Hosive

i live a few contradictions or at least a few things that don’t quite fit.  i celebrate the holidays as holy: days as in God is vital and these are not just days off.  but also i embrace the substitutes that my non-believing friends may indulge in while i am in my house of worship.

the new house of worship….the new synagogue is the movie theatre. this has replaced the old place where people gather on the weekends and holidays…where they are taught reality and ethics, much like how sunday school worked for me back in the day. consider how chick flicks inform us about how relationship and marriage ought to be.

i frequent both houses of worship….secular and spiritual. it is the intersection of the two that i am drawn to.

this is my long winded musing as to say that holidays means movie going!

pre-turkey weekend, we went on a date night to where the wild things are. the book has pages numbering barely in the teens so the question is how spike would expand that into 90 minutes.

max is a hurting young kid who channels his aggressions as well as his unexpressed emotions into his imagination. his dreaming leads him to an island of wild creatures where he quickly becomes the king….after all, its his island. the kid who portrays max is great…exuberant, vulnerable, broken and joyous..looking for love in all the wrong places or in the wrong ways.

the visuals are mindblowing:  the costumes and sets bring the fantasy world into reality. no cheese here.  the monsters are cute, fearsome and move like they are real and not like people in costumes.

we usually get spike jonze and loved being john malkovich and adaptation; and we gravitate toward children’s movies but were disappointed by this reimagining. to be fair, the story plays like it is told and thought out by a kid: random happenings, where the story comes and goes and ultimately disjointed.  its also too scary for kids. young kids may cry.

its what we get for looking for a little more hope or manufactured ultimate meaning from spike.  he avoided the pitfalls of providing that  much like he warned others not to do in adaptation.

i would watch it again to catch the different lines and may buy a deluxe version of the movie if it gave us more something. theresa just shrugged when i asked her about the movie.

while pretty successful, this movie is still underrated.  it will be labeled primarily as a sci fi thriller, but it also works on many different levels…political commentary, allegory on race relations, action flick, summer popcorn movie; and touching on many heart issues: love between a parent and a child, ambition, greed, in law relations, hope and going home.

aliens of unknown agenda have found themselves hovering over south africa. the humans rescue them but compassion runs out as the aliens start to breed and become a perceived and real threat to the locals. just like the ______ people group in your country.

the aliens are then sequestered into ghettos and camps; just like the ______ people group in your country. and this is where we join the story.

there are multiple turning points in the plot…not twists which is a contrived way of moving a story along but natural, organic progressions which makes the experience more satisfying.

i would watch this again. theresa might like it too. i might buy an extended version…there are lots of plot points left….sequel? i hope so!

but be warned: explosive violence! but then again, it makes it more cartoony.

three real guitar heroes get together to talk about their craft, their motivations, their histories and the magic of electric guitar. its led zepplen’s jimmy page, u2′s the edge and jack white of the white stripes and a few other bands.

i wish they talked more with each other or made more music during the film. but they wind up talking to the camera or to other folks on screen. so there are these lightning bolts that zip across the screen but the bolts rarely hit each other creating even greater electricity. it happens a few times but i would have liked to see more.

i identified with jack white the most even though i am so closely aligned with the edge. but it was jimmy page that had the line that did it for me: he doesn’t know if he chose the music or the music chose him. but it doesn’t matter because he loves it either way. throughout there are these musings on life that transcend the discussion of nuts and bolts and riffs.

i would watch it again to catch more but i would only buy an extended version of the film. i am sure there was more footage that likely got cut for the theatre version. theresa may watch parts of it but would likely find a lot of it too talky.

this might be worth seeing in the theatre to hear and see some of the music on a crazy big system.

that’s ponyo, not porno. though the japanese are good at both that(i’ve heard) and animation…this is an all ages affair. that doesn’t mean a children’s movie because there are millions of adult fans of hayao miyazaki worldwide with spirited away, howl’s moving castle and princess mononoke to his credit.

this is a new adaptation of a hans christian anderson fairy tale…i won’t say which one because it will color the new direction…and its best to enjoy it on its own trajectory than constantly comparing it to other productions including a very successful one done by disney.

and where miyazaki takes it is a trippy exaltation on the possibility and energy of youth. that anything is possible, let’s save the world and love, love, love vibe floods the screen and the theatre. this is willy wonka stuff.

a young boy befriends a girl fishie who decides she no longer wants to live underwater but on the surface. daddy is not amused. the struggle of youth ensues.

i had a good time and so did theresa. she thought the lead looked like zoe and was missing her the whole time. i may buy this but mostly for zoe…and then i’ll have to watch it over and over. but i would likely watch it again by choice at least once.

i am the wrong person to review harry potter movies. i can’t tell them apart except maybe the first one before the principals morphed into adults playing kids. is this the one where there’s magic and they are fighting that evil wizard with a rediscovered revered relic?

there is one distinctive plot point here that separates this from the other ones but that would give away the movie.

luckily theresa is qualified to review these movies and she loved it. she laughed, she cried, she jumped….it was better than cats.

and of course….everything is better in imax…with 20 min of useless to the plot 3D but still visually spectacular. the 3D is better in imax for sure!

so in conclusion, i see these movies because it makes theresa happy. i watch almost anything in imax/3d because i can’t get that at home.yet.

what attracted me to this movie was the creative process….how comedians come up with their material-their inspirations, their musings, their missteps, their determination.

and of course, i walked in hoping to laugh.

adam sandler plays a rich, veteran comedian who takes on a protege in seth rogan because health issues force him to reflect upon life. through a large number of episodes and trials that take up a few months of their time and two hours of ours, they both grow together in the world of stardom, excess and back to the real world.

this movie is funny…on many levels. there’s all sorts of humor but too much of it focuses on male genitalia. even the movie provides commentary on this low common denominator. i would have liked the movie a lot more but focusing on the penis is not my thing. if it is yours, you will really love this movie. but i already get it: people with potty mouths have hearts of gold too.

on another note, i loved all the great cameos!

i might watch this again to catch more of the creative process and all the jokes that were thrown out in rapid fashion. i don’t think i would buy it. theresa called it a joseph movie with a bit of disdain.

this is a thoroughly joseph movie from the non-linear story telling with flash backs and flash forwards, the( suprisingly) realistic emotional notes concerning love(its not all that is advertised), the interplay of destiny and real choices…even down to the final line of the movie, this felt like a movie i greenlit.

as the preview warns you this is a story about love but its not a love story. its a quirky postmodern look at the trouble, magic and joy when two different people share their lives. does it work? does it break down? is it worth it?

i will likely buy this and watch this over and over. its fun. theresa had a good time as well.

i love living in a city where must see events happen like limited runs of bladerunner and now the watchmen, director’s cut. la of course usually gets limited engagements of films…but minneapolis and dallas? then again, living in nyc…i worry not where it is also playing…i know it is playing at home.

it is a better movie than the original. much like the lord of the rings extended versions, the connective tissue between scenes are restored…there are little touches that give deeper meaning and emotion…it does slow down the movie but  in a richer way. in fact, there are some cut scenes that i think would have been some of my favorite scenes if they were left in! there are of course a few clunkers that deserved to be cut or do not add anything to the film except length.

i am a sucker for extended versions and can’t wait for the third and final version- an ultimate director’s cut with the black freighter animated scenes weaved into the film. i own the 5 hr version of dances with wolves and wanted more! i like the longer cuts of the lord of the ring trilogy. i will buy the super deluxe version once it hit stores and watch this over and over again. theresa watched the original in imax but passed on the director’s cut.

looks like the only place to watch this cut currently is los angeles so hurry if you are reading from cali.

i’m glad that the preview does not give away much. but it also doesn’t draw you in.

this is a great sci-fi mindbender mystery with science fiction of the purest definition…the exploration of what science can possibly do in the(near) future and how human beings will adapt to these new realities. moon is intelligent and full of human spirit…two elements that are missing in most of the sci-fi offerings that i come across.

here, sam is the sole worker on a lunar energy project. with two weeks left, his mind starts cracking after a three year stint. or maybe what he sees is real. it reaches a plot point that i won’t tell you to avoid ruining it for you. but if you like exploring the issues of memory, reality, the effects of time, truth and lies, artificial intelligence…its all here.

i would watch this again to catch all the nuances and depth. i may buy an extended version of this. theresa would think its ok but was bored as i told her the plot points. likely a treat for sci fi lovers and philosophy majors.

a strangely timely comedy for me and theresa:  a couple goes on a road trip to see where they may live and what experiences they want for their child to come. in our postmodern atmosphere where we’ve rejected the standard and traditional answers, we have to find our own answers. in their early 30′s, the couple is nervous that they have none or even worse….they have chosen the wrong answers.

the movie has been criticized for having a self righteous tone. the roadtripping parents are clever, well adjusted and loving while almost everyone else they meet are wackos. they are right and everyone else is wrong. but i think that’s how most people come to evaluate life….the movie is simply honest about the fact that we do go around thinking that we are the norm+ and other people are(slightly)inferior. we are a prideful species. and a judgemental one. but i also happen to think that the leads are the sanest of the roster of parents we meet! its not unusual that the main characters are also the heroes.

you may also be surprised to hear that this is a sam mendes effort but it is nowhere as dark and depressing as american beauty or revolutionary road. it really is a comedy!

i love road trip movies with different locales and interplay with cultures and perspectives even though many of the places they said to have visited could have easily been filmed in the same town….were they?

i would watch this again to revisit the different episodes in each city they visit. some of them were laugh out loud in the theatre funny with many charming turns. i may buy this if the price is right. theresa will like this when she gets around to it.