All posts by Carl V. Anderson

Film

Batman Begins

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(non-spoiler review)

Batman Begins

Dark, gritty, nightmarish and heroic…Christopher Nolan ‘s interpretation of the origin of the Dark Knight was all that should be expected of a Batman film and more. While essentially retelling a story that any Batman fan has seen or read many times, Nolan manages to imbue this chapter of the Batman mythos with new life. I found myself immersed in the movie immediately even while anticipating the inevitable death of young Bruce Waynes’ parents. Nolan gives the Waynes a heroic element of their own which reveberates throughout both the film and the timeline of the fictional Gotham City. This element helps to build the foundation of Bruce Waynes’ character and makes his desire to be the protector of Gotham City much more relevant.

I enjoyed the choice of the classic Batman villains. The portrayals of Ra’s Al Ghul and the Scarecrow were superbly done. I will not write much more concerning these two characters so as not to spoil the movie. I will say, however, that the special effects and method of shooting the Scarecrow scenes were terrific and truly nightmare inducing. I was actually quite surprised at the level of fright in a movie that many people will be taking young children to see. It was excellent but the PG-13 rating should be heeded by parents of nightmare prone children.

The entire movie was filmed, colored, and costumed to perfection. The color palate really set the tone that this movie would take right from the opening frames. The costuming was very classic and subtle…it added to but did not distract from the movie. The handling of the Batman costume was fantastic. Very well done. The cinematography and special effects were terrific…even more so because they too did not distract from the story. You noticed the special effects, but they did not awe so much that they took you out of the movie. I also have to give kudos to the designers who created the look of Gotham City. Gotham looked very much like a modern city but with a slight hint of classic science fiction “city of the future” elements that made it an interesting place in and of itself.

The choice of actors was very good. Christian Bale portrayed Bruce Wayne and Batman terrifically. In my opinion he is the best of the Batman actors thus far. Bale was able to be make Bruce Wayne/Batman both moody and likeable. Bale’s Bruce Wayne was charming, but not overly so and his Batman was moody and dark but not one dimensional. Michael Caine is Alfred and would’ve been the best and most logical choice for all of the Batman films. Katie Holmes makes the most out of an admittedly small role and I enjoyed her in this. Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman were excellent, as was Rutger Hauer. I haven’t seen Hauer in a movie in some time and I didn’t realize he was in this until he first appeared on screen. It was fun to see him again. Gary Oldman was a terrific choice for police officer and one-day commissioner Jim Gordon and he did a great job. A terrific cast…well done!

I attended this film with my brother and his family. Half way through the film my 10 year old nephew Elijah leaned over and said, “This is a great movie!”. At the end of the movie he looked at me and said, “If I had a microphone I bet I could say ‘raise your hand if you liked this movie’ and everyone would raise their hands!” Well Elijah, I would have to agree. My hand is up…..

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Mirrormask revealed

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Neil Gaiman has posted that Mirrormask finally has a release date of September 30th, 2005. As I’ve posted before this is the ‘sequel in spirit’ to Labyrinth written by Neil Gaiman, animated by Dave McKean, and produced by the Jim Henson company.

There is a new trailer up for a limited time here. I recommend the fullscreen Quicktime version.

The official site, which is a very cool website, is here.

I can’t wait! A new Neil Gaiman novel and a movie out in the same month! September is going to be a lot of fun!

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Days of wine and roses

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Today finds us leaving for a 3 day, 2 night stay in the small town of Hermann, Missouri at a local bed and breakfast, Hermann Hill Vineyard and Inn.

We will be staying in the Vidal Room, complete with jacuzzi and private balcony. The plan is to visit a few local wineries and shop the antique and specialty stores. We also plan to do a great deal more relaxing and reading and just enjoying each other’s company. I’ll be back on the blog in a few days, rested and refreshed. I appreciate you all.

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Sweet Freedom, days the third and fourth

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Sunday morning found us with family down at Kansas City’s own City Market.

The City Market is a wonderful area downtown to pick up fresh fruits and veggies for a very good price, shop at specialty stores, and eat good food. My parents picked up a few things before leaving for home and we at lunch with Mike and Abby at Winslow’s, a very good BBQ joint. We left the market with fresh spinach, red and yellow peppers, strawberries, oranges, Ranier cherries, and limes. Mary also picked up some local honey as she was told that local honey helps with allergies. Later that night we had delicious “Big Salads” made from our bounty.

Monday was movie day. We were in the process of Netflix returns so I went to the local Blockbuster. Haven’t been there since we started Netflix. We made chicken fajitas with the peppers that we purchased from the market the day before and parked ourselves in front of the boob tube for some mindless entertainment. Our viewing pleasure included the following films in the order pictured:

Dodgeball: After Vince Vaughn’s terrific performance in Mr. and Mrs. Smith I was in the mood for more and assumed this was a no-brainer. I was correct in that my enjoyment of the movie would have increased had I severed my brain stem. There were funny moments and it was no better or worse than I expected but Vaughn was much funnier in the limited time he was in Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

House of Flying Daggers: This was a beautiful martial arts movie. The cinematography was fantastic. This is a movie to enjoy just for the scenery and the way that it was shot. The story was good, with an appropriate number of twists and turns. I haven’t seen Crouching Tiger…I know, I’m a bad man…so I cannot compare it with that movie but I have seen Hero and which I feel is a much better movie. I recommend them both but if you haven’t seen them then see this one before you see Hero.

Welcome to Collinwood: This is an ensemble piece somewhat in the vein of Ladykillers. A group of bungling local small time crooks attempt to pull off their “Bellini”, a jewel heist that will set them up for life. Collinwood was filled with subtle humor and entertaining performances, especially from Sam Rockwell and Patricia Clarkson. We both really enjoyed this but the humor wasn’t all laugh-out-loud funny. I did find myself caring about the characters by the end and felt the writers did a great job of bringing this movie to its conclusion.

Returner: This movie starred Takeshi Kaneshiro who was also in House of Flying Daggers. I had been wanting to see this film since the day it was released on DVD. The cover was very intriguing and I had read good reviews on other people’s blogs. This movie, intentionally or unintentionally, is an amalgam of Matrix, Terminator, E.T. , Equilibrium, and perhaps several other science fiction films. The main character, Miyamoto, is a gun-for-hire and during his latest job he shoots a young girl by mistake. She recovers and tells him she is from the future, sent back to prevent the coming alien invasion of earth. Returner is a stylistic movie that does mimic other recent films but they pull off the effects beautifully and the movie is very fun. The story is entertaining and it was well worth the time spent. Interestingly they speak English in the future…this confused us in regards to subtitles as the movie opened with English dialogue and English subtitles. We changed things around and ended up with the dubbed English and were not thrilled with the voice overs so we quickly switched back to the Japanese language track and turned the subtitles back on. See it, its fun!

Mix in snatches of The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian,

and an evening walk and it was a pretty great Day Four!

Film, Home

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

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(non-spoiler review)

As I so cleverly wrote in my previous post we were joined by Mr. and Mrs. Smith at the weekend premiere of their life story, Mr. and Mrs. Smith. All joking aside Mr. and Mrs. Smith is the new Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt movie that everyone is talking about…or is it their rumored love affair that everyone is talking about?

I was hoping against hope that this movie would not be one of those popcorn movies in which the pre-movie hype was bigger and better than the film. It was not. This movie was everything it set out to be and perhaps a bit more. If you’ve seen the trailer then you know that the premise of this movie is that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (John and Jane Smith) are a couple in a mundane marriage in which each is living a secret life as an assassin. Unknowingly given the same assignment from their rival organizations they discover the truth about each other and violence ensues.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were terrific in this movie. Regardless of what may or may not be going on in their personal lives, their on-screen chemistry was electric and never felt forced. And I’m not just talking about their romantic/sexual chemisty. They looked very comfortable together onscreen and their comic timing, etc. was great. I enjoy Brad Pitt in movies where his character is quirky or bizarre. Others prefer the more macho, pretty boy roles. There is a little of something for everyone in this movie. Brad Pitt takes the suave, tough guy aspects of the John Smith character and adds the slightest twist so that you can see a bit of the dork in there as well. Angelina Jolie is equally impressive in making Jane Smith a beautiful and witty femme fatale with a slight bit of vulnerability. One would have to assume that Pitt and Jolie had a great deal of fun making this movie as that is certainly what is projected on screen.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well the script balanced the action and humor and romance. I never felt like one area was being overemphazied to the detriment of the other areas. While all movies of this sort are filled with improbabilities, especially in the action department, I felt like the director maintained control and didn’t allow things to get out of hand. Everything was played for effect, but not overplayed. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were genuinely attractive, the action scenes were genuinely exciting and the comedic moments were genuinely funny. Mr. and Mrs. Smith just works really well and I had a lot of fun at this movie. The couples therapy bookends added an extra element of humor that helps make this movie a cut above similar efforts.

I can’t say much more without spoiling your fun but I will say that Mr. and Mrs. Smith is worth seeing while it is in the theatre. Buy the popcorn and enjoy a few hours of pure cinematic fun.