Archive for movies
Some Things for 6/20
A nightmarish Season 21 of Seinfeld is underway
Product ads from time travelers who have reverse engineered modern electronics to get rich in 1997
A tale of lust and corruption starring Micheal O’Malley:
As you can see from that video I could use a buck or two to help pay the bills so you can donate if you would like on the sidebar to the right or I will personally croon you a ridiculous tune or make you a custom video if you go to my Fiverr site. Thanks to all who have given so far.
Dope Ass Cutaway Digarams To Secret Bases And Lairs
The Bat Cave is where goth furry Bruce Wayne spent most of his time after his parents died. It’s a super decked out basement with the best PC rig ever. There is a big penny and a speedboat. Sometimes he’ll knock people out and bring them there.
The Legion of Superheroes fly around in the Mark X with Matter Eater Lad the best superhero ever. Matter Eater Lad is hillarious and when he became an adult he was governor of space or something and went crazy trying to get fired. Also on the show he had sunglasses and a big tooth on his shirt. Matter Eater Lad is the best and the Mark X is a ship worthy of the best Legionnaire. Make another Legion episode of Smallville this time starrint Matter Eater Lad.
Aquaman’s Bungalow. The greatest and most famous of all Superhero Hideouts. Every time the throne of MermaidLand is usurped and Aquaman is banished, he goes there to solve the mystery of his usurping so he can re-surp the throne and become the rightful surp again. This is the plot of all Aquaman comics unless he’s punching bad men on boats.
The Baxter Building is that old skyscraper with the big 4 in downtown Manhattan that used to belong to Reed Richards until the EPA shut him down for his Asbestos Rooms and Blasting Rocket Fuel Into The River. It is not for Channel 4 like everybody says.
The Evil Dr. Who from The King Kong Show has a secret base inside of a pyramid that looks way cooler in this picture from a magazine than it ever did in that cheap-ass cartoon. Unfortunately there is no sweet playset like the Technodrome or The Ghostbuster Fireman House Deal because this show wasn’t made in the 80′s so kids still had use their lame imaginations.
A Non-Ironic Volcano Full Of Ninjas.
I always liked that Jaws got to hang with his little girlfriend after the laser fight. But then he was on James Bond Jr. so I guess there is no justice.
Sonic Adventure ZX
A video series I created to capture the pure essence of 1998′s Sonic Adventure soundtrack:
A Review of The Cat in The Hat by Roger Ebert from a Parallel Universe
Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat (2003)
***1/2 (PG)
The Cat: Jack Black
Conrad: Jeremy Suarez
Sally: Aree Davis
Mom: Cree Summer
Fish: Jason Lee
Thing 1: Mary-Kate Olsen
Thing 2: Ashley Olsen
The Little Cats: Frank Welker
Narrator: Elvis Costello
Universal Pictures presents a film directed by Spike Jonze. Written by Charlie Kaufman. Based of the books The Cat in the Hat and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back by Dr. Seuss. Running time: 103 minutes. Rated PG. (For scary moments and mild language)
BY ROGER EBERT #789-J
What a wonderously brilliant movie this is! Here is a film, based on two short children’s books, that adds on new layers of creativity at every turn. This movie should serve as a guide to any filmmaker seeking to adapt a book to screen. The seemingly unlimited imaginations of Jonze and Kaufman have completely redeemed Universal for the train-wreck “The Grinch”. This is a movie full of charm and delight. It pulls together seemingly incongruous actors into a sheer force of cinematic fantasy bliss.
Take, for example, the production design. Similar to the technique used in “Pleasantville”, the movie was shot in black and white and then sparsely colored in with reds and blues, perfectly simulating the mellow tones of the Dr. Seuss original. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop provides dazzling puppetry and computer graphics. I was amazed in the second half as the Little Cats, each named for a letter of the alphabet, popped out of smaller and smaller hats like nested Russian dolls. They moved around the room with such natural ease that it was hard to separate the physical effects from the graphics. This is “Lord of the Rings” caliber wizardy.
The soundtrack, by composer/rapper The RZA matches the mystically cheerful tone of the story with a keen accuracy. Elvis Costello serves as a narrator and traveling minstrel, singing the actual words from the books. Amazingly, the entire script, at more than an hour and a half, rhymes. It was an odd feeling stepping back into the real world after being completely immersed in poetry for so long. Regular conversation seemed bland and I found myself longing for Kaufman’s clever prose.
But enough of the technical nonsense. Jack Black plays the Cat, bringing his infectious personality to yet another role. Black always seems like a great guy to hang out with, although in this case, under layers of makeup and a fuzzy cat suit, you might want to think twice.
Purists and other whiners will complain because the roles of the human characters were given to African-American actors. It does seem a little like tokenism, but it does add another interesting twist to an already supremely bizarre movie. The movie is still true to the books, for the most part. Conrad (Suarez) and Sally (Davis) are two kids who are left alone by their mother on a rainy day. The Cat appears at their front door and causes all sorts of fanciful mischief.
The movie has a fascinating way of handling the logic of the Dr. Seuss world. Jonze shifts back and forth from the dreamlike world of The Cat to the more realistic world of Sally and Conrad with carefree abandon. Jonze and Kaufman have played with these ideas before in “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation”. I wont spoil the ending for you, but “The Cat” tops both of those movies in its examination of perception and reality. Kids will enjoy the story, design, and catchy music, but the complex structure might confuse them a little bit.
Not to say that the movie is some kind of boring lecture. Jack Black gives his usual 120 percent, but surprisingly, so do his costars. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen have a madcap ferocity in their respective roles as Thing 1 and Thing 2. Somehow, Jonze coaxed a stellar performance out of the twins, who usually seem to be phoning it in. Jason Lee plays the Fish, the Superego to the Cat’s Id. Lee seems to have a real knack for these kind of fantasy roles. He was Tom Cruises best friend in the dreamy “Vanilla Sky” and a demon in Kevin Smith’s “Dogma”. The Fish is sarcastic, but not in the way most cartoon animal sidekicks are. God help me, Lee makes the Fish…more human.
This is the sort of movie I can wholeheartedly recommend to families. It lacks the cynical, mind-numbing potty humor, of most kids movies.
A note to childless adults: Go after dark, when there aren’t any kids going crazy over the “Fun in a box” or “Cake in the tub” scenes. You might just find yourself laughing out loud and rocking back and forth in your seat, too. “The Cat in the Hat” doesn’t talk down to you, but just might feel like a kid again.