“I haven't got the slightest idea how to change people, but still I keep a long list of prospective candidates just in case I should ever figure it out.” - David Sedaris
Tomorrow, the movie adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s 1963 children’s book Where the Wild Things Are opens in theaters.
Our house is torn.
On one hand, it looks awesome! Spike Jonze appears to have done a great job capturing the spirit of the book. And the monsters look like updated versions of Sid and Marty Krofft characters combined with Jim Henson’s creatures in the Dark Crystal, not to mention remaining very true to Sendak’s original drawings.
It’s safe to say that it’s receiving mixed reviews. But out of the 46 compiled by Rotten Tomatoes, 63% are positive. Most of the negative comments say something about whether or not Sendak’s nine sentence picture book was substantial enough to merit a feature length film.
Which brings us to the other hand…
One of the things that my wife is passionate about is children’s literature and how important it is for parents to read to their kids. We both have claimed for years that Where the Wild Things Are ranks high on both of our lists of favorite children’s books. We have bought it for friends that were expecting and own multiple copies ourselves. It is simply a wonderful book.
Yes, it is only nine sentences long. Yes, it is classified as a “picture book”. But the story is deep and nuanced, dealing with topics that hadn’t really been touched previously in the medium. What’s not spelled out on the pages is just as important, if not more so, than what is. It’s about how children deal with difficult situations, anger, and the reality that life isn’t always rosy. How sometimes we deal with our emotions by escaping into fantasy and our imaginations. But at the end of the day we have to come home to the warm embrace of someone who loves us.
It is always difficult when someone wants to take something so beloved by so many, and update it for a younger and more modern audience. People like us are adamant that these things don’t really need updating. The next generation simply needs to be exposed to it in the same way that we were. The book itself is a brilliant work of art and shouldn’t be perverted by making it into something that it was never intended to be for the sake of making another buck.
I understand these arguments and for the most part agree with them. But every time I see a preview or a trailer for the movie adaptation, my heart beats a little bit faster and I can’t fight the desire to see it.
Like I said before, it looks awesome!
Now, convincing my strong-willed, traditionalist, Kindergarten teaching wife to see it with me is a whole other story!
So I finally watched Cadillac Records over the weekend. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I guess I had mixed feelings, mostly because of the casting of Beyonce Knowles as the legendary Miss Etta James. It just seemed wrong for a woman who I generally don’t like and have little respect for to play a woman I love, who’s music I have listened to basically my entire life. But I got over my disdain for the choice and rented it anyway.
It was a good movie, as long as you’re not a stickler for facts. I think I liked it more than the wife, probably because Willie and I were raised on much of this music. The story was good. Nobody was put on a pedestal or portrayed as a mystic figure roaming around in the shadows (I’m looking at you, Elvis in Walk The Line! By far the silliest part of that movie was how the king was presented). But nobody was hung out to dry either. The acting was excellent. Even Beyonce didn’t do a bad job. She wasn’t nearly as distracting as I thought she was going to be.
I really thought that once I watched it I would have an overwhelming desire to listen to my old Etta James music. But I was wrong. More than anything, it made me want to listen to Howlin’ Wolf! He’s only a minor player in the story, but a very interesting and very well-played one. Add that to the fact that I am battling yet another round with the common cold, chest congestion, cough, etc. which makes me feel like I sound like the Wolf myself, and I just can’t help it…
Here’s a bizarre Friday Five topic with which to kick off the new year. We went to see the new movie adaptation of Will Eisner’s comic book The Spirit last week. It’s a genre of movie that I tend to like, especially when they’re based on really good books and stories.
Sin City – Flying Burrito Brothers: Frank Miller’s Sin City graphic novel series is one of my favorites, and I was equally impressed by the movie. Miller is a master at weaving multiple plot-lines together into one cohesive story when you least expect it. He is also responsible for 300 and creating much darker themes and story-lines for both Daredevil & Batman. Speaking of which…
Dark Night – the Blasters: First of all, the movie The Dark Knight was NOT based on the acclaimed Frank Miller graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, (unfortunately). It is a brilliant book that not only started a darker, more adult themed comic book revolution, but also heavily influenced Tim Burton’s Batman.
Gentleman – The Afghan Whigs: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is not my favorite Alan Moore book or movie, but it was the easiest to find a song for. Both V for Vendetta and From Hell were better movies and Watchmen is one of my all-time favorite graphic novels. I am also looking forward to its film adaptation later this year, the trailer for which is linked to from the picture above if you’re interested.
Spirits in the Material World – The Police: Will Eisner’s the Spirit is a campy, funny, noir comic that often pokes fun at its own genre and medium. But it is often celebrated as introducing us to the first middle-class hero. He is often rumpled and disheveled, get’s beat up a lot, and is constantly womanizing.
Ghost in This House – Allison Krauss: Daniel Clowes’ cult-classic comic series Ghost World was adapted to the screen in 2001. Both were praised for their realistic, slice-of-life examinations of two recent high school graduates trying to adapt to adulthood. It’s cynical, funny, and heart-breaking. I know it’s a departure from the rest of the list, not being action, mystery, or about super heroes; but I highly recommend it anyway.
Zuzu’s Petals. Even in the midst of the world collapsing in on George Bailey, he finds time to be a loving and gentle father to his baby girl. An underrated moment in one of the best Christmas movies of all time.
I love all of the classic Rankin/Bass stop-motion animated holiday shows, even Rudolph with all of the evil and reprehensible supporting characters, but TYWASC is one my all-time favorites; in part because of those two bizarre random characters, Snowmiser & Heatmiser, Mother Nature’s sons. The live-action remake was terrible and I cringe when I see the commercials for the new “sequel”, but the original is fantastic.
I love classic monster & horror movies, which could be a contributing factor to my love for Halloween in general. And this time of year makes me want to watch them even more than usual. I at least partially blame AMC’s MonsterFest (now called FearFest) for solidifying that tradition back in the 90’s, and my brother Willie who keeps buying the collections for me from my Amazon Wish List for perpetuating it.
This week’s five (or seven actually) is one song for each of some of my favorite classic horror movies.
Frankenstein (Boris Karloff, 1931 – not the first Frankenstein film, but certainly the best in my opinion): So Alive – Love & Rockets
The Mummy (1932, more Boris Karloff): Wrap It Up – The Fabulous Thunderbirds
White Zombie (1932, Bela Lugosi in what is considered to be the very first “Zombie” movie ever): Wake Up Dead Man – U2
The Invisible Man (1933, Claude Rains- based on classic H.G. Wells novel): Have You Seen Me Lately – Counting Crows
The Wolfman (1941, Lon Chaney Jr. – much better than Universal’s first film on the subject, Werewolf of London, in 1924): Bark At The Moon – Ozzie Osborne
Creature From The Black Lagoon: (1954, starring Ben Chapman on land and Ricou Browning in underwater scenes): Swamp – Talking Heads
When I got home from work Friday, I was greeted by a Praying Mantis; not in the yard, or on the patio, but inside the house, just sitting on the table like he belonged there. After having a short conversation (“what do you think you’re doing in here?”) & nudging him onto my hand, I was able to safely move him outside and snap this picture:
Man, I need a new camera with a better macro setting!
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Barbeque on the River
On Saturday, we spent some time in Paducah, Kentucky at their annual BBQ competition. My wife and I are self-proclaimed BBQ snobs, and frankly none of the pork we tried quite lived up to our expectations. Not that it was all that bad. We were just expecting better, being a fairly respected regional BBQ competition. Maybe we expect too much.
The real fun happened spontaneously though. As we sat on the steps of the levy eating our que, a small group of people pulled up in a van, quickly set up speakers and a small sound system, and suddenly started to DANCE. They just looked like regular home-town people with taps on their shoes and they danced a sort of 2-step, electric slide, riverdance hybrid; clicking and clacking on the concrete banks of the Ohio River. I searched the entertainment itinerary and saw absolutely nothing that sounded like what we were watching. Which only leads us to one possible conclusion; we witnessed another incarnation of Spike Jonze’s guerilla dance troupe, the Torrance Community Dance Group. That’s right – we got PUNK’D! I laughed out loud and promptly took an elbow to the side, “hush, you might offend someone!” To which, “they’re offending me right now” was not an acceptable answer, just in case you were wondering.
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Paul Newman 1925-2008
Most of us try to be charitable people. And usually that manifests itself in fairly small ways according to our means. Paul Newman’s philanthropic contribution to our world should be an inspiration to us all. It is probably one of the aspects of his career that I admire and respect the most. He will be missed by more than just fans of his movies, but by all of those who have benefitted from his charities. His legacy will live on.
As far as his movies go though, here lies a fundamental difference between me and my wife. Her favorite is The Long Hot Summer because according to her, he was sexy before people said “sexy”. Mine on the other hand is his portrayal of the deadpan businessman Mr. Mussburger in the Coen Brothers holiday classic the Hudsucker Proxy;
Being the Star Wars geek that I am, we obviously made time this weekend to see the movie. Many non-geeks are confused about what Clone Wars actually is, so let me try to explain. The Clone War was first hinted at by both Princess Leia and Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars movie, Episode IV: A New Hope. It actually took place between episodes two and three. It was a major conflict between the armies of the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems and named for the clone troopers who fought for the Republic.
Clear as mud, right?
The Clone Wars movie is basically a precursor to an eponymous animated series which will begin airing this fall on Cartoon Network and TNT. Both are based in this timeframe and use the war as a backdrop.
Visually, it’s stunning. No one would expect anything less from Lucas and his band of happy CGI troopers. The animation style is very stylized and angular which I like too. The rest is pretty much typical Star Wars fare. The dialog is what it is, and the story is decent – over the heads of one sector of the target audience, a little simplistic for the other. As a whole I liked it. But I’m a fanboy, so many would say my opinion is slanted. And they may be right. I do own both the Ewoks and Droids cartoons on DVD after all. But here are my two biggest complaints;
1) No Opening Crawl. Star Wars movie goers are used to seeing the iconic “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” followed by a three paragraph textual description of the happenings immediately prior to the events of the movie; an easy way to set the scene and give a little back-story in a few quick seconds. It’s also an integral moment in all of the movies, an homage to the Flash Gordon serials of the 30’s and 40’s, and a huge reason why Lucas bucked the studios and refused to include opening credits. In the case of Clone Wars, we see the beginning phrase, but then a narrator reads the setup as they flash images and mini-clips that may or may not go along with the narration. It was very un-Star Wars and felt more like a “previously on LA Law” kind of moment. Maybe they’re planning on the majority of their fans to be either illiterate, or more likely too young to read.
2) New Hutt Characters. If Rotta the Huttlet, Jabba’s Muppet Baby-esque son at the heart of the movie’s story-line, wasn’t bad enough, they had to go and introduce us to the single most annoying character in the Star Wars universe, possibly even more annoying than Jar Jar Binks, Ziro the Hutt. Ziro is Jabba’s estranged and evidently flamboyantly gay uncle who lurks in the red-light district of Coruscant. He has purple skin with powder blue tattoos, wears a plume of feathers behind his ear, and talks like Truman Capote in amazingly perfect English. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I audibly groaned every time he had a scene.
But, that being said, I still liked it and will probably watch the series too.
Thanks for hijacking even more of my life George! My wife will be thrilled.
As we walked out of the theater and across the road to the parking lot I asked my lovely wife the obligatory post-movie question, “So what did you think?” Her response was near perfect, “I liked it, but it was just too… real.”
Snow Angels, David Gordon Green’s latest film based on the novel by Stewart O’Nan, is a dark, realistic, almost painful look into the lives of the residents of a small town and how their relationships intersect to create a tragic tapestry. And I can’t recommend it enough. It opens with the high school marching band practicing a terrible version of Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer, and the words that set the tone for the rest of the film; “We’re all part of the formation — every person matters.” The band director’s words are cut short though by the sound of not-too-distant gun shots. That’s when we rewind a few weeks to see the events that led up to this moment.
Don’t expect to be uplifted or encouraged. Expect instead to feel like a fly on the wall spying in on these very real people. Expect to sympathize with and possibly even dislike each and every character at one point or another. There is no clear-cut hero or villain. It’s a slice of life – a big, sloppy, bitter slice that you can’t help but be drawn in to.
The acting is very good. Kate Beckinsale & Michael Angarano both turn in excellent performances. Even Amy Sedaris, who I love dearly but isn’t what you would call a “good actress”, does a great job. The standout though, as he usually is in whatever he decides to do, is Sam Rockwell. Rockwell nails his portrayal of probably the most tragic and flawed character in the movie; which is saying a lot.
The only thing about the movie that we found distracting, besides the old guy behind us trimming his fingernails, was that it was impossible to figure out the time period. Much of the set was filled with very retro, dated objects, but with an occasional modern convenience thrown in; like a flat-screen TV and ear-bud headphones. The novel was actually set in 1974, but supposedly the movie was set in present day. Like I said, it was a bit distracting, but only because we let it be.
Over all, Snow Angels was an excellent movie – but not necessarily one I want to watch over and over.
I have fielded many questions about the vinyl decal on the back of my truck that reads, “HAN SHOT FIRST”. Like many of the items I put on my truck, in my cubicle or most anything else I own, it mostly just announces to the world my own inherent geekiness.
It refers to a scene in Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope that was altered by George Lucas in the 1997 Special Edition release in which Han Solo and first-time bounty hunter Greedo engage in a confrontation in the Mos Eisley cantina on Tatooine. There is a bounty on Han’s head because he owes Jabba the Hutt a large sum of money due to a smuggling job gone wrong. And the reptilian humanoid has him dead-to-rights. In the original version Solo decides to escape his inevitable capture by firing a single shot under the table and killing the poor green guy. Greedo never even gets to fire his blaster before falling forward lifelessly to the table.
However, in the Special Edition, Greedo shoots first, at point-blank range, and inexplicably misses. Thereby making Solo’s shot look more like self-defense, as if he had no other choice but retaliation in order to escape. Lucas did this very much on purpose in order to minimize the senseless violence for the kiddies. But the fan-boys like me didn’t buy it. It felt wrong, looked fake, and made Solo’s character more vanilla and less of the scoundrel he was supposed to be in the beginning; which totally threw off his character development from anti-hero to hero. Geeks around the world demanded a retraction!
Finally, in 2006 a third release of the DVD was announced which included two versions of the movie; the newly re-mastered special edition, and a second disk featuring the unaltered, untouched original theatrical release! He didn’t change it back, but at least we were able to purchase the movie the way we remembered it on DVD for the very first time! It made many of us as happy as the heroes when R2 shut the compactor down! (FYI: they were really happy!)
Our house is torn.
So I finally watched 
I love all of the classic 
