You can't get off if you never get on Peter

Roger Ebert called Spider-Man 2 the best super hero movie he's ever seen. Long ago, in the before time, I wrote up a list of movies that I considered to be quality comic book movies. I still like that list, and would add a few more over the past year and a half. You'll note on there that Spider-Man is my least favorite on the list, and I stand by that. But the sequel is different, the sequel easily deserves to up up near the top, occupying space with Batman and X-Men 2. All three are different, so I'd be hard pressed to label one "the best" but Spider-Man 2 would be in contention by any measure.

The best thing about this movie is it delves into the troubled personalities of all the main characters, but manages to do it in a reasonable way. Sure, it's not a high drama - but it's closer to it then standard one dimensional comic book fare. We see the personal conflicts of Peter, MJ, and Octavious. Yes, there are cheesy moments that aren't my style, but those come with the comic book territory and didn't distract me too much.

Ebert and Roeper talked about this movie on their show each of the last two weeks. Both times they talked about whether Doc Oc or the Green Goblin was the better villian. For me this is a no-brainer. I really disliked the Green Goblin. He wasn't really interesting, and he looked kind of silly in the power ranger suit (Weird Al agrees with me as well.) But Doc Oc is a work of genius. Alfred Molina is a wonderful actor, and his character isn't burdened with the oppressive insanity that Willem Dafoe had to deal with. Instead Doc Oc is more subtly insane, with a touch of multiple personalities.

I also have to give some credit to the people who did the effects. In the first movie I kept being distracted by the cgi, it just didn't look right. That happened a couple times in this one, but they were brief and insignificant. Mostly I just bought the scenes and they just looked right. One example stands out for it's excellence though. Through a combination of cgi, animation, and excellent imaginative work Doc Oc's mechanical arms actually have personality. It was amazing, and a true achievement.

I clearly enjoyed myself. And I'll be going back to see it with a bunch of friends tonight, I have no doubts it will hold up well in a second showing.

Out here, people struggled to get by with the most basic technologies; a ship would bring you work, a gun would help you keep it. A captain's goal was simple: find a crew, find a job, keep flying.

I hate Fox. Seriously. Can I list the terrific TV shows they've let bomb. I can understand how a quirky show like Wonderfalls might fall through the cracks. It was excellent, but a little different. Someone didn't have a lot of patience for it or something. But Andy Richter Controls the Universe was a spectacular sitcom. If you ask me all this talk about the sitcom being dead after Friends and Frasier left us is just systematic of shows like Andy Richter's not being given a chance. Then this year, Arrested Development, the best comedy on TV was on the chopping block all season.

But now that I've gone back and watched the DVD's of Firefly I more frustrated about it then any of the others. The concept of Firefly is a bit odd - it's a western, in space. But it was a truly excellent show. The world concept was fantastic. The characters were diverse, well written, and well acted. The visual style was great. I love it. I can't stand that not only did Fox cancel it, it didn't even bother to air three completed episodes. And those episodes were very good as well.

I was not alone in my affection for this show. The season it was on there was a huge mobilization of fan support. They wrote letters, they sent postcards, they even took out advertisements thanking the shows creators and the companies that advertised during the show. It was remarkable. Yes, it still got canned.

The worst part is Fox even bungled promotion of the show. They showed the pilot episode as the season finale (yes, the pilot, where the backstory and characters are introduced) and instead jumped right in with a wacky, jarring train robbery episode. They played it on a dead TV night, Friday evenings, and did almost no promotion. Yeah, it didn't do so well in the ratings, I wonder why? It did have an incredibly loyal fan following though, and they've had many a mean things to say about Fox since.

There is some redemption in that they're making a feature film out of this. But the setup and the content was so wonderfully scupted for a serial story telling experience that it won't work as well in a nice, tight self contained two hours. Perhaps (as one of the producers wishes in the DVD commentary) the movie will trigger someone to get the TV show reinstated.

Look for Serenity (the name of the ship in the show) in April, 2005. Until then I highly recommend this series. It's tough to find in rental stores, but netflix has it, and maybe your local rental store will carry it if you ask them nicely.

I reminded of the final episode of Sports Night (another amazing and prematurely cancelled show, and the only other TV show DVD set I own.) At the end they had this none to subtle jab at ABC, the network that had cancelled them:

If you can't make money on Sports Night, you should get out of the money making business.

He (President Bush) did what any of us would do when times got tough, he went on vacation.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is like much of Michael Moore's work for me - hit and miss. Some parts were incredibly powerful, and others kind of fell flat. Overall it was an excellent movie, but I think this one was in desperate need of a well defined thesis.

Moore sort of stumbles around. He spends the first part of the movie talking about Bush's failed business ventures, his ties with the Saudi's (especially the bin Laudens) and various other shady connections between Bush, Bush Sr, various cabinet members, Cheney, businesses and Saudi Arabia. This is all interesting, but it's the kind of thing that doesn't add up. Moore presents all these things, and sort of hints at badness, but doesn't put anything in perspective or comment on any larger significance. He leaves that to the viewer, but that's dangerous in this case. The assertions are quite inflamatory, and the sense is the movie is trying to push you to larger conclusions - but since the movie doesn't offer those conclusions itself I fear they aren't warranted. It almost feels like Moore is stretching enough where he's at, and would like to offer larger conclusions, but knows his evidence doesn't support them. Either way, at the very least it's a damning list of instances of blatant cronyism.

Then he shifts gears to the Iraqi war. He spends some time talking about how the rational for the war was invalid. This part is shorter, since he's mostly just setting up part two where he shows us some of the human costs of war.

We get to go to Iraq and see some horrofic images from over there. But where Moore really scores is when he spends lots of time with people here at home. He intersperces pieces showing some Flint high school kids talking about how there aren't a lot of good options but the military with a pair of Marine recruiters doing some high pressure sales on kids at the local run down mall (they skipped the town's nice mall to go to a place where the kids would have fewer life options.) But his best moments are spent with a family who lost a son in the war. This is a reminder that the war continues, and has a very real cost here. It reminds us that we must be absolutely sure war is the only reasonable option, the costs are too high to use any other measure.

Over all I had three favorite moments. There were lots of scenes of life appearing relatively normal and happy in Iraq in March of 2003 - just before we started bombing them and making like not relatively normal or happy. Then there were two great voiceover sequences in the end. In the first Moore talks about how he's always been amazed that the people who have been given the least by this country (aka, the poor) have some of the strongest pride in the US and are the first to step up to defend it, while they are being sent to war by people in a whole different class. Then he ends the movie with a long quote from 1984.

I don't think this is the masterpiece some say it is (it would have been with a solid thesis) but I liked it and overall got depressed again at the state of the world. Of course with me, Moore is preaching to the choir.

Side note: there were several people standing outside the theater doing voter registration. Who ever thought of that deserves a bonus.

I wrote this song when I was 16 because I wanted to hitch hike across Mexico - like all parents hope their kids do.

Today was perhaps the nicest day in Seattle of the year. Temperature was in the 80's, there was a slight breeze all day, a crystal blue sky with no clouds in sight, and as the day before the solstice it was one of the longest days of the year.

I can't imagine a better day to see a Jewel concert on the lawn at a winery amphitheater. It was amazing. She was just up there by herself with an acoustic guitar singing away. She had a great mix of music, with lots of her older stuff and a few new songs. She mentioned that she's recording all the concerts with hopes of putting some live tracks on her next album (releases early next year.) This makes me happy since it implies that for her next album she'll revert back to more of her softer acoustic roots. I thought her last album was passable - but the electronic sound doesn't work well with her lyrics and voice. They're much better in the purity of an unaccompanied acoustic performance.

They were also recording the show for another purpose. A new company called Instant Live Music has worked a way to record concerts and speed burn them on to CD's so you leave that night with a recording of the concert you saw in your hands. I decided what the hell and bought one - and I'm very impressed. The sound quality is excellent, and the track breaks are in all the right places. I consider it to be an excellent music purchase, and if you see them at a concert you should strongly consider buying a CD from them (assuming you liked the concert!)

Thanks, Jewel, for coming to town and performing. Tonight was her 10th night of performing in a row, and I'm always impressed that artists go through the rigors of touring life to bring their music to their fans. I'm especially appreciative when they interact with the crowd and clearly enjoy what they're doing. Jewel did that tonight and it made a great show.

If all this wasn't enough, around dusk while Jewel was belting away a pair of bald eagles came across the valley and flew directly over the audience - unbelievable.

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.

I hate using quotes that are in the trailer, but all the really funny moments in Dodgeball didn't really lend themselves to be good quotes. Stiller's lines depended on him being insane and ridiculous, and Vince Vaughn's good stuff depends on his deadpan delivery and exceptional quick timing. That left me with the line from the trailer, which went in the trailer precisely because it's one of the few lines that's funny standing by itself.

This movie is a wonderful example of a movie that sets a target (not a very high one in this case) and hits it excellently (another classic example of this is The Fast and the Furious.) This is a comedic spoof on all the cheesy underdog sports movies that we groan about but at some level enjoy. That's what they aimed to make, and they did it. If you think you'll like that kind of movie, you're in - otherwise pass.

I love it when things work out like that. I can easily describe what the movie is, and friends can make their own, logical, and accurate decisions about whether they'll like it. It's much different then, say, The Terminal - that movie is much more complex and harder to explain accurately. I guess that also has something to do with it being much better as well.

Do you live close by?
Yes, Gate 67.

What a wonderful movie The Terminal is. It's funny, heart-warming, and feel good. It's also quirky. When I think about it now I would have feared the concept in the hands of Hollywood and a budget (an indie filmmaker I could stand, but would have been skeptical.) But with Spielberg and Hanks it was great.

This is the kind of movie that succeeded as well as it possibly could have with it's premise. I have no complaints - and it's a rare movie where I walk out with no complaints. Just a nice, warm, that was fun feeling.

Ahhh, the sweet uncomplicated satisfaction of the younger woman
that fleeting age when everything just falls into place
it's magic time and can render any man, any where, helpless
some would say that I'm an expert on the younger woman
maybe that's because I've been dating them for 40 years.

I succumbed to my problem of buying too many movies today and picked up a couple of previously viewed movies at the video store. One was Something's Gotta Give which I bought both because it's a great movie, but also because of it's spectacular intro. I popped it in just to watch it, with it's great voice-over dialog. At some point I'll get around to watching the rest of it.

You know that game you were talking about?
Who's the better killer?
Let's play.

I'm a fan of the Riddick character and Pitch Black much more then the movie deserves. Because of that I went to see The Chronicles of Riddick even though I knew it wouldn't be very good. Then I rewatched Pitch Black to get some perspective on why it was, in fact, not very good.

Pitch Black was a paint by number sci-fi movie. It didn't take any risks, had some ridiculous things it doesn't explain (mainly how these creatures manage to exist underground, what do they eat?) but it had Riddick - who I thought was a great character. It was ok that the planet they were on didn't make any sense, I'll grant them that kind of thing just to have fun.

Chronicles does a whole different thing. They take the Riddick chracter, and stay reasonably true to him. The real problem is in the world they set up. The do a cool thing where we find out Riddick is of a semi-human race, which helps explain some of his special talents. But they go off the deep end with lots of other mystical things. The necromongers, the elementals, the weird necromonger sensor beasts, and whatever those things were that try to convert people. I don't mind mystical things, but you have to explain them a bit more. I don't like taking that kind of stuff just on faith. Especially when you're following up a first film where the world concept seemed to be that everything is normal - except for these strange mystical beasts.

Chronicles was also a bit of an epileptic movie (lots of flashing lights.)I was greatly annoyed by this, especially since they kept doing it in fight scenes. But then when I was watching Pitch Black I noticed a lot of the same stuff. It was the same director, so that makes sense. It didn't annoy me in Pitch Black as much though, since most of the good stuff happens when there's no light - so they can't flash all the lights. But if you go back and watch it you'll see lots of flashing in the early scenes.

Anyway, the end of Chronicles implies there will be another one. If they go ahead and make it maybe they'll do better - I wouldn't bet on it though.

Here's all you need to know:
Classes - nothing before 11.
Beer - it's your best friend, you drink a lot of it.
Women - you're a freshman, so it's pretty much out of the question.
Do you have a car?
No
Someone in your hall will, make friends with them on the first day.

Ahhh, PCU. It really isn't all that good of a movie. It's sort of a cookie cutter college comedy in the vein of Animal House. They have some good moments, like locking everyone in a room and playing Skyrockets in Flight loudly and on repeat. Or some interesting ideas like charging people to use the restroom at a big party (although in my college party days we had a hard enough time getting people to even use the restroom - one of the perils of being in warm California where parties are outdoors.) But in the end, what sets this movie apart for me is all of the excellent quotable lines. I can't tell you how many times we used this one when the Fraternity was setting up for an event:

Hey! What are you guys doing?
Us? Well, we're seniors - we're going to game.

But wait, there's more. I'll just let you browse these tasty morsels:

What is this? You're going to wear this to the show. You're going to wear the shirt of the band you're going to see. Don't be that guy.

Spring break I filled his suitcase full of dog biscuits coming back from jamaica. Drug sniffing dogs went apeshit.

That's the beauty of college these days Tommy. You can major in gameboy if you know how to bullshit.

You went out with a white male?
I was a freshman...
Freshperson! Please.

We need kegs. Multiple, cold and domestic.

I guess in the end the movie could have dug into political correctness a little more. They had a set up to make a movie with some bite and good social satire. But instead they just used it for some silly jokes. I'm fine with that, I laughed. And a couple of those quotes have had real longevity...

Don't be that guy

I did something no single man should ever do, I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Now I know how women feel at the car mechanic. You have this faint sense that you're getting ripped off, but don't really know how...

I watched bits and pieces of Last Comic Standing tonight. My biggest take-away is if you can't be funny with about one minute of your best pre-scripted material you probably shouldn't be a professional comic - but maybe that's just me.

Is that really what my hair looks like from the back?

[Spoiler Warning]

I was quite busy this weekend, so I'm playing catch up now. On Friday night I went with some friends to catch an opening night show of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I thought this third Harry Potter movie was easily the best one yet. Curon, the new director, did a fabulous job. The cinematography is amazing and the movie is just beautiful.

My favorite part is this is where the story starts getting dark. The first two books were essentially exposition about the world, and setting things up for events in later books. The best way to think about them is as Act One. But now we're starting to delve into the thick of it. The themes in this movie are darker and the feel of it is darker.

I was happy with the story conversion from book to film with one notable exception. My favorite part about the third story is the details about the mauraders. How the three friends became Animagi to support their warewolf friend. How they made that map. And most importantly more detail about why Harry thinks he sees his father and why his petronis takes the form of a stag. The movie hinted at that stuff, and winked at people who know the story, but doesn't explain it for others. In all honestly, they hit a pretty good balance here since I think it would have been hard to explain all of that in film - but they still let those of us who know what's going on see deeper in the story.

In all the movies just exist as good visualizations of the great stories in the books. I don't think they really add to the story - they just show a great realization of them.

Do you want to know more?

I used to just think that Starship Troopers was just a harmless sci-fi action movie. It had some cute moments, a lot of silliness, and a fun satirical look at a possible future society.

But then I went and read the book by Robert Heinlein (an excellent science fiction author - he's the one who wrote Stranger in a Strange Land.) The book wasn't great, but it did have a lot of interesting ideas in it. So after I finished the book I went back a watched the movie again.

I was a little disgusted by it. This is mostly for two reasons. The first is the overall feel of the movie. These people are at war, and occasionally very bad things happen to them - but after about a millisecond of sadness everything is all better and they're back to smiling. This doesn't jive with me as I remember that my country is at war now.

But more importantly is the way they chose to transfer the book to film. The book talks about this future society with a new and interesting government structure. It talks about a ruthlessly efficient military - including how they operate and how they train. It talks about one soldier's experience in moving through that military. The movie ignored all of this, and doesn't take any of these ideas seriously.

The worst part is the movie does reference all these ideas. Female pilots, why knives are important in a nuke war, why you need to serve to be a citizen, the moral implications of war, the guy at the recruiter desk with no legs and only one arm, Zim capturing the brain bug, and more. All of these things lack meaning in the movie, but had significant meaning in the book. It felt like the movie was rubbing my face in it's disregard for the whole purpose of the book (it's interesting ideas.)

Plus, the Mobile Infantry (they wear powered jump-suits in the book, that's why they're mobile - but I'll let that one go) in the book are the pinnacle of human fighting efficiency. They are true bad-asses. The MI in the movie are a bunch of no talent ass clowns (to borrow a classic line from a classic movie.) Seriously, it doesn't work for me that in a future society with advanced training and technology the soldiers would have gotten absolutely owned by the guys in Black Hawk Down.

Like I said, it used to be that I viewed this movie as a harmless bit of no-brain action and some satire. Now it just annoys me greatly.

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