Wisdom of the Sages Reviews
2011 Best of Stuff Lists
Well, here we are with another year winding down to its final countdown. Funny, that we still constantly celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of a new one as if getting through one is some great accomplishment.
Yet, realistically, all it is is just one day turning into another. Oh well. As with this time of year I put out what I think were the Top Ten things for the past year based on my own limited experience. Remember, the lists for Books and DVDs are not just limited to what came out this year, but what I acquired this year as well.
MUSIC
Well, it turns out I did not buy ANY new music this year. This year was a huge year of changes. First, Sammy Llanas of “The BoDeans” left the band, leaving them to tour and perform without him. But as I stated before, the BoDeans are simply not the BoDeans without Sammy.
Next, REM decided to call it quits. They have been a huge band in my life. Most of their output from “Document” to “Moster”, I can identify with some event or experience in my life during that time. Only U2 surpasses them with connections to moments in my life to their music. Well, U2, REM, the BoDeans and Robbie Robertson all have been my musical staple. No matter how much they had aged or how modern society counted them out, they always brought the goods with every album they released.
I can say I bought one album. The debut album from “Danielle Ate the Sandwich”. I caught her show in November of last year and to be a completist, bought her first album. But other than that, I have just not gotten around to getting new music or listening to the radio. Does anyone have suggestions for new music? Oh well, let’s get on with the rest of the lists.
Top Books of 2011
Invisible Natives by Jose Armando Prats – Getting to re-order this and use it for my class this fall provided me an opportunity to re-read it. It does hold with a lot of the ideas I have about Native Americans in Media that I tried to put forward in my class and those ideas can be applied to other arenas that Native Americans have a part in such as education, politics and economics. Fascinating read….
The Boy Who Loved Batman by Michael Uslan – I found this in Half Price Books for a great price so I bought it up. I have only gotten past the first chapter but am looking forward to reading this. I heard Michael Uslan speak at the very first C2E2 a couple of years ago. He has a very interesting story. I am looking forward to reading the rest and seeing what producing Batman movies was like….
Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow – I am a fan of the feature anime and had always though the character of Major Motoko Kusanagi one of the strongest female characters in movies. But I saw during the series Stand Alone Complex that they tried to make her Americanized, sort of a “butch” lesbian-type. (Because that sort of “non-normalcy” is the only way she could be strong as the male characters.) When I read the manga, the same characteristics were there. I was sort of letdown until I realized that the Dark Horse comics where an American translation. I had wanted to own the trade paperback ever since I saw the movie for the first time. The movie and the manga deal with ideals that make non-thinkers shut it off or close the book. I guess I’m just snobby that way but I really appreciate the ideas in the stories…. the idea of your spirit, your ghost, your very identity is always evolving….
Superman: The Sunday Classics 1939 – 1943: This was a thoughtful gift from my boss at the Kateri Center. I am not the biggest Superman fan, preferring Batman, but I do like the movies and seeing how Superman began way back in 1939 is pretty cool. He was kind of a chauvinist jerk to be honest, but it is cool to see the character evolve from a champion of the oppressed masses into the Fan Boys’ biggest man crush that he is today….
World War Z by Max Brooks: I first read this via the Skokie Library after hearing my friend Mike rave about it so I checked it out and was much surprised by the structure of the storytelling, done as a series of interviews after a worldwide zombie epidemic. I generally do not care for zombies; they are the most boring of horror creatures but Brooks’ solid storytelling, from the survivors’ point of view revealing some touching and horrid tales of survival. There is a movie adaptation coming out in 2012 with Brad Pitt that would have made my annual Most Expected List save for the fact that they changed the structure of the film, making into just another ZOMIES ATTACK movie. I’m sure the zombie fans want to see a huge Battle of Yonkers set piece with hordes of zombies and soldier running at each other in the midst of ‘splosions…. Still a great book that I finally bought this past year….
Three Kingdoms attributed to Luo Guanzhong – This will forever be a part of any favorites list for the rest of my life. I enjoy it that much. I read this a scant four times this past year and plan to re-read it again once the chance comes up. My All-Time Favorite Book. I will be buried with a copy….
A Pleasure to Burn by Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451 is probably one of my all-time favorite books. This was a very thoughtful birthday present from My Bonnie. A Pleasure to Burn has become my favorite of the year. It is full of short stories that serve as a precursor to Fahrenheit 451. They range from sci-fi to gothic horror, such as “The Reincarnate” about a man who awakens a few months after dying and pays a visit to his widow. The same theme runs through “The Pillar of Fire” where a man from the 1930’s reawakens in 2050’s. The common touchstone in the stories is the continual burning of books.
My favorite story is “Long After Midnight” about the fireman Montag going for a walk at night and meeting his next-door neighbor. This is one of the condensed stories that serve as a template to Bradbury’s great novel. There are multiple monologues in the stories, rants on society, if you will. But it was “Long after Midnight” where Bradbury virtually prognosticates our modern era. I had to put the book down and rest my face in my hands, it was so damning.
A part of me is happy that they haven’t made another movie of Fahrenheit 451. It would seem contrary to the message of the book, the compaction of the message leading to the laziness of intellect. Read the books instead. A Pleasure to Burn is a great read that I would recommend to anyone looking for a recommendation from me besides Three Kingdoms….
Top DVDs of 2011
15. The Road Warrior: I got this as a $3 Used Rental DVD at Half Price Books. Taking out of the case, noted that it had a crack on the Standard Format side but the Widescreen side seemed untouched. Popped it in and it worked fine. Then, I was transported once again by one of my favorite action movies of all time. Everyone knows The Road Warrior, the George Miller-directed, post-apocalyptic version of a “spaghetti western”….
14. The 13th Warrior: One of my favorite Antonio Banderas flicks (And there are many….) directed by the great action director John McTiernan (Die Hard). Based on Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead, which re-imagines the story of Beowulf….
13 & 12. Casino Royale/Quantum of Solace: I am enjoying the current slate of James Bond movies with Daniel Craig. Some have harped about the gritty realism and crying that there are no mountaintop hideouts and silly gadgets but that is what I enjoyed most about it. So, I bought both movies on DVD. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy some of the older Bond movies (Dalton? A head of his time….) but the current series is the best by far….
11. Lost in La Mancha: This documentary about the implosion of Terry Gilliam’s failed The Man Who Killed Don Quixote always inspires me to make movies. It is because Gilliam’s enthusiasm, even in the face of the film’s collapse is highly infectious. I finally decided to get the DVD when I found it for sale….
10. All-Star Superman: The comic series this was based on was on my best books list last year. When I finally got around to getting this from the Redbox, I played it over and over until I returned it. I fine adaptation of the comic series. Great animation and voice work….
9. Hard Boiled: (Dragon Dynasty DVD) I got this from my friend Mike. I had always wanted a copy of John Woo’s last contemporary action flicks. This is his most action-filled shoot-em-up to cap off his Asian career before heading to Hollywood and neutered mediocrity. Contains one of the best single tracking shots in action movie history….
8. Persepolis: I have always admired this animated film and finally decided it was time to own it….
7. Citizen Kane: Got this for my birthday. Considered the Best American Movie of all-time, was Orson Welles debut film filled with such, craft, majesty and innovation. I am just happy to own a copy now….
6. Inception: My Best Movie of last year is one of my favorite DVD’s this year. I am glad to finally see some Behind-the-Scenes videos on the making of this interesting and original film. It is pretty cool to see that to make the train appear in the middle of the street in the dreamscape, Nolan and company simply BUILT A TRAIN TO DRIVE DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET…!
5. The Killer: (Dragon Dynasty DVD) There are many different versions of The Killer on DVD. The quality of the image varies with each one. There is the Fox Lorber edition that is a letterbox, there is a Criterion edition so rare it manages $1,000 on Amazon Marketplace. Then, there is the Dragon Dynasty version which is a Anamorphic widescreen but there are complaints that the image is too soft. I would agree. But this edition has some bonus features not contained on the Fox Lorber. But I keep the FL version because it has a full-length feature commentary by John Woo that is on no other version….
4. The Sword of Doom: (Criterion) Another get from my friend Mike. This tells the tale of a ronin wandering about satisfying his lusts. Features the great Toshiro Mifune and two of the best sword fighting scenes I have ever seen, one of which is a very long, overhead tracking shot. Cool movie….
3. The Silence of the Lambs: (Criterion) I looked high and low for this and for some reason several came up for sell about the same time. MGM has released better quality versions of this great film, just accepted to the National Film Registry and near perfect film overall. But I like to collect stuff and Criterion editions are what I like to get if no other version….
2. The Thin Red Line: (Criterion) After seeing the great The Tree of Life I decided to explore more of Malick’s films and have always been curious about his The Thin Red Line. So, when I found the opportunity to get the Criterion edition I bought it sight unseen. Was I ever in for a treat. First, the transfer is new and beautiful. I never notice things like that before. But it is the exploration of morality in wartime that caught my attention. It made me reflect more on human nature. This usually gets lost in the shuffle next to Saving Private Ryan, and all anyone ever seems to remember are the “movie” parts and the ‘slposions. But I think I enjoy this more than Private Ryan….
[As a side note my exploration into Malick’s films led me to buy The New World, which I just watched all the way through and think it the more commercial of the three works I have seen this far….]
1. 13 Assassins/The Tree of Life (TIE) Yep. Took a while to get 13 Assassins but it was worth it. Also, The Tree of Life is not available as a standard DVD, though it comes packaged with the Blu-Ray. But, I went to the local video store and got a rental version…. (See Below)
FILMS I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO FOR 2011 RECAP:
A couple of years ago I started adding another list of the movies that I had looked forward to the next year. Sort of breaking up the monotony of Best of lists with a list of expectations. Last year’s was an impressive list. So before we get into my Best Of List, a short recap listing the movies I looked forward to in 2011 again here with some commentary:
1) Thor dir. Kenneth Branagh – I am a huge fan of Branagh. By no means an apologist, I will point out the weak films of his ouvre to anyone. When I first heard he was taking on Thor, a Marvel Comics property, I thought, “Yes, he’s moved up from the farm leagues.”
I was proud that after years of toiling on self-produced comedies and dramas, Branagh got a ticket to play in the game. And for me, that was enough, to have his skills recognized by the corporations with the checks. While I did enjoy this movie I felt that all Marvel properties last year suffered from the But, The Avengers Syndrome. The second half felt a tad rushed just so we can set up Thor for the big summer blockbuster coming out this year. More on this later….
2) The Lost Bladesman, dir’s Felix Ching & Alex Mak (Asian release April 28, 2011) – Sadly, this movie never got an US release. I am still looking for the import DVD. Donnie Yen as the God of War Guan Yu during the Three Kingdoms period has my attention. Many complained about the humanistic take on the Cao Cao character because they play too much Dynasty Warriors. Here Guan Yu must return to the side of his Oath Brother Liu Bei and at the same time fend off Cao’s generals that are bent on stopping him. Will continue to search out the DVD….
3) Reign of Assassins, dir’s. Chao-Bin Su & John Woo – I never got to see this one in the theater or on DVD as it also never had a US release. Michelle Yeoh as an assassin in hiding looks very pleasing. Still looking for it on DVD though. Keep checking WOS Reviews for the latest….
4) Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides dir. Rob Marshall – Honestly, I was a bit let down by this fourth entry. I loved that they were going for a stand-alone adventure, but they watered down Jack Sparrow a bit with his “thinking ahead” actions. It was more fun when you felt he was crazy enough to play it by ear and making it all up on the spot. Also, it was a waste of Ian McShane as Blackbeard, he never seemed as menacing as he should have been and Penelope Cruz was not as sexy as I had hoped. There were some good moments and funny moments but it felt too clean and neat, it felt like a Disney movie for the first time….
5) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two dir. David Yates (SEE BELOW)
6) The Tree of Life dir. Terrence Malick (SEE BELOW)
7) Rango dir. Gore Verbinski (SEE BELOW)
8) Cowboys & Aliens dir. Jon Favreau: Another disappointment in a year of many filmic disappointments. It always ruins a movie for me when such an advanced culture cannot defeat the disadvantaged one. Come on, what a ludicrous ending. The Aliens should have gone airborne and zapped the whole continent coast-to-coast. But for some reason, the contrivance of “needing” humans for some stupid reason, fuel, food, even batteries seems to be the laziest of plot points just to have the humans triumph over something. I still cannot believe that a horse could outrun a spaceship. Even here, in the Old West, Harrison Ford still needs his “FAMILY BACK!” Come on…. Stupid, really….
9) Sanctum in 3D dir. Alister Grierson, prod. James Cameron – I simply forgot about seeing this. I had some faith in 3D back then but now, thinking about it, I cannot fathom why I wanted to see this one. Oh well….
2011 MAYBE’S:
The Thing Prequel – Nothing beats John Carpenter’s 1980 version. So I opted for that at the Music Box rather than see the “prequel”.
Hugo Cabret dir. Martin Scorsese – (See HONORABLE MENTIONS below.)
X-Men: First Class dir.Matthew Vaughn – SEE BELOW.
While I did enjoy it for the most part, “Captain America” suffered mightily from the But, The Avengers Syndrome. In addition to a very rushed second half, because we got to get our boy frozen in the ice, which after repeated viewings he could have easily escaped the flying wing, but no, got to freeze him to get him into The Avengers, the drama and pathos of the second half seemed neutered, it was a simply road map to him getting frozen in the ice. The romance was rushed and garnered no sympathy from me. Suddenly, she loved him at the end. It felt like that. Nothing in their relationship prior read that they were madly in love, so her acting like she was came from left field and it made his sacrifice and reawakening all the more shallow.
It would have been better to do a trilogy with part one as his origin, (In fact, the perfect climax would have been the rescue of the POWs.) and part two would be him brought to his lowest levels fighting Hydra, (Can he keep being the symbol of the USA if he is being forced to go on Kill Missions, and how does this affect his standing with his new love?) The climax could be the kidnapping of that new love and the reveal of Red Skull as the big bad and could include the loss of Bucky and part three can be the climactic battle to rescue his love and stop the Red Skull from launching a super rocket that Washington DC, Cap defeats the Red Skull, destroys Hydra factory and leaps onto the rocket against the protests of his love and reroutes it into the ocean getting frozen but presumed dead. See? I just wrote a Captain America Trilogy. I remember when Nick Fury appeared onscreen… the audience laughed… seriously… That said enough to me….
If everything that could go wrong with a superhero movie that did, it was “The Green Lantern” with its weak lead, weak romance, weak story and too-strong visual effects.
I’m not even going to write about “Transformers 3”, except for this prior bit….
Okay, here’s what you are waiting for:
EW3’s Top ‘Leven a’ Twenty ‘Leven Movies
First Movies about Movies: HUGO/The Artist/My Week with Marilyn – I have been on a glut of movie watching the last week of 2011, in addition to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Descendents, I saw three movies that deal with the making of movies. Of the three I would recommend My Week with Marilyn because it seemed to be the least gimmicky of the three and did not try to be overly smart about film history. Marilyn Monroe was a part of the story, a flesh and blood character. Hugo and The Artist seemed too vested on making the points that they are ABOUT MAKING MOVIES!
While a well-crafted kids movie Hugo never feels like it is about anything than trying to impress you with its knowledge on George Méliès. Plus, Scorsese could have just as well have shown up in the middle of the movie to talk about how much The Red Shoes was magical to him, like he does in his film preservation PSA.
I did find The Artist to be charming and fun but never could get over the gimmick of it being without dialogue. I keep hearing that it is a silent movie when it is not. It HAS A SOUNDTRACK and audio plays a part of the story, which is more than could be said for the 3D in Hugo. But, it is a gimmick nonetheless. What would make it less of a gimmick is for the director to make the same style of films for the rest of his career and have them be as successful or better. Both of these highly acclaimed movies are simply gimmick films and that is what bugs me the most about their acclaim. It pointed out to me how manipulative their contrivances were with The Artist and its music, Hugo and its use of 3D. Besides, no one ever tells me how Scorsese uses 3D as a storytelling device. No one has explained that to me yet.
While I did enjoy them on an experience level, I could not get over the gimmicks of either film, which is why I found My Week with Marilyn the more honest movie about making movies. It relied on character and story and acting….
Remember when films were about those?
Honorable Mentions:
The Muppets: I enjoyed The Muppets very much and liked the new direction that Jason Siegal’s script took them in. No need to be nostalgic for the Muppets, we have their movies and TV on video, let them chart some new territory….
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: I have a fondness for Chinese melodrama. Yimou’s rural dramas are among my favorite and I tear up like a sap watching the likes of The Road Home and Not One Less. This movie is based on Lisa See’s book and directed by Wayne Wang, (The Joy Luck Club) about Chinese sisterhood. This blend of contemporary and historical China is a sentimental look at the bond between sisters. I heartily recommend it….
11. Drive – I really enjoyed this simple story of a stunt driver moonlighting as a getaway driver. Ryan Gosling (which means “baby goose”!) is having a great year. Nice little crime thriller. I found the comparisons to Le Samourai to be shallow but it is cool that it stands on its own….
10. Harry Potter 7.2 – A nice wrap up of the series. It was very satisfying with some of the right notes hit. I cannot wait for a series-remake years down the line and to see what they do differently….
9. Rise of the Planet of the Apes – I know how you are asking yourself how a movie about a monkey revolt can score higher than Hugo or The Artist. Simple, a good story and a gimmick that works: a CGI lead character. I know there is a campaign to get Andy Serkis an Oscar nod but let’s face it; the computer animators had A LOT more to do with this than Andy. Sure, he did a “performance” but it was nothing but reference. It was the animators that gave pathos to a bunch of 1’s and 0’s and made the reference into a fully developed character. If you check out side-by-side comparisons, you suddenly see how much the animators added.
This movie had DOOM spouted about it form the day it was announced. It was a reboot AND a prequel, there was nothing original about it the fan boys sniffed. But the story left everyone except the fan boys eating their words. (fan boys acted like they knew all along, such is the egoism of expertise…) Great movie…. A nice restart to the series….
8. (A Tie Based on Theater-Going Experience) – I based these two selections on my experience of going to the theater and watching them. The first is Godzilla: The King of Monsters at the Portage. I wrote about this already on WoS regular. This was the first time I ever saw this classic in full and on the big screen. The second is Rifftrax Live: Jack the Giant Killer, probably one of their best efforts with a seemingly out of the blue selection of movie to riff. I saw this with my Bonnie, as I have all the Rifftax Live events….
7. The Descendents – A pretty good story. Nicely directed by Alexander Payne (Sideways) but the core of the story is the family headed by George Clooney and his two daughters and their discoveries of each other during a rough time in their lives….
6. Rango – Probably my most favorite animated film this year and yet another oddball performance by Johnny Depp as a lizard that takes on sheriff duties in a dusty small town and serves as great homage to spaghetti westerns, even more so than Tarantino’s ouvre. Check it out if you haven’t already….
5. Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame – Tsui Hark’s (Seven Swords, Once Upon a Time in China) detective movie is big, bold and goofy. I enjoyed it from frame one. Andy Lau is awesome as a disgraced detective asked to return after a series of baffling immolations….
4. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – Based on John Le Carre’s novel, Gary Oldman give yet another awesome performance as George Smiley, an aging member of British Intelligence and is asked to come out of retirement to find a mole in their ranks. Solidly shot, acted from every actor and it kept me wondering what would happen next. Great film….
3. X-Men: First Class – Again, another movie that fanboys predicted doom for. It turned out to be a solid summer action movie that grounded the amazing exploits of Marvel Comics’ mutants firmly in real-life events…. (Just goes to show you how wrong we fanboys can be….)
TIE: 1. The Tree of Life / 13 Assassins – (Another cheat, making this a 12 movie list.)
Both of these film shows you how split my mind is when it comes to what makes a great movie for me.
What makes a great movie for me is it makes me think, ponder the ponderables and makes me want to make a movie just like it. (Egotistical, I know….) but 13 Assassins, beyond being a great action movie and a great chambera throwback, also had intertwined into it the complexity of the samurai code and the use of violence to bring peace, which are ideals that butt heads with themselves. Can a samurai serve honorably an openly evil lord? Will that service wipe clean what dignity you gave up to serve such a person? Also, how can one justify the use of killing to prevent the killing of the unrepresented masses? Can we say we truly treasure life if we are willing to kill? Simply, an awesome film, funny with a lot of tough samurai saying tough guy shit before engaging in a 45-minute bloodletting….
The Tree of Life took a while to stick with me. It is an thoughtful, engaging, beautiful movie that is a reflection on spirituality, on the influence of parents and the pondering of death in the midst of the concept that life is an on-going, never-ending thing in the overall perspective of the universe. It has at its core the story of a man’s reflection of his upbringing in 1950’s Texas and the spiritual tug of war between his mother and father, and how that is reflective of human nature’s struggle of Nature versus Grace, the struggle of God versus Science and while never choosing a side, lets the film spool out imagery and narration that touches on this struggle. It is not for viewers that do not want to sit and ponder these things, but for the first time in a very long time, I was wondering, thinking, and I was happy in the end that this film was made. That Terrence Malick as a human being on this earth created this for us….
I always put in a list of movie I am looking forward to for the upcoming year to break up the monotony of year-end Best Of Lists. So, here is this year's:
Top Ten Films I am Looking Forward to in 2012
1. The Dark Knight Rises dir. Christopher Nolan – July 23, 2012
This is to be Nolan’s final Batman film, wrapping up a trilogy of pretty great films for being based on a comic book character.
2. Prometheus dir. Ridley Scott – June 8, 2012
Ridley Scott returns both to Sci-fi and to the Alien mythology that he helped redefine and define, respectively. Now, what attracts me most to this is the promise that it is neither a direct prequel nor sequel to Alien. So, hopefully, we will not see a Kid Ellen Ripley unleashing the alien xenomorphs through her cute-kid antics, uncovering a super-supreme-ultra-maxi-secret Corporate Conspiracy that will “redefine how we view the Aliens Movies” and then have a lame CGI climax with millions of xenomorph and millions of space marines running at each other amidst ‘splosions.
Now Scott fell of my radar the instant he called his audience morons for not knowing Deckard is a replicant (Spoiler, in more ways than one.) and I quit paying attention to him. But then when I read he was returning to this universe he created and in the brilliant way of NOT attaching it to the other Alien movies, I felt that I would give the movie, if not the director, another chance. So far, everything I have seen on this is looking really good. Hence the #2 spot.
Oh yeah, he’s shooting it in 3D! You forgot about that didn’t you….
3. Red Tails dir. Anthony Hemingway – January 20, 2012
A film about the famed Tuskegee Airmen, the squadron of African-American fighter pilots that went on to rack up the best records during WWII. Here, we also see a Lucasfilm production that does not have the words “Star”, “Wars”, “Indiana” or “Jones” attached to it. The trailers look great and I am looking forward to this film coming in a few short weeks….
4. Skyfall dir. Sam Mendez
Would you ever have thought that we would have a James Bond movie directed by the maker of American Beauty? Me neither, but here we are. I am so looking forward to this. What does worry me is the producers throwing out words like “Connery” and “Goldfinger” when for the last two film, they had to do no such thing. I hope they don’t start steering this series back into campy-gadget territory. I will be there on opening day or so, all the same….
5. Gravity, dir. Alfonso Cuaron November 2012
I have been ever impressed with Mexican filmmaker Cuaron. He made me a fan of the Harry Potter series, his Y Tu Mama Tambian made me feel I can still make it as an “ethnic” moviemaker and his Children of Men is an unsung masterpiece. This time he is trying longer takes in telling the story of two astronauts trying to survive a satellite crashing into their space station… George Clooney and Sandra Bullock star….
6. The Flowers of War dir. Zhang Yimou
Hero made me a fan of Zhang Yimou, and like Malick, I begin exploring his catalogue of work discovering such films as The Road Home, Not One Less, Red Sorghum, Riding lone for Thousands of Miles, The House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower and Raise the Red Lantern. Here, Yimou tells the story of Chinese women and an Englishman standing up to the Japanese army during WWII. I really want to see this, especially for the teaming of Christian Bale and Zhang Yimou….
7. Coriolanus dir. Ralph Fiennes
This got a limited run in December to make it eligible for the Academy Awards. I hope that it gets a wide release, as this is sort of the direction I want to go with my Hamlet feature.
8. Brave, dir Pete Doctor (Pixar) – June 22, 2012
Outside of the Cars franchise, PIXAR has been doing pretty well and this take on a Scottish Mulan seems to be another great film.
9. Flying Swords of Dragon Gate 3D, dir Tsui Hark – December 22, 2011 (Asia)
Every 3D movie can never get over the “gimmick” of 3D, even the vaunted Hugo and Avatar could never sell 3D as a valid storytelling component. Here, Tsui Hark seems to realize that and lets the gimmick remain a gimmick. I am looking forward to it. (Note: the only time I saw 3D work was with U23D, which was a concert film.)
10. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey dir. Peter Jackson – December 14, 2012
The only reason this scored low on this list, it barely made it to be honest, is Peter Jacksons’ track record on non-Tolkien-related movies. While the LotR movies are a proven track record but does little to encourage me to think that this will be nothing more than LotR rehashing, like the cloying “prrreeeeeciiiiiooouuussss” they added to the end of the trailer as if to say, “Hey Fans, remember The Lord of the Rings? This will be just like it!”
Oh yeah, it’s in 3D too.
The Maybe’s:
The Avengers: I still haven’t made up my mind about this as big as it appears to becoming. I am sure it will be a popular blockbuster whether I see it or not. It shortchanged all the other Marvel Comics movies so it better be f*cking great….
Django Unchained: I’ve had it up to here with Tarantino and his Gimmick Movies. I really have. For once I would like to se him do something original instead of going back to the well of Homage and Nostalgia. While Django Unchained looks like more of the same, this time I think he has a promising premise, a “Southern” he calls it. I can kind of get behind him creating his own genre. I really could. But Jami Foxx just ruins it for me. I will still see it in hopes of being surprised….
GI Joe/The Expendables, 2: Despite rumor to the contrary, I love big, shoot ‘em up action flicks, Popcorn Movies is the current colloquialism for them. The first GI Joe and Expendables let me down immensely. The Expendables had to be my biggest movie disappointment, …ever. But seeing the trailers for both of the sequels gives me the hope of, at least, a fun time. If not, I’m done with both series….
Thanks for sticking with it this far. I know some pretty expected selections, but hey, maybe I threw a curve at you here and there. Let me know what you think. I’ll see you here next year.
Until Next Time…
© 2012 Ernest M. Whiteman III
