Ploafmaster General

Whoa…check out the new Terry Gilliam joint:

Vicky Christina Barcelona is Woody Allen’s 2008 romantic comedy and, man, it was kind of a snooze.

Valerie’s latest arrival from Netflix gave me mixed feelings; on the one hand I was looking forward to wading in a bit more to Allen’s catalog, but I wasn’t particularly excited about this flick going in. I don’t think that later sentiment interfered with my viewing experience. I think, rather, that a number of elements of the film got in the way…

It was no help that the film started off giving me more than a few bad first impressions. Intrusive and awkwardly-voiced narration. Characters who are more concept than real. An image of Barcelona that I might see in a tourist guide. Add to all that a script that felt like it was written by an advertising copywriter and acting like a community theater audition, and you have a recipe for a mostly wasted movie.

Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz both acted quite well and saved it a bit, but I was repeatedly dragged back to negativity by cheesy scene transitions (an awkwardly jarring dissolve…oi) and Scarlett Johanssen’s bland rendering of the screenplay.

Maybe I just need to bump Annie Hall to the top of my list to see what the real fuss over Woody Allen is about.

2/5

Guy Ritchie + Robert Downey Jr. + Jude Law = HOLYCRAPIWANTTOSEETHISONOPENINGDAY.
(via trey)

I’ve never been deeply in to the Trekkie world, but I just got back from a late showing of J.J. Abrams‘ version of Star Trek, and holy Ron Gettelfinger, was it awesome. Here are some stand-outs:

1. They freaking used Futura for the in-movie titles!
2. I’ve seen a lot floating around lately about the heavy doses of lens flare in this movie. My opinion on the matter is that, whatever the purpose, the flares help establish a rather unique-feeling visual style. I say unique-feeling because I’ve not really researched whether it’s been done before. Either way, I feel that it helped the aesthetics.
3. The film score was considerably better than I expected. They smacked you in the face with it early on and it stood out as an aural guide at just the right moments. While I really dug hearing “Sabotage” in the first act, I was happier to have strong symphonic music carry throughout most of the story.
4. Okay, Heroes really just needs to die now, because Zachary Quinto is more Spock than he’ll ever be Sylar.
5. Simon Pegg, I love you.
6. I feel like they hit a number of marks on the Geek Check List with the Vulcan Death Grip, Mind Meld, and countless quips from the original series.

I would see this in the theater again with any of my friends that haven’t yet checked it out. Definitely a good start to my spring/summer movie season, and a great new direction to the Star Trek franchise, I hope.

4/5

You’d think it would be difficult to make a story intriguing when the outcome is a certainty. You’d think that way until you watched All the President’s Men. The visuals were decent (though not groundbreaking), but the pacing, acting, and writing easily kept me riveted through nearly 2.5 hours.

4/5