Pop Culture for Fun

  District 9 was a good movie. It was better than it had any right to be, considering first time director Neil Bloomkamp and would you know it, first time actor Sharlto Copley(and no I won’t count the short they did earlier in 2005 since it’s just the prologue for their recent cinematic venture). I only had one problem with the movie: was it action? was it satire? was it a mockumentary? a startling analysis of human nature? summer entertainment? If your answer is all of them, it’s partially right. There are movies that incorporate all of those and work, but this is not one of them.

  The movie is fun to watch, but at the same time frustrating. The action’s good, but that gets started rather late. The mockumentary bits work at one level, but become confusing as the action gets switched from news, documentary or security camera footage to scenes where there’s no such thing in sight. Ok, I can live with that, it’s used to emphasize some moments. Now comes the satire part, it throws in, not that subtly comparisons begging to be made to South Africa, refugees, riots, slums and large corporations. Trouble is, those are the side-dish, and sometimes feel like filling. And the analysis on human nature? Well we do discover (brilliant choice) that the main character is selfish and self-serving. But at the very end the movie cheats us of a true impact as far as social commentary goes, by making the character a hero, selfless as he seems to sacrifice himself for the good of others (guess what, that’s the same character who performed an abortion on an alien and joked about it just an hour ago).

  In the end, this is just what’s wrong with Sci-Fi today: they can’t seem to go for the complex (see Solaris for example, not the new one), without dumbing it down and that’s just because of the public’s (main public that is) expectations of a Science Fiction movie - SFX and action(and the Transformer franchise does not help at all).

Posted on September 11th, 2009 by MrWiseguy
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6. Ocean’s 11

Take 11 people, each one an expert in something that can be used in a robbery , stir (or shake) well, add a good plan and you get 150 million, right? But what good is that when you piss off a casino boss that will hunt you down to the end of the world? Sure, you can fix all of that in the sequel, but you still have to go through the motion. Plus, considering all the nights spent on figuring out whom to cast as the 12th in the sequel, 150 million doesn’t sound that great anymore.

5. Die Hard 1 and 3

You may be smart, have a great accent and come up with an awesome plan to steal a lot of cash, but once you get Bruce Willis into the mix, you’re doomed to fail. Hans Gruber certainly came tumbling down, well, falling down more like it. And his brother didn’t learn a thing from it. He came up with an even more elaborate plot to get revenge and steal gold. And he almost gets away with it, until his chopper gets in those powerlines. Ouch!!!

4. Reservoir Dogs

What not to do when planning a robbery: hire an undercover cop, hire a psychopath, hire anyone that’s remotely unscrupulous. Reservoir Dogs fails at each of these, with Tim Roth at the center of a bloodbath. Kudos to Harvey Keitel’s character, that, when facing a shot comrade and claims that the person who shot him is a cop, tries to protect the cop by making sure none but Steve Buscemi is left unharmed. Any robbery that ends with Mr. Pink getting away with the diamonds is a failed robbery.

3. Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead

I don’t think I have to point out what goes wrong in this one since you have two brothers, a junkie and a deadbeat, one of which is having an affair with the other one’s wife, who decide to rob their parents’ jewelry store. Things that go wrong: the third wheel shoots their mom and gets shot himself, his wife and her brother blackmail the two, a drug dealer gets shot and robbed, one of the brothers gets shot, then his father, figuring it all out, kills him by suffocation in the hospital.

2. Heat

So you’re Robert De Niro, you’ve committed several successful robberies, even managed to shoot it out with the police on the street and survive. Now you’re almost ready to leave it all behind and spend the rest of your life with the woman you love (like ?). Not exactly. Enter Al Pacino, the cop. There’s really no pride in being in a one-on-one shooting with Pacino and losing, especially if you’re De Niro and have managed to elude dozens of policemen not an hour ago, all while running through downtown wielding a AK-47.

1. Dog Day Afternoon

This time it’s Al Pacino who fails at robbing a bank, while in the process giving up his partner. If there’s one thing you learn from this movie is that you never ask for a plane in a hostage situation. That’s a code for the cops to take you out. Final tally: 1 dead, and one in prison for 20 years, none of them went down in a blaze of glory. Now that’s a failed robbery.

Posted on April 20th, 2009 by MrWiseguy
Filed under: Movies | 1 Comment »

  A couple of weeks ago I watched the season (series ?) finale for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I expected some resolutions and some answers, mainly because I honestly believed it would be the end of the show, as much as I hated it. And it just might be that, though no one, except maybe for network executives, knows yet.
  I got some resolutions and some answer plus a lot of questions. I can’t say it isn’t a fitting end to the series, since it is intriguing, and that’s how I’d pretty much describe the whole show, but it did leave me wanting more. Now, if they don’t make a third season, so be it, but at least make a movie to tie up all loose ends. I do believe the DVD sales would be enough reasons to do so, and let’s face it, a movie is not as expensive as a third season.
  It’s nothing new, it has been done before: Farscape made a two part TV movie that was pretty fun; Stargate SG-1 has 2 movies under its belt; Firefly even made the jump to the big screen. Now, I don’t expect that from TSCC, nor do I expect a big budget if it does get made, but let’s face it, if you’re a fan of the show, it’s not because of SFX, but because of the quality story and interesting characters.

Posted on April 17th, 2009 by MrWiseguy
Filed under: TV | No Comments »

  Seeing as I let the dust settle on this little blog, and almost let it die, it seemed appropriate that I should be discussing death, but not any kind of death, but the one that strikes at major characters on TV.

  It’s rare to see such a thing, as writers seem to hate killing the regulars so seeing one die, or get killed is far from the usual red shirt or guest star mishap. So, imagine my surprise when it happened twice in a matter of days. First came the death of Brian Austin Green’s character Derek,  from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, then Kutner’s(Kal Penn) suicide on House. Both were handled quite well, and truly unlike we’re maybe used to.
  Derek died a soldier’s death, in the way I imagine most people would die when facing a Terminator. Bullet to the head, no funeral, no tears shed. Sure, he was a bad ass, but hey, man against machine, skill count for only so much until luck plays its card. It was in the first minutes of the episode, it was sudden and oh so final that I couldn’t believe it at first. Yet as it settled in, I realized I was happy with how it turned out, no setup episodes, no mourning period as the other characters had no time for it, since such is life on the run, in constant danger.

  The suicide on House was off camera. We only saw a body in a pool of blood just as the show was getting into second gear with its usual patient of the week plotline. Yet, though there was a funeral, and tears were shed, this was not so much about the character lost, but the way everyone reacted to the death. There were no answers, no explanations, no note left behind. And everyone handled the event differently. It reminded me that House should aspire to be more like Lost, character driven, instead of mistery driven (some might argue about that, but ultimately Lost’s misteries are there only to flesh out the characters).
  These were both unique ways to handle something that is ultimately a big event on any TV show, and served to prove that such deaths can move the story forward as well as be as realistic as possible. Sure, there are other shows out there that do the whole regular character killing quite often but those are shows with an ensemble cast, where one character dying does not come quite as a surprise (24 has lots and lots of deaths, and Lost, well they do get off on killing a couple of people each season).

Posted on April 9th, 2009 by MrWiseguy
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Posted on December 20th, 2008 by MrWiseguy
Filed under: Movies | 1 Comment »

  Now, I have not seen The Pursuit of Happiness, the last Smith - Muccino film, but I have heard descriptions that used “emotional” and “tear jerker” as adjectives. At least the same can be said about Seven Pounds. Personally, I’d describe it as a well-acted, well-directed, massochistic drama. You might ask why, and you will get an answer.
  While it’s been marketed under utter secrecy, and the critics have been asked not to reveal any spoilers, from the trailer and the first 10 minutes of the film, I knew where it was heading. The only thing I kept asking was if it would go all the way. And it did. There’s no optimism in this movie, there’s only sadness and remorse. Sure, there’s kindness and emotional connection, but that only helps draw you in and make you care about the characters.
  Will Smith is, as always, more than capable of doing the job at hand (though I doubt he’ll get another Oscar nomination, even if deserved, he faces too much competition this year). He portrays this broken, guilt ridden man with intensity. At no point can I believe his forced smiles without seeing the anguish inside. This is a focused, yet troubled individual, an emotional wreck that even when glimpsing the smallest hope for his future, can not accept it.
  Rosario Dawson is delightful as the woman who connects with this man, a bundle of sadness herself. The rest of the cast is adequate (felt like Woody Harrelson was underused) but somehow doesn’t fit the puzzle, due to little screen time, and less character development.
  The final revelation, twist, or whatever you’d call it, isn’t as dramatic as the build up leads to believe. In the end, the movie is just a good performance, a good idea, but somehow overshadowed by an unneeded romantic angle and too little psychological insight into a damaged soul

PS: I used “massochistic” to describe it as you can always stop watching, that is, if you can tear yourself away from this emotional ride downhill (as it is a real downer).

Posted on December 20th, 2008 by MrWiseguy
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Posted on December 7th, 2008 by MrWiseguy
Filed under: Movies | 2 Comments »

Posted on December 5th, 2008 by MrWiseguy
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   Yesterday I ran over this article called “The Creatures That Ate Hollywood”. It was a nice little walk down memory lane (not that much for me, but for Hollywood itself). Had everything from Moby Dick to Aliens vs. Predator. Though it wasn’t just Hollywood, it had some Japanese too, well sure, Godzilla needs to be up there too, and people (still can’t tell why) don’t seem to like the Emmerich version at all.

   What I didn’t quite get is why throw in all of those movies, and not mention some pioneers like 1925’s The Lost World, or 1933’s King Kong. Sure, it does mention Moby Dick as evidence of Hollywood’s infatuation with giant, thrashing creatures, but somehow that fails to pay homage to these classics. And there were many more (even if quantity did take over quality). The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms was just the first of a slew of creature movies in the ’50s. Nuclear paranoia was about.

   That changed a lot, mostly during the ’70s and ’80s. We got to see aliens, very very scary aliens, thanks to Ridley Scott and later John Cameron (the Alien Queen is still my favourite). George Lucas released upon an unsuspecting world his sci-fi universe full of wonder. Monsters even got to be funny, like in Ron Underwood’s Tremors. The 50 foot women of the early years were nowhere to be seen.

   Then came the ’90s and a little movie called Jurrasic Park. And the creatures became a lot more real than they seemed. Since CGI broke into mainstream there’s not much we haven’t seen in the department of creatures and monsters. Godzilla had it’s American remake, the Alien franchise got its share of sequels, and we got to see even more aliens from Lucas (Jar-Jar Binks…uhhh!). Cloverfield managed to demonstrate, Hollywood is nowhere near getting over its obsession with giant monster movies. And wouldn’t you know it, 2009 has at least one monster movie up its sleeve: The Wolf Man, starring Benicio del Toro.

Posted on November 24th, 2008 by MrWiseguy
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  Well, it’s new, it’s a lot of fun, and totally unexpected: Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder. Once Flo Rida’s “Low” starts playing, I dare you not to laugh. G5..playa!!!

  One more for Tom Cruise, this time along side Danny DeVito and Kevin Spacey in Austin Powers: Goldmember, as the movie versions of Austin Powers, Dr. Evil and Mini Me. Funnier than the rest of movie, and totally worth it.”Yeah baby, yeah!!!”

  Keith Richards in Pirates of The Carribean 3: At World’s End. What can I say it’s Jack Sparrow and the original model for him, and Richards actually manages to upstage Johnny Depp. Depp needs to snort a lot of coke if he ever decides to play Richards in some kind of Stones biopic.

  Will Ferrell as Chazz Reinhold in Wedding Crashers. He’s like your worst nightmare come true: a 40 year old man living with his mother, slouching around in a bathrobe. Considering the movie builds him up as a wedding crasher legend it’s just about as sad as seeing Pacino in The Godfather then in 88 Minutes. “HEY MOM! CAN WE GET SOME MEATLOAF? ”

  David Hasselhoff as the coach of the German team in Dodgeball. You have to love a man willing to poke fun at himself. The part where the Germans look extremely ashamed to have disappointed him while he’s barking German at them is priceless (then again so is “Fuckin’ Chuck Norris!” ) No Hasselhoff video, but here’s some Chuck Norris.

  Probably the best cameo ever comes from Neil Patrick Harris in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, playing himself, or rather a coked up, totally insane version of himself, NPH. “Come on, dudes, let’s pick up some trim at a strip club. The Doogie line always works on strippers.”

Posted on October 30th, 2008 by MrWiseguy
Filed under: Music | 1 Comment »