Guns, Violence, and Carrots!!!

In the live action Warner Brothers cartoon "Shoot 'Em Up" Clive Owen is Bugs Bunny while Paul Giamatti is Elmer Fudd. This was a great time at the movies, it's an action movie with a sense of humour and never lets up. The action movies that came out this summer like "Live Free or Die Hard" aren't as refreshing or funny as this. The best action movies I've seen this year have been comedies. Before this there was "Hot Fuzz", maybe it's a sign of the times that action movies can't take themselves seriously anymore. That's not a bad thing, I find it more enjoyable and the actors seem to having more fun too. Clive Owen is probably my favorite action star at the moment, he's got that cynical Bogart type tough guy going for him, I think he should be the biggest star in Hollywood right now. Paul Giamatti is another guy who should be selling tickets.

This was a great movie, in fact when it was over I was hoping for a sequal, why not, if "The Transporter" could have a sequal, why can't this funnier and better film have one?

3:10 to Yuma better than the original

Don't you love it when you go into a movie with mixed feelings not expecting much but you leave completely satisfied? I went to "3:10 to Yuma" pretty much because of my love of westerns and the two stars of the film, I didn't really think I was going into a great movie, but I left feeling that way. I've seen the original Glenn Ford film about a farmer who must take a criminal to meet up with a train while battling it out with his gang before. I found it to be a very enjoyable film full of great suspense in the "High Noon" vein, but I probably wouldn't rank it among the greats. It was the perfect film to be remade in this day and age, and the makers put in everything I love about westerns.

The film follows the same basic plot as the original but has added a few original points to make it even more stronger. Christian Bale plays the penniless farmer who decides to take famed bank robber Ben Wade (Russel Crowe) on the 3:10 train to Yuma for money. Bale has a few helping hands along with him but Wade's posse are obviously too professional for them. In the end taking Wade on the train becomes less about money and more about honor.

What I think made westerns so great was how the best ones were always about men who followed a certain code. Westerns usually became morality plays and the heros were usually the moral compass in the wild west. In the beginning of the film neither Bale or Crowe could be considered the heroes of the film they are thinking only of money but they both come to realize something bigger out of this experience and in the end they rise above a lot to come out as men you respect.

The original film lacked a plausible ending which I thought was its greatest flaw, this film fixes that and it turns it into a film about sacrifice that redeems both men. Bale and Crowe are two of our strongest leading men and anyone who thinks there aren't any good action stars around today should take a look at their performances, they play off eachother so well and even though they are on separate sides of the law, they form a close bond.

It's refreshing to state that I think "3:10 to Yuma" is a great action film and probably better than all those special effect summer movies put together. It's also a character piece and the actors really make this one work so well. It's a great jump start to the fall season, I just hope all the movies are as this interesting and entertaining at the same time.

Rescue Dawn Review

(Trying to catch up with some movies I've missed talking about. I saw "Rescue Dawn" a few weeks ago but neglected to write anything about it.)

I live in Red Deer and when a film like Werner Herzog's "Rescue Dawn" comes to town, it's

a blessing because I would classify it as an arthouse film and we don't usually get arthouse films very often especially in the busy summer season. "Rescue Dawn" is the amazing true story about a vietnam airfighter named Dieter Dangler (Christian Bale who is fastly becoming one of my favorite actors) who is shot down during a secret mission, is captured and sent to a POW camp. There he meets other POW's most of whom seem to have gone a bit mad from being confined for so long. The two other main POWs are played by Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies. Zahn plays Duane who forms a close friendship with Dieter. Davies in his best Charles Manson impression plays Gene who believes they will be released anytime soon.

The other prisoners are far more pessimistic and Dieter soon becomes obsessed with escaping. The escaping seems to be the easy part, the hard part would be surviving in the jungle. You would have to be a bit mad to even think about escaping and since this is a Werner Herzog film Dieter would have to be.

I could not compare this film to any other film I saw this summer because it was so different, we are asked to spend two hours with people who have pretty much gone insane. But there's a kind of heroism in Dieter's madness which is probably what Herzog finds so fascinating. Bale is the kind of actor who dives right into his role so it's not surprising that he's really eating maggots in a kind of crazy glee or eating snake skin. We totally believe he's losing his mind particularily when he starts seeing a dead friend in his mind. Zahn is also very effective in what I think is the best role I've seen him in. Dieter and Duane make a good team and their off-beat friendship is very touching.

The film itself reminded sometimes of "Apocolypse Now" especially in its jungle scenes. It sometimes felt like a horror movie masquerading as a POW movie. Herzog has always been fascinated with mad characters his most famous being "Aguire: The Wrath of God" right up to his documentary "Grizzley Man". But in those cases the person's madness becomes more counter productive where Dieter's madness is what makes him survive. This was a great and unique movie experience.

Michael Myers: The Lost Years

Rob Zombie has created a pretty good remake to the classic "Halloween" probably better than anyone would have expected. I give Zombie props for trying to make psycho killer Michael Myers into a sympathetic character. A backstory is provided but doesn't really explain why Michael is the way he is, it's only there to show he's been like this from the very beginning. In the original we only see the aftermath of his bloody massacre of his family, but here we now see the famous slaying in all its bloody glory. Michael is then sent to a mental ward where he's treated by Sam Loomis (Malcolm McDowell). We see some of Loomis' sessions but I felt probably the same frustration he did, what makes Michael tick? When Michael grows up we see his escape from the mental ward and then it catches up with the original and we're back to where he's trying to track down his lone surviving sister.

What Zombie is doing is filling in the gaps the original film only alluded to and I don't think he had to do that. Michael Myers isn't really a complex character who needs much of a back story, he's a monster in a mask, a real life boogy man, you didn't need to know much more than that to make him scary.

That being said I must say this film does deliver a few doses of scare inducing scenes, I did jump out of my seat a few times, and the ending is quite effective. Credit should also be given to Zombie by not showing too much. Yes there is a lot of blood but a lot of it is left to our imaginations, I was surprised by the restraint of the film. I enjoyed the film, but I don't think it was necessary to be made, but I'm sure it will appeal to fans and I'm sure with the success it will spawn sort of a next generation of crappy sequals. Luckily Zombie is the kind of director with enough respect for the original John Carpenter film and the horror genre alone to make an entertaining remake.

Jeremy's Favorite Summer Movies

Well the Labour Day weekend is at an end, which means kids will be going back to school soon, leaves will start turning yellow, and movies will suddenly become a bit more serious and "Oscar Worthy". But it's been a fun summer while it lasted. If this summer has taught me anything it's that I think my tastes in movies are changing. There was a time when I probably would've counted "Spiderman 3" as one of the best movies of the summer. I actually forgot "Spiderman 3" existed till I saw the guys from "Knocked Up" talking about it. I've seen a lot of the summer movies and most of the big ones (With the exception of "The Bourne Ultimatum" which will have to wait a little longer.) Some of the films frustrated me, some I thought were brilliant, some were lost in the shuffle, and some I wish never existed. So won't you join me in celebrating the best and the worst of this flock of films?

The Best
These are the best of the bunch I've seen this year and I wouldn't mind owning some of them when they come out. As you'll notice all of them don't really depend on special effects (Unless you consider computer animation a special effect) What surprised me about this best of list is I think I enjoy animated movies more than I thought. But these movies represent why I love going to the movies, good stories, good characters, and a purpose. Here they are in no particular order.

"Knocked Up"
"The Simpsons Movie"
"Ratatoullie"
"Hairspray"
"Superbad"
"Rescue Dawn"

The Worst
This is self-expanitory, I didn't see a lot of movies that I thought were terrible, but this was the bottom of the barrel, as in light a match to all the nagatives and run like hell.

"Shrek the Third"
"I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry"

The "I liked them but didn't think they were all that special" movies
These are the throw away films, good for the first time but probably never again.

"Ocean's 13"
"Transformers"
"Live Free or Die Hard"
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
"Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End"
"Spiderman 3"

The Underrated
I saw a couple of movies that got lost in the shuffle and I hope will find new life on DVD. One is an animated movie that opened too soon after "Shrek the Third" even though it was supremely better, the other opened the same weekend after "Spiderman 3" and was unjustly criticized. If you see these titles floating anywhere around give them a shot I don't think you'd be disapointed.

"Surf's Up"
"Lucky You"

In closing I was hoping to see more of the smaller films of the summer like "Waitress" and "Once" but living here in Red Deer Alberta, one must wait for those to come our way. But till next time see ya soon.

At Long Last I've Seen it

I feel kinda guilty about finally seeing "Knocked Up" at the end of the summer. I guess it was one of those movies I knew I should see and wanted to see, but I just didn't for some reason. I even had the chance to go see it when it first came out but chose not to because "I just wasn't feeling like going to a movie."
Now that I have finally seen it I can now be in on what everyone else was raving about. This is not just laugh out loud funny, but one great "relationship" movie. Judd Apadow the writer/director has created some great, funny, and real characters in this film. I don't think there was one of the main characters I didn't sympathize with. Since I'm a guy I guess it would be easy for me to understand what men go through when expecting to be a father for the first time, or what it feels like to be married for ten years. (For the record I have so far experienced none of that, but I don't think you have to to understand how these guys are feeling.) What really got me was how much of the women's side I actually sympathized with. The bottom line whether you're having a baby or getting through a marriage it takes hard work and commitment and this movie is not afraid to be open and honest about it. It also helps to have a sense of humour. If this movie chose to be a drama I think it would be just as true and poignant, but then you wouldn't get the "Back to the Future" references or Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd experiencing Cirque Du Solei on mushrooms (And I love the scene in their hotel room with the chairs.) I was charmed by this movie, and kinda inspired by it too. Judd Apatow has made a comedy about real people facing real life and it's great you can laugh at it.

He's still the man

In my recent poll as I pit directors against eachother it seems that the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock came out on top, which just goes to show you some things never go out of style.