This may be an awesome summer…for movies.

Currently Listening to: The Truth about Cats and Dogs (is that they die)
By: Pony Up

So I went and saw the epic-ness that was Ironman, possibly (and this is totally backed up by the Totally Rad Show) the best comic book movie to have been made to date. I’m even more pleased simply because it’s done by Marvel, and as we all know I am a huge Marvel fangirl. That smash into the summer made me realize: this is going to be a completely awesome summer for movies.

Last night I managed to drag my partner to the movie theater, which even though he is a fan of the medium, doesn’t necessarily frequent the actual theater. It may be directly related to the fact that he’s a germaphobe or maybe he just got touched the wrong way once in middle school by the fat lady dropping popcorn everywhere and overflowing from her seat and into his. Who knows really, but it must have been traumatizing. However, I managed to get him to the theater where we saw the fantastically filmed Son of Rambow, which is a feel good story for anyone who watches — you find little quirky actions throughout the entire film that you find completely heartwarming, charming and simultaneously hilarious. The two young boys who are the main characters could easily work their way into anyones heart. Especially when they’re all dolled up in military dress and use yellow crayons as bullet replacements.

The hilarity is not entirely dolloped throughout the entire film — this shit takes you on an emotional rollercoaster ride comparable to that experienced by women in the birthing process. There’s tension, tearjerking moments, as well as extreme euphoria — you follow these boys as they film their what can only be described as an EPIC tribute/sequel/idontreallyknow to First Blood. This film is set right in the peak of the 80’s, when Boy George was king, and this leads us to our quasiantihero the Frenchmen that looks like a heroin addicted Rufio who sports ridiculously tight pants, facial hair that can only be described as a mexi-stache, and smokes incessantly. Somehow this French douchebag gathers a following of equally loser British Schoolboys who worship his every move and girls line up to make out with him when he looks like a lost fish, the kind that thinks it’s a bird. Yeah, you’re looking at that picture with me right now and totally agreeing with me. That’s right. He’s a douche. But a necessary character that completely adds to the hilarity.

Something else that totally made this movie worthwhile, the McDreamy older brother played by Ed Westwick, whom I adore because he’s also in Children of Men. He plays the pushy, yuppie older brother of the ever-in-trouble Lee Carter and he provides deeper insight into the familial relations, and who in the end kind of helps to save the day.

Overall I thought the film was very good, thoroughly enjoyable, and a good laugh. Now I believe that when I am a parent and carrying about a video camera instead of those really lame home movies I’m totally going to film my children going on safari through what can only be described as the overgrown weeds polluting my backyard. We’re going to be awesome, film great music videos together, and it’s all going to be epic. Watch out world, my kids and I are going to be awesome.

Now for some trailers that I’ve spotted this week that I’m incredibly excited about.

American Teen [2008] Release Date: July 25th

This premiered at the SXSW film festival in Austin after a fantastic breakout at the Sundance Film Festival where Nanette Burstein received the award for Best Director of a Documentary. The trailer looks like the typical thing that you’d see from MTV, but this isn’t your Laguna Beach — there’s no light screens and setups there’s certainly no Douchebag Heidi Montag or Spencer Pratt to worry  about. Plus there’s actual high school stereotypes here! You know, the jock that’s only chances of college are based on his skills in the court. and somehow passed all his classes even though his IQ was 75. The nerd who is obsessed with WoW, DnD and can’t for the life of him strip his face of acne. The popular girl (75% of my high school with ovaries was this) — you know the princess who gets everything, her parents have money, and when she eventually goes to college she is going to join a sorority so she can relive the entire experience. Will eventually be in the PTA. The Artsy Girl (hey, it’s me!), you know the generally awesome non-chalant chick who is looking to get the hell out of that small town and do great things! Then there’s the hot jock who is putting everything on the line to date her. I’m excited, reliving high school all over again in a less traumatizing and bible-thumping experience should be good. A lot of people have expressed interest in the characters, they’re believable and it’s great because we’ve all been there. There’s a lot of potential for this. Also, the turning of the teens into a modern day Breakfast Club is sheer brilliance.

Defiance [2008] Release Date: December 26, 2008

Daniel Craig is just so damn ballsy him and his three brothers are going to take on – guess what – THE ENTIRE GERMAN ARMY. The hunky Bond-man stars as Tuvia Bielski in the true WWII story of three Jewish brothers who hid in the Belorussian forests and built a community of partisan fighters, saving over 1,200 Jews by war’s end. When I watched this trailer my skin prickled, I am a  huge fan of WWII movies, especially those that are based on true stories (Sophie Scholl for one). I firmly believe that the generation that lived through World War II definitely deserve their title of “The Greatest Generation”, and actions/events such as that certainly affirm that. Needless to say that the direction behind this is fantastic, Edward Zwick also directed such stellar and moving films as Glory, Blood Diamond, and the Last Samurai. Seriously, watch the trailer for this, and you will be as excited as I am.

City of Ember [2008] Release Date: October 10, 2008

Okay, so you guys may not be as lame as me because I was reading those fantastic teen fiction books late into my high school career. This book was one of my favorites, it has an incredibly original idea.  Ember is a completely self-contained, self-maintained city. All food and supplies come from giant storerooms under the city and a handful of greenhouses — this city we know only had the supplies to last it for 220 years. Of course, fast forward to 241, and there we meet our young heroes, who upon further exploration within the city believe that they have found a way out. A very interesting book upon my first read — it’s kind of like a basic introduction to dystopian literature for those tweens who want to expand their literary horizons. I’m not sure quite yet how I feel about this movie — mostly because it’s between the fact that Bill Murray is a main character but I am expecting an excellent performance froman older Saoirse Ronan, whose breakthrough performance in Atonement was stellar. The steampunk feel to the entire setting is incredibly fitting, and I have hope.

Hallam Foe (Mr. Foe) [2007] Release Date: August 31st, 2008 (US)

I’m excited for this film, mostly because Jamie Bell who plays Mr. Foe is making his first acting debut since Billy Elliot, and that movie my friends has been one of my favorites alongside Snatch since the 8th grade. Basically about a young guy who doesn’t really know what’s going on in his life — his mother recently passed away and he exhibits an outright loathing for his young and beautiful stepmother, whom he believes has killed her. However, we later see that this is because of conflicting emotions of attraction and dislike for her. This move has a lot of potential, and has received rave reviews. I’m kind of excited.

This week:

In addition to my downloading of Prince Caspian and The Other Boleyn Girl, I am also planning on Downloading the Last Mistress (French) and Mongol (Mongolian language, Russian Film), which are set to be released in the US later this year but have received high acclaim overseas. I have found a release on TPB and plan on watching them over the weekend. Expect reviews sometime next week.

Will write more soon, probably about comics tomorrow.

A couple of reviews & what I’m looking forward to.

So, last night on my typical 5:30 walk home from work whilst I was winding my way through ridiculously crowded pedestrian ways apparently the T caught on fire. Yes, FIRE. So I get to my destination (usually the Downtown Crossing T stop) only to find what can only be described as a platoon of policemen and an army of firetrucks which insisted on barraging my ears with their terribly high pitched and loud sirens. Of course there was smoke everywhere billowing out and everyone around me was pondering the possibility of a Terrorist Attack. Oh Boston, you think you’re so important. Anywho, I meander down to the next nearest T stop (Park Street) thinking “Well I’m sure the Green Line is running if the Orange line isn’t” — of course there’s an even more ridiculous amount of people, I don’t even know how they all squeezed into the minimal amount of space that was surrounding the Park Street Stop — but it happened, and I was stuck in the middle of all of it. Now, cashless and without a Bank of America in sight, I decide “why the heck not, I’ll just walk”. It’s really not that far back to my dorm from the common, maybe a 20-30 minute walk down Boylston, but you don’t just do that kind of shit voluntarily. Of course, because all of the Gods were conspiring against me that day, by the time I get to Copley Square it is raining so hard that I can’t see where I’m going (this might also be the water-on-glasses effect) and shivering from the cold. I drop into the Prudential Center, wet, cranky and searching for warmth. The only thing that effectively cheers me up is a purchase from Barnes & Noble (I’ve had a  book I’ve been meaning to buy) and a slice from Pizzeria Regina. I sit and wait for the storm to subside a bit, enjoying my book, and then walk that final stretch.

Needless to say when I got home I was NOT in the mood to go to the gym. Let alone do Laundry. So of course the next viable option was to PJ it up, curl into bed, and scour my Media folder for a downloaded movie that I haven’t watched yet.

So guess what I watched? OH YEAH. Untraceable.

I’m sure you’re just like “Untraceable?! that sounds vaguely familiar…” That’s right kids, this is the “cybercrime” thriller where Diane Lane fancies herself an investigator. The plot is okay at best, it’s interesting but they reveal the killer far too soon and remove all the suspense — you spend the rest of your time watching the film just being like “oh snap, I saw that coming, oh well”. The upside is you get to hear Diane Lane refer to a backdoor trojan multiple times, as if she actually knows what it means — and actual computer  geeks will get a kick out of it when they see The Dummies guide to MySQL sitting on her desk. I guarantee you that the interns in charge of getting props were also looking at Ruby on Rails books thinking that it would make the set so much more “Legit”.  The problem that I really had with this movie was that there was no real explanation for why the killer just randomly decides to start kidnapping FBI agents (come on people, don’t expect spoiler alerts here), why they decide to bring into the plot that she’s a single mother, or bring in a half love interest and never really pursue it. I was hoping that the whole thing was going to be really fucked up and it was actually some guy on their TEAM. That would have been so much better.  Also the geeky guy who plays her partner, he’s pretty cute, and desperately searching online for love. That’s just so damn cute.

Now for some other movies/books that I’ve seen recently and have been meaning to Review. Hopefully you’re okay with that.

This is England [2007]

I don’t personally know a lot about English history — particularly anything post WWII but this is a  stunning look into the 1980s lifestyle followed by impoverished kids. When I first started watching this I was thinking it was a much more harrowing example than that presented to the Weirs in Freaks and Geeks. But it covers some of the blanket ideas — the rolling in of the Punk area, a struggle for identity, bullying and fighting, a gang of friends. It all starts out with Shaun, now he’s a bit of a loner, off on his own all the time and struggling for some acceptance, he’s picked on consistently at school mostly because of his trousers (he was wearing Flares — eew, so 70’s) on his way back home from a bad day he runs in to a bit of a gang, and they take pity on him. You’ve seen these kids before, black doc’s and white shirts, tight whitewashed jeans, and surrounded by funny looking or freakishly dressed girls. They take him into their gang, and he’s simply happy because he has a group of friends, there’s nothing else that he wants. Fun ensues until the Skinhead Combo barges in.

He’s fresh out of jail, returning to the gang and eager to take over the reins and lead them on a nationalistic battle to get rid of the immigrants who are stealing their jobs and to defend England to the death. This made me recall a lot of the lectures from when I was in Sociology of Violence — the mentality behind the skinhead and Aryan movements here in America — I’d never realized that such happenings were in England as well. Shaun, whose father died in the Falklands, must choose between staying with Woody and his friends or joining Combo on his violent quest to protect the homeland. Combo then leads Shaun down a trail of violence and hate that is completely unimaginable — it makes one worry and understand just how impressionable children can be. Combo is a character that keeps you on the edge of your seat — he is so unstable you don’t really know what to do next and when he finally explodes in the tear-jerking heart-wrenching end scene you simply don’t know how to react. It leaves your body feeling heavy, you feel weighed down will guilt. This movie is an excellent social commentary on society, and a good look back on what England was.

The Bank Job [2008]

Films that are based on true stories are by and large tough to take, as the line between fiction and reality is blurred to the extent that one wonders why it exists in the first place. The producers of The Bank Job suggest that the real facts about the 1971 robbery of a bank in Baker Street that had officials in Britain issuing a D-Notice (a gag order, essentially) and set off rumors about members of the Royal Family. I went back and read the wikipedia articles on most of the characters in the film are fairly accurate. According to the Wiki article on the movie “this movie is intended to reveal the truth for the first time,^[5] although it includes significant elements of fiction and the extent to which it represents historical fact is difficult to determine.”

Overall, though, I enjoyed the movie, it’s not one of those “OMG I’ll watch it again and again” but I’d certainly reccommend it. Think Guy Ritchie-lite, and that’s never a bad thing (Except Revolver, that was weird) In fact, Jason Statham’s even in it as the lead.

Jason Statham has an old childhood friend who conveniently stops by because she knows that he’s always strapped for some cash. He of course trusts her implicitly, who wouldn’t trust a beautiful woman? She enlists him to rob a bank. The snare is that she’s setting him up while the plus is that he’ll get to keep the money. Terry comes up with a rough and ready crew in a matter of a few carefully concocted but usual scenes and the heist is on (Think Ocean’s 11 Remake).

The Bank Job has a very linear plot — predictable, my only complaint is that the entire film is moving at a snails pace, though the movie is only 111 minutes.

Another problem here is that the back-story is very exciting and the film captures to hone in on it in just about every way. While we’ll probably never know the real story behind this heist, the conjecture is a hell of a good time. Take this portion from a February 2008 article from The Daily Mail: “Speculation quickly arose that compromising sexual photographs of the queen’s sister, the late Princess Margaret, had been uncovered in the bank vault. It was rumoured they had been stashed away by well-known underworld figure Michael X. A drug dealer and Black Power leader, he was convicted of murder and hanged in Trinidad in 1975. A government file on him will remain closed until 2054. The Mirror can for the first time reveal that Fleet Street editors of the day were approached directly by senior government officials and told to drop the story.”

Awesome.

Some movies that I’m looking forward to are Mongol and Bagheads to be released later this month — hopefully I can find the time to go to the theater. Maybe after I facilitate my move.

Things that I DID download while perusing the top 100 Movies list on TPB — Prince Caspian (ch’yeah!) and The Other Boleyn Girl (reviews coming soon). Tonight I’m going out with Jason and we’re going to go see Son of Rambow — terribly cute movie, hopefully he finds it hilarious and doesn’t hate me for being like “aw, but I love  indie films!” and grumble to himself about how he was hoping for something in Spanish and hopefully with a lot of sex scenes, A LOT.

More posts to come on some comics that I’m reading as well as books. I’m just tired of typing right now.