An Eclectic Mind

Don’t waste your time.

On Saturday, after a long day on my feet as a volunteer for the Land of the Sun Endurance Ride here in Wickenburg, I found myself in front of the television. I flipped to one of the movie channels just as Marie Antoinette was beginning and decided to give it a try.

I like movies with historical value. I feel as if I can learn while being entertained. And I don’t think anyone can argue that the costumes and sets in the movie were magnificent and probably true to life.

Unfortunately, that’s where the movie’s appeal to me ended.

The movie is long and rambling and takes forever to make and complete a point. For example, the movie suggests that Marie and Louis did not consummate their marriage for more than 4 years — until after he became King, in fact. While this might be an interesting point, it dominated the plot for at least 45 minutes of the movie. One soon gets tired of seeing Marie in bed alone as the signal to viewers that she went yet another night without getting any.

Throughout the movie, I kept waiting to see when the political unrest of the people would make itself known to Marie or the ill-fated members of the French nobility. Is it possible that these people really had no clue about what was going on outside their palaces?

A serious problem with the movie was its soundtrack. While the director and composer are true to the time with the classical music played during Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette’s wedding dance, for example, the rest of the movie is a mix of classical and what I can only describe as European pop. Watching dancers at an 18th century masked ball, wearing period costumes and dancing period dances while modern pop music blared was weird, to say the least. It also took away from the seriousness of the movie, making it seem as if the Director was making light of the whole thing. The soundtrack was inappropriate for the subject matter.

I can’t comment on the acting because although the characters were somewhat believable, I don’t think any of the actors were outstanding. There was very little dialog. One cornball scene shows Marie, fully attired in one of her beautiful dresses, stretched out in happiness in a field of grass and flowers. It’s the scene right after she’s finally had sex with her husband. She’s happy. Oddly enough, it reminded me of the scene in Caddyshack where the girlfriend (Maggie) is dancing on the golf course at night because she knows she’s not pregnant.

While the director, Sofia Coppola, may have wanted to paint a more human picture of Marie, she certainly didn’t do much to create audience sympathy for her character. Coppola’s Marie was a party girl who ate and drank and shopped and played almost non-stop. History tells us that the people of France were being taxed to the point of starvation in many cases, yet the French nobility were living it up in sheltered isolation. Yet no where in the movie — at least not up to the point where I gave up on it after 90 minutes of boredom — is any of that shown. It’s a truly one-sided view of that time in history, a view through the eyes of an immature and spoiled woman.

I admit that I didn’t see the end. Mike joined me about halfway through and he’d already seen it. At one point, I asked him if anything interesting happens. He said no, just more of the same until the screen goes black. I’d seen enough, so I turned it off.

What got me to watch it at all was the rating in the Dish Network info box: three out of four stars. If I’d rated it, it probably would have gotten 1-1/2 stars.

In the movies.

Last night I had the pleasure of watching the latest Harry Potter movie on a full-sized screen at Wickenburg’s historic Saguaro Theater.

Our Saguaro Theater

First, a few words about the theater. It was originally built in the 1920s (I believe) and, like all theaters from that era, only has one big screen. The theater was never cut into pieces by greedy theater owners, anxious to max out their profits on available real estate. (Unlike the old Closter and Tenafly theaters I went to in New Jersey as a child.) The seats, which are replaced every 10 or so years, are always replaced with another theater’s cast-offs, so they’re never quite new. But they’re comfortable and the current seats not only recline but have cup holders. The place is clean, too.

The theater owner, Brian, owns two theaters in Arizona. The other one is in Payson, where I believe he lives. He’s a great guy. Although he could stick us with older movies that have been around for weeks or months, he manages to get us a good bunch of first run movies every year. When we get a first run — like Harry Potter this week — we keep it for two weeks.

The theater is open every night for one showing and has three showings on Saturdays and Sundays. There’s a refreshment stand with the usual popcorn and candy. Everyone who works there is extremely friendly and pleasant. I get a discount because I run advertising slides in the theater and they actually recognize me when I come in and give me my discount without asking. Regular ticket prices are $8 per adult and $5 per child or senior. (I pay the child/senior price.)

The Saguaro theater is the only theater in Wickenburg. In fact, it’s the only theater within about 40 miles. So if you want to watch a movie and you don’t want to spend a lot of time driving, this is is.

Harry Potter

Now I know a lot of people don’t like the Harry Potter phenomena, but I’m not one of them. Sure, I think there’s entirely too much hype about it — but isn’t there too much hype about everything these days? (Think iPhone and Paris Hilton.) The truth — at least the way I see it — is that the books are pretty well written and tell great stories that appeal to young people and adults looking for a fantasy escape. While the hype has pushed book sales far beyond what’s normal for books of this genre, I think most readers come away satisfied, if not pleased, about their reading experience.

Watch the Trailers

The movies are well done. They’re true to the books, while cutting out a lot of the extra stuff that J.K. Rowling seems to have added to the later titles in the series. It’s a real pleasure to see the scenes from the books come to life on the screen. Casting is very good, special effects are incredible. What else could a reader want in a movie based on a book?

What I’m also enjoying as I watch each movie seeing the young cast members grow up. They were kids at the beginning of all this; now they’re becoming young men and women. The current movie features many flashbacks of Harry’s life and the footage is there to show him at every age. The characters are supposed to be 15 in this story and although they’re older in real life, they can pass as 15-year-olds. (The character that plays Malfoy does look considerably older than the others, though.) I’m hoping the production folks can keep up the pace and deliver the last two movies with the same actors.

As you might imagine, I highly recommend the movie to anyone who has been reading the Harry Potter books. It’s meant to be seen on a big screen (or as big a screen as is available to you) rather than on a television screen. We’ll probably see it again before it leaves town, perhaps from a seat near the back of the theater for a different view.

Did you see the movie? What did you think? Use the Comments link or form below to share your thoughts with the rest of us.

And in case you’re wondering, I do have the last Harry Potter book on order at Amazon.com. I didn’t spring for the overnight shipping — I’m not a complete fangirl! — but I do look forward to reading it when it arives sometime next week.

For what they’re worth, some of my thoughts about this hit television series.

I don’t watch much television. Frankly, I have better things to do with my time. And the commercials absolutely drive me bonkers.

We have a DVR — that’s Dish Network’s version of a Tivo. You set it up with the television shows you want to watch and it records them. You can then watch them any time you like. This is one of only two ways I’ll watch television these days because it enables me to fast-forward through all the commercials.

The shows I watch regularly include Boston Legal (which a friend told us about) and Monk (which I discovered on my own). Boston Legal is hysterically funny, but each episode gives you something serious to think about. Monk is pretty stupid, but I like the Monk character’s idiosyncrasies. We used to watch Stargate SG-1, but it appears to have gone off the air. I watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, although Mike doesn’t seem as interested in their brands of comedy as I am. I also occasionally watch Modern Marvels, Nova, Scientific American Frontiers, and various other shows on the History, Discovery, and PBS channels.

The other way I watch television is on DVD. We’ll discover a show — like Boston Legal — decide we like it, then start renting previous season episodes from Netflix. When the disc comes, we’ll watch two or four episodes in a single night — a kind of television marathon. It isn’t bad, since each hour-long episode is only 40 minutes with the commercials stripped out. That’s 2 hours and 40 minutes of tube time if you watch all four episodes on a disc in the same night. We’ll do that until we’re caught up with the current season, then let the DVR take over.

24 was a bit different for us. I heard about it a bunch of places, but not having a water cooler in my office, I didn’t get much information about it. Then I heard an interview with Bill Clinton and he mentioned that he likes the show. Say what you want about that particular former president, but one thing that’s indisputable is his level of intelligence. He’s a smart guy and he likes the show. Maybe there was something to that. I decided to give it a try.

Of course, we didn’t want to start watching it mid-season. I knew enough about the show to know that it was a season-long story and coming in in the middle of it wasn’t the best way to get the whole thing. And I worried about the DVR screwing up recording and skipping an episode here or there — which it sometimes does, if you don’t monitor the timers. So we went straight to DVD.

The first season’s first four episodes arrived right before our trip to Howard Mesa for Christmas. Howard Mesa doesn’t have a television. It doesn’t have much of anything in the way of after-dark entertainment. So we brought along my MacBook Pro and, in the evening after dinner, set it up on a folding table in front of the sofa. And that was how I watched the first four episodes.

I could see the appeal. Lots of action and drama. A mystery to draw you in. Uncertainty about the motivations of many characters — who could you — or should I say, Jack Bauer — trust? And that damn ticking clock.

After the first four episodes, we were hooked.

But we weren’t hooked in a good way. Each episode’s cliffhanger made us want to watch the next episode, but on discussion of what we were watching, we agreed that it wasn’t all that good. There was a lot of secondary plot stuff that was obviously in there for fill. (This is truer about the second season than the first.) And the characters — especially Jack Bauer’s wife and daughter — did dumb things that got them into trouble. Really dumb things. Big trouble. It was hard to have empathy with them because they were such big screw-ups. In fact, more than a few times, I wished they’d just go away. (So the end of the first season didn’t upset me in the least.)

And let’s not even get into how implausible many of the plot points were. The idea that so many characters could do so much in a 24-hour period without dropping from exhaustion is very difficult to believe. Adrenaline only goes so far. I remember the last time I pulled an all-nighter and how I felt at Hour 20. The first season started at midnight, so you have to assume the characters were up since at least 8 AM the previous morning. So midnight is already at least Hour 16 for them. And what is it with CTU? Don’t those poor people ever get to go home?

I don’t want to go into plot details since I don’t want to spoil the show for people who haven’t seen it. Implausibility aside, the plots aren’t bad. Lots of twists — perhaps too many? — that lure you into trusting people who turn out to be bad guys (or gals). That in itself is very distracting. Once you get the rhythm of the trusted-character-is-really-bad discovery cycle, you start wondering which one will be next on the block.

Of course, all this might have to do with the way we watch 24 — four episodes in a single night, sometimes a week or more between viewings. No commercials, so the plot and action is packed right in. That’s definitely one way to catch errors in continuity — like lost cell phones that suddenly re-materialize (How is it that they can always reach Jack Bauer by phone in Season 2 when his daughter needs to speak to him?) and injuries that are serious in one episode but barely noticeable four hours later? And how about Season 2’s violence in Georgia that’s a big deal in one or two episodes and never discussed again?

And then there’s the character of Jack Bauer himself. A counter-terrorist superman who is a bit too human at the wrong times. Sure, he doesn’t have any trouble blowing away a character and cutting off his head, but when his daughter is on the phone, his brain shifts into neutral while he melts into his daddy role. It’s hard to believe that a man so toughened by his past can have such a soft side. And when did he get that tough past? He’s not that old and his daughter is in her late teens in that first season. Doing counter-terrorism missions for the government isn’t like going to a sales conference in St. Louis. It takes training and time. Can they really expect viewers to believe that a man like Jack Bauer could have a solid family relationship?

Whatever.

Last night we finished Season 2. Now we are debating whether we want to dive into another season. I was very surprised to learn that the show is already up to Season 6 (I think). I didn’t know it had been on television that long. (I really don’t keep up with these things.) It’s obviously a big hit. And it is entertaining. But I don’t like the idea of feeling that I need to watch every single episode of a television show.

I’ll let Mike decide.

In the meantime, I moved The Good Shepherd up to the top of my Netflix queue. We’ll take a nice, long break from the world of Jack Bauer. I don’t think we’ll miss him.

Better than I thought it would be.

The other day, The Firm with Tom Cruise, arrived in my mailbox from Netflix. This 1993 “thriller” is based on a book of the same name by John Grisham.

The movie was a lot better than I expected. (I have very low expectations these days.) It was about a newly graduated lawyer (Cruise) who accepts a too-good-to-be-true offer with a Memphis-based law firm. Unknown to Cruise’s character, the firm’s clients are the Chicago-based mafia. It appears that there’s no way out of the firm.

There’s lots of suspense that, in all honesty, is softened by the soundtrack. In other words, the music is all wrong. With the right music, certain scenes would have been a lot scarier than they were. Oddly enough, I’ve never picked up on this kind of problem before — it was just so darn obvious in this movie that even I couldn’t miss it.

It was interesting to see Tom Cruise so young again. It reminded me a little of his Risky Business days. The movie also features Gene Hackman, Hal Holbrook, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, and Gary Busey (in a short-lived — pun intended — role).

My rating:
[rate 4.0]

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.

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