So while my wife was stuck working yesterday, I watched 1982’s The Thing – yep, another John Carpenter movie. While I’m not much of a horror movie guy – this one, being just as much about sci-fi in most ways, is a bit of an exception.

So a few interesting trivia – the movie is a remake of a 50’s monster movie by the same name. But here, the story is much closer to the original short story by John W. Campbell – ‘Who Goes There?’ But if you’ve read any HP Lovecraft, you will recognize Campbell’s story as being more than a bit derivative of his novella ‘At The Mountains of Madness‘. And fans of the X-Files (1st movie) will also remember a flying saucer in the Antarctic at one point in one of the movies also – not sure whether inspired by any of these stories/movies or not, but it’s there.

Finally, the most silly far-fetched reference I can think of is in Godzilla: Final Wars, where at the start of the movie an advanced submarine about to be destroyed by Godzilla ‘buries’ him far beneath the ice by blowing up an ice cliff over his head – later in the movie they are forced to blow him out of there to save Earth (because in the meantime, aliens have taken over all the other crazy Kaiju monsters and now seek control of mankind, too). Of course, Godzilla literally ‘walks’ (ocean depths notwithstanding) to all these various cities on different continents, defeats the other monsters, then helps a crazy team of Japanese kung-fu mutants (led by an even more ridiculous American soldier who looks like the white trash cousin of GI Joe) defeat the aliens and save earth.

But back to The Thing – this movie’s closer adherence to the John Campbell story means far more gore and tougher special effects than the 50s movie. At one point a guy’s head melts off and turns into a spider to run away – great stuff! Basically a shapeshifter alien infiltrates an American Antarctic research base and begins killing/imitating everyone – the Americans start to fight back, led by Kurt Russell, but it’s a tough battle. Wilfred Brimley (who now largely sells life insurance on tv) is the scientist who figures out what’s going on (but then weird stuff happens).

If you haven’t seen this movie, rent it sometime – but not for kids, definitely – unless you want to be up all night with them crying. The cast is great and the atmosphere of the flick really creates a sense of what it would be like to be isolated in a research base like that while being stalked by a killer – who could look like anyone!

oh and yes, Merry Christmas! 🙂

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Saw the new Narnia movie this afternoon – not bad, pretty entertaining. As I haven’t read any of these books, I can’t really say whether they are true/not true to the books – although I have heard the first two movies were pretty on-story. I think this one veers a bit off (per Salon’s review) but I still found it a pretty solid story and not cluttered with meaningless extra details and simply too much “CGI for spending money’s sake” (pretty every POTC movie excepting the first one, the second trilogy of Star Wars movies, you name it). The characters are sympathetic (even Eustace by mid-movie) and even Tilda Swinton manages a couple very brief appearances as Edmund’s evil nemesis, The White Witch.

I may never get around to reading the books – already have too many on the nightstand as it is – but the movie is definitely a good one. It will be interesting to see what happens with the next one, given that none of the original kids will likely be in it (they aren’t in the next books)?

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So watched the two recent Narnia movies again on DVD in the past couple weeks, and (again) enjoyed them both. Despite the Christian overtones of the stories (based on well-known and devout Christian professor/author/intellectual C.S. Lewis) – the movies don’t seem to preach in my view. I haven’t read the book(s), so they may be a bit ‘stronger’ in that regard, not sure.

But the stories are strong and in both movies, there is an EXCELLENT villian – Tilda Swinton as The White Witch in the first (VERY brief appearance in the second); and Sergio Castellitto as Miraz in the second. Definitely a great counterpoint to Liam Neeson’s ‘jesus lion’, Aslan, in both movies. Both villians are so definitely, unmistakably evil, that the audience all but HAS to root for Aslan and the children in the end.

But to me what’s also interesting with these CGI extravaganzas now increasingly coming to the movie theater – e.g. the LOTR trilogy, the Harry Potter series, (and I’m sure many more, given Marvel Comics’ seeming intent to commit nearly every comic superhero they’ve ever done to film) is to watch both the quality and quantity of the CGI effects (which arguably make all this possible) evolve over time.

Even between the battle scenes in the 3rd LOTR movie and the Narnia movies, I think there’s been improvement – when they show large fields filled with armies, the level of detail is just subtly more believable every time around. In the 3rd LOTR, there are a couple places where it just looks a bit too ‘cgi’ – when the horses are running in for the attack and a few get munched by flying boulders/arrows, or when Legolas is jumping back and forth as he climbs the Oliphaunt to bring it down with his arrows, etc.

This was one of my major gripes with the second set of Star Wars movies. Notwithstanding the largely lame and predictable plots and some *very* questionable character choices (Jar Jar Binks lowering the bar every time he appears or opens his mouth for example) the battle scenes just looked like a cartoon trying to be live-action. Yes, in the first three movies they had effects to make the armies (good and bad) look bigger, etc. than the amount of extras they had on the set, of course. But especially in Attack of the Clones – it just looked to me like ‘here’s an army of CGI guys that are going to fight this second army of CGI guys’ – and ultimately who cares who wins? At least in the third movie with its convoluted and confusing plot, they had the saving grace/bad guy of Christopher Lee – definitely NOT a CGI guy for the most part (wither Yoda?).

But back to Narnia. I just think these two movies (presuming there will be several more to track the rest of the books) have a good mix of effects, villainy, and plot, without one overdoing the rest to the detriment of the movie. GOOD STORYTELLING, as always, wins out in the end.

This is ultimately why Pixar has been so consistently successful – even for their only ‘good’ movies (e.g. Cars, possibly A Bug’s Life) there is still a strong character element that really builds a connection between the audience and the action onscreen. And in the GREAT ones (The Incredibles, Ratatouille being at the top of the list of course) the dialogue is sharp, the characters are real and human – even if not actually ‘humans’ – and the plots are complex, complete and diverse. Of course Pixar are also animation masters, but that’s usually just icing on the cake next to the great storytelling.

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Continuing a two-week-long tradition, we saw our friends’ band – Shiftless Layabout – this past Sunday night at a small bar in Wallingford, Sea Monster.

Notwithstanding the coolness of being in a bar that has *anything* to do with sea monsters generally, SL is a great band to boot! Their sound is funky, but more akin to roots-funk (e.g. The Meters – who were playing over the bar stereo both before and after their set, conveniently enough) than say, The Red Hot Chili Peppers. In part because they have horns (like my boys in Fishbone) but they just have a mellower, more laid back sound. All the better to groove with.

Their next gig is Friday Oct. 22 @ The Scarlet Tree over in Roosevelt area. Check them out before the show by hitting their myspace page linked above, or on YouTube.

candybowl

So amid other home projects yesterday, took a break to watch the 1956 movie ‘Earth vs. the Flying Saucers‘. For those of you who haven’t seen it (likely everyone at this point) but HAVE seen a old movie clip of a flying saucer hitting the Washington Monument used in various ways on TV/etc. (e.g. Toonces the driving cat is blamed for it at one point on SNL) – that clip is from this movie.

Basically the plot is simple – an american scientist encounters a UFO during his project to launch space rockets (that seem to be going missing – he’s on his eleventh one) – ‘Project Skyhook’. They find out the UFOs are responsible, and want to colonize earth. Some skirmishes ensue, and (in part due to a mistake on the part of the Americans) the aliens attack and completely obliterate Project Skyhook’s launch base and buildings.

Some further discussions happen between the leading researcher and the aliens, but ultimately we decide to try to fight them – through some ‘amazing insights’ apparently obtained on the spot – we come up with a ‘sonic weapon’ to disrupt the aliens’ ability to defy gravity and make their ships crash. The movie ends with a bunch of jeeps jetting around DC trying to zap the alien saucers – several govt. buildings and monuments die a fiery death as we force the alien ships to crash into them. The main two characters are seen relaxing on a beach afterward, staring into the sunset and thankful that we saved ‘our earth’.

So…..there are many plot holes in this movie. And by way of comparison to the great, earlier movies The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), War of the Worlds (1953) and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954) – this is seems a lot more low-budget and cheesy. The saucers were animated by Ray Harryhausen, and they aren’t bad – but their comparative size/scale seems to shift in every scene! Some shots where they are flying over major cities – they seem to all-but-equal the city in size (not unlike the huge ship in District 9 or even V) – and other times they aren’t any bigger than ET’s spaceship – e.g. when the aliens meet the scientists on the beach.

The aliens are pretty crappy tacticians – on their few manned attacks (where they come out of the ship) they show a forcefield below the ship that protects them (and in one case, they can fire out of it at the attacking jeeps, guns and army men) – but then they LEAVE its protection and promptly get shot up – WTF? And they walk like snails – which may be a product of lame rubber suits for the actors, not sure – easy pickin’s for the gunners (even a scientist picks one off).

Also, at one point they show a saucer battling a B-29 (propeller-powered) bomber – hello? Earlier and later in the movie jets are zipping around – why would a old B-29 be leading the charge (it gets zapped in fiery death – big surprise)?

Also, in the climactic battle – despite having shown repeated scenes (and discussing same between the aliens and scientists) that the saucers are hovering over the world’s major cities, awaiting the order to land and take control) – the battle only happens in DC(?) and with a bunch of lame jeeps tearing around town with big ‘sonic guns’ in them – half of which get zapped by the aliens anyway? What happened to all the other ships? At least in (the equally if not much MORE cheesy) Starship Invasions 20 years later (1977), they at least cover that one!

There were some interesting touches in this movie, however – I liked the stark interior of the spaceship, and the ‘talking rose flower’ they used as a translation device. I liked the weird alien voice distortion and psuedo-science babble they used throughout the film (although – no Theremins in the soundtrack? see The Day The Earth Stood Still for how it’s DONE) The saucers are decent – although many times they seem to fly as if the alien pilots are drunk.

So….. in summary, not a terrible movie, but there are far better from the era (see above, or also the great Forbidden Planet (1956) – which includes an extremely young Leslie Nielsen!) – as to me, the next cheesefest will be the slightly earlier This Island Earth (1955) which I have never actually seen – Scarecrow, here I come! 🙂

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Saw TS3 this past Sunday. This is a great movie – and like the last Pixar movie we saw – yet another tearjerker in at least two places! I won’t spoil the plot, but suffice it to say there yet more twists ahead for Woody & crew, although I was able to predict the end about 2/3 of the way in.

Like most other Pixar movies, TS3 is a nice blend of silly and adult humor – not quite as many pop-culture references this time around, but still a solid plot and the characters continued to develop from last time around. About the only thing(s) missing (OK, slight spoilers ahead) were a bigger role for my favorite unspeaking character in the 3 TS movies and Kelsey Grammer from the last one – he always plays a great villain. The outtakes at the end with Zurg arriving at the daycare were pretty amusing too.

I’m glad they made this movie – and I’m pretty sure it’s the last one – which is also fine. And this probably has to be one of the few (if not the only) series of movie sequels that actually worked as well as the original? GF3 was sheite, after all – were there any other sequels that worked as of the 3rd movie? And NO, Police Academy was arguably lame the FIRST time out of the gate (sorry Bobcat, love ya!)

go see it!

candybowl

Picked up an old arcade game for my buddy – Wizard of Wor. This game dates back from the latter arcade classic era, 1981. It shares the same robotic speech as Gorf from the same era (both of us actually have one of those machines, although mine currently languishes in my dad’s barn in OR). Basically the game consists of either one/two people in what seem like land-going spacesuits in a maze, zapping weird creatures, some of which are invisible at times (you can see them on the radar screen below the maze, though).

Once you clear the maze, other bad guys appear you have to zap of course (e.g. Warlock) – and then the Wizard himself may or may not appear. The game also has organ-style music at the start and end of each maze-zapping session, in addition to the weird voice.

Good stuff. This is also a convenient moment to shamelessly plug the upcoming 3rd annual pinball/arcade show here in Seattle next month, weekend of June 11-13. Come one, come all!

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