Summer is Here

The days turn longer and warmer. We enter into Daylight Savings Time (kicking and screaming). Typically, people long to head to the beach, hang out in the park, have a backyard barbeque, or have a summer romance. I however long for a darkened room and the smell of popcorn.  Summer is blockbuster movie time and I am so excited. (Though this year my ability to see them may be impeded....just lost my job last week.) Regardless, let me give you the lowdown on some of the summer movies that I am looking forward to.

Iron Man 3 (May 3)
Robert Downey, Jr. reprises his role as the ever-arrogant, ever-brilliant, ever-sleepless Tony Stark. I've already seen this movie, and it did not disappoint. Tony's wit and confidence continue even though they both take a beating. His beautiful counterpart Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) continues to show why she is the perfect partner and foil for Stark. There's plenty of action and a few twists in the storyline to keep a viewer interested.  I went with a friend who had never seen the other two movies and she LOVED it.

The Great Gatsby (May 10)
I don't know that the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic would normally fit into the summer blockbuster category, but under the direction of Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge) and starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby it promises to look and feel much more like a summer blockbuster than the original Robert Redford/Mia Farrow film. I have a soft spot for Baz Luhrmann, the Australian director is responsible for one of my all time favorite films, "Strictly Ballroom" but is best known for his takes on "Moulin Rouge" and "Romeo and Juliet." It promises to be an amazing vision of the decadence of the 1920's. I am anxious to see how DiCaprio approaches the character of Gatsby in comparison to Redford's iconic performance. Luhrmann's approach to the music is amazing with using the likes of JayZ, Kanye West, Florence and the Machine, Brian Ferry along with Fats Waller, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin.

Star Trek: Into Darkness (May 17)
The reboot of this iconic series has been so much fun.  The casting of Chris Pine (This Means War. It matches him and Tom Hardy...sigh) as Captain Kirk, Zachary Quinto (He will always be Sylar on Heroes to me) as Spock, Simon Pegg (He was awesome in Ghost Protocol) as Scotty, and my personal favorite Karl Urban (If you've not seen Red, he was perfect) as Bones has breathed new life into the characters.  J.J. Abrams direction has balanced homage to the original with a vision of for the future of the series. I loved the first one, and this one should be its equal and may perhaps pass it depending on whether Benedict Cumberpatch (the BBC's latest Sherlock) is as compelling as the villain as I think he's going to be. 

Man of Steel (June 14)
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love superheroes. They take us out of our every day world and show us what could be. Superman has been done and done again. There's certainly not be any sort of shortage of steel-jawed men to play him. From the beginning of the serial with Kirk Alyn to Christopher Reeve to the latest iteration in Henry Cavill. I am not a comic book reader, so I don't know how close to the actual story this will be to the comic book world.  For me, it looks like it has the potential to be a super appealing story and have portrayals that endear me to characters again that I have seen many times.  Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent, Russell Crowe as Jor-El, and one of my all time favorites Amy Adams as Lois Lane add to the superb casting of Henry Cavill. Cavill brings a manliness to the man of steel that is more than the clean cut Clark Kent we are used to.

Between Star Trek and Man of Steel are several weeks of movies that I hold little or no interest in.  The Hangover Part III, though I love Bradley Cooper, these movies are not my cup of tea. Disney's offering EPIC seems like a reboot of Ferngully. I may grow some interest in Will and Jaden Smith's After Earth, but I am thinking if I'm still unemployed, I'm not wasting my money on that one.

There is one other film before Man of Steel that is a must see for me.  It's Joss Whedon's take on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. (June 7) It's one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. It's done by one of my favorite director/producers, Joss Whedon. (see my earlier posts) It has a great cast that might not be your usual major motion picture cast (Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker are not lead actors usually, but I love them both). I love that the idea for the movie is borne out of the parties Whedon would have at his home to read Shakespeare. And of course, I am super giddy that Nathan Fillion is in it.

I am going to address the other summer films in another post!  Mark your calendars!

Olympus Has Fallen

Saturday I went to see "Olympus Has Fallen." If I were to sum it up in a short sentence it would be "Die Hard takes place in the White House." It was a good action movie. Gerard Butler looked great as a Secret Service agent, square-jawed and clean shaven wearing those aviator sunglasses.

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, the basic premise is this, terrorists take over the White House and Gerard Butler saves the day. Like I said, Die Hard at the White House with Gerard Butler replacing Bruce Willis.

The writer did a great job of nearly immediately endearing the audience to the President (Aaron Eckhart--the guy with the huge dimple in his chin--also known as Harvey Dent), his wife (Ashley Judd) and their young son Connor (Finley Jacobsen).

Now, perhaps it's just the recent news about North Korea, but I have to say that it completely freaked me out to watch how the swiftly and completely the Korean terrorists took out the White House.  (And I say Korean because this terrorist was born in North Korea and grew up in the South.) Lots of of blood, lots of booms, and lots of shooting.  Don't get too attached to any one character in this film, because like an episode of Downton Abbey or The Walking Dead, they'll be dead in a minute.

Like I said, I liked the movie.  I liked the premise.  I liked the performances. Morgan Freeman played the Speaker of the House, for goodness sake. (Who we never see take the oath of office to be the president....they did that on the West Wing when John Goodman became President) Gerard Butler was totally believable and likeable as the super-tough guy Secret Service agent in search of redemption. This is the thing I didn't like. It is my understanding that the Secret Services' job is to protect the President, at all cost. I get that, so while I hated watching them get mowed down, I understand it. It is my understanding that the President's job, and the job of the people who work for him to protect the country, no matter the cost. Now, I realize that the movie has to move forward, but I have to say I got really irritated when the President ordered his subordinates to do things that placed the nation in jeopardy so that he could be the big hero.  "They'll never get it from me." Also, the Speaker of the House caving to terrorists to save the life of the President, didn't sit well with me.

If you're looking for a fun and action packed movie experience, go see this. If you're a student of how our government works and how the succession of power and the protection of the government works, you might want to leave that all at the door.

The Crowd Has Spoken

This week something extraordinary happened. Yeah, yeah, the Catholic Church chose a new Pope. What I am talking about is way more exciting than some white smoke coming out of the Sistine Chapel.  They did it! Veronica Mars is going to be a major motion picture!

I was not an original "Marshmallow" as Veronica Mars herself, Kristen Bell, likes to refer to us. I was converted while laying flat on my back after my cancer surgery. My good friend Deb not only did my laundry during that time, but she gave me the wonderland of Neptune, CA and the sassy Veronica Mars on DVD to help pass the time.

It was there I discovered the UPN/CW Network short-lived series about a high school girl who sidelined as a private detective. Veronica came by her obsession honestly, her dad was the local sheriff. Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni) was a single dad to a very unwieldy teenaged girl. Veronica did her best to take care of her dad despite her penchant for trouble. I liken their relationship to that of Molly Ringwald and Harry Dean Stanton in the John Hughes 80's classic Pretty in Pink, except Keith Mars wasn't a loser drunk. Veronica's best friend Lily Kane (Amanda Seyfried) is murdered and Veronica dives in head first into the nefarious doings of her small town to find out who her killer is. All the while, Veronica is still a high school student wending her way through the usual challenges of boys, and classes, and expectations, and well, more boys. There's the bad boy Logan (Jason Dohring), all his smoldering looks and misunderstood ways, Veronica's best friend and fellow investigator, Wallace Fennel (Percy Daggs III), the resident gang banger Eli (Francis Capra) and many many more. I was truly upset that I never made this show a part of my regular viewing and thereby helped to kill it, perhaps before it's time.

Now, however, I have taken part in breathing life back into this show. You see, this movie isn't being made because the studios thought it would be a good idea. This movie is being made because the people who watch TV and movies thought it would be a good idea. Writer/creator Rob Thomas and Bell took it to the people through the Web site Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a site that does what is referred to as crowd-sourcing. If you have a project, whether it be creative, business, or charitable, Kickstarter allows you to collect funding for the project. The goal to get the movie made was $2 million. The site went active on March 13, 2013, and took all of 11 hours to fully fund the project. At the moment I am writing this 50,312 people have backed the movie and $3,3210,038 has been raised. And every time I toggle over there, it goes up and up. Check it out here http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project


I know, it seems kind of silly and shallow. Can't that money be given to feed the poor or support something important?  The answer is yes, yes, it could. But, it's also kind of exciting to see we are in era where anything is possible and that the voice of the people can matter. So, if we can raise $2 million to make a movie, then maybe other more important things can be brought to the forefront and funded.

In the meantime, I am waiting patiently for my T-shirt, my shooting script, and my glimpse of what Neptune is like in 2013.

Best Picture

Ok, I have just a little while to get this together. It's been a busy couple days!  Here's the last one I'm going to do.

The Academy has these nominees from which to choose:

Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

And the Oscar goes to:

Lincoln. I think that the movie that wins in this category should have it all. It should be well written (check). It should have an amazing cast (check). It should have top-notch performances (check). It be clear in its directorial vision without it being heavy-handed (check).  It should have a great score (check). It should look amazing (check). It should have great costumes (check). It should be edited well (check).  You get the idea. I have seen a number of the other nominees, and the only other one that I think is close is Les Miserables. Silver Linings Playbook is really great, but it is missing in some of the other areas. 

So, one more time, let's have some fun with this.

Dream Nominees:

Skyfall
The Dark Knight Rises
The Avengers
Trouble with the Curve
Flight

And my Oscar would go to:

The Dark Knight Rises.  This is the best of the Dark Knight movies. I love the story, I love the casting, I love the way it looked.  I love that it surprised me in a couple places. I loved Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, Joseph Gordon Levitt, and Marion Collitard. The ending was THE BEST! This is one of those movies that would never win at the real Academy Awards, but it was a great movie that rode the line between intense and fun so well.

The red carpet is almost over. I need to get settled in for the broadcast.  Enjoy!

Best Animated Film

The Academy has these choices for Best Animated Film:

Brave
Frankenweenie
Paranorman
Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck It Ralph

And the winner is:

I believe Disney's Brave will win. Disney's strongest female character yet is a shoo-in. It's a strong story, fun, and funny. As a person with curly hair, I appreciate the head of beautiful curly red hair they gave her! 




So, let's find a few more to consider.

The Rise of the Guardians
Hotel Transylvania
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
Ice Age: Continental Drift
The Lorax

Ok, I haven't seen that many animated films this year. I saw Brave and I liked it a lot. The other one I saw was The Rise of Guardians.  I loved this movie. It was beautifully drawn, and well acted.  I loved Hugh Jackman as the Easter Bunny, and Alec Baldwin as a Russian Santa. I loved that it was all about finding your inner strength and childhood wonder. I would love to see a sequel to this movie.

Best Director

The Academy has the following to choose from for Best Director.

Best Director Nominees
Amour--Michael Haneke
Beasts of the Southern Wild--Behn Zeitlin
Life of Pi--Ang Li
Lincoln--Steven Spielberg
Silver Linings Playbook--David O. Russell

And the Oscar will go to:

I believe the Academy will choose Steven Spielberg's Lincoln.  This is his 9th nomination in this category and the last time he won was in 1999 for Saving Private Ryan. The sweep of this movie and the way the story is told is worth the Oscar.  I don't know that he had much to do with the creative process that made Daniel Day-Lewis Lincoln, but I would think wrangling everyone else around that had to be a job and a half. I have not seen Life of Pi, but I know that Ang Li is a favorite as well and the imagery even in the previews makes this a tight race, I think. I loved Silver Linings Playbook, but I feel like there were too many continuity errors for it to win best directing, he's supposed to have the all the movie in mind. I saw Beasts of the Southern Wild, it is an interesting concept, but I would be surprised if it won. I have not seen Amour.

My choices for best directing would be.

Dream Nominees:
Tom Hooper--Les Miserables, he made brilliant choices all around. I am sad to see he wasn't picked for real.
Ben Affleck--Argo. Ok, so I haven't seen Argo, but he won every other award, and I've loved Gone, Baby Gone.
Joss Whedon--The Avengers.  The post-credits scene is worth an Oscar by itself.
Asger Leth--Man on a Ledge. He made Sam Worthington seem like a real actor.
Robert Zemekis--Flight. His choices in story telling and analogy are outstanding.

And if I could nominate someone for worst directing it would be Gary Ross for the Hunger Games. That movie could have been so much better if I hadn't needed to keep my head cocked to one side or the other half the time.

And my winner is:

Joss Whedon for the Avengers. Yes, I love Joss Whedon. I am a closet (not any longer) Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel fan. I love Firefly. If you haven't seen Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, you are missing a cult classic. (Thank you Leighton!) The man wrote the screenplay for the original Toy Story for goodness sake! And I can't tell you how excited I am that he has done a version of my favorite Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing. No one else could have wrangled all these superheroes and not turn it into a 100% cheesefest. The movie was what movies are supposed to be FUN! That's all comes from the vision, straight from the director. Thank you Joss!

Best Supporting Actress

The choices for Best Supporting Actress are:

Best Supporting Actress Nominees:
Amy Adams--The Master
Sally Field--Lincoln
Anne Hathaway--Les Miserables
Helen Hunt--The Sessions
Jacki Weaver--Silver Linings Playbook

And the winner will be:

Anne Hathaway as Fantine in Les Miserables. Her performance, though brief, is so very, very strong. I think in part due to the fact that David Hooper designed this more like a play, where the singing is done live. This race is almost too close to call though, because I think they will also lean toward Sally Field's performance as Mrs. Lincoln. She does an excellent job of riding the line between the ambitious woman that pushes her husband and the grief-stricken crazy woman. I felt such empathy for Jacki Weaver as Bradley Cooper's mom in Silver Linings Playbook. Again, I have not seen The Master nor The Sessions.

So, let's have some fun with this idea:
Dame Judi Dench--Skyfall--She has been an amazing M. Can you tell I love her and secretly want to be her?
Samantha Barks--Les Miserables--Her Eponine was excruciatingly beautiful.
Scarlett Johannson--Avengers--For her opening scene alone, I think she deserves a nod, and I don't particularly like her. I mean, who gives up Ryan Reynolds?
Anne Hathaway--The Dark Knight Rises--I know, I know, twice in the same category, but her Catwoman was worlds above Halle Berry's.
Charlize Theron--Snow White and the Huntsman--She takes this classic Evil Queen to a whole new level (and does it so much better than Julia Roberts did --sorry Julia, I still love you).

The winner is:

This is probably the category I had the hardest time with. I made my bed, now I have to lie in it as the saying goes. Well darn it! This isn't real! I choose....




Dame Judi Dench, Anne Hathaway, and Samantha Barks! Dame Judi Dench has always played M tough with this soft spot for Daniel Craig's Bond. Perhaps that's why I love her so much, cause I too have a soft spot for Daniel Craig (sorry, Rachel Weisz). Dench is an amazing actress and is so British. I chose Anne Hathaway partially because my brother would never speak to me again if I didn't, he has a little (well, a big thing) for her. But, not only did she look great in this role, but she was great as this tough, street-smart character. A long way from the Princess of Genovia. Lastly, there is Samantha Barks as Eponine. First of all, by far the best voice in the entire movie. Secondly, how is it possible that someone's waist could be that small?  Really though, the scene where she watches Cosette and Marius fall in love and then her death scene are both so well acted!