This might be the first blog that I've written that has no point. I really have nothing to say, but I feel like saying something. So I guess now all I have to do is decide what exactly it is that I want to say. This is proving difficult.
*sigh...
Does a blog count as a friend if it's the only "person" around at the moment to talk to? I suppose that's why I'm writing this particular entry. I feel like having a conversation, but there's no one around to have one with. I suppose I could call someone, but I don't particularly like talking on the phone. Plus, I don't know what I want to talk about, I just want to talk. About something stupid and completely pointless. Just to talk, just to interface with another human being (In my head, I hear those last two words pronounced the way my friend Phil Worthington would say them).
Speaking of Phil, he's probably in Lynchburg, Virginia at the present moment, and I am not. I think I should be. I will be at the end of the week. I am growing antsy and experiencing a touch of wanderlust this evening, I believe. It's time for me to move on. Or move back. Or whatever.
Um....................
I suppose a blog is the same as a journal or a diary, in that you tell it things that you don't really think would fit into everyday conversation. Does that constitute a friendship? I dunno. Kinda wierd if it did. To be friends with a blog. Journals are private places for private thoughts, so I suppose a blog would be one of those friends who you tell stuff to and then they go and tell everyone else, and pretty soon all your shtuff is spread around. But you can't really blame them because you should know your friend well enough to know that they're gonna tell everyone, but it still makes you kinda irritated because, dude, you weren't supposed to tell people that.
I suppose I should be careful what I tell my blog.
Even though there's only, like, four people who read this. Maybe not even that many. I have four followers, which is hardly a crowd. So I think even if I wrote some secrets on here it wouldn't go very far. Maybe I have and people just don't realize it. How sneaky.
Bob Dylan's "The times are a-changin'" is playing in the background right now. It's on the Watchmen soundtrack. I'm not even gonna pretend like I knew about this song before I heard it in the movie. I didn't. But I'm glad they included it in the film because it's a good song, and I enjoy it. And now I know it, so thank you Watchmen soundtrack compilers.
I guess that's all I have to say. Did I really say anything?
Who knows.
MACHINES.
Cordially,
-a.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Knowing
There's not much in this little world of ours that I love more than going to the movies. I so enjoy going to the theater (think about that for a moment...Theater. That's what it is. You're going to see a show. It may not be a play, but it's still a show. It is the modern equivalent of a night at the opera or, more closely, the theatre. I think this is lost on us most of the time, and I like to remind myself of it occasionally). I enjoy going out for a night at the movies, because that's what we do, and that's what we've always done. When March rolls around, my brother, my sister and I shout with joy and glee "Movie Season!". We love it. Soon after we gather the crew together for a fresh series of our quality program, The Clark Family and Friends Present: A NIGHT AT THE MOVIES! There's nothing better than driving on a warm summer night to our choice of cinema establishment, walking into the cool auditorium and taking our seats and getting swept away, if only for a couple hours. It's a beautiful thing. It makes my heart all warm and fuzzy.
I also think this is because I am one kid who never outgrew his bedtime stories. When I was an infant it was my mom and dad reading me stories. When I was still young, it was the ADVENTURES IN ODYSSEY radio program from Focus on the Family. I loved those tapes oh-so-much, and fell asleep listening to them most every night growing up. After that, my parents finally let me have a television and a dvd player/playstation 2 in my room, and I would watch movies as I fell asleep, something I still do quite often. Sometimes it's dvds of television shows, but movies are the subject of the hour.
I relish the opportunity to sit in a darkened room filled with other people and be taken in by a story. Stories are so vital to us as human beings (this is something I wish to blog about in the future, so stay tuned). Why do you think we do this? Why do you think a couple hundred strangers gather together into said darkened room just to watch a movie? It's because stories are integral to our psyches, they fuel us, inspire us, make us laugh, and, dare I say, they sometimes even make us cry. This is the modern day fireplace. Our forebears gathered around the hearth in the eveningtime and listened to their elders tell them stories of adventure, intrigue, and excitement. The movie theater is no different, except that our narrator usually has a much better budget.
I am encouraged by this phenomenon.
Tonight proved to me once again why I love movies so much. I went to see the film Knowing. Before you say anything, I realize that I am talking about a Nicolas Cage movie, and likely what many will call a "special-effects popcorn flick"...(It is not lost on me that many times I have criticized both Nicolas Cage films and special-effects popcorn flicks). For some reason, this movie was different.
It's going to be difficult to say anything about this movie without revealing things, but I shall do my best.
There are so many things that could have gone horribly wrong with this movie, but they didn't. Actually at one point while viewing the movie, I thought to myself, "This movie is so good...it's got such a good grip on the story...don't lose it, don't lose it..." And for once, it didn't. It held out until the end and finished what it started. It didn't blow it, as has happened in so many movies of this particular genre. I thought this was going to be one of "those" movies, where it has the potential to be really bad or really good, and most of the time they end up being the former. One of the movies that take a good idea then saturate it with so many digital effects that somewhere along the way the story is suffocated.
I thought this is what Knowing was going to be. It wasn't.
It had good ideas, then finished them well. It gripped me, and didn't lose me until the credits rolled. It was intense, the special effects were very well done AND only used when necessary (something I very much appreciated), and the cinematography was actually quite beautiful at many points (thank Alex Proyas, the director, who also did The Crow and I, Robot).
I wish I could discuss this movie with people. All I can say is that I had a prediction regarding the plot of this movie, and I was right. I just didn't know how right I was, and how awesome that prediction would turn out to be.
I am going to say it right now, many people won't like this movie. Why? Because it's a genre that has been done so many times before, mostly in ways that have been disappointing or have likely left a bad taste in peoples' mouths (I could name some of the films I am talking about, but it would probably clue you in to the plot of Knowing, so I won't). It has many cliches, many typical elements, and many things that we have seen time and time again.
BUT.
At no point did Knowing feel old or tired, and the "typical elements and cliches" are done in a way that was, to me, fresh and new. It was like this film took all the good parts of the kind of movies that came before it, and threw out all the bad parts, and finally did it right. Finally.
But people still won't like it because of the kind of movie it is. I know this, expect it, and accept it. I still loved the movie.
There were parts of the movie that seemed so real, and were so intense that I was completely lost in what was happening on screen. I forgot I was in a movie theater. That is my definition of a good movie.
Normally, I see a trailer for a movie and one of two things happens. First, I think it looks good and it is. Second, I think it looks bad and it is. Rarely, I see a trailer and I'll think it looks good and it sucks. But the rarest of all is when I see a trailer for a film and think that it will be okay, at least worth watching, and it shatters my expectations and goes vastly beyond what I ever hoped it would be. This is what Knowing did for me tonight.
And so, knowing that I am starting to ramble, the award for Suprise Movie of Life goes to: Knowing.
You should go see it. It's GREAT, and it reminded me once again why I love movies.
I also think this is because I am one kid who never outgrew his bedtime stories. When I was an infant it was my mom and dad reading me stories. When I was still young, it was the ADVENTURES IN ODYSSEY radio program from Focus on the Family. I loved those tapes oh-so-much, and fell asleep listening to them most every night growing up. After that, my parents finally let me have a television and a dvd player/playstation 2 in my room, and I would watch movies as I fell asleep, something I still do quite often. Sometimes it's dvds of television shows, but movies are the subject of the hour.
I relish the opportunity to sit in a darkened room filled with other people and be taken in by a story. Stories are so vital to us as human beings (this is something I wish to blog about in the future, so stay tuned). Why do you think we do this? Why do you think a couple hundred strangers gather together into said darkened room just to watch a movie? It's because stories are integral to our psyches, they fuel us, inspire us, make us laugh, and, dare I say, they sometimes even make us cry. This is the modern day fireplace. Our forebears gathered around the hearth in the eveningtime and listened to their elders tell them stories of adventure, intrigue, and excitement. The movie theater is no different, except that our narrator usually has a much better budget.
I am encouraged by this phenomenon.
Tonight proved to me once again why I love movies so much. I went to see the film Knowing. Before you say anything, I realize that I am talking about a Nicolas Cage movie, and likely what many will call a "special-effects popcorn flick"...(It is not lost on me that many times I have criticized both Nicolas Cage films and special-effects popcorn flicks). For some reason, this movie was different.
It's going to be difficult to say anything about this movie without revealing things, but I shall do my best.
There are so many things that could have gone horribly wrong with this movie, but they didn't. Actually at one point while viewing the movie, I thought to myself, "This movie is so good...it's got such a good grip on the story...don't lose it, don't lose it..." And for once, it didn't. It held out until the end and finished what it started. It didn't blow it, as has happened in so many movies of this particular genre. I thought this was going to be one of "those" movies, where it has the potential to be really bad or really good, and most of the time they end up being the former. One of the movies that take a good idea then saturate it with so many digital effects that somewhere along the way the story is suffocated.
I thought this is what Knowing was going to be. It wasn't.
It had good ideas, then finished them well. It gripped me, and didn't lose me until the credits rolled. It was intense, the special effects were very well done AND only used when necessary (something I very much appreciated), and the cinematography was actually quite beautiful at many points (thank Alex Proyas, the director, who also did The Crow and I, Robot).
I wish I could discuss this movie with people. All I can say is that I had a prediction regarding the plot of this movie, and I was right. I just didn't know how right I was, and how awesome that prediction would turn out to be.
I am going to say it right now, many people won't like this movie. Why? Because it's a genre that has been done so many times before, mostly in ways that have been disappointing or have likely left a bad taste in peoples' mouths (I could name some of the films I am talking about, but it would probably clue you in to the plot of Knowing, so I won't). It has many cliches, many typical elements, and many things that we have seen time and time again.
BUT.
At no point did Knowing feel old or tired, and the "typical elements and cliches" are done in a way that was, to me, fresh and new. It was like this film took all the good parts of the kind of movies that came before it, and threw out all the bad parts, and finally did it right. Finally.
But people still won't like it because of the kind of movie it is. I know this, expect it, and accept it. I still loved the movie.
There were parts of the movie that seemed so real, and were so intense that I was completely lost in what was happening on screen. I forgot I was in a movie theater. That is my definition of a good movie.
Normally, I see a trailer for a movie and one of two things happens. First, I think it looks good and it is. Second, I think it looks bad and it is. Rarely, I see a trailer and I'll think it looks good and it sucks. But the rarest of all is when I see a trailer for a film and think that it will be okay, at least worth watching, and it shatters my expectations and goes vastly beyond what I ever hoped it would be. This is what Knowing did for me tonight.
And so, knowing that I am starting to ramble, the award for Suprise Movie of Life goes to: Knowing.
You should go see it. It's GREAT, and it reminded me once again why I love movies.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
My WATCHMEN experience (no spoilers)
In a word, it was predictable.
Not the movie. The situations surrounding the movie.
I pretty much called everything that happened within the 24 hours following my viewing of the film.
Firstly, as soon as my group took their seats in the theater, in walked a mother and father with their two boys, who, by my estimation, were somewhere between the ages of seven and nine. Called it.
About an hour into the movie, said family got up and walked out. Called it. This is what happens when parents aren't freaking parents anymore. Check the daggum rating. Rated R for "strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language". Morons. The thing is, those are the kinds of people who go to the ticket office and complain because "if I had known I wouldn't have taken my kids to see it." Uneducated, uninformed, ignorant.
Which leads me to my basic premise of things surrounding Watchmen, and many other films of similar nature. To so many people, Watchmen is "just another superhero movie". Likening Watchmen to an ordinary run of the mill comic book or superhero movie is the same as likening The Simpsons or South Park to Looney Toons, and subsequently plopping your kids down in front of the tv, expecting them to get the same thing out of both. Watchmen is a mature film, just like The Simpsons is a cartoon for mature audiences. They are not, and cannot, and should not be viewed on the same level.
But I expected things to be like this, because of the stigma that is attached to comic books, superhero films, and those who enjoy them. Apparently these are only for immature people, dorky people, thirty-something white men who still live in their parents basements. (This is utterly false, and I have written about it in a previous post, entitled "In Defense of Comics").
This makes me irritated, because the entire point of Watchmen is that they're NOT superheroes. They are normal people who happen to be masked vigilantes. They have real life problems. They're real people, and it looks at how they're unusual activities affect their lives and their minds and their relationships. Only one character in the story really has extra-normal abilities, and that is Dr. Manhatten. That's the point of his character: He disconnects from humanity because of his powers. It's brilliant commentary on the "superhero".
Moving on to more things that I predicted.
When Dr. Manhatten came on screen, I heard half the theater giggling like little schoolgirls. Seriously? Apparently America is still in the third grade. Called it.
The day after I saw it, I talked to another of my friends who also saw it (not with me, with a separate group). This friend, whom I love dearly, belongs to the Talledega Nights/Superbad crowd to which I have referred previously on this blog. He said, "I saw the Watchmen yesterday, the movie was the dumbest, most retarded thing I've ever seen, don't you think?" Already knowing what answer I would receive, I asked him why. "Because I didn't understand it!" I then asked him to explain which one was the dumb, retarded one, the movie or himself. It seems to me that if you don't understand something, it is YOU that is dumb, not the object in question. But this reason has been given to me again and again for why a movie is bad. A person's lack of understanding or ability to comprehend something measures more that person then it measures whatever they are viewing.
The funny thing is that my friend expected me to agree with him. He was surprised that I didn't.
But perhaps the award for quote of the night goes to the unseen gentlemen whom I overheard in the bathroom immediately following the film. "You know why that movie was interesting? Because it had so many ideas in it. It was almost like....almost like a book."
I then started banging my head against the wall.
Not really. I mean, at least he picked up on the depth of the film, which is more than my friend did, and more than most people will do. Maybe it's just me, but I don't know how people don't know that Watchmen is based on a graphic novel. You have to live under a rock. Not only was there a lot of controversy surrounding the film, but it says on the daggum trailers, "based on the acclaimed graphic novel". And unless I am mistaken, I believe it said it at the beginning of the film. I could be wrong, I don't exactly remember.
Not to be tangential, but another thing that I called was the reaction I got when I was explaining to a group of people who asked me about the movie that it was based on a graphic novel. They asked me, "Isn't it based on a comic book?" I wussed out and instead of saying, "No, it's not a comic book. It's a graphic novel", I said "Sort of." I THEN explained the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel. Then there was a chorus of "you're such a dork!", "Oh my gosh, hahaha", "It's the same thing! You Geek!" etc.
Yes, I'M the dork for knowing what I'm talking about, for actually being informed.
I won't go into the differences between a comic book and a graphic novel. But suffice it to say, they're not the same thing. I know this because this is my field. I'm a writer. Plus I'm not an idiot.
I digress.
Finally, to the point. What did I think of Watchmen?
It stayed very true to the source material. The ideas. The characters. The violence and sexuality. All of that was in the graphic novel. And it all made it to the screen intact, for better or worse. I think some of the violence and sex was a little overboard, but the graphic novel didn't shy away from that stuff either.
But perhaps the main reason I say that it stayed true to the source material was that I walked away from the movie with largely the same feeling I had when I finished the graphic novel: conflicted. This solidifies my personal definition of Watchmen, both novel and film, as something that is not so much something to be either liked or disliked, as much as it is something to think about. It is thought provoking to the extreme, and not something you easily forget. This is precisely why people are reacting the way they are to the film.
People don't want to think. People don't want to use their brains. Anything that is challenging they label as "dumb" (when it is THEMSELVES that are dumb), and they sit around until the next Will Ferrell or Seth Rogen movie comes out.
I've probably beaten that horse to death. So I'll wrap this up.
Two best things about the movie? Jackie Earle Haley WAS Rorschach. Aside from Heath Ledger as the Joker, that was the single most amazing performance of a pre-existing fictional character I think I've seen.
Also, at the end of the movie, when there is a certain shot of a certain object and a certain song by a certain band kicks in: FREAK YES.
The truth will out.
-a.
Not the movie. The situations surrounding the movie.
I pretty much called everything that happened within the 24 hours following my viewing of the film.
Firstly, as soon as my group took their seats in the theater, in walked a mother and father with their two boys, who, by my estimation, were somewhere between the ages of seven and nine. Called it.
About an hour into the movie, said family got up and walked out. Called it. This is what happens when parents aren't freaking parents anymore. Check the daggum rating. Rated R for "strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language". Morons. The thing is, those are the kinds of people who go to the ticket office and complain because "if I had known I wouldn't have taken my kids to see it." Uneducated, uninformed, ignorant.
Which leads me to my basic premise of things surrounding Watchmen, and many other films of similar nature. To so many people, Watchmen is "just another superhero movie". Likening Watchmen to an ordinary run of the mill comic book or superhero movie is the same as likening The Simpsons or South Park to Looney Toons, and subsequently plopping your kids down in front of the tv, expecting them to get the same thing out of both. Watchmen is a mature film, just like The Simpsons is a cartoon for mature audiences. They are not, and cannot, and should not be viewed on the same level.
But I expected things to be like this, because of the stigma that is attached to comic books, superhero films, and those who enjoy them. Apparently these are only for immature people, dorky people, thirty-something white men who still live in their parents basements. (This is utterly false, and I have written about it in a previous post, entitled "In Defense of Comics").
This makes me irritated, because the entire point of Watchmen is that they're NOT superheroes. They are normal people who happen to be masked vigilantes. They have real life problems. They're real people, and it looks at how they're unusual activities affect their lives and their minds and their relationships. Only one character in the story really has extra-normal abilities, and that is Dr. Manhatten. That's the point of his character: He disconnects from humanity because of his powers. It's brilliant commentary on the "superhero".
Moving on to more things that I predicted.
When Dr. Manhatten came on screen, I heard half the theater giggling like little schoolgirls. Seriously? Apparently America is still in the third grade. Called it.
The day after I saw it, I talked to another of my friends who also saw it (not with me, with a separate group). This friend, whom I love dearly, belongs to the Talledega Nights/Superbad crowd to which I have referred previously on this blog. He said, "I saw the Watchmen yesterday, the movie was the dumbest, most retarded thing I've ever seen, don't you think?" Already knowing what answer I would receive, I asked him why. "Because I didn't understand it!" I then asked him to explain which one was the dumb, retarded one, the movie or himself. It seems to me that if you don't understand something, it is YOU that is dumb, not the object in question. But this reason has been given to me again and again for why a movie is bad. A person's lack of understanding or ability to comprehend something measures more that person then it measures whatever they are viewing.
The funny thing is that my friend expected me to agree with him. He was surprised that I didn't.
But perhaps the award for quote of the night goes to the unseen gentlemen whom I overheard in the bathroom immediately following the film. "You know why that movie was interesting? Because it had so many ideas in it. It was almost like....almost like a book."
I then started banging my head against the wall.
Not really. I mean, at least he picked up on the depth of the film, which is more than my friend did, and more than most people will do. Maybe it's just me, but I don't know how people don't know that Watchmen is based on a graphic novel. You have to live under a rock. Not only was there a lot of controversy surrounding the film, but it says on the daggum trailers, "based on the acclaimed graphic novel". And unless I am mistaken, I believe it said it at the beginning of the film. I could be wrong, I don't exactly remember.
Not to be tangential, but another thing that I called was the reaction I got when I was explaining to a group of people who asked me about the movie that it was based on a graphic novel. They asked me, "Isn't it based on a comic book?" I wussed out and instead of saying, "No, it's not a comic book. It's a graphic novel", I said "Sort of." I THEN explained the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel. Then there was a chorus of "you're such a dork!", "Oh my gosh, hahaha", "It's the same thing! You Geek!" etc.
Yes, I'M the dork for knowing what I'm talking about, for actually being informed.
I won't go into the differences between a comic book and a graphic novel. But suffice it to say, they're not the same thing. I know this because this is my field. I'm a writer. Plus I'm not an idiot.
I digress.
Finally, to the point. What did I think of Watchmen?
It stayed very true to the source material. The ideas. The characters. The violence and sexuality. All of that was in the graphic novel. And it all made it to the screen intact, for better or worse. I think some of the violence and sex was a little overboard, but the graphic novel didn't shy away from that stuff either.
But perhaps the main reason I say that it stayed true to the source material was that I walked away from the movie with largely the same feeling I had when I finished the graphic novel: conflicted. This solidifies my personal definition of Watchmen, both novel and film, as something that is not so much something to be either liked or disliked, as much as it is something to think about. It is thought provoking to the extreme, and not something you easily forget. This is precisely why people are reacting the way they are to the film.
People don't want to think. People don't want to use their brains. Anything that is challenging they label as "dumb" (when it is THEMSELVES that are dumb), and they sit around until the next Will Ferrell or Seth Rogen movie comes out.
I've probably beaten that horse to death. So I'll wrap this up.
Two best things about the movie? Jackie Earle Haley WAS Rorschach. Aside from Heath Ledger as the Joker, that was the single most amazing performance of a pre-existing fictional character I think I've seen.
Also, at the end of the movie, when there is a certain shot of a certain object and a certain song by a certain band kicks in: FREAK YES.
The truth will out.
-a.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
35 Albums That Changed My Life.
1. A Perfect Circle – 13th Step
2. Audioslave – Self-Titled
3. Brand New – The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me
4. Chevelle – Wonder What’s Next?
5. Chiodos – Bone Palace Ballet
6. Creed – Human Clay
7. Creed - Weathered
8. Dashboard Confessional – Dusk and Summer
9. Evanescence – Fallen
10. Green Day – American Idiot
11. Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory
12. Linkin Park – Meteora
13. Live – The Distance to Here
14. Live – Throwing Copper
15. Mae – The Everglow
16. Muse – Absolution
17. Muse – Black Holes and Revelations
18. My Chemical Romance – Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
19. My Chemical Romance – Welcome to the Black Parade
20. Oasis – What’s the Story (Morning Glory)
21. Oh, Sleeper – When I Am God
22. Queen – Greatest Hits
23. Ray LaMontagne – Until the Sun Turns Black
24. The Juliana Theory – Emotion is Dead
25. The Receiving End of Sirens – Between the Heart and the Synapse
26. The Smashing Pumpkins – Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness
27. Thirty Seconds to Mars – Self-Titled
28. Thirty Seconds to Mars – A Beautiful Lie
29. Thrice – Vheissu
30. Thrice – The Alchemy Index Vols. I – IV
31. Tool – Lateralus
32. The Phantom of the Opera – Andrew Lloyd Webber (The original cast)
33. Master and Commander – Soundtrack
34. Dustin Kensrue – Please Come Home
35. John Mayer - Continuum
Not necessarily in this order. But if a band has more than one album on the list, it's likely they are near the top. With a few exceptions.
2. Audioslave – Self-Titled
3. Brand New – The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me
4. Chevelle – Wonder What’s Next?
5. Chiodos – Bone Palace Ballet
6. Creed – Human Clay
7. Creed - Weathered
8. Dashboard Confessional – Dusk and Summer
9. Evanescence – Fallen
10. Green Day – American Idiot
11. Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory
12. Linkin Park – Meteora
13. Live – The Distance to Here
14. Live – Throwing Copper
15. Mae – The Everglow
16. Muse – Absolution
17. Muse – Black Holes and Revelations
18. My Chemical Romance – Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
19. My Chemical Romance – Welcome to the Black Parade
20. Oasis – What’s the Story (Morning Glory)
21. Oh, Sleeper – When I Am God
22. Queen – Greatest Hits
23. Ray LaMontagne – Until the Sun Turns Black
24. The Juliana Theory – Emotion is Dead
25. The Receiving End of Sirens – Between the Heart and the Synapse
26. The Smashing Pumpkins – Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness
27. Thirty Seconds to Mars – Self-Titled
28. Thirty Seconds to Mars – A Beautiful Lie
29. Thrice – Vheissu
30. Thrice – The Alchemy Index Vols. I – IV
31. Tool – Lateralus
32. The Phantom of the Opera – Andrew Lloyd Webber (The original cast)
33. Master and Commander – Soundtrack
34. Dustin Kensrue – Please Come Home
35. John Mayer - Continuum
Not necessarily in this order. But if a band has more than one album on the list, it's likely they are near the top. With a few exceptions.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Go, Speed Racer, Go! (And Other Various Things Which I Am Currently Enjoying)
The first time I watched Speed Racer (the film) was when it was released in May of last year. I liked it.
The second time I watched Speed Racer was a few nights ago, on dvd. I LOVED it.
I don't know why it was one of the those movies that is better the second time around, but it was. Any time I absent-mindedly pump my fist in the air, cheering on the heroes of the story, I take that as an indicator that I'm watching a pretty good movie. There are many things that I could say about the movie, but I will stick to two things.
First, the casting in that film is close to perfection. Matthew Fox was fantastic as Racer X, and Christina Ricci was, in my opinion, dead on as Trixie. The rest of the cast superbly rounded out the movie, and made it a joy to watch.
Second, I think one of the reasons I like Speed Racer so much is that, because it came out the same year as The Dark Knight, it perfectly demonstrates the range of cinematic experiences. Speed Racer is the complete antithesis of The Dark Knight. It evens out the balance (though yes, I am aware it was released before the Dark Knight). Here you have two fine examples of opposing ends of the spectrum. The Dark Knight is dark and gritty and literary and heavy. Speed Racer is light, has flashy colors, animated characters, and a fairly simple storyline (which does NOT mean that is a simple-minded storyline). But you know what? Both of these films are what they SHOULD have been, and BOTH are fantastic movies (Obviously, if there was a gun to my head, I would choose The Dark Knight as the better movie). But that does not diminish my simple appreciation for Speed Racer. As my friend, Bill Monthie pointed out, not everything has to be dark and gritty to be good.
Now, I tend to gravitate toward the darker and the grittier side of things. But that doesn't hold me back from enjoying and indulging myself in the simple, flashy, light stories such as Speed Racer. I love both. All I ask from a movie like Speed Racer is that it be excellently executed. And it was. And that's why I love it.
Anyway, the other things which I am currently enjoying are:
The second time I watched Speed Racer was a few nights ago, on dvd. I LOVED it.
I don't know why it was one of the those movies that is better the second time around, but it was. Any time I absent-mindedly pump my fist in the air, cheering on the heroes of the story, I take that as an indicator that I'm watching a pretty good movie. There are many things that I could say about the movie, but I will stick to two things.
First, the casting in that film is close to perfection. Matthew Fox was fantastic as Racer X, and Christina Ricci was, in my opinion, dead on as Trixie. The rest of the cast superbly rounded out the movie, and made it a joy to watch.
Second, I think one of the reasons I like Speed Racer so much is that, because it came out the same year as The Dark Knight, it perfectly demonstrates the range of cinematic experiences. Speed Racer is the complete antithesis of The Dark Knight. It evens out the balance (though yes, I am aware it was released before the Dark Knight). Here you have two fine examples of opposing ends of the spectrum. The Dark Knight is dark and gritty and literary and heavy. Speed Racer is light, has flashy colors, animated characters, and a fairly simple storyline (which does NOT mean that is a simple-minded storyline). But you know what? Both of these films are what they SHOULD have been, and BOTH are fantastic movies (Obviously, if there was a gun to my head, I would choose The Dark Knight as the better movie). But that does not diminish my simple appreciation for Speed Racer. As my friend, Bill Monthie pointed out, not everything has to be dark and gritty to be good.
Now, I tend to gravitate toward the darker and the grittier side of things. But that doesn't hold me back from enjoying and indulging myself in the simple, flashy, light stories such as Speed Racer. I love both. All I ask from a movie like Speed Racer is that it be excellently executed. And it was. And that's why I love it.
Anyway, the other things which I am currently enjoying are:
- Sarah Brightman's new disc, Symphony. Particularly the song "Fleurs de mal". She will always be Christine to me.
- The third season, and third volume, of Heroes. Although I am growing increasingly angry and weary with Peter Petrelli and his ludicrous one-sided mouth.
- Coraline 3D - very cool.
- Coraline - the children's book by one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman. Can't wait for The Graveyard Book movie.
- Odd Thomas - by Dean Koontz. This is the first book by Koontz that I have read, and I must say, I did not expect him to be such an excellent writer. I hated the ending, but that didn't detract from the goodness of the ending, if you know what I mean.
- The Age of Spiritual Machines - Ray Kurzweil. A look at artificial intelligence and where it is going in the next century. Fascinating, and more than a little scary. Ironic that Sir Chris Monthie posted about this subject earlier.
- The new Terminator:Salvation trailer. Holy. Freaking. Crap.
I believe that is all for now. Will post again soon.
Happy racing!
-a.
Monday, March 2, 2009
I Enjoy To Read A Lot (Andrew J. Clark, circa 1991)
I spent the day cleaning out my old bedroom, and as I expected, it turned into a sweeping walk down memory lane. I knew this would happen. So let me tell you, if you find yourself on the verge of cleaning out your room, follow this simple rule: Steel yourself. There is a certain degree of mercilessness that must go along with going through things from your past, particularly your childhood. If you're like me, you want to hold onto a lot of things that you really have no need for and will likely never put to use again. Part of you just likes to know that it's there, that you still have it, even if you don't think about it for years at a time. But I approached this day with the purpose of getting rid of things of this nature, and it was as difficult as I thought it would be.
It was bittersweet going through my childhood for what probably will be the last time. On one hand, it was really cool to go through the stuff and see what I was doing, the kinds of things I saved, and generally just re-living a lot of those years. But at the same time, it was hard because I knew I had to let go of most of the stuff and move on. "Putting away the childish things..." and all that. Even though I put them away awhile ago. I just didn't get rid of them.
I decided to save only those things that meant the most and encapsulated those times of my life. It was great to be a kid for a day and lose myself in the icons of my youth: Old issues of "The Dino Times", the dinosaur newspaper for which my grandmother bought me a subscription when I was five, a plethora of Star Wars action figures, old sketchbooks with probably the worst-drawn pictures known to man, scribblings of stories I wrote when I was in the seventh grade, and some old poster that I had to make for a school project, on which I had to tell my class about myself, and upon which I wrote under a picture of a book, "I enjoy to read a lot". Hence the title of this blog. I know I was only about 7 or 8 when I wrote it, but still, should I have really sounded like a Korean exchange student at that age? Something to ponder.
My room still has much to go through, in preparation for my move back to Ohio in a few months (another thing I'm not sure I want to think about right now), and it will likely take at least another full day to get everything cleared and gone through.
I was thinking, as I was hauling three huge garbage bags full of my childhood to the street for the garbage man to come pick up and tote away to oblivion in the morning, things were a lot simpler back then. Sure I had to be a man and go to school every day, but when I got home, it was time for LEGOs, AND STAR WARS action figures, and JURASSIC PARK, and BASEBALL CARDS, and COMIC BOOKS, and just general coolness. I had no worries. I remember running around in the backyard for hours and hours pretending I was fighting the Terminator. Everything was so clear back then.
Of course that was before the two things that haunt men the most came into my life to screw everything up: Money and women. Both necessary. Both impossibly difficult.
I think mankind would be a whole lot better off if everyone just reverted back to playing with dinosaurs and fighting the Terminator in our backyards.
It was bittersweet going through my childhood for what probably will be the last time. On one hand, it was really cool to go through the stuff and see what I was doing, the kinds of things I saved, and generally just re-living a lot of those years. But at the same time, it was hard because I knew I had to let go of most of the stuff and move on. "Putting away the childish things..." and all that. Even though I put them away awhile ago. I just didn't get rid of them.
I decided to save only those things that meant the most and encapsulated those times of my life. It was great to be a kid for a day and lose myself in the icons of my youth: Old issues of "The Dino Times", the dinosaur newspaper for which my grandmother bought me a subscription when I was five, a plethora of Star Wars action figures, old sketchbooks with probably the worst-drawn pictures known to man, scribblings of stories I wrote when I was in the seventh grade, and some old poster that I had to make for a school project, on which I had to tell my class about myself, and upon which I wrote under a picture of a book, "I enjoy to read a lot". Hence the title of this blog. I know I was only about 7 or 8 when I wrote it, but still, should I have really sounded like a Korean exchange student at that age? Something to ponder.
My room still has much to go through, in preparation for my move back to Ohio in a few months (another thing I'm not sure I want to think about right now), and it will likely take at least another full day to get everything cleared and gone through.
I was thinking, as I was hauling three huge garbage bags full of my childhood to the street for the garbage man to come pick up and tote away to oblivion in the morning, things were a lot simpler back then. Sure I had to be a man and go to school every day, but when I got home, it was time for LEGOs, AND STAR WARS action figures, and JURASSIC PARK, and BASEBALL CARDS, and COMIC BOOKS, and just general coolness. I had no worries. I remember running around in the backyard for hours and hours pretending I was fighting the Terminator. Everything was so clear back then.
Of course that was before the two things that haunt men the most came into my life to screw everything up: Money and women. Both necessary. Both impossibly difficult.
I think mankind would be a whole lot better off if everyone just reverted back to playing with dinosaurs and fighting the Terminator in our backyards.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)