Monday, January 17, 2011

Green Hornet

I decided to go see The Green Hornet on Saturday night, over The Fighter. Although The Fighter won a couple of Golden Globes and had several nominations, I decided I wanted to see something funny, rather than serious and see people hit each other. Well, I did laugh a few times in The Green Hornet, but there was a lot of people hitting each other, but somehow it was not the same. Actually when I left the theatre I was quite peaceful. Surprisingly, since the movie itself it not something you want to recommend a person go see, in fact a friend had emailed not to bother go seeing it. I read that this am, two days after I went to see it.
I don't know anything about the Green Hornet, I don't know remember the TV show, or anything else around it. I had heard it was based on a comic book, and there had been a TV show.  Seth Rogan played the spoiled, neglected child/man frustratingly well. You just wanted him to disappear with his attitude. On retrospect, he did his job, you did not like him, and in the end he saw the error of his attitude.
The hero, the person who holds it all together is Kato his nameless sidekick. He was fantastic. Funny, great fighting skills, and all produced with an amount of humor. Yes, the movie could have been funnier, yes, the movie could have had 'more'. But I did not regret going. I did laugh, I did enjoy it even with getting frustrated with Seth Rogan's character. I'm not going to say run out the door to see it, but I'm glad I went.
Three stars out of five.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Pillars of the Earth - a DVD set

I recently rented the three disk set of Pillars of the Earth on DVD. Eight hours of absolutely wonderful movie making. This is what movies are about. If you want to watch the ultimate in movie making, then make an effort to rent these DVD's or catch it on TV. If you can watch it like I did in one long run then do so. I began watching one night, and ended up watching until around 1am. Then I was back up at 7am to complete watching all the episodes before clients began arriving. But even going one disk at time is worth it.
As a person who is 'critical' of movie making, I could not find one thing wrong. Every person seemed the greatest for the role. Every scene was super well done. I was so impressed with everything I even took the time to watch all the extras at the end of each Disk.
The only thing is you must keep going on each disk. There are two or three sections on each disk, but what wonderful creative work. If you are not familiar with Ken Follet's book Pillars of the Earth, this DVD set will have you become aware. I have read the book twice (maybe three times) over the years since it came out. Its a spectacular story of intrique and weaving many different story lines together as it explores the politics and peoples of the times it is set in.
Great sets, great direction. Loved the director, who did all eight hours of this, plus the editing. Magnificent. Want to give yourself a treat going back in time. Then this is the DVD set to do it with.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Gulliver's Travels

I'm a Jack Black fan, so when my plans got changed I decided to drive north and see Jack Black's new film Gulliver's Travels. It is hard to describe what this movie is - of course it relates to the well known Gulliver's Travels, visiting the land of little people where he is a giant and then the land of giants where he is little. But, is this a children's film, an adult film a comedy or what? Somehow I felt it did not fall into any category completely. Its all of the above, yet not totally one of each. But it is a Jack Black film and I enjoyed it. I came away feeling contented and quite happy I had driven north. It is entertaining, funny in places, forced in others, but on the whole quite enjoyable. Want to spend some enjoyable time, then go see Gulliver's Travels. But don't look too hard for anything else but an enjoyable time.
I give this 3 1/2 out of 5.