The Dark Knight

There are no words to explain how much I am looking forward to watch The Dark Knight soon.

The official website, by the way, is awesome. So is this latest trailer they use as an intro there - but then, they all have been great so far.

I have never been much of a Batman fan, never have read even one of the comics in fact. But I am a huge fan of Christian Bale, so since Batman Begins I am sold on the whole Batman franchise. Not only is Bale excessively attractive, but he also has one of the most sexy voices imaginable (one of the reasons I can’t abide having to watch any of his movies dubbed in german).

I can’t remember any of his movies that I didn’t like (ok, well, Reign of Fire was actually utter crap, but it had not only Chris Bale, but also Matt McConaughey in it, so it was enjoyable from a pure eye-candy perspective - yeah, who said women can’t be shallow? LOL). I still think the fight scenes in Equilibrium were way cooler than the ones in Matrix. And Batman Begins was definitely way cooler than any other Batman movie ever made, thanks mostly to Christian Bale. So how could I have less than overwhelming expectations for this new movie?

Plus, William Fichtner is in it, too. Granted, only in the first 6 minutes, but so what? It’s quality that counts, not quantity. Or so I am trying to tell myself.

But this particular movie I actually want to see just as much in memory of Heath Ledger. What I have seen of his performance in the trailers so far looked stunningly impressive, and it makes me sad all over again that we lost him far too early. By rights I should have been able to see him grow up and grow old and make movies for the next 50 years at least. Not. Fair. Damn it.

---

On a happier note: I also just stumbled upon the first (?) teaser trailer for the next Terminator movie, starring - yeah, you guessed it - Christian Bale. There is the sexy voice again… *sigh*

It does look not too bad at first view. I didn’t hate the third one nearly as much as apparently most other people did, so I pretty much look forward to the fourth, even though it’s still a long wait. And this music still gives me goose-bumps.

Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed

Ok, so I’ve seen it now. And I was decidedly underwhelmed.

It’s not like I went to the cinema with great expectations or anything. I mean, it was written by George Lucas - yes, I know, so were all the others before, but after the Star Wars prequel disasters I don’t trust this guy with anything anymore (not that I ever was a big Star Wars or Lucas Fan).

And after reading the not-so-very-favorable review on Pajiba all I asked was to have some mindless fun. But the film didn’t even deliver on that score.

It’s not that it is a very bad film. It’s just that it isn’t particularly good, either. It’s just meh. Boring. Not funny. Well, no, on second thought: that is bad. An Indiana Jones movie shouldn’t be boring. I think I actually fell asleep a few times for a couple of minutes.

The main reason for this was that the story didn’t seem to have much of a point. So Indy is running away (not very successfully) from the Russians now instead of the Nazis, puzzling about the relevance of an oh-so-mysterious crystal skull. Uhm, and I should care about this why exactly?

And he reunites with his former lover (who got on my nerves already the last time around) and finds out he has a son. Again, snorefest. I just don’t give a rat’s ass about his family connections. I want a storyline. I want some jokes that are actually funny. I want characters that are not comicbook cardboard cutouts. (God, what an awful waste of Cate Blanchett’s sublime acting abilities this mess was!)

And a sidekick with at least remnants of a personality would have been a nice addition, too. Not that I want to say anything against Shia LaBeouf - the kid is kinda cute, and I’m sure he’s gonna be an alright actor one day. At the moment however, he is just a bland pretty face of no interest whatsoever. (Then again, I’m probably too old already to see his appeal.)

Harrison Ford did his job, as usual. He was never the most elegant of actors, but he gets the job done. And at some points he even managed to make it sparkle for a second or two. The more depressing it was when everything slid back into the muddy soup this whole mess was in the end.

One thing I do most emphatically NOT want from an Indiana Jones movie are telepathic aliens made of jellie-like movable pseudo-crystal. What the fuck was that all about?

Oh yeah, and the fact that Indy was on Ground Zero of an atomic explosion and survived virtually unscathed just by climbing into a refridgerator, which coincidentally was the only thing not totally obliterated by the blast, but conveniently hurled out of the blast zone into the surrounding desert? CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!

And what’s with the fucking gophers? WTF?!?!?!?

There are so many things so fundamentally wrong with this movie that I for one am 100% sure I will never watch it again. Ever. Even on tv I will switch the channel when it comes on. It’s such a complete waste of time. For me the Indiana Jones franchise ends with The Last Crusade and this big, steaming pile of whatever just doesn’t officially exist. Damn you, Lucas. I want my money back.

Ok, so this title is an inside joke. You probably don’t get it if you are not a fan of Battlestar Galactica - in which case I can only feel sorry for you, oh and I also can help you. I just found this hilarious 8-minute-recap of the first 3 seasons on YouTube.

Even if you’re not a sci/fi fan and if you have no intention of ever watching the show, even if you don’t know what the frak I’m talking about: do yourself a favour and watch it. It’s seriously funny.

Oh yeah, and then I also found the exact same thing for the first 3 seasons of LOST.

I had given up on this show last season, but watching this has made me reconsider. I might actually watch the current season after all.

It took me a long time, but this weekend I finally got around to watching Brokeback Mountain.

I have never been all too interested in seeing it in the first place, but since I am still kinda sad that Heath Ledger passed away recently, I thought I should watch it just to see him once again. Especially since it looks like this film is gonna be his legacy (together with the new Batman, of course).

And I’m gonna say something quite sacrilegous now, so cover your eyes if you love the movie: I thought it was the most boring movie I have seen in ages.

I was in turns so completely bored with it and annoyed by some things that I couldn’t even bring myself to watch it all the way through. After I felt myself drifting off repeatedly I gave up after some 90 minutes or so. Now probably everybody is going to tell me that the most important and poignant moments came only after that. Well, I honestly don’t care.

I know that for some people, especially Americans (sorry, folks, but it’s true) the depiction of a gay relationship in a major Hollywood blockbuster is a very shocking and surprising and exciting thing and therefore the movie was lauded for its bravery and forwardness and all that. But, to be honest, that fact is more telling about the bigotry of our society today than of any special quality of the movie.

So, you have these 2 guys who fall in love and have an affair for pretty much all their lives, even though they are both married. Wohoo, big fucking deal.

Maybe if people would manage to get the hell over themselves and finally accept that homosexuality is just a fact of life, in itself not more remarkable or special than being blond or having green eyes or whatever, this movie would be seen as what it is: just another love story, and not a very interesting one at that. Maybe it’s because I live in Germany and here being gay is really not all that noteworthy nowadays - hell, even the mayor of Berlin is openly gay and nobody bats any eyelid over it.

So, apart from the “gay cowboys” thing I really don’t get what was supposed to be so extraordinary about this movie. Of course, it’s tragic that Ennis and Jack couldn’t openly show their love and live together, because of the prejudiced times they lived in. I don’t think that’s an excuse for their behaviour, but be that as it may.

My main problem with the movie was that I didn’t engage with any of the characters. And that had nothing to do with the fact that Jack and Ennis were gay. They were just plain boring. (Oh, and Michelle Williams was also extremely annoying - every time I see her face I just get the urge to punch her, but that’s a personal thing).

One other thing that majorly annoyed me was the way they talked, especially Heath. Was that supposed to be some Midwestern accent or something? Whatever it was, it was godawful. It not only made him sound slightly retarded, but I also had to really struggle to actually understand a word he said. I have seen most of Heath Ledger’s other movies, so I know the boy could enunciate and talk properly. This mumbling and muttering did not exactly add to my (already barely existing) enjoyment of the movie.

The only good thing were the nice nature shots in the first part of the movie, when they were actually still up on that mountain.

On the whole, I am clearly not impressed with the movie. I will strike this one from my mental list of Heath Ledger’s films and go on remembering him as the boy from 10 Things I Hate About You and A Knight’s Tale. And I keep hoping for The Dark Knight to be worth the wait.

I have just watched the sweetest, cutest, most wonderful, moving, funny and lovely movie ever.

“Juno” is every bit as great and fantastic as everybody is saying. Just wow. How ever many Oscars it received - it would definitely have deserved a couple more. And that is high praise, coming from me, who is normally not in the least moved by the thought of babies or pregnancy or any of that stuff.

Watching a 16-year-old goofy kid dealing with an unwanted pregnancy is usually not exactly my idea of fun. But then again, this movie is not exactly the usual kind of movie, either. The first time I read about it was the review on Pajiba.com. Often, as much as I love to read their bitchy reviews, I don’t agree with their opinions of the movies. But this time they were spot-on. So go on over there and read it, it’s better than anything I could write.

There really should be more films like this. (Wait, maybe there are and I just don’t know them? Do you?) Oh, and Ellen Page is lovely. Can’t wait to see more of her.

I am absolutely in love with this film. If you haven’t seen it: go and watch it, you’ll thank me later.

photo by mtsofan

I have just seen a scary thing. To understand why I find it scary you have to know one thing about me: I am not a pack rat.

Indeed, I am probably a little too good at throwing things away, because I have often found myself needing something I threw away 2 weeks ago and having to buy it again. But generally you could say that I just like my life to stay unencumbered by too many possessions.

Lately I have been on an uncluttering mission again. I go through not only my own room, but through the whole house and look for things nobody really uses anymore. And then I either throw them away, donate them or try to sell them on ebay (usually not for much money, but just to get rid of them). I just feel better when I look around my room and only see things I really use and need. Luckily my mom is with me on this, but my dad has a bit of a problem with letting things go.

But as annoying as this “we better keep this as we might need it one day”-habit of my dad is (often he is actually right about the “need it one day” part), it is NOTHING compared to other people’s problems.

I have just watched a short film by Martin Hampton about hoarders. The film is called “Possessed” (found the link via Get Rich Slowly) and it is really - and I mean REALLY - scary. I have been watching it with mounting horror and a dropped jaw.

It portrays 4 different people with huge hoarding problems.

I can kind of understand the first one (he’s hoarding mainly books and videos) and even the second one (he buys lots and lots of stuff, sometimes several times over, without actually using any of it as far as I could see). Their flats looked awful and I wouldn’t have wanted to live there, but mainly they’re suffering from weak impulse control, so I can in a way relate.

The third person was a woman and there is no other way to describe her than: seriously disturbed. She’s keeping everything. Every. Single. Thing. Empty bottles, used tissues, every trash imaginable. *shudder* You couldn’t pay me enough to step inside that appartment. How can anybody become so disturbed? It really boggles the mind.

Compared to that the fourth guy was almost a relief, because it apprears to me that he is mainly just a slob, too lazy to throw anything away and get his stuff in order.

Suddenly even my annoying flatmate in Leipzig, who clearly has the beginnings of a hoarding problem, seems like a well-adjusted person. Yes, he does keep a lot of useless stuff, but at least he keeps it only in his own room (which I have never entered) and in the big closet in the kitchen. As long as I do not have to deal with it, he can go on doing that for all I care. I hope to be out of his life quite soon so I won’t have to watch his descent into a real hoarder existence…

But watching that film made me itching to embark on another uncluttering round of the house tomorrow morning. And I definitely have to show the film to my parents. Even though they won’t be able to understand what’s being said I know they will feel just as shocked as I was by this.

I have mentioned before that I have a thing for dystopian fiction and of course I have heard of Richard Matheson’s book by the same name that inspired this movie. I haven’t got my hands on a copy so far, though, which is an oversight I plan to remedy soon.

So, instead of reading one of the classic science fiction books, I watched the movie a couple of days ago, not least because I loved the posters that hang all over town. Moreover, a movie starring Will Smith is never a hard sell on me. And did I mention the german shepherd?

Smith plays Robert Neville, the last man alive and sane in New York City after a man-made virus wiped out most of humankind. The people that weren’t killed by the virus have turned into very strange-looking, crazily aggressive creatures that only come out at night, because they are allergic to light. Neville used to be a military scientist and was in some way involved in the development of the allegedly cancer-curing virus. Well, I suppose killing everybody is one way to cure cancer. Now that everybody is dead or infected he is still trying to figure out what went wrong and trying to develop a cure for the cure. He lives with his dog Sam in a heavily fortified house, venturing out only during the day and hiding at night from the Dark Seekers, who are apparently out to kill everything that moves.

So what did I think of the movie?

To put it short: I liked big parts of it, especially the first hour or so. After that, when the woman and her son arrived, it went kinda downhill. The ending was not only way too cheesy for my taste, and as far as I gather from this book review it was also considerably altered from the book. Why do they always have to do that? But if you can live with the typically sweet Hollywood ending, I guess the movie is not too bad in many respects. It definitely is worth watching for the visuals of a deserted New York City. There is only one scene in the film that was decidedly hard for me to watch. If you see it you will probably know which one I mean.

Well, to get into a bit more detail, let me start with the good stuff:

1. As I said, Will Smith can hardly do anything wrong in my eyes. I loved him even in silly films, but here he was impressively intense. For the longest time he had to carry that movie all by himself, and he managed it admirably. During the first half of the movie we watch him battle with his lonely existence and his survivor’s guilt, trying to hold on to his sanity (with more or less success). The way he is hunting deer in the deserted city streets, or having a chat with some mannequins at a video store, not to mention the sight of him sitting at a desk on a pier, waiting for other survivors to show up, is just heartbreaking.

2. Always at Neville’s side is the beautiful german shepherd Sam. I loved that dog, not least because she can act better than a lot of human actors in Hollywood. (The downside to her part is that they go down the road each and every Hollywood movie takes when dogs are involved. I don’t have to actually spell it out, do I?)

3. Seeing New York City deserted was one of the most visually stunning images I have ever seen in any movie. Especially at the beginning it is really amazing to watch Neville drive through a completely people-free New York, with half overgrown streets, empty, sad buildings and destroyed bridges.

Unfortunately, as much as I loved these aspects of the movie, there were other parts that were just plain crap, namely almost all of the CGI effects. Holy cow, how could they botch that stuff so frickin’ completely? It looks like they gave those CGI-rendering programs to some high-school kid and let him run wild with it. They really should have asked somebody who actually knows what he is doing there.

It started with the CGI deer, which were actually not too bad. If you are not a biologist, that is. But then came the lions - Oh. My. God. Whoever CGIed those lions can only ever have heard of them by rough description. They were so bad I was starting to ask myself if this whole movie would turn into some cartoony spoof-fest or something. Completely spoiled the mood for a while. But luckily the things were on screen for only about 20 seconds or so.

Much, much worse were the CGIed Dark Seekers. They were truly craptastic. You would think CGI was invented only yesterday and nobody had really got the hang of it yet. What the fuck did they think? I haven’t read the book, but those things didn’t look like virus-infected people and they didn’t look like vampires either. Even for a respectable zombie they looked way too weird (and not in a good way). Can you remember the Borg Queen from the Star Trek movies? That’s the look they were going for, god knows why. Moreover they all kinda looked the same. Ridiculous, that is. And certainly not scary in the least. Which would have been not so bad, if they would have looked at least halfway believable.

Then there is the problem I always have with stories about crazy, excessively aggressive creatures like the Dark Seekers and that I call the “Reaver problem”. Reaver refers to one of my favorite movies, “Serenity”, but the basic problem here is exactly the same: How can these crazed creatures survive several years in that state? Supposedly in the three years since the deadly virus spread they must have killed every healthy survivor that was left (except Neville, of course) - so what do they eat? If they would turn against others of their own kind there probably wouldn’t be many of them left after such a long time. And somehow I can’t see them hunt deer, they don’t seem to have the skill for that. Plus, if they would do that on a regular basis, there probably wouldn’t be any deer left in Manhattan either. But if they do not turn against each other: why not? Considering their extremely aggressive behaviour towards everyone else that doesn’t make any sense.

But these are by far not the only questions this film raised for me. I will put the other ones below the cut, though, because if you haven’t seen the movie yet they contain spoilers.

Read the rest of this entry »