Hugo Transports Us

I am on my quest to see all that Best Picture nominees and one of the ones left on the list was Hugo. Hugo is based on a children's book written by Brian Selznick The Invention of Hugo Cabret. This film is directed by Martin Scorsese (and you know you've made into the American lexicon when your name comes up in spell check.) Scorsese is not exactly known for family-friendly viewing. Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Departed, or GoodFellas are not what families flock to the theater to see together. Thus is the influence of having children at a older age. Scorsese, who is now 69 years old, has a young daughter who read Selznick's book and encouraged her dad to make it into a movie. My first thought after seeing he'd made this movie was, "What's next? Is Quentin Tarantino going to start doing children's films too?"Imagine his telling of Hansel and Gretel. Eww.

It's obvious from the first seconds of this movie that Scorsese set out to make the most beautiful film he could possibly make. The film is also his first foray into 3-D.  I am not a huge fan of 3-D movies, sometimes they just try too hard. I think it takes a skillful hand to say south of the line of ridiculousness with them. I usually will choose to see the movie sans 3-D, but it was my only option this day. In this case, Scorsese takes you into the world of Hugo Cabret with the medium.  His use of the 3-D really helps to make the train station, and all of Paris, a character in this film. This is truly one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen.

The cast was superb. Every part, large or small was handled with the utmost care. Ben Kingsley as George Melies (french accents dropped off because I don't know how to do them in this format) was wonderful transitioning from the sad old man to the young man full of fire. Sacha Baron Cohen (probably one of my least favorite actors on the planet) developed a villain with layers, not just a melodramatic evil-doer. I think my favorite characters were all the bit part players,  Francis la Tour as Madame Emilee, Christopher Lee as Monsieur Labisse, and Richard Griffiths as Monsieur Frick helped draw Hugo's world. And even though I liked Asa Butterfield's performance in this film, it pales in comparison with his performance in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

Perhaps, however, not having read the book and hearing too many interviews about the film before seeing it colored my view somewhat. I have to say that I went into it with this idea of the film being a "love letter to the movies," and I kept waiting for that element to appear. I came in about midway through the film, and once it did, it made complete sense, but I felt it took to long to tie those pieces together. But, again, I never read the book.

I am so glad that Scorsese's daughter asked him to make this film. It was a gift. I would like to see Scorsese turn his magic on some other children's tales. I think it's definitely a front runner for best picture. It does what a movie should, takes you to another world. 


 

I'll Miss You Chuck

One of my favorite shows ends this Friday night. Chuck has his last mission this Friday night. I have to say that anyone who never watched this show, missed a fun ride. The premise of Chuck was this could-have-been-great Stanford drop-out who works at a local big-box media store the "Buy More" as part of the "Nerd Herd" He opens an e-mail that downloads the entire databases of the CIA, NSA, and DOD into his brain and suddenly becomes "The Intersect." A walking intelligence computer. Enter his "handlers" one Sarah Walker, an extremely tough, beautiful, and aloof CIA agent. John Casey, a died in wool, Reagan Republican, gun-loving NSA agent, and General Beckman, the all for national security,head of the Intersect program. Along the way we meet Chuck's best friend and fellow "Buy More" employee, Morgan Grimes, his sister Ellie, a doctor, and his eventual brother-in-law whom they refer to as "Awesome" who is also a doctor. There's also fellow Nerd Herders,  Jeff and Lester (known as Jeffster) and the manager of the Buy More Big Mike.

Chuck falls for Sarah and is convinced he can never have her. Eventually, Sarah falls for Chuck and is convinced she can never deserve him. We meet both of Chuck parents, Awesome's parents, several old flames and lots of scary bad guys. Ellie and Awesome get married, Big Mike moves in with Morgan's mother, and eventually Chuck and Sarah even get married. The guest starring cast has been superb everyone from Scott Bakula as Chuck and Ellie's father, Linda Hamilton as their mother, Timothy Dalton as a international arms dealer to Bo Derek as herself (but secretly a spy) in a recent episode.

The thing I think I have liked the most is the fact that Chuck's character changed, but at his core he stayed the same sweet guy. He went from being a likeable coward to being a likeable master spy. And it doesn't hurt that I have a little crush on Zachary Levi.

Even though the show is called Chuck, it truly is a ensemble. I can't imagine the series without any one of them. I hope to see much more of Zachary Levi in the future, he's proven he is leading man material. Yvonne Strahovski is beautiful and talented, I'm sure she's got scripts piled up all over. The rest of the cast, Joshua Gomez, Sarah Lancaster, Ryan McPartlin, Vik Sahay, Scott Krinsky, and Mark Christopher Lawrence I hope to see everywhere!

This Friday is the last episode, 2 hours two wrap up five years of storyline. I really, really hope I'm going to walk away satisfied.  Here's a little video of Zachary Levi talking about the end of Chuck.

I'm a Media Baby

I've always been a media baby. Music, TV,  books, and movies have always been my favorite things in this world. I was the kid whose walls were covered with posters and shelves were filled with novels and magazines. I've decided to start a new blog to focus specifically on reviewing and commenting on tv shows and movies that I watch and books that I read. And even though this blog is titled, "Eyes, Ears, and Heart: Media Lenses," this might not always be the most spiritual of blogs. Sometimes it's just going to be fun. I tried all kinds of titles that were already taken, (Media Muggle, In Front of the Screen, etc.) and this is the one that came up as open!