Category: Film

Brooke and I went to see Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) this afternoon, and although I enjoyed it immensely, there were a couple of things I didn’t like. First of all, I resented the fact that Gimli the dwarf has been reduced to comic relief. I didn’t mind the occasional joke at his expense in the first film, but in this segment he’s been stripped of all dignity. Conversely, it seems like the filmmakers felt the need to make Legolas the elf a bit more macho, giving him some of the film’s more outrageous stunts. I found this shift in emphasis sort of cheapened the characters I’d grown to love in the first installment. My only other criticisms would have to do with the more episodic nature of the story, cutting between three different plot lines, but I know that director Peter Jackson did the best he could. My friend Brent, who’s read the books numerous times, was dismayed to find that there are many more deviations from the text in this film as well, though he hasn’t outlined them for me yet. All in all, I didn’t find it as satisfying as the first film, but it still has me excited about the finale. I just have to wait another 12 months!

I just spent the past 20 minutes helping Eugene Levy and his wife shop for a computer for his son. Nice people. I wanted to tell him how much I loved him in Waiting For Guffman (1996), but I hate looking like a fanboy.

I won some free passes to see Mike Leigh’s latest film, All or Nothing (2002) last night and so off we went. This film played at the Toronto International Film Festival this past September but I gave it a miss, since I’d heard that Ken Loach’s Sweet Sixteen (2002) was mining the same turf more effectively. Having seen both films now, I’d have to say that I agree with that assessment.

Leigh mainstay Timothy Spall plays the aptly-named Phil Bassett, a man who could teach “hangdog” to a Bassett Hound. Though I love him as an actor, in this film he plays such a monotonously sad character that it’s hard to sympathize with him. He’s so disconnected from his wife and children, and they’re so disconnected from each other, that the film is unrelentingly bleak. Though a crisis toward the end of the film revives some hope, it’s almost too little too late for this bunch.

The characters in Sweet Sixteen had so much more fire inside that it made you root for them, even when they made the wrong choices. Unfortunately, the title All or Nothing doesn’t seem to describe the characters in the film at all. Mostly, they’re just muddling along.

I’ve been going to the same barber for about 15 years now. He has a tiny 2-chair shop right beside the bus terminal. I like telling people I go to the Terminal Barber Shop. Today, though, I started to feel old. After he’d cut my hair and shaved the back of my neck, he looked me in the eyes and asked, “Eyebrows?” Yuk.

We watched a couple of movies this weekend. Casino Royale (1967) was a real mess. The first of the James Bond spoofs, it had four directors, a whole tribe of writers, and lots of stars, including David Niven, Peter Sellers, and Woody Allen, all as James (or Jimmy) Bond. But according to co-director Val Guest, it was purposely crafted as a “psychedelic” film, whatever that was supposed to mean. In this case, it meant that it was often meaninglessly surreal and plotless. And also unfunny most of the time. Woody Allen’s bits were the funniest. You can definitely see that Mike Myers lifted a lot of his ideas for Austin Powers from this film, with better results, too.

After buying the DVD a few weeks ago, we finally sat down to watch Singin’ In The Rain (1952) on Sunday night. Brooke’s seen it lots of times, but she was raised on musicals. I’ve always shied away from them, but to be honest, I really enjoyed this. I have nothing but respect for the hard work and obvious gifts of guys like Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor. And the film has been painstakingly restored and looks fantastic. If you’re not sure you’re the musicals type, I recommend you read Mark Bourne’s excellent review over at DVD Journal. It was there that I discovered that in the well-known scene where Gene Kelly sings the title song, he was sick with the flu and had a high fever. And he was 40 years old. And co-directing the film. Amazing.

In other news, we picked up our wedding picture proofs on Saturday, and next week, I’ll be picking up a copy of the proofs on CD-ROM, so I’ll be able to post a gallery here. Watch for it.

I know, it’s pretty lame that after not posting for a week, the most exciting thing I can come up with is that Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson will be playing Starsky and Hutch in a movie to be released next year, but hey, I think it will be funny.

Cut me some slack, I’m getting married in 10 days…