Archive for March, 2011

Tornado Alley: Confessions of a Fanpire

  • Written by Box Office Boredom
  • Posted March 29, 2011 at 9:00 am

Written by Fanpire and Official Storm Spotter, Natasha

After eight years of filming tornadoes Sean Casey finally released his IMAX film, Tornado Alley. For most people their journey with Sean began in 2007 when Discovery Channel started airing the hit show Storm Chasers. The show followed filmmaker Sean and meteorologist Josh Wurman, head of Vortex 2, a caravan of satellites, probes and other instruments to aid them in finding out exactly how and why tornadoes form. Sean and his crew drove the TIV (Tornado Intercept Vehicle), a metal armored vehicle that could withstand winds of 200 mph. The two worked together. If Josh got Sean to intercept a tornado then Josh would gain valuable information about tornadoes and Sean would get the shot he need to complete his IMAX film. Episode after episode Josh was not able to get Sean the shot he needed. Then near the end of season three a miracle happened, Josh was able to direct Sean into the path of a tornado and Sean finally got the shot he needed to complete his film. This should have been the end of Sean Casey trying to get the near impossible shot.

But, then season four rolled around and yet again Sean needed to intercept a tornado. This time was different, he need to get a shot of the TIV driving into a tornado. An IMAX crew would be in a vehicle behind his filming the whole thing. Sean had also branched off on his own and was no longer taking advice from Josh. One can only assume he was tired of being shown up by Reed Timmer, Extreme Meteorologist. Reed had joined the show and quickly stole Sean’s thunder (pun intended). With nothing but a laptop and a video camera Reed was able to film at least one tornado per episode. He was even able to accidentally intercept a tornado, making Sean look like a fool for taking so many years to do the same. Sean continually mocked Reed behind his back, not able to contain how jealous he was.  — Yes Reed is over the top and cocky, but he gets results unlike Sean.

Tornado Alley should have been an awesome movie about tornadoes with amazing IMAX shots of several tornadoes and their destruction. Instead it was a 40 minute crappy version of Storm Chasers narrated by Bill Paxton. Yet again the audience got to watch Sean Casey try to get his impossible shot of intercepting a tornado. I’m sorry but I thought he was making an IMAX film about tornadoes not about Sean Casey. There were exactly two awesome shots of tornadoes and one of them can be seen in the trailer. What did Sean Casey do with all the footage he shot before he went on his quest for the impossible shot? When did he decide the movie should be about Sean Casey? I go to see a movie called Tornado Alley I want to see some damn tornadoes; not a film about a whiny filmmaker complaining about not getting his shot. I heard the man complain for four seasons of Storm Chasers, enough is enough, show me the tornadoes.

Sean claims this is his life’s work and took him eight years to complete, well I’m sorry Sean Casey you are a shitty filmmaker. This film is nothing but a poorly condensed version of four seasons of Storm Chasers. There may be two minutes of the film that were really neat to see on an IMAX screen, otherwise you could watch it at home and get the same enjoyment out of it. The man was filming for eight years and this is all he has to offer his audience, a 40 minute Sean Casey ego stroke. The film ended with Sean Casey finally getting his intercept shot for the film. Yet it cuts away to show Sean filming the intercept instead of the intercept itself. What?!?

I may have enjoyed this movie more if I had never seen Storm Chasers and had no idea this movie was supposed to have actual tornadoes in it. The whole film seems like such a waste. I don’t agree with the direction he took with it. The Sean Casey story already played out on TV. If I had known he was making a movie about himself I would have avoided Tornado Alley altogether.

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Filed under: Documentary, Movies

Sucker Punch: A puff piece with a visual punch

  • Written by The Mike
  • Posted March 28, 2011 at 9:00 am

(2011, Dir. by Zack Snyder.)

By now, I hope you all know that I don’t believe in guilty pleasures.  Some people take movies seriously enough that they believe enjoying a movie that might be “bad” to others should cause one to feel guilt.  To me, those people are missing out on a lot of inventive movies that cinema has to offer.  Movies like Sucker Punch.

Zack Snyder’s fantasy film, which is a weird mix of burlesque and steampunk fashions blended with a ton of kung fu and sci-fi action, has been ripped apart by critics and viewers who – ironically – must have been unprepared for seeing a pulpy fantasy.  Criticisms of the film’s lack of deep characters, video game feel, and teenage boy sex-appeal have been the standard response from critics who would like to put their standards onto the film.  But it’s clear throughout the film that Snyder has no interest in those standards, which makes these complaints as valid as those of an action junkie who laments The Merchant of Venice’s lack of explosions.

Taken for what it actually is – a dream-world music video that consists of the imaginings of abused young women – Sucker Punch completely captivated me.  I can see where some would pause when looking at the film’s heavy handed messages about abuse and empowerment and assume there’s a lot more ambition behind Snyder’s film, especially when considering it alongside his adaptation of Alan Moore’s preachy graphic novelWatchmen.  But Sucker Punch is clearly not Watchmen, and the script – by Snyder & Steve Shibuya – is one that Snyder openly admits is designed because he wanted showcase action sequences that “aren’t limited by the physical realities that normal people are limited by”.

Following that script, the ridiculous story follows Baby Doll (Emily Browning) who is somehow accused of her sister’s murder and placed in an asylum.  Once there, she meets Rocket (Jena Malone), Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), and Amber (Jamie Chung), who exist as pawns in her attempt to escape before being lobotomized.  Somewhere along the line, she invents a couple of alternate worlds inside her head, one in which the girls are out of the asylum and working in a brothel, and one in which the girls can accomplish pretty much anything a wise man (Scott Glenn, who has a lot of fun with fortune cookie-style dialogue) tells them to do.  Their quests include giant robo ninjas, dragons, nazis, and even a train heist (with more robots), which are necessary to acquire the items needed to stage their escape.

You can probably see that the plot behind Sucker Punch does the film no favors with the critical community, and I can certainly admit that it had me scratching my head the two or three times I stopped to consider it.  But trying to make sense of it is like trying to make sense of a nightmare – you shouldn’t do it.  When taken at a purely visceral level, Sucker Punch is pretty fantastic.  Snyder’s effects scenes feature a lot of detail and well-drawn villains – even if they are a bit repetitive. (Which does make them kind of like video games,and we all know how certain famous critics are holding on to their archaic belief that video games can not be art.  If you share this mindset, this movie isn’t for you.)  Snyder compliments each battle with a unique musical selection, and his ability to synchronize sound and action here is on par with his fantastic work on Watchmen.  The soundtrack probably takes the film up a level here, as there are times when the film feels a lot more likeMoulin Rouge than The Matrix.

I can honestly say that my affection for Sucker Punch is not just a surface level thing; I didn’t find myself enjoying it because there were scantily clad women and explosions.  There’s something uplifting about the film, something that speaks to me on a psychological level.  I’m not talking about the plot – though it does have some fun bits based on its “anything is possible” philosophy – I’m saying that I love the idea of Sucker Punch.  It’s just an action fantasy that does what it wants to do how it wants to do it.  I don’t think people knew what was coming, and I don’t blame them.  It reminds me of Big Trouble in Little China, which also blended genres and divided theatrical audiences. (There’s also a parallel regarding the lead/side characters, but to share it would spoil one of the few plot points in Sucker Punch.)  It’s a movie that is not based on our reality, and shouldn’t be judged as such.

It’s rare that I find myself recommending a movie based entirely on its style over its substance – especially when it’s such a commercial style – but I think what Snyder tried to pull off through Sucker Punch was daring and brave.  Many may not agree, but I think that this film will find its audience when the dust settles on the negative reviews and the reactions from unsuspecting opening weekend victims.  It’s a puff piece that doesn’t make sense, but hey…neither did Inception. Maybe I’m the sucker – and I’m sure there are plenty of folks out there who will tell me that movies like this one simply can’t be good – but I’m buying what Sucker Punch is selling at face value.

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Filed under: Action, Movies, Science Fiction

Unstoppable: Train 777 is my new favorite villain

  • Written by Jason
  • Posted March 25, 2011 at 9:00 am

Last November I had guest reviewer Sam LeGassick from The Wild Bore tackle the latest Tony Scott film, Unstoppable for the website. Sam’s a fellow movie nut like The Mike and I and I’ve always enjoyed hearing his take on films. He was quick to pan Tony Scott’s runaway train film and told audiences to steer clear of the film. Frankly, at the time I wasn’t surprised. Tony Scott hasn’t made a good film since 1996’s The Fan (and no, Man on Fire was not good, you just want to think it was). Scott became too tied up in the art of film making and forgot how to make a good film. So when Sam panned it, I shrugged and said to myself, “figures!” The problem is, I am drawn to Tony Scott films like a moth to a light. Even if I know in my heart they will be bad, I’ll still add them to queues and watch them on DVD from my favorite DVD by mail service.

Amazingly I learned something very different from Sam’s original review posted on our site.  Unstoppable turned out to be a much better movie than I had ever expected.  Now, coming off of another Tony Scott train wreck of a movie called The Taking of Pelham 123, it wouldn’t take much for Scott to create a masterpiece in comparison.  Scott again returns to the train yards for Unstoppable and once again brings his buddy Denzel Washington with him.  This time Washington is an aging conductor nearing retirement who is training a rookie (Chris Pine) on the day that an unmanned, runaway train is speeding down the tracks with enough explosive compounds to be a missile the size of the Chrysler building.  Being the wise ol’ railroader he is, Denzel decides to run this train down and he and his new rookie are going to do what no one else can do- stop this run away  choo-choo.

What I really liked about Unstoppable was that Scott didn’t push the arty style.  He stopped over saturating the screen with grey/green filters, and stopped doing wicked ADHD induced jump cuts from scene to scene.  Hints of these stylistic choices were there, but he didn’t rub your face in it as he has been prone to do in his latest films.  I found myself for the first time in over 10 years saying, “That’s a great, classic Tony Scott shot!”  It was rich in color, contrast and it kept a steady pace that didn’t feel disjointed and choppy.    I didn’t feel like the director had just snorted speed before yelling action.  I had a great time with this film.  Scott took something so simple and made it intriguing, suspenseful and just plain fun.  You found yourself rooting for the good guys and wanting “the bad guy” to be brought down.

Which brings me to my next point, the film’s villain.  After watching Toy Story 3 and meeting Lotso Bear, I thought I preferred that my villains smelled of strawberries, but train 777 from Unstoppable taught me that a runaway train is also a worthy adversary.  Tony Scott found a way to make a moving hunk of metal become a villain.  You actually hated the train, despite the fact that it had no “reason” for doing anything.  It wasn’t motivated to kill anyone, it simply was doing it’s job-transporting cargo on a track.   None the less as a viewer you felt connected to the characters and you wanted the big, evil, runaway train to be stopped.  The fact that there was no bargaining and no reasoning with the train meant that it was just a match of brains vs. brute force,  or man vs. machine that would eventually win the day.  Something about that theme resonates well in this film and Scott reigns in on it and takes advantage.

Certainly there are things about the film that could use some improvements.    The film brags that it was “based on a true story”, which translates to in real life an unmanned train rolled down the track at 10 MPH for a good stretch until someone jumped back on it and hit the brakes.  However in Unstoppable the train barrels down the track at 60 mph.  Despite long stretches of track, countryside and high speeds train 777 only manages to knock around a few things.  I actually wanted to see some more train destruction.  Don’t get me wrong, the film had suspense but things going “Kaboom!” keep my attention span even more and look really cool.  What can I say?  I’m a guy!  I like seeing stuff blow up and stuff being destroyed.  Also, Denzel leaves a bit more to be desired.  Denzel has become a cookie cutter shell of himself, and in Unstoppable Denzel plays Denzel.  You know every one of his “cool” antics, and feel like you’ve seen this performance 1000 times.  Whether he is teaching Ethan Hawke about life on the streets as a cop in Training Day or teaching Chris Pine about life on the tracks in Unstoppable, he’s the same guy.

As Unstoppable hit theaters, Saturday Night Live did a digital short that did a nice job of nailing the sheer silliness of Unstoppable.  I’ve linked the video here in the post and encourage you to check it out for a good laugh.  The Denzel impersonation is about spot on for what you will get out of the film, and the premise sadly enough really is * almost * that cheesy.  But it’s cheese that is done well.  I had a lot of fun with Unstoppable.  If Tony Scott can promise me another film like this, I’ll be at his next movie in theaters opening night.  That would mean I’d have to take time off from work from my day job of selling popcorn to folks on opening night- but if it means the return of the good ol’ days of Tony Scott, count me in.

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Filed under: Action, Movies, Suspense

Paul: Forget E.T. The Mike’s Got a New Alien BFF

  • Written by The Mike
  • Posted March 24, 2011 at 1:54 pm

(2011, Dir. by Greg Mottola.)

Oh, Paul. You’re a movie that I immediately want to be BFFs with. It didn’t take much, with your stellar cast and tried and true buddy-comedy/road trip formula, but somehow you managed to sneak up on me and exceed the level of silly wonder that I wanted from you. Well done.

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost star in their third major feature together, and while Paul doesn’t quite seem to be on the same level as their collaborations with Edgar Wright – there’s something human about those films that feels a tiny bit forced here – it still manages to allow the duo perfect opportunities to ham it up using their trademarks. The duo seem to be riding the audience’s expectations at this point in their partnership – which is flat out mistaken for homosexuality often in this film – but they still know how to play off each other well. Pegg still bites his knuckle and gets wide eyed while Frost still gets to be the more volatile, yet harmless part of the duo. Their interactions with others, like Kristin Wiig’s bible-thumper turned captive and Jason Bateman’s straight-faced Man in Black, seem to amplify our expectations of the actors, but it works out well because they’re likeable as everyman characters when considered against Hollywood’s more polished stars.

The biggest third wheel to enter their lives this time is Paul, the extraterrestrial who sends them on their journey across the Western US. Paul is voiced by Seth Rogen, and I must admit I didn’t know how well Rogen would fit with the British funny men. Thus, I found myself extremely pleased as Rogen’s turn as the foul-mouthed Paul progressed. The character of the alien, who’s blessed with far more knowledge than the bumbling “nerds”, matches up well with Rogen’s direct delivery of the lines, yet he’s still able to slip down an octave and portray a natural companion to the duo. By the end of the film, I found myself respecting Rogen’s comedic style as much as I did in the misunderstood Observe and Report from a couple of years ago. His ability to balance humanity and insanity in that film was certainly on an opposite end of the spectrum from Paul, but both films show that he can play both sides of a character with ease.

Paul’s comedic formula is nothing too groundbreaking – the characters face recurring obstacles as they try to reach an objective – but the energy the actors bring to the material helps immensely. Frost & Pegg wrote the script themselves, so it’s easy to see why they’re so comfortable as the leads, but their supporting cast never seems to miss a beat either. Wiig and Bateman both fill their roles with ease, and neither is stretching too much from the kind of roles we expect from them. Joe Lo Truglio and Bill Hader add a lot of laughs as the bumbling rookie MiBs, and veteran character actor John Carroll Lynch is a fun presence as the militant Christian father of Wiig’s character. There are a few gags that fall flat with some side characters – a late film drug joke with Blythe Danner falls flat and the couple appearances of former SNL funnyman David Koechner seem to be reused Dumb & Dumber gags – but the comedy works in general because the primary characters are so fun to hang out around.

Paul also hits a nerd home run by featuring more references to other movies and pop culture into each minute than I thought was possible. Almost all of one famous director’s films are mentioned, and the man himself even makes a brief vocal cameo. Sigourney Weaver, who gained fame through Alien encounters, has had her presence in the film spoiled by advertising, but the reveal when she does show up is quite good. In the meantime, almost every scene features some kind of nerdy reference to everything from Back to the Future to Capturing the Friedmans. Pegg and Frost were born from geek culture, and they have it down to an art form here.

I know Paul is a bit lacking cinematically due to its paint by numbers plot and stereotypical characters. But when it’s painted this well and the characters are this fun, I don’t mind one bit. This is an R-rated comedy that stays lighthearted, and it reminds me of the kind of comedies we’d expect from the 1980s. The fact that much of the film seems to be on cruise control doesn’t distract me from how much fun I had with Paul, because it’s a film that should do for sci-fi what Zombieland did for horror. I highly recommend it to any of my fellow nerds out there.

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Filed under: Comedy, Movies, Science Fiction

Blue Chips: My bracket has the Western Dolphins Winning the prize

  • Written by Jason
  • Posted March 16, 2011 at 3:33 pm

As March Madness kicks off, people go into a tailspin worrying about their NCAA brackets and who was closest to guessing the Sweet 16 and the Final Four. For a weeks, employers accept the fact that their employees are constantly checking scores, updating their brackets and secretly watching games on company time. To not be a part of March Madness makes you an outsider. I am one of those outsiders. I really don’t care if Gonzaga beats Kansas, or if UNC beats UNI. None of it matters to me in the end. College hoops have always been somewhat of a bore to me. However the one team I know I can get behind (besides Iowa State) is the Western University Dolphins.

You haven’t heard of the Dolphins? They were a huge team in the 90’s. They were one time college homes of NBA greats Penny Hardaway and Shaq. Well- at least in the movies they were. The Western Dolphins are much like the Minnesota State Screamin’ Eagles- fictional. Their head coach is the legendary Pete Bell, played by Nick Nolte in the William Friedken directed 1994 film, Blue Chips. Bell is the type of coach who has always played by the rules, loves the game and has two national titles to show for it. However, when his prospects have dried up and is faced with back to back losing seasons he begins contemplating using under the table bribes to bring to prospects to his squad. Knowing it’s against NCAA regulations Bell begins to bite the hand that feeds him, turning to the “friends” of the program to launder everything from new cars to new houses to players and their families for their commitment to Dolphin basketball.

While on many levels Blue Chips is just a mediocre mess of a basketball flick, it does bring up the constant debate of ethical recruitment procedures and if college athletes should be paid to play ball. However, it’s hard to believe that William Friedken is behind the camera in this flick. Here’s a man who’s claim to fame are great films such as The French Connection and The Exorcist and he’s directing Shaq and Penny in a basketball flick? It seems silly. And silly it turns out to be. Friedken just never quite finds his comfort behind the camera and Blue Chips is a bit of a visual mess, despite having an engaging story.

Perhaps the best part of Blue Chips is the performance by Nick Nolte. The actor channels his best Bobby Knight (whom he coincidentally shows down against in the film’s climax) and can be one ranting and raving, ball of rage when he needs to be. His short fuse makes for some awkward moments, but also explains his back and forth morality/ethics challenge between the desire to win and the desire to do it the right way. Perhaps some of my favorite scenes of the film are Nolte on the road recruiting, as he does the “dog and pony” show convincing parents he comes from a good Catholic, Pentecostal, and First Baptist upbringing.

If you’re expecting quality performances out of Shaq or Penny don’t start here. I guess in many ways Shaq is better in Blue Chips than he is in let’s say...Kazaam, or Steel, but he’s a minor character who stuffs a ball in a hoop. He should be good at it. That’s kind of what he does for a living. There’s probably a reason Penny Hardaway stuck to his on court skills and never returned to acting; and it’s not because Little Penny took his acting gig away from him. (Please tell me I’m not the only one who remembers Little Penny- the puppet friend of Penny Hardaway in shoe ads.) Penny can’t act. Hardaway seems lost on screen, and the only time he truly seems at home is when he is on the court playing the game.

Is Blue Chips the epitome of fine film making? No. Is it fun watch? Yes. Nolte is the All Star of this film and puts up a MVP worthy performance in this film that is otherwise just kind of mediocre. During the time of brackets and NCAA finals, you may not want to think of bought and paid for teams and under the table deals, but it’s part of sports and films like Blue Chips shed some light on the ugly truth. Should athletes be paid to play in college sports? That’s up for debate. But should they be bribed to go to one team over the other? No. But has it happened, and it will continue to happen.  But then again that statement only depends on who you ask and if you really want to know.

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