Colbert receives Cap's shield
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
workday time killer
Here's a page to look at and kill some time today.
Totally rad Halloween costumes.
And
All you ever wanted to know about Kobra Kai Dojo and Sweeping the Leg (and more).
Oh, Retrocrush... I heart you.
And here is Randy and a bunch of ladies.
Totally rad Halloween costumes.
And
All you ever wanted to know about Kobra Kai Dojo and Sweeping the Leg (and more).
Oh, Retrocrush... I heart you.
And here is Randy and a bunch of ladies.
Monday, March 12, 2007
MONO E AND CRACK: ONE NIGHT ONLY
From my brother:
Just a reminder that two of Austin's most legendary garage bands will be hitting the stage at Bella Blue art boutique on Wednesday afternoon (Bella Blue is an art shop, but they have an entertainment area behind the shop that has a stage and plenty of room for our rock and roll audience). Crack will kick off the festivities at 3:00 with our unique take on savante garde melody making (or noise rock, depending on your point of view). The Mono Ensemble will follow at 4:00 with their own brand of folk-prog-western-jazz-funk-rock, and Kosmodrome will round out the day at 5:00 with experimental electronic fanfare smuggled deep out of the heart of mother Russia. The whole thing is part of the garage band showcase portion of SXS1st (the South 1st Street part of SXSW).
Just a reminder that two of Austin's most legendary garage bands will be hitting the stage at Bella Blue art boutique on Wednesday afternoon (Bella Blue is an art shop, but they have an entertainment area behind the shop that has a stage and plenty of room for our rock and roll audience). Crack will kick off the festivities at 3:00 with our unique take on savante garde melody making (or noise rock, depending on your point of view). The Mono Ensemble will follow at 4:00 with their own brand of folk-prog-western-jazz-funk-rock, and Kosmodrome will round out the day at 5:00 with experimental electronic fanfare smuggled deep out of the heart of mother Russia. The whole thing is part of the garage band showcase portion of SXS1st (the South 1st Street part of SXSW).
Here's a link to the Bella Blue flyer. Bella Blue is at 2213 South First Street, on the east side of the street, about a block north of Oltorf (next to End of An Ear Records, who I believe may be co-sponsoring the event).
So take part of the day off and come see some local, live music the way SXSW was originally intended!!!!!
Hope to see you all there!!!!!!
hugs,
jason steans
And, yes... I sit in on bass for one of the Crack tunes.
And, yes... I sit in on bass for one of the Crack tunes.
Comic Fodder Catch Up
Hey, Leaguers...
Finally got out Part 2 of Masters in DC Universe
and reviews of last week's DC Comics
Finally got out Part 2 of Masters in DC Universe
and reviews of last week's DC Comics
300 - the League sees a movie
Readers of LoM may have noticed I was cautiously optimistic about the recently released film "300". The movie promised to blend visual effects, historical inaccuracies, Frank Miller and a legendary tale together into a sort of big 'ol blockbuster. Whether the movie would make sense to mainstream America remained to be seen.
I have to say that it's gratifying in my old age to see the works of people I've genuinely respected for decades receiving star billing on multi-million dollar movies. Leaguers like Jason and JimD know the pain of too many hokey comic-to-movie adaptations that we all grew up with. But as our own generation takes the reigns in Hollywood, the generation which grew up on Dark Knight Returns and too many X-Men comics, filmmakers no longer seem embarrased by their own product, and are willing to take chances to bring some of the visual components of the comic panel to the screen.
And that is why 300 is a visually arresting, technically remarkable movie. However, that slavish devotion may also be why 300 isn't a very good movie.
300 is a slim volume and reads in a relatively quick time frame (your mileage may vary). I'd intentionally avoided re-reading the book since I'd heard the movie was in production, but I did recall that the story was slight and seemed more an opportunity for Miller to stretch his wings as artist. His dialogue is spare and his exposition non-existent as he cuts to the chase and got Persians and Spartans stabbing one another as quickly as possible.
THIS MOVIE HAS LOTS OF SHOUTING!!!!
As many might now know, Miller based the comic upon the real-life battle for Thermopylae, where, legend has it, 300 Spartans and some allies faced down thousands of troops from the Persian army. I'm a history major, but I spent too little time on Greek history to relate much other than what I've read online and seen in TV documentaries. What I can tell you is that history is a mix of myth, legend, fact and fiction. But if you want to believe the histories, Leonidas did, in fact, lead the sort of charge which is shown in the film, resulting in the eventual victory of the allied Greek armies (although the Spartans would fall within a generation or two).
And, as BS brutal as the movie depicts the life of the young king, there's signifcant historical evidence suggesting that the Spartans did send their children into the wild to learn to become fighters before apprenticing as soldiers, that Spartans were much of what was represented in film and more.
In some ways, with our comfy couches, TV's and relative security, the culture of the world 2500 years ago is completely alien. Most city-states were in a perpetual cycle of war with far off lands and with one another. The value of soldiers wasn't marked with magnetic ribbons on the back of an SUV, but in hoping that they didn't lose and that you and your family weren't taken as slaves. So when I see reviews from the NYTimes having a good chuckle at this seemingly jingoistic talk of freedom from tyranny and mysticism, I can appreciate the cynicism in a modern context, but can also appreciate what I believe the filmmakers were attempting to achieve.
I'll leave it to other arm chair quarterbacks to decide if director Zach Snyder was trying to create commentary upon the world's current political status, or if it's not telling that Miller's take on the material is a decade old and remains largely unaltered. There's a lesson in there somewhere if folks want to draw allusions to a 2500 year old story.
Unfortunately, as grand in scope and detail as Snyder would like the movie to be, the film plays more like a series of bombastic set-pieces strung together rather than as a coherent narrative. Where Miller's work moves from panel to panel, Snyder has the challenge of compressing time, of working with scenes rather than tableaus. And, for reasons that become eventually apparent in the end, he inserts the seemingly most unnecessary voice over since Harrison Ford's voice over in the original cut of Blade Runner. The much commented upon violence is brutal, if often lyrical in its blood-cult presentation. No doubt the sort of thing that will have fourteen year old boys secretly practicing spear maneuvers when they believe nobody is watching. That said, the movie does show some respect for the realities of hand to hand fighting with thousands of soldiers crashing into one another and the value of a good strategy.
But that's pretty much all viewers are going to find as far as anything fantastic.
I can't help but think that had someone expanded the scope of Miller's story, had someone else directed the actors in the scenes which do not require a lot of stabbing, the end product would have been more than a sure-fire addition to the average 18-24 tear old's DVD collection. We might have got something great.
as far as the visuals... A friend of mine said he thought the compositing looked amateurish. I think he was more or less looking for something to complain about (he hadn't seen the movie). If the movie has anything going for it, it's visuals.
And, on that note... Action directors who've gone to the "up close" and lots of cuts to disguise the action (Batman Begins comes to mind)could certainly take a page or two from 300's handbook.
When the movie ended at the Westgate, we had loud applause from our mostly 18-24 year old audience. In addition, some dude was shouting "Yeeeaaahh! Yeaaahhhh!" And, a little high school girl immediately got on her phone to tell her friend "I just saw 300. It's really violent and stuff, but it's @#$%ing awesome!"
So someone's liking this movie.
Just not me as much as I'd hoped.
I have to say that it's gratifying in my old age to see the works of people I've genuinely respected for decades receiving star billing on multi-million dollar movies. Leaguers like Jason and JimD know the pain of too many hokey comic-to-movie adaptations that we all grew up with. But as our own generation takes the reigns in Hollywood, the generation which grew up on Dark Knight Returns and too many X-Men comics, filmmakers no longer seem embarrased by their own product, and are willing to take chances to bring some of the visual components of the comic panel to the screen.
And that is why 300 is a visually arresting, technically remarkable movie. However, that slavish devotion may also be why 300 isn't a very good movie.
300 is a slim volume and reads in a relatively quick time frame (your mileage may vary). I'd intentionally avoided re-reading the book since I'd heard the movie was in production, but I did recall that the story was slight and seemed more an opportunity for Miller to stretch his wings as artist. His dialogue is spare and his exposition non-existent as he cuts to the chase and got Persians and Spartans stabbing one another as quickly as possible.
THIS MOVIE HAS LOTS OF SHOUTING!!!!
As many might now know, Miller based the comic upon the real-life battle for Thermopylae, where, legend has it, 300 Spartans and some allies faced down thousands of troops from the Persian army. I'm a history major, but I spent too little time on Greek history to relate much other than what I've read online and seen in TV documentaries. What I can tell you is that history is a mix of myth, legend, fact and fiction. But if you want to believe the histories, Leonidas did, in fact, lead the sort of charge which is shown in the film, resulting in the eventual victory of the allied Greek armies (although the Spartans would fall within a generation or two).
And, as BS brutal as the movie depicts the life of the young king, there's signifcant historical evidence suggesting that the Spartans did send their children into the wild to learn to become fighters before apprenticing as soldiers, that Spartans were much of what was represented in film and more.
In some ways, with our comfy couches, TV's and relative security, the culture of the world 2500 years ago is completely alien. Most city-states were in a perpetual cycle of war with far off lands and with one another. The value of soldiers wasn't marked with magnetic ribbons on the back of an SUV, but in hoping that they didn't lose and that you and your family weren't taken as slaves. So when I see reviews from the NYTimes having a good chuckle at this seemingly jingoistic talk of freedom from tyranny and mysticism, I can appreciate the cynicism in a modern context, but can also appreciate what I believe the filmmakers were attempting to achieve.
I'll leave it to other arm chair quarterbacks to decide if director Zach Snyder was trying to create commentary upon the world's current political status, or if it's not telling that Miller's take on the material is a decade old and remains largely unaltered. There's a lesson in there somewhere if folks want to draw allusions to a 2500 year old story.
Unfortunately, as grand in scope and detail as Snyder would like the movie to be, the film plays more like a series of bombastic set-pieces strung together rather than as a coherent narrative. Where Miller's work moves from panel to panel, Snyder has the challenge of compressing time, of working with scenes rather than tableaus. And, for reasons that become eventually apparent in the end, he inserts the seemingly most unnecessary voice over since Harrison Ford's voice over in the original cut of Blade Runner. The much commented upon violence is brutal, if often lyrical in its blood-cult presentation. No doubt the sort of thing that will have fourteen year old boys secretly practicing spear maneuvers when they believe nobody is watching. That said, the movie does show some respect for the realities of hand to hand fighting with thousands of soldiers crashing into one another and the value of a good strategy.
But that's pretty much all viewers are going to find as far as anything fantastic.
I can't help but think that had someone expanded the scope of Miller's story, had someone else directed the actors in the scenes which do not require a lot of stabbing, the end product would have been more than a sure-fire addition to the average 18-24 tear old's DVD collection. We might have got something great.
as far as the visuals... A friend of mine said he thought the compositing looked amateurish. I think he was more or less looking for something to complain about (he hadn't seen the movie). If the movie has anything going for it, it's visuals.
And, on that note... Action directors who've gone to the "up close" and lots of cuts to disguise the action (Batman Begins comes to mind)could certainly take a page or two from 300's handbook.
When the movie ended at the Westgate, we had loud applause from our mostly 18-24 year old audience. In addition, some dude was shouting "Yeeeaaahh! Yeaaahhhh!" And, a little high school girl immediately got on her phone to tell her friend "I just saw 300. It's really violent and stuff, but it's @#$%ing awesome!"
So someone's liking this movie.
Just not me as much as I'd hoped.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Too Many Leaguers to Mention, Plus Esther's Follies
The next week or so is going to be interesting.
Friday night my former roommate, KB, returned to town for a brief SXSW visit. It's funny how, even when you haven't seen someone in a long, long time, you pick up right where you left off. I don't believe I've seen KB since either shortly before Jamie and I hitched up, or shortly thereafter. I just recall it was that while I was living off 45th street.
At any rate, we sat down to dinner and fell right back to where we were with the same crowd from 1993-1999ish, a spouse here, a significant other there... and it was the Roaring 90's all over again.
We wrapped up the evening at Pat's where I was finally initiated into the world of Wii. Leaguers who know how I kill time know that gaming systems are not my thing. To The League, there's just not that much enjoyable about pressing buttons in a first person shooter that's just the 567th iteration on Doom. Especially when I think it's easier to use the keyboard than the controllers provided by most systems. But the Wii...
I will own a Wii. Oh, yes. I will.
The control is 100% intuitive, and the games don't feel nearly as anti-social. First-person shooters require you to either sit alone and solve the game or enter an arena where you shoot your pals (with a wide variety of highly unintuitive controls). With the Wii, we bowled, played some baseball, competed in a hammer-throw, raced some monkeys, etc... That's just good stuff.
Saturday morning my folks arrived for the joint KareBear/Jason birthday extravaganza. Did some dining out (at Freddie's), went and looked at some potential places my folks are considering, and wound up at Esther's Follies for the 10:00 show.
For folks who've not been: Esther's Follies is an Austin tradition. It's roughly "sketch comedy", vaudeville, magic, music and drinking. The show is roughly two hours with dozens of skits, some of which are more a part of the show out of tradition than anything else. I may have seen the Patsy Cline sketch 5 or 6 times, but it still kills. I'm also a huge fan of magician Ray Anderson who performs amazing illusions, especially in such an intimate environment.
Most sketches work, some don't. They change material every few months, so if you go two or three times a year, you get a different show. Sure, some of the comedy is Austin-centric, but folks seem to enjoy the show, even from out of town.
The whole thing is performed on a stage with it's back to 6th Street, and with windows open to 6th street, so the mostly inebriated happenings of 6th street are often incorporated directly into the show. It's a unique sort of thing to see as the folks on the street can see in and occasionally attempt to participate.
6th Street is always colorful, and it's always a bit dodgy taking the Karebear and Admiral down to Austin's entertainment district as, really, you never know what to expect. We got a bit of Leslie, who hasn't aged a day, and a very, very drunk young woman getting arrested and shouting "AUSTIN, TEXAS!" over and over. Not sure what that was about.
Time change this morning. The time change always stinks, and it's our first leap forward since 2002. Arizona doesn't observe daylight savings, so we never dealt with the time change. My clock is all kinds of off, and I predict an early evening for myself.
Saw "300" today after the folks left. More on that later.
Now I'm winding down/ catching up.
Tomorrow evening Nathan C. rolls into town. I think I'm due at Austin Books during the day with KB. Wednesday Wagner is making an appearance, and next weekend is the birthday of Steanso. And next weekend, The My rolls into town.
God help us all.
Hope all Loyal Leaguers are having a good one.
Friday night my former roommate, KB, returned to town for a brief SXSW visit. It's funny how, even when you haven't seen someone in a long, long time, you pick up right where you left off. I don't believe I've seen KB since either shortly before Jamie and I hitched up, or shortly thereafter. I just recall it was that while I was living off 45th street.
At any rate, we sat down to dinner and fell right back to where we were with the same crowd from 1993-1999ish, a spouse here, a significant other there... and it was the Roaring 90's all over again.
We wrapped up the evening at Pat's where I was finally initiated into the world of Wii. Leaguers who know how I kill time know that gaming systems are not my thing. To The League, there's just not that much enjoyable about pressing buttons in a first person shooter that's just the 567th iteration on Doom. Especially when I think it's easier to use the keyboard than the controllers provided by most systems. But the Wii...
I will own a Wii. Oh, yes. I will.
The control is 100% intuitive, and the games don't feel nearly as anti-social. First-person shooters require you to either sit alone and solve the game or enter an arena where you shoot your pals (with a wide variety of highly unintuitive controls). With the Wii, we bowled, played some baseball, competed in a hammer-throw, raced some monkeys, etc... That's just good stuff.
Saturday morning my folks arrived for the joint KareBear/Jason birthday extravaganza. Did some dining out (at Freddie's), went and looked at some potential places my folks are considering, and wound up at Esther's Follies for the 10:00 show.
For folks who've not been: Esther's Follies is an Austin tradition. It's roughly "sketch comedy", vaudeville, magic, music and drinking. The show is roughly two hours with dozens of skits, some of which are more a part of the show out of tradition than anything else. I may have seen the Patsy Cline sketch 5 or 6 times, but it still kills. I'm also a huge fan of magician Ray Anderson who performs amazing illusions, especially in such an intimate environment.
Most sketches work, some don't. They change material every few months, so if you go two or three times a year, you get a different show. Sure, some of the comedy is Austin-centric, but folks seem to enjoy the show, even from out of town.
The whole thing is performed on a stage with it's back to 6th Street, and with windows open to 6th street, so the mostly inebriated happenings of 6th street are often incorporated directly into the show. It's a unique sort of thing to see as the folks on the street can see in and occasionally attempt to participate.
6th Street is always colorful, and it's always a bit dodgy taking the Karebear and Admiral down to Austin's entertainment district as, really, you never know what to expect. We got a bit of Leslie, who hasn't aged a day, and a very, very drunk young woman getting arrested and shouting "AUSTIN, TEXAS!" over and over. Not sure what that was about.
Time change this morning. The time change always stinks, and it's our first leap forward since 2002. Arizona doesn't observe daylight savings, so we never dealt with the time change. My clock is all kinds of off, and I predict an early evening for myself.
Saw "300" today after the folks left. More on that later.
Now I'm winding down/ catching up.
Tomorrow evening Nathan C. rolls into town. I think I'm due at Austin Books during the day with KB. Wednesday Wagner is making an appearance, and next weekend is the birthday of Steanso. And next weekend, The My rolls into town.
God help us all.
Hope all Loyal Leaguers are having a good one.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Captain America is Dead
I picked up Captain America #25 today. It seems that they've decided to bump off Cap.
Now, for guys like me who've been reading comics for a while, it's tough to buy that anyone who ever dies in a comic is, in fact, dead. Comics are passed from creative team to creative team, and the idea is that creators should act as the best custodian possible for a comic series, but never leave the series in tatters.
Writers may get to play god within a certain framework, but how excited do you think Publisher Dan Buckley would be to head to the meeting of the Board of Directors and explain why Captain America, the fighting symbol of the United States, can't help them sell T-shirts, ice cream or be around for a potential multi-million dollar movie? I'm betting our friend, Steve Rogers, isn't actually going to be gone for too long.
Oh, sure, I bought the issue. My greedy little mits pulled the final copy right off the shelf (only two hours after the store opened, at that). You don't get buried this far into comic geekiness wiithout listening to that squeaky little voice in your head that says, "Ah, it's just one more comic! Pick it up! Now go torch the library."
You sort of have to pick and choose from the options League-Mite gives you. Some of them are burny.
Anyhow, it's interesting to see that the press bought into the "Dead Icon" deal again. I guess folks don't really remember that Superman "died" and came back. Or that even our friend Robin "died" and came back (although that took well over a decade).
I don't mean to be so cynical, but I can't really buy into this one. What I CAN buy is that Brubaker is a darn good writer, and that this series will probably be worth picking up. Marvel's on a roll from a universal standpoint. I can't vouch if each and every title is a good one, but there's some interesting stuff going on in the House of Ideas.
Heck, they got me and League-Mite buying Marvel comics again.
Now, for guys like me who've been reading comics for a while, it's tough to buy that anyone who ever dies in a comic is, in fact, dead. Comics are passed from creative team to creative team, and the idea is that creators should act as the best custodian possible for a comic series, but never leave the series in tatters.
Writers may get to play god within a certain framework, but how excited do you think Publisher Dan Buckley would be to head to the meeting of the Board of Directors and explain why Captain America, the fighting symbol of the United States, can't help them sell T-shirts, ice cream or be around for a potential multi-million dollar movie? I'm betting our friend, Steve Rogers, isn't actually going to be gone for too long.
Oh, sure, I bought the issue. My greedy little mits pulled the final copy right off the shelf (only two hours after the store opened, at that). You don't get buried this far into comic geekiness wiithout listening to that squeaky little voice in your head that says, "Ah, it's just one more comic! Pick it up! Now go torch the library."
You sort of have to pick and choose from the options League-Mite gives you. Some of them are burny.
Anyhow, it's interesting to see that the press bought into the "Dead Icon" deal again. I guess folks don't really remember that Superman "died" and came back. Or that even our friend Robin "died" and came back (although that took well over a decade).
I don't mean to be so cynical, but I can't really buy into this one. What I CAN buy is that Brubaker is a darn good writer, and that this series will probably be worth picking up. Marvel's on a roll from a universal standpoint. I can't vouch if each and every title is a good one, but there's some interesting stuff going on in the House of Ideas.
Heck, they got me and League-Mite buying Marvel comics again.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Zodiac - my $0.02
Saturday I saw Zodiac with Matt Mangum. The theater, I think it's worth mentioning, was filled with dudes. A lot of those dudes were in their early to mid-20's.
The previews may be a bit telling as to the appetite of the "target" audience for a movie like Zodiac.
trailer #1) Bruce Willis in a hair piece and slimmed down is a magazine publisher who is meeting girls online and killing them.
trailer #2) Anthony Hopkins kills his wife, or does he? Is he merely pulling more flies into his daibolical spider's web?
trailer #3) Teen-age "Rear Window". A seemingly normal guy living next door to a kid with a police-installed ankle bracelet sees his neighbor killing people. he sends the minority-guy best-friend to his doom.
Zodiac is, ostensibly, a serial killer movie. Zodiac was one of those names that used to be brought up in news reports alongside names like Son of Sam, the Green River Killer, John Wayne Gacey, Ted Bundy, Henry Lee Lucas, and more recent acquisitions to the pool of whackos. Operating during the 1970's, Zodiac claimed to have killed dozens. But as Zodiac is real, and was never caught, short of writing speculative fiction, there shouldn't be much of a narrative angle to the story. Heck, they finally even made an arrest in the Green River killings a few years ago, so that story has some closure.
Instead of telling yet another post "Silence of the Lambs" serial killer story, Zodiac works more like a bit of a detective story, following a few key players in the Zodiac investigation from 1969 through the 00's as various real-life people become pulled into the investigation. Some viewers may find the film's refusal to cast any specific person as the point of view for teh audience a bit troubling, but in a lot of ways, that would take away from what director David Fincher seemed to be attempting in representing the facts of the case as a drama.
The movie is far more interested in the manner in which the investigations occured than dwelling over the grim details of the murders. Once Fincher provides the audience with a fairly brutal look at the murders (not for shock value as much as to contextualize the action to follow), the story begins to unfold in a series of frustrating stutter steps. Real-life jurisdictional disputes, human foibles, arrogance and simple mistakes may have left multiple law-enforcement teams unable to piece together the identity of the murderer.
With three sensationalistic serial killer movies previewed before this movie, there's a certain maturity I could appreciate regarding Fincher's decision not to romanticize, glorify or mystify the subject matter. It doesn't take a huge leap to see that Zodiac isn't regarded as any kind of genius by the filmmakers, and no attempt is made to make much out of him other than as a brutal megalomaniac.
There are a few narrative tricks I enjoyed that seemed to be the Fincher's "up yours" to the Zodiac, and once you see what he's doing, you sort of want to send Fincher a big valentine.
There's a lot to this 2.5 hour movie, but, for me, it never dragged, and I thought that the script and actors did an excellent job of presenting some seemingly mundane but convoluted case work as succinctly as possible.
Performances are very good. Robert Downey Jr. plays himself (can't wait to see his Tony Stark), Jake Gyllenhaal has a lot to carry, and does it well. Mark Ruffalo really surprised me. And even Dermot Mulroney may have found his niche. Apparently some guys behind us had an issue with Chloe Sevigney not being "hot" enough for them, but that died down quickly. And feature film fixture Brian Cox was excellent in his scenes (man, I love Brian Cox).
You can't really say "Hey, Zodiac is a fun movie!". It's not. But it is an interesting movie, and, if like the film's Robert Graysmith, you enjoy puzzles... or if you dont mind a little detective work in your movies about detectives, it's not a bad way to spend 2.5 hours.
The movie certainly makes a case for identifying a certain player by film's end, drawn from the work of amateur sleuth Robert Graysmith. As with any real-life mystery presented as a film, and with only the facts of the film to work with, the finger pointing seems as reasonable with their choice of suspect as anyone. If true, it's fascinating to consider. Fincher is smart enough to leave it somewhat open ended, but with Graysmith working on the film, the film manages to bring some closure, if not a conviction.
I did read on someone's blog that they felt that with today's police tactics that such a case could never occur again. I assume he was referring to cross-referencing of data, etc... I'm not so sure. Computer systems are only as good as the people using them. Cops are only as good as the evidence they find and can prove in court. Juridictional issues are always jurisdictional issues, and if we learned anything from 9/11, it's that data that should and could be shared often doesn't make it into the hands of the right people.
As Matt and I were sort of trapped on the seats in the aisle when the credits rolled, I heard the same conversation three times from those young men who filled the threater.
"I thought it was going to be... you know..."
"Dude, it's a true story."
"I know, but..."
"They can't just make stuff up."
"Yeah, I guess not."
So, yes, if you're expecting Saw IV, you might be disappointed.
The previews may be a bit telling as to the appetite of the "target" audience for a movie like Zodiac.
trailer #1) Bruce Willis in a hair piece and slimmed down is a magazine publisher who is meeting girls online and killing them.
trailer #2) Anthony Hopkins kills his wife, or does he? Is he merely pulling more flies into his daibolical spider's web?
trailer #3) Teen-age "Rear Window". A seemingly normal guy living next door to a kid with a police-installed ankle bracelet sees his neighbor killing people. he sends the minority-guy best-friend to his doom.
Zodiac is, ostensibly, a serial killer movie. Zodiac was one of those names that used to be brought up in news reports alongside names like Son of Sam, the Green River Killer, John Wayne Gacey, Ted Bundy, Henry Lee Lucas, and more recent acquisitions to the pool of whackos. Operating during the 1970's, Zodiac claimed to have killed dozens. But as Zodiac is real, and was never caught, short of writing speculative fiction, there shouldn't be much of a narrative angle to the story. Heck, they finally even made an arrest in the Green River killings a few years ago, so that story has some closure.
Instead of telling yet another post "Silence of the Lambs" serial killer story, Zodiac works more like a bit of a detective story, following a few key players in the Zodiac investigation from 1969 through the 00's as various real-life people become pulled into the investigation. Some viewers may find the film's refusal to cast any specific person as the point of view for teh audience a bit troubling, but in a lot of ways, that would take away from what director David Fincher seemed to be attempting in representing the facts of the case as a drama.
The movie is far more interested in the manner in which the investigations occured than dwelling over the grim details of the murders. Once Fincher provides the audience with a fairly brutal look at the murders (not for shock value as much as to contextualize the action to follow), the story begins to unfold in a series of frustrating stutter steps. Real-life jurisdictional disputes, human foibles, arrogance and simple mistakes may have left multiple law-enforcement teams unable to piece together the identity of the murderer.
With three sensationalistic serial killer movies previewed before this movie, there's a certain maturity I could appreciate regarding Fincher's decision not to romanticize, glorify or mystify the subject matter. It doesn't take a huge leap to see that Zodiac isn't regarded as any kind of genius by the filmmakers, and no attempt is made to make much out of him other than as a brutal megalomaniac.
There are a few narrative tricks I enjoyed that seemed to be the Fincher's "up yours" to the Zodiac, and once you see what he's doing, you sort of want to send Fincher a big valentine.
There's a lot to this 2.5 hour movie, but, for me, it never dragged, and I thought that the script and actors did an excellent job of presenting some seemingly mundane but convoluted case work as succinctly as possible.
Performances are very good. Robert Downey Jr. plays himself (can't wait to see his Tony Stark), Jake Gyllenhaal has a lot to carry, and does it well. Mark Ruffalo really surprised me. And even Dermot Mulroney may have found his niche. Apparently some guys behind us had an issue with Chloe Sevigney not being "hot" enough for them, but that died down quickly. And feature film fixture Brian Cox was excellent in his scenes (man, I love Brian Cox).
You can't really say "Hey, Zodiac is a fun movie!". It's not. But it is an interesting movie, and, if like the film's Robert Graysmith, you enjoy puzzles... or if you dont mind a little detective work in your movies about detectives, it's not a bad way to spend 2.5 hours.
The movie certainly makes a case for identifying a certain player by film's end, drawn from the work of amateur sleuth Robert Graysmith. As with any real-life mystery presented as a film, and with only the facts of the film to work with, the finger pointing seems as reasonable with their choice of suspect as anyone. If true, it's fascinating to consider. Fincher is smart enough to leave it somewhat open ended, but with Graysmith working on the film, the film manages to bring some closure, if not a conviction.
I did read on someone's blog that they felt that with today's police tactics that such a case could never occur again. I assume he was referring to cross-referencing of data, etc... I'm not so sure. Computer systems are only as good as the people using them. Cops are only as good as the evidence they find and can prove in court. Juridictional issues are always jurisdictional issues, and if we learned anything from 9/11, it's that data that should and could be shared often doesn't make it into the hands of the right people.
As Matt and I were sort of trapped on the seats in the aisle when the credits rolled, I heard the same conversation three times from those young men who filled the threater.
"I thought it was going to be... you know..."
"Dude, it's a true story."
"I know, but..."
"They can't just make stuff up."
"Yeah, I guess not."
So, yes, if you're expecting Saw IV, you might be disappointed.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Tuesday Short Bits
-Walter Reed Army Hospital/ Bob Woodruff and Veteran's Affairs Hospital
Wow. This is just one of those things that I recall some folks being concerned about in the run up to the Iraq War. It's easy to send in the tanks and helicopters. It's in the following years that we, as a nation, have to answer the tough questions. Will we honor our soldiers when they come home, but don't come home in a box? When they took a piece of metal to the head for us, will we make sure we take care of them?
I watched the Woodruff special last week, and the answer appears to be: we'll help out a bit, but don't expect too much. Oh, and we'll report that injuries are coming in at a rate of 1/10th of the actual numbers of soldiers receiving treatment.
-Anna Nicole Smith's Mom
I totally think I saw her at the Austin airport when I went to pick up Jamie Sunday night. Jamie assures me it wasn't her, but I think it was.
-Ann Coulter
At what point did folks decide it was okay again to use bigotry as part of the political process? And just outright hatred?
How can you even do much but roll your eyes anymore when Coulter speaks? One horribly distasteful comment can sink a career, but it's no secret that a steady line of reprehensible comments builds a career.
I spent enough time in suburbia to know that this is the sort of discourse that occurs over a cold beer or three, and that, however idiotic and seemingly juvenile Coluter's comments, she's speaking for some segment of the population. Do we give too much credit to the Conservative Political Action Conference? At least to some attendees.
-Kyle MacLachlan to voice Superman
Here's some good news (in my book). Special Agent Cooper is scheduled to play the voice of the Man of Steel in the upcoming "New Frontier" straight to DVD feature-length cartoon.
I think MacLachlan should have landed the George Reeves role in Hollywoodland, but I guess the producers didn't think he'd sell enough tickets. He was, after all, up for the role and is the appropriate age.
Keep your eyes peeled for "New Frontier" when it's released. The comic series was excellent stuff, and Darwyn Cooke's style will most likely be maintained for the feature (think 1950's and 60's cartooning). Hopefully the series was self-contained enough that nobody will feel they need to tweak the story too much. I loved the Right Stuff meets Mort Weisinger sensibility of the whole thing.
Just wait until you see Cooke's Lois and Wonder Woman.
-Superman at accident, but not particularly helpful
And before anyone assumes I do not have a TV or the interwebs...
-Extreme Make-Over Home Edition airplane family
Upon occasion on Sunday nights Jamie I watch this horrible, horrible program while we DVR stuff on other networks. The formula is simple: Find people who have simply too much responsibility and a ton of misfortune fall upon them, and give them a McMansion and flat screen TV. Usually the family has someone who is chronically ill and lives in a hovel, or they've taken in 6 foster kids and a tornado levelled their trailer.
The show has been on a while, but last night was the first time I thought (a) these people are badly off not just because fate dealt them an unlucky hand, but because they made a stupid decision by cancelling their home owner's insurance while refinancing, and then living across the street from an airport. Yes, a plane ran into their house. And (b) these people fully knew what was in store for them when they got on the program. They fully expected the amenities of the McMansion and kept saying things like "Oh, this is totally what I wanted." Not, "Wow, I am used to sharing a room with six people and ten rats." IE: these people weren't exactly slumming it prior to the show, or at least prior to getting hit with an airplane.
A few weeks ago, the show was about a family in Austin with 5 autistic kids and a dad who worked two blue-collar jobs to try to cover the bills, but their house was days from being foreclosed upon. But with five autistic kids, the bills were piling up, the house was in serious disrepair and mom was at her wit's end.
These people cancelled their insurance as part of a plan to refinance their existing house. Had the plane NOT hit the house, they'd still be a comfortably middle class family with very few problems. Sure, their son was a marine who'd been in Iraq, but he wasn't injured. And he was 21. As mentioned above, we have a lot of our troops who are not so fortunate. And, he's 21... How long was he expected to live at home?
I dunno. The funny thing is that the cast usually spends the whole episode talking about how amazing the families are who they're helping out. In this instance, they were sort of quiet on the subject. I think they knew, and we knew, that there were probably a lot of families in Florida in much worse shape than these folks.
Wow. This is just one of those things that I recall some folks being concerned about in the run up to the Iraq War. It's easy to send in the tanks and helicopters. It's in the following years that we, as a nation, have to answer the tough questions. Will we honor our soldiers when they come home, but don't come home in a box? When they took a piece of metal to the head for us, will we make sure we take care of them?
I watched the Woodruff special last week, and the answer appears to be: we'll help out a bit, but don't expect too much. Oh, and we'll report that injuries are coming in at a rate of 1/10th of the actual numbers of soldiers receiving treatment.
-Anna Nicole Smith's Mom
I totally think I saw her at the Austin airport when I went to pick up Jamie Sunday night. Jamie assures me it wasn't her, but I think it was.
-Ann Coulter
At what point did folks decide it was okay again to use bigotry as part of the political process? And just outright hatred?
How can you even do much but roll your eyes anymore when Coulter speaks? One horribly distasteful comment can sink a career, but it's no secret that a steady line of reprehensible comments builds a career.
I spent enough time in suburbia to know that this is the sort of discourse that occurs over a cold beer or three, and that, however idiotic and seemingly juvenile Coluter's comments, she's speaking for some segment of the population. Do we give too much credit to the Conservative Political Action Conference? At least to some attendees.
-Kyle MacLachlan to voice Superman
Here's some good news (in my book). Special Agent Cooper is scheduled to play the voice of the Man of Steel in the upcoming "New Frontier" straight to DVD feature-length cartoon.
I think MacLachlan should have landed the George Reeves role in Hollywoodland, but I guess the producers didn't think he'd sell enough tickets. He was, after all, up for the role and is the appropriate age.
Keep your eyes peeled for "New Frontier" when it's released. The comic series was excellent stuff, and Darwyn Cooke's style will most likely be maintained for the feature (think 1950's and 60's cartooning). Hopefully the series was self-contained enough that nobody will feel they need to tweak the story too much. I loved the Right Stuff meets Mort Weisinger sensibility of the whole thing.
Just wait until you see Cooke's Lois and Wonder Woman.
-Superman at accident, but not particularly helpful
And before anyone assumes I do not have a TV or the interwebs...
-Extreme Make-Over Home Edition airplane family
Upon occasion on Sunday nights Jamie I watch this horrible, horrible program while we DVR stuff on other networks. The formula is simple: Find people who have simply too much responsibility and a ton of misfortune fall upon them, and give them a McMansion and flat screen TV. Usually the family has someone who is chronically ill and lives in a hovel, or they've taken in 6 foster kids and a tornado levelled their trailer.
The show has been on a while, but last night was the first time I thought (a) these people are badly off not just because fate dealt them an unlucky hand, but because they made a stupid decision by cancelling their home owner's insurance while refinancing, and then living across the street from an airport. Yes, a plane ran into their house. And (b) these people fully knew what was in store for them when they got on the program. They fully expected the amenities of the McMansion and kept saying things like "Oh, this is totally what I wanted." Not, "Wow, I am used to sharing a room with six people and ten rats." IE: these people weren't exactly slumming it prior to the show, or at least prior to getting hit with an airplane.
A few weeks ago, the show was about a family in Austin with 5 autistic kids and a dad who worked two blue-collar jobs to try to cover the bills, but their house was days from being foreclosed upon. But with five autistic kids, the bills were piling up, the house was in serious disrepair and mom was at her wit's end.
These people cancelled their insurance as part of a plan to refinance their existing house. Had the plane NOT hit the house, they'd still be a comfortably middle class family with very few problems. Sure, their son was a marine who'd been in Iraq, but he wasn't injured. And he was 21. As mentioned above, we have a lot of our troops who are not so fortunate. And, he's 21... How long was he expected to live at home?
I dunno. The funny thing is that the cast usually spends the whole episode talking about how amazing the families are who they're helping out. In this instance, they were sort of quiet on the subject. I think they knew, and we knew, that there were probably a lot of families in Florida in much worse shape than these folks.
When Good Sentiments Go Wrong
This dude had this hair as late as September 12th, 2001.
I'm probably mistaken, but is that the same beach from the end of "Planet of the Apes"?
Found at this blog.
Along with this Captain America/ Team America video.
editor's note: Mom, Dad... do not watch. This has naughty, naughty words.
Scenes are from the little-seen 1990 Captain America feature film starring the son of JD Salinger. Yes, I have seen it. And it rulz.
I'm probably mistaken, but is that the same beach from the end of "Planet of the Apes"?
Found at this blog.
Along with this Captain America/ Team America video.
editor's note: Mom, Dad... do not watch. This has naughty, naughty words.
Scenes are from the little-seen 1990 Captain America feature film starring the son of JD Salinger. Yes, I have seen it. And it rulz.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
week end
Well, with Jamie gone for the weekend, I still managed to entertain myself fairly well.
Friday night I enjoyed an extended dinner engagement with Jason, Mandy, Greg Johnson, Susan and a girl who I believe was named "Shelly". We wound up at Homeslice Pizza on S. Congress, which is pretty much just a dimly lit, overcrowded pizza joint, but it's a nice destination for a night out when you don't have much planned. But, it's also apparently a bit of a hipster locale as evidenced by the lengthy wait we had for a table.
Saturday, Peabo's 10:55 AM call woke from slumber. I have no internal clock anymore. Each morning I rise with either dogs or wife harassing me (or an alarm), and long ago I lost any natural ability to just wake up from sleep. Lately Jamie's been doing little "fly-by" wake-up's. She comes by the bed for 30 seconds and says "are you going to get up?" when I am clearly dead asleep and in deep REM. It's enough to sort of wake me up, but then she wanders off in disgust, and I fall asleep once more, only to have the process repeated every 30 to 45 minutes until I finally roll out of bed. I'm not sure what strategy she believes she's employing, but it's not working.
So, Saturday morning, I showered, dressed and headed for Peabo's, where I caught the second half of the Texas/Kansas game (Texas lost). Then, Peabo and I sort of hung out while Adriana took a much needed nap. Adriana and Peabo have about 7 weeks before little Jefferson is born, and it's safe to say they're both excited, but not in a "WE'RE HAVING A BAYYY-BEEEEE!!!!!" creepy kind of way that we non-breeders fail to get properly jazzed about.
I've known Peabo since 4th grade (when we kicked it old skool on the corner of Taterwood and Pencewood). Peabo will be a good dad, although it may take decades for his kids to appreciate that their father's continuous mocking laughter was born out of love. I expect Adriana shall be the voice of reason at Casa de Peabo. I suspect there shall be a lot of "survival of the fittest" going on with Peabo and his brood. You want to be one of Peabo's kids, you gotta be tough.
Saturday night I went with Mangum to see "Zodiac", which is long enough, but add on 30 minutes of really horrible trailers (all of the trailers were about crazed, guy next door, secret genius murderers. There were three in a row) and we walked out of the movie at 12:30 AM.
I spent today cleaning. We haven't done any serious cleaning since a solid, post-Christmas attempt. We've done some vaccuuming, etc... but not a "today we clean the house" sort of cleaning, and it shows. With Parental Units in town next weekend, and then (hopefully) Nathan and Wagner coming for Spring Break/ SXSW, plus a surprise announcement of a visit from former roommate and now crusading attorney, K. B., the house needs to be in order. There's also a chance for a visit by The My.
So, today I cleaned toilets and such. Which was good, but i missed the lovely weather. Furtunately, I hear it's going to be 70+ and sunny all week, so...
Also, I spoke with the birthday girl at length this afternoon.
More on "Zodiac" later.
Hope everyone had a good weekend.
Friday night I enjoyed an extended dinner engagement with Jason, Mandy, Greg Johnson, Susan and a girl who I believe was named "Shelly". We wound up at Homeslice Pizza on S. Congress, which is pretty much just a dimly lit, overcrowded pizza joint, but it's a nice destination for a night out when you don't have much planned. But, it's also apparently a bit of a hipster locale as evidenced by the lengthy wait we had for a table.
Saturday, Peabo's 10:55 AM call woke from slumber. I have no internal clock anymore. Each morning I rise with either dogs or wife harassing me (or an alarm), and long ago I lost any natural ability to just wake up from sleep. Lately Jamie's been doing little "fly-by" wake-up's. She comes by the bed for 30 seconds and says "are you going to get up?" when I am clearly dead asleep and in deep REM. It's enough to sort of wake me up, but then she wanders off in disgust, and I fall asleep once more, only to have the process repeated every 30 to 45 minutes until I finally roll out of bed. I'm not sure what strategy she believes she's employing, but it's not working.
So, Saturday morning, I showered, dressed and headed for Peabo's, where I caught the second half of the Texas/Kansas game (Texas lost). Then, Peabo and I sort of hung out while Adriana took a much needed nap. Adriana and Peabo have about 7 weeks before little Jefferson is born, and it's safe to say they're both excited, but not in a "WE'RE HAVING A BAYYY-BEEEEE!!!!!" creepy kind of way that we non-breeders fail to get properly jazzed about.
I've known Peabo since 4th grade (when we kicked it old skool on the corner of Taterwood and Pencewood). Peabo will be a good dad, although it may take decades for his kids to appreciate that their father's continuous mocking laughter was born out of love. I expect Adriana shall be the voice of reason at Casa de Peabo. I suspect there shall be a lot of "survival of the fittest" going on with Peabo and his brood. You want to be one of Peabo's kids, you gotta be tough.
Saturday night I went with Mangum to see "Zodiac", which is long enough, but add on 30 minutes of really horrible trailers (all of the trailers were about crazed, guy next door, secret genius murderers. There were three in a row) and we walked out of the movie at 12:30 AM.
I spent today cleaning. We haven't done any serious cleaning since a solid, post-Christmas attempt. We've done some vaccuuming, etc... but not a "today we clean the house" sort of cleaning, and it shows. With Parental Units in town next weekend, and then (hopefully) Nathan and Wagner coming for Spring Break/ SXSW, plus a surprise announcement of a visit from former roommate and now crusading attorney, K. B., the house needs to be in order. There's also a chance for a visit by The My.
So, today I cleaned toilets and such. Which was good, but i missed the lovely weather. Furtunately, I hear it's going to be 70+ and sunny all week, so...
Also, I spoke with the birthday girl at length this afternoon.
More on "Zodiac" later.
Hope everyone had a good weekend.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Jeter, Bush and Mantle
An employee at Topp's after my own heart inserted images of George W. and Mickey Mantle into a new Derek Jeter baseball card.
Here.
Here.
Open Weekend and Romantic Movies
So, through an odd turn of events, Jamie's mom is under the weather (everyone give a Huzzah! for Judy) and Jamie's Dad is headed for Brazil. It's complicated, but it involves large, migratory birds and a German/Canadian physicist. More than that, I cannot say.
So Jamie is trading positions with Judy and is heading to Lawton for a few days to go run the show, wrangle cats and make sure Judy doesn't try any stunt driving. Which means The League is left to his own devices from Friday mid-day to Sunday evening.
Luckily, I have a lot of booze left over from the Christmas Party, so Mel and I are going to raise a pirate flag, stand on the upstairs balcony and wave sabers menacingly at the neighbors until the police show up. Yarrrgghh...
I'm also totally poor. So this weekend may mostly entail a lot of catching up with comics, cleaning, and trying to lay low.
A job would be totally sweet right about now.
We're headed for Erica F.'s wedding in a few weeks, and Jamie bought a shiny dress for the event. I have learned it is outside in Houston in March, so I hope Bug won't mind when I show up in shorts and my OU812 tour shirt. The following weekend we've got another outdoor wedding for Denby. I am sure Denby will want to change her name, but that ain't gonna happen. She'll always be Denby to me.
She's marrying a purveyor of fine meats. Go figure.
So a special shout out to the Loyal Leaguers who addressed my probing questions regarding romantic movies.
go here.
Once again, RHPT refuses to elaborate, leading me to believe that he was the kid in class who plagued the teacher with the "do we have to know this for the test?" questions. Hang your head in shame, RHPT.
As always, I've written questions without having any answers in mind of my own. Here goes:
1) What movie do you think best exemplifies the ultimate expression of romantic love?
I want to say that flying around the world so fast that you travel back in time for love is pretty good. But Maxwell points out another candidate in "Somewhere in Time" where Chris Reeve once again travels through time, but this time to meet the super-foxy Dr. Quinn, and that's good, too.
This is a particularly tough one as I don't watch too many romantic movies.
There's something about sacrifice for love that's sort of nihilistic and romantic. For example, Casablanca as love means letting go. But I think the never-realized love of Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is particularly poignant.
Plus, you know, Michelle Yeoh. Yowzah.
I might point out that this category was romantic love, not love between a boy and his dog. But if that's how you want to define romantic love, that's cool. I only ask that you stay far, far away from my dogs.
2) What movie do you think demonstrates the most fun look at Mad Love?
True Romance. Those are too crazy kids in some crazy, mixed-up love.
And, of course, The Quiet Man.
3) What movie do you think most accurately depicts or reflects how you feel about romantic love in your own reality?
I sort of think Jamie and I have a real nice Gomez and Morticia Addams thing going on.
But there's also something very visceral about "Punch Drunk Love" that, though the events don't reflect anything familiar, there's something I respond to about a semi-obsessive, self-conscious guy with borderline social skills realizing he has a good thing and realizing he's going to have to fight for it.
Also, I love pudding.
So Jamie is trading positions with Judy and is heading to Lawton for a few days to go run the show, wrangle cats and make sure Judy doesn't try any stunt driving. Which means The League is left to his own devices from Friday mid-day to Sunday evening.
Luckily, I have a lot of booze left over from the Christmas Party, so Mel and I are going to raise a pirate flag, stand on the upstairs balcony and wave sabers menacingly at the neighbors until the police show up. Yarrrgghh...
I'm also totally poor. So this weekend may mostly entail a lot of catching up with comics, cleaning, and trying to lay low.
A job would be totally sweet right about now.
We're headed for Erica F.'s wedding in a few weeks, and Jamie bought a shiny dress for the event. I have learned it is outside in Houston in March, so I hope Bug won't mind when I show up in shorts and my OU812 tour shirt. The following weekend we've got another outdoor wedding for Denby. I am sure Denby will want to change her name, but that ain't gonna happen. She'll always be Denby to me.
She's marrying a purveyor of fine meats. Go figure.
So a special shout out to the Loyal Leaguers who addressed my probing questions regarding romantic movies.
go here.
Once again, RHPT refuses to elaborate, leading me to believe that he was the kid in class who plagued the teacher with the "do we have to know this for the test?" questions. Hang your head in shame, RHPT.
As always, I've written questions without having any answers in mind of my own. Here goes:
1) What movie do you think best exemplifies the ultimate expression of romantic love?
I want to say that flying around the world so fast that you travel back in time for love is pretty good. But Maxwell points out another candidate in "Somewhere in Time" where Chris Reeve once again travels through time, but this time to meet the super-foxy Dr. Quinn, and that's good, too.
This is a particularly tough one as I don't watch too many romantic movies.
There's something about sacrifice for love that's sort of nihilistic and romantic. For example, Casablanca as love means letting go. But I think the never-realized love of Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is particularly poignant.
Plus, you know, Michelle Yeoh. Yowzah.
I might point out that this category was romantic love, not love between a boy and his dog. But if that's how you want to define romantic love, that's cool. I only ask that you stay far, far away from my dogs.
2) What movie do you think demonstrates the most fun look at Mad Love?
True Romance. Those are too crazy kids in some crazy, mixed-up love.
And, of course, The Quiet Man.
3) What movie do you think most accurately depicts or reflects how you feel about romantic love in your own reality?
I sort of think Jamie and I have a real nice Gomez and Morticia Addams thing going on.
But there's also something very visceral about "Punch Drunk Love" that, though the events don't reflect anything familiar, there's something I respond to about a semi-obsessive, self-conscious guy with borderline social skills realizing he has a good thing and realizing he's going to have to fight for it.
Also, I love pudding.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Hollywoodland
This review is spoiler-laden:
Going into the movie, I probably knew more about the topic than I should have. I do not consider myself to be any sort of expert in matters George Reeves, but my reading on Superman has lent itself to some reading on the life and death of George Reeves.
I believe that there is very good reason to think that George Reeves did not kill himself. But I don't know. But it certainly colored how I saw the movie.
The film, itself, is a sort of mix between a standard detective picture and Citizen Kane flashback sequences (also used in Immortal Beloved). The detective in question is Louis Simo, a fictionalized character/ convenient amalgamation of many real people who lives the standard movie detective life of the shabby apartment/ office, the messy divorce and kid left behind, and a girlfriend who will dump him before the end of the picture.
Ben Affleck, who is never as old as the character he is portraying, especially for the second half of the film, still manages to portray a reasonable fascimile of Reeves without giving in to parody or imitation. We've got lots of Reeves to look at, and with six seasons of The Adventures of Superman to pull from, Affleck manages to use that both to his advantage and manages to overcome the problem of mis-playing someone with whom some viewers might be fairly familiar.
For me, the story failed on a few fronts.
I take some umbrage at insertion of a fictional detective with a fictional dysfunctional family life as the framing device for the film. The film is really the story of Louis Simo chasing down the truth, and coming to the revelation that mediocrity in Hollywood is okay. A suspect moral, I think, but the lesson we're to understand Reeves' death has taught us is that hoping to become something better than what you are is a way to drive yourself mad. At least in Hollywood. At the end we're supposed to get really excited to see Simo in a suit (I guess he's gotten a straight job) and is coming over to check on his kid in the two bedroom LA-style tract house. With a promise of him giving up on the chance for the abstract greatness of private detective work, I guess. Hooray?
Further, the movie really spares no expense in setting up the husband of Reeves' spurned lover as a potential murder suspect, then backs down completely. This build-up includes details that seemingly make no sense if Mannix is NOT the murderer, such as an MGM rep's appearance at Reeves' funeral and the one scene between Hoskins as Mannix and Simo. Add in some mysterious tarot cards at the crime scene, and some fudgy actual details of the murder included in the film, and the final resolution seems like a lot of back-peddling.
Which raises the question: Did the producers wimp out? As folks looking for jobs in LA once Hollywoodland was in the can, did a moment of clarity tell these guys that fingering a studio exec using studio resources to bump a prominent actor might not be a good idea, career-wise?
I'm also fairly certain that as a non-actor, the melancholy and despair presented by Affleck as Reeves at his lot in life as the Man of Steel is something that's fairly foreign to me as a person (though, certainly not Affleck). Whether a personal failure or one of the movie, I felt that there was too much telling and not enough showing of Reeves' frustration at not being able to land other roles, and it was difficult to garner much sympathy for Reeves as a working actor and kept man, aside from the "Here to Eternity" sequence (which, I've read Reeves and Mannix did not actually attend). That said, as Superman was ending, Reeves had directed a few episodes of AoS, and as the movie indicates, was making a move to television directing. His career wasn't exactly over, though it might have been over in front of the lens. It's a detail, but a detail glossed over in the movie. And as the movie is trying to point to the certainty of Reeves' suicide, the ommission becomes somewhat problematic.
Reeves' death is a huge questionmark, and that lends itself to Rashoman type-speculating. Unfortunately, none of the answers provided by the film-makers are particularly satisfying. And that means that the movie isn't particularly satisfying, either.
Brody isn't bad, but there's a bit of New York to his LA born and raised detective. Diane Lane is excellent as Toni Mannix, and makes a very believable romantic interest for Reeves.
Some additional minutia:
It also can't help that I have read multiple conflicting stories regarding whether or not Adventures of Superman was actually cancelled. After all, as a syndicated show, the principles never knew whether the show was actually cancelled or not until someone called them to show up for work. Secondly, in the wake of the death of Reeves, the studio tried to put two other shows on the air (Superpup and Superboy), indicating that they planned for more Superman product. In fact, they used the exact same set for Superpup as AoS, so they hadn't torn down the sets as if the show was over. Further, I'd read that Noel Neill was under the impression that additional seasons were in the future and that Reeves' death was what ended the program.
For some eye-brow raising comments, you can also turn to a recent Noel Neill interview at the Supermanhomepage. It's known Noel was not necessarily socially involved with Reeves off the set, but it's definitely worth reading.
***UPDATE***
Phyllis Coates, who played Lois Lane for the first season of Adventures of Superman (Neill had predated her in the Kirk Alyn serials), also takes issue with the portrayal of Reeves and events. Read here.
***UPDATE UPDATE***
Noel Neill was interviewed on KryptonFan this week. There is some mention of Hollywoodland. 02-28-2007
Going into the movie, I probably knew more about the topic than I should have. I do not consider myself to be any sort of expert in matters George Reeves, but my reading on Superman has lent itself to some reading on the life and death of George Reeves.
I believe that there is very good reason to think that George Reeves did not kill himself. But I don't know. But it certainly colored how I saw the movie.
The film, itself, is a sort of mix between a standard detective picture and Citizen Kane flashback sequences (also used in Immortal Beloved). The detective in question is Louis Simo, a fictionalized character/ convenient amalgamation of many real people who lives the standard movie detective life of the shabby apartment/ office, the messy divorce and kid left behind, and a girlfriend who will dump him before the end of the picture.
Ben Affleck, who is never as old as the character he is portraying, especially for the second half of the film, still manages to portray a reasonable fascimile of Reeves without giving in to parody or imitation. We've got lots of Reeves to look at, and with six seasons of The Adventures of Superman to pull from, Affleck manages to use that both to his advantage and manages to overcome the problem of mis-playing someone with whom some viewers might be fairly familiar.
For me, the story failed on a few fronts.
I take some umbrage at insertion of a fictional detective with a fictional dysfunctional family life as the framing device for the film. The film is really the story of Louis Simo chasing down the truth, and coming to the revelation that mediocrity in Hollywood is okay. A suspect moral, I think, but the lesson we're to understand Reeves' death has taught us is that hoping to become something better than what you are is a way to drive yourself mad. At least in Hollywood. At the end we're supposed to get really excited to see Simo in a suit (I guess he's gotten a straight job) and is coming over to check on his kid in the two bedroom LA-style tract house. With a promise of him giving up on the chance for the abstract greatness of private detective work, I guess. Hooray?
Further, the movie really spares no expense in setting up the husband of Reeves' spurned lover as a potential murder suspect, then backs down completely. This build-up includes details that seemingly make no sense if Mannix is NOT the murderer, such as an MGM rep's appearance at Reeves' funeral and the one scene between Hoskins as Mannix and Simo. Add in some mysterious tarot cards at the crime scene, and some fudgy actual details of the murder included in the film, and the final resolution seems like a lot of back-peddling.
Which raises the question: Did the producers wimp out? As folks looking for jobs in LA once Hollywoodland was in the can, did a moment of clarity tell these guys that fingering a studio exec using studio resources to bump a prominent actor might not be a good idea, career-wise?
I'm also fairly certain that as a non-actor, the melancholy and despair presented by Affleck as Reeves at his lot in life as the Man of Steel is something that's fairly foreign to me as a person (though, certainly not Affleck). Whether a personal failure or one of the movie, I felt that there was too much telling and not enough showing of Reeves' frustration at not being able to land other roles, and it was difficult to garner much sympathy for Reeves as a working actor and kept man, aside from the "Here to Eternity" sequence (which, I've read Reeves and Mannix did not actually attend). That said, as Superman was ending, Reeves had directed a few episodes of AoS, and as the movie indicates, was making a move to television directing. His career wasn't exactly over, though it might have been over in front of the lens. It's a detail, but a detail glossed over in the movie. And as the movie is trying to point to the certainty of Reeves' suicide, the ommission becomes somewhat problematic.
Reeves' death is a huge questionmark, and that lends itself to Rashoman type-speculating. Unfortunately, none of the answers provided by the film-makers are particularly satisfying. And that means that the movie isn't particularly satisfying, either.
Brody isn't bad, but there's a bit of New York to his LA born and raised detective. Diane Lane is excellent as Toni Mannix, and makes a very believable romantic interest for Reeves.
Some additional minutia:
It also can't help that I have read multiple conflicting stories regarding whether or not Adventures of Superman was actually cancelled. After all, as a syndicated show, the principles never knew whether the show was actually cancelled or not until someone called them to show up for work. Secondly, in the wake of the death of Reeves, the studio tried to put two other shows on the air (Superpup and Superboy), indicating that they planned for more Superman product. In fact, they used the exact same set for Superpup as AoS, so they hadn't torn down the sets as if the show was over. Further, I'd read that Noel Neill was under the impression that additional seasons were in the future and that Reeves' death was what ended the program.
For some eye-brow raising comments, you can also turn to a recent Noel Neill interview at the Supermanhomepage. It's known Noel was not necessarily socially involved with Reeves off the set, but it's definitely worth reading.
***UPDATE***
Phyllis Coates, who played Lois Lane for the first season of Adventures of Superman (Neill had predated her in the Kirk Alyn serials), also takes issue with the portrayal of Reeves and events. Read here.
***UPDATE UPDATE***
Noel Neill was interviewed on KryptonFan this week. There is some mention of Hollywoodland. 02-28-2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Movies: Before We Leave The Month of Love...
It's Interactivity Time, Leaguers!
I was planning to do a Valentine's Day post about Romantic Movies, or movies that are, essentially, about romantic love. But I thought I'd leave this one to you
This would probably be a good "Mellies" question, but let's just think of this is a warm up.
3 questions:
1) What movie do you think best exemplifies the ultimate expression of romantic love?
2) What movie do you think demonstrates the most fun look at Mad Love?
3) What movie do you think most accurately depicts or reflects how you feel about romantic love in your own reality?
Now add a "Why" to each of those categories.
I was planning to do a Valentine's Day post about Romantic Movies, or movies that are, essentially, about romantic love. But I thought I'd leave this one to you
This would probably be a good "Mellies" question, but let's just think of this is a warm up.
3 questions:
1) What movie do you think best exemplifies the ultimate expression of romantic love?
2) What movie do you think demonstrates the most fun look at Mad Love?
3) What movie do you think most accurately depicts or reflects how you feel about romantic love in your own reality?
Now add a "Why" to each of those categories.
Monday, February 26, 2007
The League's Past Few Days
The weekend has come and gone.
We now have both wireless and wired internets delivering packets to our modems.
Natalie was supposed to be in town, but I don't think she was here as she never got in touch.
Friday night was dinner and then not much. Saturday Jamie and I played with Andy and Jason, me on bass, Jamie on piano. I am a bit unsure as to this whole band business. I hear I may be slated to play one tune with the rock band "Crack" at SXS1st during SXSW (although our configuration will be called "Sigmund and the Steans Monsters). I have also been told that I am to keep my ideas to myself. It's a tough way to start in with a band. Apparently I crossed some very upsetting lines when I was trying to come up with lyrics. It seems I don't carry the same filter when facing a crowd that the others shoulder, and there were fears of police action.
All I'm sayin' is that nobody else was coming up with any ideas.
Saturday night Jamie and I hit Kerbey Lane, and I drank too much coffee. I was still flying at 2:30AM.
Sunday Jamie woke me from my slumber with the following message:
"If you want to watch the Intel Building implode, I taped it. Also, there's bagels and coffee downstairs."
It's the little moments like that which make me realize I am the luckiest guy alive.
Around Noon'ish, we assisted Steven G. Harms and Lauren in their move. Steven is the best movee ever. "I have six boxes, two chairs and an armoire," he instructed. "The rest is already moved." Apparently Lauren, who is in no way what one envisions as a burly mover-person, had already moved most of their joint property while Steven was out of town.
So it was pretty quick work. And they still bought us lunch. Kudos to Steven and Lauren for their good work and excellent choice of a new pad. It's quite the set-up.
Today I looked for jobs and realized how dangerous I am with a computer in an office and no other distractions. I have found that I will disappear into this room, intending to check e-mail and emerge three hours later. I completel missed going to the bank today as I went to check e-mail at 4:00 and when I looked at the clock next, it was 6:00. Kind of scary.
Still, I'm happy to be at a desk of sorts instead of sitting on the couch with the laptop burning a rectangular spot on my stomach (I sit sort of inverted, with my legs propped up).
Comic reviews are up at Comic Fodder.
We now have both wireless and wired internets delivering packets to our modems.
Natalie was supposed to be in town, but I don't think she was here as she never got in touch.
Friday night was dinner and then not much. Saturday Jamie and I played with Andy and Jason, me on bass, Jamie on piano. I am a bit unsure as to this whole band business. I hear I may be slated to play one tune with the rock band "Crack" at SXS1st during SXSW (although our configuration will be called "Sigmund and the Steans Monsters). I have also been told that I am to keep my ideas to myself. It's a tough way to start in with a band. Apparently I crossed some very upsetting lines when I was trying to come up with lyrics. It seems I don't carry the same filter when facing a crowd that the others shoulder, and there were fears of police action.
All I'm sayin' is that nobody else was coming up with any ideas.
Saturday night Jamie and I hit Kerbey Lane, and I drank too much coffee. I was still flying at 2:30AM.
Sunday Jamie woke me from my slumber with the following message:
"If you want to watch the Intel Building implode, I taped it. Also, there's bagels and coffee downstairs."
It's the little moments like that which make me realize I am the luckiest guy alive.
Around Noon'ish, we assisted Steven G. Harms and Lauren in their move. Steven is the best movee ever. "I have six boxes, two chairs and an armoire," he instructed. "The rest is already moved." Apparently Lauren, who is in no way what one envisions as a burly mover-person, had already moved most of their joint property while Steven was out of town.
So it was pretty quick work. And they still bought us lunch. Kudos to Steven and Lauren for their good work and excellent choice of a new pad. It's quite the set-up.
Today I looked for jobs and realized how dangerous I am with a computer in an office and no other distractions. I have found that I will disappear into this room, intending to check e-mail and emerge three hours later. I completel missed going to the bank today as I went to check e-mail at 4:00 and when I looked at the clock next, it was 6:00. Kind of scary.
Still, I'm happy to be at a desk of sorts instead of sitting on the couch with the laptop burning a rectangular spot on my stomach (I sit sort of inverted, with my legs propped up).
Comic reviews are up at Comic Fodder.
NFL Draft Guys Dot Com
Congrats to Sigmund Bloom on his launch of NFL Draft Guys.
From the Press Release:
So bookmark it.
From the Press Release:
Football junkies have a new home.
NfL Draftguys showcases:
* Accessible, in-depth, year-round college
scouting.
* Decisive fantasy projections for your rookie
drafts.
* Insightful commentary that goes deeper than the
stats.
Cecil Lammey.
Sigmund Bloom.
The stars of The Audible and Footballguys.com know the
game.
The offseason is the new season of NFL football, and
everything that's anything related to the draft can be
found right here. Our scouts attend every major event
from the Shrine Game through the draft, and they don't
mince words when it comes to their projections. You
want informed opinions? You got 'em. In spades.
But our coverage doesn't just start when the players
hang up their helmets -- NFL Draftguys updates player
profiles and rankings constantly throughout the
college season.
So bookmark it.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Academy Awards
When many of you were in college and were expanding your musical horizons, The League sort of made a half-hearted effort to do the same. Our passing interest in David Bowie increased seven-fold, We went through a period where we bought every Talking Heads, David Byrne and related album (and slept happily beneath a subway poster of the least-exciting looking band in rock). And, when JAL took me to the Paramount to see "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" around March of 1995, I fell for the film scores of Ennio Morricone.
I was familiar with soundtrack to "The Mission", and a few other Morricone works, but first "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" and then "Once Upon a Time in The West" and continuing with "Once Upon a Time in America"... Morricone stood out to me (as a wide-eyed film student) as the perfect blending of film and music, rivalling John Williams for pure, iconic themes that told the story as much or more than, oftentimes, the dialogue itself.
The score to "Once Upon a Time in America", along with the one-sheet movie poster, are probably actually better than the final product of the film. The score manages to accomplish what many scores fail to do (but what I thought Ottman managed to accomplish quite well with "Superman Returns"), and that is speak the inner monologues for the characters.
As long-time Leaguers will know, I gave up on the Oscars several years ago when I realized most of the pictures nominated either never made it to my neighborhood, or could not possibly live up to the hype once it began. In addition, why on earth would I watch a bunch of over-paid actors run through a list of agents and producers to get their name on the air and thereby force the actor in question to beg for more work even as they're supposedly receiving their profession's highest accolade?
Hollywood is a sick, sick town.
So it was this evening that Jamie lured me down from the Fortress of Nerditude to watch the "honorary" or "lifetime achievement" award to Ennio Morricone, as he must not have ever won an award before and it was making the Academy look kind of dumb. Especially if Morricone died with no awards and having re-written the way in which film scores could work.
It was awkward enough that Eastwood didn't wear his glasses and in front of an audience of 1 billion people couldn't read the teleprompter, but...
well, (a) nobody in the audience really applauded for any of Morricone's scores as they played, except for "Good, Bad and the Ugly". And (b) as if to add insult to injury, someone tapped Celine Dion to lay words over the score to "Deborah's Theme" from "Once Upon a Time in America". Apparently not Dion, the lyricist, the Academy, any directors or producers had actually seen "Once Upon a Time in America" and knew that "Deborah's Theme" was not a song about finding one another in the moonlight. I don't want to get too much into what I THINK it's about, but it is not about filling up four extra minutes in your show at the Bellagio.
Also, Celine forgot the words at the mid-point of the song and just let out a "whooooo!" to cover it up. Well played, Celine. Well played.
This was followed by the appearance that the Academy was unaware that Morricone does not speak English. They invited him to give a speech, and a few awkward moments went by as Eastwood stood there and was supposed to translate, I guess. or Eastwood forgot his glasses and couldn't read the teleprompter again. We may never know.
The good part was that when Morricone got up to give his speech (in Italian, which Paltrow was pretending to understand), Quincy Jones and his daughter (Karen, from "The Office") totally stole Morricone's seat. No, he didn't steal it. He moved down to fill in for the cameras, but I like to think he and his daughter were treating it like a baseball game and thinking "if that guy leaves, we're totally snagging those seats!"
Also, for some reason, a Mussolini look-alike was seated behind Morricone's wife. I guess the Morricone's are old school Italians..?
I suppose I'm mostly irritated to know that the Soccer-Moms of America will now be driving around in their Ford Excursions listening to "the new Celine", unaware that Dion has butchered a once perfectly reputable bit of movie scoring.
Only at the Oscars would people choose to honor a man by taking one of his greatest works, render it unrecognizable, and hand it over to help a hokey Vegas-act sell some CD's at Wal-Mart while diluting any sense of the man's genius from the song. After all, Celine's producer's soft-rock sensibility know that lowest common denomintaor sound that really sells.
Congrats, Ennio. Welcome to LA.
I was familiar with soundtrack to "The Mission", and a few other Morricone works, but first "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" and then "Once Upon a Time in The West" and continuing with "Once Upon a Time in America"... Morricone stood out to me (as a wide-eyed film student) as the perfect blending of film and music, rivalling John Williams for pure, iconic themes that told the story as much or more than, oftentimes, the dialogue itself.
The score to "Once Upon a Time in America", along with the one-sheet movie poster, are probably actually better than the final product of the film. The score manages to accomplish what many scores fail to do (but what I thought Ottman managed to accomplish quite well with "Superman Returns"), and that is speak the inner monologues for the characters.
As long-time Leaguers will know, I gave up on the Oscars several years ago when I realized most of the pictures nominated either never made it to my neighborhood, or could not possibly live up to the hype once it began. In addition, why on earth would I watch a bunch of over-paid actors run through a list of agents and producers to get their name on the air and thereby force the actor in question to beg for more work even as they're supposedly receiving their profession's highest accolade?
Hollywood is a sick, sick town.
So it was this evening that Jamie lured me down from the Fortress of Nerditude to watch the "honorary" or "lifetime achievement" award to Ennio Morricone, as he must not have ever won an award before and it was making the Academy look kind of dumb. Especially if Morricone died with no awards and having re-written the way in which film scores could work.
It was awkward enough that Eastwood didn't wear his glasses and in front of an audience of 1 billion people couldn't read the teleprompter, but...
well, (a) nobody in the audience really applauded for any of Morricone's scores as they played, except for "Good, Bad and the Ugly". And (b) as if to add insult to injury, someone tapped Celine Dion to lay words over the score to "Deborah's Theme" from "Once Upon a Time in America". Apparently not Dion, the lyricist, the Academy, any directors or producers had actually seen "Once Upon a Time in America" and knew that "Deborah's Theme" was not a song about finding one another in the moonlight. I don't want to get too much into what I THINK it's about, but it is not about filling up four extra minutes in your show at the Bellagio.
Also, Celine forgot the words at the mid-point of the song and just let out a "whooooo!" to cover it up. Well played, Celine. Well played.
This was followed by the appearance that the Academy was unaware that Morricone does not speak English. They invited him to give a speech, and a few awkward moments went by as Eastwood stood there and was supposed to translate, I guess. or Eastwood forgot his glasses and couldn't read the teleprompter again. We may never know.
The good part was that when Morricone got up to give his speech (in Italian, which Paltrow was pretending to understand), Quincy Jones and his daughter (Karen, from "The Office") totally stole Morricone's seat. No, he didn't steal it. He moved down to fill in for the cameras, but I like to think he and his daughter were treating it like a baseball game and thinking "if that guy leaves, we're totally snagging those seats!"
Also, for some reason, a Mussolini look-alike was seated behind Morricone's wife. I guess the Morricone's are old school Italians..?
I suppose I'm mostly irritated to know that the Soccer-Moms of America will now be driving around in their Ford Excursions listening to "the new Celine", unaware that Dion has butchered a once perfectly reputable bit of movie scoring.
Only at the Oscars would people choose to honor a man by taking one of his greatest works, render it unrecognizable, and hand it over to help a hokey Vegas-act sell some CD's at Wal-Mart while diluting any sense of the man's genius from the song. After all, Celine's producer's soft-rock sensibility know that lowest common denomintaor sound that really sells.
Congrats, Ennio. Welcome to LA.
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