Mike At The Movies

In the wake of the healthcare legislation passed this week, I can’t help but think there isn’t a more appropriate movie to come out at the same time. Repo Men is the all too chilling tale about the direction healthcare is heading. Simply put, you take out a loan on replacement organs, and if you can’t make the payments they come and repossess your organs the way they would your car. I think we’ll see this bit of science fiction becoming science fiction far sooner than I’m comfortable with.

The cast features Jude Law, Forest Whitaker and Liev Schreiber. While none of them give Oscar worthy performances, they all adequately rise to the occasion for what can only be termed an Slasher-Action film.

This film is not for the faint of heart. The action is intense, brutal, and grizzly. However like most Gun-Fu movies knives play a huge roll in combat as compared to firearms which personally I always find to be more painful to watch than a firefight. Knife fighting always struck me as a much more personal way to kill someone.

I absolutely loved this film. Incredibly relevant in social context with that dark borderline post apocalyptic style with a cast that managed to make what could have been a senseless action film hold together into a bit of social commentary.

I give this film 8/10 kidneys.

This week’s review has been postponed until next week. This weekend however a number of great films are coming out.

Moon delicately straddles the thin line between big money blockbuster and pretentious artsy film, and it does so with the grace of a ballerina. The last time a science fiction film did something with such grace would be Stanley Kubrik’s rendition of 2001 a Space Odyssey. So close perhaps that it can almost be accused of plagiarism, for while the films have drastically differing plots, they both achieve their affect through very similar channels: Grossly isolated characters, silence, and endured hardship with dubious personal return, not to mention your friendly neighborhood mechanical chum.

However that’s where the similarities breakdown. While 2001 was really an investigation into the causation of life and our place in the grand scheme, Moon looks more towards our immediate future through the lens of our present. Contemplating the role of business, ecology, human rights, science, family and self all within 90 minutes is a tall order. One that will leave you eager for seconds if only because it doesn’t finish addressing any of them and leaves the dots for you to connect.

One of the important things to point out is that this is a Science Fiction film. Being as such it is very much grounded in the problems of today and how we can use science to solve them. These are solutions that are on the drawing boards at the moment just looking for the last little kick over the edge to become practical. Quality Science Fiction films don’t come along all that often and when they tend to get out shown by their bastard children “Future Tech” movies. Moon will undoubtedly get over shadowed by Transformers or Ironman, but it has significantly more important and relevant ideas.

Considering its effectively a one man show, Sam Rockwell more than rises to the occasion. Providing an incredibly dynamic performance with absolute credulity, he fills up the entire stage by himself. The character itself is very well written, fully rounded until he almost manages to turn himself into a Klein Bottle. Considering the small budget of the production the special effects are rather impressive.

The film, which is showing at both the Sundance and Tribeca film festivals definitely qualifies as an arts film and as I recommend to anyone I know, if you’re going to do something artsy bring along a chaperon. Coffee afterward is a great way to hack out anything that was left for you to think about. That and often they’ll keep you from sticking your foot in your mouth if you just don’t get it. This is definitely a film that warrants a cup of coffee and perhaps a chocolate dipped biscotii.

On this weeks Insane Robot scale Moon rates:
6 out of 10 Insane Robots

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs is a beloved childhood classic of roughly anyone born after the late 1980s. Finally being rendered on the big screen in both 2D and 3D formats, the film does incredible justice to the core of the book. The plot has been radically reworked to hold together better for an hour and a half, but that does not take away one bit from the orginal charm of the print edition.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs is Sony Pictures Animation big break through into a market largely dominated by Pixar and Dreamworks. Sony while arriving to the scene a tad late is making up for lost time and coming out of the gate running. The visuals are stunning. Well rendered, great depth of field, spectacular color palate and a few new texture effects I’d never seen attempted digitally before. At times the food looked good enough to run out and hit up a resturaunt on the spot for a full 5 course meal.

That being said, the 3D version of the film seems to be trying to immetate 3D films made more than 3 years ago. The film continuously and needlessly throws food in your face. The other two 3D animation powerhouses have settled down a bit and realized that 3D doesn’t have to be about gimmicks but rather can be used to provide a more immersive environment and draw you more into the film, rather than reminding you that you’re in a movie theater and would you like a strand of spaghetti up your nose? However, as distracting and unnecessary as gimmicky 3D can be, it does add something to this film.

The voice acting was adequate. No earth shattering performances but nothing so terrible that it would make you want to cry. Worth noting however perhaps is Mr. T doing what Mr. T does best, namely playing Mr. T. While an ancillary character in the film he provides possibly the most entertaining value out of any of the other characters.

While the plot for the most part held up, given allowances for it being a childrens movie. The dialogue tanked. The actors weren’t given an opportunity to perform better than adequate with dialog that was as crippled as the film provided. While not nearly as bad as the dialog featured in G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra, it still made me cringe from time to time. Disjointed and lacking substance, it bordered on ruining the film completely.

All of this said, the movie winds up coming out on both sides of the spectrum. Having an odd dicotomy of both spectacular grandeur and pestilant disappintment, the final coin really dropped upon one lone fact. It’s a childhood classic that was done justice. It was a throughly enjoyable experiance for that one simple fact alone. I can overlook all the flaws in the film becasue it is such a beloved treasure of my youth.

On this week’s Pastrami on Rye scale Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs gets:
7/10 Pastrami Sandwhiches.

As an adendum, bonus points go to whoever can comment with a famous movie/tv referance they caught within the film.

If there was ever a film made to date that should have been in 3D it was 9. The film is permeated by stunning visual effects and environments. Characters, that look like gunny sacks come to life with surprising expressivenes and humanity and villains that are as evil as the boot-heel of fascism. The action lent itself directly to the “gimmicky” type of shots that tend to make 3D films look like nothing more than cheap ploys, and for once it would’ve fit perfectly and only enhanced the danger and excitement of the film. Alas, only the trailer of 9 was filmed and released in 3D and a golden opportunity for the rise of 3D cinema into a real media was lost.

All that said, 9 was still an outstanding film. With an incredibly strong cast featuring, Jennifer Connelly, John C. Riley, Martin Landau and Elijah Wood the characters pop off the screen even without the 3D. Each character has it’s own distinct personality and it’s own emotive range and all of it fits together in seemless beauty.

Themes from the cinema of the 1950s science fiction seem to be cropping up more lately. Possibly as a backlash from hollywood against the rise of military flex within our contry over the past 8 years and possibly someone has noticed the spreading “iFever”. Several films this year have brought the almost viral spread of electronics and machinery into our daily lives under the microscope while also reminding us of some of the horrors of totalitarian regimes.
On this week’s Body Snatcher scale 9 rates:
9 of 10 Bodies Snached

I took the opportunity this weekend to get together Joe and play Beatles Rock Band.

While I agree with Joe that the game is more than significantly prettier in both background graphics and even in game mechanics graphics. I find myself spending so much time watching notes run up the screen that I don’t even notice the majority of all the new fun animation, and the deeper saturated color palate that they put into this game.

Beatles Rock Band is much easier than Rock Band 2 was. I usually can only play at the “Hard” difficulty setting on bass, during Beatles Rock Band I was jamming out “Expert” and not even winking. Most of the bass parts were fairly similar such that after maybe a dozen songs I was ready to turn the game off. I’ll confess that I didn’t take advantage of the new 3 part harmonies or take an opportunity to play any of the other instruments (my skill with them is so low it would’ve been a poor benchmark)

Beatles Rock Band also does not mingle with your previous Rock Band titles. You cannot play Beatles songs within Rock Band 2 and vice versa. So you’re stuck playing the same group of songs over and over again, and while the Beatles wrote a lot of music at some point you just get sick of hearing the same group.

The historical aspect of the game is kinda neat if you’re interested in music history or the time period. It adds a bit of an exploratory aspect to a game that otherwise was fairly hum drum.

If you’re going to buy one Rock Band title to date, I’d reccomend Rock Band 2. The extensibility (although not cheap) of the titles more than makes up for the lack of pretty and desaturation of the title.

On this weeks Pumpkin Pie scale Beatles Rock Band Gets:
5/10 Pumpkin Pies

I have been more excited for the release of The Beatles Rock Band than any other title I can remember. I pre-ordered mine from Amazon.com with their “release-day delivery” guarantee. UPS finally dropped it off on my doorstep around 5:20pm. I had schoolwork I should have been doing anyway, so it’s fine that it came later in the day, but for future titles I think I might pre-order from local retailers – especially if it means I can pick it up at 12:01 am!

The game is absolutely beautiful. I imagine that because the gameplay mechanics were carried over from prior titles a ::lot:: more attention was paid to the visual aspects of the game. I couldn’t much appreciate the cinematic backgrounds while banging on the drums, though a couple “dreamscapes” did catch my eye – and the few songs I sat out for were as enjoyable to watch as they would have been to play.

The Beatles Rock Band is a feel-good video game. Everything about it is cheerful – the menu system, the interface design, the background videos, the music itself – everything is tied up into one big bundle of warm and fuzzy. Harmonix did an excellent job at creating the music tracks. I found my familiarity with The Beatles’ music helping me through the songs, anticipating rather than reacting to the notes coming down the highway. The translations felt right. I played through the entire setlist with my brother, myself on drums, he on bass, both on Expert – and while there were a few sticky bits, it was mostly a breeze. That balance, for me, made the game feel relaxing and satisfying and just plain fun to play. That said, this is not the game to get if you’re looking for a seriously challenging gameplay experience. I still can’t say I can play every song in prior Rock Bands on Expert (and I don’t think I ever will!), and some of them stress me out and frustrate me to no end. While that sort of difficulty is invigorating – it’s not The Beatles – and I’m glad Harmonix had the sensitivity to make that distinction.

What I like most about the game is the fact that it’s as much a history lesson and tribute to The Beatles as it is a video game. I’m only 23, which puts The Beatles well before my time. I’d say I was familiar with perhaps 3/4 of the setlist – which means 1/4 were selections I’d never heard before. In addition to the music, story mode follows The Beatles’ career, complete with authentic scenes and venues. In between each location are lovely bits of motion graphics (by MK12!) that use photographs (black and white, and then color) of The Beatles to tell their story. Before and after some songs are snippets of the Fab Four chatting with each other in the studio, riffing bits from the song they’re about to play, discussing, laughing, counting off; it serves as a neat little window into the lives of The Beatles as musicians first, cultural phenomena second.

New with The Beatles Rock Band is support for vocal harmony parts – up to three-part harmony simultaneously! This was the feature I was most eager to play with, and it turned out to be the one we used the least this evening. The reason for this being the apartment walls were thin, the hour was late, and our singing was terrible. I’m a baritone by nature, my brother is a bass, so trying to sing lead tenor and high harmony, and to do so quietly so as not to disturb the neighbors, was quite futile. What little singing we did do, though, convinces me that the system is rock-solid, and it will be a lot of fun to play with once we’re in a more sound-proof environment!

All things considered, I love the game, I love the music, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. If you’re looking for a great time, you can’t do much better than The Beatles Rock Band.

“And, in the end, the love you take,
Is equal to the love you make.”

Capitalizing upon the recent success of shows like Dancing With The Stars and High-School Musical. Glee provides a pleasent escape from the heavier dramas that have been dominating television. The show does come off fairly saccharine, so if you have an issue with shows that are too light the show isn’t for you. Glee reminds me of what Pushing Daisies would’ve been if you’d lightend it up just a tad, refocused it back to your high school glory days, and thrown in a generious dose of song and dance. Glee is just flat out light hearted fun.
On this weeks plastic apple scale Glee snags:
8 out of 10 Plastic Apples

Jim Henson’s The Muppet Show wasn’t intended for young audiences, however as time went by the muppets became more and more kid friendly until finally the cartoon Muppet Babies came out, forever solidifying them as a childrens play thing. Truly a sad consequence as the muppets could be hilarious in their own satirical way, something that, along with vaudville, seems difficult to recapture in the modern world of high-tech video games and computer animation.

Greg The Bunny on the other hand could never be mistaken for a children’s show. Up until Avenue Q I don’t think I’d even heard of something that approached the level of risque that was Greg The Bunny. Starring Seth Green, Sarah Silverman and Eugene Levy and an ensemble of disfunctional puppets; Greg The Bunny just lays on one dirty joke after another. Oddly and perhaps most amusingly, each episode seems to find its own unique way to wrap up with a Sesame Street style moral.

The odd bit is, given the risque nature of the content the show should have been immune to Fox Networks show canceling scythe of doom. A network that time and time again has found a way to cancel all of the great programming, and even large swaths of the decent programming in favor of shows involving the consumption of monkey brains, or marrying for money. Greg The Bunny only saw 2 seasons, getting canceled after one and then ressurected several years later for a second encore only to be canceled again.
On this week’s Habanero Pepper scale Greg The Bunny gets:
7/10 Habanero Peppers

Find more videos like this on GREG THE BUNNY

Gamer caught me off guard this week. I went in expecting little more than a Shoot-Em Up clone with a splash of sci-fi thrown in. What I wound up with was a cross between GATTACA and A Clockwork Orange, with just a splash of Gladiator to round out the mix. The fact of the matter is, that for an action movie, this film is suprisingly light on action! It’s very odd to watch a film of this nature and have it address something outside of how do we blow up the next guy, but Gamer actually does.

Gamer grapples with some of the same questions parents have been grappling with for their kids for the past 20 years, and points its finger at the elephant in the room that few people are willing to acknowledge. Violence as a form of pleasure was what A Clockwork Orange dealt with years ago, and the issue of what to do with violence in the media, particularly video games has been a point of contention for years. What no one is really pointing out, is how willing we’ve all been to jack ourselves into the grid. Ipods, Netbooks, Blackberries, etc all of them have grafted themselves upon our hands, hips and ears linking us together while seperating each of apart. To the point where I know someone who actually checks his E-mail while in the shower.

Gamer just takes it to the next step, what if we all jacked in so far that we might never come out again. Who watches, who controls, who is in control? Question after question, with the occasional splash of action thrown in, almost as if to lighten the mood.

Outside of its ability to examine some complicated issues and do so startlingly well, the film holds little to impress. Outside of the villian, played by Michael C. Hall ability to still play a startingly sadistic character. No one did a job that warranted even mentioning. Nothing great, nothing terrible, just good enough to get the job done. The special effects were on par with what I’d expect of any serious action movie made in this day. It just boils down to average.

On this weeks Giant Man Eating Rabbit scale Gamer earns:
7 out of 10 man eating rabbits.