Elysium (2013)
I was curious about this movie, an allegory of the current state of mankind and of health care. Not curious enough to break my long-standing ban on movie theaters, but enough to actually pay-per-view on Amazon. My conclusion: the problems with which the movie concerns itself are real, but the movie doesn’t work. It is too slow, too long, and the plot has severe theatrical deficiencies. Let’s start with a plot summary. Continue reading
Cloud Atlas (2013)
It’s not often that I get to see a movie based on a novel I haven’t read. I am a voracious reader, but I do not like going to the movies. Cloud Atlas gave me that chance: I had read about the novel only in passing, but the movie was front and center on the Amazon home screen. A perfect opportunity! I hear the novel was not doing so well, until it hit China and then it became a huge hit. Continue reading
Amazon Pilots: Zombieland
Imagine an office. Two co-workers chatting over some tiny calorie-counting lunch. He is complaining about trifles and trivialities like the world is falling apart. She is listening empathetically, as if she could possibly care. The two, for mysterious reasons, have a window office. For even more mysterious reasons, they are eating their lunch facing away from that giant status symbol of a window. And while they spoon their sugar-free yogurts and leaf away at that non-fat ranch dressing salad, mayhem ensues just outside the window. Continue reading
Amazon Pilots: Browsers
[Note: Amazon has published a series of pilots for a variety of shows, asking viewers for their opinion on which ones should continue. It’s an innovative way to farm out a choice the company is not really capable of making, since this is their first attempt at content production.] Imagine Ugly Betty. With four unpaid Betties. And musical numbers. That’s Browsers in a nutshell. Four enterprising young folks start their internship at the online magazine, Gush. Continue readingChasing Mavericks (2012)
The YouTube player can not be loaded with disabled JavaScript. The following video is embedded here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=jh09vEGNrXc Everybody had been telling me I should watch Chasing Mavericks, but I somehow didn’t feel inclined. Surf movies – and movies about surfing, which is not the same thing – tend to be depressingly fictionalized. They portray the world as a surfer would love it to be, and not as it is. The waves are always perfect, the bros are always on a spiritual quest of communion with the ocean, and somehow there are always more ladies in the water than anyone has witnessed in a lifetime. Continue readingSkyfall (2012)
Wait! I already watched this movie! It was the distant year 1982. The first movie of a successful franchise had been very disappointing. The producers could smell the money, but knew there was nothing to be won by continuing on the trodden path. So, the very keen decision: kill one of the main characters, add an amazing and disposable super-villain, and allow for a reboot with fresh blood. The movie in 1982 was Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Continue reading