Last night my husband and I celebrated this momentous weekly occasion with a little pizza, a little wine and a triple feature. With our trusty Pomeranian in tow (ignoring his cries for pizza) we started our cinematic adventures with:
That isn't to say The Road is a good movie, per se. Interesting is a better word.
The basic story goes like this: The Man and the Boy (those are the only "names" you get) travel south across post-apocalyptic America. They are two of only a handful of survivors of a tragedy that is never defined (although the film implies it might have been global warming...). The Man, played by Viggo Mortensen, is only concerned with one thing: protecting his son, which isn't easy when around every corner are cannibals and thieves. It seems that most survivors have turned to their basest instincts for survival although there aren't many others to be had as most of the movie finds the Man and Boy simply walking and exploring their burnt out husk of existence.
The abandoned houses, gray streams, and charred forests pile on the despair and act as a character in themselves to great affect. The Man and the Boy hate life--they're absolutely miserable, but they continue on because they feel like the have to, for one another, not really because they want to.
While The Road does a good job actualizing The Man and the Boy's despair, it all feels a little self-serving. The Man and Boy are held as something of Christ-like figures (the movie actually official changes their names to The Father and The Son), calling themselves "the good guys"and implying that no one else is "carrying the fire" (a reference to having heart). And then there's the whole nothing really happens thing. Like in the book, no explanation is given for the current state of things, but the film greatly expands the presence of the Boy's mother for no good reason other than they had time to fill. In the film, she's played by Charlize Theron and she's fine at conveying the absolute pathos the character feels about bringing a child up in this situation, but, for some reason, the filmmakers chose to end her story line in a way that makes little sense.
All in all, The Road is more than worth a peek. It's a good little movie that borders on being something really special, but never quite gets there. The performances are solid (watch for Robert Duvall and Guy Pearce is small roles) and the landscape is beautifully depressing, but there was something missing--the fire--that means, for me, it's not worth a second viewing.
What he stumbles upon, rather crashes into, is a cure for vampirism.
With a solid little twist at the end, Daybreakers is equal parts action horror film, film noir and social commentary. In short, it was pretty surprising and really well done. Directors and writers Michael and Peter Spierig bring a unique narrative to the vampire story--and not in a 'we don't need no stinkin' lore' Stephanie Myers' kind of way. They marry what we know about vampires into interesting ways throughout the story to present a world where vampires run the world (I rather liked the car equipped with daytime driving features) while inserting their own spin. With vampires as the new black these days, it's good to see a movie truly do something different and fun with the concept while treating all its characters with equal doses of humanity.
Daybreakers is a vampire film for thinking adults. It has it's fair share of gore and isn't perfect, but should hold a place pretty high up within the genre.
On another note, I've just learned that Michael and Peter Spierig have been tapped to direct the sequel to The Dark Crystal. Could be interesting.
I loved the book. That's about all I can say because the DVD didn't work. Yes, I cleaned it. But our Blu-Ray player would only get as far as the Paramount HD screen before turning to black save for a little line (that looked like a minus sign) in the left hand corner. Bummer.
All worked up for a third movie, we decided to peruse Netflix's instant view. After nixing a bunch of options, we somehow decided to revisit:
Only the girl leaves him before prom and that trophy doesn't mean much when your mom wants to move to Fresno for the summer. So Daniel accompanies his sensei, Mr. Miyagi, to Japan to visit the old man's ailing father. Of course, we need some karate so the story has Daniel walking right into a war that started 45 years before when Mr. Miyagi refused to fight his best friend, Sato, for the hand of the woman he loved.
Wearing more fruit-colored shirts than I knew existed (of course this is the 80s), Daniel finds a new love and fights for his honor against the weasel-like Chozen (Yuji Okumoto, who still acts but whose career highlight was clearly this movie...and Big Momma's House 2). After breaking six blocks of ice, dancing with a girl in a poodle skirt, and learning the secrets of the drum, I don't think I'm ruining anything when I say it all works out fine and we all learn a valuable lesson. Cue Peter Cetera.
I can't say Karate Kid 2 holds up, but it's better than a lot of the 80s flicks we 30-somethings revisit from our childhood. I dare say though, and I'll agree this is part nostalgia talking, I can't see how the new version (updated with Will Smith's kid, Jackie Chan, Kung-Fu and China) could hold a candle to the heart and charm of this film and the original. There's an earnestness to this film that makes you want to stand up and cheer when the good guys win. Sure, it's a little mawkish and silly, but it's clear who our heroes are and through every last frame they earn our admiration.
And with that movie night ends. Thank you and good night!
