Tag Archive for 'movies'

The Watchmen

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Jason C. Romero
on March 21, 2009
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I was not pleased with the Watchmen.

I knew that the reviews were mixed, so I didn’t expect to be blown away. However, I also know that there is a cult following around the graphic novel, which I still plan to read at some point, so I thought that I would be surprisingly pleased.

I was wrong.

Music

One thing I found offensive about this film was its use of music. I do not hold anything sacred, but the use of Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, and Jimi Hendrix in this film, among others, certainly pushed my boundaries.

In short, the use of music in this film felt nothing less than trite, pompous, and self-important, as if it were trying to put itself in the same league as other movies that have used these songs and the times that these songs belong to.

Acting

Another aspect that made this film difficult to watch was the acting. This is not to say that all of the actors were that terrible. In fact, I thought some of the performances were quite outstanding, such as Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s perplexingly endearing Robert Downey Jr.-esque performance of The Comedian and Jackie Earle Haley’s performance of Rorschach. I even enjoyed Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl II, though that may be because he reminded me of Brad from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Overall, though, the acting was uneven and was further hampered by the terrible performance of Matthew Goode as Ozymandias, one of the most important characters in the film.

Plot

I am a fairly patient movie viewer (for example, Stalker was my favorite film for the longest time), but the plot was simply too mangled and long for my tastes. The argument made at the end of the film was somewhat interesting, but it had taken so long to get there that by that point I simply didn’t care.

I do realize, at least, that this is likely a result of the difficulty of translating something that would read better as a graphic novel than a movie, but the execution still left much to be desired.

Violence

Just before watching this movie I was tipped off on the presence of extreme violence in this film. It did have quite a presence in the film, but it wasn’t quite as gruesome as I thought it might be. I did tear up at the opening scene where The Comedian is murdered, but that was more at thinking about the sad state of humans rather than the film itself. The violence is gruesome enough, however, that I don’t think this is a kid-friendly film, which some might think simply because it is based on a “comic book.”

As a side note, the most disturbing thing about the violence in this film did not have to do with the film itself but the audience’s response. In the theater where I watched this movie the audience laughed heartily when Rorschach melted another man’s face and body with hot oil. I squirmed in my chair and found myself despondent, saddened, and alienated.

Conclusion

I really tried to be generous with this film, but even with that, it left me wanting. Even now as I search for things that I enjoyed about this film in an attempt to be fair I find it difficult to think of anything.

There is one thing. I did enjoy watching the structure that Dr. Manhattan created on Mars. It fit well with the remarks he made about his father abandoning watch making after Einstein discovered the theory of relativity, and the scene of him sitting in front of all the tiny pieces of a watch as a young boy, both of which I also enjoyed.

But dear Cheese in Deli, why oh why did they have to mispronounce Rorschach’s name? Sigh.

The Kite Runner

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Jason C. Romero
on January 2, 2009
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The Kite Runner started off good but then it just seemed to get a little too hokey “Taliban are bad m’kay”-ish. The main actor was a bit weak too and there were a lot of parts that seemed unbelievable, like the marriage of the main character to this woman he barely knew and who barely knew him.

I really liked the Hassan character though as well as the actor that played him. I also really enjoyed seeing the children play with their kites, but I didn’t like how it got stretched into a theme and metaphor for the entire film: “The Taliban won’t even let us fly our kites anymore!”

Inland Empire

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Jason C. Romero
on December 23, 2008
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I really wasn’t impressed with this film. The story was all over the place, even for a Lynch film. I really couldn’t tell or understand what was going on, but the movie didn’t grab my attention enough to want to figure it out.

Also, the digital video just wasn’t doing it for me. It seemed as if the switch from film made Lynch a little too playful, which manifested in amateurish shots and experiments. The film was thus reminiscent of an eager art school film, and even, at some points, cop show reenactments on television.

I was, however, very impressed with Laura Dern’s acting.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sssk9TG3BUI

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460829/

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_empire

Netflix: http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Inland_Empire/70058078

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QQFKYE/

Religulous

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Jason C. Romero
on October 17, 2008
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For atheists in the know there isn’t much if anything that is new in this film, such as the connections between Jesus and other pagan gods, but I’m sure there are still a lot of people, atheist or not, who haven’t learned some of these things yet.

The strength of the film, however, as one would hope, is in its humor. Maher peppers the film with witty and vulgar one-liners, as well as hysterical sound effects and “moment of zen”-like video asides. A good example of this can be found in this clip of Maher interviewing so-called “ex-gay” John Wescott.

One interesting detail that stands out in the film is that, amidst all the extreme examples of religious thinking that Maher uses to make his point, the Catholics he speaks to make their religion seem pretty reasonable — a Catholic astronomer argues that it is impossible for there to have been science in the bible and takes issue with a fundamentalist reading of the bible, and another Catholic says that, yes, his religion is full of silly beliefs, but what are you going to do? (Edit: I forgot to mention the other Catholic who says that the bible meant to say that it is not a sin to engage in same-sex relations if you were born gay.)

Unfortunately, the end of Religulous takes a surprisingly serious turn from the comedy in the rest of the movie when Maher argues that we must destroy religion before religion destroys us. Aside from disagreeing with Maher’s argument, I thought the ending of his movie was just too over the top. It seems to replace the fire and brimstone messages of (some) religion(s) with a secular fire and brimstone message.

Put simply, I don’t think that the situation is as dire as Maher makes it out to be — indeed, Maher doesn’t give religion any credit for holding the world together in addition to tearing it apart. Nor do I think the problems we face as humans can be neatly subsumed under the heading “religion” — these problems are instead the result of an absence of liberal democratic values and the attack that has been made upon these values by the growth of neoliberal capitalism.

Maher also starts off the movie by saying that science created dangerous things, such as weapons and pollution producing industries, before we matured enough from our religious phase to use them properly, but that is where his critique of science stops. It would have been far better if Maher had ended up in a gray space that is more representative of reality than the black and white grunt of “science good, religion bad.”

Either way, as an atheist, it’s still great to have a cathartic movie like this out there for us. The movie is filled with lots of sacrilegious guffaws, so if you atheists go with that in mind and tune out the oh so serious ending, then you’ll have a gay ol’ time.

MGMT vs. Sparkle Motion

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Jason C. Romero
on October 11, 2008
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Boing Boing posted about a new MGMT video that is out.

The video is great, but I can’t watch it without thinking about Sparkle Motion. Apparently this scene was originally supposed to be shot with the Pet Shop Boys’s “West End Girls,” but it was too expensive so they picked Duran Duran’s “Notorious” instead. It’s nice to see it with “West End Girls,” but I think “Notorious” works out better in the end.

Daily Journal Entry #11843 06/02/08 Mon

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Jason C. Romero
on July 10, 2008
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Superbad

Time passed (i.e., feeds), and in the evening I watched watched Superbad. I’d been wanting to see it for a while at Hubert’s suggestion. Some friends online chastised me for watcher Superbad while in Tokyo, but I gently explained that Tokyo is expensive, I’ve been here before, and I’m going to be here for a good while.

I thought this movie was amazing. In particular I really liked this updated model of masculinity that it presented. Gone is Fast Times at Ridgemont High and in it’s place is Superbad, where the male characters show actual emotional attachment to each other, and one even forgoes having sex because the moment doesn’t unfold in a manner that holds proper meaning for him.

It was also touching to see how these male subjects had to keep their emotional attachment for each other hidden (though everyone was aware of it). Thus, it was terribly sad to see them part at the end, where, even though they each get the girl, they do so at the expense of losing each other.

Minutiae

  • I stopped by the CoCoICHI curry house and was surprised to hear random songs like Boyz II Men’s “So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” and Collective Soul’s “Shine.” They also quickly offered me an English menu, which I’ve never experienced before.

Links

  • Susannah Breslin posted this awesome song and video by Le Le titled “Breakfast.” Hola hola hola, oatmeal and granola — you breakfast!
  • This do not pray list spoof is hilarious. (Via Friendly Atheist)

Daily Journal Entry #11839 05/29/08 Thu

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Jason C. Romero
on July 3, 2008
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The Airport

I got to the airport at 4 a.m. My bag was overweight at 63 pounds and they were going to charge me $80 dollars, but international flights are allowed two bags, so I just took out a canvas duffle bag I had inside my luggage and made another 13 pound bag (which was mostly books).

The Flight

The flight was fine. I had a middle seat and watched movies to pass the time when I wasn’t sleeping.

Atonement

I thought this movie was crap and felt like they could have left the entire middle out.

It gave off a pretentious self-important vibe, seemingly written by someone narcissistically obsessed with writing, especially with the annoying typewriter music they kept playing.

Cloverfield

I thought this movie was brilliant. I really appreciated the nod to Godzilla, Blair Witch Project, and Aliens.

I also really liked the way it spoke to the experience of memory and its relationship to mass media, both with the video glitches that would show events that had been previously recorded, as well as one character’s argument that “people will want to see this” because just telling them won’t be enough.

27 Dresses

Why not? The movie wasn’t great and was terribly predictable, but I still loved it.

The funniest thing was that she married just the kind of person that I would like to be with — a witty cynical writer with a soft heart. (And he was hot.)

Getting Settled

I walked around Asakusa after going to my new place and was more pleased with the area than I thought I would be. I found a small market nearby, and it seems nicer than the one I went to in Sendagaya the last time I was here. The Oedo subway line is also closer than the nearest train was in Sendagaya, and it goes to Shinjuku, which is all I really care about. My room is quite small, however, and I wish I didn’t have to climb a ladder to get in bed.

I had dinner at Yoshinoya, in part for embarrassing sentimental reasons, and, surprisingly, found that one of the workers came from Russia to study tourism. When I left he wished me luck with my research.

Minutiae

  • The (Asian) money exchange lady at the airport in Atlanta was shocked that I was not Asian.

Daily Journal Entry #11837 05/27/08 Tue

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Jason C. Romero
on June 30, 2008
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Worked on IRB

I spent a few hours lying on the couch trying to figure out this one line. I was just trying to explain, in simple, lay terms, why I wanted to take pictures of my participants using their computer. I decided that the best language was that I was trying to capture what it is “actually like” for them to use their computer.

Into the Wild

SPOILER ALERT. I wasn’t expecting the sad ending to this movie. I also found it unfortunate that people could use the manner of his demise to critique the life decisions he made, which I can empathize with, except for the nature part.

It really is a strange conglomeration of messages. He goes off to be alone, discovers he needs others, then dies alone. I don’t think the film maker’s intended it this way, but it does seem as if that was his “punishment.”

Links

  • These flat pack houses excite me so very much.
  • These punk houses excite me too. I wonder why that is.
  • I personally find writing your to-do lists on your hands to be somewhat gauche, but I suppose I should give it the proper respect it deserves as yet another lifehacker/GTD path.

Daily Journal Entry #11828 05/18/08 Sun

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Jason C. Romero
on June 14, 2008
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My Lonesome Cowboy

The Japanese artist Murakami made an interesting life-sized sculpture of an anime-looking character spinning a lasso of semen that is shooting from his penis. What’s more surprising, though, is that it sold for more than $15 million at a Sotheby’s auction. Here is a video from Murakami’s Los Angeles exhibit where he talks about My Lonesome Cowboy. (Via Japundit.)

The Library

I went to get some books on phenomenology for independent readings with Martin, but one book I wanted was not there, and the section the other books were in was closed. One more task to perform before departing.

This, That, and Shortbus

I packed a little, looked for more books, and watched Shortbus. I really enjoyed the utopic uplifting sexual space that was presented in the movie, and also enjoyed the acting and production, but felt the movie would have functioned better as a television series, given the number of narratives and the way they advanced, if that makes any sense.

Either way, I was glad to see the manifestation of John Cameron Mitchell’s idea to have sex in a movie that was part of the overall narrative, rather than simply being present for the purpose of salacity. Along those lines, at least, I think he did a great job, though those who are not so desensitized to such explicit displays of sexuality might think otherwise.

My favorite scene was with the old man talking about New York. The most humorous scene for me was when the dominatrix cried about quitting her job, just painting, and yet still affording to live in New York — you’d have to see the scene. It reinvited the fear that I am missing out by not living in a large city.

Minutiae

  • Doumitra was upset that Paradiso was closing early. She said they should have given her a 67-hour notice.

Daily Journal Entry #11823 05/13/08 Tue

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Jason C. Romero
on June 11, 2008
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Allerton Park

I decided to take a trip to Allerton Park with Kiril, Martin, and Bharath. We bought kites, but didn’t use them, though I did blow some bubbles while we were there at least.

The park was beautiful, as usual. It’s really one of my favorite places, and it’s amazing that it exists in the midwest, carefully hidden away. It was a great setting for my conversation with Kiril about pleasure and morality.

One odd feature of the trip was our constant references to Tarkovsky’s film Stalker. Most of my friends, and most people in general, haven’t seen or heard of this film, so it was somewhat surreal for it to filter our collective experience of the park, such as when we were walking through the forest.

After the park we stopped in the small town of Monticello, and my companions were incredibly disturbed by it for some reason. Bharath said the town felt as if it were seething with a repressed urge for violence. I’d been to the town before, and it also reminded me of some of the small towns in Texas, like Brenham, so I suppose that is why I was unperturbed.

Minutiae

  • I brought up my conversation with Martin about the ineffability of smell, and Bharath mentioned this book on perfume that touches on “the human experience of scent itself.”
  • In the evening I saw this incredible high school jazz band perform at the Iron Post.