Sunday, February 04, 2007
Colts? Bears? Go Lions!
So, ignoring the fact that today is Superbowl Sunday (sorry Dustin) i felt it better to spend some syllables on the pair of movies that we saw this weekend: Casino Royale and Idoicracy.
We finally found an evening free in which we remembered we wanted to see this, the newest of the Bond franchise, and it had finally made it to the dollar theatre in town. In a word, this was a very fun movie, and as Bond films go, near the top.
They can play with time and continuity however they want with these movies, and this was plainly apparent as the movie begins. You see that James is very early in his career, in fact, he only becomes a 00 agent in the first five minutes of the movie. Also, he is now blond with blue eyes. Also, even though this takes place before seemingly every other Bond movie made, it is certainly placed in the year 2006. I think that these facts upset the true Bond fanboys, but, i enjoyed the fact that the movie basically said: Daniel Craig is going to be incredible, and we don't care about his hair color, and also, if we set this back in the 50's, we couldn't have nearly as much fun with technology and toys.
Well, that's fine. As long as they use the setup for good -- and they do. The opening signatory chase scene this time around is a footrace with Bond chasing a guy who is freerunning, and it's flat out sweet. (In fact, the baddie that James is chasing is a guy named Sebastien Foucan, the founder of freerunning.) Overall, the film is nothing out of the tradition of it's previous iterations, but quite fun none the less. Craig is great as a slightly younger, even more brash Bond, and you leave the theater wanting to be an international spy and learn kung fu.
And then, the second movie of the weekend was a rental, the much anticipated (by us, at least) Idiocracy. Made by Mike Judge, the creator of Office Space (and a few other comedic gems) this was released this summer with absolutely no acclaim whatsoever. In fact, the only reason it got any press at all is because of the amount of money that 20th Century Fox spent making it, and then spent absolutely NO money promoting it. It was initially supposed to be released in September, and in July Fox annouced it was going to be put on hold. The film was released anyways, but only as a very limited release, and no trailers, tv spots of press kits were sent out in preparation of the film.
Most theories about the reasons behind such a boycott of heralding the film roam around the anti-corporation nature of the dystopian future tale. The plot is fairly simple: A man (Luke Wilson) and a woman (Maya Rudolph) are frozen by the army in an experiment to suspend their lives. Of course, something goes awry, and they fail to wake until it is 500 years into the future, and they are now the smartest people in the world. Our favorite scene in the movie is the opening, where the narrator explains how such a future could come about: Only the stupid people are breeding. While the folks with high IQs are really waiting to have children, and planning it out, Billy Bob already has 6 of his own at age 32, and a few more with the neighbors. Mutliply this by 500 years, and, well, Costco's have become the size of small cities, water has been replaced by the soft drink Brawndo (including all drinking fountains and irrigation systems for crop growth) and the president is a four time wrestling champ and porn star.
It's basically like the world is run by the immediate needs and desires of 14 year olds.
The movie is entertaining, and really funny at times, but overall was kind of a disappointment. We decided that we loved the setup for the story more than the actual execution itself, but i do get the feeling that it will have the chance to become another movie to gain a big cult following. (Which it'll have to, seeing as how no one saw it in the theaters.) Most of the true comedy is found in the margins of the movie, as the center of the film is based on sight gags, physical comedy, and a climactic action scene with giant phallic monster trucks, one driven by the driver named 'Beef Supreme'.
We turned the movie off and truly thought about the state of our society, and what this caricature of such extremes and improbable future was really telling us. The TV was then turned to a home video's show, where we were treated to more than ten straight minutes of people jumping jet ski's onto their lawn, heavy things dropping on people's head and baseballs vectoring in on any number of crotches.
It was then we could do nothing but sit back, close your eyes, and hope for death. Because the future that is Idiocracy is really already here.
In other news, though, I have an interview with a large international Civil/Environmental consulting firm on Monday, and it sounds like this may be where i will be ending up. More news for sure in the coming days.
Go Lions!
We finally found an evening free in which we remembered we wanted to see this, the newest of the Bond franchise, and it had finally made it to the dollar theatre in town. In a word, this was a very fun movie, and as Bond films go, near the top.They can play with time and continuity however they want with these movies, and this was plainly apparent as the movie begins. You see that James is very early in his career, in fact, he only becomes a 00 agent in the first five minutes of the movie. Also, he is now blond with blue eyes. Also, even though this takes place before seemingly every other Bond movie made, it is certainly placed in the year 2006. I think that these facts upset the true Bond fanboys, but, i enjoyed the fact that the movie basically said: Daniel Craig is going to be incredible, and we don't care about his hair color, and also, if we set this back in the 50's, we couldn't have nearly as much fun with technology and toys.
Well, that's fine. As long as they use the setup for good -- and they do. The opening signatory chase scene this time around is a footrace with Bond chasing a guy who is freerunning, and it's flat out sweet. (In fact, the baddie that James is chasing is a guy named Sebastien Foucan, the founder of freerunning.) Overall, the film is nothing out of the tradition of it's previous iterations, but quite fun none the less. Craig is great as a slightly younger, even more brash Bond, and you leave the theater wanting to be an international spy and learn kung fu.
And then, the second movie of the weekend was a rental, the much anticipated (by us, at least) Idiocracy. Made by Mike Judge, the creator of Office Space (and a few other comedic gems) this was released this summer with absolutely no acclaim whatsoever. In fact, the only reason it got any press at all is because of the amount of money that 20th Century Fox spent making it, and then spent absolutely NO money promoting it. It was initially supposed to be released in September, and in July Fox annouced it was going to be put on hold. The film was released anyways, but only as a very limited release, and no trailers, tv spots of press kits were sent out in preparation of the film. Most theories about the reasons behind such a boycott of heralding the film roam around the anti-corporation nature of the dystopian future tale. The plot is fairly simple: A man (Luke Wilson) and a woman (Maya Rudolph) are frozen by the army in an experiment to suspend their lives. Of course, something goes awry, and they fail to wake until it is 500 years into the future, and they are now the smartest people in the world. Our favorite scene in the movie is the opening, where the narrator explains how such a future could come about: Only the stupid people are breeding. While the folks with high IQs are really waiting to have children, and planning it out, Billy Bob already has 6 of his own at age 32, and a few more with the neighbors. Mutliply this by 500 years, and, well, Costco's have become the size of small cities, water has been replaced by the soft drink Brawndo (including all drinking fountains and irrigation systems for crop growth) and the president is a four time wrestling champ and porn star.
It's basically like the world is run by the immediate needs and desires of 14 year olds.
The movie is entertaining, and really funny at times, but overall was kind of a disappointment. We decided that we loved the setup for the story more than the actual execution itself, but i do get the feeling that it will have the chance to become another movie to gain a big cult following. (Which it'll have to, seeing as how no one saw it in the theaters.) Most of the true comedy is found in the margins of the movie, as the center of the film is based on sight gags, physical comedy, and a climactic action scene with giant phallic monster trucks, one driven by the driver named 'Beef Supreme'.
We turned the movie off and truly thought about the state of our society, and what this caricature of such extremes and improbable future was really telling us. The TV was then turned to a home video's show, where we were treated to more than ten straight minutes of people jumping jet ski's onto their lawn, heavy things dropping on people's head and baseballs vectoring in on any number of crotches.
It was then we could do nothing but sit back, close your eyes, and hope for death. Because the future that is Idiocracy is really already here.
In other news, though, I have an interview with a large international Civil/Environmental consulting firm on Monday, and it sounds like this may be where i will be ending up. More news for sure in the coming days.
Go Lions!
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6 comments:
Good luck on Monday! And yes.... the chase scene at the beginning of Casino Royale was EXQUISITE. :)
Thanks! It seriously made me want to jump from my seat and run up a building.
my favorite part of the beginning chase scene was when the bad guy jumped through this small hole at the top of this piece of dry wall, and Bond just barrels through it like it was a piece of paper.
I refuse to root for the lions until the Ford's sell the franchise to Mike Illitch. Think about it, he has kept the Red Wings at the top of the NHL and look what he did with the Tigers. I mean seriously, screw the Ford's and their crappy GM Millen.
you know if you would read my blog once in a while you would have caught my warning about "Idiocracy" while I agree that the premise was solid and the advertisement jokes were quite good I couldn't get past the 8th grade dialogue. Usually, no matter how bad the movie is I will watch it all the way through to see how it ends but I had to watch this in installments because the writing and dialogue actually made me angry, I thought it was so bad. I'm sure I'll give it another try, maybe next time after a few drink. I expected more from Mike Judge though.
Good luck with the job search. We'll keep prayin for you.
Dwight, my apologies. I'm slowly re-creating the favorites list that i had at work as i remember them at home. Because i don't work.
But, i may as of next week. I had an interview today that went really well.
And thirdly, yes, the dialogue and plot was really quite dumb, but, there always seemed to be something just funny enough for me to continue watching it. But i'm sure beer would help. (Like the scene where Joe's trying to convince them to not use Gatorade to water the plants, and when reason fails he simply tells them that he can actually talk to plants and that they want water.)
congrats on the almost maybe new job! hopefully everything will come through. I'm sure Liz will be happy to get you out of the house.
Me Llamo Juan!
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