An Eclectic Mind

And three more movie reviews.

Over the past week or so, Mike and I have seen three movies: one in theaters and two on DVD.

Casino Royale

Well, it’s about time. Finally, a James Bond who is believable. I’m not just talking about the actor, I’m talking about the characterization. This bond is not perfect in almost every way. He’s vulnerable and makes more than a few mistakes.

Unlike all other Bond films, this one seems dark and real, a more accurate (but still probably quite far from truly realistic) dramatization of the spy business. It wasn’t a fun movie, like all the others are. It was a spy thriller with plenty of twists and turns.

I had a little trouble believing the love interest part of the story — too much emotion, too fast — but I believe it was included to develop the character. After all, Casino Royale was the first Bond adventure, the one that takes place right after he gets his “double-0″ rank. One can argue that the events of this story are what make the character what he is in later stories.

I have never read Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale, but would like to. It would be interesting to see how closely this movie follows the book.

WordPlay

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I’m particularly fond of words. It probably has a lot to do with writing for a living. The way I see it, words are my tools and the more tools I’m comfortable using, the better I can get my job done.

That said, I’ve been wanting to see WordPlay, the documentary about the annual crossword puzzle championship, since it was released to theaters. It didn’t come to Wickenburg — I didn’t really expect it to — so I waited until it was available on Netflix and moved it to the top of my queue.

The movie was relatively entertaining and provided lots of insight into the creation and solving of crossword puzzles. I used to do crossword puzzles daily when I worked for the New York City Comptroller’s Office. In those days, there was so little work to do, I had to do something to stay awake. So I did the puzzles in Newsday, the New York Times, and the Daily News every single day. I got pretty good at it, but not anywhere near as good as the competitors in WordPlay. These are people who can finish the New York Times crossword puzzle in less than 5 minutes with no errors. Egads!

The movie included interviews with puzzle creators and solvers, as well as with Will Shortz, the New York Times Puzzlemaster. Some of the solvers are people we all know: Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart, and Ken Burns, to name a few. It was interesting to get their insight.

My husband watched the movie with me and didn’t seem terribly interested throughout. I think his take on the puzzle solvers in the competition was that they were a bunch of geeks who needed to get lives. In some cases, I think that may be true. But it was interesting to see that some people have taken this skill to such extremes.

The Ladykillers

This is a 2004 remake of the 1955 movie of the same name starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers (among others). This newer version starred Tom Hanks. Like the Da Vinci Code, this was a complete waste of Mr. Hanks’s acting talent. But in this case, the acting wasn’t the problem — he did quite a job acting out the character of a rather wacky and over-educated caper mastermind. The problem was the movie. It was so bad that it wasn’t worth his efforts. In fact, his acting was probably the best thing about it.

In the story, the Hanks character rents a room at an elderly woman’s house. He and his henchmen then proceed to tunnel their way into a nearby casino’s cash counting room from the woman’s root cellar. Their cover story is flimsy — as it was in the first movie, which I also saw — and the whole thing is so far-fetched that the movie makers can’t possibly expect the audience to believe any of it. But rather than allow it to play out as a farce, it’s taken a bit seriously, so there’s really no fun in it. And the frequent use of the f-word in all of its forms (including the all-to-popular mother-f-er) makes it a movie that might make it uncomfortable to view with kids — or your parents.

My advice: avoid this one. It isn’t worth the rental fee.

My rating:
[rate 0.5]

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I see (and rate) Cars, Superman Returns, and Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest.

I’m not normally a big movie-goer. My taste in movies limits me to comedies (but not chick flicks or National Lampoon humor or slapstick), mysteries, science fiction (but not horror), adventure (think Indiana Jones), and animation. I don’t go for drama and I hate movies that make me cry. I also don’t like movies with disturbing scenes, since they tend to keep me up at night.

So, as you can imagine, I don’t go to the movies very often.

But over the past two weeks, I’ve actually seen three movies. Here are my capsule reviews.

Cars

Pixar has done it again. That’s quite clear. They’ve made a movie that can appeal to people of all ages, with the incredible animation they do so well. They’ve created a world in which the “people” are really cars, fork lifts, tractors, and helicopters — in other words, motorized vehicles. And they’ve managed to make these cartoon creations act, with facial expressions and other body language that conveys emotion.

The movie is about a rookie race car with an attitude problem who gets stuck in an off-the-beaten-path town. While performing some community service jobs, he gets a few eye-opening and life-changing experiences that make him a better…well, car.

Parts of the movie really hit home. The town of Radiator Springs used to be a booming Route 66 town — until the Interstate came in and the traffic stopped driving through. The town is dried up and dying. It reminds me a little of Wickenburg, which bases part of its economy on the “Drive Thru” traffic between Phoenix and Las Vegas. In the movie, however, the town’s people learn what it means to be a destination — a lesson I really wish the Wickenburg Chamber of Commerce would learn.

The other thing that hit home was the idea of driving for the pleasure of driving. Not speeding from point A to point B to get there as fast as possible. But driving along scenic roads and taking in the sights, guiding the car on curving roads through mountains and valleys. As a person who prefers back roads to freeways, I could really identify with that. But, in a way, I guess I’m glad most people prefer the freeways. It leaves those glorious back roads wide open for folks like me.

Classic scene from the movie: tractor tipping.

My rating:
[rate 4.5]

Superman Returns

It’s a Superman movie. I can’t say much more about it.

Superman has been away for five years and he comes back. The people in Metropolis — especially on the Daily Planet staff — are pretty stupid. Clark Kent comes back to work and Superman shows up the same day and nobody makes the connection. (Yeah, I know. It’s the movies.)

Lex Luthor’s scheme to manufacture real estate creates an unstable and unattractive land mass off the coast of the U.S. Superman has to stop him before the land mass crowds out the rest of the world. Helping him are Lois Lane, her significant other (who happens to be boss Perry White’s nephew), and her five-year-old son. I won’t spoil it for you; I shouldn’t have to.

The movie was too long.

Classic line from the movie, spoken by Lex Luthor’s girl: “Hey, weren’t there two of those?”

My rating:
[rate 3.5]

Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest

I read a few reviews for this flick before I went to see it. They all seemed to go on and on about how the special effects made the acting secondary. Perhaps I’m so accustomed to special effects that I just didn’t notice them. It wasn’t as if they weren’t there, though.

The plot: Will and Elizabeth are arrested by a representative of the East India Company who agrees to release Will if he brings back Captain Jack Sparrow’s compass. He tracks down Sparrow, who tricks him into boarding the Flying Dutchman, which is captained by Davey Jones and crewed by a bunch of cursed men who have definitely spent too much time under water. There’s a key and a chest and a still beating (yet bodyless) heart. I won’t spoil it for you.

The movie was long and when it was over, I was left strangely unfulfilled. In fact, I didn’t even realize it was over until the credits started to roll.

This morning, I realized what it was: a setup for Pirates 3. Just like Back to the Future 2 was a setup for Back to the Future 3. Oddly, however, it doesn’t leave me anxious to see the next installment. Instead, it leaves me kind of ticked off.

My rating, which takes into consideration the action, some interesting scenes, and the seamless special effects:
[rate 3]

One More Thing

I saw two out of these three movies in Wickenburg’s own Saguaro Theater. This theater, which I believe is in a landmark building, is what I call a “one-plex” — just one movie under the roof. The movie plays once a day during the week (at around 7 PM) and 3 or 4 times a day on weekends. The screen is big, the sound system is fine, and the seats are in pretty decent shape, despite the fact that they were purchased used from another theater about four years ago. Although the theater is seldom very crowded, last night it was more than half full — a big deal here in town.

The closest multiplex to Wickenburg is about 40 miles away — thank heaven! — so more often than not, I wait to see a movie I want to see right here in town, with the big screen, the local advertising slides, and the fresh popcorn.

The big multiplexes are killing off the little theaters one by one, making it impossible for today’s kids to experience movies the way we (or at least I) did. Entertainment is big business and, as usual, theater owners are motivated by profit. But Brian, who owns the Saguaro Theater, seems more interested in preserving the theater than sucking money out of it. For that, I thank him every time I see him.

If you have a small theater in your town, help keep it alive by attending movies there and buying some popcorn or Skittles or Bon-bons to munch on. Consider yourself a preservationist, helping to save part of the past for the future.

Technorati Tags: Cars, movie, Superman, Pirates, theater

Worse than the book?

That’s what the review on Slate said: the movie was worse than the book. I didn’t believe it.

Silly me.

I also poo-pooed Mike’s cousin Ricky, who didn’t want to see the movie because it had only gotten 1-1/2 stars. (I don’t know where he saw that rating.) It couldn’t be that bad, I argued. I’d seen a positive review just that morning on a network news show in our hotel room.

Ricky was stuck with us — he missed his flight on Sunday morning and called us to rescue him from the airport. We dragged him to dim sum in Fort Lee and around New York’s SoHo and south Village — which he seemed to enjoy — and then to the Battery Park Regency 11 Theater for the movie.

A few weird things about this particular theater. First of all, it’s on the 5th (or so) floor of the building. You buy your ticket at street level, then proceed up a series of escalators, one of which takes you at least two floors up. The escalators run along the east side of the building where windows look out — right at Ground Zero. (More on that in another post.)

The movie was boring. It seemed to follow the book pretty closely — I read the book about two years ago, so I don’t remember it perfectly well. What’s weird about the movie is that the book is so widely read that you’d expect everyone in the theater to know the punchline — that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, who bore his child after the crucifixion. Yet that punchline wasn’t delivered until more than halfway through the movie. I guess it makes sense because it was probably delivered halfway through the book, too. But when the information was presented in the movie, I felt like saying, “Yeah, and…?” As if there should be more. But there wasn’t.

I think Tom Hanks’s acting capabilities were completely wasted on this movie. There wasn’t much real acting to do. Just deliver the same lines that were in the book — poor dialog to begin with. There was an awful lot of tell rather than show. In the scenes in Teabing’s house, it appeared that Hanks’s character already knew much of what Teabing told Sophie — if that was the case, why didn’t he just tell her before? Of course, this is a book complaint — not a movie complaint — because the movie followed the book. I guess if you make a movie that closely follows a bad book, you’ll end up with a bad movie.

The guy who played Teabing — who also played the bad guy in at least one X-Men movie — did a much better acting job. But I think that’s because his character wasn’t flat and lifeless like the other characters in the book.

Flashbacks were distracting and overused, especially the historic ones. It was like watching a History Channel documentary. You know the kind. Where they get actors to re-enact scenes from history?

I left the movie feeling as if I’d gained nothing from the experience of seeing it.

Ricky said the movie’s music was overpowering. He said that was a sign of a bad movie. I liked the soundtrack, but agree that it sometimes did more work than it should have.

But I wasn’t impressed with the movie at all. It was just a visual representation of what was in the book. And since what was in the book wasn’t anything that needed to be visualized, the movie wasn’t anything special.

Did you see The DaVinci Code? What did you think? Use the Comments link to share your thoughts. I’d be interested in reading what other people who read the book and saw the movie have to say.

My capsule review of the Internet-based DVD rental service.

I joined Netflix about two months ago and, in general, have been satisfied with the service. That’s not to say the relationship has been trouble-free. It hasn’t.

Netflix offers four plans for membership. I chose the cheapest plan: $9.99 per month for one DVD at a time with an unlimited number of DVDs per month. The plan is perfect for us in that it enables us to watch, on average, two DVDs per week. That brings the per DVD rental cost down to less than $2 per title — cheaper than pay per view and both cheaper and more convenient than going to the local video rental place.

Here’s how it works. After setting up an account, you browse or search the extensive movie library for titles, actors, directors, etc. that interest you. See one you want to watch? Click an Add button to add it to your Queue. Once a movie is in your Queue you can shuffle it around in the list order. The ones on the top are the ones you’ll see first, in the order in which they appear.

What’s kind of neat is that you can add a movie to your queue before it’s available in DVD — even before it’s been released to theaters. As soon as it’s available, just shift it to the top of your queue to get it right away.

In my plan, I only get one DVD at a time, so the plan is pretty simple. Netflix sends me the DVD at the top of my queue. They send me an e-mail message telling me that it’s been shipped and giving me an estimated receipt date. Since the local shipping point for me is in Phoenix, I usually get the DVD the day after it ships. So something that ships out today will be in my mailbox tomorrow.

The DVD comes in a red tyvek envelope that contains a white tyvek envelope with a sticker describing the movie. There’s no DVD case and no liner notes. Just the movie. I pop the movie into my DVD player, watch it, then pull it back out and stick it back into the red envelope, which has a tear-away portion that removes my address and replaces it with Netflix’s. I drop the envelope in the local mail box and it goes back to Netflix. It usually gets there in a day or so, depending on the day of the week. (There’s no mail service on Sundays, so that’s a dead day.) Then the whole process starts all over again.

At the beginning of this piece I alluded to a less than perfect relationship. That’s because I’ve had two problems so far:

• One of the DVDs was scratched to the point that it would not play properly. Although most of the movie played, there was about a 15-minute sequence that was messed up, with lots of skipping forward. This is evidently a common problem, since Netflix has a customer service form with this listed as a possible reason for contact. They offered to provide a replacement DVD, but it wasn’t so bad that we couldn’t see the movie, so I let it go. Still, I’ve since looked at the underside of each DVD and have been shocked at the number of scratches on each one. Is it that the tyvek envelopes don’t properly protect the DVDs? Or are other subscribers downright careless with them? I don’t know.
• The other day, I got an e-mail confirmation that the movie I’d returned had been received at Netflix. The only problem is, I never saw the movie. It was shipped to me and then shipped back without ever getting into my mailbox. This was a problem that was not on the customer service form and I had a heck of a time finding contact information to report the problem. Netflix responded the next day, saying that occasionally the envelopes get damaged in shipping and, when the outer envelope gets torn off, the DVD simply comes back. (Either that or one of my neighbors enjoyed the movie and graciously returned it for me.) They promised to send a replacement movie while my next selection was on its way — so I could “catch up,” so to speak. Trouble is, they sent the same movie that was next in my queue, so I got two copies of the same movie. I guess that’s what happens when you let a human take the job of a computer.

I use the “three strikes and you’re out” rule with customer service. Netflix, so far, has two strikes — in less than two months! They aren’t the only organization offering this kind of service. Blockbuster, in an effort to save their failing company, has also launched an Internet-based DVD rental service. If Netflix drops the ball again anytime soon, I’ll surf over to the competition to see what they have to offer.

Technorati Tags: Blockbuster, DVD, NetFlix, rental