mtpolitics.net

Back, and Some Mini-Reviews

You’ve probably been wondering what I’ve been up to on my hiatus.

Or maybe not.

The short answer is: not much, other than life-type stuff. Couple that with a pretty good case of the blahgs, and voila, no content!

We did watch a few movies, though, which is pretty rare for us, so I’ll give you a brief review of some of the ones we’ve seen (or re-seen).

I watched Star Wars I and II (The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones).

Jake Lloyd can be forgiven his performance in I, since he was just a kid. Hayden Christensen, on the other hand, plays like a Hamlet wannabe on ‘Ludes. Sheesh. Plus, it really bothered me that the Lars family (who eventually raise Luke Skywalker) lose his mother, and no one can find her for a month, but ol’ Annie just drives right out there, finds her then slaughters a whole camp of Tuscan Raiders. In the meantime, it doesn’t seem to bother Padme one little bit when he tells her about it. “Oh, so you just slaughtered a whole encampment. There, there now.” Will I be watching III, “Revenge of the Sith?” You bet your ass. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice, and I won’t go see VII, and I mean it this time.

In that same vein, I also watched the Mel Brooks classic, “Spaceballs.” It has that whole “1987″ vibe to it, but it’s still pretty damn funny. John Candy: “I’m a Mog. I’m half man, half dog. I’m my own best friend!” There’s so many good lines in that movie. “What’s your name gunner?” “Major Asshole.” “Who else here is an Asshole.” “I’m surrounded by Assholes.” “He jammed our radar.” It just goes on and on. I think it’s one of Brooks’ best, right behind Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.

I also popped in “The Hunt for Red October.” While it’s true that Alec Baldwin may be the King of the Barking Moonbats, he’s also a pretty fair actor, and does a decent Sean Connery impression. “Careful, Ryan, most things in here don’t react to bullets. Yeah, like me. I don’t react well to bullets.” Even though the Cold War is ancient history, this is still a pretty damn good flick. I’ve always liked the effect when at the beginning of the film when all the Russians are speaking in Russian, then Captain Ramius meets the zampolit in his quarters, and the zampolit is quoting from some writings, and the camera zooms in slowly, until he says the word “Armageddon” in Russian. Then a pause, and the camera zooms out, and everything is in English. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought it was a clever transition.

Spider-Man 2. This was a great movie, and even better than the first, I thought. The action stuff was good, but it was a pretty good character study as Peter Parker tried to shed Spider-Man and do things on his own. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t shirk the “responsibility” of being Spider-Man. The theme, while it’s heavily played, really doesn’t come across as a high-handed morality play. It’s really well-done, and I highly recommend this film. The kids will love it, even if they don’t necessarily get it.

Speaking of sequels, have you caught “Shrek 2?” I hate to use blog clichés, but this is the Best. Sequel. Evar. Seriously. This is one of those movies that works on two levels. The kids like it, because it’s a silly story on the face, but there are tons of silly in-jokes and subtle adult humor that the adults can stick with it. Antonio Banderas as Puss ‘n’ Boots takes the cake. The adults will catch the cat cleaning himself when Princess Fiona is looking for Shrek, but the kids will miss the joke entirely. Go rent this one now. Actually, you’d probably better just buy it.

There’s one more I want to review, but it merits its own post, which will be coming along directly.