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A Beautiful Mind
This is one of those movies that Vera and I both figured we should see — after all, it did win Best Picture and Best Director a couple of years ago (though Ron Howard really deserved it more for Apollo 13 IMHO). But for the most part, we tend to avoid a lot of serious dramas, since watching movies is supposed to be fun, right? Of course, the thing is, we are almost always glad in the end when we do finally relent and see these movies, and this one was no exception.
As usual, Russell Crowe turns in another outstanding performance as the lead character John Nash. Based on a true story, the movie does an excellent job of taking you into his mind and world, and halfway through you are really caught off guard to realize just how much of his life was different from the way he perceived it.
The story is really bittersweet in many ways. Watching John trying to deal with his demons, all the while knowing the genius lurking beneath the surface, is tough when he's struggling, and exhilirating when he is able to overcome them. At the same time, watching his wife Alicia (played wonderfully by Jennifer Connelly) deal with him in spite of his problems is heartbreaking at times and extremely sweet at others.
Overall, this was a powerful movie with a lot of emotion and all-around excellent acting. I enjoyed it a lot. 3.5/4 stars.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
When I was a kid, I read and adored these books (all 3 of them at the time). I was also heavily into the original Infocom text adventure version of the story — in fact, it was the only Infocom game I ever solved completely without any hints (though I did get stuck for several months at the Babel fish part!) I loved the series enough that I even bought the original British miniseries, sight unseen, on DVD when it was released. And when I finally got around to watching it, I found that I didn't really enjoy it that much.
So when I heard that the long rumored and awaited feature length movie was about to come out, I viewed the event with some trepidation. I recognize that Douglas Adams had already worked out a screenplay which was different from the books, so I wasn't expecting a perfect match, but was at least hoping for some of the offbeat charm of the originals.
Having seen the movie, I have to say that it was a mixed success. I hadn't read the books in quite a while, so as I sat there watching the big budget special effects and the insanely-paced plot whizz by, I couldn't help but imagine what this movie must look like to someone who didn't know the books at all. Which is to say, they would be mightily confused, and would conclude that the movie was just a horrendous mess of random adventures in a surreal, slightly exaggerated way.
Thinking back on the books, I have to say that's a pretty accurate assessment.
I would say that the movie's main problem is that it's a little too faithful to the spirit of the books, and not altered enough to provide a coherent plotline. As a fan, I certainly thought they did a bang-up job recreating a lot of the mixed-up universe. The Guide itself, voiced by Stephen Fry and accompanied by wonderful little animations, was spot-on, though I wish they had included a few more entries. I also thought Alan Rickman did an excellent job of voicing Marvin. The Vogons were very well done by the Henson Creature Shop. And I really like the way they dealt with Zaphod's multiple heads in a very creative fashion.
In the end, the movie was kind of a treat for fans to see a lot of the stuff they had read about visualized in a modern, big budget fashion. But the movie as a movie was pretty weak and random. If you're a fan, it's definitely worth a look (3/4 stars), but if you've never seen or heard any incarnation of the guide before, you'll probably want to give it a miss (2/4 stars).
Dawn of the Dead
For years, I'd been telling Vera this was the best of the "Living Dead" movies, in the hopes that I could eventually convince her to watch it with me again. Of course, I had only seen it as a teenager, and my memory was foggy, so it's quite possible I was deluding myself. But eventually she relented and we finally got the chance to see it a couple weeks ago.
As horror movies go, Dawn of the Dead is pretty good. It picks up from where Night of the Living Dead left off, with the dead beginning to become a serious threat across the country. This movie focuses on a group of four people who take off in a helicopter in search of someplace to survive. Eventually they come across a shopping mall and decide to hole up there.
Most of the movie takes place inside the mall, and it is filled with ironic moments of muzak playing the background with the dead wandering the mall. (Kind of like real life.) Of course, in the mall there are lots of supplies that would be very useful for surviving, and this causes the protagonists to brave the onslaught of walking dead to get to various shops inside the mall. For a while it seems like a perfect place to hole up, but the relentlessness of the dead combined with outside forces eventually opens up just enough space to cause them some serious grief.
One thing that's unusual about this movie compared to a lot of other horror films is that the main characters are actually pretty smart in general. The movie doesn't rely on the people doing insanely dumb things in order to get themselves into trouble. Yes, some mistakes are made, but they are not universally fatal, and the smarter folks are pretty good at keeping the others out of trouble for the most part.
In the end, I have to say this was really a pretty good horror movie, and holds up well in spite of the 70s hairdos. It definitely made me curious to see the recent remake, just to see how it compares. For the original, I give it 3/4 stars.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Having already seen Being John Malkovich, I kind of expected that this movie, which was also written by Charlie Kaufman, would also be rather quirky and surreal. And boy was I right about that.
But the thing that elevates Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind above "Malkovich" is the fact that there's a real story behind the strangeness that you can relate to. You really get the sense during the movie that the two main characters, portrayed by Jim Carrey (in a surprisingly good turn as the straight man) and Kate Winslet (playing the free spirit and hiding her accent nicely), share a real connection and a story that is worth unravelling through the Memento-like chronological shifting that governs the movie. And while I certainly enjoyed "Malkovich", this movie felt more real somehow, in spite of the plot oddities.
I seem to be seeing a lot of movies with the same actors these days. Not only do we have Elijah Wood (who was also in Sin City) yet again as a creepy loser who takes privacy violation to a whole new level. But also playing a minor role in this film is Kirsten Dunst (who voiced Kiki in the English dub of Kiki's Delivery Service), playing a receptionist/assistant with an interesting history.
Overall, I liked this movie quite a bit for its oddness and the way the relationship played out. It's the sort of movie you want to see again to understand how it all fits together. 3/4 stars.
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Somebody please explain to me why people seem to think that Ben Stiller is funny. I still can't figure it out. I've seen There's Something About Mary, Mystery Men, Meet the Parents, and now Dodgeball. And while there were funny parts in some of those movies, I don't recall ever really being that impressed with Ben Stiller.
Certainly in this movie — which was a rather limp attempt at parodying the feel good sports movie — he's in fine unfunny form, spending most of his time trying to be overbearing and funny, and mostly just being annoying. As for the rest of the cast, they just played a bunch of rejects in ways that were pretty much as unfunny as Ben Stiller, just not as annoying. I might have laughed out loud once, but I can't really recall.
It seems to me that a lot of comedies these days rely on randomness to be inherently humorous. In this movie we get Alan Tudyk as Steve the Pirate. Why does he think he's a pirate? Who knows, but it's clear that somebody thought that having a random character who thought he was a pirate was just funny. But I didn't really find it funny. I have the same problem with a lot of recent "Adult Swim" animation as well. Honestly, I tried watching Sealab 2021, but it wasn't funny or enjoyable, just random.
The other element I see repeated over and over in recent "comedies" are the scenes that are designed to make you cringe over absurdly embarrassing situations. As far as I can tell, this got really popular in Seinfeld after the first couple of seasons, and everyone has been racing to copy it. Personally I can't stand it. If I want to cringe while people do dumb stuff, I'll watch a horror movie. :-)
But enough ranting. Ben Stiller gets one more chance shortly when we check out Starsky & Hutch. As for Dodgeball, color me sorely disappointed after the hype. 1.5/4 stars.