4 posts tagged “movie”
So today, I went out and I got the 5 movies for next week's reviews. But I was thinking about it today, that it's kind of a weird process that I have for selecting movies, and I thought it might be fun or maybe interesting to note it down.
So the first thing to note is that these all come from my local library, and that I'm only allowed to take 5 at a time. So that's why it's always 5 reviews. I'd totally watch more if I could get more. But it's ok. 5 is good enough.
The first thing that I do, is that I usually try to go at different times of the day. Sometimes, I go right in the morning, to try to beat the crowd. Sometimes I wait till the afternoon. Sometimes closer to closing. I find that there is different stuff at different times of the day, and that there's absolutely no way to predict what is gonna be there on the shelf. People return stuff and it gets shelved. People take stuff and you won't see it for a long time. It's a really fun way to pick movies because you never know what's there.
The next thing is that I usually start at the A's and work my way through the alphabet. Sometimes I won't be able to start right at the A's because there's a lot of people in the same section, at the same time. It is the library after all. But I usually will start at the beginning of the alphabet and work my way down. I don't know why that's important, but I don't think I've ever started from the other end. It just seems wrong.
Another sort of "rule" is that I don't pull from the music videos or non-fiction videos. I did once, with one of the movies a few weeks ago, but most of the non-fiction videos at the library are like travel guides and National Geographic specials. I like all that nature shit, but I mean, you don't see Siskel and Ebert reviewing Jacques Cousteau. So I usually keep to the Hollywood movies. Foreign/Independent films are ok too, but a lot of those don't seem very good. But that's a whole different issue.
The next "rule" is that I try to choose things that I haven't seen. This isn't always the case, but I do my best to try to pick out the stuff that I haven't seen, or haven't seen in a long time. Since it's the library, they don't usually have the latest DVD releases anyway. So there's a wealth of old movies floating around there to pick from.
Finally, I pick movies according to my mood. Sometimes, I'm up for some really heavy drama. Sometimes, I'm choosing really mainstream Hollywood films. Sometimes, I'm just picking random quirky things. There's no, sort of, "themes" that I'm trying to uphold, like "Scary Movie Saturday" or something like that. It's just sorta trying to find things that interest me. Of course, it's very hard to do because the selection is limited and varies from week to week. But it's a little bit of archaeology (digging up old stuff...), a little bit of pop culture, and sometimes, it's just me being random... Sometimes, I'll see stuff that interests me but then it won't "fit" with the 5 that I have in my hand and then it'll have to wait till it's ready to be selected... Sorta like how farmers wait to harvest certain stuff. I'm like the farmer of crappy movies from the library! Yay!
...And that's how I pick my movies. It's funny too because as I start to make selections, it's kinda hard to make the first choice. There's so much pressure to get something good... But then selections 2-4 go pretty quickly. And then #5 is hardest because it's like the last one for the week so you gotta make it count! :)
Well, stay tuned. You'll get to see what I picked for this week soon enough!
When I got home last night, I saw this out the window:
It's basically a big giant spotlight shining down on something over there.
So I was trying to think of what they would need a spotlight for, and I could only think of 2 things. Either it's some sort of construction project, or possibly a movie or TV shoot.
Based on my experience here so far, I doubt that they're paying overtime for some construction crew to work over there past 5 p.m. Also, the thing isn't there now, and I really doubt that they could've finished that quickly...
I know that there's supposed to be some sort of soundstage somewhere in the vicinity of wherever that spotlight was, so it seems a little more plausible that they were filming something over there. Plus, since the light isn't there now, it could be possible that they wrapped whatever shoots they needed last night.
So I think it's a film shoot. But your guess is probably as good as mine as to what it is... Hmmmmmm...
I just saw the new James Bond movie... Good ole' double-O seven...
I must say, this new Bond is great! I don't know what they were thinking 10 years ago with Remington Steele as Bond... They shoulda had this new guy back then...
My big criticisms with the movie are like, what the hell is a quantum of solace? I don't think the movie really explained that very well. I mean... I still have no idea what the title means with regard to what I just watched. And like, what the hell was the villain guy trying to accomplish? I really wish they would create another villain who had a base inside a volcano or something. This guy just kind of seemed like a big douche with a chip on his shoulder. I mean, they got a really good actor for playing the main character now. They just need to find someone who could match up against this Bond. I'd like to see someone really evil, or really diabolically intelligent to counter the action scenes.
Speaking of action, man... The story basically seemed to be there only to move you to the next set of action sequences as fast as possible. This new Bond isn't the cerebral, womanizing Bond from the earlier films. This new Bond is a man of action... Perhaps he's more American than British, in that regard... But the action sequences were excellent.
They gotta get rid of the shaky cam stuff though... That's the lamest cinematographic device that has just stuck around a lot longer than it should. But, I suppose violently shaking the camera around during some really interesting action is a lot easier than having to choreograph a good fight scene so that it looks good on camera. I think the new Bourne Identity movies have just overused that shaky cam stuff to death. Seriously, just get rid of that kind of gimmickery...
The ending seemed kind of abrupt too, now that I think about it. A bunch of stuff happened and then it was basically over... Maybe they ran out of action scene footage and just decided to end the movie?
Well, anyway, it was a fun movie. I like these new James Bond movies... The one before this one, Casino Royale, was good too!
And seriously... If you know what a quantum of solace is, I'd really like to know....
Well, I just got back from seeing the new Batman movie. How can I sum up my feelings about what I just witnessed? I guess the biggest thing to say is that it really was more of a Joker movie than it was a Batman movie. The saddest thing is that Heath Ledger isn't around to portray the Joker again at some later date, because honestly, it was really one of the best (and one of the best things about the movie). I've always felt that the Joker was never a physical match for the Caped Crusader. But where he makes a real counterpoint to Batman is in the his twisted, psychotic outlook on society. The way Mr. Ledger portrayed the Joker really matched that sentiment. Sure, it may not have been accurate to the comic book canon. But I gotta say, Heath Ledger played a much better Joker than Christian Bale played Batman...
Anyway, overall I thought the movie was great. At first, the length of the movie was a little bit of a concern. I wasn't sure if I wanted to sit through over 2 hours of Batman. I didn't really like the one before this one... What was it? Batman Begins? Gawd... The whole beginning of that thing was unwatchable. In fact, I stopped watching it cuz the beginning was so horrible. This one, however, starts off great and continues! Really liked it a lot!
Here's my gripes (cuz that's probably the most fun parts to write about):
The Ending - What the hell? It was pretty clear that they just ran out of time. I still have no idea why the movie was resolved in that way... It wasn't confusing in terms of complexity. It just seemed rather abrupt and inconsistent with the rest of the pace of the movie. That had to have been one of the sloppiest jobs at ending a movie that I've seen in a long time... Its like they built up this great story, and then just slapped a "The End (?)" right on top of it. I guess I expected something better, and Hollywood usually seems to disappoint when it comes to ending movies...
Batman/Bruce Wayne - What the hell? Bruce Wayne talks with a normal voice. Batman talks with some gravelly, Eastwood-esque, sort of growl. That's gotta be the dumbest way to characterize a character like Batman. Was the Bat-suit too tight? Maybe that's why he talked that way EVERY SINGLE TIME HE WORE THE SUIT! I half-expected him to say "Feel lucky, punk?" and "Go ahead, make my day." I mean really... Next time, they should loosen up Batman's cod piece so that he doesn't have that weird affect to his voice.
The Batmobile - What the hell? That thing looks like a friggen tank... Whatever happened to a Batmobile that looks like a car? Gotta be one of the worst designs of a vehicle ever seen in a movie. And of course it has a jet engine. It's there so that the tank can actually accelerate to 25 MPH... The Batmobile from the first Tim Burton movie is still the best one of them all. Don't even get me started on that motorcycle thing either... LAME!
Fighting scenes - What the hell? Can they show Batman fighting without cutting away every half-second? I dunno, I think it'd be more fun to just see Batman own some gangland goons. Sure, all the kids with ADD would probably get bored, but I'd dig it...
Anyway, I give it 2 thumbs up out of 10 stars... Go check it out if you haven't already. I wasn't a real big fan of Heath Ledger before. I was on a plane when I saw the one where he was a knight. Same with the Patriot. Didn't see the gay cowboy one... This really blew me away. And like I said, it's a shame he's not still around to give an encore performance...
