Autumn Cometh

So… after receiving ZERO comments on any of the posts I’ve made over the past month, I finally had the sense to go and check the blog and see what the heck was going on, and… BLOGGER HAS NOT EVEN BEEN DISPLAYING THE POSTS!!!

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Haha, yeah… no… I seriously just have not done any posts within the last month. o_o My bad. So, insert various half-hearted excuses about being busy, seemingly self-deprecating criticisms of inherent apathy, and earnest (but ultimately unrealized) promises of improvement here: ____________________, aaannndddd… moving on!

What have I been watching? Well, since late July when I went and saw Inception, I have viewed (in theaters): The Karate Kid, How to Train Your Dragon, Salt, and The A-Team.

Of those four films, only one of them was on my “top ten” list (The Karate Kid), and one was on the “runners up” list (Salt). How to Train Your Dragon would have been on my top ten list, but I created the list after the movie was released in theaters. I ended waiting to see “Dragon” at the cheap theater, which doesn’t get stuff in until waaaayyyy after the other theaters have stopped screening, but you only pay $1.00-$3.00, so… worth it.

I had debated going back and doing a review post on each film, but it’s really trippy trying to review a movie more than a few days after you’ve seen it, so the longer I kept trying to do that, the longer I ended up putting off posting, and I finally just said, screw it. I’ll post whatever the heck I want, and it’s not gonna be movie reviews. However, I will note that the above films were: Good (Salt), Good (The Karate Kid), Great (How to Train Your Dragon) and Good (The A-Team). Interestingly, I saw each one with a different person, and none of them were the people I usually go with. All good company, however.

If you’re an avid movie-viewer, and would recommend at least renting all of them. Salt and The A-Team had very summer-movie-type plots with either a very simple or “been there, seen that” feel, but were great on action. How much you enjoy them might depend on how you like your protagonists (testosterone-laden Army Ranger team, or femme fatale Russian spy), but both are good entertainment.

The Karate Kid was a little better story-wise, and seeing Jaden Smith in action will always be a treat. Definitely worth a viewing, even if you’re not into martial arts, but definitely if you’re into Jackie Chan. He really digs in with his acting spurs, drawing emotion out of his otherwise-quite-stoic character at the appropriate moments. Other than the mom getting kind of obnoxious at times, and the love story being a little awkward-tween-icky, I enjoyed this one (and was glad to cross the first “to watch” film off my top ten list, finally).

My favorite of the four was definitely How to Train Your Dragon. An excellent picture from Dreamworks that has received loads of positive reviews, I convinced my mom to take me to see this one for my birthday. She was iffy because of the title, and because if was from Dreamworks. I think she had more a of a Shrek-like film in mind, with the oft-inappropriate humor and spoofy story-line. However, she walked out voicing surprise and approval at how good the film was. Another winner from the ol’ Dream machine. They may not be quite on par with Pixar (yet), but they’re sure as heck giving it their best shot.

In completely unrelated news, my Mozy backup has passed the halfway mark like a herd of turtles. Also, I found out the upload speed was being severely throttled (my bad), so I adjusted that and it’s running a little faster now. I just hope these segmented sessions don’t results in a fuzzy backup. Only time will tell.

PS- My fellow bloggers whose posts I normally comment on… do not despair. I’m still reading, I just haven’t had time to comment. I’ll get right on that.

Reel Time Updates: Inception

On Friday, July 16th, I and my regular crew hit the cinema for a 12:35pm showing of Christopher Nolan’s box office hit: Inception.

I’d been looking forward to this one since I saw the first trailer, though I probably would have gone to see it based simply on the fact that it was directed by Nolan. Or because Ken Watanabe is in it. Take your pick.

It was a great drama/thriller/brain-bender, and while there were adequately-spaced action sequences throughout, if you don’t like movies of some complexity that require a little thought during playback, you might want to sit this one out and just pick it up from Netflix or Redbox later on down the road. That way, if you end up falling asleep, you can do so in the comfort (and privacy) of your own home. The film was obviously a little too much for the viewer sitting directly behind us, as he yawned and muttered sleepily to his companion throughout the showing. Maybe he should have read the prequel comic before attending.

The Trailers: Unfortunately, it’s been over a week since I saw this one, and I typically try to rely on my (hardly reliable) memory for what was previewed before the film. I do remember seeing a lot of trailers that I’d never seen before. I remember: Due Date (starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Zach Galifianakis. Heard of, but never previewed); The Town (never seen or heard of); The Social Network (heard of, but thought it was just some kind of internet joke. It’s basically taking something mundane and trying to make it dramatic… either that, or trying to make people hate/distrust Facebook less. Or both); Tron Legacy (I’m a little iffy on this one. Still need to see the first one). And, yes, I’m going to try and start linking to the trailers I saw, because, otherwise, what’s the point?

My Take on Inception: Because of the nature of this film (it’s complex and makes you think), there are a whole lot of reviews out there discussing all the in and outs, the what-ifs and various aspects that Nolan touched on without going into further detail. One thing I will not discuss here is the controversial closing scene that everyone seems to be stuck on. At most, it was merely Nolan’s way of leaving an open window for a sequel. Beyond that, I don’t think viewers should let it change how they view the film as a whole.

Inception certainly lived up to my expectations, and they were relatively high (probably the highest I’ve had in a while), especially after seeing all the A and A+ reviews. Nolan presents the very unique concept of stealthing into and raiding people’s minds through dreams, and proceeds to strap that idea to a runaway freight train, taking it to its limits. Just when you think the film’s protagonists cannot delve any deeper into the minds of those they’re attempting to exploit, they do.

The score was superb. That “bass horn blast” I mentioned in my “Top 10” post? It was every bit as awesome as I expected it to be in theater surround-sound. I will almost definitely hunt down the soundtrack. It will be like giving my bass speakers crack.

Of course the casting was top-notch, and the visuals were excellent. I’m sure a lot of the film was green-screened, but the cast breezed through like pros, interacting well with the digital sets.

There was only one scene that I felt a bit let down by. (SPOILER ALERT) Throughout the film, DiCaprio’s character, Cobb, is haunted (both in and out of the dream worlds) by memories of his deceased wife, Mal, whose death he feels responsible for. She is painted as both villain and victim as she pleads with Cobb to remain with her in the dream world, and then tries to destroy him and his team when he refuses. Near the end of the film, when Cobb finally realizes that he must let go of his twisted, tainted memories of his wife, the tortured farewell scene was not quite as emotional as I thought it should have been. This is likely because we do not get to know Mal very well, or at least not beyond her status as Cobb’s unforgiving, relentless, and mostly memory-based personal issue. While the scene was very dramatic, and somewhat dragged-out, I just wasn’t feeling it when Cobb severed the crumbling, imaginary relationship he’d been failing to sustain with the person he loved and longed for the most. (END SPOILER ALERT)

If you haven’t seen this film, yet, you need to. Go see it on the big screen, and then pick it up when it’s released on Blu-ray (or DVD if you prefer inferior video/audio quality). It has great action, performances, dialogue, sound, visuals, and the story actually forces you to think. If this is Chris Nolan’s way of throwing us a bone between The Dark Knight and “Batman 3”, I, for one, am gnawing away with relish.

(Oh, and I snuck in a little reference to the reason it took me so long to get this post up. If you spotted it, congratulations! If not… you probably don’t need to know. *grin, wink*)

Reel Time Updates: Iron Man 2

So, yes… I did go see Iron Man 2 this past Saturday night with a couple of my movie buddies. The theater was buzzing, but not packed like I thought it would be. The showing was at 10pm, so I guess the heavier crowds had come and gone a little earlier. We did have a little trouble finding three seats that were: a) adjacent to one another, b) not near any kids, and c) not directly in front of anyone using our seats for Ottomans.

The Trailers: There was a decent spread of trailers prior to the film: Inception, Despicable Me, The Last Airbender, Grown Ups, Shrek Forever After, Super8, and Eclipse, to name a few. I’m really looking forward to the first three. Shrek I can take or leave. Grown Ups is a comedy (Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, etc.), and I can take or leave that entire genre. The Super8 trailer was yawn-worthy and had a real “been there, done that” feeling to it. It was basically just a big name-dropper (Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams), and while that combo may stir up geeky squeals from some people, I was not impressed.

The trailer that seemed to elicit the biggest reaction from any part of the audience was the Eclipse preview, which sent several front rows of adolescent girls into shrieking fits, particularly when Taylor Lautner appeared on-screen (I think Team Edward is starting to fizzle out after two films). As we watched hordes of unhealthy-looking vampires stepping out of murky lakes and knocking over trees, one of my friends wryly remarked that the film would actually be a little scary if it weren’t “Twilight”.

My Take on Iron Man 2: I’ve read several reviews that have accused Iron Man 2 of being too choppy plot-wise, with a story that jumped around too quickly. I did not really sense this during my viewing, but then I was too busy enjoying the film, and, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m not a very objective movie reviewer.

There were quite a few little sub-plots, yes, but not enough to distract from the overall story. It definitely seemed to give a lot more focus to Tony Stark than to Iron Man, but that made sense because of the situations Stark’s character was going through/being placed in. The off-the-cuff humor seemed to have doubled in the second film, and the snappy dialog elicited plenty of laughs from the audience.

Samuel L. Jackson’s character (Nick Fury) was upgraded from appearing as part of Marvel’s end-credits teasers to an actual film participant. One disappointment was that Scarlett Johansson’s character (Black Widow / Natalie Rushman) spent a lot more time as Natalie, and not nearly enough time as the bone-crunching, leather-clad Black Widow. When she did finally start breaking out the arse-kicking moves, though (towards the end of the film), they were pretty awesome. As was the finale showdown fight between a bunch of evil military drones (they can salute!) and Team Iron Man/War Machine. (Oh, and I’m sorry Terrence Howard fans, but Don Cheadle kicked his butt as Col. Rhodes.)

I could probably give a more comprehensive take after a second viewing, but for now Iron Man 2 freakin’ rocked. Good story, good dialog, good acting, good special effects, and lots of action. Perfect film to start off what looks to be a great summer at the movies.