I'm really excited about The Fountain, you guys might be as well.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0414993/
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/thefountain/
Monday, May 08, 2006
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III
Oddly, spending a year in film school has not made me hate the blockbuster. Rather, spending a year amongst snobs who insist on trash European art films over Robocop has made me love the blockbuster, and especially the action movie, oh so much more.
First, I believe FIRMLY in entertainment. I don’t care how smart it is, how “emotionally engaging” it is or how well-developed the characters are. If a movie that is so clearly setting out to entertain you does that, then it’s absolutely worth your time and money.
If you want a deeper, theoretical idea, action is the one genre in film that really, truly cannot be done in any other form. I know, I know, you can discuss on end the differences in storytelling and experience between theater and novel and film. But in the end, you can tell the same STORY of Lost in Translation in a play. Almost Famous would make a wonderful book. But you can’t, with any level of success, do Terminator 2 as a play. The action scenes in Kill Bill wouldn’t translate as a novel.
And for this reason, above all others, action is a worthy form of cinema. Well, besides the fact that they’re just fun as shit to watch. Action movies are FUN.
Which brings me to Mission: Impossible III, a movie that’s about as good as summer movies come. Look, the first line of the movie is “We’ve planted an explosive charge in your head.” That’s either going to grab you or it’s not. After that, it just keeps moving. If you thought War of the Worlds slowed down too much by the time Tom Cruise met Tim Robbins in that basement, THIS MOVIE IS FOR YOU. If you thought Spider-Man 2 spent too much time on a love subplot, THIS MOVIE IS FOR YOU. This is about cool dudes and hot babes falling off buildings and shooting people with impossible accuracy. It’s about a form of storytelling in which the answer to any given problem is to blow it up.
And the cast is fantastic. Phillip Seymour Hoffman especially, in a typical blockbuster role following an Oscar win, but yet he still delivers the Hoffman excellence. He’s my favorite actor out there, and in everything I’ve seen him in he’s yet to deliver a bad performance, or even one he seems at all less committed to. Same goes here.
And Tom Cruise. I didn’t really wanna go here but…Go ahead, make the Tom Cruise joke in your head. MAKE IT. Done it? Good, I don’t want to hear it. It’s not funny. It’s not clever. Every single joke that can possibly be made has been, and none of them are funny. They’re all obvious. But if you can’t separate an actor or actress from his or her personal life, not only should you avoid Mission: Impossible III, you shouldn’t be watching movies. Any movie. Ever. You’re obviously not cut out to understand the concept of acting. I love Tom Cruise. I’ve always loved Tom Cruise. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie with him I haven’t liked, if only for his work in it. He’s one of the most charismatic actors out there, and I love watching him onscreen. And even though it’s been ten years since the first Mission: Impossible, he’s as much an action star today as he was then. If anything, he’s gotten better. It’s kind of a personal preference, but the older and more weathered the star of an action movie, the more I like them. It gives them a certain edge. And while Cruise certainly isn’t old or weathered or even looking forty-four, it comes out in the right places. He has an edge that he didn’t in the first film (I’ve forgotten almost all of the second…it blew chunks).
But Cruise’s best move was in tapping JJ Abrams to direct. Abrams has never directed a feature film before, but did create Alias and Lost (two TV shows I’ve never seen). Somewhere in there, Cruise saw the potential and damn was he right. The film as a whole moves like hell, but the action is better filmed than most I’ve seen, and he holds a shot longer than most action directors would, which gives us a better idea that it’s really happening. In his quick cuts, though, he never loses that edge, and never once loses the flow of narrative, which happens ALL THE TIME in action movies. You’ll be watching a car chase, or a fight scene especially, and you either just cannot figure out what the hell is going on (Batman Begins) or the last motions of one shot don’t carry over to the next (The Bourne Supremacy, though that was saved by having the best car chase ever). That never happens here. From the biggest set pieces to the smallest, it’s the slickest movie I’ve seen in awhile.
Speaking of slick…I saw this out at Bridgeport (a place I will never again return…worst seating ever), which was showing it in digital, which I hadn’t seen a big-screen presentation of yet, but damn did it look slick. If you get a shot to check out this or any other big, flashy summer movie in digital…do it. It makes a huge difference.
First, I believe FIRMLY in entertainment. I don’t care how smart it is, how “emotionally engaging” it is or how well-developed the characters are. If a movie that is so clearly setting out to entertain you does that, then it’s absolutely worth your time and money.
If you want a deeper, theoretical idea, action is the one genre in film that really, truly cannot be done in any other form. I know, I know, you can discuss on end the differences in storytelling and experience between theater and novel and film. But in the end, you can tell the same STORY of Lost in Translation in a play. Almost Famous would make a wonderful book. But you can’t, with any level of success, do Terminator 2 as a play. The action scenes in Kill Bill wouldn’t translate as a novel.
And for this reason, above all others, action is a worthy form of cinema. Well, besides the fact that they’re just fun as shit to watch. Action movies are FUN.
Which brings me to Mission: Impossible III, a movie that’s about as good as summer movies come. Look, the first line of the movie is “We’ve planted an explosive charge in your head.” That’s either going to grab you or it’s not. After that, it just keeps moving. If you thought War of the Worlds slowed down too much by the time Tom Cruise met Tim Robbins in that basement, THIS MOVIE IS FOR YOU. If you thought Spider-Man 2 spent too much time on a love subplot, THIS MOVIE IS FOR YOU. This is about cool dudes and hot babes falling off buildings and shooting people with impossible accuracy. It’s about a form of storytelling in which the answer to any given problem is to blow it up.
And the cast is fantastic. Phillip Seymour Hoffman especially, in a typical blockbuster role following an Oscar win, but yet he still delivers the Hoffman excellence. He’s my favorite actor out there, and in everything I’ve seen him in he’s yet to deliver a bad performance, or even one he seems at all less committed to. Same goes here.
And Tom Cruise. I didn’t really wanna go here but…Go ahead, make the Tom Cruise joke in your head. MAKE IT. Done it? Good, I don’t want to hear it. It’s not funny. It’s not clever. Every single joke that can possibly be made has been, and none of them are funny. They’re all obvious. But if you can’t separate an actor or actress from his or her personal life, not only should you avoid Mission: Impossible III, you shouldn’t be watching movies. Any movie. Ever. You’re obviously not cut out to understand the concept of acting. I love Tom Cruise. I’ve always loved Tom Cruise. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie with him I haven’t liked, if only for his work in it. He’s one of the most charismatic actors out there, and I love watching him onscreen. And even though it’s been ten years since the first Mission: Impossible, he’s as much an action star today as he was then. If anything, he’s gotten better. It’s kind of a personal preference, but the older and more weathered the star of an action movie, the more I like them. It gives them a certain edge. And while Cruise certainly isn’t old or weathered or even looking forty-four, it comes out in the right places. He has an edge that he didn’t in the first film (I’ve forgotten almost all of the second…it blew chunks).
But Cruise’s best move was in tapping JJ Abrams to direct. Abrams has never directed a feature film before, but did create Alias and Lost (two TV shows I’ve never seen). Somewhere in there, Cruise saw the potential and damn was he right. The film as a whole moves like hell, but the action is better filmed than most I’ve seen, and he holds a shot longer than most action directors would, which gives us a better idea that it’s really happening. In his quick cuts, though, he never loses that edge, and never once loses the flow of narrative, which happens ALL THE TIME in action movies. You’ll be watching a car chase, or a fight scene especially, and you either just cannot figure out what the hell is going on (Batman Begins) or the last motions of one shot don’t carry over to the next (The Bourne Supremacy, though that was saved by having the best car chase ever). That never happens here. From the biggest set pieces to the smallest, it’s the slickest movie I’ve seen in awhile.
Speaking of slick…I saw this out at Bridgeport (a place I will never again return…worst seating ever), which was showing it in digital, which I hadn’t seen a big-screen presentation of yet, but damn did it look slick. If you get a shot to check out this or any other big, flashy summer movie in digital…do it. It makes a huge difference.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Contest
I'll give 50 bucks to whosever first to post a picture of a baby they can prove is genetically their own. Yep, that's a Ulysses S. Grant ladies and gentlemen. Go!
post script
This is so going to come back and bite me when I'm an impoverished med student (knock on wood.)
post post script
Oh yeah, dibs on godfather.
post script
This is so going to come back and bite me when I'm an impoverished med student (knock on wood.)
post post script
Oh yeah, dibs on godfather.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Well I for one am now a Saint's fan
Mike Hass got drafted yesterday by the New Orleans Saints, who also drafted Reggie Bush. Rumor has it, Bush put a good word in for Hass to the Saints coaches, and convinced them to pick Hass up also. Hass was picked in the 6th round, but was supposed to be picked sooner. His lack of explosive speed is worrisome, and prohibited him from being ranked as high as he should.
In other news, I'm pretty sure I did not get the job to be an RA over the summer here at Cornell, so unfortuantely, I will probably not be coming home this summer. Unless things change, which is very possible, I'll pick up a sublet and find some part-time jobs around campus. Prospects include setting up chairs for reunion weekend and being a Facilitator at the challenge course which is a chill boot-camp-y thing with walls and towers and climbing and zip lining and stuff. It'll be fun. I know you all will miss me, and I will sure as hell miss all of you. There is still the possibility that I'll still be able to mooch off my rich friend's homes, but really don't see that as likely now. Anyway, what are y'all doing this summer? Kinda want to know, even if I won't be there.
In other news, I'm pretty sure I did not get the job to be an RA over the summer here at Cornell, so unfortuantely, I will probably not be coming home this summer. Unless things change, which is very possible, I'll pick up a sublet and find some part-time jobs around campus. Prospects include setting up chairs for reunion weekend and being a Facilitator at the challenge course which is a chill boot-camp-y thing with walls and towers and climbing and zip lining and stuff. It'll be fun. I know you all will miss me, and I will sure as hell miss all of you. There is still the possibility that I'll still be able to mooch off my rich friend's homes, but really don't see that as likely now. Anyway, what are y'all doing this summer? Kinda want to know, even if I won't be there.
DC Part 2: Genocide is Bad, mmmkay?
Well, I went to Washington DC again this weekend with 50 other kids from Marquette. We're part of DAC, the Darfur Action Coalition of Marquette. Think Nick Ohio on steroids and with a petition, and that's the DAC. Anyway. We took a 15 hour bus trip down to DC to go to this huge rally featurng keynote speakers Barak Obama and George Clooney. Also, Al Sharpton was there for some reason. All told there were something like 40 speakers and 2 musical acts (country and African music, sorry nobody cool and hip for you hipster indie kids), so it was quite the rally.
The bus ride down and back was pretty, for lack of a better word, interesting. Since the bus was full to capacity, nobody could really sleep for more than 10 or 15 minutes. That wasn't too much of a problem since people brought DVDs and we found out how to get those little bus TVs to work. So yeah I watched Anchorman for the 1,592nd time. And it was still good. Thanks to the group's strict "no pooping" law we made it to DC and back without the bus smelling too horrible. We also learned that the best way to pep up for a rally is to get a blue slushee from a truck stop and mix in sour patch kids, then pass that sucker around like hippies and a peace pipe. (By the way Ben, I did play Peace Train but only the 4 or so people near me heard it. I tried sir, I tried.)
The rally kicked ass. It was sunny and 70, so people were out in force-- I'm not sure of the exact number, but here's some pictures.
Unfortunately because my camera sucks, I couldn't get any closeups of the speakers. If anyone's interested in seeing a hi-res closeup of Al Sharpton for some reason, I can probably steal it from Jeff K. or Kate's cameras.
Since this was a genocide rally, the Jewish community was out in force. It was pretty interesting to see signs that said stuff like "JEWISH VEGANS AGAINST GENOCIDE", and every other sign was written in Hebrew. My favorite sign is still the large bold one that stated simply "GENOCIDE IS UNCOOL."
Bonus pic of a guy who climbed a tree with his sign.
So yeah, if you ever get a chance to go to a protest/rally in DC go for it. It's quite the experience. You meet a lot of cool people, get to see some pretty interestng stuff, and you get to feel good about doing your duty as a citizen (or something). That's all for this update from A's varied travelouge (now 90% Washington DC related!), I'm gonna go to class and then crash 'cause I haven't slept since Friday morning when I had to wake up early to help push a humvee up a hill, which is another story for another time. Shh I got a free t-shirt and a cup okay?
The bus ride down and back was pretty, for lack of a better word, interesting. Since the bus was full to capacity, nobody could really sleep for more than 10 or 15 minutes. That wasn't too much of a problem since people brought DVDs and we found out how to get those little bus TVs to work. So yeah I watched Anchorman for the 1,592nd time. And it was still good. Thanks to the group's strict "no pooping" law we made it to DC and back without the bus smelling too horrible. We also learned that the best way to pep up for a rally is to get a blue slushee from a truck stop and mix in sour patch kids, then pass that sucker around like hippies and a peace pipe. (By the way Ben, I did play Peace Train but only the 4 or so people near me heard it. I tried sir, I tried.)
The rally kicked ass. It was sunny and 70, so people were out in force-- I'm not sure of the exact number, but here's some pictures.
Unfortunately because my camera sucks, I couldn't get any closeups of the speakers. If anyone's interested in seeing a hi-res closeup of Al Sharpton for some reason, I can probably steal it from Jeff K. or Kate's cameras.
Since this was a genocide rally, the Jewish community was out in force. It was pretty interesting to see signs that said stuff like "JEWISH VEGANS AGAINST GENOCIDE", and every other sign was written in Hebrew. My favorite sign is still the large bold one that stated simply "GENOCIDE IS UNCOOL."
Bonus pic of a guy who climbed a tree with his sign.
So yeah, if you ever get a chance to go to a protest/rally in DC go for it. It's quite the experience. You meet a lot of cool people, get to see some pretty interestng stuff, and you get to feel good about doing your duty as a citizen (or something). That's all for this update from A's varied travelouge (now 90% Washington DC related!), I'm gonna go to class and then crash 'cause I haven't slept since Friday morning when I had to wake up early to help push a humvee up a hill, which is another story for another time. Shh I got a free t-shirt and a cup okay?
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