The Taking of Pelham 123 – This movie gives you what you came for which is Denzel Washington and John Travolta matching wits. I probably won’t watch it again, but it was worth seeing once. Any movie with Denzel gets 3 stars as a baseline. 4/5

Step Up 2: The Streets – For some reason, I love dancing movies and this is my favorite so far. I had to see it again to make sure that it was a five star, and for me it definitely is. Maybe a top 10 pick even… Laugh at me if you want, but this is one of my favorites. 5/5

Avatar – Maybe it was too much hype but I was expecting to be amazed and Avatar fell short for me. Not that it was a waste of time, but it didn’t have as much wow factor for me as Matrix, T2, Titanic, Lord of the Rings, etc… It was cool but if you want to see the best sci-fi movie of 2009, see Moon. 4/5 (that is $100 million per star)

10 Things I Hate About You – I hadn’t seen this one yet so decided to stream it from Netflix. It was fun to see a movie packed with Seattle landmarks. The English teacher made us laugh every time. Nice light entertainment. Makes me proud to live in such a beautiful city. 4/5

The first time I saw it, I thought it was a 5/5 rated movie but I don’t like to be sure with my “5″ ratings so I had to watch it again to be sure.

My main hesitation with giving it a 5 is that this was nearly the same exact story as Forrest Gump. They were both written by Eric Roth so at least he was ripping off himself which isn’t quite as bad as ripping off someone else. If you don’t believe me, watch these two movies back to back and you’ll see. The slightly crazy sea captain mentor, the childhood girlfriend that needs to sow her wild oats before returning to the hero, the war aspect, growing up in a hotel / senior community, the story told in flash back, etc…

However, here is what was good about it. This movie was executed to perfection. David Fincher, who has made a career of music videos and frenetic films like Se7en, Alien3, and Fight Club does something very gentle and beautiful here. In contrast to the popular style of shaking the camera, the picture is always gliding smoothly and gently swaying here like an older era of film making. The cinematography rises to the level of art.

The score is also beautiful, the piano echoes in a melancholy way that is perfect for the film. I might have to buy the soundtrack…

Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are two of the most handsome actors out there so it is easy to watch them do their thing for a long film. Some people are simply a joy to see on screen and those two are definitely in that category.

The effects are so good that they cease to even matter. Even though I had read about how a computer generated version of Brad Pitt’s head was rendered on another actor’s body, I didn’t care after about 2 minutes of the film. Amazingly well executed.

Even though it wasn’t original, I found myself moved by the story of forgiveness, self realization, and finding the best in all situations. So I give the movie a 5, because I enjoyed it that much and to prove to myself that execution is more important than originality.

5/5

Now, here is the thing, the first two Terminator movies are absolutely sci-fi classics. They are once in a decade type films. These are the kind of movies I try to save my 5/5 ratings for. However, the fact that the fourth movie isn’t in the same category as the first ones shouldn’t cause us to hate it in my opinion. It is kind of like grumps who say a movie “isn’t as good as the book.” Of course it isn’t, but it isn’t the book, it is a movie.

I think we aught to judge Terminator Salvation for what it is. Which is to say, a summer action flick that is the fourth movie in what is now a long living franchise. Let’s compare it to Alien 4, or Superman 4, or Jaws 4, Indiana Jones 4, Star Wars 4, the new Star Trek, etc… That is a more equal footing.

For me, the melancholy mood of the Terminator franchise has been essential to its character. Instead of having someone gleefully blowing up things, the hero’s usually are burdened by their responsibility. I think Terminator Salvation did an excellent job of keeping that spirit. I liked that the tape diaries still have a role. I liked the feeling that the violence is an oppressive force.

I appreciate the Danny Elfman score, he stayed very true to the brand here with the metal percussion, etc… The score is one of the things that is so memorable about the first movie and it is nice to see that same feeling captured here.

It is definitely a trendy movie style with the bleach bypass color effects and the shaky hand-held camera. That stuff gets old in my opinion, but they executed it well here. Contrast that with the latest Star Trek or the latest Bond film where these effects are so extreme that those movies were physically hard for me to watch (because I actually can’t see what is happening). In this case, I think those techniques actually added positively to feeling of the film.

The special effects were good of course. You would expect them to be in a Terminator film. More interesting to me was the design of the robots which were very cool, the motorcycle robot, etc…

I had fun watching this movie. I wish I would have seen it on opening weekend at the theater. It would have been fun in a crowd and with the volume cranked up. I rate it 4/5 stars

Back to the Future II - This one didn’t age as well as the first one, but it was still fun 3.5 / 5 stars.

What’s Up Doc – Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal in a screwball comedy about burning down hotel rooms, driving through wet cement, and such. Some nice gatecrashing action since that is in the news lately. 3.5 / 5 stars.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra – Imagine a movie where they came up with all the merchandizing first and then based the movie on that. How much would that suck? Oh wait… 2 / 5 stars

I read a lot about this one before seeing it… The long feature in the New Yorker on Wes Anderson, the interview with Wes Anderson on NPR’s Fresh Air. I read a ton of reviews on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes (who’s reviewers gave it a 92% approval rating).

Almost everyone seems to have loved this film. You should follow the links above to see the glowing praise for yourself.

One thing Wes Anderson has going for him is that most of the people in my life who I respect as cool, creative friends think he is the best director of our generation. In other words, I like people who like Wes Anderson.

I checked in with Netflix to see what their computer thought I would rate the move. Now, I’ve rated 584 movies in Netflix so far, so when they predict a rating based on my tastes, they are almost always right on… They said I’d give it 3 out of 5 stars, which means that I thought it was OK but nothing to blog about. That was an ominous sign, but I decided to go see it anyway.

I also read a fan review that said this was the best film since Wallace and Gromit, another ominous sign…

Honestly, I just don’t connect to Wes Anderson films and felt the same way about this one. I think they are funny, creative and quirky. Those are all good things. I like Bill Murray and Owen Wilson (who are in most of his films), so that is a good thing.

I like stop motion movies, both Coraline and Nightmare Before Christmas are in my all time top-ten favorite movie list. I even liked all the interviews I heard or read with Wes Anderson. He seems like a person that I would get along with. So, that is all good.

It seems like this movie had all the ingredients for a movie to really wow me. The problem is that all these ingredients never came together in a way that connects to my soul or to my life experience. I’m sure this says more about who I am than about the film, but it remains that I never got deeper into this movie than snickering at the “cuss” substitutions and tapping my foot to the funky music choices.

I never felt myself identifying with any of the characters or loosing myself in the fantasy world that was created. Apparently 92% of the world thinks differently, so that’s awesome. I’m just not feeling that certain je ne sais quoi.

I gave it 3 out of 5 stars and will probably enjoy the behind-the-scenes special features on DVD as much as the movie itself. Man, that computer over there in the Netflix server farm has me figured out…

I had seen Back to the Future before but it was maybe 15+ years ago. The word that keeps coming to mind when I think of how to describe my impressions is fun. Back to the Future was a really fun movie. I wish there were more fun movies, it seems to be a rare quality in a movie…

I’m pondering what made it have that quality. I’m not sure. Maybe it was upbeat without being too silly. In any case, it is something I will keep in mind while I’m watching movies over the next couple of months.

I’m looking forward to seeing Back to the Future II again as well. After all, we are now closing in on the future that was portrayed in the movie. 2015 I think… It will be fun to see how close we get to the fictional future.

The was the first time I saw Ronin directed by John Frankenheimer. I’m not sure what took me so long. It has a lot going for it. Great actors, great director, great action, etc… It was also fun, but all the killing tempers the fun factor for me and turns it into something else like exciting.

After watching Ronin, I’ve added some of the older Frankenheimer movies to my Netflix queue. I haven’t seen many of them but I feel like I aught to. It sounds like they all have high speed chases so I’ll have to get them on DVD instead of streaming them since DVD handles the action better.

Robert De Niro has that same tough guy / steady voice coolness thing going on that Denzel Washington has. Have they ever been in a movie together? It would be fun to see them try to out cool each other. Heat had that unforgettable De Niro vs Al Pacino staring contest, but I’d like to see something similar with Denzel.

Speaking of staring contests, did you catch the one in Public Enemies? It seems that Michael Mann (Heat & Public Enemies) likes Alpha Male stare downs almost as much as John Frankenheimer liked car chases and Roland Emmerich likes to blow stuff up. Everyone’s got to have their thing I guess.

It did have at least one very positive thing going for it which is Denzel Washington. If I had to pick someone to represent my ideal of a movie star it would be Denzel. He always is entertaining to watch on film, even if the rest of the movie is just blah.

The New Yorker had this to say about it:

The movie seems to be less about liberation than about futility.

I just have to disagree that the movie was about futility. For me, the movie had two main themes:

1) Unconditional Love

At the beginning of the movie, Max sees the world in child like black or white. Either he is good or he is bad (he can’t decide). Either his mother loves him or she loves her new boyfriend. Either his sister defends him or she abandons him.

Through the Wild Things on the island he sees reflections of himself and his family members. I’m not going to point out all the parallels here, you can watch it and look for them yourself. However, I did want to draw attention to two moments.

Carol is the monster most like Max. He is the most creative artist in his tribe but he also has a hot temper and tends to destroy things when he feels slighted. At the end after he goes on a bit of a rampage, Max leaves him a heart with a C in it.

My interpretation is that Max learns to love Carol despite his destructive side. In turn, Max also learns how to accept and love himself despite his wild side. It no longer matters as much whether he is “good” or “bad”, but rather he accepts that he is both and decides to love anyway.

The second parallel I wanted to mention is that between Max when he is the king and his mother. On the island, Max assumes the role of an all powerful king with unlimited powers including a Sadness Shield. As the story progresses he is forced to admit that he is just ordinary, he can not fix all the problems, and can not deliver eternal happiness. In a telling moment, he wishes out loud that the monsters could have a mother (instead of the powerful king he was attempting to be) and then he decides to go home to his mother.

His journey as a king parallels Max’s own image of his mother. In the beginning he is very angry that his Mother can not solve his loneliness and can not fix his relationship to his sister. Through his time on the island he realizes that his mother is “just ordinary” and not all powerful but that she loves him and that is enough.

Max can love his mother more completely when he returns because he has seen the family and himself from her perspective. This is classic coming-of-age material, just told in a unique way in this film. I’m surprised that the New Yorker review saw only melancholy and futility…

2) The Urge to Create vs. The Urge to Destroy

Another theme that was interesting to me was the tendency to create vs destroy. This seems to me another common boyhood coming-of-age theme but I think it is also interesting to think about more universally.

For every one creative person in the world who is successful (musician, artist, architect, designer, movie director, software developer, writer, actor, etc…) there seems to be 1,000 people who have something bad to say about their work. Often this conflict between creative and destructive urges resides in the same soul. I know it does in mine.

In the movie Max and Carol war with these opposing sides most visibility. I think Spike Jonze is avoiding a clear moral to the story here. The movie simply observes that there is a fragile balance between the nature to build and tear down. For me, it reminds me that destruction is easy and creation is hard but deserves our efforts.

That is my perspective. What did you think the movie was about?

I have sure seen a lot of criticism of this movie from my Twitter friends and from professional reviews. The criticism seems to be aimed at the low intelligence of the dialog and the predictability of the action (everything blows up but the heros get away just in time). Also, people don’t like that director Roland Emmerich is basically remaking the same movie that he always makes.

OK, I understand all the points. Fair enough.

Here is my problem… I feel that people criticize anything that don’t see as Great. I mean Great as in: Citizen Cane is a Great movie.

2012 isn’t Great in that sense, but I don’t think it needs to be. It is about blowing up the world. Come on! I was entertained for almost 3 hours and felt that I got my 11 bucks worth out of the experience. If my name was in the credits, I would be bragging about it…

Furthermore, it is OK with me if Roland Emmerich keeps blowing up the world’s iconic buildings and places every few years. If you are good at something, stick to it. We can all learn something from that.

I think I am the only person in the world who admits to liking The Day After Tomorrow and somewhere in my basement are Laser Disc copies of Independence Day and Stargate. I actually appreciate the dialog with lines like “Grab my hand, Reach!!!” as someone is hanging off the edge of a high place.

Sure, it is corny and doesn’t challenge your mind, but it makes you smile and I think that should be enough sometimes.

I love to watch and discuss movies. I am also interested in creating movies as a hobby. This blog is a way for me to capture my thoughts and take notes on the movies I’m watching.

The blog is primarily for my own enjoyment, but if you also enjoy reading along that is awesome. I’d love for this blog to represent my side of a dialog between other movie lovers and professional critics. You are encouraged to share you perspective in the comments.

Cheers!