Getting Into The Christmas Spirit

Want to know how I celebrated Christmas? After opening all the presents under the tree with my family, I went to the movies. Yeah, big shocker. I practically live at a movie theater. But anyway, I decided to go see The Spirit, a cinematic adaptation of the comic book hero created by Will Eisner in 1940. I had absolutely no expectations going in, due to my lack of knowledge regarding the Spirit character, but I figured I'd give it a shot anyway. I was almost afraid I'd miss the showing I was there for, because the line of people there to buy tickets for Marley & Me stretched outside the building all the way to the parking lot. But I did get to see it after all, so let's talk about it.

Judging by all the promotional material, you'd think that the movie would end up being something similar to Sin City, especially considering that both of them were directed by Frank Miller. And as far as appearances, yeah, the movie looks exactly like Sin City. But unlike the grittiness of Sin City, The Spirit is essentially a live-action cartoon. It's thoroughly silly to the point of being absurd, feeling like a remake of Sin City as performed by Bugs Bunny and crew. There's also no story to speak of. Seriously, I couldn't identify any sort of plot whatsoever. There was something about stealing these cases filled with ancient artifacts, but I had no clue at all what was supposed to be happening. So while Miller's direction is visually exciting and stimulating, his writing leaves a whole lot to be desired.

But while I can't say I liked the movie's script, I'll applaud the acting, with Gabriel Macht and Samuel L. Jackson putting forth awesome performances worth seeing the movie for. In fact, the only bad part of the movie was the fact that the first half of the movie is way too slow. It takes a while for things to really get rolling, but once it does, it's a lot of fun. So I guess in short, I'd be willing to give The Spirit a thumbs-in-the-middle with three stars. It's worth a shot if you think you might be into it. It won't be up everyone's alley, but I didn't think it was too bad at all.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everybody! (And happy all those other holidays to everybody else.) I hope you're all having a great day. Me, I'm fantastic.

I promised a new review of a Christmas movie today, so I might as well share it. I finished it a couple of days ago, and now I hope you'll enjoy reading my review of the '80s slasher movie Silent Night, Deadly Night. I don't know what I'm going to review next Christmas, but at least I have a year to decide.

Anyway, have fun reading, and have a great Christmas.

Bite-Sized Reviews

I wrote the other day about how I'd been putting work in on the reviews I'd been planning. And in regards to that, I finished two reviews Friday night, and I'll hopefully be able to finish my Christmas review within the next week or so. But I decided to take a break from writing those full-length reviews to watch some of the movies I'd downloaded over the last few months. So why not do some quickie reviews?

The fun began on Saturday night with Resident Evil: Degeneration, the CGI-animated movie commissioned by Capcom to bridge the gap between Resident Evil 4 and the upcoming Resident Evil 5. So what did I think of it? As a ninety-minute video game cutscene, it works. It has everything you could want from the Resident Evil franchise: guns, zombies, a giant monster, blood, evil pharmaceutical corporations, and more blood. Plus there's the obligatory reference to Raccoon City and even a cameo (in flashback form) from Resident Evil 2 villain William Birkin. Alas, no Wesker and no Ada. Bummer.

I did enjoy the movie, though. It stays closer to the spirit of the games than the live-action movie trilogy, but I don't know if I would call Degeneration a good entry point for the world depicted in the Resident Evil games. If you've never played the games, you might not "get" the movie. But I liked it, and that's all that matters to me. So I'm giving Resident Evil: Degeneration three and a half stars and a thumbs up.

Next on the list was Tropic Thunder, a movie that I wanted to see this past summer and missed. I'm bummed that I'm just now getting around to watching it, because it's hilarious. The acting is what really drives a movie like this, and the cast are all on their A-game. Robert Downey Jr. completely steals the show, really earning all the praise he's been getting with his incredibly funny, over-the-top performance. The supporting cast is good too, and Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Tom Cruise - none of whom I can really say I'm a very big fan of - are all really, really funny.

Tropic Thunder was a pretty big hit during its theatrical run, and it's been on DVD for a while. So I'm pretty sure every one who wanted to see it has by now. But if you have any interest in Tropic Thunder at all, head out to the local Blockbuster and rent it. Me, I'll give it four stars and my seal of approval.

So those were just the movies I watched Saturday night. I decided to keep the ball rolling into Sunday, and watched two more movies last night. Starting off the evening was Gran Torino, the new movie from Clint Eastwood. It isn't in wide release until January, which means that it won't be playing in my neck of the woods for another month. But I managed to find a screener intended for Oscar voters that had turned up online, so I figured, "why wait?" And after watching the movie, I was really blown away by just how gripping it was. I just couldn't turn away from the movie for more than a second. It's got its flaws, but it's otherwise fantastic.

I've heard a rumor that this might be Eastwood's last movie as an actor, and if that's true, he's picked a fine note to go out on. His character is a crotchety old racist who can't quite get along with his Hmong neighbors and is treated like crap by his spoiled sons and his disrespectful grandchildren, a character that Eastwood really brings to life. (And if my family was like his character's, I'd probably be in a pretty pissed off mood all the time too. I don't know if I'd use all those racial slurs, though.) There are also very good performances from Bee Vang and Ahney Her; I've never heard of either of them previously, but both of them contribute their fair share of the movie, and by the end, you find yourself liking them a lot.

But to sum this all up, I thought Gran Torino was a great movie. Once it opens up in your area, I'd totally suggest going to see it. I liked it enough that I might even have to go see it again theatrically. The final rating is four stars out of the usual five, and one huge recommendation.

The second flick on last night's double feature was Fido, a Canadian comedy that saw a limited theatrical release last year. The plot? It's the 1950s, and zombies have been domesticated and turned into pets/slaves. Hijinks ensue. Yeah, this is exactly the kind of movie that one would watch immediately after watching a drama about a racist who overcomes his long-held prejudices by defending his Asian neighbors from a gang. Right? All kidding aside, I'd heard a lot about the movie over the last year and a half or so. But when I got the chance to actually see it when it aired on the Sundance Channel last weekend, I totally forgot about it and missed the whole thing. But thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I finally got to see it, and I enjoyed it a lot.

For those of you still with me here, Fido is a parody of 1950s pop culture. From Lassie to bad monster movies to those crappy, overblown propaganda film reels, Fido hits all of those bases and has a silly go with it all. If you ever wondered how the ultra-saccharine world that Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon visited in Pleasantville would deal with a zombie apocalypse, this would be the movie for you.

The movie's writing is really clever and smart, but it's main drawing point is its cast. Though it's ostensibly an ensemble cast, the movie really hangs on K'Sun Ray and Carrie-Anne Moss. Their performances really hold the whole movie together. Ray is innocent and charming, which is exactly what his character needs to be, while Moss's turn as Ray's character's mother is warm and full of life. It might sound hyperbolic, but Fido is a better movie because of Ray and Moss. And I also have to say how much I enjoyed Tim Blake Nelson in his small supporting role. That guy is a hoot.

So yeah, I totally dug Fido. It isn't quite the best zombie comedy I've seen, but it's a cute movie that probably deserves a bigger audience than what it has. I'm going to give it a solid "thumbs in the middle" with three stars. Give it a rental, you might like it.

And that's all for the downloaded double features right now. I'll probably pick back up with more of them in the future. But for now, I need to get back into my work on "Super Saturday 2" and my Christmas review. Those things aren't going to write themselves, unfortunately.

The Day The Blog Stood Still

I once again headed out to the movies, this time to see the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still. Having never seen more than just a few minutes of the original movie, I didn't really have any sort of expectations for this new interpretation of the old classic. And after watching it, I can safely say that the remake is just "okay."

I didn't hate the movie, but I'm unable to rave about it either. I'm actually rather ambivalent towards it. It's a serviceable movie, although it is an ultimately mediocre one as well. That's a real bummer too, because movies that are either one extreme or the other are more fun to right about. It's kinda hard to get worked up over a movie where your opinion can be summed up with the phrase, "eh, it was alright." Know what I mean?

The movie has both its good spots and its bad spots. The acting is hit or miss, with Kathy Bates and Jaden Smith being the weakest. Seriously, I didn't see any purpose for Smith's character to be in the movie at all, and his blah acting didn't help things. The ending was also rather anticlimactic, and the whole thing ends up feeling hollow. It's a shame too, because the movie could have been great. So I'm just going to give it a thumbs in the middle with three stars on my usual five-star scale. It's an acceptable way to kill two hours if you can get into the theater at a cheap price, but if you don't see it, you aren't really missing a whole lot.

And the trailer they ran for the new Wolverine movie coming out next May? Consider my ticket for the movie already purchased.

Project Progress

Ugh, I hate having so little to do. It's really frustrating. Know what I mean? So I guess I can just fire up the blog and use it to kill some time, even if I'll have to struggle to think of something to talk about.

I guess I could always talk about the different things I've been working on. Yeah, I'm still trying to finish that "Super Saturday 2" project I started about six or seven months ago. I don't really have a reason as to why it's taking me so long to finish these things, outside of a bad case of laziness. The DVD I currently have in from Netflix has been in my possession for right at a month now, and although I'm almost done with the review of it, I keep putting off what little work I have left to do. I still have quite a few movies left to write about after this one, so I'm hoping to be done sometime by... oh, let's say February.

It might be a little longer, though, because I also started working on a side project earlier this week. I reviewed some Christmas movies in 2006 and 2007, and I didn't want 2008 to be any different. Therefore, I started on a new review of a Christmas movie on Monday. Christmas is two weeks away, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to have it finished in time to post it on the 25th. Just like the list of movies I've compiled for Super Saturday 2, my Christmas movie of choice is going to remain a secret until it's actually posted. But I hope that you readers will get a kick out of it when I finally put it online.

I still think I almost got a little bit too over my head by taking on that Super Saturday 2 idea. Or at the very least, I might have picked too many movies for it. This is the third time I've attempted a big multi-review project (following the first Super Saturday in 2005 and "Sutton at the Arcade" a year ago), and it seems more troublesome this time. I could always blame it on the fact that a number of the movies I'm reviewing are lame, but I could say the same thing about Sutton at the Arcade, and I got that done in a respectable amount of time. I guess I need to start sitting down and really concentrating on these things. But as I always say, I figure I'll finish them sooner or later. I usually do, don't I?

Gunshots And Explosions: The Movie

Despite being worn out from the busy evening I had last night, I got out again this afternoon to go see Punisher: War Zone. Following in the footsteps of this summer's The Incredible Hulk, this one reboots the Punisher movie franchise while only offering the briefest of origin stories. And just why would they do that? Beats me. I didn't see just what was so wrong with the last movie. Yeah, it had its fair share of flaws, but I don't see the reason why they needed to hit the reset button instead of calling this one Punisher 2. Even if they had to replace Tom Jane in the lead role, this one could have just as easily been a sequel.

But anyway, I totally dug Punisher: War Zone. The filmmakers apparently decided to take this reboot in a direction more akin to Dolph Lundgren's long-forgotten Punisher movie from 1989, focusing less on a tortured, introspective Frank Castle, and more on a Frank Castle who likes shooting people and making things explode. And frankly, that makes Punisher: War Zone a whole lot of fun. It's a colorful assault on the senses that rarely ever lets up, but still provides a boatload of entertainment for those who enjoy seeing wild action movies with high body counts and no plot. And it helps a lot that director Lexi Alexander has chosen to break away from the very annoying norm by actually holding the camera still during the action scenes, allowing us to see what's happening during the moments we're there to see in the first place.

Ray Stevenson steps into the role of the Punisher, and he does a great job. The character has only a rare number of moments where he isn't killing every bad guy within a two-mile radius, and Stevenson handles these scenes well. The supporting cast are all acceptable as well, but the show is thoroughly stolen by Dominic West as Frank Castle's primary nemesis, Jigsaw. West plays the role almost as if he were channelling Jack Nicholson in Batman, an entertaining performance that makes every scene he appears in worth watching.

As it stands now, Punisher: War Zone isn't doing so hot at the box office. It came in at the eighth spot in the domestic rankings, which is kinda shocking considering it was the only new movie in wide release this weekend. Me and my dad were the only people in the theater too, something that hasn't happened to me personally in a long time. So needless to say, I think we can already call the movie a bomb. But it's totally worth seeing. It's an over-the-top B-grade action movie that is more silly than serious, and I couldn't love it more. Therefore, I'm going to give the movie three and a half stars out of the typical five, along with a thumbs up. Go check it out before your local theater stops carrying it, okay?

Getting My Money's Worth

This might be a short entry, but I want to get it up while things are still fresh in my mind. My dad and I just got home from seeing some good ol' professional wrestling. No, not WWE. No, not some nameless indie promotion. No, we instead attended a show Total Nonstop Action was putting on in Lawrenceburg. Ostensibly the number-two wrestling company in America, TNA isn't a promotion I can say I watch with any regularity. I don't think I've watched TNA's show on a regular basis since they left Fox Sports in the middle of 2005. But the chance to see a bunch of wrestlers who appear on national TV, along with a handful of former WWE wrestlers, within 45 minutes of my house wasn't something I wanted to pass up. So my dad and I hit the road to see some TNA. (That sounds so very wrong.)

As someone who is perhaps the most casual of all causal TNA viewers, I have to admit that I had a really good time. The fantastic seats helped, but the fact that the wrestlers seemed to be going out of their way to entertain the crowd really enhanced the experience. The matches were all a lot of fun, and the fact that they were giving away backstage passes to certain people throughout the show really improves my view of the company. And I can't say enough about the post-show activities. After the show, five or six wrestlers came out to sign autographs, and they even let fans get into the ring to take pictures with two of the show's main eventers. (You'd better believe I took advantage of that.) And I even scored a free bag of TNA goodies by correctly answering a question in a trivia game some guy was playing with audience members that were still hanging around.

Seriously, though, the show was a blast. If TNA ran another show around here, I'd totally go. I definitely got my money's worth.

Broken Toys

You know what really sucks? My Xbox 360 is on the blink. An E74 error message popped up last night, which means one of two things. One, I'll need to replace the AV cables. That's the best case scenario, because that'll be the easiest thing to take care of. The only problem is that I don't know anyone else who owns a 360, so I can't swap out the cables to see if that's what's wrong. So I'll probably have to take it to a GameStop or somewhere like that, and see if they would be willing to test it for me. If all I need is a new set of cables, that would be no big deal.

The second possible problem is the worst case scenario. In this event, the problem is an internal error, and I'm screwed. The first year of my warranty expired (two weeks ago, frustratingly enough), and I've heard that an E74 error isn't covered by what remains of that warranty. So that means if I have to send it back to Microsoft for repairs, it's going to cost me over 100 bucks. And that's not a fee I'm willing or able to pay right now.

Right now, I'm hoping it's just the cables. I can live with buying replacement cables if I have to, since they're relatively cheap. At the very least, I'd hope that I could find a professional to refurbish it at a price cheaper than what Microsoft would charge. Because paying 100 dollars or more for something that should be under the entire warranty is outrageous. I'm sure I'll end up having to spend some money to fix it, since the only other option is to crack it open and work on it myself. And that would probably just make things worse, considering I wouldn't know what I was doing.

Sigh... why can't I have nice things?

Time Flies

We've now entered the month of December, which means that the countdown is on. Not just the countdown to Christmas, mind you, but the countdown to 2009 as well.

The year has gone by way too fast. I know I say that every year, but 2008 has really been trucking along. It seems like just yesterday that we were ringing in 2008, and now it's only one scant month from being over. It's crazy, isn't it? Yeah, I'm ready for the new year, but sometimes I wish the current one would slow down and say hi once in a while.