Comic book movies (that you might not recognize as comic book movies)

As someone who’s both a big movie buff and a major comic geek, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with comic book movie adaptations. When they’re done right (such as the Iron Man movies and the original X-Men movie), it’s a wondrous thing – movie magic at its finest. On the flip-side, however, you also get stuck suffering through steaming heaps of dung like the Wolverine movie, where the filmmakers blatantly couldn’t care less about the source material or its fans, which just makes us comic geeks want to beat someone within an inch of their life for completely screwing up a beloved character. What I find interesting, though – and what I’ll be focusing on in this post – is just how many comic-book based movies have come out in the last few years. More specifically, how many of them have come out that feature no super powers, and zero characters dressed in spandex.

When the average moviegoer hears the phrase “comic book movie,” they are almost certainly going to immediately envision something featuring superheroes of one sort or another. Which isn’t too surprising, considering that not only comic book movies, but the large majority of comic books themselves are primarily about superheroes. That being said, there are still a vast number of comic books out there covering every imaginable genre – crime fiction, westerns, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, romance, you name it. And a surprising number of these have been made into movies. So what I’ll be focusing on here are movies that are based on comic books that most people would likely not realize were based on comic books (although some are certainly less surprising than others).

Let’s start with two movies that shouldn’t surprise anyone as being comic book movies (although neither features superheroes of any sort), both based on the works of the brilliant Frank Miller – Sin City and 300. Both of these are just great films (I’d even say Sin City is among my top ten favorite movies of all time). But let’s talk about 300 first. To begin with, to all those idiot critics out there who complained about the film’s lack of historical accuracy, let me re-emphasis: THIS IS A COMIC BOOK MOVIE!! Yes, the comic book was inspired by actual historical events, but it was never intended to be an accurate portrayal of said events. It was meant to be a fantastic, larger-than-life depiction of them. And the movie follows suit. It’s not supposed to be a historical film, much less a documentary. It is a fantasy, pure and simple. It just happens to be a fantasy loosely based on a real event.

What can you say about this movie? It’s got it all – violence and bloodshed, sex, political intrigue, powerful characters, a lush (yet very dark) visual style. I was completely engrossed in this movie from beginning to end. Gerard Butler is fantastic as King Leonidas (and is an actor whose work I’ve continued to enjoy ever since), and Lena Headey is wonderful as his queen (the line she delivers when she kills the traitorous senator is easily one of the best in the movie). Now I fully admit that this is the kind of movie that’s not going to appeal to everyone, but I loved every minute of it (and I’d love to see Hollywood put out more films like this).

Then there’s Sin City. This is another movie I just can’t say enough good things about. For starters, I’ve been a fan of Robert Rodriguez as a director going all the way back to El Mariachi. And the fact that he brought in Frank Miller to be co-director on the movie (and used the original comics as his storyboards) I think was a stroke of genius. The biggest plus this movie has going for it is that it’s based on a great set of stories. In my mind (although, as a writer, I admit I may be a bit biased) there’s nothing more important in a movie than the story. I don’t care how great your actors are, how top-notch the director is, or how massive a special effects budget you have, if you’re starting with a weak story, you’re going to end up with a weak film.

Which, of course, is why Sin City shines. Because on top of a great story, it did have a top notch director, and a cast full of brilliant actors & actresses (and I’m guessing a pretty solid effects budget). Mickey Rourke and Bruce Willis especially stand out in my mind as giving great performances, but even the bit players are great actors. Benicio Del Toro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Powers Boothe, Rutger Hauer, Elijah Wood, the list goes on and on (and I’ve written before about how much I loved Devon Aoki as Miho). I’m also a huge fan of the visual style of the film – the black & white with just splashes of color here and there really has an impact. It’s just such a great movie. Now if only they’d get around to getting the sequel released!!!

Let’s switch gears a little now, and move on to a movie (and sequel) that still has a solid comic book feel to it, but isn’t quite as blatantly a comic book movie as the two above, and that would be the wonderful Men in Black (I and II). How can you not love these movies? Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones both give great performances (not to mention Frank the Pug, who steals pretty much every scene he’s in, and the wonderfully funny worms). And once again you have a movie that starts with a solid story (more so the original than the sequel, but sadly that tends to be the norm with sequels), and more importantly, really great dialogue.

Which is something I’d like to take a quick detour to discuss. I think one of the biggest things that makes a movie truly memorable is great dialogue (this is one of the reasons I’m such a huge fan of all things Joss Whedon – the man really knows how to write great dialogue). If you think of all the movie moments that really stand out in your mind, I’ll bet a lot more of them are going to be memorable quotes than really big explosions (not that there aren’t a few movies that have some pretty memorable action scenes, mind you). And this is why we see so many forgettable, throwaway movies these days – too much focus on big action scenes and visual effects scenes, and not enough solid, memorable dialogue.

And shifting back to Men in Black, my favorite line in that movie comes when Will Smith asks Tommy Lee Jones why keep aliens a secret, saying that people are smart and could handle it. And Tommy Lee Jones replies, “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.” Such a great line. And Tommy Lee Jones’ solid delivery in that simple scenes to me is one of the most memorable parts of the movie (and is but one of many great lines in the movie). And here’s some exciting news for anyone out there who doesn’t know already – Men in Black III is due out in 2012! Keeping my fingers crossed that it’s as good as the first two.

So far the movies I’ve talked about, while clearly not super-hero movies, are still pretty easy to recognize as comic book movies. So how about we take a look at a comic book movie that bears no resemblance to what one would normally think of as a comic book movie – Road to Perdition, a Prohibition-era movie starring Tom Hanks, Jude Law, and Paul Newman (and let’s not forget Daniel Craig, BEFORE he became famous as the latest incarnation of James Bond). Yes, believe or not, this movie was based on a comic book. I haven’t read the original graphic novel, but I hear good things about it (and I need to pick it up one of these days). I do know that I absolutely loved the movie. Being a huge fan of gangster movies certainly helps, but this movie also has a great story and just an amazing cast. Tom Hanks does a near-perfect job as a loving husband and father who also happens to be a mob hitman. This is a character that could have easily gone to either side – either too much of a nice guy/family man for you to believe he killed people for a living, or too much of a hardened killer to buy him as a dedicated father. Hanks really does a great job of straddling that line and making both sides of that character believable (and I think director Sam Mendes also plays a big part in this).

Paul Newman once again shows us why he’s such a Hollywood legend. He gives a solid performance as a father torn between his real son and his surrogate son, and makes a great old-school Irish mobster (an even more impressive feat considering he’s not the least bit Irish). And Jude Law certainly gives us one of his more intriguing performances as the psycho hitman who’s chasing after Hanks and his son. The movie was nominated for numerous awards (and won the Oscar for best cinematography), and with good reason. This is a beautiful, stirring film, and one I highly recommend.

Another film that does not at all feel like a comic book movie is the Jack the Ripper thriller From Hell, based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore (author of both V for Vendetta and Watchmen), and starring Johnny Depp. I love this movie (interestingly enough, I actually enjoyed the movie much more than the original comic). Depp is fantastic as always, and I’ve always been fascinated with Jack the Ripper, so I’m automatically drawn to any film connected to him. Now the big thing to take into account with this particular movie is that it is VERY loosely based on the comic (I would guess that fans of the original probably hated the movie; for myself, I actually had a really hard time getting through the comic – it’s a very in-depth story that you either really get into, or really don’t, and sadly I just found it to drag way too much). One of the big differences is that the comic is not really a mystery story. The true identity of the killer is actually revealed very early on, and from there the story is much more of a character study, looking into the mind of a man capable of becoming a serial killer.

The movie, on the other hand, falls solidly in the mystery/thriller genre, with the emphasis being on Johnny Depp trying to discover who the killer is. This is a big part of why I liked it better than the comic – I love the mystery element, which to me is part of what makes the Jack the Ripper mythos so interesting. By starting out knowing Jack’s real identity, you take out half the fun, which is trying to figure out who the murderer is. Regardless of its differences from the original story, however, From Hell is a great example of a comic book story completely different from the traditional super-hero comics most people are used to.

Before finishing this off with one of my all-time favorite movies (comic book related or otherwise), I wanted to mention a couple of very recent non-super hero comic book movies, one really, really good, and one not so much. The not so great movie is one that just came out, and that’s the horror-western Jonah Hex. Now I must admit I’ve never read any of the Jonah Hex comics, but I do have a passing familiarity with the character. And one of the few pluses of the movie is that Josh Brolin really does justice to the character. His performance really shines in what is otherwise a fairly mediocre movie. John Malkovich, on the other hand, really failed to impress me. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he phoned in his performance, but at the end of the day the character really isn’t distinctive from any of Malkovich’s other baddies. And while Megan Fox always makes for some welcome eye candy, she really doesn’t have much else going for her as an actress (her role here as the pseudo-sidekick/love interest really feels like a throwaway character the movie would have done just as well without).

The movie tries to do the retro sci-fi thing similar to Wild Wild West (now there's an interesting possible blog topic – retro sci-fi/steampunk movies!), but doesn’t completely embrace and go over the top with it like Wild Wild West did (and just isn’t nearly as much fun as Wild Wild West was). And while the supernatural elements are brought over from the comic, they probably could have been done better. The biggest failing in the movie, though, is the direction. My main complaint is that the movie should have been done as a western, and it isn’t. Instead you get a generic summer blockbuster style movie, that just happens to be set in the Old West. I think this movie could have been so much better if it had been crafted to have the feel of an old Clint Eastwood spaghetti western, especially considering the dark, grim nature of the title character. A little more drama and emphasis on character, and a little less focus on the action scenes and big explosions would have gone a long ways towards making this a really enjoyable film, as opposed to the mildly enjoyable, but ultimately forgettable popcorn movie that it was.

The other, and MUCH better, comic book movie that came out recently (back in April) was The Losers. Now this movie was everything a comic book movie (or any movie adapted from another source, as far as that goes) should be. It was respectful of the source material, and as true to the source material as it could be while still maintaining all the sensibilities of a good movie (sadly, the flip-side of movies like Wolverine that essentially ignore the original comic book stories are movies that try too hard to be completely faithful to their source and its die-hard fans, which generally makes for a weaker movie, because cinema is a completely different storytelling medium from books or comics or video games, and as such there are changes that really need to be made to the way the story is put together to make a good movie, even if that means changing or removing things from the original).

I’m a pretty big fan of the original comic series of The Losers, and so I went into this movie with equal parts excitement and nervousness. The movie did not let me down in the least. They got the characters right, and a lot of the story elements in the movie came right out of comics (I read an interview with one of the screenwriters, and he commented that he’d read all the comics, and that when he read good lines in the comics that he really liked, he pulled them directly into the script instead of trying to re-word them to make them more his, which I thought was brilliant).

I also loved the tone of the movie – light-hearted and fun without becoming overly silly (the comics are more serious in tone, but the light-hearted tone really worked well in the film). This movie is exactly what The A-Team movie should have been (and sadly wasn’t). It doesn’t try to be the big action blockbuster; instead it goes for a simple, straightforward action comedy feel (much like the feel of The A-Team TV show). Sadly The Losers under-performed at the box office (which is too bad but not really a surprise), but people who didn’t go see it don’t know what they’re missing. This is the sort of underrated gem of a film that all too often gets overlooked at the theatres these days (which is really a shame, considering the worthless junk that people do rush out to go see). I’d love to see a sequel to this (since the comics have a much longer story than what is covered in the movie), but that’s probably not likely to happen.

There are a number of other comic book movies that I originally considered discussing, such as Wanted, V for Vendetta, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (all movies that I really enjoyed), but in the end I decided to make this a little shorter of an entry (so that I could get the silly thing finished, if for no other reason), so I’m going to skip them this time around and move right to my final movie (although I’m thinking I’d like to do an entry specifically on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, though not so much on the movie itself as the underlying concept of the movie – and more so the comic books it’s based on).

To bring this entry to a conclusion, I want to review what at one point in time was my absolute favorite movie (and is still very high on the list), and that is The Crow. This is a fantastic film based on an incredible comic (one I highly recommend reading). It tells the tragic tale of a young couple who are murdered by gang members. A year after their death, the man is brought back to life in order to avenge himself and his fiancé. Adding to the tragic nature of the film is the fact that the star, Brandon Lee, died during filming. Brandon Lee’s performance is both intense and poignant – he really brings this character to life. And I loved the dark, Gothic nature of the film, both in story and in visual style (but that’s very much a personal preference for me – I’ve always had a love for films of this sort). This movie (along with the next movie he directed, Dark City) also made me a huge fan of director Alex Proyas, who is high on my list of favorite directors (even though he has only directed a handful of movies).

One of the other great things about this movie is the soundtrack. This is among my favorite CDs, and the music really enhances the intensity of the film. I’ve always loved movies with a well-done soundtrack/score, and am a firm believer that the right music is critical to a great movie. And The Crow did a fantastic job of really taking advantage of the power of its music.

The movie was successful enough to spawn not only three sequels, but a television show as well. Of course, none of the sequels came close to the original film (not a surprise, really – the combination of the actors, the director, and the original story came together in just such a beautiful way that there’s no way you’re going to reproduce that in a sequel). I never really watched the TV show, which is almost too bad, as I’m a really big fan of Mark Dacascos, and I’d love to see his interpretation of the character (have to watch the series on Hulu one of these days, I suppose, since it only ran one season). I think it really says something when a dark, comic book based revenge movie can generate this kind of success. The Crow is a prime example of what you can achieve when you do a comic book movie right. It does a great job of staying true to the source material, while still playing as a great movie.

And with that, I think I will bring this entry to a close. Hopefully, dear readers, you’ll walk away from this week’s blog with a better appreciation for the diversity of stories coming out of the comic book world. There’s a lot more going on than just dudes in spandex, and with luck Hollywood will continue to find great comic book stories to make into movies, that don’t necessarily feature super-heroes (especially considering how much more writing talent you’ll find in the comics industry than in Hollywood).

Animated Films

So I was thinking about an overall theme for a series of blog entries (if for no other reason, I figured it would make it easier for me to come up with ideas for individual posts, since I sometimes have a hell of a time coming up with a good idea for my next blog entry), and decided I could focus on different genres of film that I enjoy (which sprang out of the idea of doing a blog about video game movies). A number of genres that I’m a big fan of quickly came to mind – westerns, war movies, heist films, mob movies. But then I latched onto a subject that’s not so much a genre of film, as a category of film, and one that sadly I think doesn’t get nearly the respect (in this country, especially) that it should, and that is animated films.

Let’s get a little nomenclature out of the way first – I don’t care what it might say in the dictionary, animated films are NOT cartoons. Cartoons are animated television shows aimed primarily at children. Which, of course, is the big problem that animated films have with American audiences. In the mind of the average American film-goer, animation is automatically linked to Saturday morning cartoons, which is why 98% of all US animated films are family/children’s movies. And sadly that final 2% struggles to find an audience, simply because people looking for a serious, non-children’s movie are likely to ignore it (simply because it’s animated), and people looking for a family-friendly movie who do go see it are immediately going to pan it and give it bad word-of-mouth, because it wasn’t the kid-oriented movie they were expecting (again, simply because it was animated).

The simple truth that American audiences don’t get (and let me state now that all of this is simply my opinion based on personal observations – other people may look at all of this from a different viewpoint and completely disagree with me), is that animation is simply a medium. It’s a way to tell a story, and there’s no reason why you can’t tell any sort of story that you like. I run into the same situation when I talk about being a comic book buff (and I’m a HUGE comic book buff) – when you say the words “comic book” to most people, they immediately assume juvenile fiction featuring super-heroes. And while admittedly that’s the main focus of the mainstream comic book industry, there is a world of serious, well-crafted literature to be found in comic books if you take the time to look (but that’s a whole other discussion that I could go into at great length, but I will refrain, as this is a movie blog – although one of these days I need to do a review of “comic book movies” that have been made that have nothing whatsoever to do with superheroes).

As an example of the sort of animated movie that suffered (in my mind) from this perception of animated films as strictly kids’ movies, let’s take a look at the highly underrated Titan A. E. This is a brilliantly animated, wonderfully enjoyable science fiction film. Here’s the problem, though (at least in part) – it was directed by Don Bluth, creator of such kid-friendly films as The Secret of NIMH, The Land Before Time, and All Dogs Go To Heaven. And while it’s only rated PG, Titan A. E. pushes the boundaries of the rating, and is by no means a little kids’ movie. But because of the director’s previous film, Fox of course had to push it as a family movie. And shock of shocks, the critics weren’t at all impressed (but my very, very low opinion of newspaper movie critics is a subject for a whole other rant). So what happens? All the parents who take their kids to it opening weekend based on the director’s previous films are disappointed because it’s not really a kids’ movie, and the sci-fi fans who the movie was meant for don’t bother to go see it because they figure it’s a kids' movie. And thus a good movie fails at the box office at least in part because of misconceptions on the part of the audience.

But I don’t want this entry to be a rant (well, not too much of a rant), so let’s shift into the positive. What I really want to focus on here is all the great animated films out there that people are potentially missing out on because they only think of animated films as 'cartoons'. And the best place to start is with the brilliant films of director Ralph Bakshi. Bakshi got his start with Terrytoons, working on such classic cartoons as Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle. Then in 1972, he released his first feature film, the infamous Fritz the Cat (which is most notable as being the first animated film to receive an X rating – although by today’s standards it would likely only receive an R). He continued to release controversial, yet critically praised, animated films from there.

His most well known (and my opinion, his best) movies were released in 1977 and 1978, and those were Wizards and The Lord of the Rings, respectively. Wizards has to be one of my top 10 all-time favorite animated movies. It’s a very well done post-apocalyptic fantasy/sci-fi film, that focuses on two brothers, one good and one evil. The good brother uses magic, while the evil brother uses technology. The film’s story is solid and in many cases thought-provoking, and the animation, while not super realistic like so many movies strive for nowadays, still has a very distinctive style that is enjoyable to watch.

Next came the brilliant The Lord of the Rings. Prior to Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy, this was the definitive Lord of the Rings film. Unlike Peter Jackson, Ralph Bakshi was only able to get the movie studio to greenlight two movies as opposed to a full trilogy, and even more tragic, after the first film was released he wasn’t able to get studio backing for the second half (which is a damned shame, in my opinion, and a clear sign that Hollywood producers were just as generally stupid back in the '70s as they are now). Like Jackson’s films, Bakshi stayed as true to the original books as he could (while still being forced to streamline the story to fit a movie’s length and pacing). And he really did do a good job of it.

Most enjoyable for me, though, was the visual style of the film. Bakshi used a technique called rotoscoping, which involves shooting live action scenes with real actors, then having the animators trace over the film frames to produce the animation. This produces a more realistic animation style, and allows for more complex scenes to be animated (this technique was also used on Titan A.E.). He also used a photographic processing technique called posterization (named so because it was originally used in making posters), which I’ll let my good readers research on their own if they want to know more about it (since it’s kind of hard to describe, and I don’t feel like copying the Wikipedia entry here). If you’ve seen the film, the shots that look like live action, but with a distorted, pseudo-animated quality to them, these would be posterized shots.

When released, the film was without question a financial success (on a $4 million budget, it made $30.5 million at the box office), but for whatever reason, the studio decided not to pursue the second half of the film, so you only get half of the story. And while Peter Jackson’s version is clearly superior (not surprising, considering he had a significantly higher budget, was allowed to make each book into a separate film, and was actually allowed to make the entire trilogy), Ralph Bakshi’s version is still an absolute must-see in my book. Bakshi continued to make films after this, some that I enjoyed, some not so much, but these two stand out as the two I would highly recommend to any film buff.

The next movie I want to touch on is the cult classic Heavy Metal. I’m only going to discuss this one briefly, as it’s not one I own (and I haven’t watched it in years), but it’s a significant enough movie (that really fits the topic of non-kid friendly animated films) that I felt I’d be remiss if I didn’t give it at least some mention. The 1981 movie was executive produced by the publisher of Heavy Metal magazine, and featured a series of short stories, all either taken from, or inspired by, stories from the magazine. And just like the magazine, all of them featured a fair bit of violence, sex, and nudity, and are definitely not for children (or the easily offended). Being a collection of stories, each with their own writers and animators, you get a variety of quality, and some parts of the movie are definitely better than others. All in all an okay film, but not really high on my list of great movies. It is, however, a great example of the use of animation to produce a movie specifically geared for a mature audience. An interesting bit of trivia about the movie – it took 15 years from the theatrical release before the movie was released on video. And this had nothing to do with the popularity of the movie; no, the release was held up because the filmmakers had gotten theatrical and soundtrack release rights for the music, but hadn’t thought to get video release rights. And so it took them 15 years to iron out the legal issues surrounding the music in the movie (which is a key aspect of the film, so you really couldn’t release the movie without the music). This is yet another topic I could do an extended rant on – how all those greedy, selfish bastards in the RIAA are continuously causing problems for DVD releases (although that mostly applies to television shows as opposed to movies, so probably not something I’ll go into on my blog).

Leaving Heavy Metal behind, let’s now move back into the realm of great animated films that I can highly recommend as being well worth seeing. Let's start with Watership Down and The Plague Dogs. The reason I’m covering them together is they are both based on the novels of Richard Adams. I’ve only read the book of Watership Down (which is a wonderful story), but based on how much I enjoyed the movie version of The Plague Dogs, I’m guessing it’s also a great novel. These are both of these are great, great movies. However, they are not exactly kid-friendly movies. I especially would not recommend them for younger kids, as both movies are pretty violent, even though they're rated PG and PG-13, respectively (I was somewhat annoyed (although hardly surprised) to see how many 1 star ratings Watership Down got on Amazon, evenly split between fans of the novel who were disappointed with the movie version (which I completely understand), and idiots who were shocked and upset because it wasn’t a movie for little kids (it had bunny rabbits on the cover, how could it not be a kiddy movie???) – which is exactly why I wanted to write this blog post). That being said, I feel that both films are prime examples of animated films meant to appeal to a broader, more discerning audience than just children, and truly exemplify how animated movies can tell amazing stories that live action/CG can’t really capture (and while that is changing as CG technology improves, I still feel that some stories just work better as traditional animation).

Watership Down is easily the more successful and well known of the two films, so we’ll start with it. There aren’t enough good things that I can say about this movie (and I don’t care what criticisms others may have about the story or animation). Firstly, it does a very good job of staying true to the book (well, as true to the book as any movie can be expected to be – which of course means that most die-hard fans of the book will be disappointed, but at the end of the day, that tends to be true for any movie adaption of a beloved book). Most importantly, it maintains the darker, more violent aspects of the original story, without trying to soften it or make it more lighthearted to appeal to a younger audience (this is most likely because the movie was produced in Great Britain as opposed to the US). And not only do you get an amazing story, but the animation is just absolutely gorgeous (at least I think so). The movie is so enjoyable to watch just on a purely visual basis. I may be biased, though, because without question Watership Down is one of my all-time favorite movies, of any category. If you haven’t seen this movie, you really should.

The next film adaptation of a Richard Adams novel was The Plague Dogs (directed by the same man who directed Watership Down). While it doesn’t quite have the same beautiful visual quality as Watership Down, the animation is still well done, and the story is really well done. Having not read the book, I can’t vouch for how close it is, but from what I’ve read online the filmmakers worked to try and keep it as true to the book as they could. While not as high on my list as Watership Down, it’s still definitely a movie worth seeing. One word of caution, though – while the story is superb, the dark, tragic nature of the story makes it hard to watch at times (and I fully admit to crying by the end of the movie, but that’s just me). It hits you hard, which makes it a tough movie to watch multiple times, especially when you know how it ends (in a lot of ways it reminds me of Bridge to Terabithia in that respect – if you’ve seen that movie you’ll have an idea what I’m talking about). Interestingly enough, this is the one big change from the book. From what I’ve read online (again, not having read the book), the movie drops the epilogue of the book, which provided a much happier (and more fully resolved) ending to the story than the one the movie leaves you with.

As I head into the last section of this blog entry, no discussion of animated films would be complete without some mention of Japanese anime. And as I am a very big fan of anime, I’ll be doing much more than just mentioning it. Japan seems to be the one country to have fully developed animation into a broad spectrum medium, easily equal to live action. Japanese animated movies run the full gamut from family/kid movies all the way to hardcore pornography, and everything in between. You can find sci-fi/fantasy, dramas, thrillers, comedies, you name it. For pretty much any category of movie out there, Japan likely has at least one animated film that fits the bill. There are enough solidly enjoyable anime films that I’ve seen that I could easily do a full blog post on just anime, but as this entry is already plenty long enough, I’ll try to narrow it down to just some of my absolute favorites.

Naturally the first director I need to discuss is the one who is likely most familiar with American audiences, and that is the brilliant Hayao Miyazaki. Of course, part of why he’s found success in the US (at least in my mind) is that his films by and large fall fully on the family-friendly side of the movie spectrum, putting them more in line with the American mindset on animated movies than a lot of Japanese anime. But this doesn’t change the fact that he is an amazing storyteller, and every one of his films more than deserves the accolades and success that they have received. I would say that Pixar is the only American animation studio that even comes close to being able to tell the mature, complex, yet completely family-friendly stories that Miyazaki tells in his films. And call me old-fashioned, but I’m going to buck the current trend and say I much prefer the traditional style animation of his movies to the CG style of Pixar’s (which is not a criticism of Pixar at all – I really enjoy their movies as well).

On the subject of Pixar, while I’m not going to discuss their movies -- since they clearly don’t have any problems with people not seeing their films -- I do want to briefly discuss why I think their movies work as well as they do, and why they are across the board better than the rest of the animated family/kids’ movies being produced in the US these days. This relates to Miyazaki’s movies in that he does the same thing (it’s not surprising that John Lasseter, executive producer of Pixar, intros the US DVD releases of all of Miyazaki’s movies, and was the driving force behind getting them released in the US). It’s all about the stories (something the other studios just don’t seem to get). Here’s my opinion of how Pixar/Studio Ghibli (the studio that produces Miyazaki’s films) movies differ from other animated family movies: with most kids' movies, you get a story clearly written specifically for kids. The filmmakers then go back and throw in a handful of scenes/bits of dialogue meant to try and entertain the parents in the audience. Sadly the problem here is that these occasional moments aren’t going to offset the mind-numbing silliness of the rest of the movie (and in way, way too many cases, the filmmakers make the questionable choice of putting in risqué and in my mind somewhat inappropriate moments that they’re hoping will make the adults laugh while being over the heads of the kids, the assumption being that the kids won’t realize Mommy and Daddy are laughing at something they’re not old enough to need to know about).

With Pixar/Studio Ghibli movies, what you get is the exact opposite. Their writers craft stories pointed specifically and directly at adults. They are complex, well thought-out, moving and emotional stories. They then go back and make sure there are at least a couple of very silly, kid-friendly characters, and a good helping of exciting, action-packed animated scenes to make sure the kids are entertained. And what you end up with are brilliant movies the entire family can enjoy. Because let’s face it, the simple truth of the matter is that kids (especially younger kids) are paying little if any attention to the story. They’re way more focused on the silly talking dog who’s constantly distracted by squirrels (from Pixar’s best movie to date, Up). So why on earth would you try and write a story that only works in the mind of a 5-7 year old, and just expect the parents to suffer through it? So for what little it’s worth, here’s my advice to all writers of family movies (be they animated or live action), as well as to moviegoers looking for family movies the entire family can truly enjoy – you want a story that’s written with the parents in mind, and NOT the kids. And to the good folks at Pixar, all I can is – keep up the great work!!

And on that note, let’s get back to Hayao Miyazaki and his wonderful films. Although it’s actually one of his later films, the movie that first brought Miyazaki to the attention of American audiences (in a BIG way) was Spirited Away, which beat out 20th Century Fox’s Ice Age and Disney’s Lilo & Stitch to win the Best Animated Film Oscar for 2003 (and very deservedly so). Amusingly enough, Disney, which holds the American distribution rights for all of Studio Ghibli’s movies, had only bothered to give the movie a limited theatrical release, until it won the Oscar, after which Disney suddenly decided to go ahead and give it a full wide release. While not my favorite Miyazaki film, it’s really high on the list, and easily among my favorite animated movies (but that’s a true statement for most of his films). For those folks reading this who somehow haven’t seen this movie yet, I’m not going to go into details about the story, I’m just going to tell you to see it! You won’t regret it (and if you do, all I can say is go back to watching your reality television, as quality storytelling is obviously beyond you).

While I absolutely loved Spirited Away, I would have to say that my favorite Miyazaki film would be the one that directly preceded it, Princess Mononoke. This is one of the few Miyazaki films that’s not really geared for kids (not younger kids, at least). It is an epic fantasy adventure about mankind versus nature (the inhabitants of a mining town battle against the spirits of the nearby forest, while a young warrior tries to convince both sides to put aside their differences and live in peace). The animation is amazing, there’s plenty of action, and the story is compelling and a joy to watch unfold. I highly recommend this movie.

I own almost every one of Miyazaki’s movies that have been released on DVD in the US, and have enjoyed every one. Anyone who enjoys good storytelling is not likely to be disappointed by any of his movies. But his films are far from the only Japanese anime worth checking out. There are a numerous great movies, covering a broad range of subject matter. Before bringing this long and winding entry to a close, there are a couple of notable movies that I wanted to touch on. The first is Ninja Scroll. This is a fantasy/martial arts film set in feudal Japan. Our hero is a wandering swordsman who finds himself battling a group of ninja who are searching for a ship filled with gold (well, there’s more to it than that, but that’s the quick summary of the plot). The visuals are very well done, and the villains all have supernatural abilities, many of which you’d have a hard time pulling off in a live action film without them looking silly. But seeing them in an animated film, they look great. The fight scenes are also very fun to watch (another example of this is Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, which is such a better movie than the silly live action version that Jean-Claude Van Damme was in).

The final film I want to touch on is Perfect Blue. This psychological thriller tells the story of a former pop idol turned actress, who finds herself tormented by a stalker, while those around her are murdered – with her as the prime suspect. She becomes more paranoid and delusional as the film goes on, and the film does a great job of intertwining her delusions with the things going on around her. It also blends scenes from the TV show she is starring in with things going on in the real world, leaving the viewer constantly guessing what’s really going on. It brings to mind (at least for me) the movies of Brian De Palma, and is easily as enjoyable as any live action movie of the genre. If you enjoy a good thriller, especially a complex psychological thriller, then this film is well worth your time. And while this is a movie that could very easily be done as live action (as was originally intended to be live action, but then the production's budget was cut, so they chose to make it animated instead), that the fact that it is animated in no way makes it a less enjoyable or well-made movie.

These are but two of the many, many great anime films out there. Among the more well known in the US are such movies as Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Appleseed (all great sci-fi movies that I highly recommend to any fans of science fiction). But as long as this entry has gotten (and as overdue as I am to get a new entry published on the ol’ blog), I’ll forgo detailed reviews and simply recommend them as worth watching. And so I at last bring this entry to a close. My one hope would be that the reader walk away from it with, if not a new-found appreciation of animated cinema, at least a curiosity to investigate the numerous wonderful animated films that are out there, and a willingness to approach them with an open mind. Do not do like so many (I’ve particularly seen this in customer reviews on Amazon) and immediately condemn a movie as not being any good simply because it’s not (and was never meant to be) a children’s movie.

Some of my favorite actresses -- Part 2

So I finally finished up the 2nd half of my listing of actresses that I like. And here it is:

7. Devon Aoki – As I’ve previously stated, I so love the Asian women. There’s just something about them. And while Devon is only half-Japanese, she still has that exotic quality to her looks that I so love. And while I’m sure some people would argue the point with me, I also think she’s a pretty talented actress. Admittedly, she doesn’t really show too much range in her earlier pictures, but as deadly little Miho in Sin City she is absolutely fantastic, despite not having any dialogue. I really think she takes that role and makes it her own. She’s only been acting for a few years now (starting all the way back in 2003), but I’ve really enjoyed her performances so far, and I’ve seen (and own on DVD) every movie she's done, except for her first film, and her last one.

She appeared in two films in 2003, the first of which is some movie called Death of a Dynasty that I’ve never heard of that according to the write-up on imdb is about the rap music industry (YAWN!). And considering how far down the credits list her name is, I’m guessing it wasn’t exactly that big a part. Her larger (and much, much more important) role that year was as the spunky female street racer Suki in 2 Fast 2 Furious. She rocked in that movie. Hell, she was one of the main reasons to actually see that movie!! Now don’t get me wrong, Eva Mendes is quite the hottie, no argument, but I’d take Devon over her any day (plus, the fact that she was a street racer just made her character that much cooler). I’d say the only thing more enjoyable to watch in that movie would have been the street races themselves, which is of course the main reason to watch a movie like 2 Fast 2 Furious.

From there Devon went on to appear in the much more indie film D.E.B.S. as the sexy schoolgirl/spy Dominique. It was a supporting role, and she wasn’t in the movie as much as I would have liked, but I really got a kick out of her French accent. I will admit that I bought this movie on DVD completely sight unseen (which I really try to avoid doing since I hate wasting money on a movie that turns out to be a total dud), primarily because it looked amusing in a goofy, dumb sort of way, and it featured hot women who were spies. I was very happy to discover that it’s actually a pretty cute movie, and all the actresses do a really good job with their characters. None of it is Oscar caliber by any means, but that’s not what you’re expecting from this sort of movie, so who cares?

So up to this point I had enjoyed both movies I’d seen Devon in, and figured she was an actress to keep an eye out for, but she hadn’t done anything to really grab my attention (and certainly nothing to put her on my list of favorite actresses). Then I went to the theater to see what is easily one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time – Sin City. And there was Devon playing the silent prostitute/assassin Miho. I was completely blown away. She was totally sexy and completely bad ass. The samurai swordswoman/ninja assassin thing she had going on was just killer (pardon the pun). And the fact that she had no dialogue just added to performance in my opinion. I’d have to say she ties with Jessica Alba for sexiest woman in the movie, but she was far and away my favorite character. And she’s scheduled to return for the sequel, which is absolutely awesome!

But before she does that, she’ll be appearing in another role that I’m really looking forward to checking out, and that’s as Kasumi in DOA: Dead or Alive (based on the video game). Obviously I wasn’t the only one impressed with her performance as Miho, as this is another martial arts character. And that’s due out the end of August (I can’t wait!!). And it looks like she’s scheduled to be in several films next year as well (including Sin City 2), so I look forward to seeing much more of her on the big screen.

[Update] – Okay, so all of the above was written a couple years ago. Since then, Sin City 2 STILL hasn’t come out yet (which is killing me). DOA: Dead or Alive has come out (but sadly it never made it to the theaters around here, so it ended up being another of her movies I just bought on DVD without having previously seen it). Sadly DOA suffered the same problem as entirely too many video game based movies – the director/producers couldn’t be bothered to make any effort to take the source material seriously (since it’s just a video game, after all), and so the movie is decidedly silly (a topic I’ll have to cover one of these days in a future blog entry). It would have been nice if this had been done as well as Mortal Kombat, but instead you get something much more akin to the Street Fighter movie. But any movie featuring hot women kicking butt is worth a look in my book.

The next movie of Devon’s that I saw was War. This should have been a fantastic movie, as it was the first pairing of Jet Li and Jason Statham together (both of whom are next appearing in The Expendables, a movie I can't wait to see). Here’s the big problem with War: the idiot director made the unbelievable decision that he didn’t want to do a martial arts movie!! He was strictly interested in doing an action/crime movie. And what I want to know is this: what kind of a complete moron puts two martial arts GREATS into a movie together, but doesn’t want to do a martial arts movie?! Needless to say, critics and fans alike hammered this one because of how disappointing the fight scenes were, especially considering who was starring in the movie. And I can’t say I disagree with them. However, since the topic of this post is Devon Aoki, I’ll focus on her instead. And I have to say, I absolutely loved her in this! She’s wonderful as the cold blooded daughter of a Yakuza boss. Which just makes me that much more eager for Sin City 2 to finally come out one of these years.

Mutant Chronicles is the latest movie of Devon's that I've seen (which also didn’t make it to the theaters here – an occurrence that happens way more often than I’d like, but that’s one of the joys of living in a boring, podunk little town – and so this was another of her movies that I just bought on DVD without having seen it at the theater). This movie isn’t for everyone; in fact, I’d say more people will not like this movie than will like it. But I, being the contrary individual that I am, really enjoyed it. It’s a combination historic war movie/zombie movie/retro sci-fi movie, which seems an odd combination, but they make it work. I liked the washed out visual style, I loved the setting, and the cast is great. I’m sure I’ll take flak from people for liking this one, but by this point I’m used to it. Devon once again plays a kick-ass martial artist, but also a mother who is going on a suicide mission to protect her children. Once again I really enjoyed her performance.

Devon's most recent movie, which I've not only not seen, but had never even heard of until I saw it on her imdb page, bears the odd and amusing title of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead. The title is taken from the book Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, while the movie (from the plot write-up on imdb) is a weird mesh of Shakespeare, Da Vinci code, and the recent vampire craze. You'd have to read to go to the imdb page and read the write-up to fully appreciate how off-the-wall this movie sounds. And at a guess, I'd say the reason I'd never heard of it before is that it's a low-budget, indie sort of movie. While imdb lists it as a 2009 film, according to Box Office Mojo it's release date is currently June 11th of this year. At a guess I'd say this is one that will never get released anywhere near here. However, this one is odd enough looking I'm thinking I'll be renting it when it becomes available, as opposed to just buying it sight unseen.


8. Moon Lee – Since we’re on the subject of Asian women and martial arts roles, I figured I’d move next to an actress that most of you have probably not only never heard of, but have probably never seen a single one of her movies, either. But that’s to be expected, since even though she starred in 36 movies in the 80s and 90s, all of them were made in China, and every few of those made it to the US (and were strictly VHS releases – from what I’ve found online, only a handful of her movies ever made it onto DVD at all, and none of those were released over here). And I have to say, that’s quite a shame, because you’re seriously missing out. Not only is she a talented and stunningly beautiful actress (at least I think so), she’s also a kick-ass martial artist. Watching her fight scenes is just amazing. I first discovered Moon when I was England, when I first started getting into Hong Kong cinema. There’s a sub-genre of Hong Kong action films called “girls with guns” movies that I bought quite a few of on VHS back when I started buying Hong Kong movies (a real shocker, I know – me getting into “girls with guns” movies). Mostly I’d just grab random movies that caught my eye when I was shopping. But after seeing a few featuring Moon Lee, I started to look specifically for more of her movies.

I won’t go into all of her movies, just because of how many of them there are (and sadly there are way too many of them that I haven’t seen), but among the ones I do have that I really like are Dreaming the Reality (incredibly kick-ass movie), The Avenging Quartet, and Angels 1 & 2 (these are, of course, the American titles for the movies). And I have to take back my previous statement. In going over her list of films on imdb, I see that she has a small role in one movie that American audiences may have seen – a Jackie Chan movie called The Protector (which according to Amazon is his first American movie, and also stars Danny Aiello, both great actors). This is a pretty good action/cop movie (that I have to buy one of these days, although in researching it online I discovered that there’s a Hong Kong version of the movie re-edited by Jackie Chan that’s supposed to be a superior film from the US release. Which is why I love the fact that I own a region-free, multi-system DVD player that will let me play foreign DVDs. If they’re not too expensive, I might have to buy both versions just to compare the two).

Well, I guess that’s about all I have to say about Moon Lee. Her movies are definitely worth checking out for anyone who likes action/crime/martial arts films, and she’s a prime example of why you haven’t truly experienced cinema if you haven’t delved into foreign films of one sort or another. While my personal preference is for Asian cinema, there are great movies coming out of countries all around the globe, and numerous phenomenal actors & actresses whose performances have yet to grace these shores. And subtitles aren’t nearly as big a deal as a lot of people seem to think they.


9. Jennifer Garner – Ah, what can I say about Jennifer? She’s beautiful, she’s talented, she kicks major ass! This is a girl that can do it all. As I went through her profile on imdb, I was surprised by how much she’s done that I haven’t seen. Of course, as is common with most actors/actresses, if you look through their whole career, you discover most have done numerous small parts before they made it big (hell, I’ve run across people who’ve actually had fairly big roles in movies but you don’t realize who they are because it was before they were famous). Jennifer’s career starts back in the mid-90s, when she was doing mostly TV movies and guest appearances (including in an episode of The Pretender, a show I’m a big fan of. Since I have that series on DVD, I’m going to have to make a point of re-watching that episode one of these days and seeing if I can spot her).

Naturally the first role that comes to mind when people think of Jennifer Garner is the TV show Alias, which is where she first came to prominence. There are a couple of movie roles that she did just before Alias or right as Alias was starting that I’d like to mention (seeing as how they’re movies I’ve seen that I knew she was in). The first of these I’m only going to briefly mention as I thought it was a horribly, horribly stupid movie, and that is Dude, Where’s My Car?. Right after that she had a small but very well performed part in a movie that I absolutely loved (regardless of what the idiot critics had to say about it), and that was Pearl Harbor. The only sad part was that her character got killed in the movie.

From there she went on to star as Sydney Bristow in the wonderful spy drama Alias. I loved that show. Everything about it was just cool. And naturally Jennifer rocked! All the different costumes (and wigs) and various characters she played within the show really showed off her acting skills, and who didn’t love watching her in a fight scene? It’s no wonder this show put her on everyone’s radar. From there she continued to show off her action skills in Daredevil (which was an okay movie) and its spin-off Elektra (a solid, enjoyable film, regardless of what the critics have to say). It’s too bad that Elektra did so poorly at the theatre; I was really happy with how it turned out, and would have loved to see a sequel. At the same time, though, I can see where a combination of comic book superhero movie and martial arts movie might not draw a large audience. Oh well.

Another movie of Jennifer’s that I loved (so much so that I bought the DVD, which is unusual for me considering that it’s a romantic comedy) was 13 Going On 30. This was just a funny, cute, wonderful movie. And Jennifer really showed off her acting talent by doing a role completely different from the many dramatic roles she’d done previously. She was so perfect playing the teenage girl suddenly inside an adult body (the scene where she’s hitting on the teenage boy and her friend asks her, “Do you want to go to jail?” is just priceless). Jennifer was hilarious in this movie. I’d love to see her do more of these sorts of roles.


10. Carol Kane – This entry is one that differs significantly from most of the rest of my list in that she’s not the young, sexy starlet that I mostly tend to be drawn to when I’m thinking of favorite actresses. But Carol Kane is such a talented and funny actress, and I love pretty much everything I’ve seen her in, so I just had to include her. Her career started way back in the early 70s, but I’ve never seen any of her early pictures. There is one I’d like to see, though, and that’s the 1979 suspense thriller When a Stranger Calls (which was remade recently). I’ve read a few good reviews of it, and I’ve seen the sequel When A Stranger Calls Back (also starring Carol Kane) and I very much enjoyed it.

The earliest movie of Carol’s that I’ve seen is the goofy horror comedy Transylvania 6-5000, starring Jeff Goldblum and Ed Begley Jr. While an incredibly dumb movie, it was also really darned funny. Carol played the sort of goofy, off-the-wall character that she became most known for, and was a lot of fun to watch. The next movie that I remember seeing her in was the wonderful, stellar The Princess Bride (just can’t say enough good things about that movie), where she played the wife of Billy Crystal’s character, Miracle Max. I loved the dynamic between the two of them. They were both a riot.

Next we have probably my favorite Carol Kane performance, and that was in the Bill Murray comedy Scrooged (my all-time favorite Christmas movie), where she played The Ghost of Christmas Present, and was constantly hitting Bill Murray over the head with things. Again, a hilarious, goofy, over-the-top performance that is just so memorable and fun. Her character is easily my favorite in that whole movie. From there she did a number of small roles in numerous films (some I’ve seen, some I haven’t, but none that her character really sticks out in my mind at the moment). Most recently that I’ve seen, she was in The Pacifier with Vin Diesel, playing Helga, a small but pretty funny role.

There’s one other Carol Kane movie that I just had to talk about that I caught on one of the movie channels recently, and that’s the very dark comedy Office Killer. It’s a bit of a departure from a lot of her other stuff, but I absolutely loved it. I watched this movie primarily because she played the main character, and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed. She plays a very quiet, mousy office worker who’s life basically consists of her job and taking care of her sick, overbearing mother. But then she’s fired from her job, and she basically snaps, and begins killing off her co-workers one by one. But wait, there’s more! She takes their dead bodies home and puts them in her basement, placing them in chairs and on the couch, basically building her own little dead family. She even kills a couple of little girl scouts selling cookies (which surprised me a little bit, even for a movie this dark). Obviously this isn’t a cheery, family-friendly sort of film. But just the bizarre nature of her actions, and the way she plays the character is just so much fun to watch. She does a fantastic job in the role, and if you enjoy weird, off-beat, dark movies of this sort, it’s certainly worth checking out.

11. Dakota Fanning – The final two actresses on my list are the ones I hadn’t previously written up (which is part of why this entry took a little longer than I expected to get finished, since I had to write these from scratch as opposed to having them already mostly written). We start with the very talented Dakota Fanning. Especially considering her age, this girl is a brilliant young actress, and unlike too many child stars, I think she has a very bright future as a successful adult actress. I would put her in the same category as such actresses as Christina Ricci, Natalie Portman, and Drew Barrymore, who all successfully made the transition from child actress to adult actress (and I would not be at all surprised to see her outshine them all as her career develops).

Dakota’s career started at the ripe old age of 5 years old, doing mostly TV roles (in looking her up on imdb, I was surprised to see that one of her first roles was playing 5-year-old Ally McBeal on the TV show). Her first role of note would come a year later, starring with Sean Penn in the critically acclaimed I Am Sam, for which she won numerous critics’ awards for her performance (sadly I still haven’t had a chance to see this movie).

She continued to act steadily from there, doing a couple of movies every year after. Among her earlier movies that I’ve seen are Trapped (a pretty enjoyable thriller with a very solid cast) and The Cat in the Hat (which sadly was a terrible, terrible movie). Her next movie was one that I absolutely loved – Man on Fire, with Denzel Washington. Dakota is great in this movie (as is everyone else in the cast). The next few movies of hers that I saw, however, were not so impressive (even though she did a good job in both of them). The first was the thriller Hide and Seek, where she starred opposite Robert De Niro. This was a movie I really wanted to like, but after it was all said and done, it was a mediocre film at best. She followed this up with a movie that while successful at the box office (sadly), was one I utterly hated – the complete train wreck that was War of the Worlds. I don’t know who’s more at fault, director Steven Spielberg or star Tom Cruise (I lay equal blame), but this movie is horribly stupid from beginning to end. You’d be much better served watching the 1953 original than watching this complete waste of film.

Dakota’s next few movies are all sadly ones I haven’t seen yet, including Dreamer and Charlotte’s Web (which I do want to see, as I loved the original animated film when I was a kid). Following this, she did the controversial indie film Hounddog, a movie that was often referred to as “the Dakota Fanning rape movie” due to one of the key scenes in the film. This is one I haven’t seen, and to be honest, one I haven’t decided if I want to see (although I do admit to being curious as to what all the fuss was about). Several movies followed that I don’t really know much about, until we get to last year’s Coraline, which is a movie I’m still disappointed I didn’t get a chance to see in theaters. This is one I definitely want to see at some point, primarily because it’s based on a story by Neil Gaiman (a writer I’ve been a very big fan of for quite a few years now).

One of the other films that Dakota did last year that I did see (although I had to buy it on DVD to see it, as it was yet another movie that didn’t make to the theater in the hick town that I live in), was the sci-fi thriller/comic book movie Push. I really liked this movie. The basic concept of the movie is that there are people out there with heightened psychic abilities – telepathy, telekinesis, precognition, etc. (a concept I’ve always found fascinating, even as a kid). A sinister government group is trying to round them up to experiment on them. The main star of the film is Chris Evans (from Fantastic Four, although I liked him better in this), who plays a telekinetic on the run from this group. Dakota is a precog who joins him because she’s had visions of the two of them being killed, and together they try to prevent this future from happening. The movie also stars Djimon Hounsou as the villain (who is another great actor).

Dakota’s final movie of 2009 was some stupid non-vampire movie called New Moon (part 2 of that silly ass Twilight Saga that so many people are all hot and bothered about, for reasons that continue to escape me, as the first movie (which I got talked into watching on DVD) was mediocre at best, and the book series it’s based on (I made it almost halfway through the first book before giving it back to the co-worker who insisted I read it) is unbelievably boring and terribly written). I have not seen, nor do I have any interest in ever seeing New Moon, but at a guess Dakota’s brief appearance is probably the only redeeming quality of the movie (her character did look awfully cool in the trailers, with the crazy red eyes and all).

Coming up this year, Dakota is co-starring with Kristen Stewart in The Runaways, a bio pic about the first all-girl rock/metal band. Dakota plays Cherrie Currie, while Kristen plays Joan Jett. Should be an interesting film, and one I look forward to seeing (and then I guess later in the year they’re both in yet another Twilight movie). I really look forward to see where her career goes from here.


12. Eliza Dushku – For my final entry, I chose Eliza Dushku. Eliza first came to my attention when she joined the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as the rogue Slayer, Faith. She was fantastic in this role – tough, spunky, full of attitude, and sexy as hell. Of course, as is so often the case, it turns out this wasn’t the first time I’d seen her. The first movie I’d actually seen her in was the fun-filled, action-packed Arnold Schwarzenegger film True Lies, playing his teenage daughter (she’d done a few movies before that, but none that I’ve seen).

Eliza is primarily a TV actress. After Buffy, she went on to the wonderful (and sadly short-lived – thank you, idiots at Fox) show Tru Calling, playing a woman who saves the lives of people who’ve died by reliving the day they died over and over until she can figure out how to prevent their death. What seemed to be a fairly limited concept to begin with actual started to develop into a really interesting show right about the point it was canceled (especially when they brought in Jason Priestley as someone with her same ability, who’s goal was to prevent her from saving the person’s life).

Eliza’s final show (another that was sadly cut short, lasting only two seasons) was another Joss Whedon show, Dollhouse. This is probably her best performance yet. She plays someone who is imprinted with different personalities, and so she’s essentially playing a different character every episode. She really shows off her versatility and acting chops in this show. It was a real shame to see it get canceled.

Between TV shows, Eliza has done a fair bit of movie acting. She starred opposite Kirsten Dunst in Bring It On, had a sexy cameo in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and was great in the very silly comedy The New Guy. And while it’s generally not my sort of movie, she made the horror film Wrong Turn actually worth watching. She’s done a number of more recent films as well, but sadly I have not had the chance to see any of them yet. But regardless of how good or bad the movies might be, I’m sure her performance in them is worth watching.


And with that, I end my list. Of course, as I was writing the list, I continued to think of other fine actresses I could add to the list, but then I realized if I didn’t draw a line, I’d be working on the list for God knows how long (and it’s taken me too long as it is just to get this much of it done). And so I will bring this topic to a close, and start wracking my brain for what to write about for the next one!

Some of my favorite actresses -- Part 1

So things have been crazy the last several weeks, and I haven’t had a chance to write a new blog entry. Luckily for me, as I was moving files from my old desktop over to my new laptop, I discovered an old blog entry that I’d started writing a couple of years ago (back when I was doing my movie blog the first time), that was 80% done already! So I’ve finished it up (including adding updates to the end of a couple of the entries to cover movies the actress had done since I’d originally written this), and present it now for your reading enjoyment:

For this week’s blog post, I’ve put together a list of actresses that I like, with a little write-up on each. Now, even though I’ve numbered the entries, I wouldn’t necessarily call this a Top 10 list (especially since it’s expanded to a Top 12 list since I started writing it), since I’m sure there are numerous actresses that I really like that I completely forgot about when I put this list together (being the absent-minded fellow that I am). They’re also not in any particular order (as far as which I like better); it’s just the order I happened to put them in as I was putting this thing together. Now for anyone who knows me, the following list of actresses will probably hold few surprises (they’re for the most part all young and attractive starlets – what can I say, I’m a guy), but there should be a surprise or two on the list, plus there’s at least a couple ladies on this list that I'm sure most people have never heard of. So here we go:

1. Keira Knightley – What can I say about this girl? She’s beautiful, she’s talented, she’s willing to do nude scenes, and she has the most incredibly sexy British accent! What’s not to like?! I am a huge fan of Keira’s, and have loved pretty much everything I’ve seen her in. Interestingly enough, the first movie I saw her in (well, not actually the very first, but I’ll get into that in a bit) was the made-for-TV movie Princess of Thieves, made back when she was only 16. This was back before she’d made a name for herself, and I mainly rented the movie because I like medieval films, and it looked interesting enough (she was playing the daughter of Robin Hood). And I have to say she did a pretty solid job with the role. I later discovered that this wasn’t really the first time I’d seen her, however; I just hadn’t realized it the first time I saw her. The first time I’d ACTUALLY seen her in a movie was in Star Wars: Episode I (which came out 2 years prior), where she played Queen Amidala’s decoy (believe it or not). Of course, this is a minor enough role that you don’t really pay a whole lot of attention to her.

Keira first got noticed in Bend it like Beckham, and from there shot to stardom in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. But before these (and right after Princess of Thieves) she did another great movie that’s really worth checking out. It’s called The Hole, and it’s a creepy, suspenseful horror thriller from England about a group of boarding school students who get locked in an old World War II bomb shelter. The main star of the movie is Thora Birch (another very talented young actress), and the story keeps shifting as we hear different versions of what supposedly happened to them while they were trapped down there, twisting and turning until we finally find out what really happened. It’s something of a B-movie thriller, but I love that sort of movie, and I think they did a good job with this one.

Other great movies of Keira’s include King Arthur (I don’t care what anyone says about it, I thought it was a good movie) and The Jacket. She's starred in a number of other movies that I haven't had a chance to see yet, most notably Domino (which I really need to watch one of these days).

2. Natalie Portman – From the girl who played Queen Amidala's decoy, we move on to the girl who played the queen herself. I’ve been a fan of Natalie’s since she was 12, when she starred in Léon (AKA The Professional in the US) with Jean Reno and Gary Oldman – a movie which is very high on my list of all-time favorite films. You could tell even back then that what a great actress she was. And her great performances continue right on to the present. Going through her movie list on imdb, its amazing how many really good roles she had even as a young girl. She did a wonderful job in Heat (love that movie!), and was really good in Beautiful Girls. From there she went on to Mars Attacks! (such a fun, silly movie) and then of course she moved on to what is probably her most iconic role, that of Queen Amidala in the Star Wars prequels.

In between the Star Wars movies Natalie starred in a number of romantic and independent films, none of which I’ve gotten around to watching (as much I as like her performances, I’m just not much into chick films, so there’s a few of her movies I haven’t motivated myself to see yet). I’ve heard really good reviews of Garden State, so that’s one I’d like to see, and I’m really curious to see her in Closer, despite the mixed reviews I’ve heard on that one.

Among her more recent movies, I absolutely loved her in V for Vendetta (of course, I loved pretty much everything about that movie -- such a fantastic film!), and enjoyed her performance in Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (which was a cute movie, but not necessarily one I'd buy).

[Update] So I was going through Natalie's imdb page, to see if she'd done any movies of note since I'd written my review above, and I was highly amused to see that she is listed as playing the main character in a film version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Just the fact that they're making a movie of this book makes me laugh, but with Natalie starring it, it's one I'll definitely have to see! She's also listed as starring in the new Thor movie, which might actually motivate me to go see that one (much as I'm a big comic book geek, I've never been a big fan of the Thor comics).

3. Ziyi Zhang – I have a particular fondness for Asian women, I must admit, and Ziyi Zhang is a perfect example of the many fine actresses to be found in China, Japan, and Korea. Most, of course, don’t actually make it to American cinemas, which is a shame. And even the ones that do often have numerous great films they’ve done that most Americans have never even heard of, much less seen. For example, before she did Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Ziyi starred in a wonderful romantic drama called The Road Home (that’s the US title for the movie, anyways). I rented this movie and watched it with my parents a while back, and they enjoyed it just as much as I did (I’m a big fan of foreign films, especially those coming out of Asia, and so I’ve found that with a number of these movies, I enjoy them a lot more than other people I show them to do. So when I can watch one of these movies with other people and they like it as much as I do, then I know it’s a really good movie). Unlike most of the movies she’s done since then, there are no martial arts at all to be found in The Road Home, so if that’s what you’re looking for, don’t bother. But if you enjoy a tender, heartfelt drama (and don’t mind subtitles), I highly recommend renting this one.

Ziyi Zhang shot to international stardom with her next film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. And with good reason. This was an absolutely astonishing movie. The visual elements and cinematography were just breathtaking. And all the performances were stellar. Ziyi did just an amazing job in this movie. And you could tell she was a very talented rising star. The US success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is probably what got her her next role, that of the villainous Hu Li in Rush Hour 2. From there she went back to China, where she continued to do martial arts roles. The next couple of movies, The Legend of Zu (released on video as Zu Warriors in the US) and Musa the Warrior, received very little attention in the US (they got DVD releases, but didn't make it into theaters). This is really a shame, especially with Musa, which is a brilliantly made epic historical film that I loved.

Ziyi’s next movie actually did make it to US theaters (more than likely because of star Jet Li). This was Hero, which was another phenomenal movie. Two further US theatrical releases followed, one the Chinese film House of Flying Daggers (another fantastic film that's one of my favorites of hers), and the other the American film Memoirs of a Geisha, which to my knowledge is the first movie she’s done where she spoke English. Along with these she’s done a number of other Chinese films that I’ll have to track down one of these days, since one of the things I’ve discovered with a number of actors/actresses/directors who have come to the US after finding success overseas is that some of their best films are often pictures that never make it to the States.

4. Katharine Isabelle – I’m sure the first thought most readers will have here is, “Who?” But as I said in my intro, there are a couple of actresses on this list that most of you have probably never heard of, although in this case you’ve probably seen at least one of the movies she’s been in. It was actually looking up Katharine (real name Katie Murray) on imdb that inspired me to put together this list. I’d just watched her in an of episode of Stargate: SG1, and had to look her up on imdb to verify that it was actually her (she’s one of those people that I always recognize as soon as I see her, but can never remember what else I’ve seen her in until I look her up).

For those of you who are wondering who the heck this woman is and what movies you might have seen her in (and haven’t bothered to click on her name to see her imdb page), the most notable movies that she’s done are Disturbing Behavior and Freddy vs. Jason. The role that she’s most known for (although the movies themselves aren’t that well known) is in the Ginger Snaps trilogy, a series of independent films out of Canada about a pair of sisters, one of whom becomes a werewolf (Ginger, played by Katharine). I own the first one on DVD, and have seen the third one (which is actually a prequel of sorts that takes place in a trading fort in 1800s Canada). Both are excellent horror films, and at some point I plan to own all three films on DVD. They’re very obviously low budget indie films, but they’re incredibly well done, and offer some interesting twists on the werewolf genre.

Katharine has had a number of other small movie roles, including parts in Insomnia and the Sci-Fi Channel mini-series Legend of Earthsea. In one of her earliest roles (way back when she was just 10) she starred as Christopher Lambert’s daughter in the wonderful suspense thriller Knight Moves (a movie I really enjoyed). She’s also done guest roles in numerous TV shows (something she says hates to do, but it pays the bills between movie gigs). She is a talented and very beautiful young actress, and it’s a shame that she has yet to find that breakout role that will shoot her to stardom. But until she does I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for her in future roles, however small.

5. Jessica Alba – Y’all knew this list would have to have Jessica on it somewhere. She’s beautiful, she’s sexy, she’s a wonderful actress, and she’s been in all kinds of good movies lately. And she’s been scantily clad at some point in pretty much all of them (something she has said she wants to get away from, as she doesn’t want to be stuck typecast in that sort of role. And as much as I like her in those sorts of roles, I can’t really blame her – after a while it has to get old to constantly be considered for roles mainly based on how good you look in a bikini). And sadly, Miss Alba has made it clear that she has no interest whatsoever in doing nude scenes (this is also true for Katherine Isabelle – for those of you who remember her shower scene in Freddy vs. Jason, that was a body double you were ogling). Which, while a shame, is something I respect both actresses for. If you’re comfortable with nudity and don’t mind doing nude scenes, I say more power to you. But if this is something you’re not comfortable with and have no desire to do, by all means tell anyone and everyone who tries to convince you otherwise that they’re welcome to piss off. Hell, body doubles have to earn a living, too (along this thread, here’s an interesting little bit of trivia – while Keira Knightley is very comfortable showing her breasts, she feels very differently about her butt, and so for Domino she got a butt double, and the director actually let her pick out the woman who’s butt would taking the place of hers).

But enough talk about onscreen nudity (as fun as that topic is). Let’s get to the topic at hand – Jessica Alba’s film career. Like many film stars, Jessica’s career actually goes back quite a bit further than most people generally realize, and she did a number of movie and TV roles before breaking out in her starring role in Dark Angel. Her very first movie was way back when she was only 13, in the family comedy Camp Nowhere, starring Christopher Lloyd (which I have on VHS – I’ll have to go back and watch it again one of these days, since I don’t remember her in it – not surprising, considering how young she was and that this was long before anyone knew who she was). This was followed by several years of doing mostly TV guest roles, before stealing the show in both the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed and the horror comedy Idle Hands (both released in 1999). She also did a couple of lower budget movies around that time, before going on to play Max on the TV series Dark Angel.

When Dark Angel was canceled after only two seasons (which is a damned shame, but not that big a surprise considering it was a sci-fi show that aired on Fox), Jessica was able to successfully transition back to movies. She’s had a couple big hits with Sin City and Fantastic Four (both of which, interestingly enough, are comic book movies). She’s also had roles in smaller, less successful films, such as Honey (which I haven’t decided if I really want to see or not) and Into the Blue (which, while being a fairly generic action/thriller, does feature Jessica in a skimpy bikini throughout almost the entire film – certainly a plus). I’m sure we’ll see plenty more great movies from this great actress – I’m especially looking forward to Sin City 2, if it ever gets finished (but not just for Jessica Alba – that’s just going to a kickass movie all the way around!).

[Update] So Jessica starred in a couple of movies since I originally wrote this that I wanted to comment on. The first was the brilliantly funny (and very, very raunchy) Good Luck Chuck. Such a great movie!! And who can forget the wonderful scene of Jessica in her cute little penguin panties. But more importantly, she really shows off her comic side in this movie, especially her ability to do physical comedy. After seeing her in this movie, I’d love to see her do more comedy. The other movie she's done that I was not quite so impressed with was The Eye. This movie was quite the letdown. Of course, my main problem it is that it's an American remake of an Asian horror film, and like 95% of these films, the original Asian film is just SO MUCH BETTER (one of these days I'll have to do a blog post comparing the various Asian horror films with their inferior American counterparts).

6. Alyson Hannigan – I do so love my redheads, and Alyson Hannigan is just such an incredibly cute, sexy, funny, talented redhead. I’ve been a fan of hers ever since her Buffy the Vampire Slayer days. I always liked her best out of the women on the show, although Eliza Dushku (who we’ll discuss further down the list) was always a close second (as far as the star of said show goes, while I’ve enjoyed most all of the movies I’ve seen her in, and always liked her on the show, I’ve still never really been a big fan of Sarah Michelle Gellar). I loved how Alyson’s character developed on the show, and I ESPECIALLY loved the couple of episodes that featured her evil vampire alter-ego (go figure). All in all just a great character played by a wonderful actress.

But like so many other actors/actresses, Alyson was acting for many years before her breakout role. Her first role was in some minor B-movie I’d never heard of at the ripe old age of 12. Two years later she would star in her first significant role in the comedy My Stepmother is an Alien, which coincidentally enough also starred Seth Green, who would go on to play her werewolf boyfriend on Buffy. Okay, so the stars of the movie are actually Dan Aykroyd and Kim Basinger, but considering her name is fourth in the credits after Jon Lovitz, I’d say that was pretty significant for a 14-year-old appearing in her second film. From there she starred in some show called Free Spirit that I’ve never heard of that looks like it ran for one season.

The next seven years were spent doing TV movies and guest appearances until she landed a part on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And I have to say this is still one of her best roles (although Lily on How I Met Your Mother has to be a close 2nd). I’m thinking she wanted to prove her versatility as an actress when she finally broke out into feature films, however, when you consider how completely different her character on American Pie is from Willow. But she did indeed prove herself, because she was hilarious in that movie, and just as good in the sequel (I still haven’t gotten around to seeing American Wedding yet, but from the trailers I’d say she was even funnier in it). Of course, she still hasn’t fully made the leap to film actress, and continues to do most of her acting on the small screen. Other than the American Pie trilogy, she’s only done a couple of other feature film that I recognize.

After a handful of guest appearances following the end of Buffy, Alyson moved on to her next starring role in the sitcom How I Met Your Mother. While I’m generally not much of a sitcom watcher myself, I have to say that I love this show!! Everyone in the show is fantastic (I especially love former Doogie Howser star Neil Patrick Harris as Barney – the boy is a riot!). And as usual, Alyson is very much her cute, funny, quirky self. I was so happy to see this show become a success (especially considering how brutal the networks are these days when it comes to canceling first season shows).

So this is starting to develop into quite the lengthy post. And since I’ve still got some more writing to do on the later entries, and I want to get at least SOMETHING posted this week, I’m going to post the first half of my list now, and save the rest of the list for next week (which conveniently saves me from having to think up a new subject for next week’s post). So keep an eye out for part two of my favorite actresses list, coming soon to a movie blog near you!!