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Sin
City (4/2/05) Hollywood Arclight (2005 ***1/4) I went
with my fiancée, and I think she thought it was dumb. It
sure was violent. At first I was concerned the stylized dialogue
would be distracting, but it really did seem to fit the “pulpy”
subject matter. One of the reviews I read indicated the movie was
basically the same thing over and over again. In a sense that was
accurate. As I write this it's two days since I saw it and a lot
of the images have stayed with me. It's impressive that it was
made for a budget of $40M and made about $28M on its first
weekend. I imagine it will do quite well the second weekend too,
thanks to positive word-of-mouth. Plenty of teens will go to see
the skimpy costumes and buckets o' blood. In the final analysis,
Sin City was a noble experiment that more or less worked.
It also brought even more mainstream attention to graphic novels,
which is great. Now if Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller can only
team up a second time for Batman: The Dark Knight Returns,
based on Miller's 1985 graphic novel. I'd love to see that movie.
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35
Up (4/6/05) Netflix (1991 ***½) Directed by
Michael Apted. This series kept getting more engrossing with each
installment. As the participants approached my own age, it did
get a little unnerving, though. In a bizarre way it was like
watching myself grow up. Clearly the participants seemed to view
the series as something that had been inflicted on them. I found
myself wondering just how long this experiment will continue. So
far no one has died. I think it is going to be fascinating to
watch them continue to age into their fifties and beyond.
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42
Up (4/7/05) Netflix (1998 ***½) Directed by
Michael Apted. So I watched the entire series, and over a
relatively short period of time. It was (and continues to be) a
grand experiment. I felt a definite shift between 35 Up
and 42 Up; there was an increased feeling of hope. It was
nice to see Neil (the subject who had became homeless) doing
well. It was also sweet to see his friendship with Bruce, and to
see Bruce had finally found a wife. On the whole, I liked the
subjects in the Up series. They were not only a "glimpse
of England's future" but also a glimpse into my own.
Watching the progression of their lives, I felt a bit better
about passing onto middle age myself. At this point I've “caught
up.” There are no more DVDs to rent. The next film will be 49
Up, which should be released in 2007. You'd better believe
I'll make a point of watching it.
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Fat
Albert (4/9/05) Netflix (2004 **½) Directed by
Joel Zwick, starring Kenan Thompson. At two and a half stars I'm
probably being generous. There's nothing exactly wrong
with Fat Albert, but the whole movie showed all the
earmarks of being produced in a parallel dimension, one to which
I couldn't quite relate. It was released in the theaters around
Christmastime 2004 and was certainly family fare, the kind of
movie one could watch with one's grandmother. I was frankly
intrigued by the premise, alluded to in the trailer in which the
character Fat Albert met his creator, Bill Cosby. The explanation
for Fat Albert and the Cosby kids' brief sojourn into our
universe was touching in a schmaltzy way and I never expected the
final scene of the film to take place in a cemetery. Okay, okay,
I'll admit it tugged at my ol' heart strings more than it should
have. Maybe I was just tired when I watched it. Funny thing is,
the theme song continues to play in my head. Like a lot of people
my age I watched Fat Albert when I was young. I'd
forgotten how the show played a part in my childhood and as a
result it was oddly comforting emotionally to spend some time
with my "old friends." Hey, hey, hey.
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Louis
Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography (4/10/05) Graphic Novel
(2003 ***) Written and illustrated by Chester Brown. I was
intrigued when I ordered this 260-page hardcover edition. Reading
the description as having been "five years in the making,"
piqued my interest. As an American, I wasn't familiar with Louis
Riel as a historical figure and he seemed an odd choice as the
subject of such an undertaking. My best guess was there was a
degree of funding from the Canadian government at work, and this
was acknowledged in the foreword. I thought the book was quite
good but not great. The wooden presentation reminded me of
historical nonfiction comics I read as a child. I felt
arbitrarily separated from the characters, and in all honesty the
tempo of the writing wasn't always effective. Some sections
(Riel's trial, for instance) were drawn out and I almost sensed
the minimalist drawings were due to the work being padded. The
violent aspects of the story also seemed uninvolving; the gun
battles were depicted as if observed from a distance. Overall,
Louis Riel was a solid work, but I only wish a talent like
Brown had devoted his time to a project with greater universal
appeal.
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Millions
(4/10/05) Los Feliz 3 (2004 ***½) Directed by Danny Boyle.
This was an uplifting film, the kind of which they should make
more. I was originally going to go see The Upside of Anger
but my friend Kevin -- who'd seen both films and whose opinion I
respect -- recommended Millions as the better choice. I'm
glad he did. Danny Boyle had previously directed Trainspotting
and 28 Days Later. Much has been written about Millions
being a major departure for him. I don't know. There were
certainly some disturbing horror-like elements in the film.
Though it seemed to me like it ran out of steam in the 2nd half
of the 2nd act, it was nice to be reminded that there are
innocents who live in our world with all us cynical sons of
bitches. And perhaps there's even an occasional saint as well.
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Stan
Lee's Mutants, Monsters & Marvels (4/12/05) Netflix
(2002 ***) Directed by Scott Zakarin. This wasn't really a movie,
but you know what? I'm gonna give this DVD three stars because I
enjoyed it about that much. Of course I'm what they call a
"fanboy" when it comes to comic books, so your mileage
may vary. It was genuinely nice to see Kevin Smith talking with
Stan Lee. One thing that came across in the interview (recorded
prior to the release of the first Spider-Man movie) was
that Smilin' Stan may be a little delusional, but not in a bad
way: he described a cameo of his that was cut from the Spider-Man
film and a line he had that was (mercifully) dropped. In his
inflated opinion it would have "made the movie." Hell,
at his age I guess he can believe what he wants and nobody will
argue. Kevin Smith was not the worst interviewer in the world,
but somebody should have told him not to continually go "Uh-huh,
uh-huh..." with a live microphone; that was distracting. On
a personal note, I actually saw Stan Lee in person recently. He
was at Dreamworks for a meeting and I saw him in the hallway. Why
he was there I had no idea. When I saw him I did a minor
double-take, then smiled and he smiled back. It was nice. I
suspect he enjoys spending his golden years basking in the glow
of all the adulation he gets. He sure as hell deserves all of it.
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Harold
and Kumar Go to White Castle (4/13/05) Netflix (2004
***1/4) Directed by Danny Leiner, starring John Cho and Kal Penn,
with Neil Patrick Harris. Much has been made of the scene in
which “Doogie Howser” snorted cocaine off a hooker's ass.
That was just one of the many amusing scenes in Harold and
Kumar. I had heard it was a fun movie and it definitely is of
the "pot-smoking buddy picture" genre. To my way of
thinking, there's nothing wrong with that. Certainly the movie
wasn't deep, but it was slightly meatier than its predecessor,
Dude, Where's My Car? Near the end of the film, Kumar
tried to convince Harold to hang glide off a cliff to avoid
incarceration. He gave a short speech about how they were
pursuing happiness just like their parents when they came to
America. There was just enough sincerity in his words for me to
buy it just a little bit. Yes, White Castle hamburgers are a
fitting metaphor for the greasy apex of the American dream.
Throughout the movie, race was an issue, but again it wasn't, if
that makes sense. I can't help but wonder if the "white"
in "White Castle" was intentionally symbolic. Or maybe
the writers were just smoking a lotta doobie when they wrote the
script. Extreeeeme!!
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KILL
Smallville ("Onyx") (4/13/05) TV-WB (2005
**½) After what seemed like months of reruns, the first
"fresh" episode featured the tired "evil twin"
plotline, this time with Lex Luther breaking apart into good and
evil halves. At one point the evil Lex leered at, then kissed
Lana Lang, causing Kristin Kreuk (the actress who plays Ms. Lang)
to do that weird thing she does with her eyes where it looks like
she's losing a contact. I ask myself sometimes why I continue to
watch Smallville even though it's clearly treading water
downstream. I don't have a good answer for that; maybe it's just
a habit I can't break.
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Revelations
(Pilot) (4/14/05) TV-NBC (2005 ***) Created by David
Seltzer, starring Bill Pullman and Natascha McElhone. I recorded
the pilot episode of the show the preceding night and watched it
while walking on my treadmill. To tell you the truth, I expected
it to be way dumber than it was. I wasn't crazy about them using
video footage of people jumping from high-rise buildings in the
title sequence, though. Pullman's cynical, unbelieving scientist
was teamed with a true believing nun played by Natascha McElhone.
Why did that pairing dynamic sound familiar? Oh yeah: A little
show called The X-Files. Some of the story elements
were engaging, such as the mysterious shadow of Christ on the
cross on a mountainside. When the shadow's head turned, it was
kind of cool. This was supposed to be a midseason six-episode
miniseries but I wonder if the powers that be aren't aiming to
put it on the Fall schedule. I would bet money that's what will
happen if the ratings are strong enough. The main downside to
that scenario is it means the earth probably won't meet its "end
of days" five weeks from now. Too bad. So, will I tune in
next week? Almost certainly.
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Dark
Shadows Reunion (4/14/05) Netflix (2001 **½) This
was an amateurish video recording of an on-stage 35th anniversary
cast and crew reunion taped at the Director's Guild (DGA) in LA.
Series creator Dan Curtis and several cast members engaged in
discussion and took questions, though Jonathan Frid (Barnabas
Collis) was notably absent. Because I'm a fan, this was mildly
entertaining for me and certainly cheaper than going to a
convention. The special features included an interview with Frid
on the Merv Griffin show and an interview with Joan Bennett on
the Mike Douglas show. Thanks to the dated early seventies
production aesthetics, both interviews were surreal as hell.
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Writers on Comic Scriptwriting,
Vol. 2 (4/16/05) Nonfiction (2004 ***½) Written by Andrew
Kardon & Tom Root. I’m currently studying comic writing and illustration
in the hopes it will help me in the production of a project of my own
someday. Awhile back I’d bought and read Artists on Comic Art
and enjoyed it thoroughly. The format in this book was the same, with
each chapter devoted to an in-depth interview with a different writer.
As a result, I really felt like I got a sense for what it’s like to
be a comic book writer: How they work, how they interact with artists,
what their considerations are when working on a projects featuring well-known
and lesser-known characters, how many books they’re able to write
at any given time. When I originally ordered it from Overstock.com,
I didn’t realize I had ordered the "sequel" edition, and
so I’m very much looking forward to reading Comic Scriptwriting
1 when it arrives.
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Dean
Koontz’s Frankenstein, Book One: Prodigal Son (4/18/05) Novel
(2005 ***) Written by Dean Koontz and Ed Gorman. I bought this in the
St. Louis airport for a return flight to California. To be honest, I
was hoping to pick up a paperback copy of The Davinci Code, which
everyone seems to be reading these days. On the shuttle bus to the Burbank
airport I saw a man with a copy. Perhaps his was a bootleg or maybe
they were sold out. I don’t know, but it certainly wasn’t for sale
when I attempted to buy a copy. Anyhow, Mr. Koontz’s reinvisioning
of the Mary Shelly classic wasn’t nearly as dumb as I’d expected.
I’ve only ever read one of his books, Demon Seed, a thoroughly
idiotic book about a self-aware household security system. Koontz's
Frankenstein was mildly entertaining and, thanks to the larger-than-normal
typeface, a pretty quick read.
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Another
Nail (4/18/05) Graphic Novel (2004 **) Written by Alan
Davis. I was lying in bed sick one morning and I needed something
kind of dumb to pass the time. I’d bought and read this book
before. It was a disjointed follow-up to The Nail, a DC
superhero graphic novel I quite enjoyed. The premise of that book
was what the DC universe might have been like had the Kents not
discovered the infant Superman. One of the highlights of the
original book was a scene in which a very twisted Joker tortured
and killed Robin and Batgirl before Batman‘s horrified eyes.
Another Nail continued the story more or less from where
it left off, but the story was confusing and jumped around,
featuring far too many characters, and I couldn’t describe the
plot if I tried.
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Pennies
From Heaven (4/18/05) Netflix (1978 ***) Directed by
Piers Haggard, teleplay by Dennis Potter, starring Bob Hoskins,
Gemma Craven and Cheryl Campbell. This was the 1978 BBC
miniseries on which the Steve Martin / Bernadette Peters film was
based. Hoskins played its main character Arthur, a sheet music
traveling salesman with his head in the clouds. The video I
watched contained the first two episodes (of six, I think) in the
series. It was entertaining and there was certainly a lot of good
depression-era music to enjoy. It shared much in common with the
big-budget American film, and it was obvious where bits and
pieces of scenes and dialogue had been lifted directly. I will
probably watch the remainder of the series at some point, but
it’s not high on my list. To be fair, I know the way the story
ends and seeing how it's an awful downer, I may put it off for
awhile.
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Teen
Titans Vol. 1: A Kid's Game (4/18/05) Graphic Novel (2004
***) Written by Geoff Johns. This book got fairly good reviews on
Amazon, so I thought I'd give it a try. I have a long history
with the original Teen Titans; seeing my uncle's collection of
them (only a few issues, actually) when I was four or five is
part of what started me collecting comics in the first place. The
goal of this particular incarnation, I think, was to re-inject a
level of the fun of the original series with the continued
mythology of the early eighties. Johns' storytelling was
generally good, though I got the sense the focus was on
establishing the characters and relationships more than on an
actual "plot." It might have been nice if there'd been
a meatier main story.
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Vernacular
Drawings (4/18/05) Book (2001 ***½) Illustrations
by Seth. I'd been meaning to buy this book for some time, but had
a hard time justifying the (non-autographed) cover price of $35,
even though the production of the book was beautiful. Seth
explained in the foreword that the definition of "vernacular"
in this context means "ordinary." Almost all the
drawings -- cartoons, really -- were taken from published photos
and advertisements in old magazines. Only the later drawings were
drawn from photographs taken by Seth himself. I found the
collection especially interesting because for the past few months
I've been copying images myself, though not with the intent of
"cartoon-izing" them. I've also long been fascinated
with the same iconography that seemed to captivate Seth: Images
of burlesque performers, men in 1950's business suits, portraits
of the American and Canadian landscape, circa 1947 and before. It
was a grand, admirable collection and I'm proud to have finally
gotten around to owning it.
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The
Hospital (4/19/05) Netflix (1971 ***) Directed by Arthur Hiller
from a script by Paddy Chayefsky. This is one of those movies I rented
from Netflix, thinking I'd never seen it. Well, it turns out I have,
though I wasn't able to find any evidence of exactly when in my film
journal. Chayefsky's dialogue reminded me of what "real" writing
can be. George C. Scott's character screaming "We cure NOTHING!
We heal NOTHING!" certainly reminded me of Chayefsky's Network.
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The
Stepford Wives (4/22/05) Netflix (2004 **) Directed by
Frank Oz, starring Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick. This was
one of those times when I rented a movie even though I’d heard
it was bad. Well, it was, and I could tell that from the very
beginning. The writing was so weak it made me crazy. It’s
hard to understand how this kind of movie gets made. Who was
responsible for making the bad decisions? Was it the director,
the producer? Surely the actors knew their dialogue was far from
sparkling. The deleted scenes showed that most of the planned
effects for the film ended on the cutting room floor. Why? Well,
they were creepy. Also, the "Inspector Gadget" effects
revolved around the identity of the women as robots. I guess
someone in a boardroom somewhere decided it was better to leave
that a bit more ambiguous. By the way, the surprise ending they
hyped so much? Not much of a surprise, actually.
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Open
Water (4/24/05) Netflix (2003 ***) Written and directed
by Chris Kentis, starring Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis. This
shot-on-video "based on a true story" cautionary tale
was better than I'd expected. Still, there was an occasional
element of "not quite professional" acting and
directing. I had a personal reason for wanting to watch: A number
of years ago I was on a SCUBA trip in the Bahamas and there was
a... mishap. As a result I have more than a little fear of the
“open water” as well as a fear of putting my hands in
professionals only to realize later that they're just a bunch of
goofballs and my life was lower on their list of priorities than
their suntans. I wondered if watching Open Water would
stir up any old feelings, and it certainly did. Will I ever get
"back on the horse" and go SCUBA diving again? Only
time will tell.
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Absolutely
Fabulous: Series 4 (4/24/05) DVD (2001 ***) Series created by
Jennifer Saunders, starring Saunders and Jane Horrocks as Joanna
Lumley and Julia Sawalha. This was one of those shows that played
frequently on Comedy Central and I'd always intended to watch it,
but it just seemed to require so damn much attention. Someone at
work was selling the fourth season DVDs for $5, so I figured "why
not?" I watched the whole series on one lazy Sunday
afternoon and for the most part I enjoyed the episodes. I liked
the verbal humor a lot and the female slant on the writing. The
question remains: Do I like it enough to Netflix more episodes?
Not quite. It was an awfully noisy program to watch.
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Persepolis
2: The Story of a Return (4/24/05) Graphic Novel (2005
***½) Written and illustrated by Marjane Satrapi. This was
the sequel to the autobiographical Persepolis: The Story of a
Childhood, which described what it was like to grow up as a
young girl in Iran. That book concluded with 14-year-old Marjane
sent to live in Vienna. In Persepolis 2, Marjane described
her teenage years and twenties and how she returned to and
ultimately left Iran. This book included her first relationships
and failed marriage. In many ways it was a straightforward
account as Satrapi described the "dark" chapters in her
life, such as how her boyfriend's fear of arrest led to her
becoming a drug dealer. Later, she avoided arrest (for wearing
lipstick) by creating a diversion by accusing an innocent
stranger of shouting sexually suggestive remarks. The
illustrative style was far from polished, but it was effective
and appropriate. As with any autobiographical comic work, the
reader had to meet the material half-way. In the case of
Persepolis, it was well worth the effort.
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Piled
Higher and Deeper: A Graduate Student Comic Strip Collection
(4/25/05) Comic strips(2002 ***) Written and illustrated by Jorge
Cham. Jorge was a graduate student at Stanford when he did his
weekly strip, which for five years was published in the Stanford
paper. Thanks to the internet, it eventually found an audience in
the graduate student population worldwide. I met Jorge once
through a mutual friend, Nico Scapel. Heavily influenced by
Doonesbury (acknowledged in the foreword), the strip gave
the reader a taste of graduate student life. I was one of those
once, actually, but since my graduate program was in art, not
engineering, I never had to go through much of what the PhD's
did. As a result, my appreciation of Cham's material was
semi-vicarious. That said, I have a great deal of respect for
what it took to produce such a body of work.
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The
Great Train Robbery (4/27/05) Netflix (1979 **) Written
and Directed by Michael Crichton. Crichton is, of course, the
mastermind behind Jurassic Park and TV's ER. I
rented this movie because for some reason I was curious about his
skills as a director. I found it interesting he was -- given his
limited credentials at the time -- allowed the opportunity to
helm a big budget (for 1979) action adventure picture starring
Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland. I guess I found out just what
the deal was: Both his storytelling and directing were reasonably
competent, but far from inspired. The phrase that kept leaping to
mind as I watched was "left-brained." The "heist"
story (based on actual events) was clearly plot-driven, but
unbearably linear. Even the "monkey wrench"
complications resolved themselves in a frustratingly linear
fashion. Characters behaved in erratic ways only to serve the
plot, and so on. Ultimately I was disappointed. The movie was
watchable, I suppose, but there was little in its content worth
recommending.
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Brief
Encounter (4/28/05) Netflix (1945 **½) Directed by
David Lean, based on a play by Noel Coward. Celia Johnson and
Trevor Howard play a married woman and man who find themselves
almost, but not quite, having an affair. I'd never seen the film
before and was hoping it would be one of those rare discoveries,
but it disappointed me. The film was just so overwrought and
melodramatic. Clearly times have changed since 1945 and a woman
being tempted to cheat on her husband doesn't carry the same
dramatic weight it once did. It was interesting to see one of
David Lean's earlier directorial efforts, though; The film was
beautifully shot. In the interest of journalistic honesty, I must
admit I was irritated the DVD wasn't subtitled and only
half-watched the second half of the movie while doodling in my
sketchbook.
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