The Watcher
Monday, December 31st, 2007So, I watched lots of movies this week and I feel good. Very good, actually. I also caught up on some of the summer blockbusters.
For example, I set sail together with Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean 3 - At World’s End. The movie hasn’t been as good as I had hoped, unfortunately. Mostly because of a terrible and too complicated story. Personally, I liked Pirates 2 best. Films one and three were good, too; but what’s the point of wasting valuable screen time on fighting dead skeletons that cannot die anyway or changing sides so often that the audience doesn’t even know who they should cheer for.
Just before Christmas I went on a Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase in the 1989 movie of the same name. Funny, there isn’t anything else to say.
Also fought side by side with John McClaine in Live Free or Die Hard. This is a 100% fun ride with good action scenes and stunts and John McClaine (Bruce Willis) couldn’t have been better. If you’re into action flicks you’ll love this one!
Then I went into the future, because I had to help Blade Runner (final cut) Rick Deckard track down and kill replicants in the overcrowded Los Angeles of the year 2019. Blade Runner, and especially Ridley Scott’s final cut, is one of the very best science fiction movies ever made, if not the best. It’s far from being an optimistic movie. Scott’s and Philipp K. Dick’s vision of future America are too dark and depressing. The city is a character in itself, it’s always night, smoky and raining; millions of people are roaming the dirty streets. The movie isn’t your typical science fiction experience; it’s no Star Wars or E.T. (both are great movies, too, don’t get me wrong). It’s a philosophical piece that explores the very essence of human being and ends up to be an art movie more than a pure entertainment film. I can’t stress this enough: One of the best science fiction movies ever shot. It took the audience about 20 years to begin to appreciate this film, which has probably been ahead of its time when it was released in 1982. Today it’s a cult classic that’s only gotten better, since we now know that the dark future vision portrayed isn’t far from reality anymore. On a sidenote, Blade Runner has also been the last science fiction film that has been made completely without the use of computers. Nothing in the film has been generated digitally; it’s all good old movie making, movie sets, camera movements, light and smoke effects and damn good writing, directing and acting. Not seen this yet? Go and get it!
The other day I felt very strange, Stranger Than Fiction to be accurate. It’s been a refreshing and entertaining experience to watch this drama/comedy mix with Will Ferrell, Dustin Hoffmann, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Emma Thompson. Stranger Than Fiction isn’t as strange as Adaption or Being John Malkovich, but it’s just as much fun to see and it should be appropriate for a wider audience than Spike Jonze’s odd 1999 film. Postmodern film that could be a family movie, an art film, a quiet drama or a character study. Not sure, I just know that I did laugh a lot while seeing it and that I can recommend it to everybody who is a fan of quality movies, which are still being made in Hollywood, as it seems.
What followed was quite the contrary on the story level: I got pulled into the dark and compelling mind of director David Fincher. His new movie Zodiac could be his best work so far, although that’s really difficult to say: Fincher also made The Game, Seven, Panic Room and Fight Club. At least, Zodiac is quite differen than Fincher’s other movies. It’s dark too, but it’s almost like a documentary. I’ve always liked David Fincher’s style and the terrifying atmosphere he could generate during certain scenes. Zodiac isn’t for everyone. It’s a slow movie; just as slow as the 1960/1970 police investigations it’s based on. And it is depressing. And… an artful masterpiece.
Well, I wasn’t going to tell anybody, but I turned yellow in Springfield when I met The Simpsons (The Movie). Homer was dumb and a charm to meet. The Simpsons movie isn’t much of an increase over the TV series. Though, I had some good laughs.
Now, I’m looking forward to exploring the content of some other DVDs I bought his week, including De Niro’s The Good Shepherd, Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (already seen this, but want to check it out more thoroughly this time), Nolan’s Prestige, Zwick’s Blood Diamond and Ridley Scott’s small romantic film A Good Year.
