Electrophantasia

Have a few more movies to list, bringing me pretty much up to date for the last couple months.

Transsiberian (Blu-Ray)
This is a sort of mystery/thriller that takes place on the Trans-Siberian Express. I love this sort of stuff, so it’s no wonder I loved this movie. Trains are just plain fascinating, and the setting outside the train makes it even more so. Some have said the plot is confusing, but I got through it just fine. I tend to not ever get confused in movies. Probably a side effect of watching so much crap; my brain just starts to fill in the blanks itself after a while. In this case, though, I’d say any confusion is the fault of the viewer and not the film. Pick it up if you have any love for a bit of classic mystery.

Iron Man (Blu-Ray)
This is definitely one of my favorite superhero films. As a general rule, I’m not that big of a superhero fan. I’ll admit that even if it does damage to any nerd cred I have. Maybe I shouldn’t say that, because there are a few superheroes I do enjoy a lot. I think one of my problems has always been a super hero attitude. Many of them share a sort of superficial sense of justice, often accompanied by a severe amount of angst. The best thing I can say about Iron Man is that it manages to keep a sort of emotional depth with a very unconventional super hero character. I think the character and performance of Robert Downey Jr. makes this a movie everyone should see.

Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D (DVD)
In some ways I regret buying this movie. It’s actually rather mediocre. There are two main reasons I bought it. The first is that it (at the moment, anyway) offers a 3D version of the film and glasses to watch it with. This is the first movie I’ve ever viewed this way, and it might very well be my last. I’m not a huge fan of it, to be honest. Watching with those glasses on made me ill. The second reason was I got a free yo-yo with it at Wal-Mart, which I have since managed to break. It’s not a bad little movie, really. I just wish the home 3D experience was a little better. As a 3D movie with some cheezy fun, it excels. Without the 3D, it’s still a fairly entertaining B movie filled with decent CGI.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms & Them! Double Feature (DVD)
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is another Ray Harryhausen film, and a sci-fi classic. The acting is mostly not good, but the monster is one of my personal favorites. It’s definitely a somewhat silly and cheaply made movie, but it has a homemade charm to it. Thankfully, Harryhausen was able to work with better overall movies later on. This one still holds a special place in my heart despite all that, though. The other film, Them!, is one I haven’t even seen yet, so I can’t comment on it. I had the choice of buying The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms separately for more money, or the two of them together for less. No brainer, there. I’ll just add that I hear good things about Them! from others, and it is also a sci-fi classic.

Miracle on 34th Street (DVD)
This movie actually has a connection with the last one I mentioned. The actor who plays Alfred, the Macy’s janitor, also shows up early on in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms for a tiny role. The only reason I noticed him in that movie is because I’ve always been rather fond of his character in this one. Alfred isn’t a huge part of the movie, but I think he’s one of the little touches that makes it special. This movie is special. I would probably say that it’s my favorite Christmas movie, especially because it’s essentially about more than Christmas. I think this is an important point because Christmas should be about more than Christmas. I might have to write a bit more on it when Christmas actually rolls around. Oh, and stay away from the colorized version included with the DVD. Ish.

Krull (DVD)
Krull is a classic of our time. It’s just a fun, zany movie in that sword and sorcery genre that seems forever tied to the 80s. You have your barbarians, your magician, your flaming horses, your aliens, and a dozen other random things. What more do you want? Fine, I’ll throw in a weird throwing weapon that goes “boing” and a resolution that defies all logic. Just as it should be. I got it for like five dollars at Wal-Mart too.

Go forth and love movies.

So hey.  Yeah, the month of October was kind of a wash.  I’ve been busy, geeze.  To break out of my not-postingtude I’m just going to go over some of the movies I’ve recently acquired and briefly what I think of them.  This will probably cover about the last month and a half.  Remember, in all cases these are movies I chose to buy so for the most part they get pretty high recommendation from me.

Speed Racer (Blu-Ray)
Here is a movie that has been critically panned. I’m here to tell you that I at least think it’s pretty grand. It is a Speed Racer movie. At being that it is about as perfect and pure as I could have ever hoped. It’s been hard for me to place exactly why I find it so appealing, but part of it is just the raw joy and energy of it. Many people will tell you it’s all special effects and no substance, but the true heart of the movie lies in the excellently executed melodrama. Perhaps I use that word “melodrama” in my own particular way, but I mean nothing bad by it. We need those every once in a while. Perhaps the closest film of recent memory that I can lump in with Speed Racer is Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which was a much more successful film with the critics. Something that baffles me, because I thought it was much more of a mess than Speed Racer in many ways. Maybe creating ludicrous fantasy in an alternate dimension created entirely by computer went out of fashion in the last four years. (And don’t get me wrong, I quite liked Sky Captain.)

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (Blu-Ray)
I will make no mystery of the fact that I love the films of Ray Harryhausen. I grew up on them like many kids. Stop motion animation is a very distinctive art, and his movies have some of the best ever put to film. This is one of my personal favorites because it has such a high sense of adventure. It’s a hard thing to quantify in any real way. It’s just a classic kind of adventure film with some of the best execution ever achieved. The color photography is also impressive, especially considering it was the first time Harryhausen had ever worked with color. You’ll notice some blurriness introduced by the process, but for the most part the ancient techniques used still work today. Animation in general feels like somewhat of a dying art. Stop motion even more so, despite any recent attempts to revive it. I’d pick it up if you can; it’s a piece of history.

Sleeping Beauty (Blu-Ray)
This is probably my favorite of all the classic Disney films. Many people point out that it has problems, but so what? The backgrounds are astounding, the animation is stylish, and the music is classic. I’d definitely grab the Platinum Edition while you can, because it is pretty amazing. The restoration is practically pixel perfect. Just pause the movie at any point and your TV is a temporary painting. The special features are not too shabby either, and include a wonderful half-hour short called Grand Canyon, which contains some really artistic nature film. I’ll probably have to do a longer article on this sometime later.

Rodan & War of the Gargantuas (DVD)
The latest in an awesome series of Toho DVDs being put out by Classic Media. The people behind these discs are definitely fans of the material. The movies are classics of the Japanese giant monster genre, but perhaps the third unsung star of the set is the Godzilla documentary they put together. After having trouble getting licenses for Godzilla documentaries on the previous Godzilla DVD releases, they decided to film their own, and it is pretty spectacular. Great interviews with the people behind the scenes at Toho, including the three major suit actors for Godzilla who share some stories of working in that environment. The documentary clocks in at 70 minutes, and is probably worth the price of the DVD set in itself. The set isn’t very expensive, and definitely packs in the value.

Touch of Evil 50th Anniversary Edition (DVD)
Film noir by Orson Welles. It’s movies like this that make me feel sad that Welles got to direct so few movies in his life. This DVD edition is a particularly excellent presentation, too. It has lots of extras and includes three entire different versions of the film. Touch of Evil had some problems in the editing process, and Welles wrote a dissatisfied memo to Universal with improvements that could be made. The guidelines in the memo weren’t followed until very recently, and the main version of the film on this set incorporates the suggestions to the best of modern ability. Obviously nothing new could have been shot, and some of the original work had been lost. I watched it and never felt like it was pieced together, though. Indeed, I do think many of the changes were an improvement. Some of it is, funnily enough, quite similar to the editing issues that Blade Runner would have decades later. The set also comes with a replica of the memo Orson Welles sent, if you want to read it. I thought that was a particularly cool extra.

Stay tuned, more to come shortly.