May 22, 2007
Heath Ledger as The Joker
I wasn't sure about the casting of Heath Ledger as The Joker in the new Batman movie, but this creepy shot gives me hope that the movie will be pretty darned awesome.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 03:41 PM | Comments (0)
August 18, 2006
My ride is sweeter than Haley Joel Osment's
It's bad enough that Haley Joel Osment got caught for a DUI (twice the legal blood alcohol limit... yikes), but the most embarrassing part of this story is saved for the very end:
Authorities said Osment was driving home alone about 1 a.m. when his 1995 Saturn hit a mailbox and flipped over.
This kid, who should be rich enough to commute to work in the Space Shuttle, has a car that's older than mine? I mean, a 1995 Ferrari you might overlook, but a 1995 Saturn? He better hope he never meets me at a red light, as I will smoke him in my 1999 SC2. His is probably too old to even have the uber-cool third door.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 01:09 AM | Comments (1)
Lots of movies
I've been working a lot lately, which means I've also been watching a lot of my often-neglected DVD library. I tend to watch a certain kind of movie when I'm working -- generally speaking, something I don't have to watch very closely. It's usually a good time to watch old favorites over again or, more often, to watch movies that I'd otherwise not be able to sit through at full attention.
In a nutshell, here's what I've seen lately:
Die Hard: An unbelievably entertaining movie. It baffles me that they don't, or can't, make action movies like this anymore. Characters you care about, funny dialogue, evil bad guys, great special effects, no CG. I saw this movie in the summer before tenth grade and almost twenty years later, it's still perfection. DVD master is pretty soft, though, even on the "5-Star Special Edition."
Titan A.E.: Boy, but this movie is lame. It had potential, but instead we get Jeanine Garofalo as a bowlegged kangaroo. This movie mines every cliche in the book, and sucks at all of them. The Joss Whedon writing credit fails to surprise me.
Arthur: Not a movie that's aged well, especially with the crapola 4:3 DVD that looks like a VHS master. Public drunkenness has lost a lot of its humor over the years, and it's hard to remember that Liza Minelli wasn't supposed to be kinda creepy.
Deep Blue Sea: This is far from a good movie, but it works on its own ludicrous terms. The fact that you can summarize this dumb movie in two dumb words -- "smart sharks" -- says everything about it. Absurdly cornball, but a good time.
Final Fantasy: Hmmm... this is a tough one. It's still, five years later, amazing to look at, but the plot makes zero sense. Still, no one's made a pure CG movie that looks as good to me.
Alien: Resurrection: Another Joss Whedon-penned stinkbomb. The "extended" (not a director's cut, says the director, because he loves the original) DVD edition doesn't help matters much, as the movie is unimpressive at any length. I'm not a big fan of when Fincher did with Alien3, but that movie at least had some vision. This one has a cockeyed Dan Hedaya and Whedon's usual "troupe of rag-tag, wiseacre troublemakers" that he seems to stock all of his creations with. Bleh.
Nacho Libre: I do get out once in a great while. Frankly, a disappointment, even as a Jack Black fan. Some funny moments, but in a reasonable world, this is a direct-to-video movie.
Miami Vice: Michael Mann stumbles big time. Dull, ugly, lifeless. No characters you can remember and everyone looks like they need a bath.
Requiem for a Dream: Happy little flick. There's something compellingly rewatchable about it, though. I've probably seen it four times now and it's really a movie with a sense of propulsion.
Fargo: One of my favorites. If ever there was a movie with characters you care about, it's this one. Frances McDormand and William H. Macy are both perfect. She gets most of the attention, but he's not to be missed.
A Mighty Wind: Everyone seems to talk about "Best in Show," but I prefer this Christopher Guest mockumentary about three groups of folk singers coming together to play a concert, and it's great. It's worth watching just to look at Parker Posey's goofy facial expressions when she sings. Best described as "Spinal Tap" meets "A Prairie Home Companion" (the show, not the movie).
Superman II: Has aged exceedingly poorly, especially compared with the original. Hopefully the Donner version coming out this winter will redeem it, because I'm a little embarrassed at how much I used to like this cheesy thing.
The Producers: "I feel on my keys" may not read funny, but Gene Wilder's delivery makes this perhaps my favorite line in all of American comedy. The remakes have kind of overblown the whole "Producers" thing, but the original movie is still a gem.
Magnolia: I've gone back and forth with this movie. When I first saw it, I thought it was brilliant. Later, I had trouble watching it through again, finding it ponderous and self-indulgent. Now, I think it's pretty brilliant again.
Sideways: When I first saw this one, I thought it was a little overrated. With a couple of years distance from the Oscar hype, I enjoyed it a lot more. Giamatti was robbed, as he's perfect. The scene where he's broken into the waitress' house and shifts his eyes back and forth between the wallet and, er, her and her husband should have won him a Best Actor Oscar all by itself.
Dogma: I hate to say it, but I'm just not a big fan of Kevin Smith movies. It's nothing personal, as he seems to be a really cool guy, but it's all a little too self-aware and self-reverential for me. I get tired of playing "spot the cameo" or "identify the hip reference" and just want to enjoy a movie. It's like hanging out with a group of people who have scads of private slang and in-jokes to which you're not really privvy, but they keep you in the dark so they can feel cooler than you.
Being John Malkovich: Another movie that I enjoyed more separated from the hype. Funny, interesting, more than a little weird. Some very good performances. It all starts to fall apart by the end, but it's worth the ride.
Adaptation: BJM's spiritual (and, I think, superior) sequel. I read on IMDB that Nicholas Cage ignored his usual acting style and did exactly what Spike Jonze told him to. That was good advice, as he really nailed the schlubby Kaufman brothers. Again, the end loses its center, but it's fun while it lasts. Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper are great.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: A classic "while I'm working" movie. There's some awful moments in this movie (all of the jokes fall flat) and some really solid set pieces (the rope bridge, the mine cart, the terrific opening sequence). It's the worst of a great trilogy, which, in this case, isn't such a bad thing. Kate Capsaw kinda Jar Jars up the movie, though.
Star Trek: First Contact: I was a little resistant to this movie when it first came out because of all the fanboy salivation, but it's actually quite good. Definitely among the best of the Trek movies (a low threshold) and definitely the best of the Next Generation movies (a very low threshold). This one works, though all the time travel stuff is a little too convenient for my taste.
Cliffhanger: Hmmm. I should, by all rights, hate this movie, but it's hard to turn off. It was free on Comcast HD, so I felt fairly compelled to watch it. It's way stupid, but has a certain idiotic charm. This was John Lithgow's "Raising Cain" over-the-top period before "3rd Rock from the Sun," so he camps it up something fierce. It does have the most absurd robbery sequence I think I've ever seen, so that's something.
Dog Day Afternoon: "Attica!" aside, this is actually a very reserved performance by Pacino. The movie captures the period of the mid-70s with great detail, and is such an efficient piece of storytelling that it's hard to turn away from. It kept me up past 2 a.m. one night, which says something.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 01:02 AM | Comments (0)
June 29, 2006
Superman Returns
Saw Superman last night. I was fairly happy with it, though it has some pretty egregious flaws. Tons of fanservice for people who love the earlier movies (as I do), but it has all the hallmarks of a movie that was in development hell for a long time. Mario Puzo should have been given a writing credit, as much of the dialogue is lifted straight from the first movie.
The special effects are mostly great, though there isn't a lot that you've never seen before. The $260M definitely isn't all on the screen.
Casting is a mixed bag -- Routh is very good at playing Christopher Reeve, Spacey plays Spacey playing Lex Luthor, Frank Langella is good at playing Jackie Cooper playing Perry White. Kate Bosworth is pretty lousy, though, as is the kid who plays her offspring. Was Jake Lloyd not available?
Spoilers follow...
Things I didn't like:
The kid: Why, why, why did they make him Superman's son? The scene where he's revealed as having latent super powers almost torpedoed the whole movie for me. As it was happening, I really wanted to erase the scene from my mind. I was hoping was that the "big shock" was that he *wasn't* Superman's kid. He didn't seem to have any personality at all. The speech that Superman gives him at the end (the same speech Jor-El gave to him at the beginning of "Superman") is touching in its way, but I didn't want him to have to give it.
Parker Posey: Bring back Valerie Perrine. PP was just terribly cast in this role and, save for a funny line or two, brings down every scene she's in.
Lex's plan: The plan in "Superman" made a perverse kind of sense -- buy up all the cheap desert land in the southwest, then blow up the San Andreas Fault to make it all beachfront property. In this movie, he's going to destroy the entire United States and replace it with black crystal Fortress of Solitude property that he thinks people are going to want to buy from him? Unlivable, inarable land with steep cliffs laden with radioactive rocks. This is not a plan he thought through very well.
Superman in the hospital: Unnecessary scene. Cut it out.
Lois' fiance: Unnecessary character. Cut him out. Although he's the only one who seems smart enough to realize that Clark's 5-year absence and Superman's 5-year absence might have something in common, in addition to their physical similarities.
Opening title sequence: This is tough because they pay really awesome homage to the opening titles of "Superman", music and all, but they put it all over this obnoxious galactic flyby with gratuitous special effects. The original "Superman" credits were classy and awe-inspiring. "Superman Returns"'s credits are more motion-sickness inducing.
Kate Bosworth: Again, not very well cast. Very pretty, but lacking in any edge. I didn't buy her as a reporter.
The heist: There's a silly sequence on the roof of a bank (I think it was a bank) that's ostensibly being robbed. The robbers have not only a helicopter, but a gigantic emplaced machine gun that requires a small crane to move around. It's a cool sequence when the bullets bounce off of Superman's chest (and eye), but in what kind of a world is this a remotely plausible to rob a bank?
Superman vs. Lex: There's no payoff to their longtime rivalry. The scenes with Gene Hackman and Christopher Reeve had snappy dialogue and, even though Hackman played the role like a car salesman, he had a nice sense of menace. The two characters barely appear onscreen together in this movie.
All that said, I did generally like the movie when taken as "Superman" fanservice. There are some great moments and some really nice homage moments to the original movies, but it's not nearly what it could have been.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)
March 05, 2006
Congrats to Eric and PaulyO
Oscar Pool 2006 is behind us and, thanks to my annual idiotic tiebreaker which never actually breaks the tie, we end in a tie. PaulyO and Eric both hit with 18 correct picks. I trailed at 15 and Melissa with a nine.
Having watched "Crash" over the weekend, only Hollywood-style liberal guilt could propel that movie to best picture. "Capote" was better; "Good Night, and Good Luck." was better. I didn't see "Brokeback Mountain" yet, but I'm willing to believe that it was better too. "Crash" wasn't bad, but it was preachy, contrived and obvious.
Nice job by Jon Stewart -- nothing spectacular, but he kept the show moving and got a couple laughs here and there. Liked the faux policial ads and the gay western montage. Reese Witherspoon had the best speech of the night, but that wasn't difficult.
I'm fairly convinced that the role of Dolly Parton was played by a Dollywood automaton.
That is all... if you want the list of scores, here you go. Good night, and see you next year.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 11:25 PM | Comments (0)
March 02, 2006
Clontzville.com Oscar Pool 2006!
It's that time again -- the eighth Clontzville.com Oscar Pool. Better late than never. Enter to win... something, maybe, and come back on Oscar night during the show for live scoring! Live scoring is here!Posted by Lee Clontz at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2005
Revenge of the Sith, baby!
The first movie I ever remember seeing is "Star Wars." I was four years old in 1977 and the memories of that movie are still with me. My Mom would stop on the way home to pick up an action figure that I'd lost or broken. I tried to collect a whole squad of stormtroopers (I think I had three). I wanted to be Luke Skywalker, and my entire childhood was rendered in shades of opening scroll yellow and closing credits blue.
"The Empire Strikes Back" came out in 1980. My Dad took me to see it, as he always did, over and over again. The first time we couldn't get into the showing we wanted to see so we sat outside the theater for three hours waiting for it to end, this being before the days of the 24 screen multiplex. "Return of the Jedi" came three years later. I was 10 and my Mom and aunt took me and my cousin Joey out of school to see it at the now-defunct Northwoods Mall Cinema in Charleston. I'll never forget the excitement of that day, watching the Death Star II explode over and over, first on screen, then on video. My friend Rob and I watched them incessantly on the weekends throughout my teen years.
Obviously, I was an adult for "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones," and, while I liked the movies a great deal, it was easier to see their flaws (and they were more inherently flawed, particularly TPM). Still, I had the colors, the music and the sounds and the promise of what was to come.
Why these movies? Who knows? Someone commented in an earlier post about why someone who likes to read and write likes movies that are so dubiously written. A psychiatrist would probably say that it has something to do with the movie's focus on the innate bond between fathers and sons and the trials that relationship brings. Maybe it's the story's classic, almost cliched view of good and evil (good guys wear white, bad guys wear black, Han Solo wears a little of both). Maybe it's the laser guns. All I know is that these movies have, in so many ways, defined my childhood, adolescence and, increasingly, adulthood as well.
At midnight + 1 last night, I saw the last "Star Wars" movie there will ever be -- "Revenge of the Sith." Don't worry; I won't spoil anything. There seems to be a misinformation campaign about, as a lot of the things I heard didn't end up being in the movie, and some things I hadn't expected showed up.
The theater was insane, with costumed members of the 501st in full regalia, as well, as amateurs trotting out their hair buns, Jango Fett armor and, in one memorable case, a full-fledged slave Leia outfit. Not sure I'd want to sit in a movie theater seat in that, but whatever floats one's boat.
But the real question is, is the movie any good? Does it suffer from the lousy dialogue of AotC? The boring meetings of TPM? The deathly mid-movie lull of RotJ?
I'll put it this way: if you're a "Star Wars" fan, this may be the best movie you'll ever see.
Bear in mind that this is the sixth movie, so it's pretty "Inside Baseball," rather like walking into "Return of the King" having not seen the earlier films. If you're not a "Star Wars" fan, a lot may be lost on you. I watched both prequels the week before going to see this one, and I'm glad I did, as there are definitely some subtleties I might have missed.
"Revenge of the Sith" wraps up, in a few cases too conveniently, most of the threads that tie the prequel trilogy and the later movies together. The fates of all the main characters are set toward their destinies in Eps. IV-VI here and, by and large, it's all very effective.
The CGI is orders of magnitude beyond anything in either of the earlier prequels. Insanely detailed, beautiful and, for the most part, seamless. Characters look like they're where they supposed to be instead of a blue screen. The activity in the background is constant, giving every scene a sense of real life, even if you do catch yourself trying to take everything in. It's a cliche, but seeing it once just isn't enough. There's so much to see that you'll miss a lot the first time.
The writing and particularly the acting are much improved. Lucas supposedly had a ghost rewrite by Tom Stoppard and it shows. There's still the usual tin ear dialogue, but after six movies, you either enjoy it, don't mind it, or probably need to find another franchise. The good news is that there's little talk of trade routes, treaties and franchises and much more about the nature, motivations and lure of the dark side of the Force. Freed of those constraints, the actors seem much more at ease, both with each other and the material. Hayden isn't annoying, Natalie isn't wooden. Samuel seems more than just grouchy. The whole thing works, especially Ian McDarmid.
The CGI, again, is striking. Yoda is now a fully realized character, walking and talking seamlessly with everyone else. In many ways, he's more human than the humans.
Put simply, I loved this movie. I'm seeing it again on Saturday and I'll see it again many times in the future. It's dark, really dark, but it gives the "Star Wars" series a sendoff it deserves. I can't wait until I can buy Ry a flashlight lightsaber and watch it with him.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 11:18 AM
May 12, 2005
It's Alive... ALIVE!
I was talking with some friends about how combining George Lucas and Bill Clinton would create the ultimate person, kind of like the Six Million Dollar Man (although they're both worth a lot more than that puny figure). A few minutes in Photoshop and here he is: the model for the ultimate human being.
I call him... GEORGE CLINTON.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 02:31 PM