5 posts tagged “movies”
Saw two movies this weekend (woohoo! free time!): Superbad (which opened on Friday) and the Bourne Ultimatum.
I'll start with Superbad, a movie that felt like it had been a long time coming from having seen the trailer so many times. In fact, the trailer didn't do much for my wanting to see this film -- I just thought here's a slightly updated version of American Pie, exaggerated teen sex comedy shtick. The one thing going for it was Michael Cera, whose performance here has more than just an echo of his brilliance in Arrested Development. Turns out this movie was funny from start to finish, and even the grosser exaggerations in characters and plot for comedic effect (the two cops who behave more like juvenile delinquents than any of the main protagonists for example) are forgiven because they work so well with the overall theme of adolescent relationships and the awkwardness thereof. I would see this again and I don't say that for many films.
Bourne Ultimatum was already critically acclaimed, so I went in expecting it to be good... and thankfully walked away not disappointed. I think I sat there with my heart in my throat because the action simply never lets up, but not to the point of discomfort (although the fight scene between Bourne and the "asset" sent to kill him came close). Damon's performance is workman-like but probably appropriate given that the character is a CIA agent who's trying to remember as much as he can about his old identity before he became an assassin for the government. The screenwriters have also managed to work in some poignant references to contemporary affairs (rendition, unchecked powers in the name of national security), so this is a nice addition to the Bourne franchise that is intelligent entertainment well worth seeing on the big screen.
A friend took me to the "Thursday Nights at the Pedestal" this evening to watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (the most recent one besides the current release). It was pretty decent (you can't argue with free), but you do have to wait a bit for the sun to go down properly (try well after 9pm) and remember to wear warm clothes! Somehow they manage to project the image on the upwards sloping bit of the Rainier Square building with no discernible distortion... For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, here's a photo.
Well it seems like I was waiting for an eternity for it, but finally I've seen Transformers the movie. I remember watching the cartoons as a child, buying the toys, going to see the cartoon movie when it came out (in 1985 iirc!). So it was with great excitement that I learned they were remaking Transformers as a live action movie.
While character development is hardly the name of the game here, it was still a great way to kill 2.5 hours on a Friday night. The CGI was truly amazing, you never felt that Optimus Prime transforming from a truck into a robot was fantasy at all.
Miscellaneous notes: (a) did anyone spot the Xbox 360 turning into a Decepticon? (b) Bumblebee was a VW Beetle, not a Camaro! (I wonder how much the GM sponsorship cost them); (c) Starscream was an F-15 Eagle, not an F-22 Raptor, and Megatron transformed into a Walther P38, not some kind of bastardised X-Wing!
Well we're RTO'ing our latest release Friday, so as a present for working so hard to make it happen, the entire team has the day off (except for those who are required for the actual deployment of course). Hooray, what will I do with this new spare time now? Hmmm probably not much -- sleep in, go to the gym, do some shopping, run some errands; all the stuff I typically put off on weekends because weekends are supposed to be a time for fun! Too bad they only told us today, otherwise I might have actually been able to plan something!
Anyways a couple things for today's post; I got this link to a gallery of the upcoming Transformers the Movie. Now this is a movie I'm looking forward to (July 4 here we come). I remember playing with these toys a lot as a kid, coveting the jet fighter planes, cars, trucks, animals, even dinosaurs that would transform into humanoid robots. Not to mention visitng Redcliffe Entertainment Centre (1 big screen -- count 'em!) back in hmmm 1985? to watch the original Transformers animated movie with Orson Welles voicing Optimus Prime (iirc). Speaking of which: Optimus Prime in the upcoming live action film looks AWESOME!
2nd thing: found out this week about the upcoming Seattle International Film Festival. Apparently it's the biggest in North America... And looking at the list of films on offer, I totally believe it! The hardest part is going to be figuring out which ones to go to without breaking the bank :(.
I have Heather Havrilesky of Salon.com to thank for making me aware of this car crash of a TV series called Engaged and Underage. As Heather puts it far more eloquently than I ever could, it's typical MTV reality TV fair whose core messages are encouraging premarital sex (translation: don't get married just so you can get laid!) and that marriage sucks. I'm not exactly sure what the point of this series is -- perhaps to expose the underbelly of Middle America's relationship values? Or more likely just indulge our feelings of superiority towards these young naifs who are happy to expose their emotional travails on national television... Check out Heather's column, but spoiler alert if you're a Battlestar Galactica fan and haven't watched last week's episode!
I also saw 300 last night with a bunch of Microsofties. This film about King Leonidas' last stand at Thermopylae with 300 of his finest fellow Spartans was, well, meh. Although I might have superficial reasons for enjoying it, metacritic.com is not wrong on this one even though I'm sure it will do very well at the box office -- fairly mindless fare with excessive but not particularly gory violence. It's comic book stuff where you always know who to cheer for; enjoy it for what it is I suppose but predictable from start to finish with a plot as deep as a wading pool.
