Quick Movie Update
03/18/07 11:16 AM |
Movies
Okay maybe not that quick but hey if you've read this
far you might as well keep going.
Casino Royale - First let me say that it was a very good movie. It was entertaining and was well acted. When they first announced the new Bond, I said "Who?" and I still can't remember his name without looking it up (Daniel Craig, I looked). But his character was very good. With all that said I now have to say this, Casino Royale was NOT a Bond movie. Oh sure the movie centered around a character called James Bond and they brought M back, but it was not Bond. Apparently when Pierce Brosnan left claiming that the role was too cheesy, the studio took his comments to heart and went to the other extreme. Now as far as I can remember Bond movie were about 3 things: gadgets, women with suggestive names and innuendo-laced one-liners. I will agree that the last few Bond movies took that too the extreme. Goldeneye was by far the best of the Brosnan era movies. But when you are casting Denise Richards in starring roles what do you expect? Sure she's nice to look at but do you have to give her lines? So gone are the gadgets, women with suggestive names and innuendo-laced one-liners. What does that leave us with? It leaves us with a complete break from Bond canon. Sure its a good movie, but it's not a good Bond movie. I say bring back Moneypenny and R. Bring back the gadgets. What is a spy without gadgets? Bring back the suggestively named women. And for the love of pete, bring back the cheesy one-liners, in moderation of course.
Now as a follow-up to my Bond rant, I received Volume 1 of the Ultimate Bond collection for Christmas. 2 disc sets of Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man With The Golden Gun, The Living Daylights, and The World Is Not Enough. I have to say that they look and sound fabulous. It amazes me what we can do to re-master movies these days. They are well worth picking up. I'll have to see about picking up the rest of the series. I believe there are 4 volumes in all.
Little Miss Sunshine - I finally got a chance to see this movie recently. I was going to see it in theaters with Heather but she went and saw it without me. In any case if you have seen it you know that it was one of those hilarious, quirky comedies. I think Greg Kinnear is one of Hollywood's most underrated actors. If you haven't seen the movie you need to go see it right now. I'd have to rate this one up towards the top of my list of favorite quirky movies.
The DaVinci Code - Okay, so I'm not all the way through this one yet. I thin at this point I could go read the book in less time than it will take to finish watching the movie and it could be any less interesting. From what everyone has told me about the book, it's fascinating and moves along well and keeps you interested. A regular page turner. The movie so far, isn't. I'll give it a far shake though and finish it. Maybe I'll speak of it next update.
Serenity - Okay so I finally got around to this. I sat down and watched the whole series of Firefly and then sat down and watched Serenity. First I don't know what Fox was thinking when they cancelled Firefly. It's a wonderful space western with characters that click from episode 1. I'd have to rank it up there with Sport Night as one of the dumbest corporate cancellation decisions of all time. As for Serenity, I'm not sure I enjoyed it as much as I would have enjoyed a few more seasons of Firefly. I don't know why closure for TV series these days involves killing off a main character or two, but Serenity doesn't manage to escape this plot device. It seems especially common in Sci-Fi shows these days. Enterprise, Star Trek Nemesis, Angel, and Buffy are just a few examples where for some reason a main character dies at the end. I won't tell you who dies in Serenity, but one of them was my favorite character. Overall the movie was good, although like the last season of Enterprise it felt like they were rushing to try to resolve everything in a short time period.
Finally, I'd like to plug my new found favorite comedy, Scrubs. Yes I know it's been on for a while, but I've always avoided it because of my disdain for ER and all the other hospital dramas out there. But Comedy Central has been running the first few season and I've gotten hooked. I would be watching season 3 disc 1 right now, but the Netflix disc was cracked when it arrived yesterday. Grrr....
Casino Royale - First let me say that it was a very good movie. It was entertaining and was well acted. When they first announced the new Bond, I said "Who?" and I still can't remember his name without looking it up (Daniel Craig, I looked). But his character was very good. With all that said I now have to say this, Casino Royale was NOT a Bond movie. Oh sure the movie centered around a character called James Bond and they brought M back, but it was not Bond. Apparently when Pierce Brosnan left claiming that the role was too cheesy, the studio took his comments to heart and went to the other extreme. Now as far as I can remember Bond movie were about 3 things: gadgets, women with suggestive names and innuendo-laced one-liners. I will agree that the last few Bond movies took that too the extreme. Goldeneye was by far the best of the Brosnan era movies. But when you are casting Denise Richards in starring roles what do you expect? Sure she's nice to look at but do you have to give her lines? So gone are the gadgets, women with suggestive names and innuendo-laced one-liners. What does that leave us with? It leaves us with a complete break from Bond canon. Sure its a good movie, but it's not a good Bond movie. I say bring back Moneypenny and R. Bring back the gadgets. What is a spy without gadgets? Bring back the suggestively named women. And for the love of pete, bring back the cheesy one-liners, in moderation of course.
Now as a follow-up to my Bond rant, I received Volume 1 of the Ultimate Bond collection for Christmas. 2 disc sets of Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man With The Golden Gun, The Living Daylights, and The World Is Not Enough. I have to say that they look and sound fabulous. It amazes me what we can do to re-master movies these days. They are well worth picking up. I'll have to see about picking up the rest of the series. I believe there are 4 volumes in all.
Little Miss Sunshine - I finally got a chance to see this movie recently. I was going to see it in theaters with Heather but she went and saw it without me. In any case if you have seen it you know that it was one of those hilarious, quirky comedies. I think Greg Kinnear is one of Hollywood's most underrated actors. If you haven't seen the movie you need to go see it right now. I'd have to rate this one up towards the top of my list of favorite quirky movies.
The DaVinci Code - Okay, so I'm not all the way through this one yet. I thin at this point I could go read the book in less time than it will take to finish watching the movie and it could be any less interesting. From what everyone has told me about the book, it's fascinating and moves along well and keeps you interested. A regular page turner. The movie so far, isn't. I'll give it a far shake though and finish it. Maybe I'll speak of it next update.
Serenity - Okay so I finally got around to this. I sat down and watched the whole series of Firefly and then sat down and watched Serenity. First I don't know what Fox was thinking when they cancelled Firefly. It's a wonderful space western with characters that click from episode 1. I'd have to rank it up there with Sport Night as one of the dumbest corporate cancellation decisions of all time. As for Serenity, I'm not sure I enjoyed it as much as I would have enjoyed a few more seasons of Firefly. I don't know why closure for TV series these days involves killing off a main character or two, but Serenity doesn't manage to escape this plot device. It seems especially common in Sci-Fi shows these days. Enterprise, Star Trek Nemesis, Angel, and Buffy are just a few examples where for some reason a main character dies at the end. I won't tell you who dies in Serenity, but one of them was my favorite character. Overall the movie was good, although like the last season of Enterprise it felt like they were rushing to try to resolve everything in a short time period.
Finally, I'd like to plug my new found favorite comedy, Scrubs. Yes I know it's been on for a while, but I've always avoided it because of my disdain for ER and all the other hospital dramas out there. But Comedy Central has been running the first few season and I've gotten hooked. I would be watching season 3 disc 1 right now, but the Netflix disc was cracked when it arrived yesterday. Grrr....
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