I watch movies.

Not a lot of surprises this morning. The major categories are mostly the "prestige" pictures that open at the end of the year specifically to win awards. I'm just going to do bullet points while I organize my thoughts and wait for the categories that weren't announced on television to show up online.

Very happy to see In Bruges and WALL-E up for screenplay.

The lead vs. supporting distinction occasionally baffles me. Philip Seymour Hoffman has top billing in Doubt, but is nominated for Supporting, while Kate Winslet wins a Golden Globe for The Reader, and is now up for Lead Actress with the same role.

Looks like only the two categories where I've seen all the nominees are Sound Editing and Song.

Not surprised to see The Dark Knight up for a lot of technical awards, just would have liked to see it and WALL-E in more of the major categories.

Kind of surprised Gran Torino didn't get any nods; the Academy usually loves Eastwood. Changeling is up for a few, but none for him (and most of the reviews I've read say it's the weaker of the two).

That's about all the insight I have this early in the morning (and typing while holding a wiggling infant is getting to be a challenge), so I guess we'll see what happens a month from today. Maybe I'll get a chance to catch a couple more major nominees between now and then, and have some more informed opinions.

Movie 39: Slumdog Millionaire
An Indian game show contestant is accused of cheating (because the authorities cannot believe that someone from the slums would know so much trivia), so he recounts his life story to explain how he knows the answer to each of the questions. As a framing device it's interesting and entertaining, but not nearly as much as the story he tells about growing up in the slums of India and his search for a lost love from his childhood. The movie is unflinching in its portrayal of the hardships the characters go through, but for every heart-wrenching pain there are several of infectious joy that are all but guaranteed to put a smile on your face. This is on my short list of the best films of the year, and if you get a chance I highly recommend seeing it.

DVD 75: Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
So the story behind this is that Donner and screenwriter Mario Puzo wrote the first two Superman movies as one long story in two parts, and were shooting both of them simultaneously. To meet the deadline for the first film's release date Donner had to put the sequel on hold with about 80% of it shot, and before he could resume the studio decided to get a different director for Superman II, it was rewritten and almost entirely reshot, and that's the version that was released. Twenty-five years later, some editors got ahold of Donner, found the vaulted footage he'd shot, and cut together his version of the movie as best they could (some of the replacement director's shots had to be used, as well as a screen test between Clark and Lois). Now I liked Superman II, but the tone seemed much lighter and more comedic than the first one, which distracted from the story at times. This version puts all the concentration back on the story, more closely matching the original's tone and filling in some plot holes, making for an even better movie.

DVD 76: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
From the advertising this looked like a heist movie, not the family drama it turned out to be. Which would have been fine if it were a more interesting family drama. Instead it's a bunch of miserable people getting more miserable because of their own mistakes, which isn't really that fun to watch. It starts with a lot of promise and has an ending that could have been much more effective, but everything in between is too weak to sustain interest in the characters.

DVD 77: Monty Python's Flying Circus season 1, disc 1
While it's less polished than their later work, it's still consistently funny in its absurdity. Looking forward to the other 15 discs of the set we picked up at a great price.

DVD 78: Man on Wire
Incredibly interesting documentary about Philippe Petit, a high wire walker who snuck into the World Trade Center one night in 1974, secured a wire between the two towers, and walked back and forth between them above a crowd of onlookers the following morning. Jumps back and forth between the act itself and Petit's life story, including other high wire stunts and the long planning process. Aside from being a fascinating story in its own right, the filmmakers make excellent use of reenactments, archival footage, and interviews to convey what was going on in the minds of Petit and his cohorts, as well as capturing the sense of awe that someone would actually do something so crazy ant impressive.

Movie 38: The Wrestler
It’s a good movie, but nowhere near the level I’ve come to expect from Darren Aronofsky. There are hints of his unique style, but for the most part it looks like anyone could have directed it - there’s not enough to visually distinguish it from any other indie film out there. That said, the story and acting are both good, and I can’t recall any other film taking a serious look at the ups and downs of pro wrestling - there’s a lot there that you don’t really think about, especially what happens when the spotlight fades. But it’s just not quite enough to make the movie stand out.

DVD 66: Battle Royale
I love that the movie doesn’t take too much time to justify its premise of adults being so afraid of student protests that they start pitting teens against each other in 3-day death matches on a remote island. Instead it jumps right in, using the fight for survival as an extreme version of high school cliques and social drama. While it’s at times disturbing to see violence visited on youth, for the most part the absurdity of the situation and the fact that few of the characters are seen as helpless make it removed enough from reality to serve as an entertaining hyperbole.

DVD 67: House of Flying Daggers
The difference between the film stock and the CGI is at times distracting, but for the most part it’s a fun stylish action movie. I especially like how much the battle that will determine the future of the titular organization is built up for the whole movie, only to be overshadowed by the much more interesting love triangle.

Movie 36: Tropic Thunder
It's uneven, but the funny parts are funny enough to make up for the parts that lag. As an industry parody it works largely because of people and companies willing to break type or self-deprecate.

DVD 49: The X-Files: Fight the Future
Satisfies on a few levels: It's entertaining, intricate enough to stay interesting after multiple viewings, and a big enough story to warrant a movie. The most satisfying thing though is that it helped get the taste of I Want to Believe out of my mouth and reminded me of why I liked the show.

Book 13: The Children of Men by P. D. James
An interesting read, especially after seeing the movie. It's a great example of very different takes on the same story that both work well for their respective mediums. Characters are switched around, the emphasis is on the main character's relationships (mostly with his cousin, who runs the country) rather than the action, and the pacing and endings are completely different, but neither is really better than the other, they both work wonderfully in their respective mediums.

Movie 33: WALL-E
Upon a second viewing, this one has cemented its place as best film of 08 so far, edging out...

M34: The Dark Knight
Might not have seen this again if the heat wave hadn't driven me to seek air conditioning. Still holds up, but not quite as well as Pixar's offering.

M35: Pineapple Express
There are enough laughs and Tarantino references to keep me entertained, but the story and characters don't seem like they'd endure enough to justify a DVD purchase. It's refreshing to see James Franco not brooding for two hours, but he and Rogen needed a better script.


DVD 44: Les Diaboliques
What starts as a fairly straightforward story of a man's wife and mistress plotting his murder takes the first of many sharp turns about halfway through and becomes one of the most suspenseful films I've ever seen.

D45: Interstella 5555
Basically a series of music videos strung together to form a (somewhat) coherent story. Unfortunately this means the quality of the sequences varies with the quality of the songs, and like many albums the standouts were the ones I'd already seen outside of the movie.

D46: The Golden Compass
Watching this I could see a few things: One, it seemed like it would be a better book than a movie - a lot of the dialog and plotting felt like something that would work better on paper than on screen. And two, because of the translation issues the other two parts of the trilogy probably won't get adapted. Which is just as well, because one of them is titled "The Subtle Knife", and there was absolutely nothing subtle about this movie.

Movie 31: The Dark Knight
Saw it again after the last post, and thought I'd do a move in-depth reaction. Some of this gets into plot developments late in the film, so I'll put it behind a ( cut )

Movie 28: Hancock
This one was getting terrible reviews, so I was a little cautious. Luckily I had a free pass, so it didn’t cost me anything to find out that it’s actually not that bad. The main problem with Hancock is that you can see the makings of a much better movie in there, but it just never finds its direction. I’d be interested to see how the version that ended up onscreen differs from the original script, which has apparently had several false starts over the past decade and was probably tweaked at every stage.

M29: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
The second Hellboy movie, on the other hand, is satisfying and entertaining from start to finish. Unlike most sequels the action is actually a little toned down from the first movie, but a lot of the battles become more meaningful through the development of characters and relationships. These were all likable characters to begin with, so getting to see them grow adds to the enjoyment while giving more weight to their decisions. Plus del Toro seems to have been given more to work with following the success of Pan’s Labyrinth, so the visuals and creature designs are endlessly interesting. A good, fun summer movie.


DVD 39: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Wow this was a great movie. A battle between geeky middle aged guys over the high score on Donkey Kong doesn’t sound like it would be very entertaining - in fact it sounds more like a comedy then a heartfelt documentary - but I was constantly on the edge of the couch with excitement. It was like watching a really good sporting event, but instead of hoping my team scored, I was watching to see if Steve Wiebe managed to get to the next level. It all works so well because the filmmakers show us that these are real people, not just a bunch of video game fans. They have the same concerns about family, work, and the rest that we all do, they just also happen to take 80s arcade games more seriously than most of us. And when you see their passion for getting that record score, you can’t help but get excited yourself.

Movie 21: Speed Racer
It’s absurd and mindless from start to finish, but the visuals are impressive enough that I’m glad I saw it on the big screen.

M22: The Incredible Hulk
I liked Ang Lee’s movie better. The main selling point of this one is that there’s less of that pesky story and character development between the action scenes, but some of us like to have a reason to care about the people involved.

M23: Kung Fu Panda
This was a lot better than I expected. I’d gotten so used to Dreamworks pumping out Shrek knock-offs that it was a nice surprise to see a story-driven action comedy that didn’t substitute pop culture references for humor. Plus, this had the best animated action sequences I’ve seen since The Incredibles.

DVD 30: Mystery Science Theater 3000: Godzilla vs Megalon
I’ve heard people complain about licensing costs holding up DVD releases of the Godzilla episodes of MST3K, but after seeing this I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. This is early on in the show before they really established their rhythm, so the humor is uneven and often repetitive.

D31-33: Battlestar Galactica season 2.0, discs 1-3
Not as strong as the first season, but it’s still keeping my interest. The political parallels got a little heavy-handed towards the end, but in doing so managed to introduce a new angle to the story without seeming contrived, so I’ll overlook it (along with the stupid “half season” trick, because I’m netflixing these and don’t have to wait while they try something weaker in the timeslot).

DVD 34: Meet the Robinsons
Not one I would have sought out, but I heard good things so I queued it up and was pleasantly surprised. The plot twists are predictable and it lags a little in the middle concentrating on how wacky the family is, but it’s funny enough throughout to stay entertaining.

DVD 35: Soylent Green
Too often this one gets boiled down to the ending, which is a shame because it really is a great movie from start to finish. Knowing where things are going doesn’t at all detract from the path the story takes getting there, and the dystopia is not only well-conceived but still fairly relevant 35 years later. Easily the best movie in this post.

Book 9: No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
This was adapted to one of my favorite movies last year, very faithfully as it turns out. Everything I liked about the story of the film comes straight from the novel, which is well-written with interesting characters providing compelling points of view for the action. It actually weakened the movie a little for me, because some of the places where the film faltered (such as the clumsy transfer of emphasis from Llewelyn to Sheriff Bell) were handled more effectively in text than onscreen. He’s definitely an author I’ll want to read more of.

B10: Dust by Elizabeth Bear
The concept of a ship getting stranded in orbit for enough generations that it becomes a self-contained world is handled well, as is the story of manipulation and intrigue, but would have liked more time spent on the characters. It’s apparently the first in a series, so I may get that later on, but Bear’s other series-starters (Hammered especially) were much stronger when it came to characterization.

Movie 19: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Not as epic as the first one, and strayed more from the source material, but still a very fun and entertaining movie, and if they continue at this quality I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more of the series adapted.

DVD 26: Hogfather
A clearly low-budget adaptation of a book from the middle of the Discworld series, I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. But it does very well with the limited effects available, and only has a few misses throughout. It’s 3 hours long, broken up into two parts, but for fans of Terry Pratchett’s work it’s worth checking out. The sole bonus feature of the DVD, an interview with Pratchett, has a couple good bits, but the whole thing is so poorly put together that its hard to watch.

Movie 10: The Spiderwick Chronicles
Quasi-interesting story, but the CG effects didn’t blend with the filmed action, and there was never really enough investment to get me excited. When I am more entertained by one of the trailers before the movie than the movie itself, there’s a problem.

M11: Doomsday
I’m starting to like Neil Marshall. Sure, his movies aren’t great works of art, but they’re consistently fun and entertaining, and he tends to use women in leading roles that would normally default to men, without turning them into sex objects or having them be motivated by motherhood. The movie itself is a retread of Mad Max, Escape from New York, and other post-apocalyptic fare, and is utterly unapologetic about it. Plus, the Scottish setting is used in a clever divergence from other films in the genre.

M12: The Bank Job
This one’s being called a heist movie, but I’m not sure that fits. Sure, there’s a bank robbery, but the focus of the movie isn’t the ingenious way they pull it off. In fact, it’s a very basic plan that works more because of luck than skill. Where the movie gets interesting is after the robbery, when it seems like half of London is after the heroes because of what was in the safety deposit boxes they raided. The reason this movie works is that the criminals aren’t smooth professionals, they’re small-time crooks in way over their heads who are just trying to bluff and improvise their way through.

M13: Stop-Loss
Kimberly Peirce doesn’t make many movies (this is her first since Boys Don’t Cry nine years ago), but there’s something to be said for quality over quantity. Stop-Loss succeeds where a lot of Iraq movies have failed by not trying to condemn the entire war, but rather focusing on how one policy affects a few specific individuals. Strong performances throughout really make this movie, especially Ryan Phillippe, who makes it easy to understand the difficulty of his situation and the decisions he has to make concerning himself, his family, and his fellow soldiers.


DVD 9: Lust, Caution
Typical Ang Lee fare, which makes it one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. This story of WWII intrigue is what Paul Verhoven’s Black Book wished it could be. The lengths that the characters go to are incredible, and the payoff is incredibly moving. Unfortunately it didn’t get a very wide release due to its NC-17 rating. It deserved the rating (although the title card before the movie said it was just for sex, no mention of the graphic violence) - this was definitely a movie for adults, but not the stigma that goes with it. And to completely change gears, on a minor note, I wish I knew more about Mahjong. I’ve played it a couple times, just enough to realize the action in the games were reflections of the how the characters related to each other, but not enough to completely grasp the subtext.

D10: American Gangster
By-the-numbers mafia movie. A couple interesting twists, but not enough to elevate the movie to anything more than a typical gangster movie.


Book 5: Above the Line: Conversations about Movies by Lawrence Grobel
Transcripts of interviews with filmmakers in the mid-90s. The interviews are interesting in how they form a picture of the producers, directors, actors, and critics profiled, but the concentration was more on personality than profession for my taste. There is a certain amusement factor in reading a decade later how big a star Van Damme knew he was going to be, and seeing the very real spite between Siskel and Ebert is interesting, but things like that are the rare gems in an otherwise dry read.

B6: I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
This would have made a good movie. Heck, if the WIll Smith film had just kept the ending of the novella it would have been exponentially better. As it is, the title story in this collection is the best in the book. The rest are hit-and-miss, often being more about the supernatural process than the characters involved - making for ideas that never really develop into stories.