Sunday rolled around and I basically sulked in front of the telly the whole day. I woke up groggily but a charming movie kept me up while channel surfing, '
Little Manhattan' on Star Movies. It was about young love in the Big Apple. Small fry kid falls for his karate-mate crush and expresses his love through the cutest of things like a stroll in Central Park, holding hands, and stolen kisses. It was wonderful seeing how a 10 and 11 year old can have something beautiful and so seemingly mature as love.
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Hours wasted on watching pool later, and I was in for a treat as I caught 3 freakin' movies on TV before I slept. First, I re-watched '
Star Wars : A New Hope' on Star Movies and it's still more awesome than any of the prequels despite the dated effects. Harrison Ford out-acted the whole Episode 1-3 cast by himself. I noticed some of the changes they made on the special edition that I got from a site, such as:
Han speaks to a fully CGI-Jabba the Hutt and not some lame fat guy (good)- Han shot Greedo and Lucas made it seem Greedo fired first (lame)
- Han and Chewie chase a bunch of Stormtroopers down a hallway only to run into a room full of 'troopers instead of the original group of 'troopers simply realizing 'why the hell are we running away' and chase Han and Chewie instead (lame)
- Stormtrooper bumps his head (hard) going into a room. They say they even put a bloopery 'thud' in there, but I couldn't hear it. Still, I'm glad it's in.... (good)
- Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi have the absolute lamest old fogie lightsaber duel of all time (still lame)
Oh, and yes, I know that shot of
Leia's metal bikini is from Return of the Jedi. There's never an excuse needed for gratuitous female bikini shots! Especially considering how un-hot Carrie Fisher is now, haha.
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Anyway, after my nostalgia trip, I was about to hit the sack when 2 movies I was interested in simultaneously aired: 'Pleasantville' on 2nd Avenue and 'Lady in the Water' on HBO. The latter I've only seen half of so I finally seized the chance to finish it.
I remember watching
Pleasantville a long time ago as a wee kid and it still has that same charm as before. Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon proved they were future stars, and lo behold, they did become just that. Being stuck in a cookie-cutter world of black and white and adding the color and humanity to it was wonderful. It's 'Back to the Future' meets 'The Truman Show' but with more visual panaché. In fact, now that I've actually seen post-production work first-hand in my job, I can appreciate what must've been a mind-blowing roto work of 'cutting out' the colored objects / people amidst the B&W environment FRAME by grueling FRAME. A wonderfully crafted and beautiful pic from near a decade ago. Plus, I still enjoy Fiona Apple's version of 'Across the Universe' to this day.
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Now, amidst the channel-flipping,
Lady in the Water was actually the movie I was more focused on. I have no idea what the general consensus on the flick is, but I don't care, I liked it. The slow pacing, the colorful characters, the fine acting by Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard... It's all good. The twist isn't really in the end like most M. Night movies (sorry, I'm not even going to ATTEMPT to spell his last name), but it was alright for a change. I really love the unconventional camera techniques like when a character's speaking, you only see the back of their head or their feet or something, they way the eagle swooped in with the camera in the choppy water... it all really added to the atmosphere of the movie. I love how Bryce makes you fall in love and care about protecting Story. Oh, and there's a Micah Sanders spotting here as the interpreter to boot! And Freddie Rodriguez as a throw-away moron who works out only the right side of his body! All of the above made me forgive that damn Shyamalan (egad, I've spelled it!) hogging up screentime with his (significant) supporting role and just being and indulgent prick, haha.
Film Rating: Which reminds me, I really have to catch his 'other' Bruce Willis movie, 'Unbreakable'. It's got Sam Jackson and it's about comics. Why the heck haven't I seen this movie yet?!
Anyway, it's getting pretty long now... 'till next time kiddos.
