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the sweet life » Movies & TV
Having read the original book by Jon Krakauer over ten years ago I've been very anxious to see the movie adaptation of Into the Wild. If you're not familiar with the basic story, Into the Wild chronicles the real-life adventures of Christopher McCandless, who graduates from college, cuts off all ties to his rather dysfunctional family and sets off on a 2+ year trek that culminates in a tragic trip into the Alaskan wilderness.
There are critics of both the book and the film who dispute facts and resent the mythologizing of a young man they view as essentially naive and unprepared. I'm sure some of their claims are valid, but I was more interested in the broader issues the author, Krakauer, and the filmmaker, Sean Penn, explored using McCandless as the springboard. As a young man Krakauer embarked on a similar trip to Alaska and survived, so he uses the book as a kind of exploration of, and explanation for, his actions. He saw himself in McCandless. I'm not sure what Penn's motivation was, but his film essentially transforms itself into a philosophical discussion - a discussion about family, forgiveness, happiness and loneliness.
Very few movies have left such a deep impression on me. I don't think everyone will like it, but if you have any interest in the basics of the story I can't recommend this movie highly enough. I got up and kissed both of my sleeping kids (and my sleeping wife) afterwards. Oh, and did I mention the soundtrack features original songs by Eddie Vedder? Provided below are a few resources if you'd like to read/watch more.
(4.5/5 stars)
Roger Ebert is definitely my favorite film critic. The fact that he is originally from Champaign-Urbana and hosts a annual film-fest here is a check in the plus column, as is his incredibly positive attitude following a number of recent health problems (he can't speak right now). What I like most of all, however, is that he is a true movie lover, not a cinematic snob. Case in point, he just reviewed the movie "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" and gave it 3 1/2 stars. For comparison, he gave Best Picture winning "No Country for Old Men" 4 stars. Heh.
Charlie Rose recently interviewed former-cyclist Lance Armstrong. I haven't watched the video yet, but am curious to know what he's been up to, other than dating blond starlets. You can watch the 17-minute interview at Charlie's website. I am a huge admirer of Lance's personal story and athletic achievements, but have to admit that he basically seems like, well, a jerk.
While we were at the theater to see Kung Fu Panda (which was great, 4/5 stars) Cooper and I saw the trailer for the new Pixar flick WALL-E. We're both suckers for anything Pixar so this will definitely be on our to-see list. You can watch the trailer here. There's also a nice long article about how the movie was created. Excerpt:
Deciding there was only one person who could give the robots their 'voices', Stanton approached legendary sound designer Ben Burtt, who has created some of the most iconic noises in science fiction in Star Wars and E.T. Famed for bringing natural sounds to the distinctly unnatural realm of sci-fi, Burtt gave E.T. his gutteral grunts, which were achieved by recording his sleeping wife while she had a cold. For R2D2's bleeps, he used water pipes and whistles; Darth Vader's heavy breathing was actually Burtt huffing and puffing in a scuba diving mask; and the hum of the light sabre came from blending noises from his TV set with an old 35mm projector. [...]Burtt has spent much of the past two years holed up on his own in a concrete bunker at Pixar's studios, recording the sounds made by toothbrushes, household appliances, miniature jet planes, army tanks and his own voice. "I went to a newspaper printer overnight and recorded all the gigantic scanners and presses," he says. "There are sounds in the movie I recorded when I was a kid from my grandfather's shortwave radio. I would tune it between stations and tape the weird electronic noises. I've used something from those original recordings in every science-fiction movie I've worked on."
Carrier is a 10-hour, 10-part documentary that just finished airing on PBS last week. However, all 10 episodes are currently available online. Description from website:
Making the film CARRIER required 17 filmmakers to take a six-month journey aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz during its deployment to the Gulf in support of the Iraq War. They disembarked from Coronado, California on May 7, 2005 and returned there November 8, 2005 with stops at Pearl Harbor, Hong Kong, Guam, Kuala Lumpur, Bahrain and Perth, Australia.
This is an excellent documentary, and one that I would recommend to anyone interested in military history, or just great film making. The perspective of the officer class is certainly represented, but the director focuses primarily on the enlisted (lower) personnel, which gives the film an authenticity that is extremely compelling. Just about every type of human drama unfolds during the ship's deployment. When the last episode finished I wanted to find out how all of these stories continued to unfold after the homecoming. Even Julie watched part of it and liked it. Oh, and the music selections are top-notch as well.
(4.5/5 stars)
Here are links to a few online videos I highly recommend.
Julie and I rented both of these comedies recently, which are produced by the same team and feature many of the same actors. I don't think either of us have laughed this hard in a long time. I liked Knocked Up more, but only by a hair. Both are destined to be comedy classics, IMHO. Oh, and one of the stars of Superbad, Michael Cera, was also the boyfriend in Juno.
Knocked Up (4.5/5 stars), Superbad (4/5 stars)
On MLK Day Julie and I had the day off from work, but the kids' daycare was still open so we decided to see a movie...in an actual movie theater. Remember those? For Julie it was the first time she had been to a theater since before Cooper was born. I wanted to see No Country for Old Men, but the times worked out better for us to see Juno, which is another Oscar Best Picture contender.
The basic story is that a high school girl gets pregnant and has to decide whether or not to offer the child up for adoption. I wasn't really enjoying the movie in the beginning, but it started to grow on me. It seemed like the producers were trying to imitate the Rushmore/Little Miss Sunshine genre a bit too much (quirky in the extreme). By the end I was a fan, although not as much as Julie I suspect. Definitely worth a watch.
(3.5/5 stars)
Mark your calendars. On June 18th, 2010 Disney/Pixar will release Toy Story 3. Yes, that's right, 2010. Cooper and I are big fans, so we'll start the countdown now. If you can't wait that long for a new Pixar release Wall-E will be in theaters this summer. (via kottke)
If, like me, you're anxiously awaiting the return of Lost to the airwaves on January 31st then you should be sure and watch the numerous web-only clips they have been producing and publishing online. No real revelations, but the 11 short segments fill in gaps to many story lines.
This is a continuation of sorts of the previous entry about big wave surfers. I'm not sure how I came across it, but I found some clips on YouTube of a television series called Iconoclasts, which airs on the Sundance Channel. I guess the basic premise is to document two celebrity types together. There are some interesting pairings, including Paul Newman/Robert Reford and Sean Penn/John Krakauer.
The one that caught my eye, however, was Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and Laird Hamilton, the legendary big wave surfer. Eddie visits Hawaii to hang out and surf with Laird, who then attends a Pearl Jam concert in California. Embedded below is Part 1 of 6. If you want to watch all segments there will be a link to the next part under "Related Videos" after each ends.
This is perhaps my favorite tv series of all time - I'm still debating it. High on my list are The Wire, Deadwood, The Sopranos and Six Feet Under (all HBO shows!), but The Shield is right up there, if not at the top. Here's the basic set up:
The story of in inner-city Los Angeles police precinct where some of the cops aren't above breaking the rules or working against their associates to both keep the streets safe and their self-interests intact.
The show is shot in a documentary style, features excellent acting, offers intriguing stories, and is very fast paced. The lead detective, Vic Mackey (played by Michael Chiklis), is one of the best characters on tv. Season 7, which will be the show's last, will start next year, so get caught up quickly.
(4.5/5.0)
Here's a sampling of recent movies and television shows we've seen. I recently discovered the DVD catalog at the University library, and as a result have reduced my use of Netflix. The library has an excellent selection, although it is hard to find anything that has been released w/in the past year.
A sampling of recent Netflix activity:
Anything you've seen lately that you would recommend?
One of my favorite movies is Goodfellas, which was directed by Martin Scorsese, and profiles the rise of a young mobster. Consequently, I was eagerly awaiting the release of The Departed on DVD. Like Goodfellas, The Departed focuses on the world of organized crime, but from a slightly different perspective. The basic premise is that a young state trooper (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes undercover to infiltrate the crew of a Boston Irish mobster (Jack Nicholson). At the same time a young mobster (Matt Damon) joins the state police in order to infiltrate the task force investigating said mobster. Who gets smoked out first? Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, and Mark Wahlberg round out a great supporting cast.
I watched the movie once without Julie since I know she hates violence, but after raving about it to her we watched it together and she loved it as well. It certainly deserved to win Best Picture at this year's Oscars. Definitely a must see if you enjoy this genre.
(4.5 stars out of 5.0)
Do you ever get really annoyed when you can't fast-forward through the FBI warnings/previews on DVDs? Why do they trap you like that? I recently read of a hack to bypass all of that junk and proceed directly to the main menu. When the DVD starts playing hit the stop button once, then hit the menu button (or whatever it's called on your remote). If that doesn't work, hit stop twice, then hit the menu button. This trick has only failed to work once for me.
Two weeks into our little experiment of life without cable/tivo and things are going well - for me anyway. As I suspected, I don't really miss the cable shows we used to watch regularly. It's certainly a case of out of sight, out of mind. Additionally, I find that I don't really feel as compelled to make time to watch shows from the big networks either. If it's on and we're free, great. If not, no big deal.
It has certainly opened up time to devote to other more important activities, like preparing for baby's arrival or working on freelance projects, which was my hope. For those times when I want to be lazy on the couch for a half an hour and cable access shows won't cut it, here are the alternatives I have tried so far.
Well, after much debate, and with great apprehension, we decided to go ahead and pull the plug on our cable package. We're going from digital cable (hundreds of channels), plus HBO, plus a DVR (TiVo) to local channels only. As one of those people who was raised on cable and still has a strong connection to many current cable series (Sopranos season 7!) this will be a big shock to the system. I'm looking forward to it, however. My two requirements? We had to wait until this season of The Wire ended, and we had to sign up for a basic subscription to Netflix.
Update: Just in case any of you are interested, I plan on exploring some of the alternatives to cable recommended by floppyhead.com. In addition to Netflix, iTunes might be a good solution for any "must see" shows I miss. I already figured out that if I miss Lost I can view each episode online for free at the ABC site the day after each show airs.
Apparently this is old news, but I just found out that one of my favorite shows, Deadwood, was canceled by HBO after its third season. That stinks. At least The Wire is still on.
Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman and his crew are in trouble with Mexican authorities because of a high profile capture they made in 2003. Dog, son Leland, and associate Tim all had to post bond, are required to return for an extradition hearing, and may have to face trial in Mexico. Stay tuned, I'm sure It will all be covered on their tv show.
Do you subscribe to HBO? Are you addicted to Deadwood and The Sopranos? Are you having difficulty passing the time between seasons of your favorite shows? Well fire up TiVo and get set to catch season four of The Wire, which premiers this Sunday night. Before Deadwood came along it was tops on my list.
