Category: Feature

Summer Movie Preview

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As the summer movie season winds down over the next few weeks here is a rundown on the movies I saw this season and what I thought about them:

The Good

“X-Men 2: X-Men United”
I’m not ashamed to say that I’m not a big fan of the original X-Men movie. To put it simply it wasn’t that good. However, “X-Men 2” delivered on the levels that the first missed. I actually cared about the characters and the storyline was engaging. Heck, even the visual effects were stunning. I’m excited at the proscpect of another sequel – will the “Dark Phoenix” make an appearance? Time will only tell.

“28 Days Later…”
28 Days Later…” is, simply put, a great, scary movie that inserts certain images into your head that won’t go away. Like the church full of corpses who aren’t all dead, the fish tank three fourths of the way drained of water with fish still inside, London with the lights off (except for one), an entire city on fire, etc. Visually the movie is excellent shot entirely on video giving the movie a “you’re there kind of feel.”
It’s more than a simple zombie movie, “28 Days Later…” feels genuine. And that’s where the power of this movie lies, it doesn’t pull any punches. The movie is shoved down the viewers throat with the force of a Mac truck. I found myself wanting more.

“The League of Extraordinary Gentleman”
Even though “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” is not all that faithful to the comic omehow the tone of everything is there. It’s sort of like how Jurassic Park the movie bore little resemblance to Jurassic Park the book, yet each was good in their own right.

I’m sort of upset that the movie didn’t do as well as it could have in movie theaters. The movie must have not connected with the audience on some level.

The Mediocre

“Pirates of The Caribbean -The Curse of the Black Pearl”
I don’t think the movie could decide what it wanted to be – a serious action piece (people are attacked, throats are cut) or a goofball dramety (a pirate has a wooden eye, Johnny Depp rides a sinking boat into port) in the vein of the ride that was the inspiration of the movie.

The movie looked wonderful. The costumes looked great. The scenery looked great. The CGI looked great. There was just something missing between the complex, and sometimes very long, swordplay and bits of story along the way.

(Yes, I realize that I’m in the minority here on this movie and that just about everyone else really like it. Still, I didn’t leave the theater satisfied and wanting more.)

“Seabiscuit”
The audience in the theater I saw the movie in broke out in cheers when Seabiscuit wins a major race. I can’t remember the last time an audience at a movie actually clapped so I suppose the majority of the audience was really into the movie.

My main contention with the movie was that the filmmakers kept shoving the main theme of the movie down the viewers throats; that even though something is old and damaged doesn’t mean that it needs to be discarded. Again and again characters would deliver their speeches to each other with this theme.

I found myself thinking “enough already, I get it.”

“Wrong Turn”
Yes, I was one of the three people who actually saw “Wrong Turn.” The movie would have been a lot better if the creators would have turned away from all the usual trappings of the horror movie genera. You know what I mean; characters who have sex are killed, the “bad-guys” are seemingly indestructable, etc. And, the plot of the movie, that there is a clan of inbread/mutated hill-jack cannibled living in the woods of West Virginia, seems to be recycled from an X-Files episode I once saw.

Still, the movie isn’t horrible and is borderline enjoyable.

The Ugly

“The Matrix Reloaded”
The word that best describes the movie “The Matrix Reloaded” is “letdown.” Imagine if “The Empire Strikes Back” really-really sucked after the glory that was “Star Wars.” That pretty much defines what The Matrix Reloaded was to me – dull and uninteresting at best.

What made “The Matrix” so special was lost.

Just the fact that the entire first half of the movie could have been cut away without effecting the story of the last half is indicitive of the movie’s low quality. There’s a twenty minute orgy/dance/rave scene. Orgy/Dance/rave scenes do NOT belong in action movies.

“Hulk”
Part of the movie is an exploration of what turns Bruce Banner into the Hulk; the gamma rays and the experaments his father did before he was born. The other part, too small in my opionion, is the Hulk on a rampage tearing things apart. The movie constantly takes leaps of logic like people INTENTIONALLY TRY TO TURN BRUCE BANNER INTO THE HULK!? Wouldn’t that be the last thing you’d want to do? I found myself constantly going “What? That makes no sense at all.”

The movie’s titled “The Hulk” yet is Hulk-less for the first hour of a very long movie. In fact, the Hulk’s in the movie so little the true title of the movie should be “Bruce Banner.” A long car ride is better than watching the Hulk.

Space: Above and Gone

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It’s been almost seven years since the show “Space: Above and Beyond” first aired and six since it was canceled. After all these years I still miss the show.

I first wrote about the demise of the show here on Dangerous Universe four years ago – it was one of the first things I wrote for this site. The article expressed my feelings over the death of the show and why I thought it should have never been canceled.

Guess what? It’s 2002 and I still feel the same way.

Since the show last aired I never really found another show to follow that was the same caliber/ genera of “Space: Above and Beyond”. Sure, there was “Deep Space Nine” with the “Dominion War” raging and the animated version of “Starship Troopers” (which was also canceled after just one season). Still, no sci-fi show has taken the mantle of “Space: Above and Beyond” in all the years it has been off the air.

There’s a multitude of really bad sci-fi shows on the market right now. Just by picking up the local television listings I see shows of low quality like: “Andromeda”, “Mutant X”, “Earth: Final Conflict”, and “Tracker”. These shows are nowhere near the caliber of “Space: Above and Beyond” yet they seem to last for years and years. Maybe the real secret of a television show to have holding power is to cater to the lowest common denominator. A show never gets canceled by being popular.

Since I realize there’s no way a new episode of “Space: Above and Beyond” will ever air, I am a realist after all, I propose a compromise: I suggest to the smart television executive that they pick up the rights to the book “The Forever War” and take this to HBO and develop it as a mini-series (akin to “Band of Brothers”. (Major elements of “The Forever War” were incorporated into “Space: Above and Beyond”).

Maybe “Forever War the Series” (one of the most popular/ highly regarded sci-fi novels of all time) could replace “Space: Above and Beyond”.

One more request: let me be the production designer on the show and write a couple of episodes. Or would that be asking for too much?

Memento, Best Movie of 2001?

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I have to admit that I neither saw “Memento” in theaters nor waited in excitement for it to come out on DVD. I might have never saw the movie if it wasn’t for a recommendation from Michael Summers. He suggested that I go out and buy the movie, saying that it was the sort of movie that I’d “dig”. He was right.

Memento has since climbed up my top ten list of movies and currently resides at the top.

Memento follows Leonard Shelby, an ex-insurance investigator trying to track down, and kill, the men who raped and murdered his wife. The one catch is that during the attack Leonard, or Lenny as he hates to be called, suffered a brain injury that caused him to be unable to form any new memories. He can remember everything before the injury just fine but he can’t remember what he ate for breakfast this morning. He can’t even remember if he ate breakfast this morning.

Leonard keeps track of his life through a series of notes, Polaroid’s, and tattoos. The notes tell him of evidence that he’s uncovered about the crime. The Polaroid’s help him in his daily life showing him the sort of thing like which car is his (as in a photo of a car with a hand written note underneath saying “This is your car”) and who his “friends” are. The tattoos covering his body are confirmed evidence about the crime. He knows that the killer’s first name is either “John” or “James” and has these names tattooed on his arm.

In an interesting editing turn for the movie, Memento plays last scene to first, a sort of stopwatch counting down from end to beginning. Memento begins with Leonard killing the murderer of his wife. We then follow Leonard scene by scene as he uncovers the evidence piece by piece leading him to this man. Turn by stunning turn Leonard is used by his “friends” as they abuse his “condition”. You can slap Leonard across the face and call him an “asshole” but in a few minutes Leonard would have forgotten the whole incident. In a few minutes Leonard wouldn’t even remember who you are.

To truly appreciate the movie, one really has to see it several times. I have seen it four times, and counting, and catch new bits of information that I had missed the first time around. Is Leonard’s wife really dead? Did Leonard really kill the right man? Who keeps calling Leonard on the phone? See the movie and find out for yourself.

I cannot recommend this movie enough. If you haven’t seen it you really should. If you’ve only seen it once then you’d better see it again.?

Run You Chicken, Run…

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CHICKEN RUN summed up in one word: GO SEE THIS FRICKEN’ MOVIE! all right, that’s five words, but I’m sure you get the picture. CHICKEN RUN is one of the best movies that has been released this year and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s one of those rare films that both kids and adults will love, for entirely different reasons.

At it’s essence, CHICKEN RUN is a World War 2 prison camp drama, except that the allied soldiers have been replaced with chickens and the Nazi guards are the farmer Mr. Tweedy, his wife, Mrs. Tweedy, and their two dogs.

The chickens, lead by the total optimist Ginger (voiced by Julia Sawalha) spend their days eating and laying eggs. The chickens do have one major price to pay for their seemingly good life: they are killed and turned into food when they can no longer deliver on eggs.

Ginger spends her days coming up with different escape plans, but spends her nights locked away when the escape plans are discovered by Mr. Tweedy or his dogs. The chickens are on the brink of giving up and accepting their lot in life when Rocky (voiced by Mel Gibson) seemingly flies in from the dark agreeing to teach the chickens how to fly, and thereby escaping the farm, in trade for them hiding him from a circus owner looking for his main attraction: Rocky the Flying Chicken.

What ensues is Rocky trying to teach the Ginger and the chickens how to fly and the chickens developing a sense of “hope”. Hope that they will escape from the farm and go someplace better. Unfortunately for the chickens, Mrs. Tweedy (voiced by Miranda Richardson) has decided to switch the farm from producing eggs into producing chicken pies. Unless the chickens can figure a way to escape, all will be turned into pies.

Even though the basic story of CHICKEN RUN is one that has been around for awhile (the dark stranger comes into town promising something that he can’t really deliver on, but somehow pulls it off in the end) I really liked how director Nick Park handled the whole story. Don’t expect the typical Disney movie here, a chicken dies by getting it’s head chopped off, abet off screen, at the start of the movie and there are many references to death and sex.

Right from the start, I was drawn in by the movie. My attention never wavered from the screen as the story unfolded before me. I never thought that the movie was running too long or that scenes should be cut. The best parts of the movie were the multiple homage’s to other movies. From Rocky and Ginger escaping from the chicken pie machine mimicking the beginning of INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC to Rocky’s jump across the prison camp wire that was a lot like Steve McQueen’s more famous motorcycle jump in THE GREAT ESCAPE, the homage’s were numerous and usually funny.

Go see this movie and I’m sure you’ll like it as much as I did. Even if X-MEN is a horrible movie later this summer, the summer of 2000 won’t be a wash out: I saw CHICKEN RUN and I loved it.

If I had to rate this movie, I’d give it a ten out of ten. I wasn’t expecting much going into the theater but sure took a lot out when I left. I can’t wait for this movie to come out on DVD, so that I can watch it again, and again and again…

Lost and Not Found, Voyager

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As Voyager enters it’s fifth season trapped in the Delta Quadrant, I have to wonder why the story-line has yet to improve. Both DS9 and The Next Generation had their mandatory one year of crap season where the storyline wasn’t that great. However, both of these series improved over time and became interesting shows that were worthwhile to watch. Then came Voyager.

We all sat through the mandatory season of crap, waiting for the ‘better’ second season to arrive, Well, the second season arrived but the stories never got any better. We all hoped that the “next” season would improve, it never did. Quite suddenly, we’re in the fifth season of Voyager still waiting for the stories to improve. Perhaps they finally have.

The episode of the week of January 17th to the 23rd, was excellent. It featured the character of Tom Pairs being his alter ego “CAPTAIN PROTON” on the holodeck. The story was original and humorous. (Since I also like the whole 1930’s serial movie feel I really enjoyed the episode). Hopefully the rest of Voyager’e episodes will be this good. But what if they aren’t?

It’s been on for nearly five years and the stories are finally becoming good enough to watch? Other shows that were lacking quality would be “dead” in less than a season. But, since Voyager is the flagship series of UPN it had been given a stay of execution and was left to live on.

Since Voyager will spend it’s last two years of “life” as the only new Star Trek series on television, I guess I’ll have to start liking it. What I’m concerned about, though, is what about the next Trek series? Will the entire shows run be crap? Will it be the best one yet? Or, will it be the first Trek series to be canceled before it’s able to finish it’s run?