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My 2005 in Movies, Part 1 of 3
As promised, my list of movies that I saw in 2005, either theatrically or DVD, theatrically unless otherwise noted. They're in the order that they were seen. It looks like I logged 33 movies, so I'll probably do three posts of eleven each. I've also noted when I've seen a film more than once.
There may be spoilers, so I've put everything behind a cut.
In this installment, I'll be briefly talking about: The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissu, Electra, House of Flying Daggers, A Love Song For Bobby Long, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Constantine, Sin City, Kung Fu Hustle, Kingdom of Heaven, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith.
I would highly recommend the blog of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
magic_rat for good reviews of films.
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissu (theatre & DVD). I really liked this movie, wouldn't have bought the DVD if I hadn't. The director also made Rushmore, Royal Tannenbaums, and Firecracker. He has a wry sense of humor that I really enjoy. I like seeing Bill Murray in light comedy roles, he still gets to be funny, but he isn't hamming it up like, for example, Stripes.
Electra. One word – SUCKS. Other words: really sucks, waste of film, why did I waste two hours of my life when I could have seen the next movie instead? I pray there will not be an Electra II.
House of Flying Daggers (DVD & theatre). Fantastic film. Lovely fight choreography, good enough story. Very glad that I got to see it theatrically.
A Love Song for Bobby Long. Saw this as a sneak, it isn't a film that I would have gone out of my way to see. Travolta plays an interesting character in the title role as an aging professorial-type who doesn't see a lot in life to be worthwhile any more, so he turns to booze and hanging out with friends in rural New Orleans. Maybe it's a good chick flick, I'm not sure. Definitely not my normal cup of tea, but you might like it.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I've always wanted to read this series but haven't gotten around to it. Jim Carrey dons his rubber face and lots of makeup to play several different roles in the film, all of them variations on the evil uncle who wants to control the orphan children and get away with their inheritance. Apparently this was a combination of the first three films, and I think they carried it off pretty well. I quite liked the visuals, for me they were quite reminiscent of a lot of Tim Burton. The casting of the children, in my ignorance of the novels, seemed quite good to me. Very much enjoyed the film.
Constantine. This film had such potential, but once again the film makers only pay lip service to what was a very good comic book series. Keanu Reeves was a flat-out mistake, I think they would have done so much better using either a relative unknown or someone like James Marsters (Spike from Buffy/Angel). Marsters has the attitude and can pull a convincing British accent. But so many movies don't get funded unless they have a major name associated with it, and I think they needed Reeves in order to get the money. One interesting side note – the woman who played Gabriel was also the Queen in Chronicles of Narnia. The story was very weak compared to what could have been done, it was very disappointing overall.
Sin City. Loved this film! The rotoscope work crossing it back and forth between 'reality' and 'comic book' was great. The casting was very well done, the atmosphere was fantastic. I bought a copy while I was in Phoenix before Christmas but returned it when I noticed the only bonus material was one 'making of' featurette. I'll wait for the full release to get it. I never read the comic, but it is one that I'd like to pick up a couple of the graphic novel collections.
Kung Fu Hustle (DVD & theatre). Stephen Chow, maker of Shaolin Soccer, returns and does Matrix special effects proud. Lots of fun, good story, great fight choreography. A very interesting thing that I learned from the special features was that the actors who played the residents of Pig Alley (IIRC) were all former martial arts movie stars. They were all mostly retired, and Chow brought them back for this film. I think it added a great touch to the film. Definitely recommended, I'm glad I was able to catch it in the theatre.
Kingdom of Heaven. Another sneak. This movie was basically a story of the Crusades and a man fleeing from the law joining Lionheart's army. Pretty cool battles, I was quite impressed by the battle they did not show. Yes, a rather nebulous statement, but if you see the movie you'll understand and I think you'll be equally impressed. Recommended. It probably fell down when it came to historical accuracy, but since I'm not a historian, I don't particularly care.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. A very interesting treatment to what many consider a classic piece of science fiction literature. I've read the series I don't know how many times. I have the TV series on VHS somewhere. I've read the radio scripts, though I haven't heard tapes of the broadcast. So I'm pretty well qualified to discuss the movie. One thing that I particularly liked was that the movie did not slavishly follow any single source of material: it borrowed from every incarnation of the book that it could, then added some interesting twists of its own. Douglas Adams had a very facile mind and he liked the fact that every incarnation at that time was different, I think he would have been pleased by this one. As in any movie based on a well-known book, there were some things that I would have really liked to have seen, sort of like the missing sorting hat song from the first Harry Potter movie, but I think the film makers did a good job of treating Adams' source material with respect and producing a good implementation for the silver screen.
Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith (x2). Like most people, I had high hopes for the prequel trilogy. And like a lot of people, I thought Lucas blew it right out of the gate by turning The Force into bugs in our blood rather than this mystical thing that it was as we saw it originally. But I really don't want to dwell on the full trilogy, that would be best served after I get this film on DVD and see Parts 4-6 again. Like Attack of the Clones, I think this film is much improved by fast-forwarding through any scenes where Anakin and Padme interact. As a straight action film, it works pretty good. It becomes particularly strained when Anakin continues his descent to the Dark Side and the (soon to be) Emperor orders the extermination of the Jedi, who are, frankly, too stupid to deserve to live. So if you want this large, sweeping tale of mythology and redemption, stick to A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. The prequel trilogy is fine for action and FX, but really falls down in what it could have been.
There may be spoilers, so I've put everything behind a cut.
In this installment, I'll be briefly talking about: The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissu, Electra, House of Flying Daggers, A Love Song For Bobby Long, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Constantine, Sin City, Kung Fu Hustle, Kingdom of Heaven, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith.
I would highly recommend the blog of
magic_rat for good reviews of films.The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissu (theatre & DVD). I really liked this movie, wouldn't have bought the DVD if I hadn't. The director also made Rushmore, Royal Tannenbaums, and Firecracker. He has a wry sense of humor that I really enjoy. I like seeing Bill Murray in light comedy roles, he still gets to be funny, but he isn't hamming it up like, for example, Stripes.
Electra. One word – SUCKS. Other words: really sucks, waste of film, why did I waste two hours of my life when I could have seen the next movie instead? I pray there will not be an Electra II.
House of Flying Daggers (DVD & theatre). Fantastic film. Lovely fight choreography, good enough story. Very glad that I got to see it theatrically.
A Love Song for Bobby Long. Saw this as a sneak, it isn't a film that I would have gone out of my way to see. Travolta plays an interesting character in the title role as an aging professorial-type who doesn't see a lot in life to be worthwhile any more, so he turns to booze and hanging out with friends in rural New Orleans. Maybe it's a good chick flick, I'm not sure. Definitely not my normal cup of tea, but you might like it.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I've always wanted to read this series but haven't gotten around to it. Jim Carrey dons his rubber face and lots of makeup to play several different roles in the film, all of them variations on the evil uncle who wants to control the orphan children and get away with their inheritance. Apparently this was a combination of the first three films, and I think they carried it off pretty well. I quite liked the visuals, for me they were quite reminiscent of a lot of Tim Burton. The casting of the children, in my ignorance of the novels, seemed quite good to me. Very much enjoyed the film.
Constantine. This film had such potential, but once again the film makers only pay lip service to what was a very good comic book series. Keanu Reeves was a flat-out mistake, I think they would have done so much better using either a relative unknown or someone like James Marsters (Spike from Buffy/Angel). Marsters has the attitude and can pull a convincing British accent. But so many movies don't get funded unless they have a major name associated with it, and I think they needed Reeves in order to get the money. One interesting side note – the woman who played Gabriel was also the Queen in Chronicles of Narnia. The story was very weak compared to what could have been done, it was very disappointing overall.
Sin City. Loved this film! The rotoscope work crossing it back and forth between 'reality' and 'comic book' was great. The casting was very well done, the atmosphere was fantastic. I bought a copy while I was in Phoenix before Christmas but returned it when I noticed the only bonus material was one 'making of' featurette. I'll wait for the full release to get it. I never read the comic, but it is one that I'd like to pick up a couple of the graphic novel collections.
Kung Fu Hustle (DVD & theatre). Stephen Chow, maker of Shaolin Soccer, returns and does Matrix special effects proud. Lots of fun, good story, great fight choreography. A very interesting thing that I learned from the special features was that the actors who played the residents of Pig Alley (IIRC) were all former martial arts movie stars. They were all mostly retired, and Chow brought them back for this film. I think it added a great touch to the film. Definitely recommended, I'm glad I was able to catch it in the theatre.
Kingdom of Heaven. Another sneak. This movie was basically a story of the Crusades and a man fleeing from the law joining Lionheart's army. Pretty cool battles, I was quite impressed by the battle they did not show. Yes, a rather nebulous statement, but if you see the movie you'll understand and I think you'll be equally impressed. Recommended. It probably fell down when it came to historical accuracy, but since I'm not a historian, I don't particularly care.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. A very interesting treatment to what many consider a classic piece of science fiction literature. I've read the series I don't know how many times. I have the TV series on VHS somewhere. I've read the radio scripts, though I haven't heard tapes of the broadcast. So I'm pretty well qualified to discuss the movie. One thing that I particularly liked was that the movie did not slavishly follow any single source of material: it borrowed from every incarnation of the book that it could, then added some interesting twists of its own. Douglas Adams had a very facile mind and he liked the fact that every incarnation at that time was different, I think he would have been pleased by this one. As in any movie based on a well-known book, there were some things that I would have really liked to have seen, sort of like the missing sorting hat song from the first Harry Potter movie, but I think the film makers did a good job of treating Adams' source material with respect and producing a good implementation for the silver screen.
Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith (x2). Like most people, I had high hopes for the prequel trilogy. And like a lot of people, I thought Lucas blew it right out of the gate by turning The Force into bugs in our blood rather than this mystical thing that it was as we saw it originally. But I really don't want to dwell on the full trilogy, that would be best served after I get this film on DVD and see Parts 4-6 again. Like Attack of the Clones, I think this film is much improved by fast-forwarding through any scenes where Anakin and Padme interact. As a straight action film, it works pretty good. It becomes particularly strained when Anakin continues his descent to the Dark Side and the (soon to be) Emperor orders the extermination of the Jedi, who are, frankly, too stupid to deserve to live. So if you want this large, sweeping tale of mythology and redemption, stick to A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. The prequel trilogy is fine for action and FX, but really falls down in what it could have been.