Bendable Blog

The office sprung for four of us to attend tech-days this year, so that’s where I’ll be tomorrow and Thursday.

Technically these are two movies, but they are so intertwined and I saw them one night after the other, I’m reviewing them as if they are one.  Nightwatch and Daywatch were written and filmed in Russia, and the story revolves around two groups of supernatural beings that coexist with normal humans on the planet, one of light that guard against the night (Nightwatch) and one of dark that guard against the day (Daywatch).  The complete story is somewhat muddled, maybe by the translations and maybe a little by the editing, and therefor I won’t go into it much.

When I first heard about these movies, I heard the special effects were great.  Maybe people grade it on a curve as it comes out of Russia, it’s not bad really, but it’s nothing I haven’t seen before (granted it was made in 2004).  Ultimately everyone has a different power, but as the movie progresses it gets to the point where everyone has multiple powers which you had never seen them use before, and figure if they’d just used that power earlier it all would have gone much more smoothly.

In the end as you start to wonder how they can fix everything a giant Deus Ex Machina presents itself and everything is “put to normal” in a way.

Rating: If you like somewhat obscure films or you hang out with people who do, you might want to see this just so you have a common frame of referrence.  Otherwise you could skip it.

After sitting through Appaloosa on Monday I decided to watch something a bit more entertaining, which turned out to be Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  Peter (Jason Segel, also the writer) is an aspiring composer who has just broken up with his long-time girlfriend Sarah (Kristen Bell) and decides to take a vacation in Hawaii to forget her, but unfortunately finds she is there too, and she’s with a new man.

I really like Jason Segel on How I Met Your Mother, I think he has a natural comedic charm that comes through very well on film.  I wasn’t sure he’d be able to play the lead in this, but he really pulls it off.  Kristen Bell, of Veronica Mars and Heroes fame, is adorable but is completely blown away by Mila Kunis who plays the hotel clerk who Peter starts to fall for.  Mila Kunis is fantastic in this movie, it’s perfect casting and perfectly played, I might look up some of her other movies now.

Paul Rudd steals every scene he is in, but I’m fairly certain that is what he’s hired to do, since he’s done it in every movie I can think of.

The only thing I’m not too sure about is why they felt I needed to see Jason Segel’s dick about 4 times.  It’s not that I’m sexist, I’d probably wonder the same thing if I saw a woman’s vagina 4 times in one movie (I’m talking to you, Sharon Stone).  I’m guessing he’s just proud and not easily embarrassed.

Rating: Totally worth seeing for a bit of fun and that warm feeling you get inside from a happy ending.

Appaloosa is a western written(screenplay) and directed by Ed Harris, Starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen as wild west travelling peace keepers who move into a town that is overrun with the villiany of Jeremy Irons and his gang.

This movie starts out really well, as westerns go, and if I liked westerns more maybe I would forgive it’s numerous short-comings.  The first 20 to 30 minutes sets these two up as bad ass gun-men who lay down the law and get results.  The rest of the film mostly ruins that setup with the addition of a love interest storyline revolving around Renee Zellweger, who I don’t really care for in anything.

There were so many boring scenes that I really felt like I was living in this sleepy town in the middle of New Mexico where nothing happens from day to day.  Jeff commented on a series of scenes that each only lasted a couple seconds and basically went day, night, day, night, day, night because they had to explain how they were waiting for two weeks for something to happen.  I’m not even going to go into how ridiculous the romantic storyline is or how full of plot holes.

Rating: There is nothing worth seeing in this movie, unless you are a hardcore western fan… Actually Viggo and Jeremy Irons are very good in their scenes, but watch another movie with them in for good acting in a good movie.

When Hellboy 2 came out in the theatres in the summer, Natalie at work said it was trash and she wished she’d never seen it (I may be paraphrasing a little) and I decided to skip it.  I can’t say it would have been better in the theatre, but large action-oriented movies usually are.

I liked most of the parts in this movie that involved the elf storyline (the prince), I agreed with his beliefs and thought he was more just than the the hero.  This put me at odds a bit during the movie, for instance Hellboy fights an elemental and is forced to choose between killing it and… well they never say what would happen if he didn’t, it’s just assumed he would go to the prince’s side.  Ultimately he kills it (no surprise) and I felt bad for the elemental.

Basically as soon as the movie moves over to Hellboy’s hideout, it starts to feel really campy, not unlike the shots of the M.I.B. agency with all the Jim Henson’s Creature Shop players.  It completely works against the feel of the rest of the movie, and breaks it into two unsynergistic parts (including a scene where the fish guy gets drunk and sings Karaoke with Hellboy and in the next scene they have a huge fight which leaves Hellboy nearly dead).

Another part of this non-action side is the multiple love interest stories, which all seem really contrived and forced.  This just doesn’t feel right at any point, and further removed me from the film.

To its credit the action sequences are very fun to watch and the one-liners are only mildly groan-worthy.  I wish there was an 80/20 split for action/romance, instead of the other way around, I think it would have been a much more enjoyable movie.

The very ending made little sense, they suddenly all quit and it’s never explained why.  Nothing happened beforehand where they said “I’m getting too old for this shit” or anything like that.

Rating: You could easily not see this movie and never miss it, unless you are a huge Hellboy fanboy, in which case you already saw it in the theatre.