Oscar nominations review: Doubt

The most nominated film for acting awards this season is Doubt. Meryl Streep (Best Actress), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Best Supporting Actor), Amy Adams and Viola Davis (Best Supporting Actress) all give terrific performances adding depth and nuance to the plot. Streep's principal nun, accuses Hoffman's priest, indirectly, of behaving inappropriately towards a little boy (Davis' son). The majority of the movie deals with how a person's character gives credence to whether or not they are capable or able to commit horrible acts. Streep's sister Aloysius is mean, a dragon of a teacher, very much of the old-school church. She's suspicious of Hoffmans' new ideas and enthusiasm which she eventually taints with a possible crimes and sees all his behaviors as suspicious. Adams is the young nun who has more optimism than maturity and faith in the goodness of people rather than the suspicious nature that comes with experience (as Streep's character has in spades). About half the people I know think he did it, but I'm still on the he didn't do it (he did something in the past that's still following him, but not this). The acting is supurb throughout and was worthy of all it's nominations. I'd love to see Viola Davis win, and would be fine with Meryl taking another one (Even if means Winslet doesn't win again). 4.5 Lambs/Stars overall too.

Oscar nominees on DVD: Vicky Christina Barcelona

I'll start with the fact that I don't really enjoy Woody Allen films. There are often good scenes, usually great acting, but rarely a story worth remembering. I found this to be true again with Vicky Christina Barcelona, for which Penelope Cruz is nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Quick plot summary: Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Christina (Scarlett Johansson) go to Barcelona for the summer. They are picked up one night by Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), a Spanish painter and taken away for the weekend. Vicky is engaged to be married and more straight-laced than Christina who seeks adventure and true love, but they still decide to go away with him. Christina puts the moves on him, but ultimately gets sick and Vicky sleeps with him. They get back to Barcelona and Juan Antonio and Christina move in together and Vicky gets married, but can't forget her romantic night with a stranger. Then returns Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz) Juan Antonio's crazy ex-wife. She moves in with the couple and the tragic, sprited, love affair she and Juan Antonio always had (she once stabbed him out of love) is tempered into nomalcy by Christina's presence. Ultimately, Christina realizes she's a little more normal than she thought and Vicky realizes she wants no part of the crazy, courageous life of Juan Antonio after all.
While Penelope Cruz is good, I don't think it deserved a nomination, let alone an award. Javier Bardem was very good at the carefree artist, without being a careless jackass. He seemed humbled by his failed marriage, but whimsical enough to have fun with two American tourists. The scenery and musical score are terrific, but don't really connect with the story very well. Overall 3 LAMBS/stars

TV/ movie Couples

There were a bunch of lists of good and bad media couples and I mostly didn't find any I liked or agreed with, so I figured I'd start my own list. Here are the couples I admire usually both from an acting and a writing perspective. The reason I think these characters appeal to me more than movie couples is that we get to see them through a whole relationship spectrum, whereas most movies give a situation and watch them deal with it (like "The Notebook" - we watch Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams fall in love and eventually work things out and then see them as adults much, much later but we don't get to see how they argued or changed as people and together as a couple.) .

Eric and Tammy Taylor ("Friday Night Lights") - Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton

They're the football coach and now principal at the school, so they have to debate both the policies of having the boosters pay for a Jumbotron while teachers are being laid off, and whether their daughter is old enough for her own car. They're friends, lovers, parents, and partners and while they don't always agree, they always have each other's back. The united front they present is both good TV and a great couple.

President and Dr. Abigail Bartlett ("The West Wing") - Martin Sheen and Stockard Channing

Rising to the top of their respective fields (politics and medicine) makes for an intimidating couple. They balance their own rights as people with the larger rights of the people they represent. They fight religion, politics, medicine, health and power and how they and their family falls in between. There's a great scene in the second or third season where they've been fighting and Abby arrives in the West Wing and starts right into their fight and Jed stops and says "no, first we do, how are you, how was the flight?" They try to keep their relationship above the stresses they deal with as a power couple.

Admiral Adama and President Laura Roslin ("Battlestar Galactica") - Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell

They literally lead the entire human race, from a military and civilian perspective. Their methods often differ, but their mutual respect makes at least the fight for their own way reasonable. They've only recently developed an intimate relationship, but it hasn't cramped their leadership. They know what's right and that sometimes you have to fight like hell to make sure it happens. It seems that when they each have a crisis of faith, they other is there to support them through it to a better place.

Marshall Eriksen and Lily Aldrin ("How I Met Your Mother") - Jason Segel and Allyson Hannigan

They've been in love since college and eventually broke up and got back together and got married. They worked together to create a life and be friends to each other as well as other people. They share jokes and personal moments, but they're hardly perfect - keeping secrets from each other and trying to still be the best person they each can be.

Milk review

It's been quite a few days since I've seen Milk, but I wasn't sure I had anything new to say except to expose my own ignorance about events that preceded my birth. First, I loved the movie. It's a great biographical history of Harvey Milk, as well as some of the first major events of the gay rights movement (pre-AIDS, which was interesting historically, certain arguments weren't used or brought out that prevailed after AIDS became prevalent). Sean Penn was wonderful. From the trailers I expected him to be playing a character very similar to his in I Am Sam, but the trailers do him a disservice. He's much more up and down in energy, politics, and relationships than the snapshot shown quickly in trailers. The supporting cast is also pretty amazing (though I don't think Josh Brolin deserved his nomination this year - perhaps it's a make-up for last year). Given how the move through Milk's life in different ways and we barely hear their names, it was remarkably easy to keep track because they just made an impression. Emile Hirsh, James Franco, Diego Luna, and Alison Pill (the oldest daughter in Dan in Real Life which I just saw again) were all good, individual characters that helped Harvey fight for what was right. I had a lot of trouble watching all the hate that they battled for equal rights, and can't really believe we're still fighting some of the same battles, but at least the people fighting today have a little more info on how far they have come. 5 LAMBS/stars

Heroes, so far

So this is what I think is going on this season on "Heroes". You can watch ALL of season 3 on Netflix watch instantly. The episodes are up on Netflix about a day after they air live - also I'm sure you can get much of it on NBC.com.

There are two sets of good guys/bad guys this season - one belongs to The Company which is where most of the previous good guys worked to get really bad guys off the street. Now there's another set of peeps at "Pinehearst" another group working to figure out how the special powers people have can be duplicated or controlled. A long time ago, a formula was put to paper that would create powers in people. This formula was torn in half and given to Hiro's father who wants Hiro to guard it and to Angela and Arthur Petrelli. Now Pinehearst is trying to put the formula together and enlisted Daphne (a super fast runner) to steal it. However, even after the get the whole thing together it turns out they need some extra catalyst which turns out was stored in Hiro's mother. Arthur (who was presumed dead) steals all his son Peter's powers and Nathan takes his side on having to round up all the Superheroes and take away their powers. Then, I think another eclipse happens and everyon realises what it would be like to go back to living without powers and think it sucks. Somehow during this Hiro looses his time traveling powers AFTER he's gone back to his own childhood and figured out about the catalyst. Arthur seems all powerful and steals the catalyst from Hiro (who got it from his mom in a very sweet moment). They use the catalyst to soup up the formula and start injecting soldiers to give them powers. It goes crazy with lots of violence I didn't really follow. Eventually, Peter defeats both his father and Nathan (who has become a NY senator) and destroys all the formula. They burn down Pinehearst and all the people we like escape. Oh, and Ando got powers, but still seems to be a good guy, and Suresh got powers, but turned into a bad bug-like guy (he was gross). That's the end of the 3rd Volume - so basically it was "find and destory the formula or all people will become crazy superheroes" - doesn't have the same ring as "save the cheerleader, save the world". But alas, the world has been saved again - from whom and for whom I'm not quite sure.

Romantic movies

These are my picks for romantic movies, that make you think a little bit too or just make you smile and want to hug a sweetie or a friend.
Out of Africa - this 1985 Oscar winner stars the incomparable Meryl Streep and Robert Redford at his most ruggedly sexy. Streep is real-life Karen Blixen, a woman who arrived in Kenya to marry and escape her European background. She figures out the boys network of colonial Kenya is incredibly difficult for women to navigate, and that colonizing the local people, Kikuyu in her case, isn't always possible or necessary. She meets Redford's Denis Finch-Hatten and he sees that daring in her, but the constraints her background put upon her. He has no constraints and they have an amazing affair, that of course ends tragically, but appropriately - especially given they're real people. Definitely an escape - plus you can wash your sweetie's hair afterward.


50 First Dates - Another Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore movie, where he plays a bit of scum and she helps him figure out how to be a better guy. But it's so much better than that. Drew had a head injury and can't retain memories beyond what she had the day of the accident. Then she meets and hits it off with Sandler, but can't really remember him the next day. So they work on things that help her relearn new things every day - a video, a diary, etc. Where's the romance you might ask - how about getting the girl of your dreams to fall in love with you every day, and then being the girl who gets to live every day with that sense of new love.
Sense and Sensibility - This is just one of those old fashioned love stories. Boy meets girl, can't be with girl, they try to move on, life conspires to eventually bring them back together. Oh yeah, and Kate Winslet plays the girl's sister who falls for the wrong guy before finding the right guy. Not so much with the guys, but girls will love it.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - This one covers most of the stages of a relationship, ups downs, highs, lows, happy, rage, and then the wonderful nostalgia that hits right after you've ended a relationship and can't really remember why it had to be over. Plus, there's the added fun of fate forcing you to fall in love with the same person over and over. Most people do that by dating lots of different people who are really variations on a theme, but our heros, Joel and Clementine, do it by falling for each other after their memories are erased.

Men are jerks and women are crazy...

The theme of He's Just Not That Into You is pretty clear and straightforward - if a guy wants to date you, he'll try to date you. If a married couple isn't sleeping together, one or both of them are sleeping with someone else. Most guys, or all guys, don't plan every detail of their interactions with a woman, thus women shouldn't pay that much attention to the details. This movie is a crazy amalgam of stories of twenty to thirty somethings in various stages of relationships and how men and women react differently to relationships. There were no revelations about the modern status of relationships, though they tried to say something about how new technologies makes us always available and yet there are hidden meanings (supposedly) to all the different types of interactions (e-mail vs voicemail, eharmony vs myspace vs facebook). The acting was pretty good by everyone, particularly Ginnifer Goodwin (Walk the Line and "Big Love") and Justin Long. I didn't like Bradley Cooper's character at all (though he was REALLY funny on Saturday Night Live last week) and Scarlett Johanssen was just annoying. Overall, not a great reflection on society, dating or men or women. 2 Lambs/stars

Gran Torino Review

I've read lots of reviews of this movie, and I'm pretty far behind the curve on seeing it, but as the only non-horror/kiddie comedy available yesterday I finally got to see it. It was terrific. Clint Eastwood was definitely overlooked when it came to the acting nominations. I'm guessing he's #6 in the list, with only 5 getting nominated. Clint plays a retired blue-collar worker in the mid-west living in a neighborhood that has transformed into an area of mainly immigrant families around him. He's the curmudgeon who thinks kids don't respect their elders or themselves. The movie starts with his wife's funeral and his grandchildren arrive in a Lions jersey, a midriff baring shirt and texting during the funeral. Clint spends much of the movie growling at the disrespect and unraveling of society he sees around him. One night he wakes up to find the neighbor kid, Thao, trying to steal his beloved Gran Torino. Clint chases him and the gang off with one of his many guns. In return, Thao comes to work for him, because in his Hmong family he's dishonored the family with his actions. Clint gets him to do all kinds of things, both for him, and for the neighborhood. Thao's father recently passed away, and the exposure to a strong male role model helps transform Thao a bit, but in return Clint also has to let go of some of his racism.

Overall, this movie has lots of funny bits, which surprised me. Clint's character, Walt Kowalski, is incredibly racist, but he's a fairly equal-opportunity racist. Everyone he meets, black, white, asian, etc. are subjected to some sort of racial slur. There were so many, I'll admit I'd never heard some of them. Eventually, he's able to use some of the stereotypes and racial slurs as jokes with Thao's sister, Sue. Between them, humor takes the sting and insult out of some of what Walt says - Sue does a good job of turning around Walt's racism into ignorance with humor. He's such an ornery character that it seems he only uses slurs, not because he necessarily believes them, but to get a rise out of the other person so he can be tough and manly. There's a lot of humor in that.

Ultimately, it's a story of sacrifice and standing up for yourself and for what's right, and I really liked it. There were a few moments of strange direction/cinematography, but hardly worth mentioning. 4.5 stars/LAMBS.

The Wrestler, Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen won the Golden Globe for his song, "The Wrestler" from the movie of the same name, that also appears on The Boss' new album, "Working on a Dream". This LA Times article describes how this travesty could have happened, but I still don't believe anyone who heard it wouldn't want it to win something. Hopefully the grammys will award him next year for the entire album.

Lamb devours the Oscars: Best Make-up

It's my turn. Check out the review I wrote for Best Achievement in Make-up for the LAMB event.

Superbowl Commercials

There's a place to go to vote for the Superbowl's best commercials. However, none of my favorites were actually on there. So, since I have a blog, here are my favorite Superbowl commercials.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Well, it's a pretty fast turnaround for a sequel review, but I saw Hellboy II: The Golden Army to participate in the LAMB devours the Oscar event coming up soon. So I figured I could write my own review in addition to writing up my summary of Best Achievement in Make-up. So the sequel picks up soon after the original. Our hero Hellboy has been pursuing his relationship with Liz (the fire-starter who has learned to control it) and they're into the standard mid-relationship fighting stage except that when Liz gets really mad, the clothes get burned up rather than picked up. Anyway, agent Myers has been transferred away, and a new agent has been brought in to keep Hellboy in line. Johann Kraus is a German, ectoplasmic being, which is to say he's a ghost that can inhabit a mechanical body and thus interact with people. He's annoying and sticks to the book through all the missions, though Hellboy of course likes to break all the rules. So they're sent to figure out why all these "tooth fairies" were put upon an auction house (they're called tooth fairies cause they eat people starting with the teeth!). It all leads back to Prince Nuada, the Prince of the Elves who ages ago made a truce with the humans that the King wants to continue to honor but the Prince wants to fight. Back in the day, the King commissioned an unbeatable army to be controlled by he who wears the crown. The Prince was seeking pieces of the crown so he could command the armies and kill the humans (hence the auction house), the other pieces are within the King and Princess Nuala. After the Prince kills his father to get a piece, Nuala runs off (so she won't be killed for the final piece - in the picture), and runs into Abe Sapien, Hellboy's aquatic sidekick. Basically, it's a good continuation of the original story (that Hellboy can fight the demons cause he's witty, big and somewhat indestructible). Guillermo del Toro amped up his gues monsters with a demon missing his legs and a witchy monster with her eyes on her wings. There's just the right amount of fighting, a lots of Hellboy one-liners. I'm guessing this will become a trilogy, but we'll see if everyone jumps in again.

DVD Round Up

It's that time of year when I try to catch up with any of the Oscar nominees available on DVD that I haven't yet seen, so here's the reviews of two movies that couldn't be more different. First, Man on Wire, a film nominated for Best Documentary Feature (along with The Betrayal, Encounters at the End of the World, The Garden, and Trouble the Water). It's the story of an act of wonder and awe that took place in 1974 in New York City that would no longer be possible today. Philipe Petit describes how he and some friends managed to rig a wire between the newly built Twin Towers and how he wirewalked for 45 minutes at 1350 feet in the air, without any sort of net or protective equipment. He previously had walked between the towers of Notre Dame de Paris, and the Sydney Bridge in Australia, both of which were illegal. They carefully describe sneaking into the unfinished top floors of the WTC, avoiding guards, stringing the wire, and then the wonder that accompanied doing something like that just because you can. Petit is a masterful performer and has such a whimsical character that watching him describe his own dreams of doing this is fun and engaging too. Just given it's popularity, I'm guessing this will win the Oscar. If you're a Netflix subscriber (and own a PC or Roku) you can stream this movie through them. 4 Lamb/Stars

The other movie I saw was Hellboy, written and directed by Guillermo del Toro (the mastermind behind Pan's Labyrinth). I told you the pairing was as random as it gets. But the reasoning for watching the first Hellboy is that the sequel was nominated for Best Achievement in Make-up, which is the category I will be documenting in the 2009 LAMB devours the Oscars feature over at the LAMB. I figured I might as well see the first one before watching the second (I've always been someone who took homework seriously!). My dad was a huge fan when it came out, so I knew it couldn't be that bad, and it wasn't. It's very funny, somewhat confusing, a little scary, and very sci-fi fantastic. This is what I think it's about. It starts during WWII, where we see a group of soldiers in Scotland trying to figure out some paranormal activity. We later learn it was Rasputin (advisor to the Czars of Russia) trying to unlock the power between worlds, which if the Nazis gain control of, they'll win the war. Our brave soldiers thwart their effort, cause things to go wrong, and somehow bring forth a devil-boy nicknamed Hellboy. He's kept undercover by the FBI, but brought out to solve crimes involving monsters. We see where he's been raised by Prof. Broom at the FBI Bureau of Paranormal Research. A new agent, Myers, has been assigned to assist Hellboy, and meets his sidekick, Abe Sapien (an aquatic contortionist acted by Doug Jones and voiced by David Hyde Pierce) who can see the past in objects. They also used to have another roommate, Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), a fire-starter who now lives in a mental facility. Anyway, Rasputin returns in the modern age and our group of misfits has to go off and make sure he stays dead this time. Ron Perlman (from the old TV show Beauty and the Beast) is Hellboy, "Red", trying to fit in better by filing off his horns (hence the stubs on his forehead that always confused me) and having a wicked sense of humor. It's a very funny movie and I can't wait to see the next one. It almost makes me want to see Pan's Labyrinth just to see more of del Toro's work, but we'll see.

SAG awards, lots of fun.

There weren't a lot of surprises at the SAG awards last night (though I liked that Meryl Streep admitted she hadn't even bought a dress cause she didn't think she'd win). When Sean Penn won for Milk, he even said that now that TV people have their horse race for the Oscar (between him and Mickey Rourke). As expected "30 Rock" took all TV comedy awards (cast, actor, actress), and "John Adams" gave Laura Linney and Paul Giamatti more of their due (it's such a great mini-series, that I'm not upset they keep winning). The part I actually look foward to about the SAG awards is the opening sequence when they put the camera on lots of actors who give 30 second stories about how they became actors - Will Arnett and Steve Carrell were really funny. I enjoyed watching the whole show, and for the most part, everyone was dressed in fun, appropriate dresses (though Amy Adams looked pretty strange with "boob cups" on top of a pretty dress, which thankfully don't photograph the same way they looked on TV). Be sure to check out the LAMB soon as we all start discussing the nonminees and predicting winners.

Bride Wars review

Bride Wars is not for everyone - it's unapologetically a chick flick. There's even a moment in the film when the brides are asked if they need to consult their fiancees and they of course answer no. I don't think I know a guy who would love Bride Wars except maybe to watch them torture each other, but even then it's still so girly that few guys will enjoy it. Basically, two best friends (Oscar nominees Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway) get engaged at nearly the same time, and their dream since childhood is a June wedding at the Plaza hotel in New York City. They gloss over how ridiculously expensive that would be with one of them having a high paying law job and the other saving for 10 years. Anyway, they go to a wedding planner (Candice Bergen) who accidentally books their weddings the same day, causing a problem in having each other as their maid of honor. Rather than fixing it with either a double wedding or some sort of slightly staggered wedding they insist someone must change their date. They refuse, become enemies and start sabotaging the weddings. Bad tans, hair dye, scheduling snafus, etc. follow before a very sweet, but not treacly, reconciliation toward the end. It's a cute movie, go with your best friend ladies. Also, I loved seeing Chris Pratt (Everwood) as one of the fiancees (that's him in the picture with Anne). 3 lambs/stars.

DVD Roundup

I'll start with a movie I've reviewed before, and just recently watched several times on DVD - the incomparable Juno. Lately I've not been interested enough in most of the movies I've seen to bother with any additional material on the DVD, but as I wrote before, there's just something about Juno that you want to know more about the actors or characters. The gag reel on the DVD is terrific, as you'd expect from these amazing comedic actors - with Jason Batemen making fun of Arrested Development. Also, the deleted scenes were perfectly edited out, but great additions to the DVD. Still a 5 star movie.The second movie I saw on DVD is Ed Harris' Appaloosa, a standard western with several very classic male stereotypes very well played by Harris, Viggo Mortensen and Jeremy Irons, a somewhat unique female character (either a horribly played character by Renee Zellweger or a horrible character well-played, I can't really decide) and a story that starts out great but falls off the rails. To get other perspectives, here's the link to the LAMBs opinions back when it was in theaters. Harris and Mortensen are legal guns for hire that have arrived in Appaloosa to rid the town of the notorious bad guy Randall Bragg (Irons). They make the rules and eventually get enough evidence to arrest Bragg, and spend a lot of time keeping him alive and arrested long enough to stand trial. Meanwhile, an odd young woman, Mrs. French (Zellweger) arrives in town looking for a man. She hooks up with Harris who thinks he loves her and the movie sort of follows her hooking up with any dominant stallion-type man who might protect her. What I meant by somewhat unique about her character is that rarely have we seen women so subtly switch between men. She's certainly a whore trying to live respectably, but doesn't bother with the niceties of breaking up with one man while pursuing another. Not a very stereotypical female character in westerns. The main reason to watch Appaloosa is Viggo Mortensen. He has a weird facial hair situation that seems appropriate to the time and place, but it's his subtle loyalty to Harris' leader and his own sense of right and wrong appearing to lead him too. I'd give it 2.5 stars/Lambs, for poor editing (should have been about 20 minutes shorter) and Zellweger's bad acting.

New shows...Sci-fi and Fantasy?

The final episodes of Battlestar Galactica returned this Friday, revealing new mysteries again, while finally giving us a good hint at who the final cylon-in-disguise might be. Of course, then as a lovely twist they give us TWO possibilities. However, the real reasons to watch the show are as always, Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell. They've both taken on huge responsibility for saving the human race, and were convinced that the way to Earth would prove them correct. Now that they've arrived at Earth and it's another nuked civilization, their internal conflict, self-doubt and just plain old fear makes the story even more perplexing. Can't wait to see where the rest of the season goes (particularly Katee Sackhoff's Starbuck).

In fun twist of advertising, Showtime's new show The United States of Tara starring the remarkably versatile Toni Collette with dissociate identity disorder - meaning she has 4 distinct personalities - was made available on Netflix streaming or Roku, at least for a few more days. Written by Oscar winner Diablo Cody and produced by Stephen Spielberg, the pilot gives a glimpse into what could be a fantastic series. While pilots tend to be written to get a series ON the air, and a good show has to be KEPT on the air, this pilot at least was worth watching, even if I don't get to see another episode. Toni Collette is amazing, you can watch her take on new personalities as her primary (Tara) can't deal with something emotionally. The first "alter" we meet is "T" who is about 16 and dresses and acts like it. She comes on when Tara can't deal with the fact that her daughter is having sex. John Corbett (Sex and the City) is Tara's husband, and has dealt with the alters for years and the two of them have tried to figure out how to have a marriage and raise two pretty tolerant kids when "Mom" isn't always available. I can't wait to see the rest.

Return of "Friday Night Lights"

The wonderful "Friday Night Lights" is returning to NBC tomorrow (1/16) night. Yes, it's on a Friday night (which given the name makes it easy to find, so watch it). I've seen most of this season already thanks to a friend with Direct TV. And it's terrific. For those of you who hung around through the disastrous second season, you will be rewarded for your loyalty if you return to watch the third season. It's much more of the feeling of the first season, focused on football, and of course the personal relationships between the kids and adults, and even the graduates. This show does what other teen-based shows have never accomplished - actually sending off the kids who graduate in a way that makes you sure they'll continue being the characters you love. The incredible strength of the writing of this show lies in its ability to move characters around but still keep us interested in where they've gone. As for previews of the upcoming season - our wonderful graduate Brian "Smash" Williams (Gaius Charles) finally finds his way forward. Matt Saracen (Zack Gilford) will have some pretty difficult things to deal with, but of course finds a way to still be a good person and look for help from the many people who can help him. Tyra (Adrianne Palicki) falls back into her old ways, but eventually realizes she's still just a teenager and can't really act like an adult all the time. And finally, the dialogue between our favorite married couple just gets better and better. Please tune in to see this show, so we can have another season!

L.A.M.Blog-a-thon: Chapter 3 REMAKES

This post is part of the L.A.M.Blog-thon Chapter 3 regarding remakes.

There are lots of movies that have sequels that are really remakes (Hulk (2003) and The Incredible Hulk (2008)) and movies that are updated versions of previous movies (The Women (1939) and The Women (2008)). And successful or not (The Women 2008), sometimes stories do benefit from updating, and others are just such good stories that everyone should have a chance to see the actors from their generation recreate the vision. However, that requires holding up all the standards that the original used to make its mark. The version that bothers me most and actually prevents me watching the remake more than 3-4 minutes at a time is Pride and Prejudice. The BBC mini-series version is the gold standard for all costume dramas. Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennett and Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy have chemistry, charisma and created a believable tension that was actually resolved before they fall in love. The sets and costumes are impeccable, the characters traveling around England that looks like they're in Jane Austen's time. The pace of the film mirrors the writing and the details are perfect, with Mr. Collins moving from the pages into the slimy, sycophantic character we all know him to be. However, in remaking this into a feature film with Keira Knightly and Matthew Macfadyen in the lead roles. They're fine, though Macfadyen is so good at being the brooding Mr. Darcy that you never find a reason Elizabeth falls in love with him. The dialogue is trimmed from the original Austen texted, and occasionally diverging from her words to create new ones (less good ones!). But what bothers me are the details, the costumes are inconsistent, inappropriate and Keira Knightly always appears windblown and frumpy when all women of the period did was make sure they looked good. The movie exaggerates all the character traits - Elizabeth doesn't care about what people think of her, Mr. Darcy is super pompous, and Mrs. Bennett perfectly shrill. However, the people of Austen's time were more about understatement than exaggeration. It just doesn't represent the original work well, nor does it represent a good remake of the BBC version.

Here's a link to the best scene in the BBC version. They have it on YouTube, but won't let you embed it. And below is a scene from the Keira Knightly version. Just look at how different the costumes are put together.

Prince Caspian DVD review

Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is the second in the series, and since Disney just passed on Voyage of the Dawn Treader, I'm guessing it'll be the last one for a while. I liked The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardobe and was impressed by the young actors that carried the movie. Actually, the special effects carries the first movie, and luckily they used fewer special effects and a little more story instead. The movie picks up with Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter a year after they've returned from saving Narnia from the White Queen. They're not happy being students again after ruling Narnia as kings and queens. However, a thousand years have passed in the Narnia universe and another human kingdom has risen up with its own problems - Prince Caspian has been ousted by his evil uncle and fled into the forest. Just before he leaves he's given Susan's horn. When he's attacked by Narnians, whom he thought were extinct, he blows the horn, which recalls our kids from England. The story continues really creatively (following the book if memory serves) with our kids trying to figure out why things are so different and what's changed. They meet up with Trumpkin, a Narnian being killed by humans in a brilliant performance by an unrecognizable Peter Dinklage, who takes them through Narnia to find Prince Caspian. They join forces and try to defeat Caspian's uncle and his armies. The movie is long (145 minutes), but if you fast forward all the battle scenes it's only about 110 minutes, which is just right. It's easy to tell which scenes you need to see, there's fewer than 10 people in them. Like all of C.S. Lewis' books, there is lots of very clear Christ imagery, with the people doubting the return of Aslan failing to conquer, but the believers triumph. There's a moment of trying to make a deal with the devil (The White Queen in great special effects), and then God images appearing to smite the evil ones. It's not overwhelming, but clearly present. The acting is pretty good, the story fantastic, and the special effects don't get in the way. The fight scenes are too long, but with a remote in hand, it can be taken care of, no sweat. Good kids entertainment. 3.5 Lambs/Stars