Shrek III
I went out to dinner and the movies last night. It was a good group, Steve Stirling and his wife Jan, and George and Parris (who is using a cane since the Maine Coon cat tripped her on the stairs and she sprained her ankle, our friend Chip. We began with dinner at India House a very good restaurant in a converted fast food joint down on Cerrillos Rd. For once we didn’t order too much food so there weren’t leftovers. My only regret was that there was no spinach or eggplant, but I’m in the minority in my love of these vegetables. Oh well,
Then we headed off to the _new and nice_ theater at the south end of town. Stadium seating, clean floors, big screens as opposed to what we have been used to, low seats, sticky floors and small screens with rips in them, and one poor high school kid trying to sell tickets, take tickets and man the concession stand.
We saw SHREK III which, while it was a rather a muddle, I liked better than the second movie. The second film had so many pop culture references that it’s going to be inexplicable in 50 years. Actually probably in 20 years. This movie had fewer of those, and they were trying to explore the theme of parents and children, particularly fathers and sons, but they kept getting pulled away for the quick laugh so the thread got a little thin in places. There wasn’t enough Puss in Boots with was a downside for me.
There was a wonderful feminist theme with all the various fairy tale princesses, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, etc., but I won’t say more because it would be a spoiler. I also liked the fact that Fiona never once reverted back to the beautiful princess in this film. She stayed a plump, dumpy, sweet faced ogre.
It was a fun two hours and I didn’t feel like I had lost part of my life that I can never recover. Later this week I want to go see THE LIVES OF OTHERS. Since this film beat PAN’S LABYRINTH for best foreign film at the Academy Awards it must be fantastic. All in all the summer is starting to look pretty dismal.
Melinda
May 20th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
I’m pretty stoked to see Lives of Others myself (although I’ll be waiting for it to come out on Netflix). Lived in East Germany right after reunification and the people there were clearly still paranoid about what the Stasi might see them doing. It was fun walking around small cities and having people whisper behind our backs that we were the CIA (we, uh, weren’t).
BK
May 20th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Though it’s interesting that the Stasi were about 3-5 months behind-hand on analyzing their field agents’ reports when the revolution happened.
I’m not surprised; I’ve read some of them. Quoting from memory:
“Subject went for a walk and stopped at a sausage-seller’s. Subject had mustard, but no saurkraut. Subject walked back to his apartment, eating the sausage.”
May 21st, 2007 at 9:49 am
When we shot my pilot in Babelsberg one of the woman who worked as one of the below the line people was former Stasi. We had a mixed west German/east German crew and this was right after the wall had come down. There was a lot of resentment flowing in both directions, and the folks from the east just hated this woman. Artie, my line producer, and I were afraid we’d arrive at the studio some morning and find her murdered.
May 31st, 2007 at 10:48 am
And I thought I was the only one who liked Shrek 3. I think the writers did an admirable job of incorporating grown-up themes while still keeping the movie kid friendly.