ed-421 Reviews

Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders (2016)

Holy Homesickness, Batman

[8/10 · 11 October 2016]

What a dose of Nostalgia. I heard that the opening credits incorporated many classic comic book covers with some fantastic animation, so I took a look this morning before heading to more important tasks -- but I could not stop watching. Fascinating, funny, festive, friendly, and very alliterative, the actors, writers, and animators knocked this out of the park.

I think I spotted at least 50 sly references, and I'm sure I missed many others. Labels, labels, labels galore. I was thoroughly amused throughout. One thing I've noticed is that nearly everyone is staying spoiler-free, but the twists are like punchlines to good jokes. None of the dozens of punchlines are particularly surprising, but they are all fun, and many of them require the set-up, animation, and acting to be meaningful. For example -- "Begora" is one of these punchlines. Explaining why it's funny wouldn't be funny, so why ruin the joke?

The movie does get a bit dark. In one particular scene, Robin is horrified by a punch that doesn't follow Marquess of Queensberry rules. Robin's reaction to that punch and subsequent actions keep the movie grounded and friendly. I have to give special acclaim for Burt Ward, here -- his exuberance and delivery hasn't changed an iota.

Does the movie get some things wrong? Like the Joker's hidden mustache? Yes and perhaps. There are dozens of things that are not quite like the 60's show, and hundreds of things that are spot-on perfect. I don't recall hearing the Riddler's music cue, but the Batman theme is incorporated well in many places. The producers have already mention that some of the "mistakes" are intentional, such as the colors of Robin's logo being flipped in a throwaway shot, an homage to mistakes in previous animations. I will be watching this many times.

The sequel has already been announced, with William Shatner as Two- Face.

This is the most enjoyable movie I've seen in years. Highly recommended.

Still (2013– )

Haunting

[8/10 · 15 April 2016]

I watched this more than a year ago, and it's stuck with me.

1. Zombies, of a sort. They never move while you're looking at them (hence STILL). They move a lot while not being watched. If they touch you, you join their ranks.

2. Sandwiches. Normal sandwiches, shot as if they were the focus of some sort of erotic kink.

3. The radio broadcasts, utterly clueless to what is going on.

4. Society disintegrating as more and more people become Still, and some of the side effects.

5. Some people figuring out the rules that the Still must follow.

The camera moving away from one of the Still was always a bad sign. Nothing was particularly terrifying, but the mood of the series really pulled me in. And it's stayed with me.

Recommended.

Still (2014– )

Very atmospheric Horror

[7/10 · 5 October 2015]

In a seemingly normal small town, a loud sound is heard in the sky.

Almost immediately, many people get gruesomely sick. After the sickness, people go STILL.

The Still or sort of like zombies, but they never seem to move while people are watching them. They just stand there, staring.

When people look away from them and then look back, they are usually much closer. When they get close enough, they can grab a person, and then they join the ranks of the Still.

Effective use of sandwiches and repeating news broadcasts. I like the series so far.

G.R. (2003)

Low budget pic of Regeneration experiment

[5/10 · 6 September 2015]

The movie starts with a car explosion. Since the movie deals with regeneration, that gives an excuse to show the main character healing as he tries to get help.

There are a few interesting non-standard characters in the picture, such as the hired techno-assassin and the priests.

There are also a number of useless shots in the picture. One in particular shows a picture of a tree for ten seconds at a time. Nothing happening, just a picture of a tree. About two minutes could be trimmed just by removing that tree shot.

The effects budget was low, low, low -- but still effective and decent.

I guessed at about three endings while I was watching -- and I was wrong! The two part ending is logical and mostly satisfying.

The Lego Movie (2014)

Surprisingly dark and subversive, under the surface

[9/10 · 8 February 2014]

In The Birds by Aristophanes (414BC), Mr. Trusting and Mr. Hopeful erect a perfect city in the clouds, to be named Cloud Cuckoo Land -- an unrealistically idealistic state where everything is perfect. The Birds (414BC) is described by critics as a "perfectly realized fantasy remarkable for the gaiety of its songs".

Scratch the surface, and there is darkness underneath.

This is also an underlying theme of The Lego Movie. In the opening, main character Emmitt sees a TV show where the president lets on that the world will end in three days. And then everyone goes back to being happy, as the costs of everything go up, and all the jokes and songs are repeated. Everyone follows instructions.

Later, Emmitt is interrogated by "Bad Cop" -- and occasionally reassured by "Good Cop". While the Good Cop makes everything seem okay and perfect, the Bad Cop is never far away.

Later, they go to Cloud Cuckoo Land (!), "a land up in the clouds where there are no rules, no limits, no bushy mustaches and no bedtimes." There they meet Princess Unikitty, who has no negative thoughts. Wyldstyle remarks on how often she says "No" in the place with no rules.

Later still, there is a wonderful place, but with signs saying "Do Not Touch" and "Off Limits" everywhere.

--- and I'll stop Lego Movie = Greek Comedy there ---

This is one of those movies with a lot of layers. I wondered how I would describe the movie. Action Thriller? Superhero? Love Story? Horror? Comedy? Tragedy? Sci-Fi? Fantasy? Western? Cataclysm? I thought about how I could argue the case for any of these.

I greatly enjoyed the zippy, intense, manic drive of the movie, and liked many of the jokes -- but also frequently saw the underlying darkness that was being hinted at. Well, perhaps not hinted -- many of the references were blatant, but maybe they expect that most people will be distracted by the action and not try to process something important, just like Emmitt at the start of the movie.

Fun and exciting, but underneath, it's like Batman, where everything is dark.

Cyber-C.H.I.C. (1990)

Interesting -- if you lived in Colorado Springs

[4/10 · 20 June 2013]

For a movie night, my friends tried to pick one good movie (Amadeus), and one bad movie (this one).

And true to form, this film started out awful. One character had a long, rambling dialog that just went on and on.

We were about to end it, when one of us said "Hey! That's downtown!" And sure enough, downtown Colorado Springs, where we were living. For the rest of the movie, we were trying to outdo each other at naming where the scene was shot.

The "scientist" character was truly awful, and he unfortunately had most of the dialog. The other characters played it more campy, which made them more tolerable.

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

Mostly good character, bad plot, bad science

[6/10 · 25 May 2013]

Halfway into STID, the main antagonist is sitting quietly in the sick bay. He just sits timidly, doing nothing.

In the original TV series, the episode Space Seed, a similar antagonist is sitting in the sick bay, while greatly weakened. The character talks charmingly with everyone that comes near, while reading all the manuals for the Enterprise. He uses RTFM as a weapon, but has already gained the loyalties of several crewmembers, just by talking. By the time he can walk around, he's ready to take over the ship with the ferocity of a lion.

In Wrath of Khan, Shatner and Nimoy had a touching scene at the end, after representing Kirk and Spock for 25 years. Pine and Quinto were forced to try their own touching homage after being in one movie together. It cannot work -- we're not invested in the characters enough, and the resolution is too obvious.

Spock, Scotty, Uhura, Bones -- I thought the actors here did a fine job (except for the Spock-Uhura squabble, Scotty pushing a particular button, and Spock screaming). I did not like this Kirk. Shatner's Kirk always had some intelligence and rules first, and knew when he was bending or breaking them. And he cared about his crew. Here, he acts as if he knows nothing -- just one gut feeling after another.

In this movie, many unnamed characters die. No-one cares about them. In the Star Trek I know, the officers would care more. When a city suffers a major attack, the citizens still alive don't react at all. More realistically, a perpetrator fleeing a scene of massive devastation would have needed to fight thousands of enraged citizens. When Kirk grabs a scroll at the very start of the film (why?), it gets far more reaction from the local natives than does the destruction of a city at the end of the movie.

What the heck is the plan of the main villains? To start a war with the poor-fighting Klingons? Revenge? Many of the set pieces are like poor quality chocolate, entertaining for the moment, but with a lousy aftertaste.

No part of this movie holds up well, except for Scotty following the rules, and Kirk making a deduction early in the movie. In these two cases, they were acting like intelligent Star Fleet officers.

Iron Man Three (2013)

Deus ex machina redux, but enjoyable

[8/10 · 3 May 2013]

Deus ex machina -- a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved. Within this movie, that happens many times with Iron Man suits. For tension-building, it's a relief during moments when the suits are not in play, and Tony Stark has to save himself. I thus found myself enjoying the non-suit scenes more.

"I loved you in Christmas Story." For a cinema buff, there are many asides that I was enjoying, but that many seemed to miss.

I didn't expect it, but Ty Simpkins, playing a 12-year old, comes across as one of the most likable characters. Robert Downey / Tony Stark acts as a person well adept at politely brushing people off, and it all plays off very well, as various "little boy" clichés are built up then hilariously destroyed.

Small-scale destruction was done well, but I may be spoiled by some games that did it better, such as Uncharted 2&3. The fight scenes were well done, but I liked the action in such movies as Inception, Ghost Protocol, Dark Knight, Avengers, Incredibles, and even Wrong Trousers more.

The 3D/IMAX effects did not seem worth the extra $10 to me.

I did enjoy this movie a lot, and nothing nags at me. But all the scenes I'm remembering involve Ty Simpkins / Tony Stark.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

Too much low-quality filler spoiling the brew

[6/10 · 24 December 2012]

Some examples of the low points of the movie, that merely chew up time unproductively: .

1. A harmless stick insect in someone's mouth, but which almost a minute of movie time is spent on.

2. Moths flying in and out of a snoring character's mouth for 30 seconds.

3. A huge wattle of fat dangling from the chin of a character, with the camera focused on it swaying around for 30 seconds.

4. A troll blowing his nose repeatedly for about 30 seconds.

5. A long, long fall of a triple-decker structure for about 30 seconds.

6. Radagast is involved in the same chase pratfall about 6 times in a row. A few of those times, the CGI looked exceptionally poor. Why not just repeat the pratfall 3 times where it looked better? Or just avoid the pratfall.

7. Golf. Balls. Deposits.

I've been a big Peter Jackson fan for years, and I've watched everything he's done, including Bad Taste and Forgotten Silver. I thought his first serious low point as a director was with Jimmy the Cabin Boy in King Kong. He spent half an hour on that character for no coherent reason. Here, he's showing the same weaknesses. With the above 3 minutes of movie trimmed or excised, I'd have given the movie 2 more stars.

Why couldn't each of the dwarfs had at least one line, or at least said their own name? All that said .. I did like many of the embellishments. The Necromancer is an interesting storyline (but they haven't really gotten to it yet). I loved seeing Saruman (but not with a brown beard), and I thought the actors with speaking rolls did fine.

I'd have been happier with more careful trimming.

The Artist (I) (2011)

A moment of silence

[8/10 · 28 January 2012]

A one point in the movie, where the cliché is for music to swell, there is silence instead. It was that silence that made the movie for me.

Though this does follow the norms of a silent movie, it's very much like Modern Times (Chaplin, 1936), in that sound is being played with. There is music throughout, and occasional humorous deviations.

I thought the first half of the movie was okay, but I started seeing where certain scenes were going. Contrast that with Modern Times, where I hardly ever knew exactly where Chaplin was going, and he frequently did things that amaze me every time I see them. Jean Dujardin will not be replacing Buster Keaton. In a few spots, the movie even used CGI effects. For being true to the original spirit, I thought Shadow of the Vampire did a better job.

For discussing flammability of film, Inglorious Basterds does a better job, as does Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage (which cameos in I. B.). The dog Uggie is top notch, though I liked Milo the Dog better in The Mask.

I was comparing The Artist to all these other films, but then a moment of silence happened at the right spot, and the film won me over. I liked a lot of this film.

Recommended.

Hugo (2011)

Magical. My favorite movie of the year.

[8/10 · 11 January 2012]

After seeing Hugo, I am 17 films away from seeing all of the top 250 IMDb films. Perhaps I should have saved it for last, since Hugo is a celebration of great films. There is both a snippet and a homage to Safety Last! (1923), for example. The entire early history of film is given.

But it's "great" 3D, so I thought I should catch it in the theater. I'm very glad that I did, because the 3D effects are spectacular. Gears, steam, pendulums, and crowds are everywhere, making the film a delight to the eyes as the camera swoops around all over the place.

Georges Méliès is worth looking up here at IMDb, as he is the star of the film, played wonderfully by Ben Kingsley. Buster Keaton, Charles Chaplin, and other greats also get to star through the snippets.

I did not like the trailer for the film. Seemed too slapstickish. Part of it showed Baron Sasha Cohen as the Station Inspector about to run into a huge cake. The trailer is rife with trickery -- he doesn't run into the cake. Don't be put off by trailers you've seen.

If you're a fan of the top 250 IMDb films, you'll love this movie.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

Do your own stunts for the win

[8/10 · 2 January 2012]

Sherlock Jr, The General, Modern Times -- lots of the great films feature actors like Jackie Chan, doing their own stunts. Nothing works better for getting me there with the actor. Also, it's become vital for the audiences to never know for certain when a special effect is being used.

Except for an exploding parking lot early on, everything in this movie seemed real enough for me to get into the action. The Burj Khalifa tower, in particular, was awe-inspiring. Now, they could have stayed safely in Los Angeles and done everything with special effects, and it would likely have looked pretty good. Spiderman movies have similar scenes, but there is no comparison. Tom Cruise here or Harold Lloyd there (Safety Last!) really brings out the tension.

On missiles -- under a treaty, Russia and the US inform each other ahead of time on all launches. Also, all missile launches are easily detectable. The missile would have taken much longer to reach the target. NORAD would have been just one agency aware of the rogue missile launch.

I loved the acting, the set-ups, and the solid grounding in reality. The sandstorm gave a great follow-up to the tower. Wonderful stuff. About the only scene I didn't like was a non-eventful one involving the main characters sitting around a table talking.

Life Is Beautiful (1997)

Don't watch this after Pinocchio

[2/10 · 2 January 2012]

I've seen Schindler's List and The Pianist, and consider both excellent. I've also watched video's from Spielberg's Shoah foundation, and read many books and accounts. Pál Turán's stories, for example. I've watched Hogan's Heroes, and the disastrous Pinocchio.

Roberto Benigni has a particular "I can get away with anything" style that spoiled the movie for me. For example, he slowly rides a green-painted live horse into a fancy restaurant, has a long conversation with a bureaucrat that hates him, steals away a girl, and a large egg that happened to be right over the bureaucrat's head splatters on him as Benigni slowly rides away. No-one tries to stop him. Earlier, Benigni is getting away from the same bureaucrat on a bicycle, and collided with the girl. But as they start to talk, the bicycle is abandoned. It's just a movie prop, after all.

This pervasive unreality saturates the film. Benigni isn't acting appropriately anywhere, so it's unsurprising when the Nazi's act with deference to him throughout the last half of the film. All the Italians are good, only Germans are bad (and just mildly so). The Germans are also dumb as bricks.

I probably would have liked this more if I hadn't seen Pinocchio first. I did like the boy and many of the supporting players. This could have been a much better film with more reality and thought. A poor person would never abandon a bicycle. There's a good Italian 1948 movie by Vittorio De Sica on the topic.

Mary and Max (2009)

Overly puerile, right from the opening line.

[5/10 · 1 January 2012]

I wanted to like this film, but the "birthmark the color of poo" in the opening line of the film sets up the puerile tone seen throughout the entire movie.

The sets, art, and animation are all unique and wonderful. The characters are pretty good. The narration is excellent. Every minute, though, there is another attempt at a poo joke, and these become impossible to ignore.

The script needed some work to cut this poorer material out. There are several extended shots of full frontal nudity that seemed to serve no purpose. Most of the characters have some form of underlying unpleasantness which could have been toned down some. Too much death and decay for me to ignore.

Castle in the Sky (1986)

Originally seen without a dub, but I understood everything

[10/10 · 1 January 2012]

This film was pushed on me by a anime hound as his favorite movie. I watched it, undubbed and no subtitles, and it became one of my own favorite films. I didn't understand a single word of the dialog, but this imagery was so crystal clear that I understood everything.

It worked so well that when I was in Japan, I bought several over Ghibli videos, but none of them was transcendental like this one.

About the tenth time I saw the film, it was the dubbed version. I don't hearing the actual dialog for the first helped. Via the images, I already knew it, somehow. And what fantastic imagery -- some of the best imagery I've seen in any film. There is indeed a Castle in the Sky, from which one may rule.

Highly recommended.