Joy of Parenting

broderic on June 4, 2007

Like other weekends of the year, this weekend I saw a movie. The one where the young woman goes out for a wild night on the town, drinking, dancing, and carousing with young men. Eventually, when she sobers up from her night out she finds out that she’s pregnant. The imminent arrival of a baby causes much trouble. Hilarity ensues. It had me laughing.

The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek is another of the Preston Sturges oeuvre that I received in my Netflix queue. What you thought I was talking about Knocked Up? Wait a second and I’ll get to it in a minute. The Miracle of Morgan Creek has a similar and familiar plot to that of Knocked Up, but the morals are distinctly rooted in the forties.

The young Trudy Kockenlocker (great name) finds herself pregnant AND married (I told you it was the forties) after a night of seeing the service men off to war. A combination of champagne and a knock on the head causes her to do the foolish thing of marriage and sex. In the morning she can’t remember his name. She used a fake one herself so she’ll never know who’s on the marriage license. Scandalous! It’s a low down dirty shame if the town finds out. She spends the film trying to enlist the help of her 4F childhood sweetheart, Norval Jones. Scheming with her younger sister to make her situation legitimate, they plan another sham marriage for the license. Then she can divorce the serviceman and marry Norval and make her pregnancy respectable for her, her familiy, and for the town. I told you it was old timey.

The Miracle of Morgan Creek is very much another of Sturges’s comedy of remarriage in which the second marriage makes the first one legit like The Lady Eve. Although he wasn’t married to her at first, Norval eventually gets to be the husband as decreed by law. It’s all tidied up nicely. This is a wonderful funny film. In fact, it was a big hit the year it was released in 1944. The funniest thing about it is how it got through the censors of the Hayes office. It’s basically a girl who got drunk and pregnant. That’s got to be against the code. She also wants to perpetrate bigamy, dual marriages at the same time. Weird that they could make a movie with such topics in that era. Perhaps the comedy genre makes it more acceptable. It’s a farce so what can be wrong here.

Anyway, it’s got wonderful performances. Betty Hutton does the hysterics of the knocked up Trudy Kockenlocker (great name). William Demarest as the beleaguered father puts up with it all. Dianna Lynn the younger sister, Emmy, gets to be the smart gal, saying lines that wouldn’t seem out of place coming from Jean Harrington (The Lady Eve). It’s all so fun. And funny. Sturges does it again.

I also saw Knocked Up. That ones funny, too. It was riotous. Like Sturges who relies on a cast of regulars, Judd Apatow, has his regular troop. It’s great to see these dudes working. Triumphing over the dumb tv execs who didn’t have the sense of knowing comedy gold if it smote them over the head like a hammer. I would say that Apatow follows the footsteps of Sturges. He writes and directs his own stories. After Knocked up becomes the comedy hit of the summer, he may also be considered a comedy genius.

It too starts with a night on the town where the girl has sex and gets pregnant. Yet unlike the forties, there is no marriage then sex. Just sex. Marriage maybe later. The wonderful modern world. Except what was queer about it is that the morals are just as conservative as they were back then. She doesn’t think about a shma-shmortion. She wants the baby to have a father engaged in the child rearing. Even the fact of marriage comes up to make it all work out. Would it have been any less funny for the girl not to need a man to make it all fine in the end? See Waitress for that. That’s what was bothering about the film. She didn’t need him. And he didn’t need her. In fact, when you think about it. The plot is straight out of a sitcom. Or it could be the basis of one. A more realistic plot would’ve been nice, but perhaps its just as big a farce as one of Sturges’s work. I wonder if Knocked Up’s modern setting makes it harder to imagine if it was a farce.

There are some truly hilarious scenes. The pregnant sex. The crowning. Vegas on shrooms. Doc Brown. Then again, Apatow likes his movies long. Should comedies last longer than two hours? The best I can say about that is this one didn’t feel as long as his other films. The 40 Year Old Virgin was 30 minutes too long as was Ron Burgundy and you knew it. Knocked Up didn’t feel like it. Some scenes could’ve been excised, but it seems that Apatow has learned to move things along. Thank god.

I should’ve put my Waitress review here too. It seems to fall into this film genre, the unexpected mother. Weird that I would see a set of disparate films with the same plot. When are the hobo films coming then?

The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek: 4 of 5 stars.
Knocked Up: 4 of 5 stars.

Sullivan’s Travels

broderic on June 1, 2007

Ants in Your Pants of 1939 sounds like a fantastic movie. If it was real. It’s one of the funny films directed by John L Sullivan. It’s such a great money maker for his studio that the execs want him to direct another comedy, perhaps Ants in Your Pants of 1941. Sullivan doesn’t want to. He wants to direct a movie with pathos and gravitas like a Capra film. And maybe with a little sex in it. But he doesn’t have the life experience to direct such a movie. What does he know? So he outfits himself as a hobo and goes in search for that American experience. Hilarity ensues. That’s the film in a nutshell. The film he wanted to make was “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Needless to say it doesn’t get made because of the epiphany he experiences in his search for hobo gold.

Sullivan’s Travels was Preston Sturges’s film after The Lady Eve. It’s one of several films he wrote and directed during the 1940’s which was a very creative and fruitful period for him. I bought his box set that not only had both The Lady Eve and Sullivan’s Travels but five other good films. Each one hilarious in their own right.

If you like movies with some really good dialogue, you can’t do better than one of these Preston Sturges flicks.

4 of 5 stars.

Adventures From My Netflix Queue: Alien Autopsy, Fact or Fiction

broderic on May 27, 2007

The problem I had with this “expose” was that they talked about the film, but only show several minutes throughout the entire show. If it was a real film they would’ve filmed the entire autopsy from beginning to end.

Also, what was purported to be film looked like grainy video. Couldn’t they at least shown it as film?

It’s all fake.

1 of 5 stars

Waitress

broderic on May 27, 2007

I am always down for a Kerri Russell flick.

In this small, quirky film (it debuted at Sundance) she plays a waitress in a small town pie diner stuck in a bad marriage. She bakes pies, gets pregnant, and has an affair with her OB-GYN. And she looks as cute as ever.

But back to the film. It fits as one of those Sundance films. I haven’t been this charmed by one of these types of films since Ruby in Paradise. It may seem overly trying at times, but the sweetness of it wins you over. Kerri Russell was winnning as the main character. She bring back Felicity who’s been sorely missed. The supporting cast worked well.

4 of 5 stars.

28 Weeks Later

broderic on May 22, 2007

Contrary to what Marge says, I wanted to write up my review, or thoughts on, 28 weeks Later…

In most horror films, there is the jerk. The character that does things against the grain in service of selfish ideas rather than in service of the survivors, like Burke in Aliens or Ed in Shaun of the Dead. It’s the character you want most to die, and to be there when it happens in the most gruesome of way. In 28 Weeks Later, I felt that the two kids where that character. If not for their own selfish reasons, this movie would’ve been over in half the time. They were the prime motivators for killing off the human race, but they shouldn’t have survived. They should’ve died the gruesome death of the jerk onscreen for us to cheer. I would’ve liked the movie that way. I couldn’t like this movie when the characters I really wanted to live didn’t.

Plus, there were plot points that made no sense. Why did it take hours to find the children in a deserted London? Why is the US Military incometent? How on an island can you let zombies escape? WTF?

The movie is badly plotted. And the twist, which I thought wasn’t going to happen, happened. And I called it when I did not want to believe it. That’s what killed it for me.

2 of 5 stars.

“Yo, man, Spidey is a byotch! Batman wouldn’t’ve cried!”

broderic on May 6, 2007

Spiderman 3 is no Spiderman 2. It took the momentum built from the last movie, “Go get ’em tiger,” and threw some grit and Sandman into the gears grinding the franchise to a halt.

The biggest problem was Sandman. I was at the comic shop this weekend where they had lots of old time Spidey comics on the wall. Issue 2 was Doc Ock. Issue 1 must’ve been the Green Goblin. Issue 3 was, guess who? The Vulture, but issue 4 was Sandman. So they producers felt they had to stick with the schedule of villains established by the comic book. But Venom is a fanboy favorite, and was added to the trilogy to appease them. So it feels like they started with the Sandman as the prime villain, found out his story was weak, and added Venom. It results in an uneven story.

We first get Sandman. But did I mention Green Goblin Jr? He’s in it and his story line takes the most unconvincing turn of all. Back to Sandman, he’s a two-bit crook on the lam to see his daughter. That’s it, and by the way, he also killed your Uncle Ben. Hunh? Did he really kill him or did they make that up for the movie? Fanboys, help. They needed that in order for Spidey to work himself up for a showdown. Sandman then gets defeated at the two hour mark about which I wanted thought the ending should’ve occurred. He shows up in the last reel though to team up with Venom and kick some Spidey ass. Lame.

Venom was also problematic. They had to explain the entire emotional change in Peter Parker without losing time for Sandman bits. Peter becomes emo boy without the eyeliner. So after Sandman disappears, Venom takes over, but it was plainly a compression of a longer story arc from the comic book and the measly half hour it got didn’t do it justice.

Raimi I respect for making the first two very fine comicbook movies. He had a lot here to handle. Bottom line they should’ve had one villain. I think with the third installment they should’ve gone for the tried and true final act by redoing the first movie (see Indy and Star Wars for hints).

Caught this in the last showing on opening Friday. The audience was looking for a better time. I think plenty of people were disappointed judging from the number of people leaving before the first fake out ending occurred. It didn’t stop them from running to the doors after the second fake out ending, also.

3 of 5 stars

Adventures From My Netflix Queue:Lady of Burlesque

broderic on May 3, 2007

The movies that I really wanted to see over Memories of Murder starred Barbara Stanwyck. The latest one is Lady of Burlesque.

From the sound of the title it would’ve had to take place when burlesque was big. Early on in the thirties. Yet, as Miss Stanwyck makes her appearance, I expected the pretty, young thing, but it was the mature Miss Stanwyck. I found out that this movie was made in 1943! A few years from Lady Eve and just before Double Indemnity. So this is how some of her non-classic films were like. It’s a B movie! Yet, guess again. It was nominated for an Oscar in the song category “Take it off the E String. Play it on the G-string” which Miss Stanwyck sang. WooHoo!

The plot centers around the backstage shennanigans of a burlesque grind house, and then the ladies get involved in a murder straight out of a Scooby Doo mystery. “I would’ve gotten away with it, except for these meddling ladies of burlesque.” The murder mystery was pretty thin. As was the plot.

The funniest part of watching it was that I was expecting a pre-code movie. Of course, being made in 1943, it adhered to the code of ethics of the day. Just imagine how much “burlesque” they could show. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. For Miss Stanwyck’s song and dance, she did some bumping and grinding. Or at least that was what was hinted at. Cut to the audience. She shakes it, but only in your imagination.

Lady of Burleque isn’t bad, but it’s only for those hardcore Stanwyck fans.

3 of 5 stars.

Picture homages

broderic on May 2, 2007

What with Grindhouse, it seems like all the movies nowadays are trying to recapture something of the stories of the yesteryear. Here’s two that tried. Which of them succeeded?

Disturbia is to Rear Window as Sweet&Low is to sugar. It’s nowhere as good as the original. And yet, it seems that people have been flocking to it making it three weeks at the top of the box office. Why? Because they are wankers, but hey, I saw it in the theatres. I don’t think I am a wanker, but I wanted to see it because of its shameless rip of one of my favorite movies.

There are few direct riffs on the original. They’ve escaped me right now, a week since watching the movie. I remember one being the sound of a scream/killing waking Shia up. The leaving from the scene of the “crime” a lady. These were the only vestiges of Hitchcock’s film that stand out. The others were subtle. Is the killer coming over with a bat similar to Raymond Burr showing up at the door? Maybe. Is the scene with the depiction of the neighborhood the same? No Ms. Lonely Hearts though. Can’t compete.

The one thing they updated was the score. Or at least the musical soundtrack with what passes for music nowadays. Why? It was an episode of the OC with that dude stuck in doors. Or that other dude on a killing spree. Sorry, about the names, but at least that is what I think it would be like.

It’s a palid version of one of the greatest movies in Hitchcock’s ouevre.

2 of 5 stars.

Hot Fuzz brought to us by the madmen who did Shaun of the Dead (which I thought was alright), and the director of the funniest fake trailer in Grindhouse, “Don’t.” Yet, this film appealed to me more. Shaun of the Dead was a mediocre attempt at a zombie movie. Zombies are tired. They should’ve been ninjas, or at least pirates.

But Hot Fuzz travels in the tried and true action genre.

Whether they are spoofing it or paying a cheeky homage is hard to tell. If they refer to Bad Boyz II as the ultimate flick, it’s got to be a spoof. Yet, they reference Michael Bay-isms throughout. HOMAGE!

Best line riffed on Jake Gittes, but not: “Forget it, Nick, it’s Sandford.” That’s won me some points those cheeky brits.

4 of 5 stars.

The Children of Hurin

broderic on May 1, 2007

I had finished this book sometime last week. Loved it, but I had read it already in its various forms. It made me tear up at the Finduilas part. Damn, Morgoth Bauglir! I curse thee! May you stay locked up in The Void for all eternity.

I wonder how those who haven’t read The Silmarillion are going to react to this book. Dark and forboding it is, and nothing like The Lord of the Rings. Those elves and men are not as nice. Everyone is more like Boromir. Turin mainly.

B+

Playing Catch Up

broderic on April 20, 2007

I haven’t been posting regularly. As if you didn’t know. I’ve been too busy. Some of the things I had due are almost done and now I have found some time to breathe. Let me post something to know that BrowserMetrics the blog still has a pulse.

First off most of my friends in the side bar are also silent except for Margeaux. She’s been blogging up a storm compared to me and the others. Of course she has spent most of this month doing nothing but writing. Yet, she has time to read The Children of Hurin? Hmm.

Second, I did catch Grindhouse opening weekend, and from the looks of things, its closing weekend as well. 3 of 5 stars is my rating. First, Rodriguez makes bad films. Including Sin City. So when he set out to make a bad movie, it’s doubly the worst of it all. The problem with his film was that it was too much like USA Up All Night from the eighties. No one told us that the shit playing at the grindhouse is really the shit you watched on cable drunk. I paid money for this? Tarantino’s half is more of a problem. It was too serious in tone and completely clashed with the previous Rodriguez part. “I went to the grindhouse and a Tarantino movie started!” Plus it was talky. I wonder if you went to a grindhouse to watch talking. Yes, it was dark and disturbing at times, but in the sense it was Tarantino. At least his bad acting was overshadowed by the badness of the films.

Third school. At least the class I am taking now. It sucks. I have a new WindBlows laptop though. And a dead Dell box. Linux is just as lame. Computers should help you be productive not throw obstacles in your way. They just need to work sometimes.

That’s it for now. I don’t like writing much. But there it is.