Going to the movies

Today it seems like the movie going experience is lost on many people, now with all are gadgets and smart phones, it seems that no longer is the only illumination from the screen but from every seat around you. I know this is a constant complaint from many people and I'm just adding my two cents but something has to change. I think it's one reason actual ticket sales have gone down, what I mean is that because today's ticket prices are inflated and you see how much a movie grossed that weekend doesn't actually mean a lot of people saw the movie. This is another reason people are deciding to stay at home and watch movies, but I'm getting off track here.
I guess one of my questions is why do these people even buy tickets when they aren't even going to watch the movie and ruin my experience by being on their stupid phone. What makes things worse is after telling this person or persons to be quiet things can escalate into violence, I read not too long ago about some getting shot for telling someone to be quiet. All this because you wanted to go and enjoy a movie.
I have a pet peeve I'll share with you, why is it people seem to have to seat themselves right next to you. I can understand when it's a packed movie but not when you're the only ones in the theater. I purposely sit in a certain area because I don't want other people next to me. Yet what is it with some people who think you all of a sudden want company. When people have sat next to me and the theater is pretty empty, I'll look around at all the other empty seats and look back at them like "Hello, you didn't have any of the other hundred or so seats to chose from!" Sorry that's my little vent. I have a friend who whatever reason just has to pick the top or near the top and sit in the middle seats and this drives me crazy because basically I'm helpless.
Where did we lose sight of going to the movies to escape from our life for just a couple of hours and not ruin it by talking or being on our phones, texting, whatever, just allowing the rest of us to enjoy the movie. I wish I could tell people if you can't be respectful of others then don't go especially with the cost of going to the movies or for people who only go to watch certain movies.
Ultimately it's up to us and I'd rather you stay home then ruin my fun, just remember if it's an empty theater don't sit next to me.

Beautiful Girls

Beautiful Girls is one of those hidden gem movies that I recommend seeing, it has some insight into the minds of men.
It stars Timothy Hutton as guy who goes back to his hometown because he's at crossroads in his life and it's his first high school reunion. He catches up with friends whom are also in the same boat and together they discover aren't all that different.
Timothy Hutton plays Willie who is unsure about his relationship with his girlfriend because she's getting serious and he's not sure he's ready. While back home Willie befriends a young girl whom he sees a lot of potential and even questions that if he waits till she gets older they could be together.
Matt Dillon is a guy who keeps having an affair with his old high school girlfriend even though she's married and he's involved with someone else.
Michael Rapaport plays a guy who has pictures and posters of super models all over his walls, can't say I wasn't guilty of that myself.
It shows that even when you try to escape from life and try to go back home, that life waits for no one and it keeps happening no matter where you go.
Uma Thurman pops up in a small role and brings some insight and perspective for these guys.
Natalie Portman fresh from her role in The Professional plays the young girl whom Willie has an attraction for.
It's one of those movies you look at and remember those same conversations you had and are amazed how far you've come.

Remakes continued

I just wanted to add that it's a shame that with all this rich literary source material and even some very original material that's probably been created as we speak, why does Hollywood insist on making remakes. And of course the obvious reason is to resell it to a new generation and thus cash in again.
Again as I stated I think people should give foreign films or even independent films a chance, especially when you can easily research what the movies about on the internet.
It's my hope on future blogs I'll be able to recommend movies to you that you've never heard of or even considered and how pleasantly surprised you'll be in your delight at these hidden treasures.

Remakes

What is it with all these remakes of foreign films? I know people tell me that they get tired of reading while watching a film, but if the film is really good then I don't think they'll get lost in the story line.
This whole aversion to foreign films is lost on me because there have been some great films that I've seen this year that were stand alone films and should be easily recognized by the academy. When I say recognized by the academy, I don't mean best foreign film either, these are films that should be seen by everybody.
What got me going on this topic was that I just read how they are going to remake "The secret In their Eyes", which is ironic because I was just talking about this same thing with my friend Chris last night. The original is a great movie that I raved about to many people and posted about on Facebook. My fear is that they are going to butcher it and destroy a great story because unfortunately they will probably dumb it down because they don't feel that we as Americans are that bright.
Of course "The Departed" was a phenomenal film because it had a great filmmaker like Martin Scorsese make that film and it was a very sharp and smart movie. That's what it would take to make these remakes great, renowned filmmakers. I am curious to see how "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" turns out because David Fincher is making that remake. But this goes back to what I was saying why remake a great movie, why can't people just take a chance on a film that they might actually enjoy. Of course the opposite could be true and that is we have short attention spans, so of course people are going to complain about having to read while watching a movie. I hope I'm wrong and maybe it's that these films don't get enough advertising and that they only play at the independent theaters.
As a person who loves movies I implore you to try checking out a foreign film, it might actually surprise you how good it is and maybe even how superior it might be to what's out.

Spider-Man Reboot

Can it be that it was not even ten years ago that Spider-man finally graced our screens and yet here there's talk of rebooting the franchise. I always thought a reboot was needed after the franchise had played itself out and this is definitely not the case with the Spider-man franchise.
Andrew Garfield the actor the studio picked as the new Peter Parker/Spider-Man is the same age Tobey Maguire was when he started Spider-Man. The studio originally wanted to start over with the franchise having Peter Parker back in high school and going from there, but with this new actor taking over the franchise, the Peter Parker character again will be in college. If your thinking like I was, the question is WHY?!
Sam Raimi's version and vision of Spider-Man were great, I liked his choices for the villains, he was old school and that was definitely the way to establish this franchise.
When I saw the first Spider-man movie come to life on the big screen it's what I was hoping for, it was like seeing my comics come to life especially since it was stuck in development hell forever. I would read I don't know how many times that a Spider-Man movie was being attempted to be made but in 2002 there it was finally for all to see.
Spider-Man 2 was even better than the first one and developed the characters even more, fleshed them out and made me care for them. Spider-Man 2 is still one of my favorite super hero movies easily in the top two.
Unfortunately for Sam Raimi Spider-Man 3 is a bit muddled and has too many villains in it, which I don't blame on him because he was forced to use a character which he didn't want to use.
Yes, that character is Venom. I always felt they should have saved that character for future sequels but the studio rushed it into Spider-Man 3 where you can see it feels rushed.
If the studio was smart they would have let Raimi finish his vision of Spider-Man and then brought in a new director and possibly recast Peter Parker, but I think Tobey Maguire still had a couple films left in him. I think Tobey Maguire was cast perfectly as Peter Parker and I thought Kirsten Dunst did a decent job as Mary Jane Watson.
So instead of rebooting this franchise, now is when you bring in a new director and allow his vision to come to life, a fresh, new perspective on this still great franchise. At least with a new director you'd have a better choice for the Venom character then Topher Grace.
I can't help thinking what Spider-Man 3 could have been without studio interference, maybe for once a great number three in a series instead of a miss.
One more thing, I wonder how great James Cameron's version of Spider-Man might have been especially since the studio called his script that he wrote too violent. Perhaps Mr. Cameron might grace us with a version of Spider-Man one of these days, as long as those idiots in Hollywood don't destroy it first.

Inception

I don't know about you but I have to say this has been a so-so summer for movies. I'm so used to movies coming out every week that get you excited about, it's what we've come to expect from summer movies. Mind you that I have seen some good movies but not enough, that was until I saw Inception. This was a movie I've been waiting for since I heard it was to be Christopher Nolan's next film. Christopher Nolan is one of the best filmmakers out there, I've enjoyed all of his films and I know it's a short list but he's more than proved himself.
Inception is a story about dreams and a group who go into your dreams and extract your ideas while in the dream state. That is until they are asked to implant an idea into someones dream which is called inception. I'm purposely being vague about the story because I don't want to spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it yet.
The movie stars Leo DiCaprio as Cobb, the leader of the group and Joseph Gordon Levitt as Arthur his right hand man. It also has Ellen Page as Ariadne the architect, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy as the intended target and Marion Cotillard as Mal.
The movie is an action adventure but with brains, it's a movie you need to pay attention to because if you don't you could get lost, mind you that might still happen even after the movie ends.
Leo gives one of the best performances I've seen because I think he brings a restraint to the character without going over the top which I think he's done in past performances.
Joseph Gordon Levitt is a tremendous talent one whom I've been watching for some time and he brings a subtlety and strength to his character and if rumors are to be believed I can't wait to see him as the Riddler in the next Batman movie.
Ellen Page showed me a freshness, a naivete of her character something she can definitely build on for future roles. I feel all the characters are strong in this incredible movie.
The set pieces in this film are amazing especially because most if not all are done without CGI, something Christopher Nolan tries to avoid with his movies. Watching the city fold onto itself was incredible and has you wondering how they did that.
The film has similarities to the Matrix but is quite different and is a film that will have to be seen more than once to answer questions as I'm sure you are going to have after watching this great film. My expectations for this film were surpassed and I'm looking forward to watching this film again. I could see this becoming a reality in the not to distant future which is both interesting and scary.

Overrated and underrated performances

Have you ever watched a movie and then read or heard about a certain performance being raved about and thought "Did they watch the same movie I did because they don't know what they're talking about." Well what I want to talk about is both performances I think were overrated and underrated or even missed completely.
I'll start out with overrated and let's start with the obvious Sandra Bullock, I mean, come on, anyone who believes she deserved the Oscar for this performance, we can agree to disagree because this was not the best performance. In fact I shouldn't even be discussing this because it shouldn't have even been nominated, that nomination should have went to Mélanie Laurent from Inglorious Basterds. Watching that scene where she's at the restaurant sharing desert with the man responsible for killing her family and seeing both the disgust and fear of being discovered by this man was incredible. It's performances like these that add to a movie and I didn't see any performances like this in The Blind Side, in fact I can honestly say Sandra's performance in this movie is one I seen by her in most of her movies. Her role in Crash even as small as it was, was a revelation because it was something I haven't seen from her and it felt honest and true.
Anna Kendrick is another one whom I thought was given way too much credit for her role in The Air Up There. She was good but I don't feel her performance deserved the praise it got nor the nomination she got. I don't feel that she added anything more to the movie, in fact I would have given her nomination to and this might surprise people, Mariah Carey. Mariah's Performance in Precious was subtle yet powerful and added to the movie and I can't say the same about Anna's performance which to me could have been played by anyone else. What make Mariah's performance so shocking is look who we're talking about Mariah Carey!

One performance that I don't think gets enough praise is Hilary Swank in Insomnia, it is subtle yet strong and without her performance I don't think the film would be nearly as good. Her hero worship of Al Pacino's character and the discovery of his duplicity and how she chooses to honor him because in the end he's just a man is great stuff.
Noah Taylor is another who wasn't given his just due in the movie Shine, unfortunately Geoffrey Rush gets all the credit because he won the Oscar but it's Noah who did all the hard work. It's watching Noah go from a promising prodigy and that dissent into madness that is incredible stuff.
Heath Ledger in Monster's Ball is another performance that stands out, although small it showed the promise of an up and coming actor at the time. You watch that performance of a young man trying to get the love and respect of his father and the unfortunate outcome, great actor, he's definitely missed.
I could go on about over and under appreciated performances and maybe I will some other time but maybe I given you something to think about for now.

I love movies

Why is it that when you tell people you love movies, it always seems like it's a challenge. All of a sudden they question you about a certain movie, as if they're checking your validity, I mean no I didn't like Transformers, sorry. I love a good popcorn movie like anybody but sometimes I want more than just special effects and no plot. I loved the animated Transformers movie along with the old TV series and I guess that was what I expecting from that movie. This is just one example because I feel movies touch us all in different ways and just because we don't all agree on a certain movie doesn't take away from your experience and enjoyment of the movie.
Movies are to be enjoyed and experienced because to me there is nothing like escaping into a good movie. I love when the lights go down in the theater and that sense of excitement you get from the trailers and the main feature about to start, there's nothing like it especially if it's a movie you've been waiting to see. For me I love watching everything, it doesn't matter the genre or if it's an independent, an old classic or a foreign film, I just love the experience and discussing it afterward.