Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Incongruity

I loathe to detail the events of the past few months as they pertain to my absence here. Any and all explanations would be embarrassing excuses and really, aren't we past all that?

I can assure those that would care of such things that drawing has occurred and just leave it at that.

Let us awkwardly segue to the movie portion of our post.

I like the Sherlock Holmes movie. I get the distress some viewers felt at seeing such a tried and true literary figure regarded as a puerile, arrogant sociopath with his passive-aggressive treatment of Watson and dismissive use of detecting skills, I do. But I think the tweaking of Holmes' idiosyncrasies, the amping up of his intellectual prowess to near autistic levels balanced with a concurrent drop in social skills allows much opportunity for diversion from the mysteries afoot which can be, frankly, tedious exposition when compressed to movie length. This, I believe, is director Guy Ritchie's aim, to keep from dumbing down the clue finding and puzzle solving (too much), he peppers the movie with Holmes' eccentricities played for humor. Also, it's the inspired casting and performance of Robert Downey Jr. in the title role that sells the whole bit.

The remake of The Crazies was entirely better than it should have been. It loses much of it's steam just past the middle, and the titular "crazies" themselves aren't as strong a threat toward the end, but still, given the source material, plenty good.

Legion is one of those "angel war" movies that usually misses opportunities, this one is no different. There is some good casting, some creepy effect sequences and some decent ideas but none of it gains any footing. The plot holes are cavernous. Western religious mythology fascinates me thus I am drawn to movies that attempt the subject matter regardless of how ass-like I fear they will be.

Kick Ass did in fact kick ass, lots of ass. I am a fan of the comic book by Mark Millar and the amazing John Romita Jr. Much of what they were trying to accomplish makes it on screen, some of the bits are altered and fluffed out for mass consumption. That is to be expected. Aaron Johnson is sympathetic and relatable in the title role and Nicolas Cage somehow doesn't bore me like he usually does, his Adam Westian performance is entertaining. But, unfortunately, they are playing against Chloe Moretz's Hit Girl who's a freakin' revelation in the role. Her action sequences are like watching Hello Kitty enter into a frenzied blood rage of whirling death blossom, pure awesome.

By the way, have you seen this Netflix movie streaming thing? Which to a movie whore like me is akin to saying, "by the way have you experienced this heroin thing?" I'm fairly certain that the time is coming wherein gobs of entertainment will be poured directly into the gray matter via some USB spike driven into the back of our heads thus eliminating any Burgess Merideth-like lamenting.

Among the streamable cinema fare that has been slaking my thirst is Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris. Decompressed and cerebral, Solaris harkens back to a time (1972) when Sci Fi was more than the genre wherein shit got blow'ed up. This movie instead occupies it's character's time with treatises on the human condition while placing them under emotional distress at the hands of a consciousness so alien that communication seems impossible. It took me a bit to shift to the right gear for proper enjoyment but once I did I was captivated. It doesn't hurt that the female lead, Natalya Bondarchuk is pretty bangin'. Yes, she's acting her ass off also, hanging with the egghead science-type characters playing verbal/psycho analytical/technobabble chess while plenty holding her own. I found the mental gymnastics refreshing.

The Pic is another random randomness from the fffound blog. Not so bad.

Oh yeah, the nerdgasmic Comic Con is looming menacingly. I've mentally and physically prepared myself as much as possible, the strong will thrive, the weak will be eaten.

Dust-

2 comments:

EJPcreations said...

We have missed you Dustin oh so much! In this sea of mediocre movies it is so nice when someone can point out the ones worth tracking down and watching. But please forgive this side note.. More drawings NOW!

Dust said...

There is nothing to forgive as you merely speak the truth.