Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

By the time this movie came out I had only read The Hobbit. I was looking forward to this movie and from the buzz it sounded like it would be a decent substitution for the book.

Not being a fan of his I was a little skeptical of Elijah Wood being cast as Frodo Baggins. Other things that I was looking forward to were how badly the "tricks" would be to make the Hobbits short while still being around all of the normally sized people. Also, how much worse would it get with the very tall John Rhys-Davies being cast as Gimli the Dwarf.

To say I was pleasantly surprised is a vast understatement. The camera tricks were mostly indistinguisable. The story and script were highly compelling. The scenery was "all of that". Of particular interest were two actors for whom this movie jumped started their careers: Orlando Bloom (as Legolas) and Viggo Mortensen (as Aragorn). These two were very good. Also fairly notable were Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee and Christopher Lee as Saruman the White.

The strongest performance was turned in by veteran Ian McKellen who played the mysterious, tempermental and patient Gandalf the Grey. Not only was he able to put forward the seemingly conflicting characteristics I just mentioned, but he was well cast as he looked like the Gandalf I had pictured while reading The Hobbit.

By the time I finally read the books I realized a few things about the movie. First, what was in the movie was pretty religious in its following of the book. Obviously some liberties were taken but they were not terribly huge and they did not alter the story much.

Second, the pace of the movie was much faster than the book. This is because Tolkein was a fairly verbose man. Many descriptives and background passages were given in the book that sometimes read as slowly and cumbersome as Genesis in the Bible. Fortunately Peter Jackson did not maintain an allegiance to the book's pace.

Finally, I had unreasonable expectations of how much of the book would be in the movie (or the extended version on DVD). There were many, many scenes left out of the movie that gave some good background, were very interesting or very fun. As it turns out some of these scenes from the book helped a lot of the understanding of scenes in the movie.

Overall this movie was worth all of the Oscars that the third movie eventually won. It was very well put together all around. I watched this movie a few times on the big screen and would watch it a few more if it were possible.

Grade: A+

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

I still had not read the books by the time I saw this movie. I had heard some buzz that this movie strayed quite a bit from the books.

Again all of the various aspects of filmmaking were solid. There were a few instances where the CG effects were a little lacking, but overall the movie was solid.

All of the acting again was very good. The diminishing tension coupled with the growing bond between Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) and Legolas (Orlando Bloom) was interesting to watch. The face off between Gandalf the White (Ian McKellen) and Saruman (Christopher Lee) over control of King Theoden (Bernard Hill) was also interesting. The motivation for Wormtongue's (Brad Dourif) actions implied seemed a bit out of place (his supposed lust for and promise of ownership of Eowyn (Miranda Otto)).

The battle scenes were incredibly long and drawn out. The anticipation of the big battle at Helm's Deep was also long. When I left the theatre I felt that was the biggest problem with the movie.

I read the trilogy between the theatrical release and the DVD release and changed my opinion on a few things.

The aforementioned observations about Helm's Deep were that long in the book...and in the book it created an intense amout of tension. The things that seemed out of place such as the attack by the wolves and Wormtongue's motivation were not in the book.

The confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman was much more tolerable knowing the background in the book...though that slowed the book down.

The most disappointing thing to me after reading the book was finding out that Faramir (David Wenham) was (a) not tempted by the ring at all in the book, (b) had a very lengthy and important dialogue with Frodo (Elijah Wood) that helped him, Frodo and the story immensely, (c) was highly intelligent and had incredible deductive reasoning skills that was a thrill to read.
The highlight of the movie (beyond the quality) was Gollum (Andy Serkis). Gollum was everything that Jar-Jar Binks can never be: entertaining, intriguing and a delight to have on the screen.

Grade: A

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

For all of the long drawn out battles and many endings the things that were missing were to me more important. The way Faramir (David Wenham) and Eowyn (Miranda Otto) meet, the way Faramir convinces Eowyn that there is more to life than preparing for death, and the way they fall in love were all worthy of mention. Sadly all that came of that was a quick hint that they were together (not even clear if they married like in the book).

The Scouring of the Shire to some fans of the LotR was sorely missed. Its absence was understandable, though. It would have taken far too long too set up and added an unreasonable amount of time to yet another ending of the movie.

Because of that omission Saruman's (Christopher Lee) demise had to be rewritten. He no longer was relevant except for possibly a 1/2 second shot of him throwing the Palantir at the fellowship outside of the flooded Isengard. Instead the Palantir was simply found and Saruman was not in the final movie (a point of new tension between Christopher Lee and Peter Jackson which led Lee to skip any publicity appearances for the final movie.)

The battle scenes were loooonnngg...but that is what they were in the book. There was a good reason for that also. These are the culminating battles between evil and good in the war for the absolute demise of one or the other. The scenes were well done, well organized and as easy to follow as the book.

Again gollum was fun to watch.

For all of the things that would normall annoy me this movie made them fit and the books also made them fit well into the movie. Like the other movies this one was visually pleasing. The battle scenes were visually awesome. The scenery was also awesome. The photography, the sound, the editing...and on and on.

This movie deserved all of the Oscars it won.
Grade: A+

Secret Window

Once again Johnny Depp is asked to rescue a horrible movie. His ability to carry index.blog?entry_id=220094">Pirates of the Carribean from rotten to royalty did not carry over to this adaptation of a Stephen King story. Depp was able to take Pirates from horrible to awesome. Depp could only bring this one from horribly horrid to just horrible.

Depp's performance was good but the supporting cast was terribly unmemorable. John Turturro was terrible and Charles Dutton was mediocre (maybe he should watch his roke in Rudy to get inspired).

The main thing in the movie was Tuturro was accussing Depp of plagairising a short story called Secret Window. The story developed quickly and it seemed like we were supposed to become concerned, scared or something. Those feeling were just never brought out.

Without giving away too much of the movie I will say that it is ironic that this story is about plagairism while the ending for some reason made me think I was watching Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Tyler Durden and Tyler Durden. The only difference really was where the girl in (index.blog?entry_id=452941">Fight Club) up compared to the girl (Maria Bello in this movie.

This movie was beyond horrible and Depp could not rescue it. This gets a bump in grade because Depp was so strong.

Grade: D

Starsky & Hutch

I like watching Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller so I was excited about this movie. A 'how did they meet story' based on the show from the 1970s. I expected it to be funny, but I had no expectations for it as a story.

So as the movie developed I was somewhat pleased that there was a bit of a story. I was even somewhat please with Snoop Dogg's performance as Huggy Bear.

The movie itself was not too bad, the comedy was entertaining (I laughed hard often). Even some of the sub-plots of the initial animosity of Starsky towards Hutch was decent.

One part I enjoyed a lot was when Wilson & Stiller ran into the original Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) & Hutch (David Soul).

After watching this movie I am actually curious about watching some of the original shows. How long before those show up on Nick at Nite?

I would not mind watching this one a few more times...though I would not expect the jokes to be everlastingly funny).

Grade: B-

Butterfly Effect

What a great concept. I was very excited to see this movie that was based on the Chaos Theory. Though I was a bit concerned about Ashton Kutcher possibly ruining the movie. I mean, he is the weakest link on That 70's Show and it was not until he started to date Demi Moore that he landed roles (8 movies in 3 years since dating, 4 movies in 4 years prior).

As it turns out Kutcher was the strong point in the acting. Ironically the weakest point was another actor playing the same (but younger) character as Kutcher. That actor was 12 year old actor Logan Lerman. He was not alone on the long list of bad acting.

The most difficult assignment in my view was Amy Smart who played the many different dimensions of Kayleigh Miller. Her task was difficult...from Kayleigh as a happy, in-love soroity girl to a miserable, wretched hooker...she had the opportunity to shine as an actress with great range. She instead was marginal. Amy needs to stick to bit roles in comedies like Starsky & Hutch or bad movies like Varsity Blues.

The special effects were good, especially considering the very low budget. The story was well written though I was horribly disappointed with the ending. There so much potential for a wide range of endings, but we watched a moderately happy ending...something that this film did not seem to beg for. Instead it had hints of endings that were ironic or tragic. Had this ended with Kutcher in the asylum without his journals I would have been really satisfied with the movie. Maybe even showing that he was tied down and Lenny (Elden Hensen) in an exact reversal from an earlier scene.

My first thought after the movie was over was that a great ending would have been for Kutcher to have been "caught" half-in and half-out of his transportation while watching movies thus rendering him permanently in a half-and-half state...his punishment for ignoring his father's warnings.

When the film was over I was very disappointed and left wanting better resolution. I had finally been able to get over the laundry list of horrible actors and was not bored with the special effcts. But I felt ripped off.

Grade: C

Super Size Me

Morgan Spurlock created this documentary as a commentary about obesity in the United States. He does this by eating only McDonald's for 30 days. He lines up a few physicians to help him with his experiment. Morgan then attempts to document his display of how unhealthy and toxic fast food is. It was entertaining and had glimmers of information. However, he presented his little experiment's results as being proof of the extreme harm of fast food.

The fact is that he did a few things in his methodology that are highly questionable and lead to exagerated results. (And I am someone who eats often at McDonald's.)

One, what exactly did he eat day in and day out? Did he intentionally eat the worst of everything? Shakes seemed to be an overly regular item in his diet. Look at the Big Mac lover.

Two, his level of sickness through his blood work may also have been a result of toxic shock in essence. He went from a highly health conscious diet to immediately binging on McD's. The body does not take that kind of drastic change well at all regardless of what the change is. My own blood work does not come anywhere close to those numbers in the movie. I'm not saying they are wrong, I'm saying that he shocked his body and it rebelled.

Three, he went from staying actively in shape to doing nothing. Again, the body does not react well to immediate changes. This is the same concept that runners use when they carbo-load. The body overreacts to drastic changes. Anyone who lives in places like Minnesota, North Dakota or other states that have drastic weather changes also understand this. When the temps change quickly the body does not accept those changes easily, but when the change is gradual the body can adapt. Morgan shocked his body in a number of ways thus compounding any results AND ruining the validity of his evidence. The result is almost shocking.

What I did learn is that Morgan is a drama queen, his girlfriend is a "granola" vegan chef (ick) and that expose documentaries are getting worse by the year. For entertainment this was a decent flick. But, since it calls itself a documentary it has to be downgraded.

Grade: C