Another Alan Moore classic...

I went old school here and grabbed a classic that was written to end an era that was blown up the Crisis on Infinite Earths. This one was written as though it was the absolute end of Superman, the absolute last, final Superman story ever to be written. Not that Superman wouldn't go on, but the Superman that we would go on with wouldn't be the one that we'd known before. This was written to wrap up every storyline, to tie up every loose end, to top everything that came before...and it did just that...

From the most conventional of superheroes - a big, strong, flying, matinee idol, white guy - we get the most unconventional of wrap ups. Nearly every major villain of his career - and some of the more minor ones - come back in an orchestrated attempt to end his story once and for all. All of the supporting characters come back to be protected by and to protect their hero. And some of the greatest writers and artists of modern comics (Alan Moore, premiere among them in my eyes) come together to send him off.

The product lives up to every bit of that hype. Emotional and strong at the same time, beautifully framed and satisfying to nearly every reader who loved this series, the story is nearly perfect. It isn't the radical rewriting of the ideas that Moore gave us in Watchmen or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, instead this is the greats working within the framework, crafting beauty from a limited pallate.

Talent...a gift and a curse...

Connor Oberst has been the next things coming for a few years now - probably getting his first Rolling Stone mention probably ten or so years ago. At that point, he was the savant child - a fourteen-year-old band leader who had released two albums and just had to be the second coming of Bob Dylan (a very strong influence, particuarly in his phrasing and often obscure song writing).

By the time of the release of this album, Oberst had matured into a world-wise twenty-two-year old who was recording under the sobrique Bright Eyes - more a collection of studio musicians than a band with any sort of consistency. His influences are still worn very much on his sleeve - Dylan, the Beatles, maybe a bit of Tom Petty here and there, a touch of Wilco - and his voice is still the eerie cracking instrument that he leads us with. It's far from a classically trained one at that, instead it's more in the vein of Neil Young or Dylan in roughness but with a twang that he brings forward when it suits him (as it does on the ten-minute album closing "Let's Not *%&$ Ourselves").

I found the album to pretty strongly uneven - opening with one of the roughest tracks I've heard in a long while, seemingly recorded on the bus between shows and never cleaned up in the least, lacking an opening or a closing, just stopping mid-bar and drifting away in a cloud of snatched conversation. Somewhere in the middle, 'round about "Bowl of Oranges", Bright Eyes hits their stride and delivers three solid, tight songs without the rambling and affected shifts and dips that Oberst brings to the much of the rest of the album.

Oberst is clearly a talented writer and musician, a band leader with the faith to lead his troupes into every possible blind alley and odd cul de sac while they charge right along behind him, often slipping somehow out of the confusion and into a nice groove, but Oberst could benefit from passing of a bit of the lead and getting a producer to help him tighten the entire album up a bit. Ryan Adams is often mentioned in the same breath as Oberst, and they seem to be two of a feather, prolific artists who sometimes release things above and beyond what would be prudent and simply offering the world anything they feel like putting out.

Talent can be a gift and a curse...

Being the good friend...

I realize that I haven't been posting much to this blog of late - particuarly of the musical variety - and thought I'd give a little explanation of why that is. I've been working on a CD for a friend who got married this summer. He's got a strong touch of the music obsession that I'm cursed/blessed with and thought he'd do a much better job of setting up the music for his reception than any DJ could. So, Sully put together a list of songs and gave the list to the DJ with very explicit instructions of what was a must play, a should play, and a do not play. The DJ proceeded to screw things up, playing very few of the required songs.

So, as the best man, I thought it was my duty to gather together the songs into a CD or two for Brian and Meg as a little post-wedding gift...so, here's what I've been listening to...

The must play list:

• You're My Best Friend (Queen)
• Wouldn't It Be Nice (The Beach Boys)
• Runaway (The Corrs)
• Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire (David Foster)
• For Your Eyes Only (Sheena Easton)
• Waiting For A Girl Like You (Foreigner)
• We Are In Love (Harry Connick)
• Sea Of Love (The Honeydrippers)
• Angel Of The Morning (Juice Newton)
• The Lady In My Life (Michael Jackson)
• Angel Of Mine (Monica)
  
• Theme from Summer Place (Percy Faith)
• Magic Moments (Perry Como)
  
• When I'm With You (Sheriff)
• Through The Years (Kenny Rogers)

The should play list (upbeat):

• Come On Eileen (Dexy's Midnight Runners)
• What I Like About You (The Romantics)
• Girls Just Want To Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper)
• Footloose (Kenny Loggins)
• Hot In Herre (Nelly)
• Rock Your Body (Justin Timberlake)
• Bust A Move (Young MC)
• Jump Around (House Of Pain)
• Paradise By The Dashboard Light (Meatloaf)
• Do You Love Me (The Contours)
• The Twist (Chubby Checker)
• Rock Around The Clock (Bill Haley)
• Working For The Weekend (Loverboy)
• Hey Ya (Outkast)
• Hey Baby (Bruce Channel)
• Electric Boogie (Marcia Griffiths)

The should play list (slower):

• Longer (Dan Fogelberg)
• The Search Is Over (Survivor)
• Can't Fight This Feeling (REO Speedwagon)
• Friends and Lovers (Loring & Anderson)
• It Might Be You (Steven Bishop)
• Let My Love Open The Door (Pete Townshend)
• Woman (John Lennon)
• At Last (Etta James)
• Could It Be I'm Falling In Love (The Spinners)
• It Had To Be You (Harry Connick)

Some of the songs I like, but I would hope that it's pretty clear that it's not exactly my tastes throughout...

Oh, so wrong...

Oh, dear lord.

The movie is hilarious and wrong and horrifically disgusting and uproarious. If you are of age - interestingly, the Esquire is carding for this movie as though it were an NC-17 even though it's unrated and they've shown unrated movies there before without the carding thing, an example of mild censorship? - then you should absolutely go see this film. It's a series of professional comics and comedy writers and entertainers (including jugglers, a card trick expert, a couple of magicians, and an hilarious mime) telling and talking about the same joke for about two hours, but the time absolutely flies by.


We get to see the South Park characters tell the joke. We get to see Kevin Pollack tell the joke as Christopher Walken. Sarah Silverman recounts how she was a part of the act long ago. The editorial staff of The Onion work up their own version of the joke. Robin Williams, Martin Mull, and Drew Carey tell similar jokes. Eric Idle screws the joke up. Rob Schneider nearly passes out from hearing Gilbert Godfried tell the joke. Andy Richter and another comedian tell the joke to their infant children. Jason Alexander tells the joke in a sidewalk cafe. Bob Saget works about as blue as it's possible to work, finally blinding the boy in the joke. Oh, it's a wonderful couple of hours.

The film's not perfect. The pacing's odd and a little akward at times, and there's really no ending, just a stop, but that fits in with the joke. Do stay around for the credits, though, as they go through the various commedians and give names, and then the whole thing closes with an encouragement for people to send in their versions of the joke to be included on the DVD - which I will be owning when it comes out.

For filmmaking value - two stars out of four.
For entertainment - four out of four.
Overall - it's a three...nice beat, you can dance to it.

Haunting...

I'm a big fan of Chuck Palahniuk. A big fan. Two of his books are among the best modern novels that I've read: Fight Club and Diary: a novel. And haunted isn't far from those two.

Sometimes, Chuck runs astray - Choke and Lullabye - in which case there's creativity gone wrong, sickly wrong.

And I'll admit that his books aren't for the faint of heart - often gruesome and frequently scary - but when he nails it, he's right there with the best in the business.

In this novel, a group of writers locks themselves away for three months to avoid distractions from the world so that they can each craft their masterpieces. The characters are revealed in a series of poems about and short stories by each character. To say more would be to ruin the surprise - as it often would in reviewing Chuck's works.

At first I thought that this was simply a collection of short stories, ideas that didn't make it into full novels, that Chuck had tied together with a framing mechanism, but it turns out that the short stories are pure gold - espeically "Nightmare Box," and absolutely fabulous story with no spare words whatsoever, incredible - and the framing device leads to great suspense. The last short story is a little odd and doesn't really fit with the others, but the rest of the novel is incredible. High, high recommendations.

But don't just take my word for it...check what others had to say...or a very detailed review...

Some balance...

Oh, and I read Discover Magazine, too. I'm not a total moron.

Taking out the trash...

Ok, I'll admit it, I have a subscription to Entertainment Weekly. It's trash, but I enjoy it. I'm a geek for knowing which movies are coming out, who's released which new album, and what new tv shows are going to be making their debuts - even if I'm not going to be watching them.

This week's issue is the big, double-sized Fall Movie Preview issue. It used to be a bit of a titilation for me to see a list of pretty much every movie that was going to be coming out for months, but the thrill's kind of gone any more. I check Apple's iMovie previews pretty much every couple of days and watch every movie preview that pops up under "Newest Previews" - including today's entry, the Martin Scorsese documentary No Direction Home: Bob Dylan which I'll be borrowing from my mom, I'm sure - so the lustre was off the apple, so to speak.

But, I still dig reading through EW every week, checking to see their reviews of whatever's new.

But I thought I'd point out that I do read EW every week and likely won't be pointing out that fact anymore.

Lighting doesn't strike twice...

The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller is a classic, truly one of the finest graphic novels in the last thirty or more years.

This is a sequel to that classic, and while The Dark Knight Strikes Again, the lightning of inspiration and cultural relevance doesn't.

The tone is oddly darker than the original series by Frank Miller inspite of the much more colorful language used in the telling. We find a world that is three or so years moved on from the original book with very few changes in it.

(warning: spoilers)

The president is a hologram, and the world is truly controlled by Lex Luthor and Brainiac 5 (or some number, who can remember). Superman, Wonder Woman, and Captain Marvel are toadies allowed to operate under very close supervision from the controlers who hold something dear over each of the three. Again, Batman is freeing superheroes (this time The Atom, Plastic Man, Hawkman, and The Flash) who are government controlled, and he's kicking Superman's backside in a pretty short fight - much less satisfying than the original's version - and taking on the government.

The cover of the first issue pretty much says it all. Down with the man! Sort of...

in the end, we find a world in which Batman has liberated us from the opression of the goverment, but where we instead see Superman speaking to his daughter (by way of Wonder Woman, um, hasn't that been done, and much better?) asking "What shall we do with our world?" The king is dead, long live the king.

Overall, the sequel doesn't live up to the original. Not that it's awful, it's not. It's just nothing really special, which truly is what the original was - something special. Get it, leave this one behind.

In case you're curious, a more detailed review from another source lies here.

Batmanga...

As a general rule, I'm not a big manga guy. I've seen Princess Mononoke and own Spirited Away, but that's about the depth of my forays into the genre (pretty much no reading of anything manga).

This one I grabbed pretty much 'cause it was a Batman graphic novel that I hadn't read and because it was on the shelves at my local library. Didn't know a thing about it.

I really enjoyed the combination of the harsh Dark Knight with the much lighter in tone heroine of the story, a typical manga teenager with the slightly upturned nose and the relatively wide eyes (not as wide as some in manga, thankfully). The black and white pages show off the difference in the darker Gotham with the lighter Tokyo (at least lighter in this novel, never been there m'self.)

It's not the best graphic novel ever, but it's another great intertwining of two cultures in a graphic novel.

Lark...total lark...nothing serious found here...

It's been too long since Marvel and DC tied into the comedy full time. I was a big fan and a regular reader of the Justice League Insternational comedy-fest, and I haven't seen that kind of unabashed fun being had in a series in a long time, but Ultimate Marvel Team-Up Vol 2 shows what a blast can be had in reading something with a spirit of comedy. The artwork is atrocious at times - lord, the FF issue that opens things is comedically badly drawn - but it works because of the tones of the stories. The comedy of Peter Parker being told the four plot devices...er, rules of the Bazter Building right out front just so he can obviously break them later and set off the entire issue, the idea that the Krulls come out of the dimension willy-nilly running over the Marvel offices. It's good stuff. The Man-Thins issue is horrible, especially next to the very light tone of the other two stories that follow (X-Men meet Peter Parker and friends at a mall, no costumes, just teenagers chatting and Spider-Man meets Dr. Strange or his son or something), so I'm just going to discount that one serious issue and say that the fun had in the rest of this collection is worth the read.

More metacomics...

I really am coming to enjoy the comics that aren't afraid to admit that they're comics, the writers who take the entire idea of comics and their constantly-shifting continuity and make something out of them. Probably the finest of this genre is Supreme: Story of the Year which is one of Alan Moore's many masterworks. This TPB isn't on that level, but it's an excellent attempt to head in that same sort of direction.

The author has a three-page essay to open the TPB where he explains his hopes that the reintroduction of the Silver-Age Supergirl (Kara Zor-El) would allow him to play the modern heroine (with her scientific knowledge and origin that makes sense in a modern way) against the Silver-Age heroine (with her origin that makes no sense at all and that people just didn't question), showing the innocent and wide-eyed versus the modern. He also hoped that this would reinvigorate the series and lead into a series he called Blonde Justice with the three heroines (these two Supergirls and Power Girl) in a sort of Birds of Prey for the Superman side of things.

The number of old touches that he's thrown into this story arc are incredible, and it probably would take a reader of the full series to get every reference that he subtly makes, but it's an entertaining ride even if you don't get every one.

One of the better runs in the past few years...

Couple of graphic novels...

Two graphic novels grabbed and digested - both of which I'd flipped through before. Neither of which breaks any real new ground in the TPB world.

Virtue and Vice is the better of the two with a cartoonish art style that really fits the somewhat nostalgic reteaming of the two greatest superteams that DC has to offer. It's a fun lark but nothing terribly wonderful. The combo of villians here - Despero and Johnny Sorrow - really doesn't do much for me, though the teams turn them against each other well. The twist of having some of the team members turn bad from the spirits of Shazam is a little interesting (and I have to admit to some fanboy leanings on how Powergirl is drawn here)...

In The Tenth Circle, Superman is taken out in a one panel Jedi mind trick - "you don't want to fight with me" - that doesn't work on Batman later in the same TPB. Lame. And Wonder Woman is sliced in half but okay about five pages later, no worries. And there are vampires. This isn't exactly the strongest run from Byrne and Claremont with weird characters dropping in and out of the stories (Faith, Maintou Raven, etc) and the heroes dropping in and out of weird dimensions where the little beings speak English easily enough. I understand that they were looking for a way to reintroduce the Doom Patrol to us, and this does that - along with possibly adding in three new members to that team - but it's not terribly satisfying. At least the story does start, progress, and wrap up withint the confines of this TPB - as opposed to my gripes about the Superman TPB's that I've mentioned, so at least it's got that going for it...

Red herrings all over the place...

Checked out The Recruit from the library and enjoyed it last night. Collin Farrell and Al Pacino are the two biggies in this one, and they play off of each other well. Farrell's American accent is in fine form - as it usually is, really impressed me in Minority Report - and Pacino keeps his acting reigned in enough to make him believable as a CIA recruiter/trainer.

The movie is a series of training exercises (or are they?) with tricks and traps (maybe) and constant lies and deceptions, crosses and double crosses. At one point, Pacino's character says to Farrell that everything from here on is a lie, that everything at the Farm (the training ground) is a test. And from there on, Farrell's never sure who's with him and who's against him, who's friend, who's foe, what's training, and what's real. Makes for a decently suspenseful time for us (though my wife and I both thought the twist was given away in the trailer, a little disappointing that but more common now than I wish it were.)

All in all, a fun movie...in the next couple of nights, I'll be back with The Insider which we also checked out at the same time...

One more to add to the want to see list...

Lord of War...caught the trailer on Apple Movies...looks like Nicholas Cage at his finest...

Another one on target...

I really like Phil Hester's artwork, the thick dark lines that either he or Andre Parks work great in the slightly cartoonish style of the other. It's quality stuff.

In this the fifth collected volume from the new Green Arrow series - reborn with Kevin Smith's writing, which is why I've been following along, admittedly - the Emerald Archer (one of my favorite comic book nicknames, right there with the Big Red Cheese for Captain Marvel) finds himself trapped inside a city where he has to keep people from breaking the law - even the laws that his strongly liberal character often finds him at odds with.

It's nice seeing GA have to lead people, to have to be the strong hero that he's always shrugged off of his shoulders. The violence with Nigma in the jail cell seemed a little harsh but not entirely out of character for a character (hmmm) written as being right on the edge of losing his cool a number of times throughout the book. And his relationship with Mia is spot on.

Well written, well drawn...give it a hunt down...

Neat reinvention...

In reading comics for a number of years, I've seen a few non-English editions here and there. They're pretty much the same American comics just with the words translated into another language. And most other nations have small comic book industries, with England's probably being the largest non-American market.

But this one's different.

It's Spider-Man, a poorish kid from India named Pavtir Prabhakar who is given powers from a great spirit who tells him that he must save the world from a great, green demon who is soon to turn the world into a demon world. The demon looks a lot like the Green Goblin, and the first villian that Pavtir fights is nicknamed Doctor Octopus though he got that way a lot differently than did good ol' Otto.

It's the same old story that just about every comic fan knows right down to the "with great power" bit from Uncle Bihm and Aunt Maya.

The art's a highlight as well, and the addition of a little glossary at the end of each issue is helpful. Certainly worth a read in the remixing of classic images in a way far further than even the excellent Spiderman Unlimited.

Puppet show enjoyed...

Matt and Trey aren't right. Not at all. Not even close.

My wife and I have been big fans of South Park for a few years now - even though we haven't had cable or satellite tv since we left our apartment about eight years ago now. At this point, I'll give these guys pretty much carte blanche - between South Park, Basketball, and this movie, I'm willing to give a try to pretty much anything they make at this point.

Now, about this film itself, it's wrong...sick and wrong, but that's sort of the appeal here I think. The story's nothing special - typical big, dumb action movie - but that's kind of the point. It's a big, dumb action movie made with puppets. It's got the typical humor of Matt and Trey, mocking every possible target - celebrities, American jingoism, overblown patriotic country and rock songs, stereotypes of what a terrorist looks like, Jerry Bruckheimer. It's an absolute blast - in many cases, intentionally with stuff like a Michael Moore puppet filled with ham being blown to heck.

It's a mess and a load of fun. It's not quality filmmaking in the least, no real dramatic moments, but it's a lot of fun.

Mistake...not what I expected...but I'm intrigued anyway...

Neil Gaiman is a master. His run of The Sandman is among the finest comic book runs that I've ever read. If you have a chance and any inkling - either for comic books or for amazing storytelling - get them all (eleven or so volumes collected, I think).

When I saw a preview for a new movie based on a Neil Gaiman story, Mirrormask, I thought that I should see if I could grab the book before the movie came out in the fall (or maybe winter, perhaps) so I headed to my local public library website and went to Worldcat (awesome catalog that lets you search the collections of hundreds of libraries throughout the US) and found thirty-some copies of Mirrormask and made my interlibrary loan request (ILL). A couple of weeks later, Mirrormask arrived at my local branch library for me.

Here's where the mistake comes in. Wheat I got was a book that didn't exist before the movie did. This isn't a Neil Gaiman novel that was turned into a movie. This is a movie made by the Jim Henson Corporation in the vein of Labyrinth and with the art direction of Dave McKeon who did the spectacular cover artowrk for the Sandman series. The book presented an introduction about how the story and movie came into being, then a sketched storyboard for the entire movie, closed with some notes about the writing of the story and a song over the closing credits. I still want to see the movie, and I have a little idea of what the movie is about, but I didn't read the storyboard. Didn't want to ruin the movie for me for when I do get around to seeing the movie. Looks beautiful and intriguing...

Singles enjoyed...

As a movie, it's a pretty nice success, taking a near-perfect snapshot of a scene that most of us never had an opportunity to be a part of - Seattle in the early 90's, the birthplace and melting pot of grunge, Mecca of flannel. They even brought in Eddie Vedder and the rest of Pearl Jam to play the house band at the local coffee shop in the movie.

And the soundtrack does an equally great job of casting that scene in bronze and leaving it for us who remember it to enjoy. We live in a time where movie soundtracks grab tracks from various artists hoping to craft a coehisive whole as though it were a single-artist-created album. Rarely, however, does this work. Instead we often get a series of singles from different groups that sort of string together. Singles is perfect. It plays from first track onward as a great album from a scene - not necessarily from an a single artist - but a perfect frozen moment of time from Seattle - adding in a few artists from otherwhere (Smashing Pumpkins, Paul Westerberg) who fit perfectly in style. We even get a track from Jimi Hendrix, father god of the Seattle scene. The only possible knock here is that we're missing Nirvana, the first group to open the Seattle scene to the world.

If you get any joy from Pearl Jam or Soundgarden or Mother Love Bone, this is the holy grail for you. This isn't the best album ever, but it's like a photograph that has a little blur here or there, a flash of light that doesn't quite work, but that captures a memory for you just the exact way you remember it, allowing you to relive a time and place.

One of the first and finest...

Will Eisner was one of the greatest comic book writers and artists (um, rather, graphic novelists) of all time. His work in creating the Spirit and in promoting the serious consideration of graphic novels as a respectable art form did more for the art than probably anybody else. His two volumes - Comics & Sequential Art and Graphic Storytelling defined the basic ideas of of artform, codifying the work as few artists in any field had the opportunity to.

And his masterwork is largely considered to be A Contract with God and other Tenement Stories which I took a moment or two to read this past while. The stories are excellent and the artwork a little hokey, but as far as major landmarks, this is one that needs to be read for anybody with any serious interest in graphic novels. The effect of the then-revolutionary novel is still stunning. The emotional impact is impressive, and in addition to being a landmark, the book is a great read.

Movies I want to see

Some of them are out and I've missed them...some of them aren't out just yet...if I had a ton of money and an extra ton of time, I'd have 'em all taken care of...

• Spanglish
• Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring
• Roll Bounce
• Domino
• Closer
• In Good Company
• The Cincinnati Kid
• Howl's Moving Castle
• Saving Face
• Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
• The Island
• Sky High
• Heights
• Shopgirl
• Grizzly Man
• Murderball
• The Aristocrats
• Dreamer
• The Brothers Grimm
• Crash
• Happy Endings
• Bewitched
• Lost in La Mancha
• Dogtown and Z-Boys
• Hotel Rawanda

Short story longed for...

Tod Browning's film Freaks is supposed to be a horror classic, and my understanding is that it's pretty much the only film to show this many circus freaks (a term that doesn't seem to be an insult according to the documentary on the DVD - and don't call him a "barker", he's a "front talker" apparently). For that, it's somewhat revolutionary. And there are a couple of scenes toward the end that are pretty creepy, but that's balanced by the utterly uncreepy and lame ending tacked on in which the midget couple get reunited by the good-hearted circus performers.

The movie's a curiosity that's fun for a bit of a lark in sixty-two minutes, but it's nothing really wonderful. I'd recommend either the short story "Spurs" on which the movie is based, 'cause it's way creepier than the movie or a viewing of The Terror of Tiny Town the only entirely midget cowboy movie ever made. It's a more entertaining watch; it's the exact same length as Freaks, and it's available in entirely streaming video online.

Rachel's recommendation's really cool...

One of my students - Rachel Thomas - recommended this one after bringing in the excellent soundtrack to school this summer. Zach Braff wrote, directed, starred, and he's proving that Scrubs isn't a flukish kind of thing. He's got talent pouring from him in this one.

Braff's character is transformed from a pretty emotionally dead post-college actor-wannabee to a person who's realized that life isn't the what happens later once you figure it all out but rather it's what's happening right now along the way. It's a feeling that lots of people have once they find themselves in the real world as an adult for the first time or two. It's the moments of surreality when you find yourself doing something totally adult and juxtaposing it with the most juvenile behavior that you keep doing because it's who you are.

I once spoke to my mother about the concept of mental image, the age that you are inside your head when you think about yourself. I know I haven't hit adulthood yet, 'cause in my head I'm still "kid" when I speak to myself, when I remind myself to step forward on a return of serve, it's as "c'mon, kid, weight in, watch the ball" because I just don't think of myself as an adult. It's not something that happens often, but this movie speaks beautifully to it.

Kinda cool...not spectacular but kinda cool...

Jarmusch filmed these dozen little vignettes, all of which are tied togeher with nothing more than the fact that it's reasonably well-known people drinking coffee (mostly) and smoking cigarettes - over a span of ten or so years. There's no plot whatsoever, none. There's nothing to tie the scenes together. A few of the scenes are a little flat, but for the most part they're rockingly entertaining. Jack and Meg White are a blast as are Bill Murray, RZA and GZA...Iggy Pop and Tom Waits. The sequencing's a little odd as the opener's slow and the closer's a bit of an anticlimax, but the stuff in the middle's well worth it. Plus you could watch the film in bits and pieces...take it a bit at a time...take it in one large bunch...drink it deeply and down whatever way you want...'cause it's sweet...

Little too sweet...but tasty...

I have no clue why this movie was made other than possibly the fact that Tim Burton's a creepy, creepy guy. And Johnny Depp's a perfect foil for Burton's madness (as shown in weirdly five films now - including Corpse Bride which I'm gonna check out this fall.)

There's nothing wrong with this movie (well, other than maybe the vocals being a little low on a couple of those songs throughouts) at all. The set designs and imagry are really cool. The characters are pretty spot on in their foibles, and even Charlie's family's kinda interesting. It gets rid of the weaknesses of the older Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with the first forty five minutes not being nearly so much of a downer as that film was. And for some reason the film left me cold. Maybe it's the forced family dynamic between the two Wonka generations, maybe it's the too perfectly done sets. I dunno...it's okay...and it's neat and all, but I'll take the older version with Gene Wilder...

Wow, wow, wow...Cruise proves something...

I was knocked out...floored...stunned throughout. Jamie Foxx is a hell of an actor, and Tom Cruise finally showed something other than charisma and ease in walking his way through a part. (Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Risky Business, Minority Report, and Mission Impossible and all, but he's gotten through on charisma more than chops as far as I'm concerned. Hell, A Few Good Men and Top Gun were fun, too.)

Michael Mann's a stud. Here he's outdone Heat - a fine film - by a mile. The use of digital here is a great choice, putting us closer to the two main characters so we empathise with them both.

Excellent film, one of the best in the past couple of years...

Time wasted and pain suffered...stear clear...

I haven't seen the first Travolta/Elmore Leonard joint - Get Shorty - and I've heard that's pretty entertaining. This one wasn't. This one was self-aware from the get go, telling jokes about how bad sequels are in the very first scene, pointing out that no PG-13 movie can say the F-word more than once, saying it once, and then getting their PG-13 rating. And then it goes downhill from there. The acting is bland, the stereotype characters are over the top and one-dimensional. I saw the 'bout two-hour long film in like an hour fifteen because I couldn't take the musical numbers or the singing-dancing scenes. It's drivvel...do not waste your time...I took one for the team here...

Small triumphs in life celebrated nicely...

Harvey Pekar is a comic book writer who worked with Robert Crumb in writing many of the comics that Crumb illustrated and that were drawn by dozens of fine independent artists for the past thirty or so years. He's also a strange, somewhat anti-social man who is about as far from a typical movie hero as I cna imagine. And the filmmakers do a great job using the real Harvey throughout the film - and his real friends and wife - to show how normal but wonderful these people are. He's a tough guy to love and occasionally a tough protagonist to root for, but they've done a great job showing a life.

It's also a better acting job by Paul Giamatti than he did in Sideways - a film that I thought was totally overrated, by the by - and got robbed in not even being nominated for acting nods for this one. It's loads of fun, another high recommendation...

Beautiful, impressionistic film...

This isn't an easy film to get into, and if you do choose to give it a try, have patience. It's a gorgeous exploration of death and change. The filming is amazing, and the acting is as well. And it's not a linear storyline in the least. There are three tales being told, all of which deal with the same themes and happen in the same place but that never tie together in a Snatch kind of way. They weave in and out not letting anything quite ever be obvious.

It's wonderful, truly is, and it's an arty film so it's not for everybody. Give it a try if you're up for something near perfect...

"Closer" remembered creepily...

The movie is incredibly well acted with Natalie Portman and Clive Owen truly deserving all the various nominations and wawards that they received for the film. The lighting is impressive and the cinematography excellent.

I hated it.

Turns out that my wife and I had seen the play on which this is based - pretty faithfully adapted, numerous lines exactly the same, settings all in place, pretty much a direct filming of the play - at the Playhouse in the Park - a few years ago, maybe in 2001 with two friends. I wasn't aware of that until a couple of scenes into the movie when I finally figured out why the scenes sounded so similar to me. It was the scene with the online chat that sealed the deal for me.

I'll avoid the basic plotline except to say that it's a film about two couples that fall in and out of relationships with each other. In the end it all comes down to the fact that there is no happiness, no joy for these people. The story is very well written making every twist and turn believable, letting us empathise with the characters at nearly every turn, and in the end we find out more about each of them than you do in most movies. All that being said, I did not enjoy this movie, and that just might say more about me than it does about this movie.

If you're willing to put up with the pain and unhappiness, this is an excellent film. I'll not be going through it again.

Book slogged through...very slowly...

Tom loaned this to me probably a year ago now - which is fair, because he's still got my copy of South Park, the Movie and Season One. Friends can get away with keeping that sutff that long apparently.

The topic is a thrilling one: the begging, borrowing, and outright stealing of water rights in the American West and the eventual prices that are being paid for the overuse of that water. The writing's pretty interesting as well, but I just haven't been able to get through more than the first chapter. There are so many names, so many places that I don't have references for in my head - more maps would help a bunch as far as I'm concerned.

Check out Chinatown instead if you're in for something a little more quick and entertaining. It's got some of the same subjects...

If I finish things, I'll mention what's up...

Superman killed...again...

I tend to read a lot of graphic novels - just a little more respected term for comic book collections, also known from time to time as trade paperbacks (TPB). I'll read just about anything, including most of the Superman, Batman, and Justice League books at my local library. Just so you know...

Superman's never quite done it for me. He's a little too powerful, a little too unbeatable that when writers try to bring him down to Earth, it rarely seems to work. In this TPB, the artwork shines like few issues do. The people are drawn really well, and the fight scenes seem to leap from the page (sorry, cliche, I know). But the storyline is one that I felt like I'd been dropped into the middle of (something about Clark Kent being demoted to lowly beat reporter), moves along well (Superman fights big, strong guy who seems to be from the future), comes to a head (Superman dies - again - and comes back to life), and then sort of stalls without a resolution (Clark and Lana talk a bunch while he recouperates). It's a problem that I'm finding more and more with recent Superman story lines. They cross back and forth, rarely resolving themselves before some other huge villian comes in an has to fight for a while before disappearing with any sort of difinitive resolution.

Others have been even worse about this without the cool artwork, but the art alone can't save this one. If you know what's been happening with Superman of late (Godfall, etc.), check it out. If not, I'd flip through and look at the pretty pictures.

Chapter and introduction read, book returned...

Heckman caught an interview with the author of this one on NPR a while back, and she recommended it as something that might interest me since it devoted an entire chapter to two Biblical-themed miniature golf courses in Kentucky, one of which I visited this past year with some of my students on a weekend outing.

The book was kind of interesting, the author putting forth the idea that the roadside religion - which he largely referred to as outsider religion in relation to outsider art - as a crossing of a very private experience and belief with the very public need from those people to evangelize their beliefs. The idea's kind of a neat one, but the author's writing style is more of a travelogue (he went around and saw these places with his wife and two children in a big RV) into which he tries to tie his theory with mixed results.

I ended up reading the intro and the chapter about the two mini-golf courses then skimming the rest as my time with the book from the library was up. It was moderately interesting but far from earth-shattering.

Book just finished...

A couple of weeks ago on our local PBS channel, I caught the second hour of a program about Thomas Edison's wiring of New York City, something that I had no idea he'd ever done. I knew he'd invinted the electric lightbulb and tons of other things, but I didn't know he went on to create and manage the first electrical utility company to promote his discovery.

Turns out that the episode I saw was just one of many in the series, the companion book to which I just finished up. I especially enjoyed the chapters on the Big Dig in Boston and the semi-taming of the Mississippi River. There are also tales of the Hoover Dam, the TVA, and numerous other projects. The book focuses as much on the people engineering the projects as on the scopes of the projects themselves. Near the end, the book lost some steam for me as it began to focus on the creation of the internet - a creation I admit to being every bit as significant as the others but that just lacks the excitement of great men taming rivers and crossing gorges.