Sunbeams illuminating a coastal forest in Port Orford, Oregon

Chuggnutt!

Category: Movies

  • W and G (May contain nuts)

    Wallace and GromitSunday my dad and I took the kids to see Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Hands down, the best movie I’ve seen this year. The story is funny and quirky, and the claymation is simply a delight to watch. And it’s genuinely funny, which is rare in a movie these days; like my dad said, I haven’t laughed so hard at a movie in a long time.

    Amazon has a good deal on the first three Wallace and Gromit films on DVD. I’ve got a couple of them on videotape around here somewhere, but it sure would be nice to get a hold of this…

    In other related news, a fire wiped out Aardman Animations over the weekend… destroyed nearly everything, including the props and sets from those first Wallace and Gromit films. That’s rough.

  • Fantastic Four

    Okay, I admit that since I saw the trailer for it at the beginning of Star Wars, I want to see the “Fantastic Four” movie. Even though, as my brother seems to think, it will likely turn out to be desperately bad. But with today’s CGI and effects technology, even the desperately bad can look good—or at least the trailers can.

    The qualm I do have about the movie is one I share with my brother—the rubbery-looking costume for the Thing. I hope the final version looks a lot better, because right now it looks like, I don’t know, Meat Man or something. This is supposed to be a character who’s mutated into orange rock or somesuch, not latex. Couldn’t they have done an all-CGI Thing?

    I don’t have a problem with casting Michael Chiklis in that role, though. It seems appropriate. Peter David, who’s doing the novelization, made a comment about this: “If I had to guess, I’m thinking Chiklis’ Ben Grimm is going to be the character everyone’s talking about.” So there’s hope. Maybe.

    Of course, when there’s an article on Wired about all the hype and hooplah the studio’s going through to promote the movie, that just seems to be that they’re trying too hard. The movie will look good—mostly—but it’ll likely be another Hulk.

    And in related news: Defamer reports that a skywriter promoting the movie messed up by drawing the “4” backwards. Nice.

  • Revenge of the Sith

    I went and saw Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith yesterday, and… wow. It was by far the best of the three prequel films, and the first one of the three that actually felt, I don’t know, epic in the sense that it’s carrying the weight of Star Wars history that fleshed out the first three movies. It was good, I’d go see it again, if I get the chance.

    This is going to turn into a larger review, and some general observations on Star Wars in general, and there will be spoilers, so only click through if you’ve already seen it (or don’t mind reading spoilers).

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  • Our local Jedi

    It was inevitable, I guess: Bend has its local Star Wars superfans who dressed up in costumes and lined up outside the theater for the premier of “Revenge of the Sith” last night. I know this not because I was there, but because Z21‘s Christian Boris (one of the weather guys) did a live broadcast from the theater to cover the event. However, Christian did more than just cover the event…

    He was dressed up as Darth Vader.

    Thus began the funniest, most surreal Z21 broadcast I’ve seen in a long time, maybe ever. And it was such a short clip! First there was the shock and awe of the Darth Vader costume… on the guy reporting the news… whose helmet looked too small… I honestly couldn’t tell if he was dressed up because he was doing a piece for the news, or if he’s really into Star Wars. Either way, it was gutsy, but just seemed so, so wrong.

    And, when you think it really couldn’t get any better—aside from just showing some of the various costumes people put together for the big night—Christian wisely decided not to interview any particular people and opted instead to just let the camera do the talking.

    To my utter amazement, these two guys dressed up as Jedi start lightsaber dueling in the parking lot. I mean, full-on theatrics, and the taller guy with the more elaborate costume was really, really into it—leaping in the air, spinning around, the works. It was a bonafide jaw-dropping moment… followed by laughing uncontrollably and utter disbelief.

    Back in the studio, both Nina Mehlhaf and Jason Carr were laughing, too… I got the sense that Nina was this close from losing it and descending into maniacal laughter, but she reigned it in in time.

    You know what’s even better? When the moment was selected for the Bulletin‘s photo of the day:

    Christopher Deattrod, dressed as a Star Wars character he made up (Jedi Knight Rod-Wan Deattrod), defends himself with a model lightsaber on Wednesday afternoon while waiting for the midnight showing of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
    Photo courtesy of The Bulletin

  • The Dukes of Hazzard… movie!

    Yep, there’s going to be a Dukes of Hazzard movie this year, it even has its own IMDB entry already. I’d heard of this awhile back, rumors of it anyway, and it sure seems especially apropos with my Boss Hogg entry a week or so back. Get a load of the cast:

    • Seann William Scott (Stiffler) as Bo Duke.
    • Johnny Knoxville (Jackass) as Luke Duke.
    • Jessica Simpson as Daisy Duke.
    • Willie Nelson (will he also sing the theme song?) as Uncle Jesse.
    • Burt Reynolds as Boss Hogg.

    A movie based on the Dukes is either going to be the best movie of the summer (in a tongue-in-cheek way) or the worst movie of the summer… I have a feeling there’ll be no in-between.

    It’s set to open June 24. You know you’ll be there.

  • The messed up world of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

    So, re-watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with the kids this last week, made me realize just how long it had been since I’d last seen this special: not long enough.

    It’s been 40 years since it came out, and this might be blasphemy to say, but it really hasn’t aged well. The animation is terrible! And what a weird-ass story.

    And disturbing. The Island of Misfit Toys was weird enough, but get a load of the talking gun. Or the way Yukon Cornelius licks his pick-axe to check for gold. Or Santa—I get the feeling this version of Santa Claus would have no problem dining on venison.

    But the worst of all is how they deal with the Abominable Snow Monster. What I thought I remembered was that he was only mean because he had a bad tooth, and Hermie the Dental Elf fixed it for him. No! No, what really happens is Hermie pulls every one of his teeth out with pliers and then they all try to kill the newly-defanged Snow Monster. Holy shit!

    I think I preferred my nostalgic version. At least it was messed up in a good way.

  • The Incredibles

    Simply put, “The Incredibles” is a great movie. Fantastic. Probably the best movie I’ve seen this year—really! So here’s my review, there may be spoilers, you’ve been warned.

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  • Silverado

    I just got caught up in watching the last hour and a half of Silverado on TV, what a great movie. One of the first westerns I remember seeing that actually felt like what is must have been like in that era. Plus, it’s just a fun movie. With an all-star cast that holds up, too: Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner, Danny Glover, John Cleese, Brian Dennehy, Rosanna Arquette, Jeff Goldblum, Jeff Fahey, Linda Hunt.

  • Spider-Man 2

    Saw Spider-Man 2 on Friday night. Very good. Better in many ways than the first one, and the first one was very good, too. Herewith some additional thoughts, but they might be spoilerish, so only read on if you’ve seen the movie (or are willing to risk it).

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  • Matrix Cheat Codes

    At work today a couple of us were jokingly speculating as to what earlier versions of The Matrix would be like—or, more accurately, what we would imagine they’d be like—and I came up with Half-Life. Basically, imagine the Matrix v1 as a first-person shooter.

    Makes perfect sense! All they essentially do in the Matrix is run around fighting, with or without weapons. Matrix Savants (or whatever the hell the people like Morpheus and Trinity are called) have managed to hack the command line and discover some cheat codes. But The One not only knows all the cheat codes, but is also able to change the server environment. Flying? Simply set sv_gravity 0.