(500) Days of Summer: A Romance for the Unromantic

I've been meaning to check out (500) Days of Summer for awhile, and the Lady and I finally received it via Netflix last week. We watched it instead of watching the end of the Golden Globes, and it was pretty decent. I've pretty much always liked Zooey Deschanel, ever since I saw her in Mumford. I liked Joseph Gordon-Levitt when he was on 3rd Rock from the Sun, and I also liked him in Brick, so I'm enjoying his current rise to prominence.

Tom Hansen (Gordon-Levitt) works for a greeting card company. When Summer Finn (Deschanel) starts working there, he develops a crush, and they strike up a relationship. Unfortunately, she doesn't believe in love, and he's falling head over heels into it for her. Told in a Tarantino-esque disorganized fashion, jumping around between the beginning, middle, and end of their 500 days, s he realizes he may have over-romanticized their relationship, and comes to grips with reality versus expectation.

It's a very cute movie, and surprisingly funny. Gordon-Levitt swings wildly between hopeless romantic, heartbroken cynic, exhausted by his lost love, nearly insane from it, and darkly humorous. Zooey is adorable, finicky, and engaging. There's a musical number where Tom sings and dances in the street with passersby in a perfectly synchronized "random dance" sequence. There's even an animated bluebird. The scenes where his younger sister (played by Chloe Moretz) are precious and amusing, where her 12-year-old character dispenses more intelligent advice than his loser friends (and yeah, he seems to only have these two guys for friends). It has a good, moderately happy ending (where the main character quits his crappy job and starts pursuing architecture more seriously), all thanks to the crazy relationship he just got out of.

The costumes and production design was amazing, as well. The story bounced around between the days, always with an intertitle listing the day, and showing a summery-looking scene at the beginning, and a dreary wintery scene in the relationship's decline. In an especially affecting shot, the world around Tom washes out from the real world to a smudgy drawing to nothing but stained paper, with his silhouette remaining in the center of the frame, casting a lonely shadow.

I liked it, it was cute, funny, and despite the wacky musical number and an especially interesting scene showing the side-by-side "reality" and "expectation" of a party, the characters are pretty realistic. It's not really a chick flick, because Gordon-Levitt is so entertaining and Deschanel is just so damn cute. It's also not a bad romance, either. It's not like "Autumn in New York," it's more like "When Harry Met Sally," just with a different kind of nice ending.

I give it four depressed greeting card writers out of five, or four adorable bows in Deschanel's hair out of five.

Terminator Salvation: Little to Salvage

Let me start off by saying this movie isn't as good as the previous films in the franchise. I would venture to say that Terminator 3 was better than this. I'm a pretty big fan of the franchise, though I never really got into the TV show. Mostly because it departs from the timeline set up by the films. I've also seen the mini-movie Terminator 3-D at Universal Studios. First off, Salvation is rated PG-13, while all the others are rated R. Typically, this tactic is in a futile attempt to draw a larger audience (as R rated films restrict teenage viewers). Featuring Christian Bale as John Connor, Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Connor, Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright, Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese, and featuring Helena Bonham Carter, Common, and Roland Kickinger as the T-800, complete with a CG-mapped Arnold face.

In the year 2018, the machines (or more accurately humanoid robots equipped with guns) have dominated the world, and the remaining humans either hide or fight back as the Resistance. John Connor, now in his early 30s, is a commander of sorts. Many higher-ups in the Resistance don't believe he's the true prophet, although many people do. He encounters Marcus Wright, a man executed for murder in 2003, mysteriously up and around. Turns out, hey-oh, he's a cyborg! Cyberdine (a subsidiary of SkyNet or some such) harvested his body for science, and genetically engineered him to be mostly machine. There are lots of robot fights, explosions, driving around while robots fight and there are also explosions. Christian Bale uses his Batman voice, and Bryce Dallas Howard's character is pregnant, though never commented on, addressed, or mentioned whatsoever.

There are lots of little nods to the franchise throughout the film. Most of the robots are familiar, and there are loads of new ones (including ones that look like motorcycles, ones that look like sharp eels, and ones that look like humans. One of them even looks like that guy from Avatar, before he becomes a 12-foot Smurf shaman, or whatever. That's a review for another day. Someone also says "Come with me if you want to live!" which is almost always a good line. According to the trivia on the IMDb, even Kyle Reese's Nikes are similar to the ones that the "future" Kyle Reese wore in the original Terminator movie. However, extreme anal-retentive attention to detail does not a great movie make. The first Terminator film was directed by James Cameron, the man who directed two of the top-grossing films of all time, Acadamy and Golden Globe winner, etc. etc. etc. McG directed... Charlie's Angels. You can see where I'm going with this.

Most critics agree that Sam Worthington's performance is one of the best in the film. It's also nice to see Anton Yelchin, whom I primarily know from Charlie Bartlett and Star Trek. Supposedly, Yelchin studied Michael Biehn's performance as the original Kyle Reese to mimic his mannerisms and movements. He gives an intense and heated performance, a teenage boy who thinks he's tougher than he is, idolizes John Connor (his own son, crazily enough), and displays intelligence and intensity without much control. Worthington was an unknown before this film, though he was working with Cameron on Avatar first. Cameron recommended Worthington to McG for the role of Marcus Wright. Between this and Avatar, and the upcoming remake of Clash of the Titans, I expect to see more of him in the future. Bale gives a typical performance, I'm sorry to say. Not that he's awful, or anything. He was just like a dirty Bruce Wayne with his Batman's voice, though it was interesting to see the character of John Connor as an adult. Bryce Dallas Howard gives a decent performance, though her character (or perhaps herself in real life) is pregnant, which I would assume could be a bigger plot point given that it's John's child. However, it's never mentioned, alluded to, or acknowledged in any way. Oh well, I guess.

It's entertaining, though, which is better than nothing. It's worth a rent, and is good for some pretty crazy action scenes, good effects on the machines, and an interesting look at the future that Linda Hamilton spent two movies trying to prevent. I give it three and a half robot heart transplants out of five, or three and a half fake computer-generated Arnold Schwarzenegger robots out of five.

The Shining: Heeeeeere's Terror!

Over the weekend before Halloween, the Lady and I watched a bunch of horror movies. We were too busy the actual weekend of Halloween to watch anything more than The Nightmare Before Christmas, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. Luckily for me, I can watch a dozen horror movies a day and not have an issue, but unfortunately, somebody I know was having some difficulty sleeping after movies like Funny Games, Saw and The Shining. I've been meaning to watch this film all the way through for awhile, now. I read the novel a few times over the last several years, and I've heard that the adaptation isn't as good as the novel. The interesting thing about The Shining is that it's good on its own merits, separated from the novel. The novel is great, and examines the psychology of horror, and I really enjoyed the treatment of the supernatural, psychic abilities, and ghostly possession.

Stanley Kubrick is a pretty crazy guy. He had a tremendous reputation from the actors that he worked with, and almost every movie that he directed is extraordinarily twisted, creepy, interesting, and well directed. The camera angles are interesting, mise-en-scene well thought out and full of subtle meanings that I can't even remember off the top of my head, and a subtlety of movement (or lack thereof), as well as an extremely interesting use of pacing and editing (jumping from the first day to like a month later, and Jack's slam-cut in the hedge maze).

Jack Torrance (Nicholson) is a recovering alcoholic ex-schoolteacher, who accepts a job as a caretaker for a large hotel during the winter off-season. His wife Wendy (Duvall) will accompany him, as well as his young son Danny (Danny Lloyd), who is obviously a special boy, as the film quickly and clearly establishes. A boy named Tony speaks through Danny occasionally, and he doesn't want to go to the Overlook, but doesn't explain why. They basically move to the hotel at the end of the summer season, before the weather gets cold, and Danny speaks with Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers), an elderly man who is also a psychic, and tells Danny that it's called "the shining." As they live in the hotel, just the three of them, in a gigantic hotel, Jack tries to write a novel, Wendy tries to keep them together, and Danny just likes to be vaguely creepy and ride his big wheel around the hallways. Jack sinks progressively farther into a strange psychotic depression, and it's difficult to tell whether the hotel itself begins providing him with alcohol, or if he imagines the whole thing. Danny begins having visions revolving around room 237, as well as some really creepy twins that show up, the murdered daughters of a previous caretaker. Jack eventually gives in to the anger and alcohol, and tries to murder his wife and son, just as the previous caretaker had (though the last caretaker succeeded).

Kubrick is a great director, which I think I said before. It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but it's pretty impressive what he's able to do with pacing, storytelling, and shot composition. This was also Kubrick's first film in which the Steadicam was used, and some of the most iconic steadicam tracking shots in cinema are from this film (mostly the shots tracking behind Danny as he BigWheels around the hallways of the hotel).

I need to read the novel again; I had always heard that there was some dispute with Stephen King that he didn't particularly enjoy the film as an adaptation of his novel. I think the film could have easily gone itno more about Danny and his abilities; as it is, and perhaps because of the young age of the actor, he's a relatively minor character, which is pretty annoying to me. I've always found that King can write some interesting child characters, especially ones that are touched by special gifts that are potentially dangerous and harmful. Also, as far as I know, Danny Lloyd was only in one other movie in his short and young career (also, I've read that he didn't know The Shining was a horror film until he was 17; Kubrick protected him pretty well during filming so he thought he was just in a drama, apparently).

This movie is creepy and scary as hell. It's interesting, and has been analyzed multiple times in terms of any messages it may contain regarding the family, humanity, as well as certain issues like substance abuse (relatively common for King at the time, considering his own problems), and general social concerns Kubrick tends to stick in all of his films. It's strikingly horrible in a lot of ways (n the good way, not bad, but full of horror), and it's definitely a classic that should be checked out.

I give it four big-toothed Shelley Duvalls out of five, or four seemingly slow but apparently psychic creepy little boys on Big Wheels out of five.

Zombieland: Land of the Dead, Home of the Kickass

Should I try to pretend like I didn't really post in October because I didn't want to flood the blog-o-nets with movie blogs related to horror movies, and I made a conscious decision to back off and blog about them in November, when people usually drop the horror stuff and move on the the happy sappy Sandra Bullock movies and Eddie Murphy catastrophes? No? Well, ok, it was worth a shot.

I did see Zombieland in the theaters a few weekends ago, and remember when I said I was looking forward to it, hoping that Adventureland would serve as some sort of prequel? Well, unfortunately, it wasn't, but it did have that Eisenberg kid in it, and he doesn't even get eaten by zombies. Oddly, he did get bitten by a werewolf in Wes Craven's Cursed, which was just on TV the other day and it was pretty not great, but oh well. That's not my original point. Which was... right! Zombieland. It was directed by Rueben Fleischer, and written by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick. It stars Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin. There's also a pretty amazingly awesome celebrity cameo, and thats pretty much it for the cast. Everyone else is zombified. It's a pretty good zombie film, and a good comedy. It's not really an homage/parody like Shaun of the Dead, but it's still a pretty interesting movie, especially considering its minimalist cast and snappy dialogue. Usually, Zombie films aren't known for that sort of thing.

Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) has a list of rules that have kept him alive during the zombie plague. He doesn't survive because he's strong, or brave, or awesome, but because he's an overly cautious nerd. Tallahassee (Harrelson), on the other hand, is a brash, burly, Southern zombie killing machine, who survives purely because he loves to kill zombies. Wichita (Stone) and Little Rock (Breslin) are con-artist sisters who find themselves mixed up with the two guys. They go by towns instead of names, but they end up crossing much of the country together, killing zombies, getting into shenanigans, and stealing from each other. According to the film's plot, zombies were created out of some sort of mutated mad-cow diseases, a mad-human disease, if you will. Possibly a subtle nod to the merits of vegetarianism? There's plenty of zombie mayhem, people being chased and then eaten, as well as plenty of zombies getting shot, hit with cars, having pianos dropped on them, being cut up and sliced up, all the good stuff that we love to see in a zombie film. The film climaxes in a totally insane battle in an amusement park, where a thousand or so zombies swarm around our heroes, forcing them to try and kill the population of a decent sized school.

While it's not quite as good as Shaun of the Dead in the respect of a comedy or a zombie film, it definitely does its best to hit that mark. It's not a bad movie, by any means. It's wholly entertaining, gory, sometimes shocking (in the sense that sudden appearance of a frightening zombie from nowhere), and an interesting take on the idea of surviving the zombie apocalypse. The idea that a skinny kid like Columbus could survive as long as he did (seemingly one of five normal humans left in the United States) because of his list of rules, caution, preparation, and above all, cardio, is quite interesting.

I've long said that if something like the zombocalypse ever actually happened, the nerds would really be the ones to survive the longest. While we never see Columbus being a fan of zombie movies, or knowing a lot about them implicitly, he is able to build up his list pretty quickly, without dying while compiling it. He has some good advice on there, too, and is pretty practical. I haven't finished reading my Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks yet, but I would imagine that there are a few of these same tips inside (like Cardio, Check the Back Seat, etc.). Apply these instructions in a practical, zombie-filled setting!

Is this film still in the theaters? It might be. If it is, it's worth checking out. Yeah, yeah, I know, it's after Halloween. Honestly, that's just the time of year that people that don't watch horror movies want to watch horror movies. In reality, they're always good all the time. Especially in fall, where it gets dark early, it's the perfect time for spooky movies. Or, not, whatever, I can't force you to watch anything!

I give Zombieland four totally insane celebrity cameos that I'm trying hard not to spoil for everyone out of five, or four kick-ass dog-loving NASCAR-watching gun-toting zombie killing machine Woody Harrelsons out of five.