Next Stop, Wonderland (1998)

This is a film I have wanted to watch for long time, but had a hard time tracking down a copy.  My motivation for watching this film was that Boston's most notorious DJ, Charles Laquidara makes an appearance in this film.  Unfortunately, his appearance is extremely short, and only stood out because of his voice, for those who recognize it.

The film itself is fairly good, and is labeled a romantic comedy, though it may be stretching the use of the word comedy.  It featured some good shots of Boston, as well as all outdoor shots being in Boston, make it clear this movie was filmed in Boston.  It makes a good nostalgic trip for those who know Boston, but offers little in the way of a tour of the city (not that was it intended to).

The cast of actors did well in all their perspective roles, though there was nary a Boston accent to be heard.  While Hope Davis is beautiful, she appears quite a bit younger in the posters for the film than she appears in the actual film.  Holland Taylor also appears in the film, who was hard to place, but turns out to have had a prominent role of the 80s sitcom Bossom Buddies.

Unfortunately, the attraction and attachment between the two lead characters was never suitably established, so their real motivation for getting together is unclear.  It would be nice if there had been a second part to this film, to show what made their relationship work, when all their previous relationships had failed, though perhaps we are supposed to deduce that from their personalities as shown in the film.

Zardoz (1974)

I was watching an episode of Futurama, and the professor had taken the crew to a uniform shop where they were trying on different uniforms.  I recongnized uniforms from Dune, Barbarella and Star Trek, amongst others.  But the professor was wearing such an outlandish uniform I couldn't understand why the writers would put him such a ridiculous and obviously made up uniform.  Later on, I did a little searching and found out how wrong I was.  I had found Zardoz.

Real Science fiction is when the author either comments on problems in society, while making the story in a future setting, or the consequences and implications of technology.

Space Fantasy is more like an adventure set in space, not usually examining the consequences and implications of technology.

Zardoz is not really either of these, though set in the future, the technology represented is all preindustrial.    Perhaps it is a questioning of the fallacies of immortality, much like the struldbrugs of Gulliver's Travels, but without the consequences of aging, and in that way could be considered science fiction.

The story starts of without much explanation, and with several puzzling events.  To say its strange is an understatement, but after the first few minutes, the story continues and is somewhat mundane, with a few strange events here and there.

It's hard to find anything outstandingly redeeming about this film, though you could say that Zardoz spouts a extreme right wing view, quite literally.

To be honest, it's difficult to comprehend why Sean Connery would make such a film. But after reading his bio, it seems after he quit the James Bond series (twice), few studios would hire him, which might explain why he made this film.

Kuffs (1992)

I didn't know this film existed, and I have a positive image of Christian Slater, though I have seen few of his films, I've always enjoyed his performances.  The film Heathers is one of my favorite movies.  I hadn't heard of any film Mila Jovovich had made before The Fifth Element, as I naively believed that was her first role.  I thought she was outstanding in that film, they way her character progressed from not speaking English to learning it step by step.  I also have seen very few films with Bruce Boxleitner (the title role in TRON) so that also peeked my interest.  Also Troy Evans is in this film.  You may remember him as having a prominent role in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

My primary motivation in this film was to see Mila Jovovich.  I have never found her overwhelming attractive, and I thought her first scene in this film did little to change that image, I was surprised at how long her legs appeared.  It turns out she was very young when she made this film, only 15.

Anyhow this film has what I would consider a trade mark of Christian Slater,with a LOT of exposition, talking directly to the camera.  The director made some odd choices, giving the film a quirky feel.  The plot was interesting enough, making for an enjoyable, though not remarkable, film.

The Broken Chain (1993)

After catching the last half of the film Geronimo (1994), I did a little research and found that Wes Studi (who played the title role) had also made a TV film called "The Broken Chain" about the Iroquois Nation.  Wes Studi himself should be considered a (Cherokee) national treasure, but I don't want to go off on a tangent right now.

Anyhow, the film fairly accurately captures the historical events, as well as native American culture, along with the story that should be told.  It is certainly a significant historical event, one too often unknown and forgotten that everyone should at least have a basic understanding of, as the concept of a united nation was based on it, as was the foundation of the United States.

The only problem is that film seems to be lacking in realism in one respect, that is the over use of the English language.  While I release people don't like to read subtitles, it doesn't show an accurate reflection of how native American's would have primarily used their own language when speaking with each other.

Avatar

Now here is a movie I have been torn about watching.  I usually like science fiction, but with all the hype over this film, and James Cameron, I wasn't inspired to watch this film, but thought it was something I should check out at some point.

While James Cameron made two films which I thought were very well done and quite enjoyable (The Terminator and Aliens (Alien part 2), since those films I have felt he has been making films that have been vastly overrated.  I never cared for Terminator 2, as I thought it was trite.  In the original Terminator film, everything fit together perfectly, Kyle's story being completely without evidence (So it was impossible for anyone to discern that he was NOT crazy), the Terminator being pretty much unstoppable, but took bits  of damage and got worn down, etc.  In Terminator 2, it was just a story about two robots fighting, much of which didn't make sense.

Also, I have felt some resentment since Titanic over took Star Wars as the highest grossing movie.  Titanic did not create the phenomenon that Star Wars did (both in changing the movie industry, marketing and giving life to a new movie studio), and is vastly overrated, both as a film and for it's place in movie history.

As for the film Avatar itself, I fail to see what the big deal is.  It was.  A bunch of tall blue monkeys, in a black light world.  Also, blue skin is a cheap way to signify an alien race, and has been since it was first appeared in Star Blazers (Uchu Senkan Yamato).

The other problem with the film was that it was extremely predictable.  Of course the protagonist was going to sympathies with the alien race.  What other direction could the story possibly go in?  Basically, this was as South Park aptly described it "Dances with Smurfs".  The alien elements of the film take away from the possible significance of it, and make the film corny.

Also, the whole thing with the joining of the head tails made no sense.  There is no plausible reason that a cross species electrical plug would evolve.  The only thing that would make sense is that it was how they sexually reproduced, but in that case, it would be odd to say the least that they were bonding with animals and trees in that way.

As often happens with James Cameron's films, he doesn't get the real root of the character's dedication and makes up some odd element to justiy their dedication to their cause.  Instead of having the characters , there were odd electical currents running through the roots of the trees.  Like a need for a physical explanation for their bond with nature would make it clearer to the viewer, when it really just make it hokey.

Also, I am getting pretty sick of movies being given accolades for taking over the as the highest grossing film.  As the price of tickets go up, of course the amount of money a film can bring in will increase, Also, the continued increase in the population means there are more potential movie goers.  In the past there have been films that were considered so good that people went to see them repeatedly, some in excess of 10 or 20 times.  The number of tickets sold is a much better barometer of a films popularity (especially when taking the population at the time into consideration.)

Doraemon and the Robot Army

I was flipping through the channels and I have the Japanese channel on my favorites list, and I  saw the title Doraemon, and had a noslatigic feeling for this show so I decided I wanted to watch an episode of the show.  This was the closest I could get, and it is the first Doraemon movie I have watched.

Doraemon is a very popular children's TV show that has been running for more than 30 years.  Every year the studio releases a Doraemon movie in the theater which loads of kids go see.

I used to watch Doraemon in Japan for Japanese language listening practice.  I actually it was pretty easy to understand becuase the characters were talking about event happening around them, as opposed to other shows where the conversation often has little to do with the characters surroundings and it's easy lose the gist of the conversation.

Anyhow, in television format the show is fun, light and enjoyable.  In movie format, they try to make a more serious story, but I feel that detracts from the appeal of the Doraemon program.

I was also a bit surprised that they showed a pretty much complete naked female in this movie, but then again you have to remember that Japanese are not prudish about nudity, and do not feel it has negative connotations.

Pacific Heights (1990)

This film has been on my list for over a year, as it was recommend to me when I was learning about being a landlord.  A guy told me to watch this film, as it shows what a bad tenant can do.  Honestly, I think he was referring to the fact that in this film the bad guy takes tenancy (without paying any rent) and it is extremely difficult to get him out.  After that, the guy does a bunch of wild things that I don't think anyone could expect a tenant to do, but are vaguely possible.

Mathew Modine is in this film, but the only film I can ever recall seeing him in is Vision Quest, which I remember as a mediocre movie, and stands out more for the Journey song, "Only the Young".

After watching the film, I read some reviews, and I was surprised that the reviews came down so hard on the film.

As always, Michael Keaton gave a great performance, I thought, as he was great being professional when it was called for, and then switching to creepy.  I also enjoyed Melanie Griffith's performance, and I haven't seen a film that I didn't enjoy seeing her in (I have seen more of Melanie Griffith's films than you might imagine, though not intentionally)

As the advice I was given was "Anyone who wants to get into land lording should watch this this film" stands true, I recommend this film to with that same qualification.