Archive for August, 2009
Avatar Reaction: A Sad Day to Be a Fanboy
So, by now, you’ve probably seen the teaser trailer for James Cameron’s Avatar, and maybe, like me, went and saw the fifteen or so minutes of footage at the (somewhat pretentiously named, I feel) Avatar Day screenings. Did the footage live up to all the hype that’s been coming out of earlier screenings? Is it the Second Coming of Film?
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Inglourious Basterds is Great Cinema but Falls Short of Being Tarantino’s Masterpiece.
When the opening credits for Inglourious Basterds rolled and Tarantino’s name flashed across the screen, I had an unexpected well-up of emotion that I hadn’t had in a movie in many years. Even though I’m a huge Tarantino fan I wasn’t expecting this. Basterds is the film that has been haunting Tarantino for years as his unfinished masterpiece with a massively long development process almost all in his quest to perfect the script. I had a great time with it, but the farther I get away from my first viewing and my first impressions of it continue to gel I have to admit that even with how incredibly well done it is, Basterds is a deeply flawed film.
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Peter Jackson’s District 9 is a Strong, Expert Drama Disguised as a Summer Sci-Fi Film
The trailers for District 9 sparked my interest as one of those guilty pleasure pulp-sci-fi flicks that come along every once in a while. I have no shame in admitting that I will continue to be an unashamed apologist for films like Independence Day, Starship Troopers or Total Recall. Instead, producer Peter Jackson and director Neil Blomkamp have surprised us with a first class character study wrapped up in an allegorical cautionary tale about morality and racism. It succeeds so wildy in this approach that I was completely blindsided by a powerfully good film shattering my complete lack of any real expectations. One of the small pleasures that I appreciate most in this life is walking into a movie expecting nothing and walking out grinning ear to ear completely blown away.
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DK Book of the Month Pick: Rhymes With Duck
This month’s Deviant Knowledge Book of the Month pick is the educational classic Rhymes with Duck. Few children’s books have moved me to tears before I’ve even gotten past the cover but this one is certainly an attention getter.
Picked up at one of our fine local “Dollar” Stores, I can’t help but wonder how the concept behind the writing and publishing this book ever got past the “humorous suggestion” phase.
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If GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra Were a Horse, We’d Have to Put It Out of Its Misery.
I have to put the GI Joe phenomenon firmly in the same category as Transformers. While other kids my age were firmly engrossed in those two animated series in the 80s I was engaged in much more “mature” pursuits such as Star Trek, Doctor Who and mourning the loss of Three’s Company between planning my weekly schedule around Cheers and Night Court. However, the trailer for GI Joe tugged at the coolness factor of my long dead kid as well as the former lead actor from the recently resurrected Doctor Who, so I was hip for this, at least up until the first 45 minutes or so of sitting through it.
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Funny People Throws Expectations Out the Window for Adam Sandler and Seth Rogan.
The marketing for Funny People has to be the biggest act of cowardice in a movie marketing campaign in 2009. The trailers are desperately trying to sell this film as an Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan crazy laugh fest. There are plenty of laughs in the film, but the truth is that this is a serious, thoughtful character study that may be Judd Apatow’s best work as well as one of the best film’s I’ve seen this year, certainly not something I expected to say coming out of an Adam Sandler film.
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