking the time to see the film.

    The ending of vacations is always a bit sad.  But this was a good one, and I’m glad of it.  Up next, I definitely have to read Beasts of Burden, our next book club selection.  Maybe this week.  And I think I’ll be going to see Guardians of the Galaxy again.  Time will tell.

-Matthew J. Constantine

Brad's Week in Dork! (2/23/14-3/1/14)

I spent most of this week ticking off the last batch of Oscar Nominees, feverishly anticipating Sunday's Super Bowl.  I was perfectly content with my adequate consumption of the Major Nominees (12 Years A Slave, Gravity, August - Osage County, etc), but after I got wind of my friend Lindsey's plan to burn through ALL nominations, I kicked it up a notch.  Best Picture?  Best Actor?  Forget that.  Let's go crazy with Best Makeup, Sound Mixing, and Original Song!  Knocking out Bad Grampa & All Is Lost first thing, I spent most of the week working through the Animated Feature category.  The Croods, Despicable Me 2, Frozen, The Wind Rises.  Boy.  None of them really interested me during their initial releases, and I wouldn't have bothered if not for The Academy Awards.  Frankly, the only 2013 animated films I cared about were Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 (TACOZILLA!) and Escape From Planet Earth...yeah...well, you know...Shatner.  The less said about Monsters University, Planes, and the decline of Pixar the better.  Hell, 2014 is already looking brighter thanks to The Lego Movie, but let's cross fingers that How To Train Your Dragon 2 & The Box Trolls deliver this goods this year.

But as much fun as I had hopping back and forth from the Angelika to Landmark's Bethesda Row, my favorite theatrical experience of the week (and the best damn movie I watched) was the Alamo Drafthouse's Tough Guy Cinema screening of Streets of Fire.  Nice to see a crowd show up for Walter Hill's hyper stylized rock & roll fable, and as many times as I've fallen in love with Diane Lane's Ellen Aim, this was the first time I was utterly hypnotized by her opening performance.  Just wow.  One of my regular cinematic rants is how Jessica Alba totally fails as Nancy in Sin City, and watching Lane own that crowd and that camera just absolutely accentuated Alba's Frank Miller failure.  Diane Lane is astonishing in this movie.  So great to see this 80s oddity again, and I really need to track down a high def copy cuz Streets of Fire is a Once-A-Year-Watch for sure.  Easy to see why this is one of Matt's Favorite Films.

Jackass Presents - Bad Grandpa:  Like other Jackassy productions, there are a few cheap laughs to be found here, but how many times can you watch an asshole get kicked in the balls before you've had enough?  Somewhere Bob Saget is screaming, "NEVER!"  I do not like the candid camera format, tricking simpletons into gross-out scenarios is the lowest form of humor.  And I don't care how many dolts get fooled by Johnny Knoxville's latexed face, Bad Grampa has no business earning a Makeup & Hairstyle nomination.  Under the scrutiny of HD cameras, Grampa's mug looks like fat, sweaty putty.  It's not like the Oscars are free from W-T-F acknowledgements, but it hurts a little to see such a base concept receive encouragement.  Am I just a middle aged fuddy duddy?  Maybe.  But I'd rather watch a million subpar South Park episodes than witness Knoxville's stretched-out scrotum.

All Is Lost:  I very much enjoy watching the process of survival.  I love how this film has the confidence to trap its audience on the boat, and reveal character only through the tiniest bits of detail.  It's a great performance experiment, and All Is Lost succeeds with tension in ways that Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity stumbles about in cheap symbolism.  However, as I watched this late at night (or far too early in the morning), I found myself drifting around the halfway mark.  Not locked down in the theater seat, as each attempt at life fails, I lost interest in the hell this Old Man had created for himself. Maybe I do need a Wilson to talk to, or maybe an interior monologue.  Such concepts would certainly weaken the craft on display, but I just never fully engaged with Redford's plight.  Or I could have simply not been in the mood.

The Croods:  This one surprised me a bit.  Quest For Fire, but "For Kids!"  Nicolas Cage certainly works as the chromag dad terrified to venture out beyond his cave.  His voice lends an enthusiasm to his character in ways we haven't seen from him in a long, long time (about three or four Direct-to-DVDs ago).  Continental Drift forces the clan to explore their backyard, and it's a beautiful nightmare of owl-wovles & piranha-birds.  If you're at all familiar with the whacky, nonsensical design of the Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs films then you'll be happily equipped to handle the absurdity on display in the Land of the Lost.  The themes of curiosity & fear are simple, but important to the young audience, and The Croods is easily the most inventive looking film of the Animated Feature nominations.  A classic?  Naw.  But you know...fun for the whole family.

Despicable Me 2:  I do not care about Steve Carrell's Gru or his Good Dad/Bad Guy routine.  His story of romance and world domination holds zero interest.  But those minions?  They are just too cute for words.  I hate myself for loving them so much, but a ten second dream sequence in which one yellow fella falls head over heels for Kristen Wiig is abso-freaking-dorable.  And Isaac Washington Minion!!!  I want that toy now.  The rest of the movie?  Whatever.

Frozen:  This one suffered from the hype machine.  After weeks of friends, family, and co-workers telling me this is the best film Disney has released in ages, I was bound to finish Frozen with a lackluster spirit.  The film is pretty enough.  I dig the sibling love story.  The snowman character isn't even that annoying (shocker!).  But the film felt rushed to me.  Blinked and it was over.  I was disappointed when the real villain revealed himself, and the songs were Broadway light.  I should have seen this opening weekend, but with the world going ga-ga for Adele Dazeem, the contrarian in me wants to champion The Croods or The Wind Rises instead.  Not terrible.  It's on par with Tangled.  Good enough.

The Wind Rises:  "The Dream is Cursed."  I am not a worshiper at the alter of Miyazaki.  I've enjoyed a few of his films in the past (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away), but I've always felt a little alienated by the anime aesthetic.  Jingoism?  I've always feared that.  I like my cartoons Don Bluth.  Gasping Characters, Big Eyes, and Speed Lines?  No thanks.  American animation certainly has its own batch of annoyances, but my mind has remained shut on Anime & Manga since my 12 year old self first encountered it with Vampire Hunter D.  But I'm trying to grow.  Thanks to books like Gon, Domu, Lone Wolf & Cub, I'm more willing then ever to embrace Japan's greatest export.  Not to mention the sad fact that American Animation refuses to pull itself out of Mother Goose storytelling.  The closest we've come to exploring mature stories in the medium are Pixar's Up & Wes Andreson's Fantastic Mr. Fox.  Utterly pathetic.  The Wind Rises claims to be Miyazaki's farewell film, and I hope he sticks this landing as its a perfect sendoff.  Not the magical fantasy we've come to expect from the filmmaker, this film is a pseudo biography of airplane designer Jiro Horikoshi.  Doing his best to ignore the moral quandary of selling beauty to the military, and witnessing his art transformed into killing machines, Jiro battles apocalyptic nightmares and a doomed romance.  Filled with dread and sadness, I really enjoyed the dreamscape Jiro shares with Italian engineer Caproni; their conversations in regards to the airplanes military destiny contribute the film's greatest narrative meat.  The not-so-rom-com that occurs halfway through never seems fully realized, but there is enough misery there to complement the film's gloomy inevitability.  Not quite enough to make me a believer, as a fan of animation, it's obvious that I have to look outside my borders if I want to experience tales beyond fuzzy animals.

Streets of Fire:  When Ellen Aim (the breathtakingly badass Diane Lane) returns to her hometown for a rock show extravaganza, she's targeted by Willem Dafoe's Black Leather Motorcycle Club.  Kidnapped and dragged into the depths of retro 80s hell, Rick Moranis & Michael Pare assemble a squad of rock & roll weirdos (groupies! motowners! rockabilly bartenders, a lesbian, maybe!) to raid the biker bar and declare sledgehammer warfare.  As ex soldier Tom Cody, Pare delivers his super sincere one-liners with all of his acting might, and follicaly challenged facial hair.  He manages to bounce back & forth from the laughably ridiculous to the totally cool, something that only seems possible in that childhood decade.  The out-of-time reality and skyscraper performances condemn Streets of Fire as a cult favorite, but it's a Kool-Aid I don't mind drinking.  From the uber masculine mind that brought us 48 Hours, Southern Comfort, Extreme Prejudice,  and The Warriors, director Walter Hill was the master of the generational gem.  Streets of Fire is a rootin' tootin' crowd pleaser for stunted youth everywhere.

Rocky IV:  When I came home from The Alamo, I wanted to continue that thrill of 1980s cinema, and in my mind no other movie sums up the Reagan Era better than Sylvester Stallone's bombastic franchise killer.   Follow-up films were bound to fail after Rocky IV crushed communism's super science, resulting in the Berlin Wall's collapse.  Using the power of Montage (30 minutes worth in a 90 minute movie!), Rocky trains faster, harder, and beardier than his Giant Evil Foreign counterpart, avengers the death of Apollo Creed, and secures the love of his family through staged violence.  Plus, Paulie marries a robot!!!  Did the 80s produce better movies?  Raiders of the Lost Ark?  Blade Runner?  Raging Bull?  NOOOO!  It does not get better than "I Must Break You."  Case closed.

Omar:  Why are all "important" films so dang sad?  Watching through this year's nominees it's obvious that The Academy only has room in its heart to mope.  My quest for total Oscar domination brought me face-to-face with a lot of tragedies, and the Foreign Film category practically delivered me into a state of despair.  Omar is the story of a Palestinian revolutionary caught between his freedom fighter responsibilities and the love of a comrade's sister.  But as tensions build and plans result in death, imprisonment, more death, more imprisonment, and more death, I started to see Omar as less of a message movie, and more as a thrilling crime saga staged against the West Bank.  Think Donnie Brasco with the added bonus of systemized hatred.  I didn't leave the theater weepy as I did with Broken Circle Breakdown or The Hunt.  Instead it was a sensation more akin to surviving a James Ellroy novel.  A good time?  Actually...yeah.

The Invisible Woman:  After the boiling violence of Coriolanus, director Ralph Fiennes tackles the burdensome lust of every college professor's favorite novelist.  Having produced a litter of children and grown tired of his wife, the wandering eye of Charles Dickens lands on a supposedly talentless young actress.  They strike up an affair for some reason, causing a stir amongst the London press, and a not-so-secret shame for their family.  The film looks nice.  I suppose it earns its Wardrobe nomination.  Screenwriter Abi Morgan certainly frames the story in an intriguing fashion, and Fiennes pulls fine melodrama from his actors.  But the story left me cold.  I never fully understood the actions of the characters, nor did I ever really care.  The best I can say is that for thirty seconds or so while the film played I contemplated pulling the dusty Dickens off my book shelf.  But the moment passed.

The Book Thief:  I hated this movie.  A Hallmark Holocaust Adventure brought to you by the voice of God and John Williams's token Oscar nomination.  A young girl learns to read while Nazis burn books in the streets and hatred sweeps the nation in the most offensively banal depiction of World War II I have ever experienced.  I think it's all well and good to remember the horrors of the past.  In fact, it's deadly important.  Our society needs films like Schindler's List & 12 Years A Slave every decade or so as a reminder of human nature's horrific capability.  But The Book Thief delivers its message with about as much passion as an after school special.  It feels like a checkmark in a high school history class.  Infuriating.

Anchorman 2 - Supersized R Rated Edition:  Simply fascinating.  The narrative is the same.  Ron Burgundy travels to the big city unleashing the hell of the 24 hour news cycle upon our hapless society.  But half the jokes are different.  Improvised comedy is both wonderful and terrible.  You film one scene thirty different ways with thirty different lines, and suddenly you can cut thirty different films.  Or at least two solidly different films.  But I preferred the original Anchorman 2.  Maybe because it's jokes were better, but probably because it was my first experience with the script.  I still managed to laugh my ass of here, but the Supersized edition fascinated/perplexed me more than anything else.  A great bonus feature, but was it worth the second price of admission?  Still working it out.

--Brad

Matt’s Week in Dork! (2/23/14-3/1/14)

    Some weeks are lazy and restful, others are this one.  I spent much of this week away from the Matt-Pad, and quite frankly, my bed and I need a little quality time together.  But I did get to knock another of my all time favorite films off the ‘to see on the big screen’ list.  I also picked up, but haven't had time to listen to, the new St. Vincent cd.  Maybe next week.

Pompeii:  Brace yourselves.  I know you were expecting greatness.  But sadly, I must report that this movie was, in reality, quite terrible.  In 3D for some reason (it was the only showing we could make it to), the most impressive element of the movie was the writers’ Herculean effort to cram every obvious cliché and awkward turn of phrase imaginable into such a relatively short (but way, way too long) runtime.  A boy’s family is killed by an evil Roman (played by a terrible Kiefer Sutherland).  Of course, he then becomes the ultimate gladiator of Londinium, as we see all  the usual gladiator movie sequences.  Naturally, he attracts the attention of a powerful man, who then takes him to Pompeii, where, yes, you guessed it, the evil Kiefercus is being evil at the locals.  In the usual fashion, our gladiator hero (who somehow maintains not only an absolutely grueling gym routine from the looks of his abs, but is also a charismatic rebel leader in the making…I guess) wins the heart of a ridiculously modern woman (Her slave-girl is her bestie, she loves horses, and she’s so against the oppression of Rome and stuff, or whatever. And that slave boy who likes horses, too?  Oh, he’s just too dreamy.).  Then he befriends (wait for it) a black gladiator, who has a well rounded and deep background that makes you care so much for him.  You see, he’s…Um…He’s a black gladiator…And he, um…Well, he wants to be free.  Or something.  Whatever.  That’s what they did in Spartacus and Gladiator, so that’s what they’re gonna do here.  And after every scene ends with a shot of the mountain, the mountain explodes.  But don’t worry (they’re not), there’s still plenty of sequences of people chatting, leisurely looking into each others’ eyes, and generally not running the hell away from the exploding mountain.  I’d say they broadcast all the twists, but there aren’t any.  This is a shoddy, boring rehash of every flipping Sword & Sandals movie ever made.  When it’s not defying logic and sense, it’s denying excitement and charm.  And at no point in this film are you unaware that it’s PG-13.  It’s bloodless, sexless, and toothless.

101 Dalmatians:  This early 60s Disney film has a good story, with plenty of adventure, and not a lot of time wasting.  It’s quick, it’s cute, and it’s got plenty of heart.  Cruella De Vil is a solid, demented villain, with a couple of fun, dopy henchmen.  After being disappointed with my recent viewing of Alice in Wonderland, it was nice to see a good Disney cartoon from its classic age.  And Rod Taylor!

Vikings Season One:  This is a show I’m pretty darned shocked to find myself really enjoying.  It starts out kind of wonky, but by the mid-point of the season, I was on board, and by the season finale, I was excited to see what would happen next.  It occasionally feels a bit restrained, probably in light of shows like Game of Thrones, which could never be accused of restraint.  But it’s pretty violent and full of complexity that I find refreshing.  Ragnar is no angel, his wife no saint.  But as a pair, they’re fascinating to watch.  And the rest of the cast is pretty good.  The only major issue I have with the first season is Gabriel Byrne.  I like Byrne, but every time he was on screen, it felt like the writers left the room.  I don’t know what was going on, or what the thinking was, but his character was not well written, plotted, or thought through.  Still, overall, a surprisingly good show.

Streets of Fire:  “Tonight is what it means to be young.”  I just love this movie (it’s #15 on my all time favorites list).  And finally, thanks to the Alamo Drafthouse, I got a chance to see it on the big screen.  Like Brazil, it’s set in a no-time/no-place that I find particularly appealing in its 80s/50s way.  The characters are all archetypes, the story is basic Western, and the music is wonderfully eclectic, from sleazy Rockabilly to operatic Jim Steinman, and the acting is…well, it’s charming.  I love the action and the attitude.  There really aren’t a lot of other films out there quite like this one.  It is part of that 80s thing, where if you dance or rock hard enough, you can change the world.  But it’s so much more than that.  Watching it puts a big smile on my face.  But like a lot of films that came out before the advent of the internet and modern hipsters, you’ve got to watch it with your heart on your sleeve, and without a cynical thought in your head.  Just bask in the fantasy of this Rock and Roll Fantasy.

Mr. Nobody:  What can one say about a movie like this?  I think it comes down to ‘did you enjoy the ride?’  And in my case, yes I did.  A meditation on the paths life takes, the paths it might have, and everything in between.  And some stuff about string theory and the multiverse.  Sure.  The actors are all good, though it almost felt like casting Sarah Polley as the horrible, depressed woman was stunt casting.  She’s so very good at making you hate her, it’s like a superpower.  And she’s rockin’ it in this movie.  Almost every time she opened her mouth, I wanted to Lennie Small her ass.  It’s a head scratcher, for sure.  And it’s not going to be for everyone.  But for this cat, I think it’ll require an eventual re-watch, and I may just come to really enjoy it.  I do like at least part of its message, about the value of different paths and different lives.  It’ll make you think.  I’m sure for a philosophy major, it’s pretty shallow, but compared to pap like Gravity, it’s pretty good.

Magnificent Butcher:  This is a bit of a challenge.  On the one hand, the fighting is pretty cool, and a lot of various and sometimes somewhat obscure forms are on display.  Great.  However, the tone is so all over the map that it becomes distracting.  For the first half, it’s all pretty light hearted, with comic misunderstandings and occasional brawls.  Then a guy gets too handsy with a woman…then murder.  Cold blooded murder while failing to sexually assault.  Um.  That’s not funny.  And then, a moment later, a comedy scene about finding the body.  What?  From there on, it’s up and down, from comic to brutal as various kung fu fighters clash, goof, and kill.  Even the final battle feels pretty awkward, as the ‘evil’ master isn’t really that bad, and he’s trying to avenge his son.  And then it ends on a laugh.  OK.  Chinese comedy has never played that well with me, and this is no exception.  But the fighting is really cool.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (extended version):  I don’t know if I simply wasn’t in the right mood, or if I responded better to the takes used in this version, but I enjoyed myself a heck of a lot more the second time around.  From the musical number and the Spider-Man hate, to the alternate family dinner scene, I found myself more engaged and getting more belly laughs.  Unlike Anchorman’s alternate version Wake Up Ron Burgundy, this extended cut is essentially the same film from a story standpoint, but with many alternate takes and extra scenes.  I think this felt more in tune with what I loved about the first film.  But again, it may have been different circumstances that led to a different opinion.  I don’t know.

5 Centimeters Per Second:  This is the third film I’ve seen from writer/director Makoto Shinkai, and if he’s not careful, he might start to change my overall feelings toward anime.  Voices of a Distant Star and The Place Promised in Our Early Days were very effecting, beautifully animated movies that practically burn with intense nostalgia.  And I mean ‘nostalgia,’ the mix of happiness, sadness, and longing.  Though his character design is in keeping with the near ubiquitous style of Japanese animation (simple shapes, androgyny, big eyes, and pointy chins) the rest of the film stands out as a visual feast.  His color palette, framing, and detail are all gorgeous.  This film consists of three short stories, each dealing with hearts at a distance, coming together and moving apart.  Though I found the final story a bit of a let down, I think it does work with the whole, and it gets the message of the film across.  It just wasn’t as satisfying as the first two.  Shinkai’s work is something I’m going to keep my eye out for.  His is a voice I want to hear more from.

    On Saturday, Satnam and I got the material and did preliminary work on building the set for the film he’ll be shooting in a few weeks.  You can sure see how having a budget would make the potential set more interesting, more detailed.  I think what we’ve got will be fine, and most importantly, won’t distract from the acting.  But with a few thousand dollars, a couple of trained artists/builders, and a few weeks of work, I could see building a really good set.  It makes me think again about my idea for doing a public access type sci-fi show.  I think it could be done.

It looked nothing like this.

    Later on Saturday, we got together for another meeting of the graphic novel discussion group to talk about Thor: God of Thunder.  The group was a bit smaller than usual, but still a good turn out.  I was surprised and somewhat dismayed to find the feelings on the book divided mostly on gender lines.  At no point while I was reading the book did that come into my head as a possible problem point.  It’s dealing with religion was what I thought would get the most disagreement.  I loved the book, and it wasn’t about getting in touch with my 12 year old self.  It was more about enjoying a classically mythological tale told within the Marvel universe.

    So, that was the week, and this next one is already looking brutal.  When did I become this guy?  When did I get such a busy and active social life?  I’m still the same introvert I always was.  I still need to go home, hide in my room, and not deal with people.  That time to recharge has been limited recently, and I’m going to have to do something about that before too long.  Still, a lot of good memories being made.

-Matt