Month: January 2009

A couple of movies

Last night, I watched The Station Agent, which is really quite sweet and features a nice performance from Peter Dinklage. And then this afternoon, I watched The Lady in the Water, which is sort of stunning in its lousiness. I’ve genuinely enjoyed all of Shyamalan’s previous films — including the oft-maligned Signs and The Village — but I found almost nothing to like about this film. Thinly drawn caricatures, unconvincing and convoluted mythology, ponderous direction, giant leaps in logic and believability, terrible dialogue that drowns itself in heavy exposition, out-of-place comic relief, mediocre special effects — and all of it weighed down by Shyamalan’s ego and evident disdain for critics. If nothing else, the film is proof that a great actor can sometimes redeem even lousy material, but also that lousy material can undo even the greatest of actors. There are some bad performances here, mostly among the supporting players, and nobody comes out looking particularly good. But the blame rests squarely with its writer and director.

I’ve heard some very bad things about The Happening, his most recent follow-up. Do I dare tempt fate and watch that too?

Saturday various

  • Sci Fi Wire offers a list of reasons why 24 is actually science fiction. I’m reminded how, a few years back, I made a case that The West Wing was science fiction. It really was, you know.
  • Paula R. Stiles offers some interesting thoughts on taboos in speculative fiction:

    The other reason is that taboos change and not every theme that seems taboo now was taboo when such books came out. Some of the strongest taboos can come and go within a generation, while others simply mutate. For example, people now talk about homosexuality openly. In some circles, homophobia is what is now considered to be unacceptable. So now, something like Sturgeon’s groundbreaking “The World Well Lost” (1953) seems a bit repressed. The “tragic gay people” storyline isn’t exactly hyper-tolerant by today’s standards, but it was revolutionary in 1953 for showing sympathy toward homosexuality. Similarly, a lot of people have criticized Heinlein’s apparently pervy view of women while ignoring that when books like Stranger in a Strange Land came out, any open discussion of sex in speculative fiction was revolutionary.

  • I find the prospect of a 3-D episode of Chuck equally annoying and endearing. I think the show is having a genuinely very good season, improving over a fun but not overly remarkable first, so I can’t say for certain I won’t pick up the glasses if I see them, even if I won’t go out of my way to find them. Then again, 3-D can sometimes be ridiculously amusing when you’re not wearing the glasses. Maybe the technology has improved significantly since then — Roger Ebert doesn’t seem to think so — but the other day I caught several minutes of Jaws 3-D on HBO. Shots clearly designed to wow and amaze an audience — a harpoon flying into camera, for instance — just look silly. Then again, maybe that’s also the product of Jaws 3 being a pretty lousy movie. (The first Jaws, though, which I watched in full a couple of days before, is still damn good.)
  • I’m not sure I’m as disappointed in Battlestar Galactica as Jayme Lynn Blashcke, but I’ve also had serious issues with it, especially in its more recent seasons, and especially in its “Final Five” storyline. I think it’s given the actors involved some interesting things to do, but it makes almost no sense in terms of the story and has eclipsed practically everything else. BSG is basically just a show that I find very intense when I’m watching it, still find reasons to enjoy, but find it very difficult to build up any kind of enthusiasm towards, even when it’s airing week to week.
  • The Remnants — a terrific post-apocalyptic web comedy. Where else are you going to see Ernie Hudson, Justine Bateman, Enrico Colantoni, and Ze Frank in a comedy about what happens after the end of the world? It would be a real shame if no more episodes were made. [via]

Random 10 1/9

Last week. This week:

  1. “Mickey Mouse” by the Sparks
    Can you raise both your hands and clap ’em?
  2. “Somedays” by Paul McCartney, guessed by Kim
    Don’t ask me where I found that picture on the wall
  3. “Everybody Needs Somebody” by the Blues Brothers, guessed by Eric B.
    Signify your feelings with every gentle caress
  4. “We Can Work it Out” by the Beatles, guessed by Eric B.
    Run the risk of knowing that our love may soon be gone
  5. “Sacrificial Lambs” by Warren Zevon
    He’s sad but he don’t frown
  6. “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” by Johnny Cash, guessed by Rob
    But only twenty-seven lived to walk back down again
  7. “My Favorite Mistake” by Sheryl Crow, guessed by Kim
    It’s 6 a.m. and I’m alone
  8. “Let’s Get Together” by Jefferson Airplane (also Youngbloods), guessed by Eric B.
    We are but a moment’s sunlight fading in the grass
  9. “Wild Mountain Honey” by the Steve Miller Band, guessed by Kim
    You can only see the stars after a setting sun
  10. “Soda Jerk” by Buffalo Tom
    These people nauseate me

Good luck!