The Hurt Locker

Calvin is on vacation this week, so we have celebrated by going to see some movies. He had missed Up, which I was happy to see again, particularly since I bought comics from the story supervisor, Ronnie del Carmen at Comic-con.

Last night we went to see The Hurt Locker, a movie about a bomb squad in the Iraq war in 2004. This movie was exhausting and difficult to watch, but great. Terrific performances by Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie, I assume we're going to see a lot more of these guys. Kathryn Bigelow of Point Blank and Blue Steel fame directed. She flaunts her well-honed action movie skills here, but it doesn't feel like flaunting.

Up

I went to see Pixar's latest movie Up last week with my friend Patty. I have to admit, I loved it. I laughed, I cried, all while wearing my 3D glasses. Like all of the Pixar movies it combines incredible visuals with a sentimental story- that's their job and they do it well. Kym and Matt told me about it when they were in NY, it seems to be a hit with the whole family. Cranky old man, adorable round Asian kid, talking dogs, floating house- what more can you ask for?

RIP David Carradine

His Superman monologue from Kill Bill II.

Khoi Vinh on Watchmen

Read Khoi Vinh, design director of nytimes.com review Watchmen.

Watching the Watchmen

Calvin and I went to a screening of Watchmen on Tuesday night. It was fun, kind of. Really corny and uber-violent, but fun, I think. (Guess I've got mixed feelings). Many good performances (Rorschach!) and one of the best title sequences ever.

Here is a very long interview on Wired with writer Alan Moore- whose name is not even on the movie- he wanted it taken off. He doesn't like the Hollywood versions of his comics.

Waltz with Bashir

Calvin and I went to see Waltz with Bashir last night. If you haven't heard about it, it is an "animated documentary" about the director and his memories, or lack thereof, of his experience as an Israeli soldier during the Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanon.

This movie was incredibly beautiful, deeply sad, and it even managed to be funny sometimes. I would actually pay $12 to see it again, and cry some more. Here's some technical information about how they made the movie, here's the Times'review.

75 Comic Books that will be made into Movies

Read about it on Den of Geek

Dark Knight and Others (with powers)

Calvin and I finally saw the Dark Knight last night. To be honest, I was a little bit disappointed, the hype on this movie has been so huge, I'm not sure it lived up to it for me. Heath Ledger is amazing- truly frightening, and funny too. I particularly enjoyed him in nurse drag with a cap and orange wig. But the rest of the movie- it was good, but was it that good? Maggie Gyllenhaal was better than Katie Holmes, but other than that, I think most of the performances were better in Batman Begins. I'm wondering if I should see all super-hero movies on opening night so I haven't read the raves (if there are raves) yet.

Speaking of super-hero movies, we also saw Hancock a couple of weeks ago. I found this movie, which got really terrible reviews, kind of charming. It did become unbearably corny towards the end, but until that time it was pretty good. It is unusual to see Will Smith as a surly drunk and I enjoyed that.

I know Matt and Janelle and Bets and John liked Hellboy 2, which sadly I still haven't seen. I hope to go this week.

The Incredible Hulk and Takashi Murakami

These weekend Calvin and I went to see the Murakami show at the Brooklyn Museum. Murakami is a Japanese artist who has played around with the "high" and "low" culture divide as successfully as any artist. Of course it helps that he is Japanese. He has created lines of toys, robots, and most famously, Louis Vuitton bags as well as lots of large expensive paintings and sculptures.

Murakami curated a fascinating show of Japanese contemporary art - "Little Boy" - that was exhibited at Japan Society a few years ago. Its thesis was that Japanese culture had been infantilized by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many transformers and godzillas were exhibited along with the usual array of paintings sculptures and video.

The Incredible Hulk is ok, but Marvel had a lot to live up to after starting their life as movie producers with Iron Man. As it has been said in many reviews, there seems to be little connection between Edward Norton as Bruce Banner and the CG Hulk creature. It is really fun to watch him smash stuff up, though.

It wasn't sold out.....

I went to Elizabeth's wedding shower in Cambridge Sunday (it was really terrific -- Erin and Liz's friends did an amazing job of putting everything together). Erin and her mother Kathy even stayed up until 2 am frosting some very wonderful cookies.

Barb, Grandmary and I decided to go see a movie after the shower since it was only 3 o'clock. "Sex and The City" was playing at the Cambridge Theater pretty close by so we decided on that -- not for the wedding theme, which we didn't even realize was so dominant, but just because we all wanted to see it.

Mom and Barb were all dressed up in peach and yellow outfits (for the shower) and when the ticket taker saw them coming, she said (with a big indulgent smile), "Sex and the City, right?". We think she thought they had dressed for the movie! HA!

As for the movie..... it was GREAT! -- we all liked it. I've seen most of the series, but neither Barb or Mom had seen any of it, and it didn't matter at all. A really good time was had by all.

Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian . . .

. . . is much more upsetting that I would have thought. I wish, though, that it had been in theaters when I was teaching the Men and Masculinities class at Pace.

An Unreasonable Man makes a pretty good case that the "It's Nader's fault" refrain just excuses the Democrats for running a horrible campaign, then blowing the recount.

Go Speed Racer??

Calvin and I went to see Speed Racer on Friday night. It was one of the silliest movies I have ever seen. Silliness doesn't necessarily put me off, particularly when joined with amazing visual effects and super saturated color. I have never seen anything that looks quite like this, but the really bad dialog (kind of a specialty of the Wachowski brothers) and the bad acting were a little annoying.

It did feature Rain- here is his dance-off with Stephen Colbert.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Rain Dance-Off
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

Iron Man!

Calvin and I went to see Iron Man before going out to dinner on our anniversary. Robert Downey Jr. was born to play this role, he is fabulous. How often do you see a Hollywood blockbuster where the hero solders integrated circuits? There are a few unfortunate stereotypical bad Muslim villains, but I guess that's what you get these days.

Here is an article on Wired about the soundtrack.

Steve Zeitchik Blogs

Calvin's friend Steve Zeitchik has taken over a blog for the Hollywood Reporter-Risky Business. Steve used to work with Calvin at PW. I often pitied the people who sat in the cubicles near them, as Steve and Calvin bellowed at each other about the Knicks, the Islanders, all possible sports topics and all possible book and movie topics as well. Actually, they talked about every topic you can think of, in great detail.

I should make it clear, it was only the volume of the conversation that was disturbing, not the content. The blog should be entertaining.

No Country for Old Men

Calvin and I went to see the latest Coen brothers movie last night- I like to celebrate the end of the semester by seeing a movie, before I return to my usual pattern of watching 2 year old movies on cable tv while grading homework.

This movie is gripping and frightening- Calvin had his eyes averted for most of the movie, not so much because of the violence (of which there is plenty) but the anticipation of someone else getting their head blown away in a particularly brutal way. Wonderful performances, particularly by Javier Bardem who is terrifying- and where did he get that haircut? The usual Coen brothers bleak humor is missing from this movie, which made the suspense even more unrelenting.

There were only about 4 other people at the theater- if you see this movie, try and see it with a crowd.

The Departed

Continuing with my theme of finding out about cool stuff years after everyone else, I had to mention how much I enjoyed watching The Departed, Martin Scorsese's cop/gangster drama from 2006. Marky Mark- excellent! Matt Damon, very very good! Leo- also excellent! Jack Nicholson- half of the time excellent! I was also glad to see Scorsese in top form- he is really good at violent gangster movies with a lot of Catholics in them, and I hope he makes many more.

I kept talking about it with the Necks at Thanksgiving- most of them had seen it and liked it, and Bets told me Kate had recommended it to her. I just bought a DVD of the movie it was based on- Infernal Affairs- a Hong Kong movie starring two of my favorite Chinese actors, Tony Leung and Andy Lau, and I can't wait for it to arrive.

I watched another movie with Andy Lau- Fulltime Killer- on the train back from Oswego. Two assassins, one Japanese and restrained, one Chinese and flamboyant, locked in a battle to be the number one hitman in Asia. Corny, but great visuals.

For some reason, I can't get enough of this stuff.

I'm not sure what I think

I have seen two movies over the holiday weekend, and I honestly can't say whether I liked them or not. The first was the Darjeeling Limited, the new Wes Anderson film. Of course, it has beautiful, charming sets and a great soundtrack. Beyond that, Neilson hated it, thinking it is a shallow movie about shallow people. I'm not so sure. It did seem too long and parts are a little boring, but I was moved at times by the adult men who were trying to find a way to make it in the world after the death of their father. The second movie was I'm Not Here, the movie about Bob Dylan, with many actors (from Cate Blanchet to Richard Gere) playing different parts of the Dylan's persona, none named Bob Dylan. At times it was funny, at times it was touching, at times it was ridiculous, and at times I had no idea what was going on. Has anyone else seen these movies? What did you think?

Children of Men

I rarely get to the movies, Children of Men was one I really wanted to see but missed last year. I have watched in twice in the last couple of days, and I'm sure I will watch it again. This movie, directed by Alfonso Cuaron, is currently on Cinemax on Demand, and playing all the time on one of the many Cinemax channels you get if you subscribe to the service on digital cable.

Set 20 years from now in a grim future- yes it sounds like so many other science fiction epics- but it is not. There is (possibly too much) Christian imagery- and the cynical white guy with a heart of gold does protect the fertile african woman- but despite any cliches I loved it.

What is it with Mexican directors these days- they are making some of the best Hollywood movies. This guy also made Y Tu Mama Tambien and considers this a companion piece. Not obvious to me at first- but there are both road movies with great performances by all.

Make New Friends

Last night, Neilson, some of my friends from college, and I went to see a free outdoor screening of the Bill Murray classic Stripes on Pier 54. (This is the second time I have seen this movie outside a movie theater but on a big screen--the first time was in 1981 at a drive-in on Cape Cod with Johnny and Tommy). We came loaded with tasty snacks and a blanket and got good seats near the screen. While waiting, we had a few friendly interactions with the hipster couple in front us. The movie was as funny as we all remembered (that's a fact, Jack!). As hysterical as the movie was, the moment that made us laugh the most occurred as the credits were rolling. You can not bring alchohol onto the pier (although you can buy Budweiser), but the hipster couple had taken the silver bag out of a box o'wine and snuck it in. Having drunk the entire bag, they were a little tipsy. While the gal went to the port-o-potties, the guy rolled over, wrapped his arms around Neilson's leg and nestled his head in Neilson's lap. Neilson and I were locking eyes and silently asking "What the Hell!," when the guy woke up and stared up at Neilson with a horrified look on his face. "Man, where is my girlfriend," I believe were the first words out of his mouth. He was really embarrassed and kept saying things like "I couldn't figure out why you were so hairy." None of us--including him and his girlfriend when she returned--could stop laughing. In the end, he thanked Neilson for being such a good sport and we all agreed it was a great story we would tell for years to come.

Paprika

Last night Calvin and I went to see Paprika, a full length animation from Japan. It was charming, scary, weird and fun. It combines dreams, movies, the internet and technology in a strange manner that might see somewhat familiar to fans of other anime such as Ghost in the Shell:Innocence. It may not make sense, but who cares, it looks so beautiful.

You can see short clips at the link.