Sunday, November 28, 2004
Still kickin'
I am somewhat touched to see that even during a horribly long absence, my four dedicated readers continue to check this page daily. Thank you, sirs. And madams, as the case may be, though I doubt it.
Went home Tuesday and spent the weekend in Virginia. Very nice, as always.
Movies: National Treasure is very so-so. Hard to recall the last time I saw such a purely mediocre movie. It has puzzles, but not good ones; suspense, but not breathtaking suspense; and action, but not very frenetic. The characters are cookie-cutter and uninvolving (when they're not actively annoying, vis the young hackerish dude who has little to do but stand around and say dumb things in a way that may endear him to two or three Gen-Y'ers). The puzzles are solved practically the moment they're introduced; the audience never gets a chance to chew over any of them and try to bring their own analytical skill to bear -- everything about each successive clue to the location of the treasure is neatly (and correctly) explained within moments of its discovery. The clues come, and are dispensed with, with a chugging regularity that quickly becomes tedious; can't they just get to the treasure already? And there are no red herrings, no dead ends that aren't immediately blown away by the awesome deductive ability and preternatural historical knowledge of Nic Cage's protagonist. Cage himself seems to be phoning his performance in; there's no hint of the barely-leashed maniacal energy, the sense of fun that made Con Air or The Rock such a hoot to watch.
The action scenes are unremarkable retreads. I actually found myself longing for Michael Bay; the movie may have been half as intelligent as it is (and as it is, it's no flick for brainiacs), but at least Bay would have been throwing Army tanks at us, or dropping passenger aircraft around the heroes while they dodged machinegun fire. Nothing original, nothing inspired, but at least way over the top. As underdone as the "puzzles" part of the movie is, it cries out for furious, non-stop action; but that cry goes not only unanswered but wholly unnoticed by Jon Turtletaub.
I thought it was going to be like Raiders of the Lost Ark, and it sort of is. It's like the first five minutes of Raiders, before anything exciting happens, stretched out over two hours.
SPOILER: The treasure, when found, turns out to contain, among other things, "scrolls from the library of Alexandria" -- a treasure ripped from the Clive Cussler novel Treasure. Come on, people.
The Incredibles, meanwhile, which I saw for the second time this weekend, is still wonderful. Give this movie your money.
HALF-LIFE 2. Good sweet grief... has there ever been a better action game?
Nope.
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Went home Tuesday and spent the weekend in Virginia. Very nice, as always.
Movies: National Treasure is very so-so. Hard to recall the last time I saw such a purely mediocre movie. It has puzzles, but not good ones; suspense, but not breathtaking suspense; and action, but not very frenetic. The characters are cookie-cutter and uninvolving (when they're not actively annoying, vis the young hackerish dude who has little to do but stand around and say dumb things in a way that may endear him to two or three Gen-Y'ers). The puzzles are solved practically the moment they're introduced; the audience never gets a chance to chew over any of them and try to bring their own analytical skill to bear -- everything about each successive clue to the location of the treasure is neatly (and correctly) explained within moments of its discovery. The clues come, and are dispensed with, with a chugging regularity that quickly becomes tedious; can't they just get to the treasure already? And there are no red herrings, no dead ends that aren't immediately blown away by the awesome deductive ability and preternatural historical knowledge of Nic Cage's protagonist. Cage himself seems to be phoning his performance in; there's no hint of the barely-leashed maniacal energy, the sense of fun that made Con Air or The Rock such a hoot to watch.
The action scenes are unremarkable retreads. I actually found myself longing for Michael Bay; the movie may have been half as intelligent as it is (and as it is, it's no flick for brainiacs), but at least Bay would have been throwing Army tanks at us, or dropping passenger aircraft around the heroes while they dodged machinegun fire. Nothing original, nothing inspired, but at least way over the top. As underdone as the "puzzles" part of the movie is, it cries out for furious, non-stop action; but that cry goes not only unanswered but wholly unnoticed by Jon Turtletaub.
I thought it was going to be like Raiders of the Lost Ark, and it sort of is. It's like the first five minutes of Raiders, before anything exciting happens, stretched out over two hours.
SPOILER: The treasure, when found, turns out to contain, among other things, "scrolls from the library of Alexandria" -- a treasure ripped from the Clive Cussler novel Treasure. Come on, people.
The Incredibles, meanwhile, which I saw for the second time this weekend, is still wonderful. Give this movie your money.
HALF-LIFE 2. Good sweet grief... has there ever been a better action game?
Nope.
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