Mid-Year Movie Season

I wanted to write a whole "summer wrapup" and here it is late October and I've barely started. Sigh.

But, I'm going to do a recap of some movie "season"... we'll call it the "Mid-Year Season":

I think it's been a weird year for movies. The summer was smattered with fun films like Superman, X-Men, and Pirates. But somehow, even though the effects get bigger and bigger, I don't have the joie de cinema that I used to have. Could be my age... right?

Or could it be that summer movies aren't that good this year? I think I'll go with that one.

X-Men was actually fun... and good. And the whole concept of mutants gives them license to use special effects all over the place. They killed off a lot of characters ... so I'm guessing it really was the last stand. I give them kudos for completely restructuring the original story (to shorten the entire history of "The Phoenix") without destroying it. Excellent rewrite... but you'd have to be a long-time fan to appreciate it.

Superman got rave reviews but to tell the truth I missed it in the theater! Gasp.
Stay tuned for a really late review of that one.

Dead Man's Chestwas great because I love Johnny Depp. But I walked out of the theater with Back to the Future deja vu (is that redundant?). I love Jack Sparrow (which is the same thing Gianna kept telling me during the movie. She loves Captain Jack too!) I just wish they'd spent less money on the boats and more on the plot. I think it's gotten quite convoluted. The fight scenes are predictable instead of being fresh and fun.

In the first movie, I was completely taken in when Johnny and Orlando had their fight scene. You don't know if either of them are any good and it's a fun scene... the donkey, the tipsy cart... and the sword fight at the end is brilliant when you find out that Jack is "dead" too. Wonderful twists to the sword play.

But, this year I just wasn't impressed... the rolling water wheel was gimmicky (and way to hard to follow... I just got tired of the round-n-round! I sure hope the next one has some freshness to it!

Hollywoodland was wonderful. To quote my movie-mate, "It was a nice, adult film." I love Adrian Brody, and I've never said that before. The sets and costumes were wonderful. I found myself enthralled with the look of 40s Hollywood. The shine on the cars, the glint on the seedy motel sign... the wonderfully retro-look. Turns out it was filmed outside the US ... ironically... I think in Toronto, because there is nothing left of retro-Hollywood in LA.

Aside: the retro-look and nod to the 50s and 60s is what I loved about Disney's Cars this summer too. But the kids I went with were totally bored during the nostalgia stuff.

I loved how they played out the possible scenarios, so you can envision them... can enjoy each one... and then they just leave it "unsolved." I read criticisms of the movie that poked at the film for not telling them how George died. But, of course, we'll never know more than the movies tells us. And I think it's a strength of the film, not a gap.

The Illusionist was just okay and the high point for me was that I discovered that Ed Norton is a babe. He was absolutely adorable. My movie-mate summed it up: "It was a silly little film." Jessica looked good. Paul Giamatti was excellent. But, I wasn't fooled by the plot machinations ... so the illusion didn't work on me. The costumes were really cool, but I think that about every period movie.

You'd think I'd have more movie info, what with all my free time, but alas...

I have to see The Prestige (Peggy... are we picking a date?)
I've got The Departed on my list, and
I can't wait for Stranger Than Fiction.

I just hope the end of the year is better than this Mid-Season.