in-flight movie reviews
Dec. 29th, 2005 09:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chronovoreThe flight over pretty much sucked for movies. Luckily it was just over eight hours, nothing like the twelve hour return flight:
Christmas With the Kranks: gave it a miss, or maybe it wasn't playing.
Kindergarten Cop: I saw and enjoyed this in theaters a long time ago. It doesn't hold up at all. Who the hell is the love interest in this movie? She went up fast and disappeared quick, like a bottle rocket. Whatsit? Penelope Ann Miller? And the villain and his mom? Pure 80's suspension-of-disbelief-stretching movie kitsch.
Must Love Dogs: gave it a miss; I'll watch John Cusack in almost anything. Almost.
The Perfect Man: gave it a miss. Was that Heather Locklear?
The Polar Express: Not /nearly/ as bad as I'd expected. The Uncanny Valley comparisons are not unfair; the characters are all, to a one, very creepy. Where they should have used unmanipulated motion capture data or hand-animated the whole thing, they stay in some middle-of-the-road compromise that looks as unnatural as the weirdly facial motion-captured "acting." Truth to tell, they should have used a greenscreen technique like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow did. However there are musical segments that are a lot of fun, gorgeous sets and impossible camera movements that are really just breathtaking.
Seabiscuit: gave it a miss
X2: X-Men United: Stunning how well Brian Singer captures the feeling of what made the X-Men comics great, and updates it just enough for grown-ups and film transition.
On the other hand, the return flight's movies were quite good—Return Flight:
A Beautiful Mind: This is the charming and bittersweet story of eccentric mathmetician John Nash, and his struggles with his unique intellect.As much as I am not a fan of Russell Crowe's personal antics, this is an absolutely wonderful movie with stellar performances throughout it.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The most common comment heard about this movie is that there was no need to remake the Gene Wilder film; however, this is not the same story as that movie. Tim Burton has a knack for stunning visuals and offsetting presentation of quirky, nuanced characters. In this, he shows Willy Wonka to be a troubled and imperfect ruler over his wondrous factory. The most common comparison is a rather grotesque and unfair one to Michael Jackson, which fails to notice the healing powers of a good-tempered innocent on a jaded adult, as well as tainting the movie's reputation with implied association with sexual abuse of children. This movie draws even more attention to the importantance of parenting in not only the resulting child, but how it will affect the entire family dynamic. And if that's not enough for you, Danny Elfman does all the vocals in the Oompah Loompah songs. Woot!
A Good Woman: gave it a miss
How the Grinch Stole Christmas: I had ZERO hope for this movie going into it, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. Jim Carrey is an excellent Grinch, and the Whos are a lot less purile than they are in the original story. Plenty of comedy that happens beyond the slapstick level for the adults, as well as standard Carry mugging for the camera, spazzing out, and toilet humor for the kids. I'll probably rent it to watch with my kids during this winter break.
Ice Age: The channel for this was on the fritz for the entire trip; I wanted to see it, but couldn't deal with the audio and visual static.
The Island: (sigh) Ewan MacGregor. Scarlet Johannsen. Sean Bean. Steve Buscemi. That guy who played Neelix on Star Trek: Voyager. How can this have gone so far wrong as it manages to? Leave aside dropped plotlines that might have been ill-conceived red herrings. Don't touch the continuity errors that cause things to make even less sense. What we have is essentially a movie about kids trying to get home while being pursued by a Bad Guy. But they don't have a home, and there is no place to go, so director Michael Bay makes things explode, loudly, instead. This is another one of those movies that, though I saw it for free, and had little better to do with my time on the flight, I still felt like I had wasted a chance to do something, anything else.
Little Manhattan: gave it a miss
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: I am a BIG, big fan of W&G, and was very excited to see this movie. I laughed out loud repeatedly; there are a lot of good puns, some subtle, some not, some delayed-reaction gems as well. Still, I think the characters were better served in their short film incarnations; the humor and plot get a bit, er, long in the tooth.
Christmas With the Kranks: gave it a miss, or maybe it wasn't playing.
Kindergarten Cop: I saw and enjoyed this in theaters a long time ago. It doesn't hold up at all. Who the hell is the love interest in this movie? She went up fast and disappeared quick, like a bottle rocket. Whatsit? Penelope Ann Miller? And the villain and his mom? Pure 80's suspension-of-disbelief-stretching movie kitsch.
Must Love Dogs: gave it a miss; I'll watch John Cusack in almost anything. Almost.
The Perfect Man: gave it a miss. Was that Heather Locklear?
The Polar Express: Not /nearly/ as bad as I'd expected. The Uncanny Valley comparisons are not unfair; the characters are all, to a one, very creepy. Where they should have used unmanipulated motion capture data or hand-animated the whole thing, they stay in some middle-of-the-road compromise that looks as unnatural as the weirdly facial motion-captured "acting." Truth to tell, they should have used a greenscreen technique like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow did. However there are musical segments that are a lot of fun, gorgeous sets and impossible camera movements that are really just breathtaking.
Seabiscuit: gave it a miss
X2: X-Men United: Stunning how well Brian Singer captures the feeling of what made the X-Men comics great, and updates it just enough for grown-ups and film transition.
On the other hand, the return flight's movies were quite good—Return Flight:
A Beautiful Mind: This is the charming and bittersweet story of eccentric mathmetician John Nash, and his struggles with his unique intellect.As much as I am not a fan of Russell Crowe's personal antics, this is an absolutely wonderful movie with stellar performances throughout it.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The most common comment heard about this movie is that there was no need to remake the Gene Wilder film; however, this is not the same story as that movie. Tim Burton has a knack for stunning visuals and offsetting presentation of quirky, nuanced characters. In this, he shows Willy Wonka to be a troubled and imperfect ruler over his wondrous factory. The most common comparison is a rather grotesque and unfair one to Michael Jackson, which fails to notice the healing powers of a good-tempered innocent on a jaded adult, as well as tainting the movie's reputation with implied association with sexual abuse of children. This movie draws even more attention to the importantance of parenting in not only the resulting child, but how it will affect the entire family dynamic. And if that's not enough for you, Danny Elfman does all the vocals in the Oompah Loompah songs. Woot!
A Good Woman: gave it a miss
How the Grinch Stole Christmas: I had ZERO hope for this movie going into it, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. Jim Carrey is an excellent Grinch, and the Whos are a lot less purile than they are in the original story. Plenty of comedy that happens beyond the slapstick level for the adults, as well as standard Carry mugging for the camera, spazzing out, and toilet humor for the kids. I'll probably rent it to watch with my kids during this winter break.
Ice Age: The channel for this was on the fritz for the entire trip; I wanted to see it, but couldn't deal with the audio and visual static.
The Island: (sigh) Ewan MacGregor. Scarlet Johannsen. Sean Bean. Steve Buscemi. That guy who played Neelix on Star Trek: Voyager. How can this have gone so far wrong as it manages to? Leave aside dropped plotlines that might have been ill-conceived red herrings. Don't touch the continuity errors that cause things to make even less sense. What we have is essentially a movie about kids trying to get home while being pursued by a Bad Guy. But they don't have a home, and there is no place to go, so director Michael Bay makes things explode, loudly, instead. This is another one of those movies that, though I saw it for free, and had little better to do with my time on the flight, I still felt like I had wasted a chance to do something, anything else.
Little Manhattan: gave it a miss
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: I am a BIG, big fan of W&G, and was very excited to see this movie. I laughed out loud repeatedly; there are a lot of good puns, some subtle, some not, some delayed-reaction gems as well. Still, I think the characters were better served in their short film incarnations; the humor and plot get a bit, er, long in the tooth.
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