When Does Art Become Pathetic
I think it can be argued that film making and writing is an art unto itself. When you see something written come out on screen, it’s something that should be enjoyed, critiqued, or marveled at. But, there is a strange flipside to “art”. I had the distinct nonpleasure to view the Human Centipede. While the movie is quietly under radar (rightfully so), this movie leads to some highly interesting questions. This film is visual, for sure. The problem is, at what point are you fringing on purposeful cringe factor and art? The idea of the movie centers around the idea of creating a centipede out of bodies. The movie shows the three victims being attached mouth to anus to create this human centipede. Of course it is disturbingly visual (no CG), and really you have to wonder if it’s intentionally intensely visual on purpose. At least Saw had some kind of a decent story and decent acting to go with it. The movie isn’t out for theatrical release, but you can check it out in the early parts of the summer–if you have the stomach for it. It is pretty sick and when I saw it, a dozen or so people walked out. The writing is horrible, and so is the acting. You probably won’t find another movie that’s as disturbingly grotesque as this. There is certainly no artistic value to this movie. If you dare watch it, prepare yourself. Don’t eat or drink anything before or during the movie.
Trailers for Resident Evil: Afterlife and Splice
The trailer for Resident Evil: Afterlife makes the movie somewhat bearable. Personally, I’m not putting out much hope seeing how Paul Anderson almost ruined the RE series for me.
Splice, on the other hand, looks great. This has a feel of Species-Pandorum-Avatar all wrapped up into one. This movie may not have a nationwide release, but as details of that come about, I’ll let you know.
Clash of the Titans Review
I was fortunate enough to get a sneak peak on this film and it does not disappoint. If you’ve seen the original and loved it, you’ll certainly love this version. Acting stalwarts Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes put in performances that are strictly exceptional. Sam Worthington plays a noble role, but his accent is a little hard to get through at some parts of the movie. That’s not the fault of the actor, but of the voice editor. (Spoiler Alert) Bubo makes a cameo, but you have to really look out for it. You will be pleasantly surprised at the action and the story. It resembles the original in many ways, but the current version is more of an character-driven story from Perseus’ point of view. You see external and internal battles which lend a sense of realism to the story. From the character development to the outside struggles, it’s a pretty complete movie for something that is supposed to be action-oriented and full of the mythology. Not bad. Is it Oscar worthy? No, because this doesn’t fit that mold. You will be pleasantly surprised, though. It is rather children friendly and a pretty good date movie. I give this a 8 only because of some of the slow parts in the beginning-middle.
San Diego Comic Con
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If you haven’t already, there are tickets to the San Diego Comic Con available now. The event will be held from July 21 (Preview Night)- July 25. There are very few tickets left. Last year, the comic con was sold out by May and this year may not be any different. The Comic Con will be held in the same place as it was last season, The San Diego Conversation Center, 111 W. Harbor, San Diego, CA 92101. This year’s comic con guests is still incomplete but as they become more complete, I will update it here. If you’re not fortunate enough to catch the San Diego Comic Con, there is one in New York from October 8-10. Maybe not as much notoriety as San Diego, but it’s still good nonetheless. Act now to get your tickets. You can get them at any ticketing agency or you can go to http://www.comic-con.org/cci/.
Repo Men: A Review
There’s not many great things to say about Repo Men, but there aren’t many bad things to say either. It was an okay movie, to say the least. Good action and pretty decent storyline, but all-in-all, it’s kind of a movie that lacked clear direction. Not many people will figure out the ending, but leading up to it is a whole different thing. Jude Law was miscast, I believe. He doesn’t quite fit the role (both physically or acting-wise). Not to knock on his ability and talent, but he’s really not the action/adventure type of guy. Forest Whitaker was good and fit his role perfectly. Outside of that, you’ll come to find many things you’ll enjoy from Repo Men and some things that are just alright. There is a balance in the movie. What it is, I don’t know. How it got there, I don’t know. It’s still a fun movie to see, but probably at the dollar theater.
Repo Men follows Law and Whitaker as the repo men, but tragedy strikes Law’s character and he’s forced to get a translate. The cliche “the hunter becomes the hunted” comes into play. It’s pretty downhill from there as far as predictability (except the end). Not much more to discuss about Repo Men. Yes, there are political undertones. Yes, there are religious ones, too. What movie doesn’t have that? This one, though, doesn’t go over the top on it, at least, like Avatar. On a scale of 1-10 this movie deserves a 5.5.
Final Fantasy XIII: What to Expect
This game is pretty awesome! I’m not going to sit here and pretend that it’s not. This game plays like a movie. I know that sounds odd, but the game has stellar CG and the cut scenes are strictly amazing. There’s not been a game like this in quite a while. The game play is fluid and doesn’t end abruptly like a bad novel. You can finish fights and other sequences without feeling like you were robbed of an extra second or two. The programmers did a good job of cleaning it up that way. The storyline is what made this game so popular to me, not necessarily the fighting and the fight sequences. This story is about two factions: the fal’Cie of Pulse (the world they live on) and the fal’Cie of Cocoon (the AI). It’s basically a civil war that has plenty of political intrigue. There will be several similarities between the game layout with this one and Final Fantasy X and X-2. Those who have played those games will know what I’m talking about. The lead is a heroine who exhibits many similar characteristics to Yuna in Final Fantasy X. While the story is very multileveled, I will say this: if you’ve played FFX, you will know the story will have a twist at the end that will blow you away and what you’re led to believe will be a complete lie. Lightning, the lead, is a perfect heroine for the game. She far transcends that of Yuna in action, attitude and dialog. This game is worth it. If you’re not a FF person, you’ll still like this one. You don’t need to know anything else about any of the other FF games to get this one. You might have imagined, they’re ALL different. This one will blow your mind and the first 20 minutes of the game will leave you speechless. The graphics are great, the dialog is superb and the storyline will make you forget you’re playing a game.
Discussion Question
So, why didn’t Avatar win “Best Picture” last night? Don’t get me wrong, Hurt Locker was a great movie and they both deserved to win it, but why Hurt Locker and not Avatar. Let me hear your thoughts?
What You’ll Find in Alice in Wonderland
If you’re looking for the Lewis Carrol version, you need to look elsewhere. This Alice in Wonderland is certainly not it, nor does it come close. The PG rating is a very loose rating. It should be PG-13, not for younger children. Tim Burton’s twist on the classic, I will say, is not bad…for the older crowd. It’s a twist that’s favorable if you want to get a little more action to this story. Johnny Depp plays an excellent Hatter, albeit kind of creepy. This movie is worth it, and if you think this is a typical Tim Burton fantasy-fest, you’ll be surprised. “Newcomer” Mia Washikowska is a surprisingly good lead in a CG-dominated movie. Her talents will be rewarded soon, I’m sure. Where previous Alice in Wonderland’s fail is the imaging of it. If you’ve read it, you know it’s certainly not a “children’s book” where everything turns out flowers and butterflies. The themes are more juvenile and mature. This movie accurately depicts that. If you have the pleasure to watch it in 3-D, do it. It’s an adventure that you won’t soon forget. This movie gets my first perfect rating.
The New Scream Queen?
After watching the remake of The Crazies, I think I found the current version of the ultra B-movie scream queen. Who takes the dubious honor of modern day scream queen, in my eyes? Danielle Panabaker. In the Crazies (spoilers) she gets hung, but before her annoying character was finished off, she put on the performance fitting for the award; she has a good set of pipes. In the remake of the Friday the 13th, (another spoiler) she puts on yet another good showing. A little known fact is she played Kevin Costner’s character’s daughter in Mr. Brooks, but she doesn’t die nor does she do a lot of screaming. Besides that, what qualifies someone to be a scream queen? One, they have to be cute, second, they have to play a minor role or a role that almost thrusts them to star level, and they have to die. In both horror movies, she fits those requirements. Her screams are also boisterous and loud. Tenedra Howard played a good screamer, but she’s still early in her career. Danielle Panabaker’s the only one that comes to mind that is deserving of the award (currently), but if you can think of others, feel free to share your thoughts. Danielle will be in The Ward, where she will play an institutionalized patient. You know she’s gonna scream.
Predators: It’s True, It’s Coming
The much-anticipated sequel to the Predator will come out at the end of 2010-early 2011 timeframe. Okay, maybe not that much anticipated. It will be interesting to see how this movie is pulled off since they had three unsuccessful stints in this franchise already: Predator 2 (though mildly good), AVP and AVP 2. Then you had your shorts that tried combining Batman, Predator and Alien together. I wouldn’t mind seeing that in a full length feature, but seriously, a sequel without Governator and a retread cast of Topher Grace, Morpheus, and Adrien Brody is grounds to make this movie automatically flop. Of course it could surprise, but hope isn’t on the horizon given the recent string of failures. Can anybody really stomach another disgusting display of a Predator movie. I probably couldn’t. However, I’m going to watch it because Fishburne is going to be in it. The plot of the movie is tightlipped and mark my words there are plenty of false “leaked” scripts online. Early reports, though, will have a band of superior soldiers being hunted by the the Predators and is set in present day. As more definite details come out, I’ll let you know.