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The Film Habit #28 - November 18, 2004 My time off last week did me some good, though not the good I was expecting. I was hoping it would help me mellow out, take a few silly issues with the site and the forum a little less seriously. Instead, I returned as a hard ass and have subsequently decided to attack and destroy those issues, rather than mellow out and ignore them. My vacation of Covenant killing has turned me into the Terminator, sans the really big muscles.
Halo 2 turns out to be pretty good. For those of you a little on the oblivious side, Halo 2 is how I spent a good portion of my pseudo-vacation last week. I haven’t finished the campaign, simply because it just isn’t as fun alone as it is playing co-op. I’ll probably hold off on doing any more with it until I can find someone to play back to back with me. The real fun for me has been in multiplayer, where CB Forumer Phenotype has created our own Cinema Blend clan, appropriately named “NeedMoreShatner”. Bungie’s annoying character limit forced Pheno to leave off the “s” on Need. We suck and have thus endured many enjoyable ass beatings. For now, I’m back in the swing of things, reviewing horrible movies like Christmas with the Kranks and feeding my continuous Halo lust with dubious reports of possible Master Chief movies. In the next few days I’ll be struggling my way through the Buck Rogers complete box set, which I started diving into a few days ago by sitting through the show’s pilot episode, including its horrendous and quickly abandoned theme song. The theme song bears a strange resemblance to the monstrosity the opening credits for “Enterprise” have become. Except of course “Enterprise” doesn’t have T’Pol rolling around on the floor in a bikini to distract us from the song’s horrors. Buck Rogers had the T&A thing nailed down. Midgets in robot suits and Erin Gray wearing limited amounts of clothing, you can’t go wrong with that. In fact this inspired me the other night to go hunting for Erin Gray photos, of which there is a shamefully low number available on the internet. It’s nice to know modern technology has ensured that twenty years from now I won’t have that same problem when looking for cock tease pictures of a washed up Keira Knightley. me with Erin Gray memories… only the ones where you’re wearing pants. US History 101  This is the part of The Film Habit where I get lazy and simply repost parts of my National Treasure review, which’ll be showing up this week in the Charleston City Paper. Bill had already covered it for CB, so there’s no official CB review from me. However if you read my review when I posted it in the forum or if you live in Charleston and read the paper, skip right on past this section. Otherwise read on, since I just can’t stand passing up an opportunity to pimp my own words, especially when they are words about a movie that turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Odds are no one is expecting that and thus it’ll tank. So I’m doing my part to tell you it may be worth a look.
National Treasure is I suppose an action movie, yes, but it’s also surprisingly brainy. Director Jon Turteltaub seems to be having the most fun with it when his characters are simply sitting around brain storming. Strangely enough, I did too. The film is a welcome relief from the Bad Boys II’s of this world, freedom from pointless and mind numbing explosions. In fact, not once does anything blow up. The action in National Treasure never really gets heavier than a bit of spirited roof running and what’s more doesn’t need to. This is the kind of movie that I imagine middle school history teachers showing their students on a free day. Not necessarily because it’s serious and believable, in fact some of the clues are admittedly a bit silly, but because it does such a marvelous job of making something intellectually electrifying out of the otherwise stale and stuffy topic of U.S. history. Much of the reason for that is simply the presence of Nic Cage, who has a knack for rattling off overly detailed technical or historical dialogue without boring his audience to death. Of course as his pot belly grows, the rapidly aging actor is becoming less and less convincing as an action hero, but that’s why a movie like this works so well for him.  Cage’s supporting cast mates do a nice job of holding their own right along with him. I especially liked the idea that the woman in charge of protecting U.S. history is a naturalized citizen, a German to be specific. Since she’s got blonde hair and blue eyes she looks like a blandly acceptable white American, it’s only when you hear her slightly off accent that you notice any difference. Still, the idea is a good one, and makes a sort of subtle statement about the greatness of the United States, a statement that probably could have been a little stronger had the character been cast as less Caucasian, perhaps even an Iraqi. The film is filled with an understated kind of nationalistic arm pumping, starting with its fantastic musical score. The score is touched by strains of patriotic ballads mixed in with traditional action movie orchestrals. It’s a beautiful way of carrying your audience through a historical fact finding mission; the attenuated patriotism in the film’s soundtrack hinting that hey, maybe all this history is something to be pretty proud of.
National Treasure isn’t going to blow your doors off with mind blowing effects or pulse-pounding action sequences. It does have a few exciting chases and a creepy crawl down a dark tomb which work quite well, however the film’s focus is on unraveling a mystery. While perhaps the premise of a massive treasure hidden by our founding fathers is a little foolish, the film itself sells it with incredible intelligence and wit. This isn’t a big action blockbuster, but it’s an exciting little adventure movie that differentiates itself from the pack by focusing more on its string of clues than it does on setting up the next big piece of stunt work. to express Superman casting relief. Letters to Hollywood’s New Power Couple  Ok people, I’m a little disappointed. The reader mail this week sucked. You can do better! So, rather than bore you all with sub-par Viagra advertisements I thought I’d share with you our outgoing mail instead of our incoming mail. Tomorrow I’ll be emailing out a few of the questions below to uber-director Steven Spielberg and super-nose Tom Cruise on behalf of the Cinema Blend forumers who posed them. It’s a part of this weird War of the Worlds promotional effort, where they seem to be (for a change) reaching out to the internet movie community right off the bat, instead of trying to crush us with their mighty George Lucas fists. Do nice things for your fans? What a novel idea! So here’s a few of the suggested questions our readers have submitted, in their un-spellchecked glory (Why do we all have so much trouble spelling Spielgurg’s name?):
Daniel P.: Dear Steve, Why haven't you cast Bill Murray in a role yet? Dear Tommy, Why haven't you acted alongside Bill Murray yet? Daniel W.: I would like to know if either Spielberg or Tom Cruise have actually read the book. And if so what they think of the story as it was first written by H.G. Wells. Jennie: To Spielberg- You have made many films that have touched peoples lives- as a Jew Shindlers List is very close to my heart- is there any movie (that you have made or wish to make) that is close to your heart? To Cruise - A great majority of your work is action movies- is action something you enjoy doing? Or is just something you are good at and so you take those roles? If you couldn't do any more action movies- what sort of movie would you like to do (Comedy drama etc.)? Scott: To Spielberg - Did your exposure to the Conet Project play any kind of a role in your interest in making War of the Worlds? To Cruise - You've done a lot of producing in the last several years, as well as acting. Any serious interest in directing? Marcus: To Spielberg - What made you all of a sudden decide to give the lead character a daughter? Where in the book does Wells have the narrator have a daughter? Don't you realize that one of the central themes in the book was the character's isolation? Or does Dakota die early in the movie? To Cruise - Were you always a fan of sci-fi/fantasy? What are some of your favorite books, authors, and movies (outside of the ones you've already done) in that genre? Jason: To Spielberg - Why do War of the Worlds and not something else? What other projects were you looking into, and why did you choose War of the Worlds over them? To Cruise - What are your influences for working on and in War of the Worlds? Are you a fan of the original HG Wells novel? Or the classic movie? Stuart: To Spielberg - Can you tell us if the Indiana Jones project is still active and how you are involved? Greg: To Spielberg - What major content are you keeping true to the book and what, if at all, new material may you add? The Muzie: To Spielberg - Can I call ya STEVO??? Alright! STEVEY IT IS!!! So STEVE-MAN...Are you aware that when they were promoting the original "War of the World's" movie they had Orson Well's do an announcement on the radio that...some kind of alien's had landed and had been taking over certain cities...ect.... and never once in the radio promotion did they say it was just a commercial...and it caused a brief national panic???? LIAR! You didn't know that! You think can fool me? Finally...some f*ckin' truth! So you think that after all these years of making some really cool kick ass sci fi movies...you think you can aleviate your fears as a child??? Now I know why your doing a recreation of "War of the World's"!!! It's to bend the truth! To take the book out of context and make you sleep safe at night! So let me axe you... Do you think you are gonna sleep better now after you are done making this "War of the World's" crap????? ANSWER ME DAMB IT!!!! So yeah. Somehow I don't think some of those (MUZIE) are actually going to be answered. But, to see which ones he does, check back later next week. Hey! Do you like working for free? Are you over 18? Do you secretly wish you could live the wild and exciting life of Michael Brody? You’re in luck. CinemaBlend.com is looking for writers, specifically the type interested in slogging it out on DVD’s or those with a flair for internet news stories. If you think you can capture the signature Cinema Blend style as a DVD critic and/or BNN reporter send me an with a few samples and we’ll talk. |
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