Integrating the Derivative

Stardust August 26, 2007

This has been the weekend of movies! We rented three movies a few days ago: Borat, South Park (The movie) and Pan’s Labyrinth. Borat and South Park were hilarious and we have yet to watch Pan’s Labyrinth (we’ll probably watch it Sunday evening). I want to talk about a movie still in theaters though: Stardust.

I hadn’t heard much about the movie. I think I saw the trailer only once or twice before today. Somehow I got it into my head that I wanted to see it so we went to the Cinema Carousel in Muskegon today to check it out. It’s a great movie! I really enjoyed it! If you like fantasy you should go see it. The movie is based on a book of the same name by Neil Gaiman. I just tried to describe the basic plot of the movie but I think its Wikipedia entry does a much better job (with some minor edits, see the entry for the full details) without giving away too much of the plot:

The film’s plot begins around 150 years ago, in an English town named Wall. Wall is built beside a wall which is secretly a portal to a magical kingdom named Stormhold. After a man named Dunstan Thorne (Nathaniel Parker as the elder) crosses the wall, he meets and makes love to a woman, Una (Kate Magowan), who is the slave of the witch Ditchwater Sal (Melanie Hill). Nine months later, Una sends him a baby in a basket—their infant son, Tristan.

Eighteen years later, the King of Stormhold (Peter O’Toole) is dying, and his seven sons, four alive (Septimus, Primus, Tertius, and Secundus) and three already dead and looking on as ghosts (Quartus, Quintus, and Sextus) fight for who will be the next king. (…) . The King hurls a ruby into the sky, saying that whichever son retrieves it will be king. The ruby knocks a star out of the sky, which the grown Tristan Thorne (Charlie Cox) sees. Tristan promises to retrieve the star for the beautiful and bourgeoisie Victoria (Sienna Miller) to prove his love for her. However, at the same time, three witch sisters see the falling star, and one, Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), leaves to capture it so they can devour its heart in order to restore her and her sisters’ youth.

All of these plot elements converge to make a great movie. Just the right amount of drama, action and comedy!

However, I can’t let any movie go without at least some criticism. It seems like every fantasy movie has to have a scene where the main character learns how to use a sword from some wise warrior (in this case a sky pirate!) in an absurdly short amount of time. This movie has a scene like that too (yeah yeah I know, it’s fantasy).

Anyways, go see this movie! I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Movie mini-reviews August 1, 2007

I’ve seen more movies (in the theater and on DVD) than usual lately so here are some quick not-so-well-thought-out thoughts on them.

Ultraviolet – Bad.  Boring fight scenes, boring plot.  This movie just didn’t connect with me at all.  1 out of 4 stars.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – I’m too much of a book purist to be completely pleased by the movie adaptations.  I enjoyed it anyways though!   I did have some quibbles with the movie that aren’t related to book snobbery however.  I don’t remember seeing any resolution between Harry and Cho Chang after he discovered that she ratted out Dumbledore’s Army only because she was under the influence of veritaserum.  That just doesn’t seem to fit with Harry’s character to me.  I also didn’t like that everyone was apparating all over the place during fight scenes.  Anyways, I say 3 out of 4 stars.

The Simpsons Movie – Funny!  I really enjoyed this movie.  Great jokes.  Several gags for the atheistically inclined as well.  My favorite is when Grandpa Simpson is possessed and rolling around on the church floor.  Homer starts flipping through the Bible to try and help him and he shouts (to the best of my memory):  “There aren’t any answers in this book!!!”.  Good stuff.  3.5 out of 4 stars (I just can’t bring myself to give a perfect rating to a movie).

Transformers - Some good, some bad.  Good action.  For the most part good humor but the sheer number of jokes started grating on me after a while.  Sometimes it was hard to tell which transformers were fighting.  The entire scene of the autobots trying to keep out of sight at the house just annoyed me.  I thought the ending was very anticlimactic as well.  Didn’t quite meet my expectations.  2.5 out of 4 stars.

Clear and Present Danger -  Not bad, but not all that great.  I liked Willem Dafoe’s character.  Does anyone play borderline-crazy people better than him?  2 out of 4 stars.

Patriot Games – Another Jack Ryan film (same as Clear and Present Danger).   I didn’t like it as much though.  It wasn’t absolutely horrible however so I’ll give it the same rating.  2 out of 4 stars.

That’s it I think!

Phil Plait reviews Transformers July 5, 2007

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait reviews the science in Transformers. My favorite quote from the review:

Just once I’d like to see some car get hit by a shrink ray, and when it becomes matchbox size it suddenly falls through the surface of the Earth because its density goes up to several tons per cubic inch. That would be really cool. And funny.

I’ll probably see the movie this weekend.

Spiderman 3 May 8, 2007

Kari and I saw Spiderman 3 over the weekend.  *Spoilers follow*

Overall I’d say it was a good movie and worth seeing in the theater.  It definitely had some low points though.  Perhaps the most annoying part of the movie was the jazz routine that Peter did while wearing the black suit.  The strutting down the sidewalk right before that was pretty bad as well.  They did a much better job of showing Peter’s bad side and utter disregard for the wellbeing of his friends when he threw the goblin bomb back in Harry’s face and walked away.  I don’t think Venom got near enough screen-time either.

High points:  The subplots between Peter, Mary Jane, and Harry, the fight sequences, Eddie Brock asking Jesus to kill Peter (I almost laughed out loud at that scene), the CGI for Sandman, and, as always, J. Jonah Jameson.

I give it 3 out of 4 stars.

Go see it!

By the way, did anyone else get the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix trailer?  That was awesome.  July is too far off. 

Harry Potter: OotP trailer April 24, 2007

There’s a new (to me at least) trailer out for Order of the Phoenix.  You can download it here.  Looks good!

Movie Review: Casino Royale December 4, 2006

I went to see this movie with Kari over a week ago so this review is a little late in coming. Sorry about that.

Casino Royale breaks the mold of the stereotypical James Bond film. You won’t find a world domination plot, stupid names such as “Pussy Galore”, cars bristling with weaponry, or even Q in this movie. This is the most down-to-Earth, realistic Bond movie that I’ve seen (admittedly I’ve only seen the Pierce Brosnan-era movies and parts of the rest).

Daniel Craig plays a convincing Bond who, in my viewing at least, appears willing to do anything to accomplish the mission. We find out during the course of the movie that he does still have some humanity left.

The plot is much less grandiose in Casino Royale than in previous Bond movies, revolving primarily around a money laundering scheme. No death rays from space in this one. Of course, that isn’t the whole story and by the time all the double (triple?) crosses were finished I was left a little confused. That’s perhaps the weakest part of the movie, although maybe I just wasn’t paying enough attention. It also dragged a bit as it set up the final double cross and action sequence at the end.

In summary: If this movie is still showing at a theater near you I would recommend going to see it. In my opinion it’s the best Bond movie since Pierce Brosnan took the role. I’ll be adding it to my wishlist when it comes out on DVD.

My rating: π out of 4 stars.