Musings

After a frenzied day of meeting with a solar company for the panels to run the drip irrigation, and buying concrete pavers to support the outdoor decks that are going to be built over the next few days, and other various errands, Carl and I met Parris for a matinee of HAIRSPRAY. The film has been getting great reviews, and it was totally charming. The singing was great — the little gal playing Tracy and the kid playing Seaweed had amazing pipes. The dancing and choreography was as good if not better than the singing. Since I studied voice for years and danced very seriously — both jazz and classical ballet — I was really in heaven.

John Travolta surprised me as Edna, and I’ll see a movie if Christopher Walken is in it. (But I won’t see the ping pong movie. I have to draw the line _somewhere_) The funny thing with Travolta is when he assumed the little “I’m so touched face” he looked _just_ like Miss Piggy. I passed this on to Carl and Parris and had them howling. I recommend this film. It will bring a smile to your face, and for the Boomers it will evoke another time when activism was in the air. I wish it would come back.

Next up the Bourne movie. And I’ve got a back log of Netflix — Blood Diamond and Deja Vu.

Now it’s time to start reading for Critical Mass. We’re going to have a very heavy load for the August session.

Melinda

As you all know, I like action movies. So, I had this secret desire to see TRANSFORMERS. Fortunately (or unfortunately) my friend Ian had the same guilty desire. So we went off to see the movie last night. Now, the whole idea of robots that can turn into cars or jet planes is just cool. And the first action sequence in Qatar was fine. The CGI had the camera set well back so you got the full effect of the helicopter transforming and the robot rampaging through the parked jets, and tiny little people running, shooting and screaming. I rolled my eyes over the racism played for a laugh, but then we cut to California and our young hero.

Shia LaBeouf has enormous charisma and I can see why he was cast for the new Indiana Jones movie. He’ll be a great foil for Harrison Ford. But back to TRANSFORMERS I liked the themes of teenage male sexuality personified by cars. The idea of a car as a place where fathers and sons bond. The American obsession with cars. Then the other robots arrived and the whole thing went right off the rails.

Look, I know it’s about big fighting robots, but at least make a nod toward it making sense. Ian and I were going “now what was on great-grandad’s glasses? It’s supposed to show the location of the cube, but they had moved the cube so the glasses are useless. And why didn’t the good guy robots just buy the glasses off of ebay instead of sneaking around in the backyard? (a truly ludicrous scene and not in a good way). There were small nits that made me crazy in the continuity. When the robots take out the electrical lines all the lights in the neighborhood go off except the decorative Christmas lights in the backyard were still on.

The CGI robot battles looked like an auto junk yard in a blender. Why, or why didn’t they keep the same distance for the big battles? Too expensive? Too hard? Because it’s the fashion for an action sequence now? Also, I so would have changed the names of the robot factions. As Ian said, “when you’re called the Decepticons it’s a pretty good bet they shouldn’t be trusted.

And then there was the asshole federal agent. This has got to have been a studio note. “Let’s see, there isn’t enough jeopardy to our hero and heroine (other then the giant robots), so let’s create this bad guy Fed. He can also be comic relief. Yeah, yeah, that’s a good idea!”. Oh, and the comedic fat African-American kid which made me cringe. And what about the NSA analyst who appeared to be Australian. I so want to see that security clearance.

So, okay, Ty, you were right. But we had some good laughs and I at least got to see one neat robot kicking the sh** out of jet planes.

At least I’m reading a good book right now. More on that once I’ve finished.

Melinda

It’s very hot in New Mexico and I was a bit under the weather so it was time sit quietly and entertained. Netflix had sent THE BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA so we settled in for ninety minutes of what we thought was a fantasy movie. This movie got very interesting reviews, didn’t do well, and I can see why. It’s a bit of a confused mess in terms of communicating what it’s about. Oh, the big theme is clear — the power of wonder and imagination — but it has trouble using the scenes to effectively sell the theme. That being said it is an amazing and fascinating movie about the pain of the outsider, children’s errant cruelty, friendship, and the power of myth and imagination.

There is an amazing turn 3/4 of the way into the movie that took me completely by surprise. And that is hard to do. I can normally sit in a film and be saying “now this is going to happen, and that will cause him to do this with the following result”. I didn’t see this one coming. Since some people hate spoilers I’m not going to give away this twist, but just let me say that it is the last thing you would expect in a kids movie.

I recommend giving this movie a look.

Melinda

I almost entitled this Live Free or Die Bored. That’s maybe a little strong. I liked the first three quarters of this movie a lot. It had a clever threat, the kid who plays the Mac in the Apple commercials was very appealing. Bruce Willis has aged really well, and I love the air of world weariness coupled with an insoucient attitude. But then we got to the semi-truck, and the jet, and the missiles and the freeway collapsing, and the jet crashing, and the vast explosion, and well… I checked out. What made the first Die Hard movie so brilliant was the realism of the action. There was one great big explosion set piece and the rest was a man alone and frightened and being clever.

This tendency to have to keep topping last summer’s blockbuster is making movies less and less interesting. It happens in prose too. I gather that the later Laura K. Hamilton vampire books have just become orgies of S&M vampire sex.

Action/violence like S&M vampire sex should be used sparingly like a good spice.

So, that being said I’ll probably continue to be part of the problem rather than the solution and go see TRANSFORMERS.

Melinda

I was catching up on the Entertainment Weekly Magazine and they were ranking the 25 best action movies of all time. Curious, I flipped to that page, and (though I’m embarrassed to admit it), yes, I had seen every movie on the list save one. I missed THE WILD BUNCH. I must commend the editors of EW because they agreed with me on the first two spots. Number one DIE HARD, number two, ALIENS. I guess I really am the action chick but I love this stuff.

I will go see art films — THE PIANIST, THE PIANO, PAN’S LABYRINTH, THE HISTORY BOYS, but I’m a sucker for a well done action film. The problem with most of them is that they have begun to forget the script and characters and try to pull it off by relying solely on special effects.

And yes, come Monday (my social calendar is full for the weekend) I’m heading out to see the new Die Hard movie, and I’ll probably see TRANSFORMERS unless the reviews just slag it. I’ll clense my pallette with Surf’s Up and Ratatouille, but it’s hot outside and it’s time for BDF (Big Dumb Fun), and blowing up sh** real good.

Melinda

Went out with George and Carl to see the FANTASTIC FOUR last night. It was far better than I expected. The first film had been so dreadful. Jennifer Alba still can’t act, and the ages are wrong for Johnny and Reed, but it was fun. Especially when they were a great disfuctional family. The effects for the Silver Surfer were lovely. Basically an hour and a half that was quite entertaining.

The boys both grew up reading the comic and love the characters. Since there was a lot of by-play between the team they were deeply contented. Occasionally the dialogue became pretty bombastic and heavy handed, but not between the foursome so I only groaned a few times. I recommend it as Big Dump Fun. Frankly I found it far more enjoyable than Spiderman 3. Perhaps because my expectation were high for Spidey and pretty low for Fanatastic Four.

Melinda

I’m off to L.A. tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be pausing first to have lunch with the representative of Wasach energy, the company that buys the gas we produce. Then a quick change of hats and it’s time to think television and movies, and convince folks that I’m just so damn interesting and talented and creative.

There may be developments with Wild Cards, but I’ll report more then I’m back. I want to know with what, exactly, I’m dealing. Then there is television. My manager was musing that the networks bought really unusual shows for the 07/08 season, and he wondered if we could use my interest in real space issues, and wed that to something with the feeling of a LOST. I just tickled my brain and soon I had a pilot, a bunch of episodes, the charcters, etc. And Michael loves what I’ve done. Which is nice. He’s been talking it up and there appears to be real interest. So in addition to pitching Wild Cards he ahnd I will be hammering out more details on the series.

Who knows, maybe this will lead to something. But I don’t believe it until the check clears, and I never buy a sofa off a promise. Here are a few homilies I’ve picked up in Hollywood. Always wait for the check to clear. Take your money up front, there is never a back end. Don’t buy a million dollar house on the strength of one job.

I’m sure I’ll think of some more, but these will do for a start.

Melinda

So, I just watched the season finale of HEROES, and I confess I was pretty disappointed. I’ve really enjoyed this show, and have loved Hiro in particular, but I thought from the beginning there were too many characters, and I think that problem came to roost tonight. The big emotional finish just didn’t work for me because the number of characters meant that I didn’t really believe the emotional connection that led to the emotional turn on the part of Nathan. I’m sorry, I just don’t think one rather inarticulate speech by the cheerleader was going to change Nathan’s mind.

Then there was all of Hiro’s sword training that he never had to use. He just stabbed the guy.

I was anticipating a real box office ending with all the various heroes being drawn together to deal with Syler, and instead it was really easy and didn’t really utilize the various characters and their powers. I got whiplash because they didn’t pay off Peter’s journey. He begins the show as this insecure man, unable to act or trust his own decisions. At some points here toward the end of the season he was presented as the leader of these people. He had all these powers, and then suddenly he can’t control this one power when he could control all the others? I didn’t buy it.

And what was the whole Sphinx moment with Richard Roundtree? (For those of you who don’t get the Sphinx reference rent MYSTERY MEN. It’s great.) Which brings me to my final bitch. This is supposed to be so secret that these powers are developing, but _every single friggin person_ is involved with the supers. Mom, a patient Peter is caring for, the guy to whom the stripper owed money, Claire’s daddy. Sheesh!

I’ll keep watching because it’s something different on television, and I like superhero franchises (obviously), and I love Hiro, but this left me feeling letdown.

Oh, I cooked dinner while I watched the two hour finale of 24, or as I’ve dubbed it “The right wing torture fest”. Last season with the Nixonian president was pretty cool. This season was a mess, and now Jack has graduated from torturing strangers to torturing family. Where do you go from there? I’m afraid to find out.

Melinda

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

I’m a disappointed fan, and for a whole lot of reasons. I loved the first two Spiderman movies, and found Toby Maguire to be totally endearing as Peter Parker, but this movie was an overall mess with an occasional pleasant scene. I don’t know if the studio demanded More, Better BIGGER ACTION! or if Raimi lost his deft touch, but this film was over done and over loaded with villains and conflict. I thought long and hard about this film last night before I went to sleep, and I realized that they were trying to explore the theme of “forgiveness”, but they didn’t need seven points of conflict to do that. Let’s count them up — we had Peter vs. Harry over MJ’s affections. The we had Spiderman vs. the Hobgoblin over the death of daddy, and Harry/Hobgoblin’s need for revenge. We had Peter vs. the a**hole photographer who took his job. And then the guy turns into Venom so we had Spiderman vs. Venom. We had Spiderman vs. Sandman. And of course we had Spidey vs. Black Spiderman. And we had Peter in conflict with MJ.

I was disappointed that they changed screenwriters, and went with Raimi’s brother. The scenes with Aunt May in the first two films where she had subtley and deftly provided Peter with life lessons gave way to scenes where she Delivered the Message with a Jack Hammer — talk about on the nose and heavy handed.

Then there was the confused nature of the scenes. I found myself turning to my companions at various points and saying “what was that scene about?” “What was that scene supposed to do?” There is one in particular between Peter and MJ that had me shaking my head, and wondering if Dunst’s contract said she had to have x many minutes of screen time.

And that’s when I began to see the real flaw in this movie beyond the “too many notes Herr Mozart” problem. Building a book or a film is like constructing a pyramid or a ziggurat. The opening scenes lay the foundation of this structure. They set up the problem and the people. After that each subsequent scene has to build on these early scenes. They have to start narrowing the focus and carrying forward the story as you pull everything in toward the conclusion. You can’t just string scenes like beads on as string. You’ve got to consider the color and clarity and shape of the structure you are building. I like a scene to carry me into the next scene, and in some cases catapult me into the following scene. The scenes in Spiderman 3 felt like they were just thrown together randomly, and then there was this mad scramble at the end as they tried to pull it all together for Harry to forgive Peter and go off to save the girl.

And my finale little feminist rant — I’m really tired of the women in these movies being screaming luggage. Oh, and Peter in the throes of Dark Peter had me giggling because all I could think about was Weird Al’s song “White and Nerdy”.

Well, maybe Harry Potter will be good, and I’ve heard the next FANTASTIC FOUR is much better than the first one.

Melinda