Thursday, January 05, 2006
2005, 2006, Lots of Lists and Whatnot
Happy new year, everybody. It's now 2006, and I'm back here in North Carolina. I haven't done much except sleep, eat, and watch Wedding Crashers, which was funny.
On Monday, I start the spring semester of classes. Blegh. With any luck, I'll be able to fit myself into a film class, so things aren't too boring on the academic end of things. This semester is going to be busy. As in, holy-crap-I've-got-tons-of-stuff-to-do-and-feel-like-a-zombie busy. Let's take a look, shall we?
1) School - Obviously.
2) Newspaper - Yes, I'm gonna keep writing for the paper. Yay.
3) Podcast - These past 2 months have been sort of a test. Now that 2006 is here, we're gonna be really kicking stuff into high gear. We've got a wide variety of content planned. We're still gonna do microreviews. We're still gonna do full-length discussion-reviews. However, last year, we kinda shirked off on the mid-week shows: there weren't any. Well, that's about to change. There will be a minimum of two podcasts per week, with the weekend ones mainly focusing on movie reviews and the mid-week ones focusing on...lots of other things. For example, I recently received a promotion of sorts, and will be discussing weekly movie news with Erik. We're also going to have a brief segment about new movie trailers. And let's not forget the features. We've got tons of stuff planned. Such as interviews - for example, Erik has an interview with Orson Scott Card about what makes good science fiction and Serenity. Every once in a while we'll discuss or have commentaries on things related to the film industry and how it's changing - for example, piracy, the rise of the DVD market, the decline in box-office numbers, new technology being produced, etc. We're also planning on doing a "Top 10" of something every month, whether it be the Top 10 Reasons Going To The Cinema Sucks These Days or Top 10 Science Fiction Movies Of All Time. So yeah, it's a lot. With any luck this added effort will result in us being able to find some sponsors and actually getting paid a little.
4) Scripts and Writing Projects - Yup, this weekend I begin working on the outlines for Andrew Cranford's short film series. And let's not forget I have other scripts I'm working on.
5) Possible Directing Project - I'd still like to direct something this semester, if I have time. And that takes a lot of careful planning and work.
Let the workload begin. I'm ready. It's a new year, and that means new stuff to do. Here are my goals for this year:
- Finally get in the groove of church and Bible study.
- Finally get around to directing another short, and this time not for a festival, but simply because I want to.
- Possibly enter said short in local film festivals, if it isn't total crap.
- Finish a feature-length script.
- Write a script that someone else will want to direct.
- Keep gaining weight, but work out enough so that I don't have too much of a pot belly.
It's gonna be a hard year. It's gonna be a year of struggles, both in terms of academics and other areas. Such is life. At least a lot of it's related to movies. Can I get three cheers for the art of film?
Speaking of movies, 2005 is over, and it wasn't a bad year for movies. It had its moments of brilliance (original and intelligent films), and its moments of pure and utter crap (sequels and remakes). Last Tuesday I recorded a podcast highlighting the best and worst of 2005. It should be up soon. But since I'm lazy and don't feel like moving from this chair, I might as well recap the year here, too.
Out of the hundreds of films released this year, I saw 37, not including the three I rented yesterday and haven't yet finished. I saw:
40 Year Old Virgin
Aeon Flux
A History of Violence
Assault on Precinct 13
Batman Begins
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Chicken Little
Chronicles of Narnia
The Constant Gardener
Constantine
Crash
Downfall
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
The Family Stone
Grizzly Man
Guess Who
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Hitch
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The Interpreter
The Island
Jarhead
Kicking and Screaming
King Kong
Kung Fu Hustle
Madagascar
Man with the Screaming Brain
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Murderball
Oldboy
Saw II
Serenity
Sin City
Star Wars Episode III
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
War of the Worlds
Not a low number, not a high number. A decent number. I didn't see any 2005 films until around March, when I saw Hitch, so I got off to kind of a late start. Of those films, the following deserve mention:
Worst Film:
Chicken Little - It was terrible. I didn't expect much, seeing as how it was Disney's first outing in computer animation without Pixar, but it was even worse than I thought it would be. The character development was terrible, most of the jokes weren't funny, and it was way too short (80 minutes) to properly develop the plot. Also, some characters looked like they were stolen directly from Pixar. At least with Aeon Flux I got the impression the filmmakers were trying.
Runner up: Aeon Flux.
Top 5 Surprises:
5) Kicking and Screaming - Bad surprise. I, for one, was very disappointed. The previews didn't do much for me, but it had Will Ferrell, and he usually makes me laugh a lot, so I went in expecting it to at least be okay. It's not. It's actually just a pretty bad movie all around. A few jokes work, but most of the time the movie just feels really juvenile. Will Ferrell movies are hit-and-miss, and this was definitely a miss.
4) Mr. and Mrs. Smith - Good surprise. I actually ended up seeing this 4 times in theaters due to various circumstances, and surprisingly it never really got tired. I was expecting it to be fun, but I wasn't expecting the amount of fun it actually was. It's popcorn entertainment at its finest, with plenty of cool action scenes to keep people happy. It also manages to keep a good grasp on character development. Not only that, but I was surprised at how intelligent the film actually is both in terms of a commentary on marriage and in terms of symbolism/directing details.
3) War of the Worlds - Bad surprise. Steven Spielberg had said that this was going to be the best film of the decade. That's very far from the truth. It's not bad, but it's certainly extremely disappointing considering what we were led to believe about it. There are plot holes galore (a lot of it just doesn't make sense), and the ending is one of the worst I've seen in recent memory. Definitely not one of Spielberg's best efforts.
2) Saw II - Good surprise. I thought the first Saw was only so-so. It suffered from bad acting, bad pacing, and terrible structuring. It also seemed like a rip-off of Se7en, but the ending was awesome and made up for a lot of the faults. This sequel was completely made in just a year after the original, so I went in expecting it to be a terrible rush job. I couldn't have been more wrong. This movie fixed nearly all of the problems with the original, developed its characters more thoroughly, and had another awesome ending that makes me want to see Saw III right now. We could have another horror franchise on our hands, but this seems like it has potential to actually be a good one.
1) The 40 Year Old Virgin - Great surprise. This movie took my expectations and turned them upside down. I rented it expecting a raunchy sex comedy along the lines of American Pie and Not Another Teen Movie, one that wouldn't take sex seriously and would advocate promiscuity. I couldn't have been more wrong. Yes, this is a comedy about a sex, and yes that means a lot of the jokes are vulgar. However, vulgar or not, pretty much every joke will make you laugh out loud, and that's rare in most comedies these days. Also, although it laughs a lot at sexual situations, it also takes sex extremely more seriously than I expected it would. The movie at times ends up being extremely sweet, believe it or not, and dare I say touching. It also has what is definitely the most positive and Christian message regarding sex I've seen in a comedy in a very long time, perhaps ever. I hope this is the beginning of a trend in comedies, because this movie is great and positive to boot.
Top 5 Best Films:
5) Downfall - This is a German film about the last days of Hitler. It's also one of the best movies about the Nazis and World War 2 I have ever seen. It follows Hitler's last days as he hides out in a bunker and as his power and his country collapses above him. Quite simply put, it's fantastic. Bruno Ganz gives an amazing performance as Hitler, and for the first time in a movie I felt like I could actually relate to Hitler in some small way. I finally felt that I could understand his way of thinking and his reasons for what he did, despicable or not. The film doesn't make us sympathetic towards him (unless pity is the same as sympathy) but it does get us inside his head, and does a great job of showing how he psychologically began to fall apart. Terrific.
4) Episode III - Believe it or not, I was hesitant to include this on my top 5. It's a good movie, but one of the five best? Probably not. It's by far the best of the prequels, but it also has a whole lot of flaws both in terms of story and directing. If it was anything other than Star Wars, it wouldn't be on here. However, this is Star Wars, and flawed or not, I had an incredible time watching this. The action scenes were amazing, and I got misty-eyed in the final scenes. There was an intensity and heart to the film that, while not perfectly executed, sets it far above the previous two installments and while perhaps not as high as the original trilogy, at least close. It's on this list just for the experience.
3) Oldboy - This film was actually released in South Korea at the end of 2003, but didn't get to the USA until January of 2005. Asian cinema is gradually becoming better and better, and also getting more and more popular. This film is a perfect example why. It is unique, both in story and in style. The story follows a man who is imprisoned in a room for 15 years for no reason - one day, he is mysteriously released and he has 5 days to find out who did this to him and why. It's suspenseful, at times horrific, and takes some pretty bizarre and intriguing twists along the way. The directing is incredible and the style extremely unique when compared to Western cinema - for example, one fight scene lasts around 5 minutes and is done in a single shot. Great movie, both in terms of story and in terms of style.
2) Sin City - This is quite possibly the most perfect adaptation of a comic book/graphic novel ever made. The graphic novel frames were used as storyboards, so it's pretty much about as close to 100% accurate as you can get. This is the kind of film that will be studied in film school years from now, simply because of its incredibly unique and cool style (entirely in harsh black-and-white, with a few objects sometimes showing up in color). It's a testosterone-driven ride into a world where all the men are tough, the women are all beautiful strippers or hookers, and the violence is extreme. The characters, though at times morally flawed, have an aura of nobility around them, like post-modern knights or something of that nature. Amazing.
1) Crash - Stunning. Paul Haggis proves he can direct just as well as he writes. This is an incredible directorial debut, and follows various people in LA as their lives "crash" together due to racism in one form or another. Haggis shows that racism isn't just a majority/minority thing, but one that also exists between majorities and minorities themselves. The writing is superb. He plays off the viewer's preconceived racial stereotypes and contradicts them, as if to say, "You thought you knew everything about this character simply because of his/her race. You were wrong. You're just like all these people." The story takes twists and turns and packs an emotional punch like no other this year - during one scene, various people in the theater around me screamed and started to cry. Rent this now. If Haggis doesn't at least get an Oscar for best screenplay, I'm going to be extremely irritated.
And now, on to a few other random movie awards:
Best Documentary - Grizzly Man
Most Underrated Movie - The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Most Overrated Movie - The Constant Gardener
Strangest Movie - A History of Violence
Most Original Movie - Kung Fu Hustle
Best Adaptation (other than Sin City) - The Chronicles of Narnia
Best Comedy - The 40 Year Old Virgin
Movie I'm Most Looking Forward to in 2006: The Fountain
Yay. That's all for now. I'm gonna go watch another movie. Plan for tomorrow: sleep, start working on two school-related applications, watch other movie, and start working on short film outline.
Quote of Da Moment:
"Twenty bucks 1 Corinthians."
"Double or nothing Colossians 3:12."
--Wedding Crashers
On Monday, I start the spring semester of classes. Blegh. With any luck, I'll be able to fit myself into a film class, so things aren't too boring on the academic end of things. This semester is going to be busy. As in, holy-crap-I've-got-tons-of-stuff-to-do-and-feel-like-a-zombie busy. Let's take a look, shall we?
1) School - Obviously.
2) Newspaper - Yes, I'm gonna keep writing for the paper. Yay.
3) Podcast - These past 2 months have been sort of a test. Now that 2006 is here, we're gonna be really kicking stuff into high gear. We've got a wide variety of content planned. We're still gonna do microreviews. We're still gonna do full-length discussion-reviews. However, last year, we kinda shirked off on the mid-week shows: there weren't any. Well, that's about to change. There will be a minimum of two podcasts per week, with the weekend ones mainly focusing on movie reviews and the mid-week ones focusing on...lots of other things. For example, I recently received a promotion of sorts, and will be discussing weekly movie news with Erik. We're also going to have a brief segment about new movie trailers. And let's not forget the features. We've got tons of stuff planned. Such as interviews - for example, Erik has an interview with Orson Scott Card about what makes good science fiction and Serenity. Every once in a while we'll discuss or have commentaries on things related to the film industry and how it's changing - for example, piracy, the rise of the DVD market, the decline in box-office numbers, new technology being produced, etc. We're also planning on doing a "Top 10" of something every month, whether it be the Top 10 Reasons Going To The Cinema Sucks These Days or Top 10 Science Fiction Movies Of All Time. So yeah, it's a lot. With any luck this added effort will result in us being able to find some sponsors and actually getting paid a little.
4) Scripts and Writing Projects - Yup, this weekend I begin working on the outlines for Andrew Cranford's short film series. And let's not forget I have other scripts I'm working on.
5) Possible Directing Project - I'd still like to direct something this semester, if I have time. And that takes a lot of careful planning and work.
Let the workload begin. I'm ready. It's a new year, and that means new stuff to do. Here are my goals for this year:
- Finally get in the groove of church and Bible study.
- Finally get around to directing another short, and this time not for a festival, but simply because I want to.
- Possibly enter said short in local film festivals, if it isn't total crap.
- Finish a feature-length script.
- Write a script that someone else will want to direct.
- Keep gaining weight, but work out enough so that I don't have too much of a pot belly.
It's gonna be a hard year. It's gonna be a year of struggles, both in terms of academics and other areas. Such is life. At least a lot of it's related to movies. Can I get three cheers for the art of film?
Speaking of movies, 2005 is over, and it wasn't a bad year for movies. It had its moments of brilliance (original and intelligent films), and its moments of pure and utter crap (sequels and remakes). Last Tuesday I recorded a podcast highlighting the best and worst of 2005. It should be up soon. But since I'm lazy and don't feel like moving from this chair, I might as well recap the year here, too.
Out of the hundreds of films released this year, I saw 37, not including the three I rented yesterday and haven't yet finished. I saw:
40 Year Old Virgin
Aeon Flux
A History of Violence
Assault on Precinct 13
Batman Begins
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Chicken Little
Chronicles of Narnia
The Constant Gardener
Constantine
Crash
Downfall
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
The Family Stone
Grizzly Man
Guess Who
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Hitch
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The Interpreter
The Island
Jarhead
Kicking and Screaming
King Kong
Kung Fu Hustle
Madagascar
Man with the Screaming Brain
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Murderball
Oldboy
Saw II
Serenity
Sin City
Star Wars Episode III
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
War of the Worlds
Not a low number, not a high number. A decent number. I didn't see any 2005 films until around March, when I saw Hitch, so I got off to kind of a late start. Of those films, the following deserve mention:
Worst Film:
Chicken Little - It was terrible. I didn't expect much, seeing as how it was Disney's first outing in computer animation without Pixar, but it was even worse than I thought it would be. The character development was terrible, most of the jokes weren't funny, and it was way too short (80 minutes) to properly develop the plot. Also, some characters looked like they were stolen directly from Pixar. At least with Aeon Flux I got the impression the filmmakers were trying.
Runner up: Aeon Flux.
Top 5 Surprises:
5) Kicking and Screaming - Bad surprise. I, for one, was very disappointed. The previews didn't do much for me, but it had Will Ferrell, and he usually makes me laugh a lot, so I went in expecting it to at least be okay. It's not. It's actually just a pretty bad movie all around. A few jokes work, but most of the time the movie just feels really juvenile. Will Ferrell movies are hit-and-miss, and this was definitely a miss.
4) Mr. and Mrs. Smith - Good surprise. I actually ended up seeing this 4 times in theaters due to various circumstances, and surprisingly it never really got tired. I was expecting it to be fun, but I wasn't expecting the amount of fun it actually was. It's popcorn entertainment at its finest, with plenty of cool action scenes to keep people happy. It also manages to keep a good grasp on character development. Not only that, but I was surprised at how intelligent the film actually is both in terms of a commentary on marriage and in terms of symbolism/directing details.
3) War of the Worlds - Bad surprise. Steven Spielberg had said that this was going to be the best film of the decade. That's very far from the truth. It's not bad, but it's certainly extremely disappointing considering what we were led to believe about it. There are plot holes galore (a lot of it just doesn't make sense), and the ending is one of the worst I've seen in recent memory. Definitely not one of Spielberg's best efforts.
2) Saw II - Good surprise. I thought the first Saw was only so-so. It suffered from bad acting, bad pacing, and terrible structuring. It also seemed like a rip-off of Se7en, but the ending was awesome and made up for a lot of the faults. This sequel was completely made in just a year after the original, so I went in expecting it to be a terrible rush job. I couldn't have been more wrong. This movie fixed nearly all of the problems with the original, developed its characters more thoroughly, and had another awesome ending that makes me want to see Saw III right now. We could have another horror franchise on our hands, but this seems like it has potential to actually be a good one.
1) The 40 Year Old Virgin - Great surprise. This movie took my expectations and turned them upside down. I rented it expecting a raunchy sex comedy along the lines of American Pie and Not Another Teen Movie, one that wouldn't take sex seriously and would advocate promiscuity. I couldn't have been more wrong. Yes, this is a comedy about a sex, and yes that means a lot of the jokes are vulgar. However, vulgar or not, pretty much every joke will make you laugh out loud, and that's rare in most comedies these days. Also, although it laughs a lot at sexual situations, it also takes sex extremely more seriously than I expected it would. The movie at times ends up being extremely sweet, believe it or not, and dare I say touching. It also has what is definitely the most positive and Christian message regarding sex I've seen in a comedy in a very long time, perhaps ever. I hope this is the beginning of a trend in comedies, because this movie is great and positive to boot.
Top 5 Best Films:
5) Downfall - This is a German film about the last days of Hitler. It's also one of the best movies about the Nazis and World War 2 I have ever seen. It follows Hitler's last days as he hides out in a bunker and as his power and his country collapses above him. Quite simply put, it's fantastic. Bruno Ganz gives an amazing performance as Hitler, and for the first time in a movie I felt like I could actually relate to Hitler in some small way. I finally felt that I could understand his way of thinking and his reasons for what he did, despicable or not. The film doesn't make us sympathetic towards him (unless pity is the same as sympathy) but it does get us inside his head, and does a great job of showing how he psychologically began to fall apart. Terrific.
4) Episode III - Believe it or not, I was hesitant to include this on my top 5. It's a good movie, but one of the five best? Probably not. It's by far the best of the prequels, but it also has a whole lot of flaws both in terms of story and directing. If it was anything other than Star Wars, it wouldn't be on here. However, this is Star Wars, and flawed or not, I had an incredible time watching this. The action scenes were amazing, and I got misty-eyed in the final scenes. There was an intensity and heart to the film that, while not perfectly executed, sets it far above the previous two installments and while perhaps not as high as the original trilogy, at least close. It's on this list just for the experience.
3) Oldboy - This film was actually released in South Korea at the end of 2003, but didn't get to the USA until January of 2005. Asian cinema is gradually becoming better and better, and also getting more and more popular. This film is a perfect example why. It is unique, both in story and in style. The story follows a man who is imprisoned in a room for 15 years for no reason - one day, he is mysteriously released and he has 5 days to find out who did this to him and why. It's suspenseful, at times horrific, and takes some pretty bizarre and intriguing twists along the way. The directing is incredible and the style extremely unique when compared to Western cinema - for example, one fight scene lasts around 5 minutes and is done in a single shot. Great movie, both in terms of story and in terms of style.
2) Sin City - This is quite possibly the most perfect adaptation of a comic book/graphic novel ever made. The graphic novel frames were used as storyboards, so it's pretty much about as close to 100% accurate as you can get. This is the kind of film that will be studied in film school years from now, simply because of its incredibly unique and cool style (entirely in harsh black-and-white, with a few objects sometimes showing up in color). It's a testosterone-driven ride into a world where all the men are tough, the women are all beautiful strippers or hookers, and the violence is extreme. The characters, though at times morally flawed, have an aura of nobility around them, like post-modern knights or something of that nature. Amazing.
1) Crash - Stunning. Paul Haggis proves he can direct just as well as he writes. This is an incredible directorial debut, and follows various people in LA as their lives "crash" together due to racism in one form or another. Haggis shows that racism isn't just a majority/minority thing, but one that also exists between majorities and minorities themselves. The writing is superb. He plays off the viewer's preconceived racial stereotypes and contradicts them, as if to say, "You thought you knew everything about this character simply because of his/her race. You were wrong. You're just like all these people." The story takes twists and turns and packs an emotional punch like no other this year - during one scene, various people in the theater around me screamed and started to cry. Rent this now. If Haggis doesn't at least get an Oscar for best screenplay, I'm going to be extremely irritated.
And now, on to a few other random movie awards:
Best Documentary - Grizzly Man
Most Underrated Movie - The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Most Overrated Movie - The Constant Gardener
Strangest Movie - A History of Violence
Most Original Movie - Kung Fu Hustle
Best Adaptation (other than Sin City) - The Chronicles of Narnia
Best Comedy - The 40 Year Old Virgin
Movie I'm Most Looking Forward to in 2006: The Fountain
Yay. That's all for now. I'm gonna go watch another movie. Plan for tomorrow: sleep, start working on two school-related applications, watch other movie, and start working on short film outline.
Quote of Da Moment:
"Twenty bucks 1 Corinthians."
"Double or nothing Colossians 3:12."
--Wedding Crashers
# posted by Andrew Johnson : 1/05/2006 08:16:00 PM 
