[Note: The Jan-Ai Scholarship Drive will conclude with a forthcoming interview with artist Anne-Julie Aubry. Technical difficulties have caused this drive to extend beyond the originally planned week. In the meantime I need to start catching up with a long list of overdue book and movie reviews. Don’t adjust your sets.]
Last September I wrote: ‘With obvious nods to several video games, films of unrepentant violence both old and new, and a staunch pro-vegetable stance, Shoot ‘Em Up is a guilty pleasure with a capital “G”.’ I went on to describe just how much I enjoyed this guilty pleasure film. Fast forward to Thursday, July 3rd 2008 (that would be rewinding now, wouldn’t it?), replace the ‘staunch pro-vegetable stance’ with ‘thinly-veiled anti-donut stance’ and add in ‘comic book inspired’ and you would have a good one line description of the film Wanted.
It was outrageous. It was violent. It was profanity laden. It was cathartic.
Wow! I have to admit it…I am impressed. I honestly did not think they could do it. Not after the critical success of Iron Man.
Let’s be honest, it would not take much to reboot the Hulk after the Ang Lee disaster a few years ago. I have never seen a final act derail a movie the way that Lee’s Hulk film did, ever. So while I had little doubt that this film would be better, I certainly didn’t expect Marvel to release back-to-back comic book adaptation films this closely together and have both of them be outstanding.
Well, it happened. I had my first experience with AMC Theatre’s new movie pricing. Ouch! It has been forever since I’ve went to a movie on a Friday or Saturday night so I knew there would be no discounts applied, but ugh! 10 bucks a pop! $20 for my wife and I to see a movie!!! I could literally have waited and purchased the DVD for that price. And possibly had some change for a Pepsi left over. That is painful!
The Fall, an elaborate and beautiful fairytale of a film, is one that you should know about and be anticipating every bit as much as the other films coming out this summer–but chances are pretty good that you haven’t heard of it. In one of those serendipitous moments of discovery I recently clicked on a link for the trailer on Movie-List dot com and was undone.
Call me Mr. Optimistic. Amidst the early rumblings from those who had seen the film pre-release I continued to remain positive and upbeat. The new Indiana Jones film just had to be good. We had all waited so long. No amount of trepidation could keep me away from opening weekend and Saturday afternoon found me at the very front of the line in an hour long wait to get in to see the return of a hero from my youth.
Good things come to those who wait…sometimes. This is not one of those times.
I want to say first off that I can certainly understand why someone could go and see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and enjoy it. I won’t beat you up for that. I too enjoyed aspects of the film knowing full well that I went in to the theatre with my Indy-colored glasses on. But even viewed through the lens of nostalgia I felt that the film was a let down in ways that continued to become more apparent after the film was done and it had time to simmer in my mind. Spielberg, Lucas, and company wanted to recapture the magic. I truly believe their intentions were good. Unfortunately the only place they succeeded in recapturing that magic was in the classic poster illustration by Drew Struzan.
The following review will, of necessity, contain some spoilers:
