Big Wednesday (1978)

You know, I'm no surfer; never even tried it. But I love this movie. While surfing is a big part of this movie, its mostly used as a back drop to the story of 3 guys growing up.

The movie starts out in 1962, in Malibu, CA. It follows Matt, Jack, and Leroy "The Masochist" as they change from young guys surfing and partying, through adult pressures of young families and Viet Nam. The guys are played by Jan-Michael Vincent, William Katt, and Gary Busey, respectively.

As they grow, they take different paths in the real world. Do they fight in Viet Nam, or fight to stay out of the war? Do they accept their responsibilities as parents, or do they run from their young families?

These 3 guys are very believable in these parts. Especially Jan-Michael Vincent, as the brilliant surfer who can't seem to stay out of trouble, or the bottle. Backing them up in the cast is the always fun Reb Brown, who played Captain America in the late 70's, and young Robert Englund, as Fly, the narrator.

A lot of laughs from these guys, and other parts that are more poignant. Overall, one of my favorite movies.

The Social Network

I just watched the film "The Social Network". Its the history of the founders of the website Facebook. It has been lauded as one of, if not the, best films of 2010. I will leave that distinction to the historians and film critics. What I will say is this, I liked this film a great deal.

I originally thought that a film about the creator of Facebook may be interesting. But not Oscar-worthy. And I'm not saying here and now that it is worthy of an Academy award. But there is some damn fine acting in this film.

Jesse Eisenberg plays the main character, Mark Zuckerberg, a socially retarded undergrad at Harvard University. He is brilliant with computer and website programming. Much less so with people, even his friends. Eisenberg embodies this awkwardness brilliantly. He was equally excellent playing the straight man to Woody Harrelson's idiot in "Zombieland", and the dry humor of "Adventureland" also played to his strengths.

While I always enjoyed Justin Timberlake in his forays into Saturday Night Live land, I never really thought of him as an "actor". Well, pigs can fly. He acquits himself quite well in this film. His part is not as large as others, but he makes a much larger impact than some of the co-stars.

Director David Fincher did an excellent job. No doubt he will be up for an Oscar, along with Eisenberg. He also directed the excellent "Fight Club", and the crappy "Alien 3". Look next for his rendition of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" coming out later this year.

I highly recommend this film. I enjoyed it a lot. I actually watched it in one sitting (setting), which is unusual for me. I have seen commercials that place it on more than 100 Top Ten lists of critics' favorite films from last year. It's certainly on mine.

Salt

I recently watched this Angelina Jolie action movie. It tells the story of an undercover CIA agent who is outed as a possible deep cover Russian spy. Her fellow CIA pals are played by Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

The film starts with her incarceration by the North Koreans, who believe her to be an American spy. She is tortured for 2 years, and then traded back to the Americans. The action starts soon after.

While I liked the film for the most part, there were a few aspects that I didn't. The flashbacks with her fiancé - husband, I don't think they really helped the film. He was a fairly minor character, and I didn't care about him at all.

Also, fairly early in the film I figured out the main plot, which is always a discouraging thing. I hate when that happens.

And some of the 'stunts' in the film were just plain impossible for a normal person to have pulled off.

It was originally supposed to be Tom Cruise in the lead role. But as they waited for him to sign, they thought Angelina might also fit, and she got it. Go figure.

All in all, a decent flick. Probably not one I will see again. But they did set it up for a possible sequel.
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Kick Ass

The title alone sets this movie up to be disliked by some people. But it's not a bad movie at all.

The movie is about a young man who wonders aloud to his friends why there are no super heroes out there. When reminded by his friends that no one has super heroes, he says that he means normal people that go out and try to help people. He endeavors to do just that.

After donning a makeshift costume, and heading out into the night looking for a lost kitten, he runs into a gang fight. After saving the life of the lone guy getting beaten, Kick Ass is born.

There are other heroes that take their cue from Kick Ass. Big Daddy is a Batman wannabe, and his daughter is the brutal Hit Girl. There has been some debate about some of the dialogue that the 12-year old actress uses in the film. At one point, she uses the dreaded 'C word'. Apparently, in the comic book that this movie is from, the character uses this word, and the director was unsure about how it would be for such a young girl to use it. So he had her film the scene using other, less offensive swear words. Then the actress' mother asked for the director to shoot it once using said uber-offensive word, and they kept it.

Other than that controversy, the film is a decent actioner. It has some decent humor, and even some emotion. All in all, I really enjoyed this film a lot.

Unthinkable

What's unthinkable about this movie is that it going straight to video. No movie premiere, no press junket for the stars. Imagine a world where a Samuel L. Jackson movie goes direct to video. Unheard of.

Well as it goes, this is pretty good flick. Basically, Michael Sheen is an Islamic terrorist that has set 3 bombs to explode in 3 American cities in a matter of days. Sam Jackson is sent in to interrogate him, using any means necessary.

His expertise is hampered by an FBI agent, played by Carrie Ann Moss. She's determined to stick with the constitution and the Geneva Convention etc. She is sure that his way is wrong, no matter the consequences.

So, do they find the bombs? Are there any actual bombs, or is this all a hoax? By torturing him, do we lower ourselves to the level that we believe that he must be at to do such evil? Is torture worth it if it saves American lives?

In this day and age, very good questions.

The Losers

Anyone Else Would Be Dead By Now



I just finished watching the new action flick, "The Losers". Its a fairly derivative entry into the 'guys get wronged by the government, then they make things right by blowing stuff up and killing the real bad guys' genre.


That's not to say I didn't like it, cuz I did. Its what I call a popcorn flick. You watch it, you enjoy it, then you never really think about it again. Its full of terrible one-liners, like: "Oh my God, I'm the Black Macgyver. Blagyver."


It stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, from 'Watchmen' and 'Grey's Anatomy', Chris Evans, from 'Fantastic Four, and Zoe Saldana from the new 'Start Trek' movie. The chief bad guy is Jason Patric, who once dated Julia Roberts (Puke!).


There is no ambiguity in the film. The good guys are the good guys, the bad guys the bad. No moral conflicts. The government is the ultimate bad guy, via Jason Patric's character. Typical fare for this type of movie; i.e. 'The Shooter', the Jason Bourne movies, and 'The Hulk".


And like 'The Hulk', this is another movie based on a comic book. Hollywood can't seem to write any new scripts these days. It's either from a comic book, a 70's TV show, or a remake of an earlier film. Not to mention the 're-imagining' of older films, such as 'Psycho' or 'Alice in Wonderland'.


But anywho, back to the film. After the Losers are crossed, and double crossed, they finally win the day, and get their old lives back. Was there ever any doubt? Not really. As action flicks go, not terrible. As long as it makes more money than 'Green Zone', I'll be happy. :)

Almost Famous

I just watched the film "Almost Famous" the other day. I hadn't watched it in a while. What a great movie. The soundtrack is top notch, the acting was very good, but for me it was the story itself that stands out.


Writer/Director Cameron Crowe based the story on his own life. The movie is about a 15-year-old William, while trying to be a rock critic, gets the chance to travel on the road with an up and coming rock back in the spring of 1973. He does this by convincing everyone that he's 18, including the editor of Rolling Stone magazine. It is on this trip that he is able to grow and mature, away from his mother's loving, but cloistered home.


According to Wikipedia, 'The film is based on Crowe's experiences touring with rock bands The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. In a Rolling Stone article, he talks about how he lost his virginity, fell in love, and met his heroes, experiences that are shared by William, the main character in the film.'[1]


For me, one of the central relationships in the film are between William, Patrick Fugit, and the lead guitar player Russell, played by Billy Crudup. William views Russell with a lot of reverence. Through he course of the film, he comes to realize that Russell is just a guy, with as many flaws as everyone else.


The other significant relationship is between William and a groupie, or 'Band-aide', named Penny Lane, played by Kate Hudson. She starts out as somewhat of a mentor about life on the road. She helps to keep him safe, and to not look so 'starry-eyed' at these guys in the band.


Crowe won and Oscar for his screenplay, and the soundtrack won a Grammy. Crowe has also directed or written, 'Say Anything', 'Singles', 'Jerry Maguire', and 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High', (also based on his real life experiences).




1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost_Famous

Movie Theater?

When was the last time you saw a movie in an actual movie theater? Has it been a while? For me, the last movie I saw in a traditional venue was 'Superman Returns', way back in the summer of 2006.

I used to love going to the movies. The big screen, the popcorn with that thick, sorta buttery gel, and the surround sound. It was great. As a kid, I never noticed all the reasons not to go to the theater. I never noticed the broken seats, the sticky floors, the high prices (thanks Mom and Dad), or the idiots yakking throughout the whole movie.

When my brother and I started to buy DVDs back in early 1998, I could watch these movies in the comfort of my own couch. Get up whenever I need to, without missing any of the movie. Eat whatever we liked, even take out. It was great.

And not only could we watch what we liked, we could watch it how we liked. Want to listen to the director's commentary; done. Want to watch a short feature on how the movie was made; done. Want to hear interesting stuff from the composer who wrote the score; done. DVDs ushered in a whole new dimension of films to cinephiles all over the world. And don't get me started on the whole home theater phenomenon. Speakers to the front, sides, and in back of you, all with different parts of the movie environment coming out of them. The first time I heard the water dripping in the submarine battle scenes from 'Das Boot', it was amazing.

Now we have Bluray discs. While very similar to the traditional DVDs that came before, they are able to hold upwards of 10 times the amount of information. They are capable of showing movies in their true High Definition (HD) form, not scaled down for DVDs. They also are able to output much better audio. Instead of being restrained, they can now put out the full, lossless audio that they were meant to have. And all of their special features can also be in HD.

Quite often these days, when buying a Bluray movie, you will also get a DVD of the movie, and a digital copy. (Although for me, that seems a bit over the top). I can only imagine what will happen once they really get into this new 3D phase that's hitting the moving picture scene. We shall see.