…I Am A Tree

Archive for the ‘Movies!’ Category

There’s an easy answer to this: No Nazis.

I’ve not blogged at all about the film since it came out a year and a half ago, which is surprising, considering how much I love the first and third movies. The second? Not so much. Why? See the first line above. 

Sure, I liked the Thuggee as villains, and was one of the few who knew who they were when I saw it in the theater waaaaay back in the day.  But the fact that there were no Nazis in Temple of Doom, well, doomed it. They’re the perfect villain for Indy, which was proven in the first film beyond the shadow of a doubt, and reiterated in Last Crusade when they got smart and brought them back.

Enough of the distant past, though — the same problem that was in Temple of Doom occurred again in Kingdom simply because the time-period was wrong. Sure, I enjoyed the Area 51 angle (and read it in a way-early draft under a NDA fourteen years ago when I was writing an Indy game book for West End Games), but Communists-who-used-to-be-Nazis just wasn’t the same as the pure, unadulterated villainy of 1930s and 40s Nazis.  There are some other reasons I wasn’t as thrilled with Kingdom, but that’s the first-and-foremost problem.

Yes, yes, Harrison isn’t getting younger and they needed to reflect that in the story, but they could have just done it all with a wink and a nod. People would buy that.

Marion’s return was good, too, and I liked the Rebel without a Cause that Shia Labeouf played as his son, but it has to be Nazis driving the story, George. If you’re really working on the story for Indy 5 as has been reported, please, remember this.

Now to story locations:

• Raiders: Central America, Africa/Mediterranean
• Temple of Doom: China, India
• Last Crusade: America, Europe, Africa
• Crystal Skull: America, Central/South America

So, if they want to hit new territory, perhaps something with Japan or Southeast Asia. Maybe an opening dig scene in Australia, or better yet, Ireland or Scotland.  You could have Nazis and Japanese enemies for the Pacific story.

Or…something to do with Alexander the Great. Bring the old Persian Empire into the mix. Yeah, I like that area…lots of history to plunder.

But Nazis, first.

And bring back Sallah, damn it.

This is one of the better mash-ups I’ve seen. Worth the five or so minutes spent watching it.

Via ***Dave.

One thing about summer around Casa De Butterfly y El Arbol is that we watch a lot of DVDs that get backed up on our NetFlix queues. Everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel to Monarch of the Glen and McLeod’s Daughters. Movies are all over the place, too, from Horrorfest movies (Borderland) to modern classics like The Kite Runner.

Let me preface the review by saying I’ve not read the book, and that after seeing the film, I’m not sure I want to — the movie was a near-perfect experience. And heartbreaking. I’m not sure I could handle reading some of the gut-wrenching scenes while riding the 6 to work in the morning. I will say that the movie, while not perfect, is as amazing a film as I’ve seen in some time.

I won’t bore you with plot details, as you can find those elsewhere. Rather, I want to talk about the casting, the acting, the direction,  and the cinematography. The actors playing the two boys were wonderful, completely pulling me into their stories. I think the boy playing Hassan was the better of the two, but that’s probably because his story was more compelling to me, especially with the denouement of his character toward the end. The adult Amir was excellent, too, bringing forward many of the qualities that the child actor had embodied.

The direction of the film was spectacular, keeping me very immersed in this tragic story spanning twenty two years. And the cinematography? Wow. Especially the kite flying scenes. Even though it wasn’t actually filmed in Afghanistan for the 1978-1979 scenes, I felt like I was looking at a documentary of how life was before the Mullahs, before the Soviets. Afghanistan was fighting to become modern, you can see that in the opening of the movie. Then the Soviets came and deforested the country, and we supported what became the Taliban.

There are scenes later in the film that take place in Kabul, circa 2000, that are a struggle to watch. The brutality of the Taliban is on display and it simply makes you furious how we screwed the pooch in that country after the WTC attacks. But that’s another rant for another day.

My only complaint about the film is centered on the scenes taking place in 1988 or thereabouts. They felt slow-moving to me, but didn’t do more than perhaps knock half a star off my final review.

Bottom line: Watch this movie. It’s spectacular, and the last half hour or so of the movie had me in tears repeatedly. It is a celebration of life amidst the horrors of a brutal world.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

And I’ll whisper, “No…” -Rorschach, Watchmen

Oh, yeah……!

I cannot wait, originally uploaded by Kyrion.

’nuff said.