Documentary “Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine” is in theaters and on-demand, starting today. Tagline “Bold. Brilliant. Brutal.” snatched by attention, because it’s so evocative of Apple marketing style under the cofounder’s leadership. I doubted […]
Tag: movies
‘Wild’ and ‘Wonderful’
It’s funny the people you see, and also recognize, in movies. I am watching “Wild”, starring Reese Witherspoon and see the guy with the glasses. He looks like Art Alexakis, lead singer for Everclear. I […]
Survivor
Frak the critics. I really enjoyed Survivor, which released to theatres yesterday. Or not. The official reviews are dated May 28 or 29, 2015, but I can’t find the movie playing on the big screen anywhere locally. I streamed from Google Play, which has the film for rental or purchase, last evning.
I didn’t read reviews until after watching the flick and seeing something shocking: Rotten Tomatoes 0 percent. Yes, Yes, the action thriller is overly predictable. But sometimes you sit down to eat fine steak and wine, while other times glutton down s`mores and ice cream. Burp. Pass the Bud, Bud. Survivor is a junk food feast along the lines of Taken—which got two sequels!
You Should ‘Begin Again’
Here in the United States, iTunes’ Movie of the Week is Begin Again. The 99-cent rental isn’t enough to pay for this delightful film, which I purchased over the holidays and watched with my wife. Grab it now.
There’s something appropriate about the movie being, if for no other reason than the title, Apple’s first cheap rental of the new year. The plot’s arc: music producer Dan Mulligan’s redemption from past mistakes. He must begin again, or be lost. With no money, and no record company, he convinces singer-songwriter Gretta James to make an album. Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley play the leads.
‘If I Stay’ Review
Yesterday, at my suggestion, the Wilcox couple watched If I Stay, which I grabbed from iTunes. The movie is much better than expected, and, reading professional reviews later on, grossly underrated by the critics. First-time fictional director R.J. Cutler delivers a poignant, if at times disjointed, coming-of-age drama.
The tonal quality reminds of two other family-centrics films fitting the genre: The Lovely Bones, directed by Peter Jackson, and Sidney Lumet’s Running on Empty. All three focus on a teen in transition, where the family dynamics are canvas for a larger love story. The Cutler and Jackson films bring tears, while Lumet might just make a liberal, or perhaps radical, out of you. 🙂
‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1’ is incendiary
I caught the 9:30 a.m. show today for third installment in The Hunger Games movies. The film, which breaks the final book into two parts, is a cathartic roller coaster ride that is sure to banned […]
Viral Before There was Viral: 'The Blair Witch Project'
As Halloween approaches, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences takes a long look down memory lane—eh, scary forest paths—with a short documentary about “The Blair Witch Project“. Before there was Facebook and Flickr […]
Hollywood is Faker Than You Think
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clnozSXyF4k] Whoa, is anything real anymore? This Stargate Studios short shows how much Hollywood studios use computer-generated graphics to fill in locations or to fake them. What? You thought Jack Bauer was in Washington? He […]
An Inconvenient Theory
Earlier today, my daughter and I watched “An Inconvenient Truth” at the AFI Silver Theatre, which likely is the best movie house in the Washington area. A harsh critic of the science behind global warming, I hoped that maybe the film would live up to its hype. No way. For people predisposed to the idea of global warming, the film probably would be moving. The movie did affect my thinking, nevertheless (I’ll explain how in a few paragraphs).
Here’s what I most liked: Former Vice President Al Gore relied more on historical data to make his point than use forward-looking forecasts. Oh, I hate computer modeling for proving climate change. The major reason I’m so critical of global warming theory is bad science. There are too many assumptions and too little reliable data to develop reliable forecast models. In best-case scenario, the computer models are only as good as the data put into them.
Superman’s Story
Well, Roger Ebert didn’t like it. New York Times found plenty to fault. EW was much kinder, as was Rolling Stone.
I liked “Superman Returns“.
Whenever a movie follows a successful franchise—whether on screen, on stage, or in print—the hurdle is raised high. And sometimes, reviewers can’t let go of how things were done in the past. They compare against expectations, such as in the case of “Superman Returns” the performance of Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel.
Movie Time
About a month ago, we switched out the Windows Media Center PC for a TiVo. Of course, what good is a TiVo without a TV to connect to? Quite good, it turns out. Rather than go back to a PC, we returned to a projector.
I shopped around before buying the projector, for which the sale of the Dell Media Center PC paid. Choice—and not the best, but appropriate for the family’s budget: Optoma MovieTime DV10. The picture quality isn’t nearly as wow as I expected, but the overall big-screen experience is more than good enough. No means is it perfect, but perfection we demand spending heaps more money. MovieTime sells for $999.
Nworb Nad
The new issue of The New Yorker arrived today. We started subscribing last month after getting a full-year offer for 25 bucks. I do read the copy and not just peruse the cartoons.
In the current, May 29, issue, Anthony Lane makes mush of ridiculous book, the Da Vinci Code—and his objective was to review the movie! I consider the Dan Brown novel to be the worst fiction book I’ve read or likely will ever read. The writing has no style, the plot follows (yawn, yawn) obvious paths and the history is nonsense (and I say that with no gripe about Jesus marrying Mary M.). Anthony does better ripping the book than I did.