Movie: Night At The Museum

What better to do on a freezing Friday night than watch an IMAX movie in Lincoln Square? That’s exactly what we did, and the movie was called Night At The Museum. The premise sounded interesting: all of the exhibits came to life in the evening hours. And with Ben Stiller as the star, this movie had potential.

Stiller was great, and the movie did a fantastic job of being funny while capturing a lot of history. Once you got past the outrageousness of the main plotline, everything fit together well, staying interesting and humorous.

Owen Wilson, Robin Williams, and Dick Van Dyke played supporting roles, and all three were fantastic, especially Wilson. The ability of secondary characters to play off Stiller brought the movie to an even higher level. That’s not surprising, of course. Stiller works best when surrounded by an All-Star cast, as evidenced by his two best movies: Meet The Fockers and There’s Something About Mary.

All in all, the movie was thoroughly entertaining and I am glad I saw it.

“Movie” Review: Star Wars Clone Wars

Star Wars Clone Wars is set in the time period between Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. There are a lot of reasons to look past Clone Wars: it’s animated, and it’s separated into short bits, many as short as three and a half minutes. Don’t be fooled: this is a vital piece of the Star Wars saga.

Despite the animation, everything fits right into the Star Wars story. Anakin Skywalker, in desperate times, is promoted to Jedi Knight. General Grievous is trained by Count Dooku. And Chancellor Palpatine is kidnapped. Basically, everything sets the stage for what happens in Episode III. While at times the animation is a bit over the top, and there is far too much action compared to plot advancement, this “movie” was really worth watching.

Moreover, this is a great way to fill in the pieces between the real movies. For example, I am very interested in what happens between Episode III and Episode IV (A New Hope – the original Star Wars movie). Obviously, Darth Vader rises to power. That would be fun to see. Guess what? George Lucas is already working on that. And it won’t be animated, from the look of things. That’s interesting.

Movie Review: Annapolis

I just finished watching Annapolis, a movie about a guy from Maryland’s capital city who becomes a plebe at the U.S. Naval Academy. I barely remember this movie coming out, but I am glad I got to see it now. This movie far exceeded my expectations.

James Franco (you may remember his as the rich kid from the Spider Man movies) put on a great performance in the lead role, but he was surrounded by some pretty great talent. Chi McBride, perhaps the most underrated actor out there, had a nice supporting role as a boxing coach, and Vicellous Shannon, Tyrese Gibson, and even Donnie Wahlberg shined.

The movie is intelligent, often playing off the fact that Franco’s character lives right across the river. And they gave him the nickname “Mississippi” as the worst state in the union, alluding that he drew attention away from Shannon’s Arkansas, the second worst state. And the interplay between good guys and supposed bad guys is top notch – you often lose track of who you are supposed to hate. All of this in a well-built military setting makes for a great overall package.

I saw this movie of Starz Edge, a channel I didn’t even know I had. I guess the platinum cable package has some perks. Thankfully, I was able to find a thoroughly entertaining movie on a Saturday afternoon.

The next Star Wars movie I’d like to see

One of best things about the Star Wars movies is the continuity. You can follow Anakin from when he’s just a child, through his rise to become a galactic leader, and straight to his demise. It’s rare for a movie series to accomplish that. Even Rocky starts with a young adult (although we get to see plenty of his life). In fact, even a TV series, which has much more airtime, will usually struggle to get very far. The Simpsons, for example, have only covered one school year in nearly two decades.

Star Wars will be graced with a live action TV series, slated to air in 2008, and covering the period between Episodes 3 and 4, where Vader clearly embraces his new power and rises to prominence.

Most people know that Lucas has written all nine episodes of Star Wars already. In fact, I was able to find what one guy says are plots for Episode 7: The Fallen Hero, Episode 8: The Republic In Crisis and Episode 9: Victory of the Force. Even though the plots are quite fake, those will be blockbuster movies, and very interesting progression of the post-Vader era. I can’t wait to see them.

However, I am more interested in the beginning, before The Phantom Menace. Rumor has it that Darth Sideous (aka Palpatine/Emporer) manipulated midichlorians to create Anakin by “immaculate conception.” I would like to see how this played out. Let’s see a young Qui-Gon, a younger Yoda, and the parent(s) of Darth Vader. Mostly, I want to see the relationship between an apprentice Palpatine and his mentor, Darth Plagueis.

I’m sure most people reading this have little idea about what I just wrote. But remember, I didn’t get hooked on Star Wars until Episode II came out. That was the movie that tied everything together. Up until that point, I didn’t realize that Palpatine was the Emporer and other basic Star Wars truths. A movie about the early years, especially Palpatine’s apprenticeship, would certainly make fans out of quite a few who have seen the movies but didn’t really “get it.” Plus, there is some potential for a great movie here, with the standard themes you see in movies like this. The student becomes the master. There is a struggle between good and evil. And lots of battles, perhaps even with light sabers.

When galactic domination goes wrong

Say what you will about Youtube. Even Mark Cuban thinks there is a lot of garbage out there. And he’s right. But you know what? There is a lot of good stuff out there in the Long Tail.

The fine folks at Blame Society have created a new online video collection called Chad Vader, Day Shift Manager. In addition to being very well produced and very funny, this is also pretty large. This no 20 second clip of people being funny; there are five six-minute episodes, and a plot that can be followed. Clearly, this is no Star Wars or even the original South Park short that started it all. But it’s definitely watchable. Remember, 30 minutes spent watching Chad Vader’s adventures is 30 minutes spent not watching the latest prime time network hits, even on TiVo. In the last ten years, video production has become more and more accessible to the common man. But in the last two years, video distribution has followed suit. And a person’s time spent on entertainment can now be so diverse that the stand-out blockbuster successes are becoming more and more obscelete.

But meanwhile, you can relax: it’s just some people poking fun at Darth Vader.

Movie Review: The Winning Season

I just finished watching The Winning Season, a made-for-TV movie about a kid who travels back in time to 1909, and befriends Honus Wagner during the World Series against Ty Cobb’s Detroit Tigers.

I wasn’t expecting a lot out of this movie, but I was actually quite pleased with it. Matthew Modine put on a fantastic performance as the Flying Dutchman, William Lee Scott was great as Cobb, and the movie did a very good job of presenting two old-time ballplayers in a very real light. Cobb has been represented cinematically many times, but I have not seen Wagner too many times, and had little with which to imagine him in my mind’s eye. Modine’s performance certainly left an impression of Wagner as a likeable, if bipolar, talented ballplayer.

The premise, as always, was quite far-fetched, but once young Joe (played by Shawn Hatosy) meets up with Wagner, the movie does well focusing on the ballplayer’s passion and the rivalry with Cobb. It was factually accurate for the most part (or at least close), and even included famous baseball card and Wagner’s distaste for tobacco. This movie is hardly Shawshank Redemption, but I certainly enjoyed watching.

The next ballplayer I’d like to see a modern movie about? How about Cy Young?

Where have you gone, Dean Cameron?

If you ever watched Ski School or Ski School II (or Summer School or a short-lived TV series called They Came From Outer Space), you’re probably familiar with the work of Dean Cameron. However, you probably haven’t heard much from Cameron since the 80s. Does that mean he’s been hibernating? Hardly.

Cameron has his own web site and claims to have written his own HTML. That’s just the beginning. Cameron has been touring with his one-man show, Urgent & Confidential: Dean Cameron’s Nigerian Spam Scam Scam, and touring with his band, The Thorn Birds. In his spare time, Dean finds the time to record voice overs, including one with Dan Castellaneta.

As you saw in his role as Dave Marshak in Ski School, Cameron is VERY funny. I would love to see Nigerian Spam Scam (although it only plays about once a year). Hey, if Doogie Howser can reinvent himself in 2006, why can’t Chainsaw?

More Than Meets The Movie

During Rocky Balboa, there was a trailer for Transformers, coming out next July 4. That’s a long time to wait for a movie, but I am excited. This one will be live-action (not animated) and Optimus Prime will be in attendance. Call me a child of the 80s, because that’s what I am.

UPDATE (12/26): I found some commentary on the movie on YouTube.

Rocky Balboa: The Final Chapter

Tonight, as you might expect, I went to a movie. I saw Rocky Balboa. The movie was pretty predictable, and Stallone hit the has-been motif spot on. This movie was significant for one reason: have you ever watched a movie, and wondered what happened after happily ever after? For example, after Singles, what happens? Do they ever grow up, get married, and have kids? Actually, in that particular case, we are lucky: you can see Steve as a grown-up, alcoholic divorcee in the TV show Six Degrees. The show is set 20 years later, and they even got Campbell Scott’s character to be named Steve. It’s pretty close to where you would image Steve Dunn from Singles 20 years later. And of course, we know what happened to the band Citizen Dick… they gained national fame after changing their name to Pearl Jam.

That’s exactly what Rocky Balboa does. Rocky V definitely had some closure, and this next installment is basically “Ok, the story is over. Here are some final wrap-up bits, and here’s Rocky in one last fight.” As a fan of the first four movies (and a watcher of the fifth), this was exactly what I needed. This is closure. Now I have no thoughts left in my head of what will come of the characters. Sure, it’s overkill, and sure, the movie was pretty bad. But I am not left with any questions about the characters.

I wish they’d do this with Cruel Intentions, for one. While it did have two sequels, neither moved the plot forward at all. Did Catherine kill herself? Where does the journal wind up? Cruel Intentions has always been my guilty pleasure, but the timing just stops suddenly and I’d love to be able to see into their future.

American Pie did it right. Three great movies, carrying the plot forward, and then two follow-ups with Eugene Levy that tie up the loose ends. I’m not sick of “Jim’s Dad” yet, not by a long shot.