Sometimes I wish I could selectively purge my memory.  Something somebody said the other day reminded me of the movie Spaceship, which was a very bad spoof of Alien and B-monster movies in general.  The only thing I remembered about the movie was the bad acting, bad effects, and rolling over with laughter as the monster sang the song “I Want To Eat Your Face.”  In fact, I didn’t even remember the name of the movie.  I searched Google for the song title (which was the only concrete thing I could remember about the movie) and got 30 hits.  If you like really bad B movies, definitely check this one out if you see it in the bargain bin or at Blockbuster.  Even if you can’t stand watching the movie, fast-forward to the monster’s sing and dance number.  I thought it was a real gut-buster.

The movie was intended to be a comedy, but not the horrible Airplane knock-off that it turned out to be.  Read the comments by Bruce Kimmel, the film’s writer and director, on his web site.  Two entries:  here and here.

It seems every year about this time, my employer takes us all to see a movie.  This year’s choice was, of course, Attack of the Clones, Episode II of the Star Wars saga.  Technically, the movie was excellent, with beautifully rendered scenes and lots of eye candy.  I could do without the computer graphics characters, though.  At least they didn’t use CGI for a primary character like they did with that annoying Jar Jar in The Phantom Menace.  I thought that the acting was mostly uninspired, and I still haven’t figured out why they cast Samuel L. Jackson in that role as a member of the Jedi Council.  That role is a poor use of Jackson’s considerable acting talent.  The action scenes are reasonably well done, but the movie drags a bit (okay, a lot) between action sequences.  This is not a science fiction action/adventure movie like the first three (and to a lesser extent, the fourth).  It’s an historical epic disguised as a science fiction movie.  That’s fine, I guess, but it’s not my favorite type of movie.

I saw the movie more because I want to see how Lucas presents the story.  We all know what the story is—Obi Wan told it to Luke at the beginning of the first Star Wars movie over 25 years ago.  I’m interested now in how the final part of the story will be told.  I don’t expect any surprises, though.

Debra and I went to see the new Spider Man movie. I was pleasantly surprised. I was never a huge fan of the comic book, but I read it enough to know the basic story. The movie was true to the comic, but yet done in such a way as to stand on its own. The action sequences were superb, and the pacing of the movie was right on. The sound, especially, was excellent. They made very good use of the theatre’s surround sound. I have a few quarrels with how some parts played out, but for the most part I thought the ending was perfect. And, of course, they left plenty of room for the sequel, which is due out in two years. Considering how well the movie did on opening weekend, I’m confident that the sequel will indeed appear. I wouldn’t call it “best picture” material, but it’s a rockin’ good action flick with a decent story line.

It was a slow weekend for us.  It rained most of yesterday, which prevented us from doing the outside work I had planned.  I got some of yesterday’s chores done today, and also spent some time working on a new book idea.  We’ll see how that works out.

Debra and I also rented a handful of movies.

• Riding in Cars with Boys.  Not as bad as the reviews said, but not as good as some people would have you think.  Drew Barrymore actually did a reasonably good job.
•  A.I.  Wow.  I don’t know what to say about this movie beyond “very depressing.”
• Hearts in Atlantis.  I had no desire to see this one, having read the book, but I was wrong.  It was well done, and Anthony Hopkins gave a good performance.  The screenwriter (William Goldman) did an excellent job adapting Stephen King’s story.  It’s worth seeing if you enjoyed the book.

Debra and I went to see Blade II yesterday after my bike ride.  No, it isn’t high cinematic art.  It’s a good action flick, though, on par with the original.  The choreography is just fantastic, and the sound track keeps the blood pumping.

I had to laugh at this review, in which the reviewer somehow missed the entire point of the movie.  For example, he says:

Wesley Snipes’ return as slayer of the undead still is fairly anemic, relying on blood, glossy effects, high-kicking combat and a head-banging soundtrack rather than authentic chills and scares.

Duh.  It’s an action flick.  And at that it succeeds tremendously.

That’s not the only clue that the reviewer missed.  Proving that there’s little correlation between intelligence and the ability to scribble, he says:

As with the first film, the only way to get through “Blade II” is if there’s complete disconnection of that part of the brain that determines when something is really, really silly. Give the premise the slightest critical thought while watching Snipes disintegrate vampires with his bottomless pistol of silver bullets (or stare too long at Snipes’ manicured-hedgerow hair), and you’ll likely suffer a demonic fit of the snickers.

Sillier than getting paid to write movie reviews that totally miss the point?  That theatre was packed, Mr. Movie Reviewer, and when the movie was over, nobody complained about Snipes’ haircut.

After seeing the movie, it’s pretty obvious that the reviewer either didn’t watch it, or can’t remember simple details.  Ron Perlman’s character is plainly not the leader of the Bloodpack vampires.  Not that it matters in this case, seeing as how the reviewer totally misses the boat on the rest of the movie, but it’s usually a good idea to get the facts right if you want people to take you seriously.

Movie critics!  Feh.

Debra and I went to the theatre today to see the Harry Potter movie, but got there about 90 minutes before the movie was to start.  Not wanting to wait around, we decided to take in The Fellowship of the Ring, which was to start in 20 minutes.  When the movie was over three hours later, I looked over at Debra and said, “Damn.  That was good!”

Understand, I’m not a huge Tolkien fan.  Sure, I’ve read The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy a few times each, but I don’t read or speak a word of Elvish nor do I dwell on the history of Middle Earth.  I read the Trilogy over the summer in preparation for the movie and could hardly get through it.  I don’t recall being so bored by the books when I read them about 10 years ago, but this time The Two Towers put me to sleep.  Anyway, back to the movie.

I’m not a movie critic.  I don’t study film.  I don’t know the first thing about directing, editing, lighting, or even acting for that matter.  I do, however, know when a good story has been turned into a great movie.  This is one, and it’s done the old fashioned way with good acting and an attention to detail that is nothing short of astounding in this age of movies that are typically actor-centric rather than story-centric. (Come to think of it, that’s one thing I liked so much about Monsters, Inc.: the story, not the actor, was the primary focus.)  In The Fellowship of the Ring, every actor nails the performance.  There’s no need for stupid camera tricks or hokey computer animation (although there was plenty of that, too) because the actors actually act.  Their characters were entirely believable.

With the exception of the cave troll, the entire Moria sequence was excellent.  There was plenty of CGI in the movie, and none more than in Moria, but I hardly noticed it all except for that laughable cave troll.  The creature outside the gates was just as I had envisioned it from the book, and the scenes inside the mines were masterfully done.  The Balrog was perfect.  Every bit as frightful as described in the book; perhaps more so. 

The editor did an excellent job keeping the movie on track and not distracting us with scenes from the book that don’t advance the main story.  The movie’s still three hours long.  Not that I’m complaining.  I think the last time I was so fully engrossed in a movie was the first time I saw Star Wars.  This movie is much better now than Star Wars was then.  Debra echoed my sentiments when she said “Maybe we should have seen Harry Potter first.”  After The Fellowship of the Ring, nothing will compare.

Go see the movie, even if (especially if) you’ve never read the books. 

Debra and I went to an early showing of Monsters, Inc., the new Disney/Pixar movie this morning.  What a fine film!  The animation is, of course, spectacular, and the story is, as far as I’m concerned, one of the best in years.  It’s pure fantasy with a little good versus evil thrown in, and none of that heavy-handed social consciousness preaching that all too many films throw at us these days.  It’s the best movie I’ve seen in years.   

Oh, and don’t be late for the movie.  The animated short before the film is worth seeing.

Later:  Debra rented a couple of movies last night.  We watched The Mummy Returns this evening.  No great shakes, really, except that immediately after the movie was over Debra went into the kitchen and found a scorpion crawling around on the floor.  Spooky considering that scorpions were a primary theme of the movie.  (Come to think of it, the big bad guy in Monsters, Inc. was very scorpion-like.  Life is full of odd coincidences, isn’t it?)

Flipping the channels over the weekend, I found that AMC was playing the 1953 film War of the Worlds, based on H.G. Wells’ book but taking place in the mid-20th rather than in the late 19th century.  I remember seeing this movie in 3-D back in the early ’80s, and liking it even then–despite the hokey glasses.  The story is old hat to us now and was maybe even a little stale back then.  I find the whole love-story-mixed-up-in-apocalyptic-events story line tiresome in anything, and in that regard this movie is a major offender.  But it was a technical masterpiece at the time.  Of the movie’s $7 million (or was it $12 million) budget, over half was spent on special effects.  The movie won an Academy Award for special effects.  And the colors were so vivid.

The movie isn’t without its flaws.  We all laughed when in Independence Day, a computer virus written on an Apple Macintosh could somehow infect an alien computer system.  I noticed the same kind of flaw in War of the Worlds.  When the hero returns with one of the Martians’ cameras, our scientists had no problem hooking it up to a projection television showing a blurred picture.  “This,” they say, “is how the Martians see us.”

But the movie is a classic, flaws and all, and worth seeing if you get a chance. 

Debra acquired a movie called Bound from a friend of hers.  Neither of us had ever heard of the movie.  We plugged it in the other night to check it out, and were pleasantly surprised.  Starring Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon, the movie is odd, hard to characterize, and mildly disturbing.  I don’t know if it’s a “good” movie, but we enjoyed it.  Bound was made in 1996 and apparently wasn’t much of a hit, so it might be difficult to find at your local Blockbuster Video.  It’s worth looking for, though.  Check it out if you get a chance.

My employer, Catapult Systems, sponsors monthly Fun Events for the employees.  We’ll go bowling, see a movie, take in a ball game, go to the lake, or do some other activity.  It’s a good opportunity for employees to get together away from work and have a good time.  Yesterday we went to see the new Planet of the Apes movie.

This is not high cinematic art.  It’s a fun movie, but hardly a “good” movie.  Mostly it’s one big chase scene with periodic rest periods in which the characters can preach the evils of racism or express their stereotypical racist views.  The costumes are very well done.  The acting is mostly uninspired.  Charlton Heston (who starred in the original movie) makes a cameo appearance as an ape, and Tim Roth does an excellent job as General Thade, leader of the Apes’ military.

I wouldn’t pay full ticket price to see the movie.  Go to a matinee, or wait for it to come out on DVD.