Movies
Corpse Bride
Posted on September 24th, 2005 @ 7:46 PM EST
This afternoon I went and saw the movie, Corpse Bride. I was expecting to see mostly adults in the theater since the tale is rather gothic and dark, but surprisingly there were many kids in the audience.
The movie is based on a 19th century Russian folktale of a groom who marries a zombie. The story was well written and the animation was absolutely flawless and smooth. It was so good that I found it hard to believe that it wasn’t entirely computerized. It was only 75 minutes long, which was rather short, but understandably so. There were many tech firsts for this movie, one of them being that it was the first feature-length movie shot using stop-motion animation, which is the most labor-intensive method of making a film. The figures have to be set in position, photographed, then moved a fraction of an inch then shot again, and the process is repeated again and again. A minute or so of footage can take an entire week to produce.
This is definitely one of my favorite animated movies and I highly recommend going to see it, especially if you’re a fan of Tim Burton. Also be sure to check out the website as it’s one of the best Flash sites that I’ve seen in a while.
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Fantastic Four
Posted on July 11th, 2005 @ 10:55 PM EST
Last weekend I went and saw the Fantastic Four which wasn’t so fantastic. It was probably the worst comic book movie I’ve seen. With a 100 million dollar budget, I really thought that it would have been a lot better. If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t even bother until it comes out on DVD.
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Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Posted on May 19th, 2005 @ 6:14 AM EST
My wife and I just returned home from seeing Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith one and a half times. Since it was the most anticipated film of the year, we purchased our tickets in advance for the show at 12:01 AM It was a good thing we did because the theater managed to sell out of tickets even though the movie was being shown on six different screens. About halfway through the movie, it kept cutting off and the lights kept coming on. The manager informed us that the projector could not be fixed and said we would have to return at 3:00 AM if we wanted to see the rest of the movie. He ended up compensating everyone with three tickets per person for the trouble. I estimated that they had given out over $15,000 in tickets since there were two rooms affected by the problem. The free passes will certainly come in handy since there are several other movies that I would like to see that are coming out in the next two months.
I won’t reveal any plot points so don’t worry about reading any spoilers. Going into the theater, my expectations weren’t that high since the last two prequels weren’t all that great. George Lucas has finally come through by delivering a film that fans have long been awaiting. I think out of all the Star Wars films that this one was the best laid out story. The opening battle sequence was jaw-dropping, the lightsaber duel between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi was excellent, and all the visual effects throughout the movie were stunning.
Whether or not you liked the last two movies, this one is definately worth seeing. It is full of action and is a great film from beginning to end.
Update (May 20th, 2005)
Star Wars Day 1: A Record $50 Million
The final chapter of the “Star Wars” movie saga grossed a record $50 million from its first 24 hours in North American theaters, the highest box office tally for a single day, according to studio estimates issued Friday.
Update (May 22nd, 2005)
‘Star Wars’ Reigns Over Box Office
“Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” sold an estimated $108.5 million worth of tickets for the Friday-to-Sunday period, taking its total to $158.5 million since it opened after midnight on Thursday.
Its four-day haul sets a new record, surpassing the $134.3 million tally of 2003’s “The Matrix Reloaded.” Its Thursday tally of $50 million also set a one-day record, beating the $44.8 million sum for “Shrek 2” last year.
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Meet the Fockers
Posted on December 28th, 2004 @ 10:15 PM EST
;)
My wife and I saw Meet the Fockers tonight. It set the record for the best Christmas weekend opening ever by earning $44.7 million over the holiday weekend which had previously been held by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Since Meet the Parents is one of my top 20 favorite movies, I couldn’t wait to see the sequel.
The Byrnes family along with Gaylord Focker (Ben Stiller) take a road trip down to South Florida to meet the Focker family who are quite the opposite of the Byrnes. The tables end up being turned around at the end of the movie when Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) is the one who does not belong just like Greg in the first movie.
Overall, it was pretty good, although I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first one. If you liked Meet the Parents, then you should definitely go and see Meet the Fockers!
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The Day After Tomorrow
Posted on June 4th, 2004 @ 11:51 AM EST
Last night I saw The Day After Tomorrow. The trailers did a superb job of making this film appear to be one of the biggest blockbuster movies of the summer by including just about everything good in the movie. The special effects were amazing, but the plot was full of holes. It started out with American cities being demolished far beyond Al Quaida’s wildest dreams then went from one far fetched thing to the next. Listed below are some of the things that really bothered me throughout the movie:
- All of the major disasters, tornados in California, a tidal wave in Manhattan, cantaloupe sized hail in Tokyo, a blizzard in New Delhi, the largest typhoon in the world in Australia, all started occurring simultaneously. If an Ice Age did occur, it would take generations, not hours to develop.
- A Russian freighter managed to find it’s way through the city and stop at the New York Public Library (where the main characters just so happen to be hiding out).
- As the super frigid air rushed down freezing buildings, breaking windows, the characters managed to outrun being frozen to death by just a few feet and ended up hiding from it by closing a wooden door.
- Cell phones, radios, and cable news networks, continue operating despite the fact that the city had been ravaged by a high tidal wave and an ice storm.
- The number one paleo-climatologist in the world, decided to go and reunite with his son rather then help save the world. He decided to walk impossible miles in the middle of a sub-sub-Arctic storm from Philadelphia to New York City to save his son. Why couldn’t he just wait until the storm was over? Did he really think people would be saved just because of his presence in the city? Why would he need to save his son when his son had no problem fighting off rabid wolves and outrunning massive tidal waves and the lethal cold?
One of the most amusing moments in the film was when thousands of Americans were fleeing the invasion from the north and began illegally crossing the Rio Grande into Mexico instead of the other way around. The President then forgives Latin America of all of their debt in exchange to allow Americans over the border.
There’s a political message in the movie which attacks the Bush administration for refusing to reduce greenhouse emissions. For this reason, MoveOn.org, an Internet-based liberal advocacy group, is calling it “the movie the White House doesn’t want you to see”. They are also using the film to help give them a backing in the fight against global warming. It also seemed kind of coincidental that the only villain in the movie is the U.S. Vice President, who strongly resembles Dick Cheney.
The film seems like it was created in part to make the general public think the world is going to end if something isn’t done to stop global warming soon. If you like special effects then this would definitely be a good movie to see on the big screen. Otherwise, I recommend going to see another film such as: The Terminal, Spider-Man 2, or Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and waiting until it comes out on DVD.
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