Happy Thanksgiving!

So it's Thanksgiving day and I’m back with another entry! Before I get started with my reviews of the films of late summer and fall 2005, I’d like to briefly mention an older movie that I finally got around to watching – School of Rock. This was a movie that I was pretty sure I was going to like (I’ve always liked Jack Black – can't wait to see him in King Kong), but I have to say, I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed it. This movie was just really, really cool! It was fun and light-hearted, and filled with rock music. What more can you ask from a movie? If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend that you do. And if you have seen it – well then, go see it again!! It’s just that good!

And now, on with the reviews for this year. After the tragic and painful weekend that brought us War of the Worlds, the next weekend brought with it two more movies that I’d really been looking forward to seeing (and thank God neither one was the horrid disappointment that War of the Worlds was) – Fantastic Four, and the US remake of Dark Water starring Jennifer Connelly. Let’s start with Fantastic Four. This movie I loved! It was everything a good summer comic book blockbuster should be – it was action-packed, it had some really good special effects, it actually had characters you could identify with and root for, it had a great bad guy, the works. Admittedly, it’s not what you’d call a Best Picture nominee (but what summer blockbuster is?), and I know a few people that thought it was kind of silly, but I loved it. I think what most drew me into the movie was the characters. While they did update their origins (which is to be expected), and they did mess with Dr. Doom’s origin, and gave him powers I don’t believe he ever had in the comic book, they still did a fantastic job (pardon the pun) in getting the personalities of the characters right. And to me, that’s what counts more than anything in a good comic book movie.

Bottom line, you can’t keep the story perfectly true to the source material. It just isn’t possible. You’ve got decades worth of stories that you’re trying to condense into a 2-hour movie. You’re just not going to do it. Not to mention that science has evolved enough since these comics first came out that you have to update them to make the movie more believable, and not appear dated (hence Peter Parker gets bitten by a genetically enhanced spider as opposed to a radioactive spider, for example). So the goal instead should be to stay true to the essence of the original stories, and more importantly, to stay true to the personalities of the characters. Fantastic Four does a wonderful job of this, and for me that more than anything made it a great movie (this is the same thing that made both the Spider-man and X-Men franchises so great, and was partly why I was somewhat disappointed with Daredevil). The critics didn’t like Fantastic Four, naturally, but what do they know? Admittedly, it wasn't quite as good as some of the earlier superhero franchises that are out, but considering how incredibly amazing those movies are, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Let's face it– it's going to take quite the movie to be in the same league as the Spider-man and X-Men films, but just because this doesn't quite reach that level doesn't mean that it's not a really good movie.

It’s a toss up for me as to which I preferred more this year, Fantastic Four or Batman Begins (I like the fact that Batman Begins was a darker, more serious movie, but being a really, really big fan of the Batman comics (and not much of a Fantastic Four reader), I’m also a lot more picky about how the movie versions for it are done), but they were both definitely great movies worth seeing again. I haven’t picked up Batman Begins yet on DVD (mainly because the initial DVD release was a completely no frills rental release version that I refuse to pay money for, especially when it’s almost a certainty that at some point they’ll release a special edition filled with all kinds of extras), but once a special edition version is released, I almost certainly will.

Our other beginning of July release was the remake of Dark Water. Now first I have to say that I have the original Japanese version of Dark Water on DVD and I absolutely loved it (it is directed by Hideo Nakata, director of the original Ringu films, as well as The Ring Two in the US), so the remake was going to have to be pretty damned spectacular for me to enjoy it more than the original. Sadly, it wasn’t. Which isn’t to say that it was a bad movie, because it wasn’t. It very much built up the tension well (although not as well as the original), and I think Jennifer Connelly did a great job with the character. I think you really get to know the characters well, and take an active interest in what’s happening to them as the movie plays out. The big problem, though, is with the ending. The original film’s ending completely hits you out of the blue and really throws you for a loop. And the epilogue at the end is beautiful and touching and wonderfully handled. The ending to the remake, however, just feels rushed and it doesn’t surprise you at all (even if you haven’t seen the original). And let’s face it, when it comes right down to it, a movie is all about the ending. You can have a great movie all the way through, but if the ending falls flat, that’s the biggest thing the audience is going to take away with them when they leave the theater. And that’s what happened to me when I saw Dark Water.

The critics actually gave it some pretty good reviews, especially for a horror movie, which I like, and I have to agree with. If I hadn’t seen the original, I’d probably have rated the remake a little bit higher. But having seen both versions, I’d have to say 2 1/2 stars for the remake, and 4 1/2 stars for the original (if you like Japanese suspense/horror movies at all, I’d highly recommend seeing the original).

The following weekend brought us two of the absolute best movies of the summer – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Wedding Crashers. It was pretty much a given that Charlie and The Chocolate Factory was going to be a great movie – when you combine the talents of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp with such a wonderful, classic story, you know you can expect great cinema (then again, a lot of people figured that would be the case with this year’s Spielberg/Cruise team-up, and look at how THAT turned out. Luckily such was NOT the case here). I would have to rate this movie as easily 3rd best for the year so far (after Serenity and Sin City). And it came really, really close to tying with Sin City for 2nd place. Let’s start with what was easily the best part of the movie – Johnny Depp. The man is brilliant. That’s all there is to it. He completely inhabits the character (at times you have to remind yourself that it is actually Johnny Depp that you’re watching). And unlike Gene Wilder’s happy-go-lucky Willy Wonka from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, Depp very much presents us with a character that you can easily believe has spent most of his life by himself locked away from the rest of the world. The way in which he interacts with the children and their parents is inspired.

The story here is much closer to the book, and anyone expecting the original movie is likely to be highly disappointed. But for me, this version is leaps and bounds better. About the only thing I’d say I preferred with the original (and don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the first one and think it’s a great movie; the new one is just much better) is the oompa loompa songs. In the new movie they tried to update the songs and make each one a different style of modern music, which isn’t necessarily bad, but the originals were just such timeless little tunes that I don’t think you can really improve upon them. But other than that, I don’t think there’s anything bad I can say about this movie. And it’s finally out on DVD!! I have it in my hot little hands and will hopefully be watching it today! And unlike Batman Begins, they actually released a 2-disk Special Edition at the same time as they release the boring, no-frills version for the Wal-Mart crowd.

Next up we have Wedding Crashers, a surprisingly good (and surprisingly R-rated) comedy. I went to this mainly because I loved Vince Vaughn in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and expected another goofy, fun-filled movie like that. It fits that description, all right, but I didn’t pay attention to the rating, and so was expecting a PG-13 film (since that's become the rating of choice for movies these days to try and attract the widest audience). So when the first topless women show up early in the movie, I was very surprised (pleasantly so, mind you, but still surprised). Of course, that also made me initially nervous, because once I realized what it was rated, I halfway expected it to turn into a gross out comedy along the lines of the American Pie films (not that I have anything against those sorts of movies, per se, but some of the gross “humor” in those sorts of movies I can do without). Luckily this is not what you get with Wedding Crashers. It is much more like the old cheesy sex comedies of the 80s, that were goofy and funny and nudity filled and politically incorrect without being juvenile and disgusting and trying their best to push the boundaries of good taste like most R-rated comedies these days are. This is the sort of R-rated comedy that I’d love to see more of. And considering that it was a very solid hit at the box office (especially considering it’s rating), we can only hope that more movies of this type will follow.

Well, that’s probably enough for today’s entry. This puts me halfway through July. Next entry we’ll finish July up and maybe move into August (depending on how many movies are left in July that are worth commenting on). See you all then! :-)

Oh, one final quick comment. Went to the midnight premiere showing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last Thursday. That movie rocked!! It was SO much better than the previous one. I can't wait to see it again. If you haven't seen, what are you waiting for?!?

War of the Worlds -- What a Waste!!

Finally got another post completed! It’s amazing how much time you lose when you take a few trips out of town and then the new TV season starts and you’re enjoying your new DVR WAAAAYYYY too much (I actually think I had something like 70 or 80 hours of TV shows & movies recorded at one point. Admittedly, I'd been out of town for about 4 days, but it was till pretty out of control). But I’m FINALLY getting back to it. I'm caught up on my TV watching, I've watched quite a few of the movies (although lord knows I've got plenty left), and now it's time to get moving forward again with my blog! Of course, the first thing I had to do was go in and clean out some of the comments on my blogs and turn on word verification for comments to deal with the wonderful spammers out there (what a joy!). Those of you actually reading my blog on occasion should please post comments on now and then, just so I know you’re out there. Or not. Hell, I’ve been talking to myself for years, so why change now? ;-P

So two weeks went by after Batman Begins before I saw another movie at the theater. In the intervening period, 4 movies came out that I didn’t get around to seeing: The Perfect Man, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Bewitched, and George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead. Of those, there was only one that I actually had any interest in seeing at all (and if you guessed anything other than the last one, you obviously haven’t been paying much attention to my previous blog entries). It’s one I still want to see, but I just never got around to getting to it while it was at the theaters.

So following these came the highly, highly anticipated sci-fi thriller collaboration between Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise – War of the Worlds. Pretty much a must see for any sci-fi fan, so naturally I made sure I saw it at the theater. Well, I shouldn’t have wasted my money. And I truly wish I could have gotten this review out soon enough to prevent others from wasting their money. If this movie isn’t worst movie of the year so far, I don’t know what is. Hell, this thing even beat out a certain other horribly, horribly disappointing sci-fi film that came out back in May (that I don’t even want to name, or I’ll start going off on it again). That movie at least had some pretty cool space battles in it, even if they were cut way too short so the writer/director could have more boring scenes filled with crappy dialogue (see, there I go). War of the Worlds doesn’t even have THAT going for it!

Believe me, I wanted to like this movie. I tried to like this movie. Really I did. Even after a good friend of mine who managed to see it before I did warned me that it was really disappointing, I still went in with an open mind, hopeful of at least a fun movie, if not an intellectually stirring movie. Even as the movie got more and more progressively dumber and more pointless, STILL I tried my best to focus on the positive elements. Finally about halfway through the movie I was forced to accept that the movie just didn’t have any real redeeming values (okay, so Dakota Fanning gave a wonderful performance like she always does, but she just doesn't add enough to the movie to make it worth seeing). And it just kept getting worse and worse and worse!! So why did I find this to be such an incredible waste of time and money? Where do I start?!

There are spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen the film yet – well, keep reading so you’ll know why NOT to bother seeing it. In movies like this, there’s naturally a certain amount of suspension of disbelief required. That’s a given. So when the aliens send out some sort of EMP blast that shorts out everything electrical, and Tom Cruise is the only person who knows exactly what part to replace in a car’s engine so that he has a working vehicle when no one else does, you just accept that as standard Hollywood nonsense and don't let it bother you. But when he’s running from the aliens as they’re blasting everyone with their disintegration rays, and they zap people on both sides of him but somehow manage to miss just Tom Cruise, that’s pushing believability a little too much for me, especially when it is as incredibly, horribly blatant as it is in this scene. And it gets worse from there (as hard as that is to believe)! Scene after scene, Cruise and his kids somehow manage to barely escape from the aliens while everyone around them is getting killed.

I can more or less put up with this sort of stuff as part of your standard, cheesy Hollywood action blockbuster. Let’s face it, there are a lot of movies out there that do about the same thing, but there’s enough action and explosions and chase scenes and cool effects that you can forgive quite a lot and just enjoy it as a mindless popcorn movie (although War of the Worlds pushes that limit even for me, and I’m pretty forgiving, especially when it’s not just an action movie, but an action sci-fi movie). But then the movie takes this bizarre morbid twist as it attempts to become a sci-fi thriller or something, and we suddenly find our hero and his daughter in a basement with Tim Robbins. I won’t go into the details, but the scene ends with Tom Cruise killing Tim Robbins. It’s just a weird, grim, pointless scene. And the movie steadily loses coherence from there. And of course it has to have the sickly sweet Hollywood happy ending where we find out that the son who disappeared and was presumed dead halfway through the movie is really alive and well and with his mom waiting for Dad and sister to arrive. How lame and predictable and disappointing is that??? You’d think Spielberg of all people would know better than to deliver such a cookie cutter, by-the-numbers ending, predictable Hollywood ending. Come on, let's show at least a little originality!

The only positive thing about this whole mess is that the original story ended in such a way as to pretty much rule out any possibility of a sequel (which is a good thing, because despite being a horrid piece of trash, it made enough at the box office to absolutely guarantee at least a trilogy if it wasn’t for the fact that the original story doesn’t really leave room for anything further). Admittedly there was a TV show a number of years ago that put forth the idea that some of the aliens DID survive by taking over human bodies and plotting the overthrow of Earth from there (and it was actually a surprisingly good show for the couple of seasons it was on), but somehow I don’t see that idea really working as a movie sequel (thank God!). Well, that’s it for this entry. More to follow hopefully before too long (and looking at the next movies, I should actually have some POSITIVE reviews in store for you). I have decided, however, that because of how far behind I am and how much trouble I’ve been having finding time to work on my blog, my next entry will more than likely just be a quick overview of the rest of the summer and fall, just covering the highlights of movies I saw, as opposed to the full reviews that I’ve been doing. That way I can get caught and actually start writing about movies that just came out! :-)

Serenity, of course (being the greatest film to come out so far this year by a long shot), will of course get a nice long, full review so that I can sing the praises of all things Whedon (it’s a damned shame that Serenity is easily 10 times the movie that Episode III is, but only made a fraction of the money at the box office – but I’ll rant further about that when I get to my review). So, until next time, bye for now! :)