Last movie you watched......

I misspoke when I said origin story "overload." I meant "fatigue." It's such a super hero movie trope at this point that I probably downgraded the film for even going there. Probably not totally fair on my part.

One problem I have with the entire trilogy is that it's hard for me to invest in a city - and Gotham is really a major character here - as much as I need to in order to invest in the outcomes. The scale is almost too epic, and the smaller stories it tries to tell in order to overcome that, such as the Commissioner Gordon or orphanage children arcs, are not told with enough depth and care to do so.

Also: The nuclear bomb story line is so played out. I said in an earlier post that "Dark Shadows" didn't do anything that "True Blood" didn't do better before it. Here, "The Dark Knight Rises" doesn't do anything that "24" didn't do bigger and better already.

 

Django Unchained

It was what I had hoped Inglorious Basterds would have been, just a whole bunch of evil people with evil ideas getting mowed down.

 

Batman Begins is great because for the first hour, the main character could be anyone. Really well done. Cannibalized the right comics.

The second movie was really well done, but the Joker delivered a lot of ultimately empty threats. "I'm gonna blow up a hospital!" BOOMMM!! "Did you get everyone out?!" "yeah."

Thud.

Bane delivered on a lot of those threats. There was a legitimate body count and actual destruction instead of just people being scared and only bigwigs buying the farm. But Dark Knight Rises had a massive plot hole or two. The money, the journey back to Gotham, the ending, etc.

Anyway, caught The Hobbit tonight. Was entertained, but spent some of its running time wondering which of the scenes was non-book filler put in to stretch the thing to three flicks.

Everything with Radagast could have gone, for instance.

It didn't feel self-indulgent, per se (with all the negative connotations that brings), but it was like watching the extended DVDs of the Lord of the Rings films. Peter Jackson was clearly indulging himself, and a lot of fans are eager to be similarly indulged.

To me, I expect payoffs in the next film.

 

Les Miserables
I kept waiting for Wolverine and Maximus to engage in epic fisticuffs. It didn't happen.

 

Why would anyone want to see the movie adaptation of a Broadway play that was based on a movie that was originally based on a book? ;D

 

Payback for dragging my wife to "Looper."

 

Saw Les Miserables and Jack Reacher in the past three days. Also saw Cirque du Soleil "La Nouba," which was awesome, but I guess that's for another thread.

Jack Reacher: I really enjoyed it. I haven't read the books, so the whole storyline was new. It had a lot of Bourne elements to it, but not so much that it was ruined by the similarities, at least for me. Also, a side note: Mrs. Novelist and I saw this movie in the AMC Fork and Screen facility at Downtown Disney. Different movie experience. Not as noisy as I expected, but the service was slow. I'll do it again at some point.

Les Miz: Overall I thought it was outstanding. Jackman was an excellent match for Jean Valjean, and Anne Hathaway was very good as Fontine. The earlier comment about the facial closeups was spot on, but I don't see that as a mjor criticism. There were a lot of walk-around pensively while singing moments. Still, I'm not sure how else a musical with this story, which is based on the interplay of several strong individual roles, is supposed to be done. Les Miserables has a lot of solos with not so many backup choruses like other musicals. My biggest complaint is that Russell Crowe doesn't quite have the singing chops to carry his role. Not that he was lousy. He just didn't live up to the rest of the cast. Again, though, it's well worth the price of admission.

 

I just saw Les Mis for a second time (because I'm a huge nerd like that), and Crowe's performance grew on me the second time around. Once I didn't expect a truly theatre-esque voice from the part and started to pay a lot of attention to the nuance of his acting, I could see where he was going with it. I still would have liked to have seen someone else with the role, but it didn't bother me nearly as much as the initial viewing.

I wished there were bigger establishing shots as well, but I suspect those were some of the things that got taken out for time after the initial cut was in the four hour neighborhood. Some of the song cuts were strange too, but that is also probably a product of making the thing under three hours.

Loved that the people who played the revolutionaries were so young. In the musical they usually read to me as men in their mid-30s, but in this it really emphasized the fact they were idealistic, idiotic youngsters who really didn't understand why people might not rally to help them. And the guy who played Marius was fantastic in a role that doesn't have a lot of emotional depth at times. His "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" is the first one to really move me. It's fantastic.

 

People aren't shitting on Russell Crowe nearly as much as they did on Gerard Butler. I understand the idea was to have a rough, bad boy vocal styling for the movie Phantom (as opposed to the initial melodic, soft tenor sound of the stage productions), but Butler just couldn't cut it.

 

After Porn Ends ... A documentary about the post-porn life of some stars.
It featured Krissy Moran, Asia Carrera, Sheka, Amber Lynn, Randy West, Mary Carey, Raylene and a few others.
* Add .. also Houston.. she's a chick who simply wanted to be famous. Key-rist ...

It was about what you'd expect: very few of them are OK.
Krissy Moran looks like she's a bad day from a suicide attempt.
Krissy Moran Raylene looks like she's a bad day from a suicide attempt slipping back into addiction.

I had no idea Carrera's husband died in a car wreck leaving her as single mother. She gained about 60 pounds.
Randy West looks like one lonely mother fucker.


I kind of laughed at the funeral for Buck Adams, as the porn historian is making a bunhc of dick jokes during his euloy. If also looked like Richard Masur was there.

 

I think this is about right. I'd submit that Crowe is a much better actor than Butler. Personally I think he's marginally better vocally, but Mrs. Novelist disagrees. I'm not saying there's a lot to criticize Crowe for in the role of Javert. I just didn't think he was on the same level musically as the rest of the cast.

 

This Is 40.

Cute. We'll see them at 50.