Friday, June 30, 2006

Superman Returns: Reviewed



Get ready for basically a blowjob aimed at Bryan Singer.

This movie is so excellent, my words can’t adequately sum it up. The acting, direction, effects, lighting, writing, music, and everything else is top notch. It’s a shame it won’t get nominated for any important awards, but hopefully I’m wrong.

One actor I want to point out is Frank Langella who plays Perry White, the editor of the Daily Planet. He also plays a great devil worshiper in The Ninth Gate. Langella doesn’t have that much face time in Returns, but he does a great job.

Musically, I couldn’t have been more satisfied. The use of the classic Superman theme was key, and the rest of the score was just as excellent. If a new Superman theme song had been created, it just wouldn’t have been the same (think of trying to redo the peanut and jelly sandwich without peanut butter or jelly).

There are some interesting new stories introduced that I won’t go into, but I don’t think they have been dealt with in the comics, classic movies, or cartoons and TV series. This isn’t a remake or recycling of some tired old plots either…well it kind of is, but you really won’t care. Lex Luthor attempts to take over the world; Superman tries his hardest to stop him. So it’s pretty much the same old storyline, but it’s still great.

You will notice more than a couple cinematic similarities to X-Men and X2, but that doesn’t crowd the movie’s style. When I noticed these similarities, I thought to myself that Singer was just using the X-Men series as practice for the comic movie he really wanted to do.

Just before I saw Superman Returns I was lucky enough to catch the original Superman with Christopher Reeve on HBO, and it made me appreciate Returns so much more. There are tons of subtle nods to the original Superman (Lois’ smoking and not being able to spell, Kent’s clumsiness, along with a few well placed quotes).

As great as Superman Returns was, I hate having to give it a rating of 4.75 / 5 stars. There were a couple things that just got under my skin that I won’t get into yet; I’ll give everyone some time to see it. And when you do, make sure you see it in IMAX, the 3D scenes are so cool.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Superman Returns

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Friday, June 23, 2006

Nacho Libre Reviewed



As I write this, so far the movie has grossed over $40 million. Danny Elfman was the composer for this movie, who has done some great work in the past. From the director and writer of Napoleon Dynamite, starring Jack Black as a Mexican monk that becomes the world’s greatest wrestler to raise money for the orphan children of the monastery. The antagonist is played by an ex WCW wrestler that went by the name of Silver King in the late 90’s.

Being a huge fan of JB, I had high hopes for this movie and I hate to say it, but I was greatly disappointed. The wrestling scenes were actually very good, as were the scenes with JB singing, but the rest of the movie was too much story and not enough comedy. Don’t expect your typical JB movie, which would normally have a barrage of puns and gags and physical comedy that makes you want to cry. This movie makes just makes you want to cry.

I think I know why this movie was a disappointment to me, as much as I hate to admit it. It was a Nickelodeon film, so their goal was to make the movie appeal to old kids and young teenagers. It just so happened that they suckered JB fans into seeing it.

Before seeing this movie I thought it would be impossible to put JB in a movie and not have him be funny the majority of the time he was on screen, but I was proved wrong. Don’t bother seeing this movie in the theater, and I wouldn’t even recommend renting it on DVD. Save your money for Superman Returns in IMAX, or Pirates 2. “Nacho Libre”, more like “Nacho Let-Down”. If you do buy it on DVD, you could always make Nacho Libre nachos on the disc.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Flickr

Of the 5 people that read my site, there’s probably only one person that will really appreciate my Flickr page, which is a site that I upload my better photos to. I’ve updated it with some of the pictures I took in New York and Niagara Falls, but I took so many pictures in NY (around 2000) it will take months just to sort them out.