Movie Diary
1. Superman Returns
I didn't go into this with any particular expectations; I hadn't read many reviews, it's been at least 10 years since I've seen any of the Reeve movies, and I was never that big on Superman to begin with. But whatever expectations I had were definitely surpassed by this, it rocked, as far as special effects and the story and all that. I kinda feel bad for Cyclops, though, he gets cuckolded by Supe in this as bad as he was by Wolverine. The whole movie was about his red eye beam envy. One of the things that Josh pointed out in his Batman & Robin rant was how low the body count was, and how "people generally are never in peril" in that movie, and that's basically how I felt watching Superman Returns. There were scenes that featured bullets flying through the air, runaway cars speeding down busy sidewalks, and all of Metropolis about to be destroyed, and yet I don't think they showed a single one of these things happening without people either dodging out of the way, or Superman saving them. The only people I saw die in the entire movie were Luthor's henchmen. I know it's a PG-13 movie and all, but it was just a little ridiculous. Also, it made no sense to me that Kal Penn was one of the henchmen, since he barely had any lines and wasn't even really a comic relief character. But then I read that he's good friends with Brandon Routh, so I guess that explains that. I think what bugged me the most, though, is that they couldn't cast a natural brunette as Lois Lane, which is almost as bad as not casting a natural redhead as Mary Jane. Why spend all that money on great special effects and then give lead characters bad dyejobs?
2. Madagascar
Caught this on cable recently, and though it was fairly enjoyable, it's kind of amazing how shitty the animation on movies like this and Shrek are compared to Pixar movies. I don't know why more people don't seem to notice or care. Also, I have to admit I lost a little respect for Chris Rock after watching him voice a cartoon zebra who says things like "crackalackin'" and "off the chizzain." And the fact that the Ali G/Borat guy voiced a character with an over-the-top Indian accent helped cement for me the fact that whether or not he's a racist, that dude is definitely an asshole who gets by on a lot of lame ethnic humor. I'm sure someone would love to explain to me that he's not a bigot and maybe that his humor is actually about making fun of bigotry, but whatever, fuck that guy. I'm not trying to be the humorless PC police here, but he's not that funny, and I fail to see why his "watch me talk like and ridicule the foibles of a minority of which I am not a member" shit gets a free pass from people who should know better.
3. Must Love Dogs
Decent boilerplate rom-com to waste an evening with. Cusack seems to slowly be getting puffier and more mumbly in his advancing years (wow, he just turned 40 like a week ago), even as he plays the perpetually lovelorn bachelor. But the dialogue was snappy enough and there were some good twists on the formula, so I can't complain.
4. Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs And Blockbusters
An original documentary that HBO's been running lately, about the unpredictability of Hollywood, focusing mainly on the post-Jaws blockbuster era. It's kind of short and breezy, with a lot of clips and voiceover, but the interviews are pretty interesting and give you a good perspective on just confused studios are about what works and doesn't work. I tend to be pretty cynical about the film industry and have little or no interest in most big movies, so it's a little weird for me to see all these people speaking really earnestly about how hard they try when usually you can tell what's going to bomb based on the trailers.
I didn't go into this with any particular expectations; I hadn't read many reviews, it's been at least 10 years since I've seen any of the Reeve movies, and I was never that big on Superman to begin with. But whatever expectations I had were definitely surpassed by this, it rocked, as far as special effects and the story and all that. I kinda feel bad for Cyclops, though, he gets cuckolded by Supe in this as bad as he was by Wolverine. The whole movie was about his red eye beam envy. One of the things that Josh pointed out in his Batman & Robin rant was how low the body count was, and how "people generally are never in peril" in that movie, and that's basically how I felt watching Superman Returns. There were scenes that featured bullets flying through the air, runaway cars speeding down busy sidewalks, and all of Metropolis about to be destroyed, and yet I don't think they showed a single one of these things happening without people either dodging out of the way, or Superman saving them. The only people I saw die in the entire movie were Luthor's henchmen. I know it's a PG-13 movie and all, but it was just a little ridiculous. Also, it made no sense to me that Kal Penn was one of the henchmen, since he barely had any lines and wasn't even really a comic relief character. But then I read that he's good friends with Brandon Routh, so I guess that explains that. I think what bugged me the most, though, is that they couldn't cast a natural brunette as Lois Lane, which is almost as bad as not casting a natural redhead as Mary Jane. Why spend all that money on great special effects and then give lead characters bad dyejobs?
2. Madagascar
Caught this on cable recently, and though it was fairly enjoyable, it's kind of amazing how shitty the animation on movies like this and Shrek are compared to Pixar movies. I don't know why more people don't seem to notice or care. Also, I have to admit I lost a little respect for Chris Rock after watching him voice a cartoon zebra who says things like "crackalackin'" and "off the chizzain." And the fact that the Ali G/Borat guy voiced a character with an over-the-top Indian accent helped cement for me the fact that whether or not he's a racist, that dude is definitely an asshole who gets by on a lot of lame ethnic humor. I'm sure someone would love to explain to me that he's not a bigot and maybe that his humor is actually about making fun of bigotry, but whatever, fuck that guy. I'm not trying to be the humorless PC police here, but he's not that funny, and I fail to see why his "watch me talk like and ridicule the foibles of a minority of which I am not a member" shit gets a free pass from people who should know better.
3. Must Love Dogs
Decent boilerplate rom-com to waste an evening with. Cusack seems to slowly be getting puffier and more mumbly in his advancing years (wow, he just turned 40 like a week ago), even as he plays the perpetually lovelorn bachelor. But the dialogue was snappy enough and there were some good twists on the formula, so I can't complain.
4. Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs And Blockbusters
An original documentary that HBO's been running lately, about the unpredictability of Hollywood, focusing mainly on the post-Jaws blockbuster era. It's kind of short and breezy, with a lot of clips and voiceover, but the interviews are pretty interesting and give you a good perspective on just confused studios are about what works and doesn't work. I tend to be pretty cynical about the film industry and have little or no interest in most big movies, so it's a little weird for me to see all these people speaking really earnestly about how hard they try when usually you can tell what's going to bomb based on the trailers.
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on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 at 5:52 PM.
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