Read it at http://www.extracriticum.com/extra_criticum/2010/06/sex-and-a-country-of-ageists.html
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
"Sex and the Country of Ageists" Now Posted on Extra Criticum
Read it at http://www.extracriticum.com/extra_criticum/2010/06/sex-and-a-country-of-ageists.html
Friday, March 20, 2009
WE PEDAL UPHILL OPENS TODAY AT THE CINEMA VILLAGE IN NYC
For the New York Times review of WE PEDAL UPHILL go to http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/movies/20peda.html?scp=2&sq=We%20Pedal%20UPhill&st=cse
http://www.readyticket.net/webticket/htmlshowtimes/27/.\ShowTimes39892.html
And for a trailer of the movie, go to: http://www.wepedaluphill.com/
Monday, March 16, 2009
WE PEDAL UPHILL OPENS FRIDAY MARCH 20TH!
It's finally here! This Friday Roland's WE PEDAL UPHILL will open at the Cinema Village here in Manhattan and I hope you'll be able to join us! Tickets are $10 and can be ordered online here:
If you're not familiar with the flick, check out the website and trailer here: http://www.wepedaluphill.com
Will look forward to seeing you all there and when buying ticks, keep in mind that there is a q and a with Roland and a couple of the stars following both 7:30 showtimes on Friday March 20th and Saturday March 21st.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
A Not Just West Side Story
It was Valentine’s Day and so the BF and I decided to head to the Chelsea Clearview for a late night showing of WEST SIDE STORY. Being a fan of film from a young age I’ve seen a lot of movies but generally prefer seeing musicals on stage to movies. It’s just the way that I am which is how it is that I turn 45 in a couple weeks and have for the first time ever seen WEST SIDE STORY.
Well, just wow. It’s strange how dancing gangs of guys seem funny at first but become normal about a third the way in. The best part? The flick was a mere $10. This I guess shouldn’t sound like a great deal but it is considering that movies have ballooned up to $12.50 here in Manhattan.. making it like the third or fourth price increase in about a year.
I’d be fine with the price increase if the concessions were going down (they’re not) or the movies were really great (they are SO not).. what’s the way to keep people away from your business? Make it too expensive to go.
So phooey on Chelsea Clearview and any theatre charging $12.50 for crap like THE INTERNATIONAL (even if it does star Clive Owen who can, for the most part, simply sit in a chair and I’d find it interesting).
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Blu about Ray
I'm willing to take a chance on a movie that's iffy for a few bucks at the video store or through netflix but damn if I'm not seriously angry paying $12 to sit through something that turns out to be awful. And that's not including the price of popcorn and soda.
I also really resent being pressured into replacing my entire DVD collection with BluRay duplicates. I'm hoping to hold on to my DVD player through the BluRay phase and wait til the 'next big technological breakthrough' hits and we have to replace everything AGAIN.
BTW this is a great way for the studios to make money, but a crappy way to treat moviegoers.
I also really resent being pressured into replacing my entire DVD collection with BluRay duplicates. I'm hoping to hold on to my DVD player through the BluRay phase and wait til the 'next big technological breakthrough' hits and we have to replace everything AGAIN.
BTW this is a great way for the studios to make money, but a crappy way to treat moviegoers.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The Summer So Far, The Sequel
Here are a few more things that I know I know:
13. My apartment smells of 'guy'.. not bad but not good either. When I say 'guy', I mean like the way a male teenager's room smells or a locker room smells or feet, well, you get the point. Is the answer candles? Sprays? My roommate and I both shower regularly, wear clean clothes and there are no dishes in the sink. And yet it smells like 'guy'. What is up with that?
14. Just the mere mention of the documentary "Man on Wire" (about a man who walked a cable strung between the Twin Towers in 1974) gives me vertigo and makes my legs all swimmy. Just reading the commentaries on http://www.extracriticum.com leave me feeling as though I'm in free-fall 110 stories above the Earth. My fear of heights seems to have sharpened as I've gotten older despite my attempts to "cure" myself - going up to the oberservation deck - the 80th floor or so- of the Towers in 1986 and looking down between the two buildings was a start, going to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, the top of the Eifel Tower in Paris and other such monuments, I thought would cure me but alas it has not. Frankly, 911 just confirmed my worst fears of what could happen when one is in a tall building. Thank God the BF lives on the 5th floor of his building!
15. I need a weekend out of the city. I think I've written this before but it bears repeating. Maybe I'll just get on the first train some weekend out of Penn Station and take it to whereever and then get out and get on the first train heading back. I need to get off this island even if only for a few hours (I know I know, there's always Brooklyn and Queens.. but those boroughs used to be their own distinct place, but now they are really just extensions of Manhattan). Maybe over Labor Day weekend.
16. Swing Vote still sucks. And worse, I remembered this morning that I had remarked at the time that one scene uses virtually bar for bar the music from Costner's Field of Dreams all in a cynical attempt to evoke the good will of the earlier, much better, movie. As I'm a HUGE fan of FOD and have seen it a dozen times and listened to the soundtrack perhaps a hundred times, I know of what I speak.
17. I watched General Hospital on Soap Net Tuesday night because there was nothing else on and it's virtually unwatchable. It's still mob-centric, the Quartermaines are nearly extinct. The Q's were picked off one by one over the past five years and now are bearly recognizable.
Plus the show stupidly killed off the son of a legacy character rather than mine him for decades of history. The newcomers are decent though but it's not a show I know anymore.
My wish is that someone on the show would go back in time to 1998 when all my favorite characters were still alive and change history and then over a year the show would rewrite and revisit the storylines of the last decade so that by the time they got current, we'd have all of our favorites living again, a real development of what's been going on with them over the past ten years and the basis for a show that I personally would love to watch again. Naturally that'll never happen.
But I do have a question: why must a character be killed off if the writers need to write them out? Does no one get a job or go to school or have a relative to take care of out of town? To me, it's creative bankruptcy to kill as many characters as GH has done and is detrimental to the long survival of the show and by some rights, the genre. Sigh. But no one asked me.
18. "Night Shift" - the GH nighttime spin off isn't so bad though. Focusing on the hospital the way, you know, a show named "General Hospital" should. I'm just sayin.
19. I am having tremendous fun noodling around with the Thirteen Facebook page creating graphics and writing a daily blog. It's keeping me off the streets and sometimes that's the most one can ask out of life.
And those are the things that I know I know today.
13. My apartment smells of 'guy'.. not bad but not good either. When I say 'guy', I mean like the way a male teenager's room smells or a locker room smells or feet, well, you get the point. Is the answer candles? Sprays? My roommate and I both shower regularly, wear clean clothes and there are no dishes in the sink. And yet it smells like 'guy'. What is up with that?
14. Just the mere mention of the documentary "Man on Wire" (about a man who walked a cable strung between the Twin Towers in 1974) gives me vertigo and makes my legs all swimmy. Just reading the commentaries on http://www.extracriticum.com leave me feeling as though I'm in free-fall 110 stories above the Earth. My fear of heights seems to have sharpened as I've gotten older despite my attempts to "cure" myself - going up to the oberservation deck - the 80th floor or so- of the Towers in 1986 and looking down between the two buildings was a start, going to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, the top of the Eifel Tower in Paris and other such monuments, I thought would cure me but alas it has not. Frankly, 911 just confirmed my worst fears of what could happen when one is in a tall building. Thank God the BF lives on the 5th floor of his building!
15. I need a weekend out of the city. I think I've written this before but it bears repeating. Maybe I'll just get on the first train some weekend out of Penn Station and take it to whereever and then get out and get on the first train heading back. I need to get off this island even if only for a few hours (I know I know, there's always Brooklyn and Queens.. but those boroughs used to be their own distinct place, but now they are really just extensions of Manhattan). Maybe over Labor Day weekend.
16. Swing Vote still sucks. And worse, I remembered this morning that I had remarked at the time that one scene uses virtually bar for bar the music from Costner's Field of Dreams all in a cynical attempt to evoke the good will of the earlier, much better, movie. As I'm a HUGE fan of FOD and have seen it a dozen times and listened to the soundtrack perhaps a hundred times, I know of what I speak.
17. I watched General Hospital on Soap Net Tuesday night because there was nothing else on and it's virtually unwatchable. It's still mob-centric, the Quartermaines are nearly extinct. The Q's were picked off one by one over the past five years and now are bearly recognizable.
Plus the show stupidly killed off the son of a legacy character rather than mine him for decades of history. The newcomers are decent though but it's not a show I know anymore.
My wish is that someone on the show would go back in time to 1998 when all my favorite characters were still alive and change history and then over a year the show would rewrite and revisit the storylines of the last decade so that by the time they got current, we'd have all of our favorites living again, a real development of what's been going on with them over the past ten years and the basis for a show that I personally would love to watch again. Naturally that'll never happen.
But I do have a question: why must a character be killed off if the writers need to write them out? Does no one get a job or go to school or have a relative to take care of out of town? To me, it's creative bankruptcy to kill as many characters as GH has done and is detrimental to the long survival of the show and by some rights, the genre. Sigh. But no one asked me.
18. "Night Shift" - the GH nighttime spin off isn't so bad though. Focusing on the hospital the way, you know, a show named "General Hospital" should. I'm just sayin.
19. I am having tremendous fun noodling around with the Thirteen Facebook page creating graphics and writing a daily blog. It's keeping me off the streets and sometimes that's the most one can ask out of life.
And those are the things that I know I know today.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Here's what I know I know:
1. It's been hotter and more humid for longer than any other summer that I remember being or living in New York. The really bad hot/humid weather usually lasts for a couple weeks in mid August but the rest of it is bearable. This year it started in early June and just lingered. It hung around like a bad relative, unwilling or unable to leave. I measure this by how many times I have to turn on the air conditioning in my apartment because at the current Con Ed rates, if I turn it on, it'd better be because parts of me are melting off my body.
2. Summer movies blow if you're an adult. I enjoyed Mamma Mia and that had no real weight whatsoever. It was over the top splendor, ridiculous camp and a solo by Meryl Streep that took a mediocre song like "The Winner Takes it All" and actually made it about something real. Poor Pierce Brosnan though; cringe-worthy singing and mind numbing exposition "I have been trying for two days to tell you that I'm divorced but I can't seem to find you while staying in your own hotel on this tiny Greek island" Sheesh. Whatever they paid him, it wasn't enough. But everyone had a good time and people were singing in the audience and it's been one of the highlights movie-going wise.
3. Remakes of old creations are good if they stay true to their material. Sex and the City used their 2 and a half hours wisely by simply giving us where Carrie and Company would be at this point of their lives. Still fabulous and still sexy. OK and over-dramatic (although the bit about the plot hinging on Charlottes daughter swiping Carrie's cell phone when Big is trying to call her is abit convenient but I'm willing to let it slide because everything that comes from it was so good).
4.However, Indiana Jones... sigh. I wanted to like the movie so much and I thought it did an admirable job... but it stayed with me afterwards and not in a good way. I kept trying to be excited by the movie but I realized I wasn't and worse, if/when the next one comes out, we have to live with a character named Mutt Williams rather than Indiana Jones? Ugh.
5.I had hopes about the X Files movie but then I heard that creator Chris Carter not only never had a "bible" of the shows mythology but none of it was going to be used in the movie. Uh oh Number One. Then when I saw a trailer and I was utterly unmoved, not a ripple or tingle anywhere, well, it was uh oh Number Two. But then I heard that the plot hinges on (spoiler alert) a gay man that wants his head put on a woman's body. Or some such nonsense. The blogs gave me the low down and while I avoid most gay blogs as over hysterical about this type of thing (my people can really be over sensitive and this coming from the King of Sensitivity), I couldn't avoid it and furthermore, was really turned off and disappointed. So uh a sort of anti gay movie. Well, uh oh number three and strike out. Maybe I'll rent it when it comes out on DVD...
6. Note to X Files creator Chris Carter: alienating your fan base (by telling them all those hours trying to connect the dots of the alien mythology were meaningless, because there wasn't anything to connect) won't bring in the mainstream, it'll just piss off the ones who would have made your movie the big success it should have been. How Hollywood can't seem to learn this lesson is beyond me. Producers of LOST, this should be a wake up call for you. As the heir apparent to the mythology driven show, please for God's sake make sure the series makes sense by the end of the run and for no reason whatsoever NEVER tell us that you were making it up as you went along. We suspect as much, try to prove us wrong. Please.
7. Which reminds me, six more months til the next season of LOST starts. Sigh.
8. Which reminds me, whatever happened to summer reruns? (OK I know that they phased out years ago but I never missed them more until last night I was flipping around the channel during prime time and never have I seen such a collection of out and out crap on the tube before!)
9. Wall-E was brilliant. Nothing more to add other than to reiterate that Pixar generated a more complex character in the first five minutes of the cockroach character in Wall E than Kevin Costner did with his character in the entirety of Swing Vote. The cockroach was infinitely more believable too.
10. I doubt I'll see The Dark Knight but it's grossed $400 million in 18 days and columnists are chuckling at the fan boys who are looking to topple the $600 million domestic gross of Titanic a decade ago. Hmm. Nothing encourages a bunch of fan boys more than Hollywood telling them that something can't be done. I think the gauntlet has been thrown down in what seems like a well orchestrated maneuver to make sure the flick spins to 600 mil in record time. And by the way, writer Martin Pasko makes a point on his Facebook page saying that he's worried about what the PR flaks have in store for Michael Caine and Aaron Eckert now that a number of Batcast have made headlines (and none in particularly good shape... Morgan Freeman, get well!!)
11. I need a vacation and badly but I cannot afford it and even if I could, the price of fuel would cripple me and the add ons of air travel would break me. That leaves rail travel. I'm glad I live on the east coast where rail travel is actually realistically possible. I can actually get somewhere without needing a sleeper car. So I'll continue to do 'staycations' in the city on the weekends although that's not really the same thing as, you know, leaving the island once in awhile.
12. My back pains of the last week were a result of a. general lack of exercise, b. stress, c. sitting slumped over a computer too long and too frequently and d. lifting a heavy box that aggrevated the 'bad place' on my back. I'm doing things to alleviate it including going to a chiropractor who has already worked wonders in just two sessions. However since my copay is $30 I'll have to curtail how many sessions I can afford and hope that I am completely well by the time my coverage peters out. But again, universal health care is for Communists. Whatever.
And that's some things that I know today.
1. It's been hotter and more humid for longer than any other summer that I remember being or living in New York. The really bad hot/humid weather usually lasts for a couple weeks in mid August but the rest of it is bearable. This year it started in early June and just lingered. It hung around like a bad relative, unwilling or unable to leave. I measure this by how many times I have to turn on the air conditioning in my apartment because at the current Con Ed rates, if I turn it on, it'd better be because parts of me are melting off my body.
2. Summer movies blow if you're an adult. I enjoyed Mamma Mia and that had no real weight whatsoever. It was over the top splendor, ridiculous camp and a solo by Meryl Streep that took a mediocre song like "The Winner Takes it All" and actually made it about something real. Poor Pierce Brosnan though; cringe-worthy singing and mind numbing exposition "I have been trying for two days to tell you that I'm divorced but I can't seem to find you while staying in your own hotel on this tiny Greek island" Sheesh. Whatever they paid him, it wasn't enough. But everyone had a good time and people were singing in the audience and it's been one of the highlights movie-going wise.
3. Remakes of old creations are good if they stay true to their material. Sex and the City used their 2 and a half hours wisely by simply giving us where Carrie and Company would be at this point of their lives. Still fabulous and still sexy. OK and over-dramatic (although the bit about the plot hinging on Charlottes daughter swiping Carrie's cell phone when Big is trying to call her is abit convenient but I'm willing to let it slide because everything that comes from it was so good).
4.However, Indiana Jones... sigh. I wanted to like the movie so much and I thought it did an admirable job... but it stayed with me afterwards and not in a good way. I kept trying to be excited by the movie but I realized I wasn't and worse, if/when the next one comes out, we have to live with a character named Mutt Williams rather than Indiana Jones? Ugh.
5.I had hopes about the X Files movie but then I heard that creator Chris Carter not only never had a "bible" of the shows mythology but none of it was going to be used in the movie. Uh oh Number One. Then when I saw a trailer and I was utterly unmoved, not a ripple or tingle anywhere, well, it was uh oh Number Two. But then I heard that the plot hinges on (spoiler alert) a gay man that wants his head put on a woman's body. Or some such nonsense. The blogs gave me the low down and while I avoid most gay blogs as over hysterical about this type of thing (my people can really be over sensitive and this coming from the King of Sensitivity), I couldn't avoid it and furthermore, was really turned off and disappointed. So uh a sort of anti gay movie. Well, uh oh number three and strike out. Maybe I'll rent it when it comes out on DVD...
6. Note to X Files creator Chris Carter: alienating your fan base (by telling them all those hours trying to connect the dots of the alien mythology were meaningless, because there wasn't anything to connect) won't bring in the mainstream, it'll just piss off the ones who would have made your movie the big success it should have been. How Hollywood can't seem to learn this lesson is beyond me. Producers of LOST, this should be a wake up call for you. As the heir apparent to the mythology driven show, please for God's sake make sure the series makes sense by the end of the run and for no reason whatsoever NEVER tell us that you were making it up as you went along. We suspect as much, try to prove us wrong. Please.
7. Which reminds me, six more months til the next season of LOST starts. Sigh.
8. Which reminds me, whatever happened to summer reruns? (OK I know that they phased out years ago but I never missed them more until last night I was flipping around the channel during prime time and never have I seen such a collection of out and out crap on the tube before!)
9. Wall-E was brilliant. Nothing more to add other than to reiterate that Pixar generated a more complex character in the first five minutes of the cockroach character in Wall E than Kevin Costner did with his character in the entirety of Swing Vote. The cockroach was infinitely more believable too.
10. I doubt I'll see The Dark Knight but it's grossed $400 million in 18 days and columnists are chuckling at the fan boys who are looking to topple the $600 million domestic gross of Titanic a decade ago. Hmm. Nothing encourages a bunch of fan boys more than Hollywood telling them that something can't be done. I think the gauntlet has been thrown down in what seems like a well orchestrated maneuver to make sure the flick spins to 600 mil in record time. And by the way, writer Martin Pasko makes a point on his Facebook page saying that he's worried about what the PR flaks have in store for Michael Caine and Aaron Eckert now that a number of Batcast have made headlines (and none in particularly good shape... Morgan Freeman, get well!!)
11. I need a vacation and badly but I cannot afford it and even if I could, the price of fuel would cripple me and the add ons of air travel would break me. That leaves rail travel. I'm glad I live on the east coast where rail travel is actually realistically possible. I can actually get somewhere without needing a sleeper car. So I'll continue to do 'staycations' in the city on the weekends although that's not really the same thing as, you know, leaving the island once in awhile.
12. My back pains of the last week were a result of a. general lack of exercise, b. stress, c. sitting slumped over a computer too long and too frequently and d. lifting a heavy box that aggrevated the 'bad place' on my back. I'm doing things to alleviate it including going to a chiropractor who has already worked wonders in just two sessions. However since my copay is $30 I'll have to curtail how many sessions I can afford and hope that I am completely well by the time my coverage peters out. But again, universal health care is for Communists. Whatever.
And that's some things that I know today.
Monday, August 4, 2008
There's a reason some movies don't do well. Some movies are up against big blockbusters and simply get lost in the shuffle. Some movies have the misfortune of having a scandal attached to the project that turns people off. And some movies are just plain bad.
SWING VOTE didn't do well in the theatres this weekend not because it's a political "comedy" but because it's simply a craptastic movie. Actually, adding "tastic" might indicate that it was even spectacularly bad and that's not true... because SWING VOTE is so poorly done that it's not even REALLY bad.. just blandly mediocre.. and that's a crying shame.
I knew the movie was one I couldn't wait to avoid when I saw the trailer in the theatre. Looked too contrived but not ridiculous enough to be taken on as satire. I can only imagine in some board room in Los Angeles the idea sounded good: let's let the Presidential vote come down to one man and then see what would happen. If the filmmakers had really jumped with both feet into the premise and taken it to it's extremes, this would have had a chance at being funny. But, instead, they chose to give it 'heart' which means that things can't get too ridiculous because it has to remain "real" and yet how do you do that when you're talking about an implausible premise done so dully. Ironically the movie's 'heart' is all about fighting apathy but I watched the movie in shocked silence wondering how so many top notch actors (Costner, Grammar, Tucci - who I hope got paid a lot for the only principal to even remotely shine - and Nathan Lane - who comes off toothless when it was he I counted on for some real political jabs) got schnookered into appearing in such a dog. I think "apathy" (also known as a paycheck) was responsible.
The story revolves around a small town in New Mexico where Kevin Costner's main character "Bud" lives. In the era of product placement, I instantly thought of Budweiser and I was rewarded later on in the movie with cases of the beer brand strewn about Bud's bedroom as if to associate itself with the dullard who works as a cog in a egg factory, curses (but only in G rated ways) and drinks and falls down. Ha ha that's funny. Except that it's not. Why Hollywood is fascinated with losers especially middle aged ones, is beyond me. We're also supposed to, I think, think it's 'cute' that his 12 year old daughter (admirably played by newcomer Madeline Carroll) takes care of him, hauling him out of bed after passing out in a drunked stupor.
I'm not sure why I should find this cute although later on in the movie we find out that the mother abandoned Bud and their daughter due to a drug problem giving Mare Winningham a remarkable five minutes in what was the only moment of interest in this muddle mess. I guess the message is: sure Bud is a mess, but look, the kid could have ended up with her drug addled, delusional mother so in comparison, he's not so bad. OK. Whatever. Unfortunately there is an entire other movie embedded in that scene, one in an infinitely better movie. I wish I could have seen it.
Anyway, Carroll plays a girl, Molly, who is still idealistic about America and our right and priveledge to vote. She gives a good show and tell speech for her disinterested class (mirroring I suppose the audience) and rages throughout the rest of the movie trying to get Bud and others to get excited about voting and then later about the plight put forth by letter writers who have sent Bud buckets of snail mail (how quaint). She's passionate about her idealism in a world full of liars and thieves and ladder climbers. I feel sorry for the kid but can't help but think that this cynical movie where it turns out that even the Secret Service man assigned to protect Bud gets passionate about Molly's gosh gee whiz ideals. Why cynical? Because the very values that it espouses- getting involved and participating in the process - seem foreign to the very movie that's been made. Everything about the script is cheap and lazy. Bud is suddenly the 'swing voter' because of an eye rolling contrivance that includes Bud getting drunk, hitting his head on a sign and passing out, Molly voting instead of him at the exact moment a cleaning woman unplugging the voting machine, exact matching of electoral votes nationwide and so on. Because those same suits in that same board room sat around and said "how can we fix this story so that Bud is the crucial vote?" and then they spend a half hour telling us. And frankly it's just plain dull. It'd have been better to have shown the political candidates spin their campaigns of lies and then simply show it all coming down to Bud and do away with all the exposition. It does not do the characters any favors.
Naturally the candidates go to New Mexico to personally persuade Bud to vote for them and go to what should have been outlandish methods to secure that vote. Swipes at both parties ensue and neither of them are particularly funny - tired chiches abound - oh look the Republicans are rich and war obsessed and the Democrats are Cheeto eating dimwits and both parties would sell their souls to get their way. I guess in criticizing both parties the film can't be accused of bias but it certainly doesn't go far enough and not only is it not funny, it reaffirms the idea that politics is dull and for the morally bankrupt.
I have to say though that there is a little bit of a highlight.. the Democratic nominee played by Anthony Hopkins does a PSA convincing Bud that he's "Pro Life" and so therefore, Anti Abortion which, naturally is generally against what most Democrats believe. To drive his point home, Hopkins appears on a playground full of school children and as he discusses how abortion is bad, each child in turn explodes in a puff of smoke that is jarring and hilarius. If the rest of the movie had been half as good as that moment, this would be a different review.
The problem though with even this scene is that it assumes that you know that Hopkins is pro abortion simply because he's a Democrat and OF COURSE all Democrats are pro abortion... and there are assumptions made about Republicans. Again, without a proper set up about what each candidate believes in, the jokes are meaningless and flat. Not to mention lazy.
I spoke above about product placement and I have to write just a bit more... because I've rarely been as aware of the product placement as I was in SWING VOTE. There were Pepsi cans all throughout the movie and also at the end of the movie as the two Presidential nominees come together for a debate, the "final debate" logo looks exactly like said Pepsi can.
There are also the inclusion of real life political commentators which further blur the line (is there even a line anymore) between news and entertainment. Here would have been a great opportunity to skewer the tv pundits and it was wasted. They're just there to add verisimilitude and sell the movie (one imagines Bill Maher,Ariana Huffington or Mary Hart promoting the movie because of their cameos). Feh.
It's sad that in such a over saturated political climate, such a cynical time in our history that a movie that seeks to restore idealism simply comes across as a badly written commercial for products and news programs. Somewhere the character of Molly is shaking her head and realizing that the battle is lost at last. The vote has been counted and we, the audience that paid $12 to go see this dog, are the ones who have lost.
SWING VOTE didn't do well in the theatres this weekend not because it's a political "comedy" but because it's simply a craptastic movie. Actually, adding "tastic" might indicate that it was even spectacularly bad and that's not true... because SWING VOTE is so poorly done that it's not even REALLY bad.. just blandly mediocre.. and that's a crying shame.
I knew the movie was one I couldn't wait to avoid when I saw the trailer in the theatre. Looked too contrived but not ridiculous enough to be taken on as satire. I can only imagine in some board room in Los Angeles the idea sounded good: let's let the Presidential vote come down to one man and then see what would happen. If the filmmakers had really jumped with both feet into the premise and taken it to it's extremes, this would have had a chance at being funny. But, instead, they chose to give it 'heart' which means that things can't get too ridiculous because it has to remain "real" and yet how do you do that when you're talking about an implausible premise done so dully. Ironically the movie's 'heart' is all about fighting apathy but I watched the movie in shocked silence wondering how so many top notch actors (Costner, Grammar, Tucci - who I hope got paid a lot for the only principal to even remotely shine - and Nathan Lane - who comes off toothless when it was he I counted on for some real political jabs) got schnookered into appearing in such a dog. I think "apathy" (also known as a paycheck) was responsible.
The story revolves around a small town in New Mexico where Kevin Costner's main character "Bud" lives. In the era of product placement, I instantly thought of Budweiser and I was rewarded later on in the movie with cases of the beer brand strewn about Bud's bedroom as if to associate itself with the dullard who works as a cog in a egg factory, curses (but only in G rated ways) and drinks and falls down. Ha ha that's funny. Except that it's not. Why Hollywood is fascinated with losers especially middle aged ones, is beyond me. We're also supposed to, I think, think it's 'cute' that his 12 year old daughter (admirably played by newcomer Madeline Carroll) takes care of him, hauling him out of bed after passing out in a drunked stupor.
I'm not sure why I should find this cute although later on in the movie we find out that the mother abandoned Bud and their daughter due to a drug problem giving Mare Winningham a remarkable five minutes in what was the only moment of interest in this muddle mess. I guess the message is: sure Bud is a mess, but look, the kid could have ended up with her drug addled, delusional mother so in comparison, he's not so bad. OK. Whatever. Unfortunately there is an entire other movie embedded in that scene, one in an infinitely better movie. I wish I could have seen it.
Anyway, Carroll plays a girl, Molly, who is still idealistic about America and our right and priveledge to vote. She gives a good show and tell speech for her disinterested class (mirroring I suppose the audience) and rages throughout the rest of the movie trying to get Bud and others to get excited about voting and then later about the plight put forth by letter writers who have sent Bud buckets of snail mail (how quaint). She's passionate about her idealism in a world full of liars and thieves and ladder climbers. I feel sorry for the kid but can't help but think that this cynical movie where it turns out that even the Secret Service man assigned to protect Bud gets passionate about Molly's gosh gee whiz ideals. Why cynical? Because the very values that it espouses- getting involved and participating in the process - seem foreign to the very movie that's been made. Everything about the script is cheap and lazy. Bud is suddenly the 'swing voter' because of an eye rolling contrivance that includes Bud getting drunk, hitting his head on a sign and passing out, Molly voting instead of him at the exact moment a cleaning woman unplugging the voting machine, exact matching of electoral votes nationwide and so on. Because those same suits in that same board room sat around and said "how can we fix this story so that Bud is the crucial vote?" and then they spend a half hour telling us. And frankly it's just plain dull. It'd have been better to have shown the political candidates spin their campaigns of lies and then simply show it all coming down to Bud and do away with all the exposition. It does not do the characters any favors.
Naturally the candidates go to New Mexico to personally persuade Bud to vote for them and go to what should have been outlandish methods to secure that vote. Swipes at both parties ensue and neither of them are particularly funny - tired chiches abound - oh look the Republicans are rich and war obsessed and the Democrats are Cheeto eating dimwits and both parties would sell their souls to get their way. I guess in criticizing both parties the film can't be accused of bias but it certainly doesn't go far enough and not only is it not funny, it reaffirms the idea that politics is dull and for the morally bankrupt.
I have to say though that there is a little bit of a highlight.. the Democratic nominee played by Anthony Hopkins does a PSA convincing Bud that he's "Pro Life" and so therefore, Anti Abortion which, naturally is generally against what most Democrats believe. To drive his point home, Hopkins appears on a playground full of school children and as he discusses how abortion is bad, each child in turn explodes in a puff of smoke that is jarring and hilarius. If the rest of the movie had been half as good as that moment, this would be a different review.
The problem though with even this scene is that it assumes that you know that Hopkins is pro abortion simply because he's a Democrat and OF COURSE all Democrats are pro abortion... and there are assumptions made about Republicans. Again, without a proper set up about what each candidate believes in, the jokes are meaningless and flat. Not to mention lazy.
I spoke above about product placement and I have to write just a bit more... because I've rarely been as aware of the product placement as I was in SWING VOTE. There were Pepsi cans all throughout the movie and also at the end of the movie as the two Presidential nominees come together for a debate, the "final debate" logo looks exactly like said Pepsi can.
There are also the inclusion of real life political commentators which further blur the line (is there even a line anymore) between news and entertainment. Here would have been a great opportunity to skewer the tv pundits and it was wasted. They're just there to add verisimilitude and sell the movie (one imagines Bill Maher,Ariana Huffington or Mary Hart promoting the movie because of their cameos). Feh.
It's sad that in such a over saturated political climate, such a cynical time in our history that a movie that seeks to restore idealism simply comes across as a badly written commercial for products and news programs. Somewhere the character of Molly is shaking her head and realizing that the battle is lost at last. The vote has been counted and we, the audience that paid $12 to go see this dog, are the ones who have lost.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Many Splendored Things
It's been easy to get out of the habit of blogging recently what with working on the Thirteen Facebook blog (the Grain for Your Brain newsletter I've started posting here) and a few other projects that I've got going and sometimes, and lately it just feels as though I'm being too negative about things.
For example, the BF and I went out to a restaurant, L'Express, on July 4th. It's a French bistro on Park Avenue down near Union Square and because it was a holiday and raining, we were practically alone in the restaurant. We had a quiet dinner, slow paced because we didn't really have anywhere to go and besides I'd been having some stomach problems recently and wasn't ravenously hungry so I was trying to make a point of eating slowly.
But we barely had put our forks down - with food still on the plate mind you - when the bus boy started taking away the plates. We said politely that we weren't finished and he retreated. This repeated every time we put our fork down - about three other times - until we had eaten the last bite. The busboy literally scooped up our plates while we both still had food in our mouths.
This isn't the first time... I've noticed this happening more and more over the last decade and it's not just in New York City, it's everywhere. But what good is writing about it? I doubt such an ingrained trend will stop anytime soon and writing about it just makes me sound cranky.
We also recently followed a friend of ours, a brilliant performer who spent years playing acordian in Paris, to a little garden performance space in the east village. The seating was something you'd find in someone's backyard, the folding chairs, benches and so forth. The stage, professional with lighting and sound. She was part of a lineup, some better than others but what took us both out of the moment of enjoying the music were the couple drunk audience members who said "fuck the neighbors!" when the organizer, a talented singer, guitarist in his own right, announced that since it was already past 11:30 they would have to wind down before the neighbors complained.
Considering the amount of neighbors surrounding the garden space, the fact that no one had yet called the police to complain showed that they lived in a peaceful coexistance with the organizers and a tacit understanding had been made about how late into the night performances could go. Sigh. Anyway, writing about that also seems pointless as I feel as though it's just another complaint, so what's the use?
Finally, there is something.. I went to see WALLE recently.. what a gloriously fun and inventive movie this is.. I laughed, I wept, I was moved and changed by the story and that's in short supply these days in all forms of entertainment. Even the BF liked it (and he hates these kinds of movies in general). There are tons of allusions to other sci fi movies, the animation is realistic and somehow the writers have made even a cockroach a sympathetic character without even one word. The people at Pixar are truly the best storytellers of the past 20 years.
 OK there.
That IS something positive to write about. I knew I could do it!
For example, the BF and I went out to a restaurant, L'Express, on July 4th. It's a French bistro on Park Avenue down near Union Square and because it was a holiday and raining, we were practically alone in the restaurant. We had a quiet dinner, slow paced because we didn't really have anywhere to go and besides I'd been having some stomach problems recently and wasn't ravenously hungry so I was trying to make a point of eating slowly.
But we barely had put our forks down - with food still on the plate mind you - when the bus boy started taking away the plates. We said politely that we weren't finished and he retreated. This repeated every time we put our fork down - about three other times - until we had eaten the last bite. The busboy literally scooped up our plates while we both still had food in our mouths.
This isn't the first time... I've noticed this happening more and more over the last decade and it's not just in New York City, it's everywhere. But what good is writing about it? I doubt such an ingrained trend will stop anytime soon and writing about it just makes me sound cranky.
We also recently followed a friend of ours, a brilliant performer who spent years playing acordian in Paris, to a little garden performance space in the east village. The seating was something you'd find in someone's backyard, the folding chairs, benches and so forth. The stage, professional with lighting and sound. She was part of a lineup, some better than others but what took us both out of the moment of enjoying the music were the couple drunk audience members who said "fuck the neighbors!" when the organizer, a talented singer, guitarist in his own right, announced that since it was already past 11:30 they would have to wind down before the neighbors complained.
Considering the amount of neighbors surrounding the garden space, the fact that no one had yet called the police to complain showed that they lived in a peaceful coexistance with the organizers and a tacit understanding had been made about how late into the night performances could go. Sigh. Anyway, writing about that also seems pointless as I feel as though it's just another complaint, so what's the use?
Finally, there is something.. I went to see WALLE recently.. what a gloriously fun and inventive movie this is.. I laughed, I wept, I was moved and changed by the story and that's in short supply these days in all forms of entertainment. Even the BF liked it (and he hates these kinds of movies in general). There are tons of allusions to other sci fi movies, the animation is realistic and somehow the writers have made even a cockroach a sympathetic character without even one word. The people at Pixar are truly the best storytellers of the past 20 years.
 OK there.
That IS something positive to write about. I knew I could do it!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Sex, The City, et al
It's rare when I have three movies to look forward to and rarer still when all three are actually enjoyable. I wrote about liking Iron Man a few weeks ago but since my last entry I saw Indiana Jones on opening day (although I want to keep calling it "Raiders") as well as Sex and the City on it's opening day. It's tricky to revisit characters that are so firmly established in the ether but both do admirable jobs in updating us on where these characters are in their lives. Critics have predictably grumbled about all three movies and I don't think it's a coincidence that all three feature older than normal central figures.
In our youth obsessed culture this is perhaps the gravest sin: to make "old" people cool but not treat them like cutesy clutzes the way the movie Cocoon thought it was funny to show Don Ameche break dancing. Granted those characters are much older, by a margin of about 30 years to most of these characters but nonetheless to the demographic that the studios hold so dear, Sarah Jessica Parker must look like Jessica Tandy's twin sister. And might as well be.
Except of course that Boomers are getting older and demographics be damned, they have the money, the real money and the influence and they'll decide what gets made, what makes money in the multiplexes. After all, they were the ones who created these characters in the past. Will we see a big screen version of crap like Gossip Girl in twenty years? Will it even still be remembered in twenty months? Doubtful. The way the youth culture consumes entertainment product these days, I'm surprised that the show, only a season old, is still something that people talk about. Thank God for the writers strike that put everything in suspended animation and stretched out series that would have normally been canned long ago (which in some cases might end up preserving them longer).
The phenomenon that I see at the multiplex nowadays is interesting though. I didn't see the latest chapter in the Rambo and Rocky movies but it's certainly a part of a genre that Indiana Jones and Sex and the City (as well as the upcoming X Files movie and, would I guess could argue, last years Simpsons movie even the series is still on the tube) are a part of: the genre that won't leave characters well enough alone, we insist on getting one more chapter of their lives. I think in the case of Indiana Jones and Sex these chapters are satisfying. I don't know that I need to see any more Jones flicks unless Harrison Ford is the president of the university his Henry Jones character works at and his son in the movie takes on the fedora and whip and although I love my Sex girls, I think it might be time to see a new generation take on the 'what's happening with single girls in the 21st century' mantle.
Still, these well meaning and well done movies are, I'm sure, a lot better than the ill fated Gone With the Wind book sequel of a few years back or the endless Disney cannibalization sequels to it's own classic library (Cinderella parts 2 and 3..and Lady and the Tramp 2.. really? is creativity really that dead over at the Mouse House??)
So what if Ford is visibly a little exhausted in the Indiana Jones movie; I thought he looked beat and ready to fall asleep in Working Girl (although playing opposite Melanie Griffith, how could one not want to doze off?). And so what if the critics piss and moan that Carrie and company are still self absorbed (isn't that sort of the point of the show - that the characters reveal themselves trying to figure out how to 'have it all' as all of us male and female are told so often we can?).. ... as for me, I'll take 'em when I can get 'em because the alternative is junk like The Bank Job (dreadfully violent) and Vantage Point (which falls down in the first ten minutes under the weight of it's own weird logic.. they're terrorists, no their super scientists, no they're cops.. uhm what?).
So I'll take my joy where I can get it and just feel lucky that they didn't go back and do "Indy, the Early Years" (note to JJ Abrams with Star Trek next year - you'd better not screw that reboot up!)
In our youth obsessed culture this is perhaps the gravest sin: to make "old" people cool but not treat them like cutesy clutzes the way the movie Cocoon thought it was funny to show Don Ameche break dancing. Granted those characters are much older, by a margin of about 30 years to most of these characters but nonetheless to the demographic that the studios hold so dear, Sarah Jessica Parker must look like Jessica Tandy's twin sister. And might as well be.
Except of course that Boomers are getting older and demographics be damned, they have the money, the real money and the influence and they'll decide what gets made, what makes money in the multiplexes. After all, they were the ones who created these characters in the past. Will we see a big screen version of crap like Gossip Girl in twenty years? Will it even still be remembered in twenty months? Doubtful. The way the youth culture consumes entertainment product these days, I'm surprised that the show, only a season old, is still something that people talk about. Thank God for the writers strike that put everything in suspended animation and stretched out series that would have normally been canned long ago (which in some cases might end up preserving them longer).
The phenomenon that I see at the multiplex nowadays is interesting though. I didn't see the latest chapter in the Rambo and Rocky movies but it's certainly a part of a genre that Indiana Jones and Sex and the City (as well as the upcoming X Files movie and, would I guess could argue, last years Simpsons movie even the series is still on the tube) are a part of: the genre that won't leave characters well enough alone, we insist on getting one more chapter of their lives. I think in the case of Indiana Jones and Sex these chapters are satisfying. I don't know that I need to see any more Jones flicks unless Harrison Ford is the president of the university his Henry Jones character works at and his son in the movie takes on the fedora and whip and although I love my Sex girls, I think it might be time to see a new generation take on the 'what's happening with single girls in the 21st century' mantle.
Still, these well meaning and well done movies are, I'm sure, a lot better than the ill fated Gone With the Wind book sequel of a few years back or the endless Disney cannibalization sequels to it's own classic library (Cinderella parts 2 and 3..and Lady and the Tramp 2.. really? is creativity really that dead over at the Mouse House??)
So what if Ford is visibly a little exhausted in the Indiana Jones movie; I thought he looked beat and ready to fall asleep in Working Girl (although playing opposite Melanie Griffith, how could one not want to doze off?). And so what if the critics piss and moan that Carrie and company are still self absorbed (isn't that sort of the point of the show - that the characters reveal themselves trying to figure out how to 'have it all' as all of us male and female are told so often we can?).. ... as for me, I'll take 'em when I can get 'em because the alternative is junk like The Bank Job (dreadfully violent) and Vantage Point (which falls down in the first ten minutes under the weight of it's own weird logic.. they're terrorists, no their super scientists, no they're cops.. uhm what?).
So I'll take my joy where I can get it and just feel lucky that they didn't go back and do "Indy, the Early Years" (note to JJ Abrams with Star Trek next year - you'd better not screw that reboot up!)
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