Superman Returns – Good Only if Born After 1975

superman.jpgHaving read many reviews of the newly released Superman Returns, i wasn’t expecting much from film when i entered the theater. Two and a half hours later, i left feeling completely entertained and fulfilled. Feeling misled by many critics, i began to wonder why the movie was being panned by critics i generally trusted. Going back to the reviews, i found that almost every critic that gave the movie a compared it to the first two originals.

For instance the New York Times can help but repeatedly discuss the greatness of Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman’s roles rather than the effectiveness and charm of Brandon Routh and Kate Bosworth. For instance, the NYT review actually lists all the characters of the 1978 film and only after praising the original storyline and cast does it briefly mention the actual participants in the current film:

Released in 1978, that film ushered Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s original comic creation into the blockbuster age with frothy wit and a cast that included Marlon Brando in a creamy scoop of white hair and Gene Hackman in clover. Christopher Reeve, of course, wore the cape and tights, while Margot Kidder did a fine approximation of the young Katharine Hepburn at her most coltish. Valerie Perrine and Ned Beatty added some laughs, while Glenn Ford supplied a pinch of gravitas.

The NYT’s infatuation with Reeve continues later in the article:

Mr. Reeve worked the tonal changes with similar ease, delivering a superhero whose earnestness was strategically offset by his fumbling, bumbling, all-too-human twin, who was just the ticket for the post-Watergate, pre-Indiana Jones moment. Mr. Singer’s Superman, played by Brandon Routh, is a hero of rather different emotional colors, most muted……Part of the charm of Mr. Reeve’s interpretation was that a guy this impossibly handsome, who literally towers over everyone in the office, could hide behind a slouch and oversize eyeglasses.

The NYT is not the only review to do this. Roger Ebert’s review is the same:

Routh may have been cast because he looks a little like Reeve, but there are times when he looks more like an action figure; were effects used to make him seem built from synthetics? We remember the chemistry between Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder (Lois Lane) in the original “Superman” movie, and then observe how their counterparts are tongue-tied in this one. If they had a real romance (and they did), has it left them with nothing more than wistful looks and awkward small talk?

Of course, Lois doesn’t remember the romance between her and Superman because he erased it at the end of S2, but apparently Ebert forgot that point.

What gets me about these constant comparisons to the past films is that, as a 28 year old, i don’t remember them. The first and second films came out when i was 8 months old and 2 years old. And, anyone younger than me probably doesn’t remember them nor think fondly of them. Thus, you have 2 brand new generations of viewers who are experiencing a modern Superman film for the first time. It seems that older reviewers get caught up in their own nostalgia when reviewing a remake and i’m sure older film-goers may agree with them, but for me these reviews prove the generational gap just as much as the reviews of Dumb & Dumber did when that film came out in the mid-90’s and was generally panned by all viewers.

The long and short of it – is Superman it a classic? Definitely not. But it is a very enjoyable popcorn movie and is more than enough to make the July 4th movie going experience worthwhile, as long as you haven’t seen the originals and can barely remember the Ronald Regan presidency.

Elizabethtown – The Real Story

bilde.jpgI saw Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown last year in the theater and although i love Crowe’s movies, i left the theater thinking that it was one of his worst films to date. I also thought that that Orlando Bloom completely ruined the movie. He had no depth, was not interesting and had no redeeming value as a character.

The film, for those who haven’t see it, is about Drew (Orlando Bloom). In the beginning of the film he causes the Oregon shoe company he works for to lose hundreds of millions of dollars, is fired for his mistake, and promptly dumped by his girlfriend, Ellen. On the verge of suicide, Drew is oddly given a new purpose in life when he is brought back to his family’s small Kentucky hometown of Elizabethtown following the death of his father, Mitch, as it falls to him to make sure that his dying wishes are fulfilled. On the way home to Kentucky, Drew meets a flight attendant, Claire Colburn (Dunst), with whom he falls in love, in a romance that helps his life get back on track.

That was the movie i saw (again, which is not very good). Now, over a year later, i have learned more about what the underlying real story of Elizabethtwon might be. Apparently, Kirsten Dunst (Claire) actually plays an angel sent back to earth to save Orlando Bloom (Drew) and place him back on a heavenly path. I learned most of this from Todd Zimmerman (here). I’d like to list these facts as i see them. They certainly would make a repeat viewing much more enjoyable.

Some clues of the hidden plotline….

  • At the shoe companysatan.jpg
    • The corporate shoe king Phil (Alec Baldwin) plays satan and tries his hardest to condemn Drew and drive him to suicide. He has a monologue about the virtues of “original thought” and doing things for yourself.
    • Phil’s assistant, Ellen, is also Drew’s girlfriend. She clearly is trying to destroy him too.
    • Drew chooses to skip Christmas and a wholesome family event for the hedonistic office party – displaying his life is veering towards one of moral corruption. His soul is not grounded.
    • Drew’s main product – his shoes, similar to his self, have a flawed sole/soul that needs saving or fixing.
  • On the plane, we can conclude Claire (Dunst) has been sent back down by God to help a lost soul. She alludes to “not doing her job in the skies well” and that Drew is her last chance.
    • Her quote “I’m hard to forget but impossible to remember” makes a lot of sense if she really is sent to earth to guide people.
  • Claire decides to take Drew on as a case as he’s in need of help. She refers of a “trip to Hawaii” which we can interpret as going back to heaven, which she decides to pass on.
  • At the end, she has to make a decision about her own future in addition to saving Drew. Is personal love on Earth more rewarding than impersonal love from Ben.
  • Claire refers to another guy, Ben, and we have to determine for ourselves whether or not he actually exists. Ben=God.
  • His cousin Jessie could be a christ/god-type figure. He is an unconventional father. He fixes computers, i.e. solves modern man’s problems. He is very lenient to his own child Samson – who doesn’t seem to have a mother…odd? Everyone is equal in his house (Lincoln and Ronnie Van Zant).
  • Drew’s mother Holly was also a lost soul once, until Drew’s dad found her. They met in an “elevator.”
  • The cremator guy and Claire give each other funny looks as if they know they’re on separate sidelines. He convienently schedules the cremation to be done early and gets some strange satisfaction in that fact
  • The wedding Claire and Drew attend:
    • Symbol of people in Heaven.
    • No premarital sex – in fact, Claire is perceived by them as breaking that rule and jokingly called a slut by them (at the bottom of an elevator too

There are many other referecnes to Hell and God in the movie, but i think you get the idea. For me, the new-found plot doens’t change the movie’s “crappy” status. But, it does make it much more watchable and interesting. Kudos to Crowe for at least trying to put some layers into the film. It’s too bad that the first layer was so bad that i don’t care that much about the rest.

Rita Rudner Quotes

Some good quotes by Rita:

  • Before I met my husband, I’d never fallen in love. I’d stepped in it a few times.
  • I love being married. It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.
  • Marriages don’t last. When I meet a guy, the first question I ask myself is: is this the man I want my children to spend their weekends with?
  • My husband and I are either going to buy a dog or have a child. We can’t decide whether to ruin our carpet or ruin our lives.
  • When I eventually met Mr. Right I had no idea that his first name was Always.

TED Presentations, Dean Kamen & Majora Carter

I once had the priviledge to go to the TED conference (thanks to Jules) and saw the best speech i had ever seen by Dean Kamen and his quest to fix many of the problems of the world using technology.

Now TED is broadcasting their videos on their site. I recently watched another great speech by Majora Carter who advocates environmental justice through “green” community developments in the South Bronx. Her project is the Sustainable South Bronx and her speech is here and below – it’s worth a viewing.

As for the Kamen speech, i have the DVD and i’ll post it as soon as i get it up.

The Big Green Bus

12 Dartmouth students are driving their “Big Green Bus” from California to Hanoverthebus2.JPG (NH) and back on nothing by Vegetable Oil and solar power. Awesome.

This story will tell you more about how these guys will grab vegetable oil from restaurants along the way to power “the bus” and the solar power is keeping the oil from thickening while also powering their laptops and cameras.
Hell ya – go Dartmouth! Check out their site at http://www.thebiggreenbus.org

If you want to show your support, here’s their route

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Love, John Cusak, & Woody Allen

All according to Chuck Klosterman.

Coldplay and John Cusak are screwing us….

Coldplay songs deliver an amorphous, irrefutable interpretation of how being in love is supposed to feel, and people find themselvesjohncusack.jpg wanted that feeling for real. They want men to adore them like Lloyd Dobbler, and men want women to think like Aimee Mann, and everyone expects all their arguments to sound like Sam Malone and Diane Chambers. They think everything will work out perfectly in the end, and they don’t stop believing, because Journey’s Steve Perry insists we should never do that. In the 19th century, teenagers merely aspired to have a marriage that would be better than that of their parents; personally i would never be satisfied unless my marriage was a good as Cliff and Clair Huxtable’s (or at least as enigmatic as Jack and Meg White)….

depressing. But there’s more, little did we know….

….If we have learned anything from mass media, it’s that only people who can make us happy are those who don’t strike us as particularly desirable. Whether it’s Jerry Maguire or Sixteen Candles or Who’s the Boss or Some Kind of Wonderful or Speed Racer, we are constantly reminded that the unattainable icons of perfection we lust after can never fulfill us like the platonic allies who have been there all along.

Crap – i’ve been barking up the wrong tree for a long time. Maybe there’s some hope. Apparently Woody Allen is a savior, or not….

Woody Allen has made nebbish guys cool; he makes people assumewoody-allen01.jpg there is something profound about having a relationship based on witty conversation and intellectual discourse. There isn’t. It’s just another gimmick, and it’s no different than wanting to be with someone because they’re thin or rich or the former lead singer of Whiskeytown. And, it actually might be worse, because an intellectual relationship isn’t real at all. My witty banter and cerebral discourse is always completely contrived.

Amen, so is mine. But wait. Shit. This is disturbing.

This is all from the first chapter of Chuck Klosterman’s enjoyable read – Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. It reads very similar to a Sports Guy column but discusses popular culture instead of sports.

Monkey-Mind Story Telling

8640.jpgJust finished the book “Another Bullshit Night in Suck City” which is a great memoir about a guy who works in a homeless shelter where his dad takes refuge. Their paths cross, the author confesses to doing some pretty crazy things and barely keeps himself from living on the streets as well. The book, written by the poet Nick Flynn, is beautifully written and totally captivating.

One little excerpt that i’m thinking of today:

If one were a a Buddhist, one might say we spend much of our lives in “monkey-mind,” swinging from story to story, our thoughts never quiet. Perhaps it is our fear, that in the silence between stories, in the moment of falling, the fear that we will never find the one story which will save us, and so we lunge for another, and we feel safe again, if only for as long as w are telling it.

Nick Flynn (345)

Graduate II

Taken from (here) – thought it was worth reposting…..

There's nothing like an eviction notice to make a man resort to desperate measures. Charles Webb, author of the original novel that was made into The Graduate, was facing homelessness when he decided to sell his unfinished sequel to Random House, which plans to publish the novel next year. The book will revisit Ben Braddock and his now-wife Elaine ten years later, as they home school their two children in upstate New York. The sequel is appropriately titled Home School (unless Random House changes it to simply The Graduate II — I wouldn't be surprised), and Mrs. Robinson is somehow featured in its story. Webb isn't sure whether or not a movie will be made since he doesn't know how the rights will be handled. Originally, he didn't receive a dime for the rights to The Graduate. His last novel, New Cardiff, was adapted into the film Hope Springs.

Obviously if there is a film, the cast of the original would not return (although it would be interesting to have Katherine Ross return as her character's mother), and the Mike Nichols film is such a classic that anybody cast in the iconic roles will spark controversy and protest. Then there's the matter of the soundtrack. Okay, that is easy — a number of artists today are going for that Simon and Garfunkel sound. See the Garden State soundtrack for evidence. The thing I'm most worried about is that now we may get a sequel to Rumor Has It to explain its character's connection to Webb's follow-up.

Klosterman's Thoughts on NY

Just finished Chuck Klosterman's "Fargo Rock City" which was great. I love it anytime someone deconstructs or discusses GNR. I found an interview Chuck gave to Spin magazine where he discusses NY city. 

Living in New York makes you younger and older at the same time. It makes you younger because everyone who lives here is a drunk, and everyone stays out late, and everybody goes to shows, and everybody cares about rock bands, and movies, and generally things in America that only young people are interested in. It makes you a little bit older in the sense that everyone is jaded and has a cynical view of the world and is very distrustful.

Chuck Klosterman Interview, Spin Magazine 7/21/2005

Halo Update

300px-h3chiefemerges.jpg

Halo is blowing up! I have some news on both the game and the movie.

Arguably the best game (both 1 and 2) in the past 5 years is being made into a movie. Last year Peter Jackson signed on as executive producer for “Halo: The Movie,” and the project was tentatively scheduled for summer 2007. That date now seems to be premature as IMDb has updated its movie listing reflecting Master Chief‘s silver screen debut has been postponed until 2008.

While a simultaneous launch of both the movie and Halo 3 would be beneficial for both parties, Bungie always claimed the two are not connected in terms of release date, so this does not automatically mean that Halo 3 is delayed as well.255px-halo3logo.png

The trailer for Halo 3 is now online and looks fantastic! .

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