Saturday, November 22, 2003

The trailer for Timeline is great. What they show is almost exactly what I pictured when I was reading the book. I love that. I’m trying to keep my expectations lower so that I won’t be disappointed when I actually see the movie. Another reason I’m excited about it is Neal McDonough (also from Band of Brothers and Boomtown) - he’s a really good, deep actor. I can’t wait! Woo hoo!

So Master and Commander was excellent. It was a bit long, but when it ended I was ready for more. And that seems like it’s contradictory, but it’s not really. You have to see it. Russell Crowe is such a good actor - he’s the Gregory Peck type of this generation, imho.

This movie will be nominated in many categories - most especially for sound and sound effects. There wasn’t a lot of music, but there was a lot to listen to. There were times when I felt that I was on the ship with those men. The creaking, the splashing, the clunk of cannon, the clip of shoes on the deck. Fantastic.

***TECHNICAL SPOILER AHEAD***

I saw Russell Crowe on David Letterman a week or so ago. Dave asked him how much they shot on the water and how they did the special effects. Crowe asked if Dave was referring to CGI as was used for The Perfect Storm...they used very little, he said. Instead, Peter Weir had camera crews on various parts of the ocean in the area where the action takes place - they shot from ships at sea to get realistic shots of the waters, storms, coastline, etc. Then they added the close shots of the crews on the ship replicas and the long shots of tall ships at sea. Brilliant and so worth it - it was very realistic and well done.

***SPOILER OVER***

I love the movie and I’m ready for the franchise. Start regrowing that magnificent hair, Russell!

Sunday, July 13, 2003

I haven’t had this much fun at the movies in a long, long time.

Overheard

While Dad was standing in line for our tickets, I stood in line for drinks. Behind me were two teenagers who were discussing fat content, sugar, and diet drinks. It went something like this:

Kid #1: What are you gonna get?

Kid #2: I’m thinking of Twizzlers because they’re low-fat.

Kid #1: I’m thinking of [some chocolate candy] with a Diet Pepsi - the diet drink will cancel out the chocolate.

The kicker was that it was two boys having that conversation. Cracked me up.

The Trailers

They ran four trailers before our movie:

1. Hidalgo - This looks to be a good movie, based on a true story of a horse and rider (played by Viggo Mortensen), who compete in a 3000 mile race across the Arabian Desert.

2. The Last Samurai - I might be interested in seeing this Tom Cruise movie. The jury is still out on that one.

3. Envy - Ben Stiller and Jack Black are the reasons I may go see this comedy. It looks like it has the potential to be hilarious or idiotic.

4. Seabiscuit - I’m definitely going to go see this one. The trailer made me weepy.

The Feature

We went to see Pirates of the Caribbean. Man, is that a fun, fun movie. I won’t bore you with a long review. Just trust me that this is going to be the word-of-mouth movie this summer. It’s campy, touching, action-packed...I will buy the DVD when it comes out.

Here’s a snippet of one IMDB review:

Let me state from the outset - this is a fantastic movie that epitomizes what a summer movie should be. It features oodles of action – both in the form of swashbuckling sword fights and big time explosions, is packed full of accessible humor, boasts great special effects (note: not gratuitous), has beautiful and eerie locations, nasty villains, reformed heroes and fantastic performances. Am I making it clear that I liked this movie?