A large part of the appeal of the recent literature phenomenon, The Thirteenth Tale, is the fact that it is a book written for book lovers. As Stranger Than Fiction came to a close I realized that there is much of the same in this film. Will Ferrell’s latest finds him playing the character Harold Crick, who is himself a character in Kay Eiffel’s (Emma Thompson) new novel. The early humor in the film comes as Harold discovers the voice of the narrator in his head and comes to realize just who he is. The poignancy and depth of the film reveals itself after Harold discovers that his fate is that of Kay Eiffel’s previous literary heros: death. His only saving grace, for the moment, is that Kay Eiffel has a terrible case of writer’s block.
I have been enamored of WWI flying machines for as long as I can remember. At a guess I would say that Snoopy’s imaginary battles with the Red Baron was my first fueled this passion. Anything with WWI or II aircraft and dirigibles grabs my attention. If you want to know just how geeky I can get about them all you have to do is read my review of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow or get me started talking about one of my favorite computer games of all time, Crimson Skies. It should not come as a surprise then that I wanted to see Flyboys on the big screen.
Illusion, magic, trickery, sleight of hand….these are at the very heart of film, the phrase “movie magic” is not a misnomer. The Illusionist, Writer-Director Neil Burger’s lastest conjuring, is based in part on Steven Millhauser’s short story “Eisenheim the Illusionist” and plays up this aspect of film-making throughout its almost 2 hour run time. Is anything what it seems?
I find myself frustrated and confused by M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film, Lady in the Water. Not by the film itself actually, as many critics seemed to have been, but by the behavior of film critics themselves. I had the same reaction with Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong. I could respect the criticisms of amatuer and paid critics who just did not like the film. What I could not fathom was those reviewers who could not get past their own opinion that Jackson should not have done a remake but should have done something new and different. The same thing has happened with about 50% of the negative reviews I have read about Lady in the Water.
