October Movies
I thought that I would actually post something that doesn’t have anything to do with shameless self-promotion. Let’s talk about movies that I have seen this month — some old, some new…
First off, the girls and I have been obsessing over an old 80s movie by one of my all-time favorite artists: Jim Henson. The movie is “Labyrinth” and here’s a glimpse at this muppet-musical’s best number:
Now, I realized when I saw this movie way-back when I was a kid, that the film had some flaws. For one, I thought the the opening felt too rushed, for another I thought there were too many similarities to “The Wizard of Oz” (something my work has sometimes been guilty of). Now that I’ve watched it as an adult — I can overlook many of its shortcomings — but I can’t seem to overlook David Bowie’s pants. Who did the costume design? I believe a codpiece is in order!
Still, having watched the movie for the first time in over a decade, I was surprised to discover how much I enjoyed watching puppetry and traditional forms of special effects rather than CGI creatures. It’s far more engrossing. The muppets give you a sense of performance artistry that blue-screen, computer technology just doesn’t offer.
Speaking of which, up next is “Where the Wild Things Are”
Here’s a link to a masterpiece of a movie trailer. (They won’t let me embed it for some reason.)
The trailer really is just awesome. I love the songs and the images — especially now that I’ve watched it.
I’ve enjoyed listening to people discuss this film. My wife was bored by it. So were a lot of other people. Many have complained that “This is not a movie for children!” But I have met many children who were deeply moved by the film — it made a great deal of sense to them.
I think it’s a very honest film. Meaning: It gets to the heart of how it feels to be a child — not just the good things, but all of the fear, anger, and confusion.
At the same time, I understand those who complain about taking a short picture book and stretching it out into a feature length film. I wasn’t bored by the movie… but I did feel the pacing reminded me a bit like some of those long, Russian dramas that I’ve seen… So, I guess I loved the themes and the acting (and the combination of puppet and effects), but the story could have been a riveting 40 minute short, rather than a slowly paced 1 hour 30 minute plus flick. In the end, it’s not my favorite family movie — but I’m thankful that Spike Jonze created it. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen before.
My friend Joel called it “H.R. Puffinstuff meets Ordinary People.”
Finally, my wife and I watched a couple of Halloween movies on DVD.
“The Orphan” does everything a typical thriller attempts to do. It makes you jump, here and there. It also makes you guess the “secret” behind the film. And, my favorite part, it makes you shout at the screen as you try to explain how stupid the characters are behaving. IN this particular film, I was constantly yelling at the father character. Man, was he an idiot!
Ultimately though, after all of the stabbing and the gun shots, I was reminded of why I don’t favor horror movies as much as I used to. There’s enough bad people in real life — I don’t need to see fictionalized accounts that sensationalize murder. I know Stephen King says that we “crave horror movies’ because we’re all a little nuts, and it’s therapuetic to watch these kinds of barbaric flicks, and he may have a point. Still, I think I can go without a horror movie for another six months. (Although I’ve heard good things about Paranormal Behavior — so who knows.)
The other movie we watched (on Halloween night) was M. Night’s “The Happening.” Now, you might be thinking, “Hey Wade, I thought you didn’t want to watch any other scary movie.” Well, this movie wasn’t scary. It was the dumbest movie I had seen in a long time. And even though Cheri doesn’t normally like it when I MST3K a movie, we both couldn’t help cracking jokes through this whole thing.
Oh M. Night… When will you get back on track? Not every movie needs to be “The Sixth Sense.”
November 4th, 2009 at 1:50 am
I am of the opinion that pretty much any movie can be bettered by the inclusion of David Bowie (and if he is a goblin king with a penchant for kidnapping, then all the better). In Inglorious Basterds as the main characters all gathered into the theater (along with the Fuhrer himself), right before all the characters begin to spring their individual traps we have had that little preliminary tension building scene. The one where the Jewish girl whose family had died was putting on her lipstick and all the nazis are marching into the theater, right as we get a real sense that the movie is about to come to its climax, we get David Bowie’s “Cat People” (an excruciatingly ’80s song). Or in The Prestige (back when we had a short run of films based on 19th century magicians) when he made an awesome cameo as Nikola Telsa.
The Happening and Where the Wilds Things Are were rather similar experiences for me. I cackled unashamedly in the beginning during the classroom scenes (the “doesn’t anyone care about the bees?!” speech, and the “the sun is dying, but we’ll die first” lesson) but as movies wore on I tended to wish the thing was over, but once it was I didn’t hold the amount of contempt for the movie as the people I saw it with did.
November 24th, 2009 at 5:51 am
OH man those clips from that movie are hysterical! I must rent that just to get a good laugh! The acting is ghastly!
November 24th, 2009 at 5:53 am
^ oops, meant to post this on “The Room” blog.