DVD

Love Actually

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There is a stereotype out there that men only want to see “shoot’em-up, blow’em-up” or gory movies, whereas women only want to see romantic-type movies.  This is so common that if you utter the phrase “chick flick,” the other person already knows what to expect.  As a guy, drift outside of these boundaries and people being to wonder about your “other” interests.

Me?  I am a fan of good stories, regardless of how they are packaged.  I do prefer comedic efforts, so I tend to like romantic comedies.  Also, I am a romantic — I like that the guy gets the girl, regardless of how stupid he has been.  Why?  Because that means there is hope for me.

I saw Love Actually in the theater and loved it the instant I saw it on the screen.  How could I not?  I love the casting, the way the stories intertwine — heck, it even has one of my favorite Christmas songs.  But it is more than that — I loved the realistic aspects of some of the stories set against the backdrop of Christmas.  The backdrop is potent because our senses are heightened during this time, thus bringing our emotions closer to the surface.

There are eight stories, with a funny bit running along as comedic support:

  • Colin Firth — discovers his girlfriend is cheating and goes away to write a novel
  • Hugh Grant — is elected Prime Minister and discovers things about himself
  • Alan Rickman — is tempted by the forbidden fruit of a mistress, leaving Emma Thompson wondering what her future holds
  • Liam Neeson — has just lost his wife and is left to care for his step-son, who is having his own crisis of love
  • Andrew Lincoln — watches the love of his life, Kiera Knightley, marry his best friend
  • Martin Freeman — has an unusual job that leads to more than just a “happy ending”
  • Laura Linney — is trying to move on with her life while being held back by family
  • Bill Nighy — is an aging rock star trying to make sense of his life
  • Kris Marshall — is the free spirit of the movie, ever hopeful that America will give him what he has been denied in England

Of course these stories and the characters intertwine in ways that do stretch the realm of reality, but reality is never shattered.  Each story has a satisfying conclusion, albeit not always a happy one.   The director did an amazing job of picking the right songs to accentuate certain moments; these songs are so well-picked that they actually become the character of the narrator.

Naturally, I have this on DVD and watched it last week as part of my holiday traditions.  This time around, I listened to the audio track of the director, Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy, and the little boy.  It was a fun listen, but I prefer the main movie.   Other features include:

  • 5.1 sound
  • deleted scenes
  • discussion of how each song was picked for the soundtrack

My advice:  If you have not seen this, you are missing out.  Get it today and curl up with a loved one or by yourself and see that “Love is……actually……all around.”

Movies

Alvin and The Chipmunks

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We all have those fond memories of things we loved as kids.  Things that maybe our parents shared with us that shaped our childhood.  For me, one of those times was when my dad was helping my grandmother by cleaning out her basement.  As he was cleaning, he found an old stack of 45’s (those would be small records for those of you too young to remember anything other than CDs and MP3s).  My grandmother didn’t want them anymore so they were given to me.  Over the next 2-3 years, I would play them over and over again.  Among the various “oldies” that I grew an appreciation for, were a couple of funny ones.  This was my introduction to The Chipmunks singing “The Christmas Song”.  Soon after this, we moved out to Cheyenne, WY.  One of the few good things I have to say about that time was the fact that the local station played a lot of “nostalgia” TV shows (this was pre-cable times).  It was here that not only did I watch the first comedies, but a lot of old cartoons were shown.  You guessed it — Alvin and The Chipmunks was one of those shows.  After moving away, I lost interest in the singing rodents, but they kept popping up with new albums.  Then in the mid-80’s, they started appearing in a new show.  I would watch it periodically, but not regularly — it was a bit too childish.  After that time, they faded from memory.

Fast-forward about 20 years to now.

Starting with Christmas, 2006, when Justin Timberlake hosted SNL and opened with a rendition of “The Christmas Song” with cast-members dressed as Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, you started to hear buzz about them again.  Then word came out that Jason Lee had been tapped to play Dave in a live-action movie.

Live-action……..the collective public shuddered with bad memories of Garfield and Underdog…

So I got up early and caught the $5 special at AMC Altamonte.  I went in with low expectations, figuring I could do worse for $5.  The theater was filled at 11:30 on a Sunday morning, surprisingly.  I missed the trailers and got seated just as it started.

A very basic story, with clearly defined characters and wants.  The Chipmunks want a family; Dave wants a happy realtionship; his girlfriend wants a family; the villain wants money.  The CGI is not as annoying as it has been with other movies.  The CGI artists really worked on refining the “humanity” of each ‘Munk, making them even more believable.

What was nice about the movie centered around the little touches.  Dave’s house number being the year that The Chipmunks first appeared; how Dave came up with “The Christmas Song”; and having The Chipmunks sing different songs from different eras as a nod to earlier work.  I really enjoyed seeing the album covers through the years as the credits rolled at the end of the movie.

My low expectations paid off — I was pleasantly surprised by the enjoyment I got out of the movie.  Outside of the voices, I can see parents playing this often for kids and not getting too annoyed by it.

My advice:  Catch it one afternoon, but don’t worry if you wait for DVD/cable.  Do not sit down expecting quality cinema — after all, it is a movie about SINGING CHIPMUNKS — if you take it too serious, then you have issues that I do not know how to solve…

DVD

Rounders

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As kids, parents use cards to teach us counting and colors.  They also use them to teach strategy — How else would you explain people growing up with a love for Uno?  As we get older, we start wanting to play more advanced games of cards.

When I was 8, one of my Christmas gifts was a game called Riverboat Showdown.  It featured a deck of cards, plastic chips and rules for a game called poker.   I would play this game a lot, learning what beat what.  At the same time, I also learned Yahtzee!, which is just a dice version of poker.  When I hit my teenage years, my friends and I would play in the garage when it became too hot to play basketball outside.  Then I stopped playing for some years.

I picked up the game again in 2001 when some friends invited me over for “home” games.  That’s when the bug hit.  I enjoyed my weekly games for a few years, but then life caused the games to spread out more and more.  Then in March of this year, I found a way to play in an amateur league for free.  So now I get to play every week.

Of course, one of the fun parts of playing cards is the social aspect.  Get a bunch of card players together and ask them about movies, they start talking about Rounders.  I had watched Rounders a couple of years ago and agreed that it was a good movie about poker.

Rounders centers on Matt Damon’s character.  Like all good stories, we see Damon’s fall from grace, his fight to climb back up, and his biggest obstacle.  Damon and Ed Norton do a great job of portraying the deep friendship of their characters.  The brilliance is in the casting of the side characters: Famke Janesson, Gretchen Moll, John Tuturro, Martin Landau, and John Malkovitch.  The story is kept simple, and, much like a poker game, the stakes are raised higher at every turn for our main character.

The DVD contains the following extras:

  • audio commentary with poker players — very good commentary — it is how I watched the movie this time
  • audio commentary with actors/director
  • poker tips — not very revealing
  • heads-up hold ‘em game — clunky game and not very good
  • behind the scenes features

My advice: regardless of your interest in cards, this is a good character story; check it out one afternoon — you will not regret making this bet…

Editorials

Shhhh! The Audience is Listening…

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Gotta love slogans that become part of American culture. Who knew that this simple line would mean so much?

In other posts, I promised that I would look at doing some editorials. My original idea of the site was to simply offer reviews, but in my reviews I editorialize. Then the writers’ strike happened, forcing me to think about my opinions on movies and TV.

So what has sparked me to write now?

CNN.com ran an article on Tuesday, November 13, bemoaning the death of the movie theme song . The author of the article presented the idea that, with rare exception, there had been no readily identifiable movie theme songs over the past 5-7 years. In fact, the only two offerings that the writer presents are Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” and “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp” from “Hustle & Flow”; but even then, the writer complains about the lack of radio-friendliness each song had.

What is interesting are the songs that the writer uses to contrast the decades of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. The ones mentioned are:

  • “My Heart Will Go On”
  • “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing”
  • “Evergreen”
  • “Arthur’s Theme”
  • “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life”

All of these are definietly recognizable theme songs (except for maybe “Evergreen”). However, that does not mean that we have been missing original theme songs from movies, particularly on the radio. Think back to a year ago — every time you turned on a Top 40 station, you could not escape the voice of Jennifer Hudson singing “No No No!” from the movie “Dreamgirls”. A quick review of the list of Oscar nominations from last year showed 3 songs from that movie nominated. A couple of years before that, you had The Counting Crows get nominated for “Accidentally In Love” from the movie “Shrek 2″.

Then the article gets confusing — it jumps from lamenting the lack of songs to talking about what it takes to create that iconic song, using “Say Anything…” as the movie example. After time with that, the article then makes remarks about how someone like Burt Bacharach would not be famous if he had started today.

Overall, the article has that high-school journalism feel mixed with a certain bias from the writer.

The general public would have been better served had the writer focused on how music in the movies has evolved. As in sports, you can not compare theme songs from yesteryear to present-day. Each song must stand the test of time based on its peers. Just because a song is not an Oscar-winner/nominee does not mean it can not evoke thoughts of the movie it is from.

So what was the article writer trying to prove?

Radio play does not make a hit out of a movie theme song. If that were the only criteria, then explain how John Williams being able to find work, Disney being able to churn out hit musical after hit musical, and even creators like Matt Stone and Trey Parker being able to have recognition for songs from South Park and Team America:World Police. What is really interesting is that radio is being used as the judge, when digitally stored music counts for as many, if not more, listens to a song…

As long as we have movies, there will always be ones with those “iconic” theme songs. You just have to listen over the sounds of munching popcorn…

Movies

Enchanted

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Like most families in America, my family had its traditional way of celebrating Thanksgiving.  Since it was just the three of us (my parents and me), we never went through the trouble of preparing a big feast.  Instead, we would sleep in and then head out for late lunch/early dinner.

But aren’t most restaurants closed on Thanksgiving?

Yep — but that did not stop us from going to Morrison’s Cafeteria.  Where we lived, Morrison’s was in the mall with the movie theater (AMC when AMC was not as big as it is now) .  So we would go eat and then enjoy a movie.  Even though I live on my own, I still try to uphold the tradition of seeing a movie on Thanksgiving.  So I found myself heading to the Altamonte AMC after a fine dinner at Brian’s and Leona’s house.

So what movie did I honor with the title of Matt’s Turkey Day Selection 07?

Enchanted

At this point, some of you may be snickering or downright laughing at me — so be it.  I have always been a sucker for Disney animated films and I had been hearing good things about this one all week.  So I paid my money, got my snacks and headed in to the theater.   The previews were ok — I am interested in the new Ryan Reynolds movie coming out in February; it is made by the people who made Notting Hill and Love Actually.

The movie hit its stride right off the bat by appealing to the older crowd, raised on all of the Disney classics, by starting with the storybook seen at the beginning of Snow White, Cinderella, Pinocchio, etc., and by having Julie Andrews serve as the narrator.   Then the traditional 2-D animation that people love from Disney starts.  The story is basic enough — Girl looking for true love, hero comes in and saves her, and they ride off into the sunset, singing.

Wait a sec — it’s only 10 minutes in.  How can the story be over?

Thus the twists begin.  The intro of the evil stepmother, the plunging of the princess into darkness and despair.

Except the princess now finds herself in real form in NY City — yet she still thinks of things in fairy-tale fashion.

What follows is a pleasant enough story with predictable, yet enjoyable, plot points.  I agree with other reviewers out there regarding the casting.   The use of New York City as the backdrop works as a nice contrast to the animated world.

What I really liked was the care that Disney put into this movie.  Many people, including me, have complained that Disney was forgetting its legacy.  I feel that Michael Eisner had a big hand in that forgetfulness.  Enchanted is a good start to renewing the faith of those raised on Disney classics.  Here are the things that rang true to me:

  • Julie Andrews — A double-nod to Disney legacies.  Dame Andrews has always been looked to as an example of grace and charm.  Given that Mary Poppins was the first to mix animation and live action, it is fitting that 34 years later, she serves as our guide on this journey.
  • Mary Poppins, Roger Rabbit — Every twenty years, Disney likes to combine live action and 2-D animation.  The twist here is that the worlds only collide mentally.
  • The use of Jodi Benson and Paige O’Hara — Having “Ariel” and “Belle” play small parts is testament to the impact of the characters they created voices for in the early 90’s.  Amy Adams does a nice job of reminding the watcher of past singing heroines with her own melodic voice.
  • Alan Menken — If you are going to do it big, bring in the man with the Oscars from Disney’s last animated musical heyday.  I did like the incorporation of Ariel’s and Belle’s themes into the music.

Disney also did a good job of allowing some adult humor to creep in, as with Aladdin.  What message is Disney sending when the hero defeats a huge “ogre” that looks a lot like another animated heavyweight?  The jokes were never over the line and actually showed that Disney could poke fun at itself and its competitors without being mean-spirited.

So was there anything I did not like?  Well, Patrick Dempsey’s character needed some more development; Susan Sarandon was under-utilized; and the few number of songs for a movie touting the power of song.

My advice: Grab your feinds and loved ones and go see this at the theater.  This is a movie that helps capture the idea of going to the theater and gives you a very good time.  Seeing this movie, you can’t help but feel happy the rest of the day…

My thoughts on the world of movies…