Sweeney Todd. I think I liked the idea of this better than the actual movie. It was a little unrelentingly dark for me. I did like the songs, though.
The Incredible Hulk. Now, I liked the Ang Lee Hulk movie, but that was a little more Ang Lee, and this is a little more Hulk (if you see what I mean). I liked the little nods to the TV show sprinkled throughout (like Lou Farigno's cameo). The slums of Rio were an awesome location to open the story in, and I loved the ways he cobbled together scraps to make his own scientific equipment (I wanted Omesh in my WIP to be able to do that sort of thing, but in order to write it you rather have to be able to come up with the ideas, and I can't). The deleted scenes were also interesting for how many were longer cuts of scenes from the movie. They cut down dialogue between two characters by removing a line or even half a line at a time without disturbing the rhythm of the scene. I was impressed; having cut down dialogue on a page I know it's a challenge not to lose the rhythm and flow, doing it from actor's performances where you want the reactions to still be appropriate must have been a real challenge. On the other hand, these dialogue scenes were long; I suspect they knew they were going to have to cut them and had a working idea of where they would make the cuts.
Get Smart and the overlapping direct-to-DVD Get Smart: Bruce and Lloyd. I never watched the TV show, so I came into this with no preconceptions. I don't know who wouldn't like it, though. The writing is sharp and funny, and the casting is spot on. I particularly liked how he wasn't completely inept; the first thing he tried usually failed comically, but then he'd turn around and do something that did work. Because there is a reason he's a secret agent.
Kung Fu Panda was also sharply written and well cast. Plus the animation, particularly the background shots, was beautifully rich. The special features have a segment with the Food Network's Alton Brown showing how authentic Chinese noodles were made that's quite cool. But then I always like Alton Brown; he's the geek of the cooking world, showing not just how but why something is prepared in a certain way, with lots of science thrown in.
Journey to the Center of the Earth. Would have been cool to see at the IMAX in 3D. The BluRay came with the 3D version and glasses, but it's the color kind of 3D, not the polarized kind, and that never looks as good. Still, it was a fun adventure/quest type of movie if not a great one. I'll be checking out the sequel when they go to Atlantis (and maybe make a point of getting to the IMAX for that one).
A movie I had been breathlessly awaiting: Hellboy 2. I wasn't disappointed. I had had the boys watch the first one just before this one came out on DVD and they were both instantly huge Hellboy fans. The wind-up army at the end was a particular highlight for Aidan.
One last movie we watched with the boys: Shrek the Halls. Clearly made for TV, with the pauses where the commercials go. All the original voice talent was there, and it was watchable if not particularly good. We have tons of Christmas videos the boys absolutely adore that I have to play when I'm busy doing something else, preferably out of audio range. This one they can watch when I'm in the room.
Quin and I watched the sci-fi movie Primer. This involves two guys who accidently build a time machine in their garage and then figure out all the ways they can exploit it without ever travelling more than a few hours into the past. It's a total mind bend of a film, and I've been told all of the science in it is plausible. It's a thinking sort of movie, though, not an emotional one; at the end of it I couldn't tell you the name of any of the characters, although I did eventually work out which of the two was married to the woman that sort of wandered in and out of some of the scenes. If they could have used all the science elements but had another sort of writer give it more human meaning I would have been thoroughly enthralled. But then again it was an independent film made by actual science guys.
Another one we watched without the boys: Tropic Thunder. It's so cool that Robert Downey Jr. is working again; he's absolutely brilliant. I'm a bit of a geek for listening to actors talk about the craft of acting, and how they bring characters to life (I like to mine it for ideas on how to bring the characters on my page to life), so I really enjoyed all of the actor jokes in this one. Lots of great cameos and plenty of jokes that were just so wrong.
Only two Hindi movies this month, both starring Aamir Khan. The first was called Mann and took place on a cruise ship. It wasn't until they reached Mumbai and he and the girl he had fallen in love with agreed to meet on Valentine's Day at the Gateway to India that I realized I was watching a remake of An Affair to Remember. Which I haven't actually seen, but I have seen this:
So I spent the rest of the movie all giggly.
Ghulam I already knew was a remake of On the Waterfront, but I haven't seen that movie either, although I've seen parts of it in Marlon Brando retrospective shows. This was Rani Mukherjee's first Bollywood movie, and for whatever reason they dubbed over her voice. Which was distracting; she has a very distinctive smoky-sexy kind of voice. It would be like a movie that had a young Kathleen Turner in it, but had someone like Victoria Jackson from SNL dub over her. But Alka Yagnik did her singing. I don't think I've seen a Rani movie that wasn't Alka Yagnik singing. Which created the weird situation where she only sounded like "herself" when she was singing.
Oh yeah, and this movie had a motorcycle gang with leather jackets which declared them the "Jon Bon Jovis". I think that was meant to make them seem tough...
I'll finish up with the TV on DVD I watch in November: Seasons 3 and 4 of X-Files. I wished this show had more consistency in the storylines and character arcs. The episode where Mulder uncovers the possibility that his sister was abducted by a child molester and not by aliens would have been a wonderfully dramatic way to twist his head... if it hadn't come after so many episodes of seeing clones of his sister either all grown up or still a child. The child molester theory doesn't really explain the cloning that's beyond human science, now does it? Similarly, Scully becoming convinced that the government conspiracy and cover up is actually about unethical medical research and not aliens would have been a lot more believable if she hadn't seen so many things that didn't fit that theory. Scientists find theories that match all the evidence; they don't pick a theory and then shoehorn in the evidence, blithely disregarding the evidence that just can't fit. Or at least good scientists don't.
Still, there were highlights: "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" is my favorite episode and not likely to be topped. Peter Boyle guest starred as a man who could see exactly how you would die; he was a life insurance salesman. Of course Peter Boyle is always good. "War of the Copraphages" was interestingly structured, with Mulder off on his own investigating killer metallic bugs and calling Scully on the telephone to run theories past her for her to quickly debunk. There was good interplay between the two of them even though they were never in the same room. "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" was another episode that had an unusual structure, really a Rashoman-type story about Air Force pilots pretending to be aliens in a small town.
Another one of which I am inordinately fond is "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man". The man can rule the word from behind the scenes, even to the point of rigging the Superbowl, but he can't get his novel published to save his life. A heartbreaking tale. "Kaddish" was cool for having a golem in it. "Small Potatoes" was another off-beat episode, with a man who can look like anyone else (but isn't very bright) taking Mulder's place, doing his job (although he can't spell Federal Bureau of Investigation) and trying to score with Scully. David Duchovny was particularly good in this one; he and the actor who played the face-changing guy clearly spent some time together working on the facial expressions that tipped off that Mulder wasn't Mulder. And lastly I'll mention "Demons", where Mulder wakes up in a hotel room covered with blood and can't remember anything that's happened for the last two days.
It seems like I remembered more than I thought. Of course Wikipedia plot summaries always help...
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