Dec

27

Best Movies of 2009

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This year was a good year for movies. At least for me. These days I tend not to visit the cinema too often – it’s much easier, and less stressful to wait the few months until the movie comes out on DVD and rent or, in some cases, buy it and watch from the quiet comfort of my home with my flat panel and my surround sound and only my cats to disturb my enjoyment of the movie. As my brother pointed out to me, it’s often cheaper to buy a movie on Blu Ray than it is to go to a movie and pick up a soda.

But I digress. My point is that this year, I went to see only a handful of movies in the theater, and they were all amazing. 2009 was by far the least disappointing movie year I can remember.

My top 3 this year were easy to pick (though I don’t feel like ranking them). UP was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time and rose to the top of the already great Pixar lineup. Last year’s Wall-E hit my sci-fi tender spots, but was a bit heavy-handed with its message. UP on the other hand was tender and heartbreaking and yet filled with adventure and humor and I thought the relationship between Carl and Russell was handled really well. AND, it had a zeppelin, and dogfights (literally). As jaded as I sometimes feel I am, Pixar movies are always refreshing.

Inglourious Basterds was another surprise at the theater. I went to see Tarantino’s latest movie, but I didn’t expect to see what was perhaps his best. I was spoiled as to the certain surprise at the end before seeing it, but that didn’t really matter. And as fun as it was to watch the story of the Basterds themselves, far more engrossing was the story of Shosanna and her revenge.

Moon rounds out my top three, not just one of the best films of the year, but one of the best science fiction films I’ve ever seen. Twenty or so minutes into the movie, I thought I saw where it was going and was expecting disappointment, but the movie took a different turn, and I realized that it wasn’t about a twist or a plot point, it was about a man and his situation and that made the movie work. And despite a shoestring budget, the movie accounted itself well with the effects, building on predecessors such as 2001 and yet adding something to the canon.

As honorable mention, I’d add The Hangover to the list as the best comedy of the year. I went to see this in the theater and was laughing throughout the whole thing. It probably helps that I have a penchant for movies that take place in the space of one day or night, but it’s rare for a movie to make me laugh so much. I don’t really have a lot to say about it except for that.

So, now I’ll open this up to anyone reading this – what were your favorite movies of the year?

Aug

31

9/9/09

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September 9 already promises to be an exciting day, but it just keeps on getting better. Not only does Beatles Rock Band release that day, but the remastered Beatles albums do as well. Then there’s an Apple event happening which I will likely follow. And the release of the movie 9, which seems like a movie that was made for me. It’s like my birthday, only not.

You excited for any (or all) of these?

May

12

Assorted – movies, tv, and books

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I feel like everyone I know has been to see Star Trek already. As usual, I am late to the party. I will rectify that tonight, however. In a way, though, I’m glad that some of the hype has been tempered by people having more critical opinions. I still haven’t seen too many people saying it wasn’t good, but I would rather go in expecting decent and not the best movie I’ve seen in recent times.

Tomorrow night is the Lost finale and it’s something I’m looking forward to more eagerly than I am Star Trek. I know Lost lost a lot of people a while back, but I have to say that it’s my favorite show on television. That title used to belong to Battlestar Galactica, but even in this past season, I found myself appreciating Lost more.

The Lost finale will also mark the end of cable television for me, for now at least. I’ve never been one to find that television was bad, or somehow lesser than other forms of media, but I do find that I spend too much time watching it lately. And I continue to stare at the books that line my bookshelves wondering when I’ll have the time to read them. So – no more television. Which isn’t to say that I won’t watch television shows – I will via downloads and DVD. I expect to watch more movies and actually take advantage of my Netflix subscription and the watch on demand service they offer. But I really want to read more and I figure this will help. I will also save some money in the deal.

Speaking of books, I finally finished Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun about a week ago and I’ve already started in on Urth of the New Sun, the sequel. I was originally going to wait, but I found that I couldn’t. I wanted a continuation of the story right away.

I’ll plan on writing a lengthier post on the books soon as I feel they deserve one. After this one, though, I intend to take a break and catch up on other reading.

More to come later…

Mar

15

The Fall

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I watched The Fall last night and I completely loved it. Since it was directed by Tarsem Singh, former music video director (REM’s Losing My Religion) and director of The Cell (with J-Lo), I expected it to be visually impressive. And it was. Tarsem filmed in over 20 countries, including a stunning set of backgrounds, some of which I’ve been to (namely Jaipur’s Jantar Mantar and Fatehpur Sikri). The plot struck the right balance of real events and fictional, two separate storylines eventually bleeding into one another. I was reminded slightly of Terry Giliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

What really sold it for me, though, was the performance from Catinca Untaru, the little girl at the center of the plot. I read later that parts of her performance were improvised, completely natural and that showed. Minutes after she came on the screen, I knew I was in the movie. Lee Pace (of Pushing Daisies) also gave a fine performance.

One of my favorite part (which I hope is not too much of a spoiler) is when Lee Pace’s character, Roy Walker, confined to a bed in a California hospital, tells Untaru’s character, Alexandria, a story. One of the characters is an Indian, a Native American, clear from the vocabulary that Roy uses (squaw and teepee and so forth). However, Alexandria’s reference for Indian is the Asian Indian that helped her family pick oranges, so in the visual representation of the story, he’s clearly the Eastern type. That was what completely sold me on the film.

The ending gets a little melodramatic, but not in a way that detracts from the film. I would recommend it, especially for anyone interested in fantasy.

Aug

12

In Bruges

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So I was at the family homestead this past weekend and as the evening wound down we punched up the On Demand movie feature and selected one called In Bruges. It stars Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes, and Brendan Gleeson. And it’s fucking great. How great is it? Well, it made me like Colin Farrell. That’s how good it is. And it has Ralph Fiennes doing his best Ben Kingsley. So you might want to give it a shot.

Jun

5

I’m watching 300…

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…mostly because it’s on, but I can’t look at the queen without thinking of her as Sarah Connor. That usually doesn’t happen to me.

May

12

BSG and movies

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Watching Battlestar Galactica this season, I have been struck, particularly recently, by similarities to movies. War movies.

Two episodes ago, I was getting a strong Private Pyle vibe from the Chief. This week, I was getting a strong Apocalypse Now thing from Starbuck’s crew. Not quite a river, but similar. The further they go, the stranger things get, and the more tense.

I’m wondering what next week will bring.

Apr

7

Watching Superman II: The Donner Cut

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While watching the Donner Cut of Superman II for the first time, and doing a little web research on the film, I came across the fact that the director brought in to direct Superman II after Donner was removed from the project, and the director of Superman III, Richard Lester, was also the director of A Hard Day’s Night. The Beatles film. For some reason that absolutely blows my mind. I’m sure many out there already knew this, but it was a discovery for me.

Jan

25

Bonding

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Over the last year or so I began the process of reading through Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. I have been a fan of the movies for a long time. In fact, when I was younger, when I had to pick “a hero”, I picked James Bond. But I have never read the books. Motivated by the release of Casino Royale, I decided to start at the beginning and work my way through them.

I’ve read three so far – <i>Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, and Moonraker</i> and I have been enjoying them. Well, I enjoyed the first and third so far. LaLD is plagued with problems of racism which detract from the narrative, and I found it the least interesting of the three. But <i>Moonraker</i> excited me enough to continue with the series.

The books differ quite a bit from the movies. They take place earlier, for one. The novels take place in the post WWII period and that is very much a part of them. Bond is also less of a womanizer in these novels, and indeed seems to fall in love with one woman. He’s also more damaged. More of a brute at times. And yet utterly civilized.

But all this is a sidetrack to the main concern of this post. The new movies. I was really pleased with Daniel Craig and Casino Royale. Though I never minded Pierce Brosnan as 007, Craig really nailed it for me, with an intensity that was missing since Connery. So after seeing that, I was looking forward to the new movie.

It now has a name. <i>The Quantum of Solace</i>. It’s a bit of a strange title for a Bond movie, in my opinion, but since it is an Ian Fleming related title, I guess it works. Frankly the title doesn’t matter as long as the movie is decent.

More information at the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7206997.stm

Dec

6

The Fountain

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I just finished watching The Fountain and I really liked it. I thought it was a beautiful and moving film. It helps that it was a love story. I thought the visuals were gorgeous and the story worked for me as well. I’d heard mixed things, so I wasn’t expecting much, but the film surpassed my expectations easily.

The music was fantastic as well.