The holidays being what they are… weeks of madness to get the shopping done, the house decorated, then cleaned for the party, wrapping all those presents &mdash as well as the day-to-day work/chores/rest… and the studio's insistence on releasing all their really big holiday movies in one big chunk, the week between Christmas and New Years became time for our own little movie fest. In no particular order, here's my thoughts on some of the pics we saw.
Fred Claus
I'm cheating a bit here, since we actually caught this one before Christmas, but it's of the season anyway. Not terrible, but I'm getting really tired of Vince Vaughn's man-child shtick. We get it, it's cute/funny how you refuse to grow up until confronted with the repercussions of that childish behavior, then we all learn a lesson as you step up and become the adult we all knew you could be. Been there, done that, more than once, and he's on the verge of becoming as annoying/irrelevant as his buddy Owen Wilson. Time to grow up in real life and show us a different character, Vince. As for the movie itself… it's entertaining, and certainly a better Christmas option than the umpteenth Tim Allen "look how we found another play on Clause!" films. (But that's hardly a ringing endorsement.) It IS almost worth seeing for the confrontation/confession scene between Paul Giamatti's Santa and Kevin Spacey's corporate bad guy. There's some real acting going on in that scene, contrary to what you expect from a movie of this ilk.
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Over-the-top, nonsensical, but entertaining despite this, I liked this one a little less than it's predecessor. It just felt like they were working a little too hard this time around. All in all, I enjoyed it, and I'm sure we'll be there for the inevitable sequel (threequel? Am I willing to embrace that one? Widipedia thinks it's real, for what that's worth.) The real problem with this one is that they tried to reform their villain by the end. At least in the first film, Sean Bean's bad guy stays a bad guy throughout. He's after treasure, end of story. Everything else is just a tool to get that treasure. But in Book of Secrets, while it appears that Ed Harris is the same kind of dollars-driven bad guy as before, suddenly, for some inexplicable (and barely explained) reason, they try to reform him at the end of the film. He did all these nasty things just so he could get the credit for finding the City of Gold? What the f? Hardly a compelling villain, and the ending fell a bit flat because of it, I think.
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Must I? We saw it with Summer, Brandon and the kids and, more than anything it was for the kids (and Dani, I think). It wasn't horrible, and had some cute moments. I've spent worse time at the movies.
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
Like this one. Dani and I are, generally, suckers for anything Alien. I've enjoyed all 4 of the Alien films (watch the Special Edition version from the Alien Quadrilogy for Alien3 to make MUCH more sense than its stunted theatrical release allowed). And yes, I actually enjoyed the first AvP movie. At least there were a few characters I cared about in that one, and I really liked the whole hunter/rite-of-passage storyline. This one had none of that. If you look at Alien as a straight-up haunted house story in space, and Aliens as military sci-fi (the best version of Starship Troopers NOT based on a Heinlein novel), then the best AVP: Requiem manages is being the disaster movie entry in the series. (And does that make Alien3 the women in prison Alien movie?) You're introduced to dozens of characters (each with their own supposedly interesting side story) and expected to follow them as the latest Alien infestation starts wiping out the town. I found I didn't care about any of them (in no small way because they're all so painfully generic. It's like they rolled a bus up to central casting and started reading out character types to get on the bus). By the time you get to the end of the movie (with it's ending inexplicably ripped from Resident Evil: Apocalypse) I just wanted the damn thing to end so I could leave the theater and find something to do or watch or see to cleanse my mental palette. (As for how this one relates to the rest of the Alien/Predator "canon", there's about 5 minutes at the beginning of the movie and 2 minutes at the end to tie the movie into the greater story arc. The rest is forgettable filler.)
Since this is threatening to become a book, I'll close now and pick up with the rest of our holiday movie binge later…
Fred Claus
I'm cheating a bit here, since we actually caught this one before Christmas, but it's of the season anyway. Not terrible, but I'm getting really tired of Vince Vaughn's man-child shtick. We get it, it's cute/funny how you refuse to grow up until confronted with the repercussions of that childish behavior, then we all learn a lesson as you step up and become the adult we all knew you could be. Been there, done that, more than once, and he's on the verge of becoming as annoying/irrelevant as his buddy Owen Wilson. Time to grow up in real life and show us a different character, Vince. As for the movie itself… it's entertaining, and certainly a better Christmas option than the umpteenth Tim Allen "look how we found another play on Clause!" films. (But that's hardly a ringing endorsement.) It IS almost worth seeing for the confrontation/confession scene between Paul Giamatti's Santa and Kevin Spacey's corporate bad guy. There's some real acting going on in that scene, contrary to what you expect from a movie of this ilk.
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Over-the-top, nonsensical, but entertaining despite this, I liked this one a little less than it's predecessor. It just felt like they were working a little too hard this time around. All in all, I enjoyed it, and I'm sure we'll be there for the inevitable sequel (threequel? Am I willing to embrace that one? Widipedia thinks it's real, for what that's worth.) The real problem with this one is that they tried to reform their villain by the end. At least in the first film, Sean Bean's bad guy stays a bad guy throughout. He's after treasure, end of story. Everything else is just a tool to get that treasure. But in Book of Secrets, while it appears that Ed Harris is the same kind of dollars-driven bad guy as before, suddenly, for some inexplicable (and barely explained) reason, they try to reform him at the end of the film. He did all these nasty things just so he could get the credit for finding the City of Gold? What the f? Hardly a compelling villain, and the ending fell a bit flat because of it, I think.
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Must I? We saw it with Summer, Brandon and the kids and, more than anything it was for the kids (and Dani, I think). It wasn't horrible, and had some cute moments. I've spent worse time at the movies.
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
Like this one. Dani and I are, generally, suckers for anything Alien. I've enjoyed all 4 of the Alien films (watch the Special Edition version from the Alien Quadrilogy for Alien3 to make MUCH more sense than its stunted theatrical release allowed). And yes, I actually enjoyed the first AvP movie. At least there were a few characters I cared about in that one, and I really liked the whole hunter/rite-of-passage storyline. This one had none of that. If you look at Alien as a straight-up haunted house story in space, and Aliens as military sci-fi (the best version of Starship Troopers NOT based on a Heinlein novel), then the best AVP: Requiem manages is being the disaster movie entry in the series. (And does that make Alien3 the women in prison Alien movie?) You're introduced to dozens of characters (each with their own supposedly interesting side story) and expected to follow them as the latest Alien infestation starts wiping out the town. I found I didn't care about any of them (in no small way because they're all so painfully generic. It's like they rolled a bus up to central casting and started reading out character types to get on the bus). By the time you get to the end of the movie (with it's ending inexplicably ripped from Resident Evil: Apocalypse) I just wanted the damn thing to end so I could leave the theater and find something to do or watch or see to cleanse my mental palette. (As for how this one relates to the rest of the Alien/Predator "canon", there's about 5 minutes at the beginning of the movie and 2 minutes at the end to tie the movie into the greater story arc. The rest is forgettable filler.)
Since this is threatening to become a book, I'll close now and pick up with the rest of our holiday movie binge later…
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