Sunday, December 27, 2009

May, Where Things Start To Pick Up

Continuing the 2009 cinema wrap-up.


X-Men Origins: Wolverine: I enjoyed this because it seemed to have a sense of it's own ridiculousness. We've all seen the cliche` in one superhero film or another, where after a tragedy a character stretches their arms out and shouts "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" as a camera mounted on a crane pulls upward. This shot was in Wolverine three times. Either they were incredibly lazy or they were having some fun. Didn't regret seeing this, partly because I saw it at a cinema with really, really good popcorn.

Star Trek: I'll give J.J. Abrams credit. Few would take the job of restarting a film franchise which long ago wore out its welcome. That it wasn't embarrassing would be a triumph, that it was actually good was a minor miracle. The cast captured the essence of the characters without imitating the original TV series cast (except for Karl Urban, who did a pretty good job of channeling DeForrest Kelley). The plot was familiar, taken from the best film in the series, "The Wrath of Khan", but the action was thrilling, the jokes worked, and there were enough references to Star Trek history to tickle all but the most skeptical Trek fan. One of the few instances where you can't wait for the sequel.

Up: As I said in the previous post, I can't stand computer animation. Call me a traditionalist, call me an old fart, I just loathe the balloon-like sterility of the images. That said... I actually liked this. I'm still not a fan of digital animation, but this worked. Two things that helped: the hero was a crabby old man, and there was a dog who was the most doglike cartoon character since Bruno in "The Triplets of Belleville". (Note: this is the only film on the list I didn't see in the cinema. My perceptions were based on the DVD. What format you see a film in can color your opinion. The Star Wars prequels were grueling in the cinema, but on TV they can function as background noise and actually be semi-enjoyable).

Drag Me To Hell: I've enjoyed Peter Jackson's recent prestige films. With the Lord of the Rings movies and King Kong he proved that effects-laden blockbusters can also be good films. But I miss the Peter Jackson who made hilarious horror comedies like "Bad Taste" and "Dead Alive". Sam Raimi started with raucous and impolite horror and horror-comedies like the Evil Dead films before becoming respectable with "A Simple Plan" and the Spider-Man movies. Well, the first two Spider-Man movies, anyway. So I was looking forward to Raimi returning to his disreputable roots. And I was not disappointed. Very few can mix slapstick comedy and the grotesque like Raimi. If you've a sick sense of humor this is a must see. Needless to say, I loved it.

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