Movie Diary
1. Lady In The Water
J.G. and I were in the minority of people who actually liked The Village, and we're in an even smaller minority with this one, I'm sure. I can see why critics have jumped on this, and people who hated The Village will really really hate this one. But I liked the kind of inverted storytelling devices, the themes about community and catalysts of change, and some of the elements that are really pissing other people off (like the in-jokey film critic character, or the director's role as a prophetic writer, which he was pretty good in). I made a point not to read much about the movie in advance, partly to avoid spoilers, so I didn't even realize how well publicized Shyamalan's struggle with Disney just to get the movie made was. Having seen and liked the movie, I'm not surprised he was met with a lot of skepticism, and that Disney's reservations have been kind of vindicated by the low box office take.
Still, I'm surprised that even in most of the negative reviews, Paul Giamatti gets a free pass. I have kind of have a hard time taking him seriously as an Oscar-nominated actor, since it wasn't that long ago that he was doing shit like Big Fat Liar, and if you ask me he's still a poor man's Joey Slotnick. And I wanted to like him in this, but his stuttering act was just so so so hackneyed. Dude can't even play a character that stutters without hamming it up and sputtering like the cowardly lion. I think I would've rather seen Bob Balaban, who played the film critic, in Giamatti's role. Bryce Dallas Howard has always seemed pretty cute and likeable to me, but that's not really a reason to see or defend this movie, since she's just a weird pasty icky otherworldly being in this. I liked the small role by Bill Irwin, who I always thought was really funny in Hot Shots! and My Blue Heaven. I think the biggest WTF moment for me in the whole movie was Cibo Matto songs being played in the background.
Shyamalan seems like kind of an idiosyncratic filmmaker who deals with a lot of personal themes and just happened to make a couple huge blockbusters, so I'm not really surprised that larger audiences are eventually getting fed up with him. And I do feel kinda bad for him for some of the serious hate getting aimed at him (and I won't mince words, all the "M. Night Shamalamadingdong"-type jokes are straight up racist bullshit). I think maybe because of the earnest and moralistic tone of his work, people aren't even willing to acknowledge how intentionally silly or self-referential the movie is. This article, in which Shyamalan says that with LITW he's giving critics "all the ammunition you'll ever want," is pretty revealing. In any event, I like when his movies are at worst interesting failures, as opposed to Signs, which was just bland and stupid.
2. The 40 Year Old Virgin
This was about as good as I expected it to be, but I've generally always liked Judd Apatow's stuff, and it was good to see him bring in Seth Rogen from Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared. Like those shows, it took some broad comic premises and treated them with some real pathos and sympathy, which is kind of refreshing, since a movie like this could very quickly become a lot of mean, easy target humor (although when it did resort to that, it was usually pretty funny). I do have to say, though, that the ending really dragged and delayed the inevitable to the last possible second, and the song cue was really out of place, an Anchorman-type surreal bit that didn't fit the rest of the movie at all. Also, oh my god, Kat Dennings is so hot.
3. Mr. & Mrs. Smith
This was alright but I wish I had seen it before that Busta Rhymes video came out, though the whole movie I had that terrible song stuck in my head.
4. Serenity
J.G. was a big fan of Firefly, and I've watched a few reruns on Sci-Fi with her, so I was able to keep up with the plot pretty well, although it was one of those movies where the abundance of talky dialogue and loud action sound effects meant I missed about 50% of the words spoken in the movie while constantly turning the volume on the TV up and down. So maybe it was funnier than I realized, it'll probably take me another view to actually get into it. I kind of like the whole jaunty sci-fi comedy quasi-western aspect, but it's no The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. as far as that microgenre goes, and gets a bit soap opera-y.
J.G. and I were in the minority of people who actually liked The Village, and we're in an even smaller minority with this one, I'm sure. I can see why critics have jumped on this, and people who hated The Village will really really hate this one. But I liked the kind of inverted storytelling devices, the themes about community and catalysts of change, and some of the elements that are really pissing other people off (like the in-jokey film critic character, or the director's role as a prophetic writer, which he was pretty good in). I made a point not to read much about the movie in advance, partly to avoid spoilers, so I didn't even realize how well publicized Shyamalan's struggle with Disney just to get the movie made was. Having seen and liked the movie, I'm not surprised he was met with a lot of skepticism, and that Disney's reservations have been kind of vindicated by the low box office take.
Still, I'm surprised that even in most of the negative reviews, Paul Giamatti gets a free pass. I have kind of have a hard time taking him seriously as an Oscar-nominated actor, since it wasn't that long ago that he was doing shit like Big Fat Liar, and if you ask me he's still a poor man's Joey Slotnick. And I wanted to like him in this, but his stuttering act was just so so so hackneyed. Dude can't even play a character that stutters without hamming it up and sputtering like the cowardly lion. I think I would've rather seen Bob Balaban, who played the film critic, in Giamatti's role. Bryce Dallas Howard has always seemed pretty cute and likeable to me, but that's not really a reason to see or defend this movie, since she's just a weird pasty icky otherworldly being in this. I liked the small role by Bill Irwin, who I always thought was really funny in Hot Shots! and My Blue Heaven. I think the biggest WTF moment for me in the whole movie was Cibo Matto songs being played in the background.
Shyamalan seems like kind of an idiosyncratic filmmaker who deals with a lot of personal themes and just happened to make a couple huge blockbusters, so I'm not really surprised that larger audiences are eventually getting fed up with him. And I do feel kinda bad for him for some of the serious hate getting aimed at him (and I won't mince words, all the "M. Night Shamalamadingdong"-type jokes are straight up racist bullshit). I think maybe because of the earnest and moralistic tone of his work, people aren't even willing to acknowledge how intentionally silly or self-referential the movie is. This article, in which Shyamalan says that with LITW he's giving critics "all the ammunition you'll ever want," is pretty revealing. In any event, I like when his movies are at worst interesting failures, as opposed to Signs, which was just bland and stupid.
2. The 40 Year Old Virgin
This was about as good as I expected it to be, but I've generally always liked Judd Apatow's stuff, and it was good to see him bring in Seth Rogen from Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared. Like those shows, it took some broad comic premises and treated them with some real pathos and sympathy, which is kind of refreshing, since a movie like this could very quickly become a lot of mean, easy target humor (although when it did resort to that, it was usually pretty funny). I do have to say, though, that the ending really dragged and delayed the inevitable to the last possible second, and the song cue was really out of place, an Anchorman-type surreal bit that didn't fit the rest of the movie at all. Also, oh my god, Kat Dennings is so hot.
3. Mr. & Mrs. Smith
This was alright but I wish I had seen it before that Busta Rhymes video came out, though the whole movie I had that terrible song stuck in my head.
4. Serenity
J.G. was a big fan of Firefly, and I've watched a few reruns on Sci-Fi with her, so I was able to keep up with the plot pretty well, although it was one of those movies where the abundance of talky dialogue and loud action sound effects meant I missed about 50% of the words spoken in the movie while constantly turning the volume on the TV up and down. So maybe it was funnier than I realized, it'll probably take me another view to actually get into it. I kind of like the whole jaunty sci-fi comedy quasi-western aspect, but it's no The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. as far as that microgenre goes, and gets a bit soap opera-y.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, July 25, 2006 at 1:19 AM.
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I Liked it. The Village too. But not as much as Signs.
ITEM: Brisco County --
Finally on DVD. It makes a geek weep.