Category Archives: moving pictures


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Slugging it

DVD Weekend

I spent the entire day at home imitating a slug – sitting or laying in one place while reading the hours away or watching dvds.

I finished The Hunt Club by John Lescroart. Years ago I was a faithful fan and read all of his mysteries as soon as they were published in paperback – Dead Irish, The Vig, Hard Evidence, The 13th Juror, A Certain Justice, Guilt and The Mercy Rule. Although a few of the main characters from his past novels make cameo appearances, Lescroat uses The Hunt Club to introduce a whole new world of characters. The backstory is well done and all of the red herrings make logical sense. At 512 pages, the book runs a little long and could have used more editing to eliminate some of the repetition.

I started reading The Kite Runner by Khalid Hossei but didn’t get too far because I was distracted by The Assignment. You would think that with a cast that includes Aidan Quinn, Donald Sutherland and Ben Kingsley it would be a halfway great movie. Notsomuch… it was long, a little confusing, and convoluted. And they tried a Basic Instinct-type ending which plain didn’t work because it felt like an imitation of that memorable finale (was she or wasn’t she the killer?). You know? There was so much potential… but it just missed its mark. Though that didn’t keep me from devoting two hours to it.

Then I popped in 11:14. Again, great concept with a solid cast that just missed its mark. The film recounts the events that take place leading up to 11:14 p.m. one night from the viewpoint of the different characters. Using flashback, each perspective adds new layers and details so that by the last recounting you’re finally in on the whole story. Though there isn’t one character I sympathised with or even liked. In the end they all got what was coming to them.

I broke one of my resolutions. I turned on the tv to catch the premier of 24. I couldn’t help myself. It would have been torture to wait until November 2007 for the release of the DVD. So I caught up with Jack Bauer and enjoyed the first two hours of the new season. I think I’m going to have to make a weekly exception for 24 and House.

A part of me feels guilty for really doing lots of nothing today. I should have done a load of laundry, bought some groceries, edited an annual report. I guess now I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow.


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Killing Cinderella

cinderella

I grew up with the Wonderful World of Disney.

My first movie, seen at the drive-in from the hood of my aunt’s green Bug, was Bambi. I fantasized of guest-starring on the New Mickey Mouse Club. I carried a metal lunchbox to school, with the monorail running through various scenes from Disney World. I learned to tell time on my most prized possession — a Donald Duck watch, secured to my wrist by a big-girl white leather band (not plastic). And, of course, there was Cinderella’s Castle, which featured prominently in my dreams and daydreams.

I was a Disney Kid.

My parents stubbornly prescribed that their kids only watch G-rated movies. So while my friends were waiting in line to see Grease, I was stuck watching Pete’s Dragon and Return from Witch Mountain and Midnight Madness (which served as the inspiration for all those scavenger hunts in high school… but that’s another story).

And while my all-time favorite Disney movie is The Little Mermaid…. I have a soft-spot for Cinderella. Her step-sisters were oh-so-mean. And that wicked stepmother… tripping the valet so the glass slipper shattered on the marble floor. She was pure evil.

But now Disney is warping the whole point of the Cinderella story.

It’s such a classic because the moral is beloved – the underdog trumps the sure bet…. the poor kid rises from the ashes to great success…. better to be kind than selfish …. good karma will reward the humble servant and bad karma will fall on evil relatives… yada, yada, yada.

Consumerism is killing Cinderella.


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The Wizard of Oz

silver shoes

For five consecutive years I went trick-or-treating as a character from the Wizard of Oz. One year, my mom spent hours curling my pin-straight hair into a cascade of spirals for my debut as Dorothy. The next year, I went out as the Scarecrow. Then, I went out as Glinda the Good Witch… two years in a row.  The year after that I was the Wicked Witch of the East – complete with crushed hat, roof slats, striped stockings and ruby slippers.

Those legendary ruby slippers……

Last week, I read the L. Frank Baum classic in anticipation of the release of the 2-disc special edition. It was my first time reading the story and boy was I in for a surprise.

First off, the film is better than the book.

MUCH better.

Second, Dorothy’s ruby slippers are pure MGM magic. In the book, Dorothy wears silver shoes. Silver!

I did a double take while reading. How could Baum not have realized that the slippers were RUBY? Couldn’t he see the story running in his head? Did he picture Dorothy wearing blue shoes before he settled on silver?

Thank the movie gods that someone at MGM got it right!


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A shadow of its former self

ALIAS

I was a loyal ALIAS fan. But not anymore.

Seasons 1 and 2 were amazing. Season 3 was better than Season 4 but not as good as the previous two…. although the cliffhanger at the end of the season finale inspired such hope for Season 5.

I thought maybe JJ Abrams would return to ALIAS’s roots….. bring back some of the original SD-6 bad guys and storylines. But NOOOO… they kill off Michael Vaughn, they bring in these other flimsy characters, and there’s no character development for the original cast. Why is Victor Garber still on this program? He’s been reduced to reciting instructions into handsets/headsets in the scenes he’s in.

It’s a waste of my time.

And it breaks my heart – just a little bit – because ALIAS was the first smart show on tv in a very long time. And the producers managed to wreck it. ALIAS introduced so many novel concepts and complicated plot twists. Each and every episode was new and exciting.

But the creators dumped ALIAS because LOST became such a phenomenon. I’ve tried watching LOST and just don’t get it.

I popped in an episode from Season 1 after watching tonight’s show. I shouldn’t have done that –  the contrast proved that season 5 is just a mockery of the original.


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Delusions of extra sensory perception

esp

Last week I watched The Emperor’s Club. I usually read the book before seeing the film. But in this case, I learned during the DVD special features that the story was based on the short story The Palace Thief by Ethan Canin.

A few days later I bought the book.

Now, you all know I can’t walk into a bookstore and purchase just one book. As I stood at the counter, credit card in hand as the cashier rang up my purchases, I thought, “This is going to come out to $107.”

A minute later the total appeared – $107.

This happens to me occasionally… a random coincidence that will startle me out of my reverie and into the present.

Surprisingly the film is very similar to the short story. Not like the travesty of casting Tom Cruise to portray Lestat in Interview with a Vampire. Or the later revision of Queen of the Damned.

I struggled to remember the name of the actor who replaced Cruise in that installment… could picture him in my mind… his name at the tip of my brain.

When suddenly, he appeared on tv in a teaser for a new series on ABC called Night Stalker. And I remembered… Stuart Townsend.

Is this a cosmic coincidence or have I discovered my sixth sense?


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My Life Without Me

 My Life Without Me

This movie was a pleasant surprise. Ann, a 23-year-old married mother of two vivacious little girls, finds out she has 3 months to live. She keeps this news from her husband, mother and friends, deciding instead to take control of her life and make the most of the the time she has left.

She makes a list of all the things she wants to do before she dies and sets out to complete each item on her list.

What would you do? If you collapse one day and go to a doctor to find out what’s wrong and he tells you there’s a tumor that’s spreading from your stomach to your liver to your lungs and there’s nothing they can do to help you….. what would your list look like?

I don’t think I’d tell anyone. I wouldn’t want my last precious moments to be spent cooped up in some hospital.

Things to do before I die:
1. Take 2 weeks off work and visit my family.
2. Drink and smoke as much as I wanted.
3. Always say what was on my mind.
4. Fall deeply, madly and passionately in love with someone.
5. Publish something – so a part of me would always live on.
6. Talk to an attorney and file a living will – specifying that all viable organs are to be donated. Make it failproof so no one could contest it.
7. Go sailing.
8. Spend a long romantic weekend at the El Conquistador in Puerto Rico.
9. Sing and dance everyday.
10. Say “I love you” to the people I care about everyday.

It’s a lame list – I’ll have to give this some thought and revisit it later, but it’s a start.


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The Evolution of Primetime Programming

 tv

When I think back on my childhood, I remember trips to the library, kickball games on the street, sitting in classrooms, field trips to museums, playing with transformers and television. I grew up in front of the tv.

My childhood is filled with snippets of episodes involving extra-human strength and right trumping evil. I grew up in the era of the Superhero.

How many of you remember watching Lee Majors in the Six Million Dollar Man? Or Lindsay Wagner, his mate, in the Bionic Woman?

And then there was my all-time favorite show – Wonder Woman. I wanted to be Diana Prince and sometimes actually believed I was. (see #44)

I had the biggest crush on Aquaman and rarely missed an episode of The Man From Atlantis.

Meanwhile, my brother’s favorite program was The Amazing Spider Man with Nicholas Hammond as Peter Parker….. followed closely by reruns of Batman and Robin. One Halloween, being particularly clever, my parents brought home a Cinderella dress for me, and Batman suit for my brother. A few days after our night of trick or treating, my brother managed to get on the roof of our one-story ranch in full Batman regalia. He wanted to “test out the powers in his cape.”

On that occasion, it was Wonder Woman to the rescue. I don’t remember what I said to talk him down, but we got off the roof safely and lived to tell about it.

And how can I leave off icons like Lou Ferrigno as the Incredible Hulk and, although he was a film star, Superman?

One of my Seseme Street-watching, Highlight-reading pals was horrified after I wrapped up the list. She commented that in spite of being subjected to all those hours of trash growing up, I turned out okay.

Trash? Wonder Woman wasn’t trash. She kicked some serious bad guy butt every week. AND she was really smart. My bionic friends taught me that you could be human, and a crime-fighter, even with all sorts of artificial limbs. The Hulk, well, c’mon – admit it. We’ve all got two sides to our personalities – the civilized self we present to society and our more private self that drinks milk from the carton and dances naked in the shower. Oh – and there’s Aquaman (sigh)…. I’m still searching for that perfect Atlantean.

Trash – ph

eh – whatever!

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg my friends. Part II takes on the primetime soaps.

Did you grow up in front of the tv? What did you watch? Do you [would you] allow your children to watch tv? How much?


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A Cinematic Treasure

 Uptown Theatre from the balcony

Sunlight filled my apartment. I sat up in bed in panic. Did I sleep through my alarm clock? No- it was only 6:19 a.m. What a glorious day! Right then I decided to play hookie.

An unexpected day from work feels different from the time off on weekends. There’s something rebellious, almost adventurous about a free day. The hours pass slower and the urge to “do something” feels greater.

After languously lounging on my couch, reading the Sunday Post and back issues of the New Yorker, I motivated.

The air felt crisp. I emerged from the Cleveland Park Metro Station to find Connecticut Avenue in its familiar state of activity. Someone new to DC might be surprised to find an exquisite movie house in Washington, DC. The single-screen theater stands defiant in the face of cinema multiplexes littering the landscape coast to coast.

John Zink designed The Uptown Theater for Warner Brothers in 1932. Built in the golden age of Washington movie-going, the original art-deco theater boasted 1120 seats. A $500,000 renovation in 1996 replaced the original chairs with high-back velour seats, as well as new wallpaper, carpets, and a second concession stand. The stadium seating in the balcony reduced the capacity to 840 seats.

Crimson, velour curtains pull open to reveal a larger-than-life curved screen, 40-feet high and 70 feet wide. Installed in 1966, this screen wowed audiences during showings of Star Wars, The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey; and special screenings of classics like Citizen Kane and Lawrence of Arabia.

Recently, people have stood in long lines that snake along the sidewalk and behind Ireland’s Four P’s to see The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. I’d planned to see the last installment for months, and never made it to a show. Today would be the day.

I shared the theater with a handful of people: mothers with small children, a father with his two pre-teens, a rowdy group of teenagers in the balcony. What a luxury!

Clocking in at 3 1/2 hours, the film met my expectations. That said, I hated the ending and thought the last half hour of the movie dragged.

A longer critique to come soon.