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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Dec 7th 2009, Week Relating to 11/24 – 11/30

Movies Seen: *First Time Viewed
The Fantastic Mr. Fox*
Twilight*
Heat*
Hot Fuzz

As you can see, I finally took somewhat of a break. It wasn’t really an active choice, Thanksgiving got in the way. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving (Thank you Sarah and family!) and I hope everyone else did too. Enough guff, gimme some movies.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox:
I appreciate the effort that is put into stop-animation. Years of tireless work for a couple hours of film, it’s pretty crazy when you think about it. But I suppose a lot of things in life are like that. The Fantastic Mr. Fox did not look good not me. The trailer made the dialog seem underwhelming, the movements seemed stilted, I expected garbage. I would have sworn up and down that Wes Anderson and animation of any sort just did not go together. I was wrong. Why am I wrong about these things so often? Maybe it just seems that way. The adaptation of the Fantastic Mr. Fox presented here is itself, fantastic. So many excellent sight gags. So many goofy moments and funny lines of dialog. This is a movie I want to show my kids some day. It was full of adventure and quite a few moments where you could actually relate with these anthropomorphic characters. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the animation, despite my worries. What I had taken for stilted action was one part in the movie that was stylized and ended up looking (being) really cool. I think by the end my face hurt from grinning so much. Even if you hate Wes Anderson movies (The Royal Tenenbaums, Bottle Rocket) you should treat yourself to this movie, because it was great.

Twilight:
Having just seen the sequel to this the previous week and having quite enjoyed New Moon, I decided I owed it to myself to see the first movie. Plus, Sarah dropped a lot of cash to get the DVD, as Black Friday had just come and gone and the cheaper versions of the movie were nowhere to be found. I didn’t like this one as much as the second. It really came off as a long car commercial. I don’t know if the rest of you noticed that, but they take as many opportunities as possible to pull that brand new car that Edward drives around in front the camera as possible. The movie also seemed slower paced to me, which I’m sure people can argue otherwise with. And despite being slower paced, it also feels now like it was over really fast. How does that work you ask? I don’t know. I’m insane. They had less of a budget then the new one, so they get away with the lack of special effects. The scene near the end where the bad vampire gets killed was really funny. Sorry, spoilers I guess. I still want to see the next movie. I’ll bet it’ll have even more action in it. OOOOOOOOO

Heat:
She’s got a GREAT ASS! Favorite line, hands down. This movie has been hyped and hyped and hyped to me over the years. So many times someone has said my least favorite exclamation in reference to this movie (YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT????). So Sarah and me sat down one cold winter’s evening and popped this into the player. 3 hours of Michael Mann. 3 hours of Val Kilmer breathing through his mouth. 3 hours of Al Pacino exclaiming things. I am sorry, but the movie didn’t do it for me. The gun fight outside the bank did not do it for me. The conversation between Pacino and Deniro did not do it for me. I was sorely disappointed. So many people really loved this movie. I liked a lot of the acting, both Deniro and Pacino are great. I don’t like that Kilmer only had a few lines the entire movie. And why do people always have to kill Danny Trejo? What did he do to you? I don’t think his death toll is as bad as Sean Bean’s, but still. The whole shoot out after the bank seen just did not seem realistic to me. The LAPD just has automatic weapons that they fire into crowded roadways? I don’t know. I should watch it again, I feel bad for not liking it. Movie guilt, sheesh…

Hot Fuzz:
I did not realize that we were going to be watching this in my film class when I watched it the week before. It’s worth a double viewing anyways, it’s a great movie. Our teacher pointed out to us how it casually pokes fun at the homosexual relationship most action-buddy flicks contain within their main plot lines. I cannot believe I didn’t notice before (that is, did not notice it making fun of the other movies for doing this). I have never seen Point Break, but if the gun was to symbolize Keanu Reeves penis, and he fires it up in the air instead of at Patrick Swayze… well that’s just playing with himself isn’t it?

And that is that for me. I wish I had something wise to say. Hmmm, I want Inglorious Bastards on DVD for Christmas! Oh, that’s not wisdom. Peace out.

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