Harry Potter - the umpteenth movie

Also subtitled "the Half-blood Prince" which conveniently helps us identify which book it is supposed to relate to, be a visual aid for, or something along that line. Maybe it's because the gap has grown so large now between reading the book and seeing the movie that I felt like this was the first HP movie that could really not stand on its own. If someone had not read the corresponding book for each of the previous HP movies, it would still be an enjoyable movie. There would be a plot, some character development, and some unexpected twists, etc. But this time I really felt there should be a pause button somewhere and the message "now turn the page". That's it, it's a glorified Storyteller tape!

Let's face it, I suffer from Adult Attention Deficit Disorder. I lose interest in anything that has been in the public eye more than 5 years. So I went to the movie with Carolyn, my oldest son Ed and his oldest son Tim with the intention of enjoying the special effects.. We thought that all the special effects would do for Jake was give him nightmares.

As I said, I couldn't pick up a plot or character development (except maybe for the suggestion by Dumbledore that Harry could use a shave). The budding love interests were handled tastefully, if a little on the embarrassing side. Having read the book, I could tell every once in a while when the movie had wandered and was now coming back in sync with the book.

If you just have to see the book for yourself, hold on just a little while longer for the DVD version. Then you really can push pause and read along with the movie.

Lord of the Rings

If you recognize any of the pictures appearing before this text, you probably have seen the Lord of the Rings series and have formed your own opinion about the movie(s). If you don't recognize the pictures and have not seen the movie let me give you one hint: prepare for an epic.

We finished watching it on DVD last night, finally finishing the sixth disc (yes, two per movie). For a while there we thought it would take us 3 years to finish it, like it took the filmmakers that long to actually release all 3 films comprising the story "Lord of the Rings". I's been so long since I read the book that I can't properly evaluate how well follow.

According to the story, a fellowship of [7]9 including 4 hobits heads out on a dangerous and possibly fatal mission to return a magical ring to the volcano mountain where it was forged. I was never quite clear how that worked but magic doesn't have to be logical. The hobbits provide much of the comic relief while the human, the dwarf, and the [fairy] elf provide the excitement of the battle, the love interests, and the occasional philosophical discussion.

There is so much hokiness in the film that it could easily be a satire. For example, after battle scenes in which dozens or thousands are killed, our heroes walk around as pretty much the sole survivors. If I were in the same battles and always saw these thee always triumph, I would start asking questions.

Some of the scenery shots are absolutely awesume but with all the computer generated images, you really can't be sure you're watching real landscape or something generated for he show.

I think it could be a wonderful film when cut down to 2 hours or less.

The Lives of Others - movie review

One of the mini-seminars I'm taking this semester at the Renaissance Society on the campus of Sacramento State is a movie review class. Unfortunately, it isn't well organized so we really don't talk about the "movie of the week" either before or after seeing it in class. Makes it harder to know whether or not I'm supposed to like it and for what reasons. On the positive side, whoever is doing the choosing of the movies is doing a great job of find some that are very thought provoking.

This last Friday's offering was "The Lives of Others". The title comes from the theme of the film which revolves around the German Democratic Republic (GDR) otherwise known in the west as East Germany starting in the year 1984 when the GDR was still a very buttoned down society. The government maintained a corps of 200,000 informers to spy and report on their neighbors, friends, even family members so that the state could always know everything there was to know about "the lives of others". Thus, if a student should ask the wrong question in class or even ask the right question at the wrong time, that student's future career choices may be limited. When thinking of secret police and totalitarian states we tend to think of Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Soviet Union but this film shows how a much "gentler" state can still be ruthlessly totalitarian.

Only when one of the characters sees that the system can be used for personal, non-state security, reasons does the system begin to unravel for this man. Torture of the most mild kinds is still torture and the movie seems to indicate that we all have a breaking point. While the movie does have it's very dark moments, it moves us through Glastnost and the falling of the Berlin wall so there is a sort of happy ending.

The scariest part of the movie for me was how easily it would be for the U.S. to slip into a GDR type of system given our current Department of Homeland Security, the unprecedented level of domestic spying, and recent reductions in the guarantee of habeas corpus and restrictions on torture. Anybody living in the U.S., citizen or not, is now subject to the same possibility of complete security oversight just by being declared an enemy combatant.

An Inconvenient Truth - movie review

Since the movie An Inconvenient Truth, starring Al Gore received so much positive commentary prior to and during the Academy awards, I was prepared to be disappointed, and I was. But not with the movie.

The movie was everything that I could have hoped for - informative, fact-filled, humorous, entertaining, moving. I couldn't believe someone could take a slide presentation, even a great slide presentation, and make an entertaining movie but director Davis Guggenheim did a masterful jog. The story line - that human activity has pushed the world to the brink of cataclysmic climate change - is depressing but somehow the movie leaves you with the impression that all is not lost, that we're still in charge of our destiny, and that with immediate and appropriate action we can still maintain the earth as we know it. Of course, the movie also makes it perfectly clear that doing nothing will result in major changes in the world's climate, continental shapes, and even ocean currents.

Al Gore takes on the idea so common in the popular press that "we just don't have all the data we need" and properly puts it in it's place. We'll never have all the data we "need" but we have more than enough to justify changing our habits and our lifestyles. And if we don't, they'll be changed for us by Mother Nature in ways we probably won't be happy with.

Not knowing whether I even wanted to spend the $3.85 to rent the movie from Hollywood Video, I borrowed it for free from the local library. But I feel so positive after seeing it, that I'm going to buy it or ask for it for my birthday.

So how was I disappointed? I was made so aware of the fact that we came so close to having an intelligent, knowledgeable, competent President elected in 2000. I feel really cheated and let down by the American electoral process. And although that wasn't the theme of the movie, it is "an inconvenient truth".

Rumor Has It...- a movie review

Okay, it's a bit of a stretch to base a movie on a possible sequel to a possible real life connection to a hit movie of a previous generation, but I happen to think that is the charm of Rumor Has It.

Suffering from the belief that she isn't her father's daughter (and how many of us have secretly harbored the thought that we are really adopted because no one in our family really understands us?) Jennifer Aniston's character easily falls for the idea that her family may have been the inspiration for the movie "The Graduate". "The Graduate" was such a classic in breaking all sorts of Hollywood taboos that even people who haven't seen it, know that it's all about a man being seduced by his girlfriend's mother, making him one confused kid. Well, if Aniston's character's mother is that girlfriend and her grandmother that mother, then she has a right to be one confused kid as well. It doesn't help when she finds the perfect candidate for who could be her real father.

Certainly a chick flick with lots of relationship explorations, heartbreaks, and disappointments, Rumor Has It is still fun for keeping some suspense while allowing (almost) everyone to finally redeem themselves.

Why We Fight - a movie review

“Why We Fight” should probably be subtitled “Anti-War Lite”. Although there is a lot of good information presented, it is presented in such a way that most Americans will walk away with a big “Ho-hum, what else is new.”

To begin with, “Why We Fight” shows an excerpt from President Eisenhower’s farewell speech when he left the presidency in 1961. In this speech he warned the country of the “military-industrial complex” (which he had originally written as military-industrial-congressional complex). The show would have us believe this is a dangerous thing since one of our beloved presidents (we do remember who Eisenhower was, don’t we?) has warned us about it and as numerous clips in the film reinforce. But as an American tradition that is at least 50 years old – as old as the traditional use of the Pledge of Allegiance and the use of In God We Trust on our money – how can we possibly think it is a bad thing?

Then the movie shows how reluctant Americans were to enter World War II – 95% of the nation felt we should stay out – until Pearl Harbor. War inciting propaganda has been used to convince Americans to participate in every war we’ve fought, which certainly is enough justification for our current administration to use this powerful tool. Americans just don’t know what’s best of them, including who they should bomb and kill, until they’re told by the powers that be.

I found the “What can we do?” section especially amusing as it hinted that the power to rein in the military-industrial complex rested with congress. Congress can set different priorities. Right. Like that is ever going to happen as long as they’re lining their own pockets with contributions and ensuring their continued employment in Washington.

Why do we fight? The movie asks several modern Americans on the street and the answers range from the predictable “freedom”, “peace”, “liberty” to the more often “I dunno”. No one connects the dots that they have been manipulated into supporting this war and no one cares. And that’s why we fight!

Walk the Line - a movie review

I really wanted to like Walk the Line, the biographical movie of Johnny Cash played by Joaquin Phoenix with supporting actress Reese Witherspoon playing June Carter Cash. I like Johnny Cash's singing. I like the songs he wrote. I like what little I knew about his relationship with the Carter family.



But the movie disappointed me. It showed a man who let his father's rejection of him drive him to drink and drugs. In the process he lost his wife and children. Sometimes a man's biography will show him a little larger than life. This one showed Johnny a little smaller than the man he projected himself to be on stage. He was verbally abusive to those he should have treasured most and acted like a spoiled child instead of a professional. He concern for and bond with prison inmates was laudable but came across more like a desire to "be one of them" than to inspire or lift their spirits up.



The acting itself wasn't bad and the singing was downright respectable, comparing favorable to what Cash and Carter would have done themselves. But the movie just didn't seem to come together, it seemed more like a documentary than a movie. Watching the special features on the DVD explained some of the problem. In my opinion some significant story details were left on the cutting-room floor, according to the director, in order to "get the viewer more engaged" in the first part of the movie. But getting the viewer "engaged" at the expense of the story can be a bad trade-off. For example, it was never clear to me that Cash's songs were supposed to be so self-revealing or autobiographical. Although songwriters, poets, or fiction authors draw on their own experiences, I think of them representing a truth larger than their own world. Apparently, Cash wasn't doing that. In his world, he really did "Cry, cry, cry", "Walk the Line", and identify personally with "Folsom Prison Blues".