"Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think."
-Ambrose Bierce
Ahhhhh... The smell of Texas hick in the morning. I'm in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for work this week. There is nothing cool about this trip. No pictures, no wry observations. Except for the smelly Texan hick I got stuck in the elevator with this morning, and there ain't nothin' wry about that. The smell is quite similar to Pennsylvanian hick, actually. You'd think, you know, different States, different hicks, different smells. But hick pretty much smells the same all over I guess. The one exciting thing I did was take a drive down to Waco, Texas. There really wasn't much there though. I got a coffee. Turned around came back.
So I spent the little free time I've had this week at the movie theater just a few blocks up from where I'm staying. I saw The Dark Knight. Twice. I think it's the best superhero movie yet. In fact, it might be a work of film art. Heath Ledger of course was amazing, but even more amazingly, he didn't entirely steal the show. (Though his performance should make Jack Nicholson feel ashamed of his inadequacy as an actor) Everything in the movie was absolutely perfect. The worst that can be said about it is that some of the action was so busy and parts of the plot so byzantine, that if you weren't paying attention, you may have to watch it a second time. But what I really love about it is that it is an ensemble piece... Batman didn't get any more screen time than anyone else, and the most pivotal role in the movie didn't really even belong to him, and it was still exciting as hell. (I'd say the most pivotal role was Aaron Eckhart's, whom I was glad to see in such a good role. Been a fan of his since In The Company Of Men.) Christopher Nolan gave all of his characters an important piece of the story, and allowed all of them a chance to play themselves out. It's the first superhero movie I've seen that can correctly have the adjective "epic" be applied to it.
Anyway, sorry. I know that nobody comes here to read pop film reviews. I'm just indulging myself in a gush. And, you know, I've got nothing else to talk about, yet my habits dictate that after being away on a work trip, I must post about it. So, movies I saw in Arlington, Texas is my theme. Hancock. Stupid. REALLY stupid. It started off fairly intriguing. But it was like the screenwriter or director or whoever had had a neat idea for a superhero movie, got partway through the script, but then realized that he didn't have an actual creative bone in his body nor had he ever actually read a comic book, and pulled something stupid out of his butt and plopped it in the theater. X-Files. Yeah. Not actually a bad movie... if Mulder and Scully were supposed to be characters in a mature adult romantic detective novel. It was more Moonlighting, the later years, than X-Files. And really, after waiting like 10 years after the end of the series to make a movie, you'd think that X-Files fans would deserve some answers, or at least more plot development on the Alien theme. But, nope. Chris Carter doesn't think so. Wanker.
MILD SPOILER ALERTS THIS PARAGRAPH:
But the most disturbing thing about all three of these movies was the children. None of these movies were appropriate for very young children. There were 4 year olds, infants even, that parents had brought to the theater. Severed arms, Hancock shoves a guy's head up another man's butt, horrifically scarred man holds a young boy hostage... all kinds of potentially scarring moments on a young person's psyche. Plus, young kids are noisy and it's just rude to the other moviegoers. I mean, what are parents thinking? This kind of stuff can scare the crap out of kids in their dreams for years. I speak from experience... I inadvertently saw a Monty Python sketch one time on TV when I was very young which gave me the screaming willies for years. Monty Python. Imagine what seeing a psychopathic clown put someone's eye out with a pencil would've done. There was a preview for a horror movie... there were some pretty horrific images loud and proud on the screen. Blood, disfigurement, bizarre imagery... you know the kind of thing pop horror fans are into these days. There was a very young boy nearby, staring in horrified awe, and his father was laughing his ass off. Laughing at mutilation. What the F*** is wrong with people?
You're about 3 hours from Austin, right?
Hmm.
Posted by: Harry Knowles | Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 13:18
Yeah, and I really want to go to Austin too. Actually it's about a 4 hour drive from here, so I'm told. But unfortunately this isn't one of those jobs where I can go gallivanting around like I usually do... I have to be close to the hotel at all times on this one in case the students need anything. Sometime my job really gets in the way, lemme tell ya.
That Waco thing was a fluke... I actually had a work-related reason to go there, but the details are dull and unnecessary.
Posted by: messiestobjects | Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 13:55
I think my greatest interest in seeking Dark Night is to witness the vast difference between Ledger and Nicholson.
Except that I'm not a big Batman fan. I have good Bat Ears and strategically place "holy" in front of a lot of my words, but it ends there for me.
Posted by: Sissy | Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 13:53
I didn't mean to say, "seeking." In fact, I didn't mean to say of that.
Pretend I'm not here.
Posted by: Sissy | Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 13:55
Hmmm Sissy... Freudian slip? Perhaps you truly are seeking the long Dark Night (of the soul), and your desire to see The Dark Knight is a way to chase that dragon.
Hee hee.
But seriously, nice to see you again. Where you been hiding? And, Heath Ledger kicks Jack Nicholson's no-talent hack ass. Well ok, it's not that Jack is untalented. He's done some great things in his time. But he suffers from that thing that happens to old Hollywood standbys... they get overconfident in their awesomeness and become boring, standard, same-character-in-everything-they-do actors. An example of an actor who is old but that this has not happened to is Gary Oldman. Seriously, bet people forgot that Commissioner Gordon was also Sirius Black and Sid Vicious. And that weird plastic-head badguy in The Fifth Element. And one of Hamlet's versions of Bill & Ted; Rosencrantz. Or Guildenstern. Still got a lot of versatility, that guy. Very unlike Jack.
Posted by: messiestobjects | Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 10:27
I think some actors are just waiting for celebrity status so they can hang it up and focus on doing lots of drugs and having sex, which was the real reason they got into the business.
Posted by: Miss Luongo | Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 11:52
Very good point. I totally agree. If your goal is to be a great actor and you've got the talent, you can be a great actor by constantly trying to do something new. Like Alec Guiness, John Gielgud or Gary Oldman. If your goal is to be famous, you tend to hang up the skills in favor of the party, rest on your laurels, and be the same guy over and over again. Which is easy in Hollywood because Americans seem to like the same sorts of movies over and over again.
Posted by: messiestobjects | Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 15:25
"I think some actors are just waiting for celebrity status so they can hang it up and focus on doing lots of drugs and having sex..."
Is there any other reason?
Julie, you hit the head on the nail. There are two Hollywood species.
Posted by: Sissy | Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 16:37