The Pop Culture Addict’s Blog

I’ve been looking forward to seeing Pixar’s Up! for years it seems. Check out the official site for cute visuals: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/up/. Every drip and drab I’ve seen of it over this past year has tanatalized me. The overall experience did not disappoint. Sure, the kid was a little dim at times or maybe overly earnest and innocent. There was also a darkness to the villain that was surprising. The opening montage had me in tears within minutes. In fact, I get all verklempt just recalling it. Up! has everything spanning from joy to wistfulness. There is action and adventure, drama, comedy and suspense. I liked how the bits and pieces already revealed in the trailer were still surprising and entertaining when seen in context. I loved the balloon man, the protagonist, living a wonderful life and then finding wonder later in his life. It’s a relatable tale in everyone’s desire to find connection with others and add meaning to their respective lives, human and animals alike. The dog humor was straightforward yet endearing, hilarious and a little scary. The visuals were stunning. The 3D aspect was seamless. No tricks like in Coraline but enjoyable nonetheless.

Drag Me to Hell

I’m so glad Sam Raimi is experiencing success. Before Spiderman, sometime around The Gift, I read an interview with him where he just sounded so down-trodden. He was bummed about the reception of The Quick and the Dead. For the Love of the Game was an attempt at being mainstream. I hope he appreciates his enormous influence on movies like The Matrix and Kill Bill. I mean, Hong Kong movies also made huge contributions to these movies but Sam Raimi is a visionary. I don’t care what people say, I enjoyed all three Spiderman movies. I liked all of the Evil Dead incarnations and even went to see the musical version. Yes, Evil Dead the Musical played in NYC. Jealous? They even splattered “blood” on the audience during the chainsaw scenes. So, I was psyched to see Drag Me to Hell. It was concise, kinetic and entertaining. I wasn’t surprised by the narrative but I was constantly kept on my toes by the visual and sound choices made throughout the movie. I get a kick out of thinking of it playing in Cannes. I mean, I understand UP! playing there. Drag Me to Hell is a more unusual choice but inspired. It’s definitely a crowd movie. I enjoyed the interactive nature of the audience. One comment made, “Not even a gangster would sink so low!” I won’t tell you when in the movie I heard that. Alison Lohman was perfectly sweet, stupid and badass for the role. You know, she’s unaware that this kind of evil exists until it starts happening to her. Then she starts fighting back. It was fun to see Justin Long right after I walked out of the theater. I wanted to yell something inane like, “Hey, Drag Me to Hell!” But I just stared at him and his buddy Blake Lively as they came in for the following show.

Keane at Radio City Music Hall, May 27, 2009

I mostly think of May 27th as being M. E. Kerr’s birthday. But this year, it was also the date of the Keane concert. The last time I saw them, it was at crowded Central Park where I stood the whole time and barely saw them. This time, I got to sit for the opening acts and lean against the row of seats in front of me while Keane was on. Plus I could see them the whole time. Highlights were hearing Early Winter performed. This is the single Tim Rice-Oxley wrote for Gwen Stefani. While I enjoy her voice, it sounds distinctly like a Keane song so it was satisfying hearing Tom Chaplin sing it. I loved the sing alongs. Everybody’s Changing is a timeless song. I was amused by how angsty and balladic (are either of these real words?) the lyrics are to every single Keane song. Yet, they are often upbeat and catchy. Richard Hughes also kept up his energy throughout the show. Their new guy, Jesse something. Sorry, I forgot but you rocked! The energy of the band was awesome. I liked how deliberately casual they were all dressed. Tom Chaplin has such an amazing voice. I’m so glad he got over his difficult times to keep on trucking with his band. They performed most of the latest album, Perfect Symmetry. Tom Chaplin said his favorite song is Perfect Symmetry. He had fun using the full stage and the side stages too, running around, climbing up the stairs and serenading us. He sang one song on his own with his guitar. It was all great. Just when it was all over, they came back on stage and performed Under Pressure by David Bowie. I was hoping for Bootylicious but the David Bowie cover was even better because it was new to me. It lasted exactly the right amount of time. I’ve watched their performance on Jimmy Fallon a bunch of times. I just can’t delete it yet from the dvr.

Party Down

I’m officially converted to Party Down on Starz. Now that the regular tv season is coming to a close, I had time to devote time to it. It is ingenious. Sublime even. I appreciate every nuance. I love all the Veronica Mars cameos. Kristen Bell was in the season finale. Everyone seems like they are enjoying themselves but also putting forth something unique. The writing is subtle and funny. The relationships are so interesting and real. I just re-watched Wet Hot American Summer to see these actors interact as their younger selves. I highly recommend Party Down. You have to pay attention but it’s worth the effort. I also watched ep 1, season 1 of Dexter. I’m intrigued. I will watch more. I still have to start watching The Wire. This summer for sure!

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Terminator Salvation is actually more the story of Sam Worthington’s character than Christian Bale’s John Connor. Both are equally important but Marcus Wright’s story is the most interesting one. While I admire Christian Bale’s talent (see Harsh Times and Rescue Dawn), I find his intensity sometimes overshadows his relatability in his roles. He’s always interesting to watch but he often takes these roles that are so far removed from anything I’m familiar with. That is cool. That’s why I go to the movies, to see interesting characters do interesting things. But CB has a certain coolness. I find Ang Lee movies to be like this – interesting but distanced from the audience. Clinical even. Anyway, what I like about the original Terminator is the humanity. I mean, we have to care about the relationships and importance of saving humankind from Skynet. T2 was cool but got more distanced. Terminator Salvation surprised me by having warmth. But there were a lot of gaps in the story. No effort was made to explain Bryce Dallas Howard’s character. I don’t need everything spelled out for me but I like to care about the characters on screen. Anton Yelchin was cute in Star Trek and cute as Kyle Reese. Still, Kyle Reese is pretty darn key in the whole Terminator mythology and I expected to see a more fleshed out person. I mean, I wanted to care, so I cared. But it wasn’t the most compelling storyline. Same with Moon Bloodgood’s character and Helena Bonham-Carter’s doctor. They both seemed pretty important catalysts for our protagonists yet they were almost mere blips on the screen. The action was decent. I wanted more. It was fun but in a forgettable way. I greatly enjoyed Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and felt it enhanced the mythology and made me care enough about the characters to want to keep watching them. Sure, I will watch the next two Terminator movies if they happen but my expectations are fairly low.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian IMAX

I liked it! I couldn’t believe it as I was watching it. I saw the first one with a fellow Pop Culture Addict who likes those kinds of movies. I was not that impressed. However, this sequel is really cute. I think it must be in part because they didn’t have to waste time establishing the premise that the museum comes to life at night. Ben Stiller already is there. He doesn’t have to convince anyone else of it. It just happens and the problem is a turf battle at the Smithsonian. The writers, Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant actually made use of all the possibilities in DC and in the Smithsonian. When the cupids started singing, I actually thought one of them looked like Joe Jonas and one of them sounded like Nick Jonas, but it wasn’t until I saw the credits I was sure that the Jonas Brothers were actually singing. I must admit, I greatly enjoyed their participation in this movie.

Three Daughers / Teen Kanya

I went to see the unabridged version of Satyajit Ray’s Three Daughters to see what the third story was like. Well, it wasn’t much and I can see why it was edited out. If you see Teen Kanya, the international version with only two short stories and the title Two Daughters, is perfectly fine if not better than the Three Daughters version. Also, it was an awkward editing job. They just took Two Daughters and then tacked on the middle story at the end. The first story is amazing, The Postmaster. I’ve seen it twice now and I found it incredibly beautiful and touching, possibly among my all-time favorite segments of cinema. The Conclusion (the second story) is pretty great for most of it, about 90% of it. But the 10% I don’t like is how the free-spirited girl is forced to get married and then how she falls into a depression over it. The third story is very weird and shallow. I was okay with the supernatural element but it didn’t really go anywhere. It looked beautiful but the story was lacking. Still, The Postmaster is unbelievably breathtaking.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

Now that the regular tv season has wrapped up, I had time to catch up with HBO’s The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. I was surprised by how much I liked the original book when I randomly picked it up at the airport a few years ago. I’ve read most of the sequels. The show really captures the spirit of the books. Jill Scott does a great job as do Anika Noni Rose and Lucian Msmati. I like the neighbor too played by Desmond Dube.

Summer blockbusters, cont.

I’m psyched to see Sam Raimi’s return to schlocky horror in Drag Me To Hell and Pixar’s Up! this upcoming weekend. They are both going to be great! Memorable all the way. Exactly what I look for in movies.

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I’ve read all of Dan Brown’s books and found them to be good reads. They all have similar structures but he puts a lot of detail into each thriller and makes them page-turners. I thought the movie of Da Vinci Code was fine but too long for my taste. Also, the albino self-flagellating villian was very over the top. And yes, Tom Hank’s hair was distracting. In all honesty, I was more excited to see Nicholas Cage in the two National Treasure movies which are also about symbology but don’t take themselves as seriously. They work better as movies because they want us to be entertained. But I wanted to see Angels and Demons and I did find it watchable. The change from prequel to sequel was a non-issue. The mystery/thriller aspects were fairly predictable. The science was sort of convoluted. I like how Ron Howard’s team took tourist pictures of the Vatican until they were kicked out and then used these pix to digitally recreate it for the movie. It was nice to see Ewan McGregor because I enjoy watching him in movies. But he lacked some of his usual spark in this role although he had a reason for being there. SPOILERS coming up: So I was fooled (even though I read the book and should’ve remembered the twists) until the last 30 minutes or so when the carmelengo said, “It’s him!” I was suddenly like, that is highly suspicious. So it would’ve been more interesting if the culprit was something like the Illuminati although within the history given in the movie, they did seem justified in feeling angry at the church. I was surprised by the fake ending when the carmelego grabbed the antimatter and ran into the helicopter. Anyway, what am I trying to say? It had its moments. I think the pay off was a let down. Maybe the villain needed to be a bit more substantial. I can’t quite put my finger on what was lacking. But it was an okay movie overall.

The Brothers Bloom

I enjoyed Rian Johnson’s debut feature Brick. It was deliberately stylized but it worked. Sometimes it’s too coy or precious when a movie is so stylized but I got into the groove of it while watching Brick. So, The Brothers Bloom is again highly stylized. I liked watching it. Adrien Brody is interesting to watch though his character was on the dour side. I mean, there was reason for it but I was looking for a little more joy. Still, he’s a good actor who had nice chemistry with Mark Ruffalo and Rachel Weisz. As I’ve said before, I was lucky enough to see Mark Ruffalo in This is Our Youth and loved him in You Can Count On Me. Since then, I’ve sought out his movies but haven’t felt particularly intrigued. But I liked this role. He was perfect for it. He seemed to roll with it and fill it out very nicely. It is very deliberately quirky. I found it cute and appealing. Some might find it, as I suggested earlier, coy and precious. Anyway, I loved the locations and costumes. I actually wouldn’t have minded seeing more of the brothers’ childhood. Prequel?

Tyson

Mike Tyson is a producer of this documentary about himself. Keep this in mind. James Toback seems to have a good relationship with him perhaps starting from Black and White. It seems like he is the interviewer and he gets honest answers from Tyson. The fight footage is something else. I haven’t watched a lot of boxing matches but I found these knockouts fascinating and brutal to watch. They are slowed down so the moment of TKO or KO is evident to all viewers. He has an interesting story and a very touching memory of Cus D’Amato. It will definitely make you think about nature and nurture. Also, it will make you revisit key moments in Mike Tyson’s life and compare his interpretation to your own.

Pushing Daisies

So Pushing Daisies Season 2 is coming out on dvd in July so we will get to see how it was meant to end. I just heard that Kristin Chenoweth will appear on Ryan Murphy’s new show Glee! I will watch that one. I enjoyed Popular. I didn’t really watch Nip/Tuck but I know I can relate to his sensibility.

A quick, whoohoo for the surprise renewal of Dollhouse. I’m glad. I think Joss Whedon and company will make it an amazing season of television. I don’t know what will happen with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It would be quite a shock if it got renewed. I would be happy though. It looks like Chuck will get another season. As for LOST. it is my favorite show right now. I loved the season finale and will be re-watching it again soon. Normally, I would’ve watched it over the weekend but I was distracted by other things. Smallville’s season finale was shocking. I’m guessing that Lois Lane is in the past and she will somehow get Superman to be able to change the death of Jimmy Olsen. I mean come on, Jimmy Olsen cannot be dead! He is part of the mythology that needs to stay in place. I can understand having Lex Luthor presumed dead because we all know he isn’t. Somehow, someway, someday he will re-appear as Superman’s nemesis. By the same token, Jimmy Olsen is Clark Kent’s faithful sidekick. Lois Lane is THE love interest of Superman/Clark Kent’s life. Chloe is a new character created for the show but she works. I suppose Lois Lane might be in the future and she will learn about Clark’s identity, etc. and then come back to fix things. At any rate, Smallville continues to grow as a show. I’m glad Tom Welling is still into the character. What’s left this season? Oh, the Gossip Girl season finale should be full of twists and turns. I love that Chuck with his sidelong glances and impeccable appearance.

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I’m not the biggest improv fan. However, my mind was changed last year when I saw Jack McBrayer and Paul Scheer at The Upright Citizens Brigade. They were phenomenally funny and entertaining. So I readily attended another improv show at the UCB last night. Let me just copy and paste the performers:

Let’s Have A Ball
Writers and Performers from the Emmy-award winning ‘30 Rock’, ‘The Colbert Report’, ‘Late Night w/Conan O’Brien’, and the UCB Theatre come together to play for your entertainment in this Star-Studded, Long-Form Improvised Show.

Life is short. Let’s Have a Ball.

Starring:
Scott Adsit (30 Rock, Moral Orel)
Kay Cannon (30 Rock)
Christina Gausas (Dorff & Gausas, Late Night with Conan O’Brien)
Anthony King (Reuben Williams, writer, creator, Gutenberg! The Musical!)
Laura Krafft (The Colbert Report)
Tami Sagher (30 Rock)
And special guests!

I went with a couple of Pop Culture Addicts who had never been to the UCB and they were duly impressed. The new receptionist from The Office, Erin, was in it. Let me look up her name. I think it is Ellie Kemper. Actually, I don’t think Tami Sagher was there when I saw it. There was another guy. I don’t remember his name. I don’t think Kay Cannon was there. I’m looking at the pictures on the UCB site to jog my memory. They were all impressive on their feet even when the audience could tell they were stuck or processing the scene. It was cool to be present for it. I highly recommend going to this show which happens every Saturday or any other UCB show. I’ve heard that some are better than others but I think they really try to have strong performers and comedians who have obtained good training and been able to utilize it. Does that make sense? I mean there are naturals who perform and I think there are others with potential who receive improv training that brings out their skills on stage.

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I had high expectations for this movie. I’ve been a J. J. Abrams’ fan since his Felicity days and when he transitioned that idea into Alias, I knew he had the goods to deliver action and drama. I watched Lost unfold with great interest (see my 2004 Lost thoughts). Then he left it in the great hands of co-creator Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse to work on another fantastic show Fringe. He has said he was not an original Star Trek fan so his goal was to make a good movie. He completely succeeds. The story revolves around Kirk and Spock. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto bring appeal to their roles. I enjoyed the chemistry between Spock and Uhuru. It seemed like a believable sci-fi relationship. It was fun to see the crew come together. Eric Bana was unrecognizable as the distressed and not so stable Romulan Nero. Leonard Nimoy’s cameo was effective and totally made sense. I think it worked in part because he has stayed out of the limelight for so long. So it was exciting to see him on screen again. He seemed like he was enjoying himself. Simon Pegg was funny as expected. The action scenes were summer blockbuster worthy. Everyone looked cool (John Cho, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto in particular in their fight scenes). I enjoyed seeung Amanda Foreman from Felicity days in her little cameo. I missed the Lost shout out. SPOILER: Apparently the Lost numbers, 4 8 15 16 23 42 were viewable on the side of a ship, the USS Enterprise? I don’t know because even though I accidentally heard about this before I went, I didn’t see it. I got to the IMAX theater about 2.5 hours before the start time. I was not first in line. But I saw one Pop Culture Addict I was meeting about 20th in line. Then we suddenly spotted another PCA we were meeting 10th in line! Our fourth PCA arrived last and was not allowed in to join us only to get a ticket from us and then meet us inside MUCH later. But, our patience paid off. We got excellent seats and enjoyed the experience. As a bonus, we made a few friends waiting in line. One of them turned out to have a very close connection to the Star Trek tv series. Ron B. Moore (not to be confused by Roswell and Battlestar Galactica’s Ron D. Moore) is a visual effects designer who worked on every Star Trek after the original so from The Next Generation through New Voyager. The only ones I watched really were the original and The Next Generation. Anyway, Ron was really cool and told us stories about working in New York (unpredictable weather, colorful conversational exchanges) and LA. He said his favorites were Scott Bakula (Enterprise) and Jackie Chan (Rush Hour 3). Scott Bakula was in a scene with slime once in some sort of web with a bunch of other actors. When the director said cut, people ran to get him, the captain, out first but he insisted the other actors get helped out of the web first. Ron said this was typical of Scott Bakula. Jackie Chan is just a nice, modest guy who can do unbelievably athletic stunts. He said his trailer was modest and he didn’t care that Chris Tucker made more money than him on the movie. Ron also said Patrick Stewart is a serious actor who expects the same from his cohorts. EDIT: Thought of one more interesting tidbit. Ron said whenever they filmed transporter scenes, they needed two seconds of the actor standing perfectly still and two seconds of the transporter without the actor in order to edit it properly. But once the director really wanted to scan the entire room and the only way Ron could think of to make the effects process work was to have Patrick Stewart kneel down on the transporter out of frame. Patrick Stewart said, I don’t kneel. But once Ron explained the problem he was trying to solve, PS was like, oh, no problem. END EDIT Another cool story he told us was about a more recent project the tv show Kings. They used the Brooklyn Museum and morphed it with the New York Public Library to make the castle. Then they filmed a battle scene out in Brooklyn somewhere. He spoke of how in LA, the 105 is where Speed and Rush Hour 3, among other highway scenes were filmed because it is easy to shut it down. He couldn’t believe that on Kings, someone had the challenging job of shutting down a major street in downtown Manhattan while they shot a car driving against traffic. Anyway, Ron added a lot of color to our long wait as did his friend Barbara who saved the place in line for him. One last note, Ron said he was in town with his wife to go on a Star Trek cruise as one of the featured guests. He said it was a lot of fun and a perk of the job. Cool!

The Round-Up / Szegénylegények

Film fans love the movies of Hungarian director Miklós Jancsó. His style is to have influenced Alfonso Cuarón’s City of Men. “Derek Malcolm picked [The Round Up] as one of the 100 greatest movies ever made.” The Round Up is stylized, formalistic and seems influenced by the movements seen in the 1960’s (Round Up came out in 1966) of absurdist thinking and dadaism. That is, I was thinking about what is the meaning of our actions and how artists convey political opinions in their work. The cinematography is stunning though extremely bleak. Every frame could be hanging up for further study. I liked how it was only 90 minutes. I like a concise movie. When watching it, I wondered, what does it all mean? I can see why film scholars appreciate Jancsó’s work. He took risks and left lasting images.

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