Change Your Image
guildnavigator
Reviews
The Golden Compass (2007)
Rushed and uneven
I haven't read the books.
The performances of the film are steady, nothing too amazing in the acting realm.
The story was weak. The direction felt rushed to me, as story elements were not discovered by characters, so much as they were told to the audience. Longer scenes when divining from the compass would've helped here. There are also problems with tracing the lines of knowledge, as sometimes I felt like characters were acting on information the audience had not seen them acquire.
I loved the way archetypes were being presented, still, not enough time was taken to establish the full complexity of relationships between characters. I say this with full appreciation of the film's near two hour run time.
If the Gyptians were really shadowing the girl, a few more shots of one of them giving a knowing glance here and there, like the disguised Lando in Return of the Jedi, would've helped.
And, since I've broached Star Wars, the fight at the end was the worst case of green-screen-itis since Attack of the Clones.
I would be very surprised if the sequels get made. They would make an excellent cartoon series or steampunk rpg.
sincerely, Dave
Superbad (2007)
The Spirit of Guyness
I like Superbad for the following reasons:
1. Superbad is uncompromising in its look at what it can be like to transition out of High School. The roles of the girls and boys in the story are anchored in exceptionally balanced, three-dimensional characters. In these characters, there are redeeming qualities and flaws that range from subtle to glaring. However, Seth, Evan, Fogell, Jules, Becca, and the two cops are all different people at the end of the movie than they were at the beginning, and the story is told in a way that the audience understands.
2. The profanity. Words are tools, and the dialog of Superbad builds the expression of not only the thoughts and the characters, but also of what the collective culture of the characters is. This is not a movie for someone to get caught up on what it is young people say. This is a movie for people who appreciate what young people mean.
3. Quid Pro Quo. Just as Juno is to Knocked Up and Mean Girls is to...well, pretty much the whole genre of High School Boy Geeks Overcoming Oppressive Jocks Movies, Superbad is begging for a response to be made from a female perspective.
That would be the movie to threaten the establishment.
sincerely,
Dave
Dungeons & Dragons (2000)
Oh, the missed opportunities. *Spoilers*
Before I get into my comments, I need to qualify everything I say by fessing up. I play in a long running D+D campaign AND have been running my own campaign for a year. I likes me up some D+D.
The first thing that comes to mind is how I don't think anyone in this cast or specifically Courtney Solomon knew the first thing about D+D, and they missed some great opportunities because of it.
*SPOILERS*
Thieves don't need grappling hooks to scale walls. They have a skill called "climb walls" that other characters like the fighter and mage do not get. This talent that allows the thief to climb walls without rope and hook. And if a pair thieves were to climb the walls of the enemy castle, they would most likely not do so IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AFTERNOON! The entire character concept for the two thieves is so flawed, one expects bad things to happen to them. Fish out of water.
Akin to this, there were not enough monsters. The story didn't even get into the interesting side of dragons, like the dragons that can talk and cast spells. Then there was a city run by a magocracy but no liches? Beholders, but no bugbears? A well lit orc bar?
While the movie does have the feel of a decent 1st through 4th level module, and I love the ending, the topic of this movie was not researched enough during pre-production. The end result is a movie that has Marlon Wayan mugging for the camera when *interesting* things, like character development and storyline progression could've been addressed.
American Beauty (1999)
It isn't like fooling a American audience would be that hard
First off, the idea of sounding the Death Gong for suburbia had been done perfectly a year earlier by Todd Solondz's "Happiness". No one else could improve his ideas. "Donnie Darko" had to incorporate Time Travel and a demonic rabbit to take Todd's ideas further.
Secondly, all of the characters in "American Beauty" are horrible cardboard cut-outs of human beings. And that WASN'T intentional. It was just bad writing. A self-loathing homophobic ex-military character? How is that not a stereotype? Hey, Allen Ball, how long did it take you to come up with that one? Or the career minded mother who has NO redeaming qualities? Mena Suvari's character was the only one with any substance, but she looks like a martian and I can't buy into the idea that Lester is really attacted to her or what she stands for.
Thirdly, the heavy hand of the director or author's voice manifests in the character who constantly carries around a CAMERA and NEVER MAKES A MISTAKE. That is a poorly conceived and executed idea. It's like they think their audience is dumb and needs to be spoon fed principles of symbolism. I can picture the process of creating that character. I bet Mr. Ball and Mr. Mendes thought it was a great idea. That's a huge part of the problem.
There is a principle in writing called "Killing Your Baby". If you have an idea you think is good, the only way you can be sure is if you dismantle the idea. If you can dismantle it, and the idea retains its goodness, then the idea is good. In the dismantling process, you can find the problems in the idea and fix them.
Some of the problems with Ricky Fitts are a little obvious, like the fact that he is a dramatic character who is unfaltering and without any tangible conflict. Oooh, he hates his ex-military disciplinarian father. Ooooh. It's just another two-dimensional aspect. A truer conflict would be if he resented the homophobia and disciplinarianism but also loved his father very, very much.
If anything, American Beauty shows that you can take a horrible script, give to talented actors, dress it up with slow fades, pans, and tracking shots, top it off with a great soundtrack, and fool millions of Americans into thinking it is a great work of art. Really what you have is a pretentious, heavy handed, and dumbed down soap opera quality flick. At least the title has some irony.
btr
Dave Hendrick
Body Snatchers (1993)
Not that awful.
When you stumble across a good story, the desire to experience it again is often very strong. Hollowood is no different, look at Kevin Costner's career.
While this movie is by no means groundbreaking or particularly daring in its retelling of the classic 1950s Sci-Fi B Movie Archetype, it does have some interesting character development. Gabrielle Anwar gets the most screentime to explore her character and I get the feeling that scenes in which R. Lee Ermey and Forrest Whitaker came into their characters' found eternal rest on the cutting room floor. However, would America go see a 3 hour Body Snatchers?
For those of you who are into camera work, there are interesting shots every now and then in this version, so if you see it on the dish or Sci-Fi channel and you have two hours to kill, there are worse things out there. 6 of 10.
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)
This is my favorite John Candy movie.
I only see this movie once every two or three years, but that is all I need. I'm a modern guy: sarcastic, jaded, and a little self-centered, but every time I see this movie I am reminded of the first time a film made me think about who I was and how I related to the world. And it was because of John's portrayal of Del. From what I gather, John put a lot of himself into every role he performed, to the point where it was about 25% character and 75% John.
Specifically, the end of the movie changed me. I was only 11 or 12 when I saw it. Looking back at how these two strangers, thrust together in what passes for difficult circumstances in America, only to rise above our status fueled caste system made me want to be a better person.
I know there are films that do a better job saying what Plains, Trains, and Automobiles had to say. I know there are better actors than the late John Candy. This was the first film and John was the first actor to make me change my heart, and to me and to the art, that is all that counts.
The Green Mile (1999)
This Film Has Been PERFECTLY Cast!
As I reflect on the film, I keep coming back to one basic thought. It is the thought that struck me about 20 minutes in: This is a film that has been perfectly cast.
It has been four days since I last saw Darabont and Tattersall's The Green Mile and it still hasn't quite all sunk in. I had read Stephen King's serials while recovering from back surgery. The week before surgery, my girlfriend told me that the people who made Shawshank Redemption were adapting another King story and that it would star Tom Hanks and that big guy from Armageddon. So, finding myself confined to my bed, I started reading. I was finished within a day.
I like delude myself a little. I like to think I know a few things about film and I could be a director, you know? When I read good stories, I like to picture which actors would be good for which parts. It was the casting of James Cromwell as The Warden that iced the cake for me. That was one I didn't expect. I thought he would be playing Irish Police Chiefs until he keeled over. Not that playing a southern Prison Warden is casting against type exactly, but he still puts in a nice performance. As does everyone in the film. This must have been a fun film to make.
The only thing that I didn't like about the film was that it explained too much to the audience. So much can be said with just shot sequence and gesture. Sometimes dialogue gets in the way of things that can't be communicated with speech.
Still, I cried like Nancy Karrigan.