Movies

On mistakes and poor characters

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

The mistake was one out of my control–I went to view a movie for class, and Netflix shipped the wrong one. Instead of viewing L’Ultimo Bacio, I had to watch The Last Kiss.

My assessment of the movie was that the characters were poorly created. It seemed like they all had two emotions: angry and angrier.

Perhaps this movie presents the emotional crisis of turning thirty accurately. The main male characters all strive for freedom from their various relationships, but they lack enough redeeming qualities to make them likeable. The female characters are even less dimensional. There’s the exhausted mother. The mother-to-be who is an emotional wreck.

Out of this rather bland and all-together easy to forget movie (even though I watched this mere hours ago, all I can think of was, “my God, I hate Zack Braff even more now” and “At least Casey Affleck was entertaining enough”), I got one little bit of insight:

To have a watchable/readable story, you need a decent enough conflict. To have a very entertaining story, you need well developed characters.

On immortality

General Geekiness

I recently saw that Warner acquired Methuselah to be an action-adventure film. Apparently the protagonist ages at a very slow rate and uses all the extra time to gain survival skills. And they probably aren’t just rubbing two sticks together to make fire. My initial thought was the writers should just look at Highlander‘s Methos, but hey.

Immortality is an intriguing subject matter. How long does a person live before he loses sight of who he is? Does he simply become a combination of loosely connected ideas and opinions? What happens to him after his friends and family die? How can he die? Extreme old age? In my own writing, I like to contemplate these ideas.

I have high hopes for this movie. Hopefully it’ll be good and strive to answer at least one of my questions. Preferably the first.

So, dear readers, what are some of your favorite immortality themed books, movies, television shows, video games, etc, etc?

On Wes Anderson

General Geekiness

Wes Anderson is swiftly becoming one of my go-to directors. No, I don’t have his phone number on speed dial, but I find myself watching his movies on a semi-regular basis.

Today I watched Rushmore, which while not my favorite movie of his, was thoroughly entertaining (even while conjugating Italian verbs). For those who haven’t seen this strange little movie, it’s about a kid (Jason Schwartzman) who practically rules Rushmore Academy and is put on academic probation. Crazy hijinks occur (my favorite being the prank war between Schwartzman’s character and Bill Murray, set to the tune of The Who’s “A Quick One, While He’s Away.”)

The first Anderson movie I saw was The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which I thought was incredibly strange. Note that I haven’t seen it since, and am left with only vague memories of red stocking hats, David Bowie in Portugeuse and a claymation shark.

The next one I saw, and remains my favorite, is The Darjeeling Limited. It’s a strange rather colorful film, but I liked it. Random though it is, it’s a movie about family and relationships. It never forgets that.

Next up on the Wes Anderson queue? No idea, but I’m looking forward to Fantastic Mr. Fox.

On Netflix, Doctor Who and lowered productivity

General Geekiness

I just installed Silverlight on my computer so I can watch movies and TV on my computer. This is very dangerous. Now I can watch seasons 1-3 of Doctor Who, which is wonderful now that I don’t have Sci-Fi. Productivity may be down.

Oh well. I only managed to catch the majority of season one when it aired on Sci-Fi. I’ll finally be able to watch seasons two and three! And I can alternate Doctor Who with Highlander now.

That’s enough geeking out for now.

On visiting places in movies

General Geekiness

There are fewer things in life that make me smile more than knowing that I’ve been somewhere that a movie’s been filmed. It’s a simple pleasure, but one that I particularly like (especially when watching a movie and recognizing a place).

When I was younger, my family went on a trip to the UK. One of our stops was Oxford, where we visited Christ Church College. Otherwise known as the place where the staircase from Harry Potter is. Also, part of The History Boys was filmed there. I had to smile.

A big surprise came when I was watching Quadrophenia last summer. The whole mods and rockers thing intrigues me, but enough on that. I knew that the movie partially took place in Brighton (where I visited in high school), but I didn’t realize that the big fight took place outside a restaurant I ate at (or just paid a visit to the loo…I can’t remember). Either way, I walked down quite a few of the streets (and of course, the beach) used in that cult film.

On The History Boys

General Geekiness

Well, what can I say? Despite the touchy subject matter, I spent the entire time watching this movie with a smile on my face.

For those who haven’t heard of this movie, it’s about a group of boys studying for their exams to enter Oxford or Cambridge. Of course, life lessons abound. Not so much. More, the characters deal with sex, life, growing up, and exams. Their teachers, from the eccentric closeted-homosexual Hector to the atypical Oxford alum Irwin to the sole female Lintott, try to push them forwards and into these Universities.

While this film can’t be described as a “great one,” it is certainly very good. The characters all had their various facets, even if they weren’t the main focus, which many films (and certainly books) can’t attest to. The acting was very good.

My favorite scene was the final one–not because it was the last one (as can be said in the cases of some movies), but because I felt it was an interesting and effective way to do the “and then what happened” so common at the end of movies.

Watch it if you’re looking for something entertaining, well done, and different.

Of course, I haven’t seen the play yet. Hopefully a production will be staged near me in the not-so-distant future, so I can rectify the situation.