Holy Cow, Batman!

Comic Book: The Movie 2004
Mark Hamill
Kevin Smith
Stan Lee
Bruce Campbell


When I sat down to watch Comic Book: The Movie, I honestly thought I was just watching a documentary. All the actors on the cover, guys involved in the comic book world, were billed over their own names, and it seemed to take place at a convention.

Boy was I wrong. Sort of. This is not a documentary. It's a mockumentary. Mark Hamill is in it, but he doesn't play himself. It's about a huge comic book nerd, Donald Swan, who becomes famous as a comic book nerd via his online fanzine, and ends up being invited to be a technical adviser for a movie being filmed based on an old 1940s comic called "Commander Courage." The studio gives him a camera crew to make a documentary of his adventure to California, including his all expenses paid stay at the San Diego Comic-Con. Unfortunately, for the movie studio, Donald doesn't like the changes the studio has made to the original comic book in making the film, "Codename: Courage," and he sort of fumbles his way around, trying to make the changes he thinks are necessary.

So, since this movie was such a surprise within the first two minutes, I decided that this post will be something I haven't done since the beginning: I'm just going to highlight my mental running commentary that occurred while watching this film.

**I paused the DVD so I could type this: OMG Peter David is in this movie. I nearly hyperventilated seeing him. I cannot believe I have a DVD with Peter David in it. Sadly, I doubt anyone reading this even knows who he is. Peter David is a writer of both fictional novels and comic books. I used to read Star Trek: The Next Generation books when I was a teenager, and he wrote my favorite ones. He has a web site at peterdavid.net, which I highly recommend. He's a funny, funny guy. Oddly enough, I actually met him at the San Diego Comic-Con held a year after this movie was made, and even had my picture taken with him. He's the most normal person I've ever encountered during my rare and brief encounters into the comic book world.

Donald, concerning how he was going to approach watching the movie being filmed: "So I resolved to keep an open mind and try to stop hating it so much." So true.

This is so great. 3 middle aged guys sitting in a comic book store arguing over whether or not Spider Man's web should shoot out of his butt since that is from where spiders actually shoot their webs. I have witnessed very similar arguments.

That's total BS. I know of no comic book fan that loved Pearl Harbor. I know of no nerd whatsoever that loved that movie.

Woah. Hugh Hefner talking about comics.

lol Mark Hamill incorporates Kevin Smith's giant spider story from Evening With Kevin Smith.

Remember, kids, Kevin Smith says to rip your comic books in half when you're done reading them.

Ricky, the camera guy, does a great impression of the voice of each Beatle. His John Lennon was especially good.

As someone who actually went to Comic-Con, I can say the floor of the convention is ten times more packed than what the movie shows. And I cannot imagine it possible that anyone could walk around the floor and just bump into an awesome guy like Ray Harryhausen. Guys like that would be mobbed by fans on the floor. I want to watch Seven Voyages of Sinbad now.

omgomgomg Joe Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5.

There is this bit where an agent sees Ron Perlman at the Comic-Con, who's promoting the Hellboy film, and tries to offer him a role for the Codename:Courage movie, and Perlman points to the creator of Hellboy standing a few feet away from him and says, "That's Mike Mignola." I am embarrassed to admit that I did that very same thing the next year when my husband and I were there. Seth Green is a huge comic book fan and helped a friend to create a new comic book. They introduced the first issue on the floor. My husband and I got in line to get a signed copy. Well, Seth Green was there and I turned into a total fangirl about Robot Chicken, ignoring the guy who actually wrote the comic book sitting right next to him. Watching this scene in the movie made it doubly embarrassing.

Oh wow! If I had never been to the Comic-Con I would never have been able to recognize the dude that played Chewbacca! How appropriate that he would be the only guy in the movie that would make any reference to the fact that Mark Hamill is playing the character, asking, "Is he somebody famous?"

Matt Groening! Oh, how I love The Simpsons.

"Giant. Mechanical. Spider." Man, Kevin Smith's story about how when he was asked to give a try on the Superman script the producer told him he needed a giant spider in it will live on forever in the comic book world. Even funnier, J.J. Abrams is in this, probably because at the time Abrams was trying to write the script for the new Superman movie, before it finally moved on to Bryan Singer.

I can't believe Mark Hamill was able to get Jonathan Winters and Sid Caesar to do this thing. I am going to treasure this DVD forever.

And we get to the end, where Mark Hamill, as Donald, tells the fans to not buy in to the movie, even though it has the comic book name, because the movie studio doesn't give a crap about being true to the comic book or any of the values it upheld; the movie studio only wants our wallets. It's a plea for the studios to stop making bad movies and plastering the name of a comic book on as a title.

It also deals with something that I am not sure I can get behind. One of the things a lot of the middle aged comic book fans keep trying to say is that movies like The Fantastic Four are great because those old comic books were more lighthearted. They say that the movies that are "edgier," a word that is sneered at in this mockumentary, aren't really comic books. For them, true comic books are more wholesome and fun. A lot of these people tend to be Marvel fans rather than DC ones. DC practically built dark and edgy when they started Batman. Perhaps it is just my age, but I like the darker, moodier comic book movies. Of course, I also like the first Spiderman movie. I just think there's room for everything except a bad script.

Overall, if you aren't familiar with the comic book world (cartoons, movies and comic books), guys like Bruce Campbell and Kevin Smith, this thing will probably bore you to tears. I, on the other hand, have a surface familiarity with everything, and I had a heck of a time playing Spot the Cameo. I think anyone who is really into comic books are cartoons would really love this DVD.

October Fest

I am particularly happy with the movies I randomly picked this month. This looks to be the best month so far.

Oct 1: The Triplets of Belleville
Oct. 2: McQ
Oct 3: Brotherhood of the Wolf

Oct 5: The Wizard of Oz
Oct 6: Joyride
Oct 7: True Crime
Oct 8: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone)
Oct 9: Phenomenon
Oct 10: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Oct 12: Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Oct 13: The Muppet Christmas Carol
Oct 14: Silverado
Oct 15: Bewitched
Oct 16: Ghostbusters
Oct 17: They Died With Their Boots On

Oct 19: Fiddler on the Roof
Oct 20: Clerks II
Oct 21: Boys Don't Cry

Oct 23: The Neverending Story
Oct 24: Stage Fright

Oct 26: Peeping Tom
Oct 27: Little Caesar
Oct 28: Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Oct 30: House of 1000 Corpses
Oct 31: The Attic Expeditions

In honor of Halloween, I thought it apropos to end the month with horror movies.

As for TV, I have:

Thundercats (HOO!), Vol. 1
The Office, Series 1 (BBC)
CSI Season 7

I am really looking forward to October.

Well, I tried

I've had to stop watching Hercules. I really liked this show when I was in my late teens, early twenties. Now, I think it's just awful. I really did try, but enough is enough. This is going to be the first thing I've given up on. Even though I have sat through some movies I think are pretty bad in the past six or so weeks, they were individual movies. Watching episode after episode of something so bad seems like a waste, not to mention stupid.

So, that leaves CSI: Miami, which I'm watching right now. I decided to take a day off from doing homework today, so I've had quite a bit of time. I plan on making my October schedule in an hour or so. Should be fun.

Screwballing Around

Libeled Lady (1936)

William Powell
Myrna Loy
Jean Harlow
Spencer Tracy

William Powell and Myrna Loy are a wonderful pair, legendary for their performances in The Thin Man series. They had a tremendous amount of chemistry. Jean Harlow was famous (especially as a sex symbol) in her own right, and I bet a ton of people even today have heard the name Spencer Tracy. The one thing that surprises me about this cast is that even though Tracy did some comedies with Katherine Hepburn (the love of his life), I have never thought of him as a traditional screwball comedy actor. He was all right in this one, though.

As with all screwball comedies, the plot is silly. On the day he is to be married, an editor of a newspaper (Spencer Tracy) finds out that his paper has committed libel. He drops everything, including his long-suffering fiancee (Jean Harlow), to try and fix things. It seems that the paper accused the daughter (Myrna Loy) of a very wealthy man of stealing another woman's husband, which later turned out to be untrue. She is so angry, in a detached sort of way, that she decides to sue for 5 million dollars (in 1936!). Desperate, the editor hires a "heel" (William Powell) to try and seduce the woman, making the lie seem true. Of course, to make the scandal work, Powell has to actually be married, so Spencer comes up with the crazy idea of Harlow (his own fiancee) marrying him temporarily, just until this whole thing is over.

Of course, along the way, Powell falls in love with the rich heiress. At the same time, Powell treats Harlow, who is desperate for affection she isn't getting from her former fiance (who still calls himself her fiance), with a faux type of affection, which Harlow likes a great deal. This leads to Spencer becoming jealous, which Harlow intended all along.

You get all that?

It doesn't really matter because the plot isn't the point. The real entertainment comes from watching the characters try to deal with the various individual misunderstandings and sticky situations. The best part, though, is Myrna Loy. William Powell just seems to light up in every scene he shares with her, and her sarcastic voice is a character in its own right. Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow did have a sort of chemistry, but it wasn't as sublime as what Powell and Loy were always able to show.

I really want to watch The Thin Man right now.

On a side note, I had wanted to watch The Agony and the Ecstasy tonight, but I got home an hour later than I expected so I am going to have to reschedule again. I was originally supposed to watch it and Mean Creek but the Heston/Harrison movie is nearly two and a half hours long. So, I switched it with Libeled Lady, which is just over 90 minutes. This way, I will at least get some decent sleep tonight. The movie I'm scheduled to watch tomorrow night isn't too long, so I will, hopefully, finally, be able to watch Rex Harrison and Charlton Heston go at each other, so to speak.

Hail to the Chief

This month has been crazy busy. I was sick for a few days, had a bout of insomnia, and have just now regulated my sleeping. On top of all that, I've been busy with school and watching depressing after depressing Cubs game. I am so ridiculously behind on the reviews, but I am only 2 movies behind schedule. The weird thing is that I'm moving right along with the TV DVDs. I'm already done with Looney Tunes, almost done with CSI and a third of the way through Hercules.

So, I have some catching up to do.

First up, Shadowlands, the true story of how C.S. Lewis went from an old, arrogant, and comfortable bachelor to a man in love with a divorced American poet, but only admitting it after she is diagnosed with cancer. I love, love this movie. There is much to admire about it on an intellectual level, but the real draw for me is that it is one of the few chick flicks I can stand. Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger are absolutely wonderful together, and the rest of the cast complements them well. This is also the first movie I really cried while watching, but it wasn't because I found it so romantic (I do). I was a teenager when I saw this for the first time, and the idea that true joy and pain are tied together seemed quite profound at the time; it still does today. On another note, the direction and cinematography are fantastic. Sir Richard Attenborough directed this the same year he was in Jurassic Park. It's too bad that he hasn't done much since.

Next, Cinderella, the black white televised musical starring Julie Andrews. Wow. What an absolute bore. The guy that played the prince was particularly awful. The saving grace of the entire thing is Ms. Andrews. Her performance is sparkling and her voice is a joy to hear. This aired years before she got her start in movies, and even this early it is clear she's going to be a star. I can't believe the people that made My Fair Lady gave the role of Eliza Doolittle to Audrey Hepburn because they weren't comfortable with someone who had never been in movies. At least she got the last word at the Oscars the next year.

A little over a week ago, my husband and I watched In the Valley of Elah. I hadn't scheduled the movie on a day he could watch it, but I had coincidentally switched the order. I am glad things worked out the way they did. He and I were both in the Army, and it was nice to watch it with someone who understood it the way I did. As you may have guessed, this movie focuses on the Army. In particular, it's based on a true story of a soldier who ended up dead under mysterious circumstances shortly after getting back from Iraq. Starring Tommy Lee Jones (love him), Susan Sarandon and Charlize Theron, this was an interesting movie. Primarily, it's a murder mystery. Jones plays the father of the dead soldier, a military vet himself. He does everything he can to find out what happened to his son. He's also a dick, which ends up helping him get to the bottom of what happened. Underneath the main story lurks an examination of what the war in Iraq is doing to our soldiers. Spoiler alert: it isn't pretty. Overall, the movie has some interesting things to say, but I found it a bit unsatisfying. On the other hand, there is nothing satisfying about the real story, so this is to be expected. Oh, and though Sarandon is not in it much, she is particularly memorable.

Tonight, my husband and I watched My Fellow Americans. A hilarious movie about two ex-presidents who loathe each other yet wind up helping each other when they get caught up in a dangerous conspiracy and hunted across the country by the NSA. My husband and I repeat some of the lines in this all the time, yet I had forgotten how truly funny this movie is. This is one of the funniest movies made in the past couple of decades. It's a shame it's not mentioned more. James Garner and Jack Lemon are wonderful (when are they not?) and have wonderful chemistry, but the script is just as good. A minor rant: the DVD was full screen. I had no idea, and I'm angry because I know, at least when I bought it, it was the only version available.

There are a few movies I own only because I love one of the actors in them so very much. January Man is one such movie. I don't even want to summarize the plot. Look it up on imdb if you're interested. The fact is, it's mediocre at best, despite a pretty good cast. And yet, Alan Rickman is in it, playing a role very different from what we normally see him play in American movies. So, I bought it. *sigh* At least he's good in it; as always.

Well, that's it for tonight. I still have 5 reviews yet to do, along with the 2 movies I plan on watching tomorrow, Mean Creek and The Agony and the Ecstasy (was supposed to watch this last week). We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Now is the winter of our discontent...

Richard III (1955)

Richard III: Sir Laurence Olivier
King Edward IV: Sir Cedric Hardwicke
George, Duke of Clarence: Sir John Gielguld

Directed and Produced by: Sir Laurence Olivier

Sir Laurence Olivier is almost universally acknowledged as one of the greatest actors of modern times. I have seen him in numerous roles, and they have always made a strong impression (though not always a good one). The words "Is it safe" from Marathon Man still send shivers down my spine. To watch Richard III is to watch a master give a course on acting.

This film is little more than a deliberately staged play, only moving to location shooting in the climactic battle. This may not be to everyone's taste. Still, Olivier makes the film worth watching at least once. His face is a bit hard to recognize at first due to the gigantic prosthetic nose he wears, but the first time I saw his eyes, his sly look, I knew it was him. Besides the exaggerated nose, his body is also costumed in such a way to accurately reflect Richard's physical deformities; hunched back, deformed left hand, and uneven legs. Sir Laurence wears them well.

I've always thought Richard III to be the most monstrous character Shakespeare ever wrote; it is said that this was deliberate since Richard III did murder the ancestors of the Queen for whom Shakespeare wrote. Oliver does a great job of playing such a monster. I enjoyed his effective us of shadows throughout the film to reflect many of the evil deeds committed.

Despite this darkness, Sir Laurence does an excellent job of conveying the character's sarcastic view of his actions and life in general. His choice to have Richard address the audience directly rather than use a voice-over was a correct one. The careless, dismissive manner with which he describes his dastardly, evil deeds is very humorous. I found myself laughing at several points, something I never did when reading the play. There is nothing subtle about Richard III - he's just plain evil. Yet I was never once bored by anything Richard did. Much of this credit goes to Sir Laurence.

The main disappointing aspect of the movie is that, though the cast features one of the greatest groups of actors of all time, most of the amazing talent is wasted. I am not sure if it is due to bad direction or if Olivier is just so overwhelming that everyone else pails, but Gielgud really disappointed me. He had one decent monologue, but he was ridiculously boring. Ralph Richard, who played Lord Buckingham, was the only one who was able to stand his ground against the director/actor.

Overall, I found this movie to be an excellent adaptation of the play, if a bit boring in parts. I also thought the bit thrown in from Henry IV, which allowed Richard to talk about how he so easily killed people, was a stroke of genius. Still, I found the staging to be a bit too deliberate for my taste, and the sound of the voices was jarring from time to time, whenever an actor had to raise his or her voice over something that made a lot of noise.

A few other things:

I had no idea Sir John Gielgud had red hair. He even resembles Danny Kaye a bit. I found myself admiring his hair at a few points. Like a lot of people my age, I had only seen him in Arthur, made when he was quite old. A part of me believes he won that Oscar because Hollywood realized it was probably one of the only chances they would get to give one to such a great actor; one who mainly stuck to the stage.

It is such a shame that so many of the great stage actors did not start doing movies until later in their careers, and many chose bad ones.

Sir Laurence was famous for being able to accurately affect any accent. Listening to him in this film, I almost forgot that his regular voice did not resemble the traditional Shakespearean English.

The first monologue of the film is staged so well, I think it qualifies as one of the greatest in film history. My eyes were riveted to the screen the entire time. And I am not sure, but I don't remember a single cut. I think Olivier did most if not all of it in one take. Amazing.

Where have all the good guys gone?

Seven Samurai (1954)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa

This is perhaps the most famous foreign films of all time in America. As the title suggests, it follows seven samurai (one who only wishes he were so) who decide to defend a village against a band of pillagers. A simple plot that Kurosawa managed to tell over the span of 3 and a half hours. I have never had a problem with long movies purely because they are long. I watched Sergio Leone's movie a few weeks ago that was just as long, and I loved it. This film was a different story, and for one reason.

I have a confession to make, one that feels like a crime among fans of classic films: I don't really care for Akira Kurosawa's films. I know he's supposed to be a genius, one of the greatest directors of all time, but I find his movies tedious, and a bit boring. I do not deny his skills purely as a director. His use of a camera to tell a story was remarkable. What I don't like is how he seemed to think that movie audiences are morons, something that will turn me off a movie faster than anything else. Films that take the point of view that a point can only be made by slamming it into the viewer's mind over and over again bore me. I will admit that I am not sure whether this style of using a sledgehammer to drive a point home was unique to him or was just a characteristic of Japanese film-making of that era. I watched the 1964 horror film Onibaba several months back, and it was even worse.

My complaints aside, there is much about this film to be admired. One of the highlights is the acting, and leading the way is Takashi Shimura, a legend in Japanese film history. As far as I am concerned, he is the real draw of this movie. One of the main reasons the film is so long is that the entire first hour is used solely for the establishment of all the characters. I found most of the samurai to be fascinating, though there were two that seemed fairly interchangeable; I had a tough time telling them apart. Shimura plays the leader of the samurai, and he shines in every scene. He emotes a quiet dignity, even through his moments of shame and doubt, which I found a joy to watch. An amusing side note - he bears a slight resemblance to Yul Brynner (though much smaller), who played the same character in the American remake, The Magnificent Seven. My husband and I realized this at nearly the exact same moment.

There is a fair amount of action in this movie, the last hour is mostly dedicated to the siege of the village, and here is where Kurosawa's skills really shine. For a film made in the 1950s the siege is remarkably intense, and the movie seemed to fly by in the last 45 minutes. The editing of the last hour is noticeably different from the rest of the movie, adding to the increase in pacing, and the camera is far less static, which leads to a lot of excitement in how everything plays out. I can't wait to find out if his film Hidden Fortress is the same.

The way the story unfolds, as I already mentioned, is tedious in its execution due to the script's complete lack of subtlety. But, I did appreciate that the film maker made the decision to have the characters fully realized; there are very few two-dimensional people in this movie. Proving my preconceptions of a 1950s movie wrong, this movie isn't really about good guys and bad guys. In fact, the movie barely gives any time to the pillagers; there is more than enough personal conflict among the so-called good guys. Though I expected the outcome of the ending, it was still interesting experiencing the tone of a film that does not go for a typical happy ending. This made the payoff all the more interesting. So, even though the point of the story was so very obvious within the first 90 minutes, watching the execution of it through interesting characters play out over the 120 past that was bearable. Overall, I am glad I saw this movie. It features some of the best direction I've ever seen, and anyone who loves movies should definitely see it. But I never want to see it again.

He can call me flower if he wants to

Bambi (1942)

Less than two months after I started working at Suncoast, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released on DVD for the first time. I never got around to buying it. Several months later, my boss gave me a copy for free. I watched it with my husband later, and the main thing I remember was how surprising it was that a movie that old still looked quite well. I was reminded of this when he and I sat down to watch Bambi last week.

I cannot stress enough how amazing the animation of the first and last minute of the film is. It is about as close to CGI I've ever seen old school animation reach, and this was made nearly 70 years ago! The multi-camera technique was used to great effect. In fact, I am now of the opinion that this is one of the most beautiful films Disney ever produced.

Bambi is one of those few Disney movies parents think twice about before they show it to their children. I've never met an adult who didn't know why. I watched this film several times when I was a kid, and I remember well the first time I saw it. I couldn't have been more than 6 or 7, and I remember feeling surprised and a general sense of sadness that Bambi's mother was killed. Watching this movie as an adult, knowing what was coming, was a vastly different experience , so much so that I now wonder if adults have stronger feelings about the movie than children.

First off, I was halfway to tears by the time the doe was born. Seeing how cute he looked while knowing what was going to happen to him was gut-wrenching. I was almost hyper-aware of how the animation took a darker tone when the story became more serious, and danger lurked. But the worst part came after Bambi's mother was shot. Hearing Bambi shout "Mother!" is one of the most haunting sounds I've ever heard in a film. All in all, this movie was a lot harder for me to handle as an adult than it was as a child.

And then I made the mistake of checking to see how different the movie was from the book on which it was based. Oh. My. God. The film was all sunshine and rainbows compared to the book. At least Disney allowed for a mildly happy ending. The book's ending is positively miserable. That certainly put things into perspective.

This is the first time I watched this movie since I was about 18. My respect for it has skyrocketed.

The first three

I'm running late tonight, so I am only going to post on the first three movies I watched this month. Too bad, really, since these were three of the weakest I've seen so far. I'll catch up with the rest this weekend. I can't wait to talk about the movie I just watched: Blackboard Jungle.


Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason - whoever made this movie either didn't understand why the first movie worked or didn't care. The first movie was a cute piece of fluff featuring a single woman who occasionally got into some embarrassing situations, but made up for it with her charm. Oh, and it had Colin Firth and Hugh Grant. I like the first Bridget Jones' movie, though I have noticed that it does not hold up well to repeated viewing. This second one is nothing short of a travesty. For some reason, whoever wrote this script decided it would be a good idea to take all of Jones' worst qualities and exacerbate them. The result is just appalling. Instead of being cute, Bridget Jones is just an annoying idiot who I would never want to meet. After the first 20 minutes, I was cringing at the fact that the movie kept moving from one embarrassing moment to the next. After 30 minutes, I couldn't recall why I even liked Bridget Jones. By the time Bridget was tripping on 'shrooms, I was trying to come up with a story of my own where Mark Darcy would leave Bridget and run away with me instead. This is no exaggeration. I decided to get this movie, for free, just because I like Colin Firth, but even he doesn't make this movie worth it. Heck, for most of the movie, Mark Darcy is a complete jerk. I don't care that I spent no real money on this DVD, I paid too much.


The Man in the White Suit - This was an interesting comedy starring Alec Guiness. It was one of a series of black and white Ealing comedies released in the 1940s and 1950s; The Ladykillers was another one. The movie is about a naive young scientist who invents a suit that will never get dirty and never wear out. Sounds great doesn't it? Try telling that to the textiles companies and union workers. The film is, as they say, "very British." Half way in, my husband asked me if it was supposed to be a comedy. The story moved slowly, and I didn't really laugh that much. And yet, it was a lot of fun. The satirical and ironic aspects of the plot are funny, and Alec Guiness is fantastic. The real strength to this film is its execution, and this is why even though I didn't actually laugh that much, I did find it to be funny. The choreography of all the actors in every scene is absolutely brilliant, and the editor did a great job of splicing in the reaction shots at just the right moment. I am looking forward to watching the rest of the Alec Guiness Ealing movies. It's such a treat to be able to watch someone like Sir Alec in an old British comedy.

Oh, and one of the guys in this movie actually played Alfred in Tim Burton's Batman. That was pretty cool.


The Journey of Natty Gann - I have loved this movie since I first saw it more than two decades ago. Set during the Great Depression, it's about a girl who travels from Chicago to Seattle to find her father after he was forced to leave her behind to find a job. Along the way, she picks up a wolf (ok, a dog that's supposed to look like a wolf) and a very young John Cusack. It's a fairly dark movie considering it's a Disney flick from the 1980s. I remember when I was a kid, I wanted to watch the movie so I could pretend to be Natty Gann, traveling across the country on my own, having strange, scary and wonderful adventures. After watching as an adult, I can honestly say it is barely all right (husband laughed through much of it), but I have a suspicion that kids would like it. My one real disappointment is that the movie is only available in Full Screen. Ugh. My abhorrence for that film aspect ratio aside, one of the true pleasures of this movie is its cinematography; the scenery is just gorgeous. Pan and scan really takes something away from this movie.

That's all for now. I've got class in six hours.

Looney CSI

A couple of weeks ago, I complained about the selection of television DVDs I was scheduled to watch this month. It really felt like I had taken from the bottom of the barrel. Well, while things aren't that great, they are better than I imagined they would be.

First up, Looney Tunes: Volume 2. As a latchkey kid, I spent a lot of my early years watching Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, the Road Runner, and, one of my favorites, Pepe Le Pew. I have a fond place in my heart for the opening and closing music of all those cartoons. Less than two weeks in, and I have completed watching two of the four discs. My review: definitely mixed.

The biggest problem this DVD set has is that each disc is dedicated to one cartoon character, or pair of characters, like Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Do you have any idea how boring it is to watch an hour and a half of nothing but Bugs Bunny cartoons? This is really too bad. I think that if each disc had a mix of all the different cartoons, this set would be epic in its greatness. The other problem is that this is Volume 2. As I wrote, I grew up watching these cartoons. I've seen a ton of them. Yet, out of the 30 I've watched so far, at least 20 were brand new to me. I have a suspicion that the first volume has some of the more well-known cartoons. I guess I will find out when it comes time to watch that one. In the end, though, these are still Looney Tunes cartoons. Individually, they are great. There was one Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner episode I had never seen before that made me laugh loud and hard.

Second, CSI: Miami Season 1. While I did not think this would be the worst television show to watch this month, I didn't really expect great things from it. 10 episodes in, and I am fairly impressed. Though, perhaps not for the intended reasons. The entire show seems to live and die by David Caruso (shout out to all the NYPD Blue fans). If you don't like him, you will not like the show. At all. I have never seen anything like him on television before. I spent most of the first couple of episodes just laughing every time he showed up. Caruso is like William Shatner speaking in monotone; he's almost campy in his delivery. Yet, after those first few episodes, he started to grow on me. After about five, I had to admit: I like David Caruso in this show. A good thing, too, because the rest of the show would be absolute torture if I did not. The rest of the cast is fairly good, though I am glad to see that Kim Delaney is about to disappear. She is incredibly boring and doesn't fit with the rest of the cast well. In some ways, this cast seems to have gelled more quickly than the cast on the original show did.

There are a few things that have annoyed/disturbed me about this show, though. First, I found it jarring to hear the characters say the same lines to describe their jobs as the characters on the original CSI did in the first season. Second, this show is ridiculously violent, even more than the original series. Third, this show preys on the audience's sympathies way too much by making so many victims children. Killing children in order to gain the interest of the audience as often as this show does is cheap and tawdry.

*whew*

I did not mean to take this long to post anything. I suffered through a pretty bad cold for a few days, and combining that with school, I just didn't have the energy to do anything. The good news is that I have been able to keep up with my schedule, sort of. I did miss a couple of nights, but I was able to catch up the next night. The great news is that I have made huge progress on my television DVDs. I'm already half way through with the Looney Tunes boxset, and almost half way through CSI: Miami.

I am watching baseball right this minute, but I will have a post up in a few hours with my thoughts on all the DVDs I've watched since September 1. There have been some interesting moments.

The last day of August

I've already watched 15 episodes of Looney Toons as well as the Bridget Jones sequel (*shudder*), but I will write about that later. Tonight, I will talk about what I watched the last day of August.

I found CSI Season 6's second half to be vastly superior to the first half. Three of the last four episodes were practically perfect in every way. Watching this season made me feel silly for ever spending hours fretting over whether or not Sara and Grissom might be together. Watching it this time, tt was so bloody obvious from about the third episode on that they were.

Teeth was good, as I wrote yesterday. The film is icky and scary, and has a few interesting things to say about how and why young women (and perhaps women of all ages) view their bodies. It's always fun to watch horror movies that feature a female hero/villain. I can't until I watch Aliens. And, as a woman, there is a scene in this movie that I found particularly satisfying, a sort of revenge against male film directors who so callously feature rape in their films, particularly horror films - I'm looking at you Wes Craven. Oh, and the film is delightfully funny, something that you would think impossible due to the rather sensitive subject matter. But the writing, and especially the acting, had me laughing throughout. The young woman who starred in the film, Jess Weixler, was a true find. I had never seen her before, and I found out on imdb that this was only her third movie, and the first one in which she starred. She's only been in Hollywood for six years. If she can keep getting roles with good writing like this, I really think she can go far. I look forward to seeing her in more films.

This was the second time I watched Teeth, and it was just as scary the second time. I am pretty sure it's because of the subject matter. The first time, I didn't really know what the film was about.

Though CSI and Teeth were a combined 7 hours, it was another movie that I have been thinking about all day. Sergio Leone is famous for his spaghetti westerns, but his last film was an American one, Once Upon a Time in America. I think it qualifies as the greatest film of the 1980s.

Released in 1984, the film is a staggering 229 minutes long. This may turn some people off, but near the end I wished it were even longer. It covers nearly 50 of a man's life, and I was left wanting to know so much more. The entire film is shown out of chronological order, and you have to wait nearly the entire film to understand the first fifteen minutes. Oh, but it's worth the wait. After the confusing introduction, the film, set in New York city, goes back to the main character's childhood. Even from childhood, the main character is a thug, though one gets the sense that he never had a chance to be anything else. In his youth, he falls in love with a cold and beautiful girl. He also befriends four other thugs, including one boy who becomes his best friend. The movie then fast forwards more than a decade, and from then on out, it deals with the characters as adults, cutting back and forth between the early 1930s and 1968. Even though this movie is nearly four hours long, I want to watch it again. There was just so much going on in the film, and I am quite sure I wasn't able to appreciate all of it fully.

This film deals with the larger than life themes of friendship, love and betrayal, and does so in a fine manner. The score is absolutely beautiful, even the tidbit of the Beatles' "Yesterday" is used to great effect. No synthezer music in this one. The cinematography is befitting a Leone movie, ranging from the grandiose to the intimate. The acting is superlative. James Woods gives perhaps the greatest performance of his career; in the documentary of the film (filmed a decade ago), Woods says that Leone was the best director he's ever worked with. Robert Deniro is great as usual. Joe Pesci, Treat Williams and Danny Aiello are all in very short scenes, but left very strong impressions, especially Aiello.

One important note: the main character is an animalistic gangster. There is more than one rape scene, though compared to most movies, they are not very brutal. I have a very hard time with rape scenes, as I wrote about with Sleepers, but the ones in this movie did not overwhelm me at all. I think it's because the character is so very repressed. I wrote animalistic, but really he is a repressed man who does monstrous things. Even when he's raping, there is little visible emotion. He isn't trying to degrade the woman, he just doesn't know any other way to treat them.

I have to say that though watching all these DVDs sometimes feels like a job, I am so happy I've decided to do this. Up until Monday, the surprises have been that I think some of the movies I used to like are stinkers. It was nice to watch a movie I've never seen before and love it so much. I hope this continues over the next year.

August, We hardly Knew Ye

*whew*

I made it! I finished the last day of August watching Teeth, Once Upon a Time in America, and 7 episodes of CSI. The real problem was due to the television issue. It wasn't too difficult to watch one movie a night, but trying to stick to a schedule for television proved to be a bad idea, which is why I spent the last three and a half days cramming so much TV to meet the deadline.

And it didn't help that I was sick and hurt Sunday, so I didn't really watch much.

Anyway, I've spent the last 11 hours sitting on the couch watching DVDs practically nonstop, so I'm off to bed. Will do a huge write up tomorrow.