It's the End!!

Honestly, I was not looking forward to this. These next few weeks are going to be particularly hellish in terms of the movies I have to see. Before I get to experience Avatar, I have to contend with a slew of stinkers, including New Moon, Old Dogs, and Armored. But, to start off, I saw movie that, while terrible, is so fun that anything less then a recommendation would be cruelty. 2012, the latest tryst by Roland Emmerich in his fetish for destroying the Earth, is loud, obnoxious, poorly written, badly acted, and certifiably nuts. But, I don't care! This movie is so ridiculous, so over the top, so bat-shit insane that it puts all other disaster movies, past, present, and future, to shame! Don't say I didn't warn you; you may never want to see another disaster movie again.
So, it's the year 2012, and this movie is going under the assumption that the Mayans were correct in their prediction of the end of days instead of the bumbling idiots that they really were. The sun, and bear with me here; this is a little ridiculous, is emitting an exorbitant of neutrinos, which are, in turn, rapidly melting the core of the earth. This causes the plates to start to violently shift, causing all kinds of fun devastation and death! Los Angeles sinks into the Pacific Ocean, a tidal wave utilizes the John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier to bitch slap the White House, and Yellowstone National Park explodes! Contending with all this chaos is Jackson Curtis, a failed writer turned limo driver, who reads the signs, rents a plane, and attempts to get his estranged family to China, where the world's governments are secretly building massive ships to preserve civilization. Very Noah's Ark. The story, penned by director Roland Emmerich, is the exact same thing we've come to expect from him. Ruined relationships are healed amid the end of the world. We saw an ex husband and wife reconcile amid an alien invasion in Independence Day, old flames reconnect whilst a giant lizard rampages around New York in Godzilla, and a father and son forge a greater relationship during the onset of a new ice age in The Day After Tomorrow. Mr. Emmerich is a one trick pony in every sense of the term, but, his movies make tons of money. Go with what works, I guess.
It always boggles my mind, but how does Emmerich always get such talented actors in his movies. Everyone knows what a schlock meister he is, so why do big name stars always work with him. Here, we get John Cusack, doing a fairly decent job as the horribly unlucky and unrealistically brave Jackson, Amanda Peet, looking unhealthily thin as his estranged wife, Chiwetel Ejiofor as the President's chief science officer who discovers the whole mess, Oliver Platt as a world class douchebag of a Chief of Staff, Danny Glover as the President who gets crushed by an aircraft carrier (sorry to give that away), and an under utilized Thandie Newton as his daughter. Emmerich usually gets marginally good performances out of his actors, and 2012 is no exception. They pale in comparison to other performances by more gifted artists, but, for the quality of the material they have to work with, it's not terrible. Cusack especially stands out as a shining spot. His comic time, and chemistry with the actors playing his children is great, and put to great use amid all this mayhem. It is a little ridiculous how he turns into Jason Bourne in a tux throughout most of this film, but he keeps a straight face, and manages to keep us interested.
So, let's move on to the real player here, Mr. Emmerich. I'll be honest. I've been a bit unfair to him over the years. Sure his movies suffer from underdeveloped characters, dumb plots, and present science as iffy as four month old orange juice. But, they are fun! Really fun! Come on! You can't tell me you didn't crack at least one smile when Will Smith owned an entire alien civilization. That was friggin' awesome! 2012 is in the same category as his other movies. It's a fucking great ride! Emmerich even changes things up a little bit, and doesn't destroy New York. Well, he does, but we don't see it. He instead acts a bit more tasteful with his destruction, as when we see Hawaii melt thanks to a massive eruption of all the volcanoes in the area. We only a see airborne shot. He doesn't get close, leaving us to imagine what's happening, which makes it a lot more foreboding. Indeed, many parts of this movie are much darker then what we've come to expect from him, as when a man talks to his granddaughter on the phone and is an audible witness to her demise. It's those little things that hint at a maturation of the director, though that isn't likely. Also, the special effects are spectacular.
There are a slew problems, however. There always are. First off, the pacing. It takes a good 45 minutes to get to the disaster porn, and then it's a non stop roller coaster of destruction and death for a good hour and ten. Then, the movie just falls flat, opting for a Poseidon Adventure retread for a finale. The ending is so anticlimatic, I wanted to scream! Also, Emmerich's love of destroying monuments hamstrings him a little. There's a scene at the Vatican, where thousands of people are praying. Emmerich could have just shown this scene, and then moved on to the rest of the story, but oh no, he has to bring all of St. Peter's Basilica down on the worshippers. It's completely unnecessary and projects an unwelcome grim feeling on the audience. And, finally, the biggest problem with this movie is the tone. There are countless scenes where we are witness to terrible things happening. I think this the first Roland Emmerich film that is ok with showing the deaths of children. We see many little kids get crushed by falling debris, fall into bottomless pits, or get engulfed by massive tsunami's. Throughout most of the movie, the tone is pretty grim. And then there's the ending, which is all happy and shit. The ending sees the main characters looking out onto the new world, bathed in sunlight and happy. They just completely forget about the 5.9 billion other people that just died! Emmerich's other movies have suffered from this same problem. The man just doesn't learn!
But, when it comes down to it, 2012 is not trying to send a message or anything like that. It's just a popcorn movie, and a good one at that. It is the mother of all disaster films. It's pretty terrible on a subjective level, but, God Damn, is it fun! B

More Videos at IGN.com

For You Lazy People Who Can't Click On A Link...

More Avatar News & Previews

Blue Giants!!!

The new Avatar trailer can be summed up in two words: pure awesome! All you naysayers who said that the first one was underwhelming and didn't show off the genius special effects utilized by Jim Cameron and crew are now speechless!

A Post About Theatre? What?

So, last night I treated a few friends to American Idiot at Berkley Repatory Theatre, meaning, I paid for half their tickets. I'm not exactly rolling in Benjamin's here. $85 tickets is a little expensive for anyone! Anyway, back to the point, American Idiot. Unless you've lived under a rock for the last 10 years, you're probably aware of a little band called Green Day. Now, I personally like these guys. Their simple, yet powerful sound is quite appealing to me when I just want to relax and not marvel at the complexities of the artist I'm listening to. That being said, I think Billie Joe Armstrong's voice is really annoying. A lot of people hate them however, i.e. most of the followers of this blog, which may make you wonder why I'm even posting this. Well, I'll tell you. Because, regardless of what you think of the band, you will find something to like in American Idiot, the musical. The songs that the band and Michael Mayer, who directed, chose to include lend themselves well to the show, since they already have an underlying narrative to them as is. The music is just as powerful and loud as you know it, which is just fine. It's been awhile since we've had a true rock opera, and before you give me crap about that last statement, let me finish. Rent and Spring Awakening do not count as rock opera, due to the music in those shows being more rooted in pop and traditional Broadway ballads. American Idiot is a full on rock opera! The songs do a good job of driving the almost non-existent plot forward, which is good, since there is almost no dialogue, with the exception of headliner John Gallagher, Jr. monologuing to the audience. Speaking of him, he does a great job, as does the rest of the cast. The plot focuses on three guys from the ass end of society, two of which move to the city while the other one stays behind to be with his knocked up girlfriend. One of them goes off to war, while the other one self-destructs thanks to drugs, drink, and the punk scene. The songs are the only things moving this bare bones plot forward, but, it's not that big of deal. Like I said, the album itself tells more or less the same story on its own. The cast does a great job injecting energy and fury into the play, thanks in part to some really cool choreography by Steven Hogget. The stands out, in my mind, are Gallagher, Jr., who does a great job leading this pack of lowlife rejects, Matt Caplan, who boasts the best voice in the entire cast, Theo Stockman, who was just recently on Broadway in Hair, and who is always a pleasure to watch, and Tony Vincent, who, even though he looks like Marilyn Manson, does a great job as the quasi-antagonist St. Jimmy. That, and his voice can go to Adam Lambert levels of high! I hope that most of this cast stays with it when it moves to Broadway.
That being said, this play needs a lot of work if it wants to have any chance of surviving on that coveted strip of asphalt in Times Square. For starters, the plot is terrible. There is no real sort of character development, and a lot of the songs feel a little out of place with what the characters are going through. The story and book are the main problems, but there are some other ones. Some songs feel unnecessary, like when St. Jimmy starts crooning "Know Your Enemy". My last gripe is with the finale. The second to last number ends on such a show stopping note, that I was ready to give my standing ovation. But, no! There's one more song, which is a bit of a let down as a finale. Albeit, it is loud, and the cast gets physical, but, it just didn't sit well with me. It's like "Song of Purple Summer". Good song. Terrible for a finale! But, all these gripes are for naught! I am positive that Armstrong and Mayer will rework the hell out of this show before it goes to Broadway. They have the body of a great musical already! Now they just need the heart! B-

Eat It Up!

Brace yourselves! I'm about to delve deep into myself in yet another one of my many attempts to show you that I have a soul! I know you don't want to believe it, but come on! Give credit where credit is due! I just got out of Where the Wild Things Are almost on the verge of tears. I didn't actually let a teardrop go, as I was with friends, and that would have looked weird. But, that still didn't stop me from feeling an overwhelming sense of wonder and emotion with Where the Wild Things Are. Indeed, this is easily one of the best movies of the year, and, as my friend so succinctly put it, the first book-to-movie adaptation that is actually better then the source material on which it is based!
If you have read Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, then you already have a general idea of what this movie is about. If you haven't read it, then close out of this page, turn off your computer and do so. For those of you who don't read, it boils down like this. There's a kid named Max, who is going through that phase of childhood, where everything he does is misunderstood, where the smallest things can lead to huge confrontations, and where the imagination is an untamed and wild beast! One night, Max is sent to bed without dinner. Instead of following his mother's orders, he runs away to the ocean. There he finds a small boat, which takes him to a far off island. Upon landing on the island, Max discovers that it is inhabited by giant "wild things", who, upon close inspection, are not that different from himself. He makes his presence known and is soon crowned the king of the wild things. As he befriends and plays with the creatures, he let's his own fantasies play out like he never could back home! The book Where the Wild Things Are was only made up of ten sentences. Co-writer/director Spike Jonze was faced with the, almost, impossible challenge of adapting the book into a feature length movie. Boy, did he live up to the task! To say that Where the Wild Things Are stays true to the spirit of the book is a gross understatement. It is such a beautiful story that is so masterfully written... I can't think of anything to say that will do it justice!
Max Records plays Max (go figure). This performance will probably go down in the annals of exquisite performances by a child actor. Records so brilliantly captures the juvenile spirit that made Max such and interesting character in the book, and does a great job translating it to the screen. He is simply wonderful! The rest of the cast is made up of, primarily, voices from the likes of James Gandolfini as the main and most troubled wild thing, Carol, Lauren Ambrose as the carefree and kind KW, Forest Whitaker and Catherine O'Hara as lovebirds Ira and Judith, Paul Dano as the lonely, sad Alexander, Chris Cooper as the yes-man Douglas, and Michael Berry Jr. as the quiet and shutoff Bull. All the voice actors do a great job, with Gandolfini and Ambrose shining the brightest! The layers of emotion that the voice actors give to their characters is so unique these days, it makes wish more people would give a damn! Catherine Keener and Mark Ruffalo show up briefly as Max's mother and her boyfriend, respectively. This is one of the best acted movies of the year! No question about it!
Back to Spike Jonze. Here is a director who has consistently turned in wonderfully quirky, very heartfelt films, from Being John Malkovich to Adaptation. Where the Wild Things Are is a big change of pace for him, but he handles the project as if he had been making movies like this for decades. He stays so true to the message and ideas of the book, whilst expanding the plot so that it would be interesting on screen, it is mind boggling! He so masterfully captures what is like to be kid, and all the confusion, imagination, innocence, playfulness, and mystery that goes with it! Despite this movie being a "fantasy" tale, it is very realistic. I don't think anyone can walk out of this movie and say that they didn't relate to Max at least once throughout the entire screening. They would be lying! Everything that we see Max contend with on the island with the creatures is a reflection of what every kid goes through at some point in their lives. Good luck not feeling that hard to find swelling in your chest when the movie reaches its heartbreaking-uplifting-at-the-same-time ending!
Words cannot adequately express how good Where the Wild Things Are is. I could talk all day about how great the cinematography is, how the almost dialogue free opening scenes are sublime, or how the mix of costumes and CGI to create the wild things could not have been done better. But, then you'd still be reading this and not going to see Where the Wild Things Are. So, that's all I have to say! Close out of this page, turn off your computer, and go see Where the Wild Things Are! To quote KW, "I could eat [it] up, I love [it] so!" A

More Where the Wild Things Are News & Previews

Moving Is Living!

Suffice to say, I'm excited as hell for Up In The Air to come out later this year. Not only does it star the likes of George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Jason Bateman, JK Simmons, and Zach Galifianakis, but it also directed by Jason Reitman, who is, of course, responsible for the likes of Thank You for Smoking and Juno. The film received rave reviews from the lucky bastards that got to go to the Toronto Film Festival, and seems to be destined for Oscar glory. Keep your eyes open!

It's A Disaster!

"When they tell you not to panic, that's when you run!"

Now, is it just me, or does this look like a comedy?