Category: Movies Page 6 of 7

I’ve already weighed in on Pixar’s Up. That I am a fan is no secret.

It has been wisely pointed out that a book is not fully enjoyed until it is read by friends and discussed. The same must be said about movies. I suppose it is true with any art. Though it can be experienced individually, it is meant to be experienced communally.

Since Uphas now come out on DVD, I’ve had the pleasure of watching it three more times. The pleasure now comes in watching the movie with others.

We recommended the film to some film lovers the other day, and they were hesitant, saying they were not great fans of animated movies. I was reminded, though, that this is one of those unique movies which SEEMS to be for children, but which has layers that make it worth the attention of the more discerning adult. My daughter-in-law pointed out a theme in the film that I had totally overlooked, which enriched the experience for me.

Art, I repeat, is enhanced when experienced communally.

* * * * *

I commented earlier that I did not think the 3D features of the theatrical release added anything to the movie. Having seen it now on my tiny 27″, low definition, analog TV, I find that nothing is lost. The power is not in the 3D effects, but in masterful storytelling.

It’s worth watching:

Immigration in the United States is a highly charged political issue. As with other such political issues, the fact that the issue involves real people is often lost in the rhetoric. Beneath the war of words and ideas are real human stories of drama and sacrifice and fear and hope. To be aware of these stories is to put a human face to the debate.

A couple of years ago, Tommy Lee Jones wrote and directed and acted in a strange, but good, movie called The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. It tells a good story, and explores the many ambiguities of a debate involving the lives of real men and women, on both sides of the issue.

Under the Same Moon is a film from 2007 which follows the story of a mother and her son who end up separated at the border, the boy taken in by his grandmother has to remain in Mexico, and the mother finds her way to Los Angeles, where she works hard to find a way to bring her young son to be with her. In time, the grandmother dies, and the son, now nine, finds a way to cross the border, and pursues a journey to find his mom.

This is not a ‘real’ story in the sense that there are too many unlikely things which happen. And yet, the story is painted on a canvas from a world very real, but obscured to many of us. Movies take me often into the worlds of the rich and the violent. This one takes me into another world which is worthy of the visit.

The story is a wonderful drama, well filmed, well acted, well told. It portrays many acts of sacrifice, one of which I have not been able to forget.

We bleed for movies.

Really.

Two weeks ago, I noted that Barb and I ‘rarely’ go to movies in the theater. It is actually an oddity that we have been able to attend two films, (500) Days of Summer and The Hurt Locker.

To attend these movies, given the times we went to see them, would have cost $30. We spent nothing.

It’s not that we know anyone working in the ticket booth. Rather, we’ve discovered that doing something we would do anyway, donating blood, comes with a special premium.

I don’t know about blood centers in other parts of the country, but in Manatee County and possibly other areas served by Florida Blood Services, when one gives blood on the first or last Monday of the month, one is given in return a movie ticket to a nearby Regal Cinema.

Donating blood saves lives. I feel privileged every time I give to have the health and history that enables me to serve my community in this way. We commend this to all of you, movie tickets or not. Barb and I would give blood without this incentive, as long as Tracey (at the Lakewood Ranch center) is drawing, the only person in the world who I trust aiming a blood drawing needle in my direction.

But I confess. We like the movie tickets, and we schedule our giving around this incentive. Apart from this, attending a movie in a theater would probably move from ‘rarely’ to close to never.

If you’ve never given blood, do so. I won’t say that I like doing it. I don’t. But it’s not nearly as bad as your imagination tells you that it is.

And if you live near the Lakewood Ranch center, ask for Tracey. Tell her I sent you.

Somewhere Confederate general Robert E. Lee said something like this, that it is good that war is so terrible or else we would grow too fond of it. Lee was a warrior for whom war’s terror mitigated the fascination he felt for it. The recent film The Hurt Locker is a war-action film that explores the character and motivation of a man for whom the rush of warfare is an addiction he just cannot shake.

The film is interesting in a number of ways. It is such a good action film that one reviewer says that if it is not the best of the summer, he will blow up his car. I think he’s kidding. The intriguing thing about this is that this testosterone infused cinema (I estimate it’s EPH* at about 10) was produced and directed by a woman (Karen Bigelow).

It is a film set in contemporary Iraq and follows a team of – I don’t know what they are called – men whose job it is to detect and defuse bombs, hopefully before they detonate. It’s a dicey job, and if the depictions of the Iraqi theater is in any way accurate, it’s a place none of of would want to be. I came away from the film with a deepened appreciation of what those who have been there have seen and faced.

I’m not a big fan of action movies which do not have ‘Bourne’ in the title. This one strives to be something more than an action film. It seems to aim for meaning. I continue to ponder the meaning and potentially redemptive insights of the film. I’m not sure I’ve figured it all out. A second viewing may help me sort that out. Or a third.

What is clear is that these men labor with great intensity and passion to save the lives of others. But there seems to be little offered which will deliver them from the destructive and explosive realities of their own hearts. And that is sad.

+ + + + +

*Explosions per Hour

In high school, I met a girl at a Cincinnati city-wide church youth rally. I was taken with her, I pursued her and, I thought, she responded. Since we lived in opposite parts of the city, our relationship was long distance except for our one date (a telling detail) when we went to see a performance of Jesus Christ, Superstar at Cincinnati’s Music Hall.

A few days later I called her on the phone. We talked, sort of. There would be longish bits of conversation on my part followed by extended silences on her part. Finally, sensing something going down, I said “What are you doing?”

“Algebra.”

That was, to put it mildly, cold. Clearly I was beginning to learn what many guys learn at that age: girls are evil.

If you are alert at the beginning of the new, and strangely good, movie (500) Days of Summer, you will sense that a similar experience must lie behind it.

As the narrator tells us, this is not your typical movie love story. It is, rather, a story about love. To tell you that by the end of the 500 days that Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) spends with Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel), the two have parted ways is not to ruin the film. We find that out immediately.

This is not your typical romantic comedy. Here, boy meets girl, and girl dumps boy. Who wants to see that? The romantic genre is an escape. We expect happily ever after. This story more real than fantasy, so real for some that it may be painful. (My wife said as we drove away from the theater, “That happened to me.”)

And yet, the story’s realistic elements are so well balanced with humor and creativity that it is not only bearable, but at times fun. My wife pointed out the the film made her sad and made her angry, but as well made her laugh and made her happy.

One leaves the film not quite knowing what to think. Personally, I wanted to run Zooey Deschanel through with a sharp object, behavior unbecoming a pastor, to be sure. I mean, love must mean never having to say “I’m sorry” because to my recollection Summer Finn never does.

Does the film encourage or discourage romance? Are we to sympathize with Tom’s struggle, or are we to see his foolishness? Is romance a reality or an illusion? Does the movie encourage casual sex or is it showing the inherent perils of it? What are we to think?

Clearly the first 30 seconds of the film set the tone. The final 30 seconds redeem the whole. What lies between makes me glad that I’m enjoying this on film, and no longer for real.

Our movie watching does not normally involve going to a theater. Most often, we are at home, watching big screen fare on our relatively tiny and old-fashioned 27-inch LDTV (!) screen. Unlike some, therefore, my movie reports are rarely current.

Plus, I don’t always get around to reporting on what we watch. So, Let me run through a few quickly in advance of the weekend.

What a Girl Really Wants

My movie watching partner is a ‘chick’ and so weekends include at least one ‘chick flick’. Last weekend we watched, for the third or fourth time, Kate and Leopold with Hugh Jackman and Meg Ryan in the starring roles, with a good supporting performance by Liev Schreiber. This movie is unique in many ways, but its real appeal lies, I think, in the way the girl is won.

Jackman plays a 19th Century Brit brought into the late 20th century. What wows the girl is his treating her with respect, showing her honor, defending her, and protecting her. He wins her affection by being a gentleman. What a concept, and by no means is it outdated. My impression, guys, is that it still is what a girl wants.

What Brothers Want

I really am not interested in yet another movie about the holocaust, but here we are with Defiance. We are told that this is based upon a true story. Aren’t they all?

I don’t mean to be snarky, for I am often moved by these stories of courage and integrity and forbearance in the face of such evil. This has all of that, and is a good story.

There just wasn’t much to make it stand out from the pack. Perhaps it was the young man fulfilling a Moses type role while denying the need for God that bothered me. “This is a miracle we will accomplish on our own,” he says, or something nearly like it. Perhaps it was that none of the characters were truly heroic (with the exception of the character played by Mia Wasikowska, about whom we will certainly be hearing more).

Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber (yes, him again – he’s one of my favorites) take sibling rivalry to new levels, and bring it all to a satisfying conclusion.

What the French Want

If Barb has a weakness for the action flick and the chick flick (the above two were her choices), I have a weakness for the quirky, offbeat drama. Bottle Shock fits the bill there admirably. This movie tells the story of a British wine snob, Severus Snape, (oops… wrong movie) who runs a wine shop in Paris. In a marketing ploy of international proportions he sets up a blind tasting comparing the classic French wines with the upstart Californian varieties. The result shocked the world.

At least that’s what I’m told. I was alive in 1978 when this happened, and it had no impact on my world.

But it makes a fun movie. It has elements of dramatic tension, of humor, of father-son angst, of friendship, and of the loser-stoner making good, getting the girl, and getting a very sweet follow-up role.

What No One Wants

Sometimes my desire for a quirky, offbeat drama leads me astray. The real fun of The Great Buck Howard was watching both Colin Hanks and his father Tom Hanks play in the same movie. As a father and son, no less. Pretty cool.

Buck Howard is based loosely upon the career of the ‘mentalist’ known as The Amazing Kreskin. John Malkovich is one of the most phenomenal actors out there, so that this film is also redeemed by watching a master of his craft create a character and sustain it through the whole movie.

I found that the movie failed to really sustain my interest. It wasn’t bad, exactly. The idea of watching the career of a man about whom it is said, “He is all washed up, and everyone knows it but him” does not make for very hopeful fare. There is, however, a note of redemption in the end, for which I was grateful.

Movie critics are often good ones to highlight a hidden gem or to warn against an impending bomb. Normally, there are a few I find helpful in choosing how to invest my viewing time.

Not so much in recent weeks.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a curious case of misplaced critical love. This movie received 13 Oscar nominations, winning three, and a 71% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In our opinion, the movie was tedious, disheartening, and weird.

It tells the story of one Benjamin Button who is born when he is 80 something and as the years progress, he regresses to childhood and infancy. While the world ages, he gets younger. Sort of.

I believe that science fiction and fantasy can be great media through which important questions of life and wisdom can be raised, faced, considered. Benjamin Button really ponders nothing deeper than how awful it would be to grow younger as one ages.

I was happy to find that Barb and I were not alone in our assessment. Roger Ebert expresses our discomfort with the film precisely.

+ + + + +

A similar but opposite experience confronted us Saturday night as we watched Inkheart. Here is a movie that was so largely canned by the critics (39% on Rotten Tomatoes) that I was a bit uncertain in watching it, expecting that we would be disappointed.

We weren’t.

The film was, in my opinion, wonderfully shot, well paced, and intriguing to the end. It’s greatest asset was a wonderfully selected cast including charming performances by Brendan Fraser, Andy Serkis, Paul Bettany, Jim Broadbent, and Helen Mirren.

Perhaps I’m just a sucker for films that ponder the power of the written word to bring worlds to life. Perhaps I find too much interest in the question of how the stories of our lives are being written. Perhaps I bring too much philosophic pondering to movies I watch.

The movie raises such issues for me. But that it does did not dim at all the intensity with which the film was watched by the four children, all under ten, crowded onto our couch watching with us.

A family film flirting with philosophical and theological questions keeping single digit kids on the edge of their seats, with well cast, quality actors. What more could one want?