The 90's Movie Theater Experience

If you ever wanted to know what it was like watching a movie at the theater in the 90s, watch this trailer. The grainy flicker on the picture. But mostly the sound. I think it had something to do with early Dolby Digital, DTS, SDDS and other digital compression technologies being used. Or maybe it was the sound mix done by the studio itself. But there's this unmistakable, nearly inaudible dirty tonal echo or reverb that you could hear in theaters at the time. I remember Jurassic Park, Beethoven, Twister, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Star Trek VI, and so many others all had this touch.

The closest I've come to recently was Tarantino's roadshow for The Hateful Eight a year ago. He sent out a 70mm film projector for that one. So the picture quality was similar. But the sound was not the same, as they used the existing modern digital speakers that were built into the Quail Springs theater.

RIP Jonathan Demme

You perfected breaking the rule of actors not looking into the camera. And your movies were stunning for it.

The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

Philadelphia (1993)

Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Braveheart's Speech

Felt like seeing a Braveheart clip this morning for some reason. Landed on the speech at the Battle of Stirling. And you know, it's a remarkably short speech, but it turns the mood of the scene and the whole movie around 180 degrees.

If you read the speech in your head, and try and do it without hearing any music or pauses, it seems like an extremely short, effectless 7 sentences.

---

Wallace: I see a whole army of my countrymen here in defiance of tyranny. You have come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What would you do with that freedom? Will you fight?

Veteran soldier: Fight? Against that? No, we will run; and we will live.

Wallace: Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you'll live -- at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!!!

Wallace and Soldiers: Alba gu bra! (Scotland forever!)

---

So why does it work so well?

One, story buildup. Randall Wallace did a great job of making this speech a turning point by building up the scenes of scottish resistance to this point. If William can't turn the army around, then their cause will end there. So our minds give the speech gravity, because we know it's an important moment.

Two, direction. Gibson is many things including a master filmmaker. He knows just where to put beats in a scene to make it effective. Just how to cut it. And since he was doing the acting himself, he knew just how to play the scene.

Three, and this is the most important, music. Steven Spielberg has said that music is 50% of the movie. And it's true. And there has not been a contemporary film composer that could top James Horner for emotional impact. Glory, Avatar, Field of Dreams, Legends of the Fall, Titanic. The man was a master at enhancing the feelings of screen story. His passing is a great loss to cinema. But at least we can enjoy his masterworks such as this for years to come.

And these three aspects really encapsulate the essence of film craft.

The Birth of a Nation (2016)

I must say I was not impressed.

I did not think Nate Parker did as spectacular a job as Sundance would have lead us to believe. The characters were basically caricatures and uninteresting. The storyline was pure melodrama. Basically a rehashed morality play with heavy handed villains and heroes, easily identifiable. It was chock full of used tropes and predictable plot movements. There was nowhere in the movie where I was surprised by a characters actions or thought, "well that's interesting."

His pacing was quite slow throughout. Except during the climactic battle sequences which he seemed to rush through instead of building up to much of an extent. It was more or less, skirmish, big battle, oh wait it's all over now.

The only things I really thought was interesting about the film was the ending sequence involving a transition to the civil war era, and an early scene that mirrors today's police stops.

To have rewritten history as severely as Parker did, I would have expected more of a dramatic payoff for the factual sacrifice. Instead it was more of the same. 12 Years A Slave was a far more powerful and fascinating film for this kind of material. But Steve McQueen is a far more capable filmmaker.

Parker has done one thing with this movie as far as I am concerned. He has proven himself a capable director of the middling film.

3/10.

The Signal (2014)

The Signal had a whole bunch of sci-fi tropes that we've all seen before many times. It had potential. Good effects, acting and direction. But the story just wasn't there. It kept you interested via carrot on a stick mysteries, but ultimately it went nowhere. The ending was cheap and unfulfilling. Events that directed you one way only ended up being exposed as plot holes later on. Goes to show no matter how much gloss you put on a poor or even mediocre script, it still wont make a very good movie.

4/10.

Multi-Movie Netflix Roundup

Here's a bunch of reviews of movies I watched on Netflix this month.

THE LAST DAYS ON MARS (2013)

Pretty good low budget space zombies movie. Good action. A-list actors. But a story we've seen before. It was done quite a bit better than previous iterations however. Not on the quality level of a Prometheus or anything. But an entertaining evening nonetheless.
6/10.

AGE OF TOMORROW (2014)

Couldn't get past the first 5 minutes of this direct to video garbage. Horrid acting. Just horrid.
2/10.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (2011)

Took this one up on a friend's recommendation. Turned it off after an hour. Waaay too artsy for me. Straight narrative is not involved in this film. Jumps all around. No subtlety.
3/10.

IN THE NAME OF THE KING 2: TWO WORLDS (2011)

Thought I'd give Uwe Boll a chance despite my better judgement. Dolph Lundgren gets transported back in time to medieval ages. Horrid. Couldn't get past the first 20 minutes. Bad acting. Shaky camera work. Bad all around.
2/10.

AGE OF UPRISING: THE LEGEND OF MICHAEL KOHLHAAS (2013)
(French w/ English Subtitles)

Wonderful! A Quiet, somewhat slow film about a merchant in 1500's France who rebels against the local Barony. The authenticity really transports you into the time period. Mads Mikkelson is always great, especially in Medieval stuff like this (think Valhalla Rising). My only beef with the film is about midway through with the appearance of a priest the dialog and story turns allegorical, which I imagine the entire film is supposed to be. Good and evil, rule of law, etc. etc. All those big ideas that men wrestle with through the ages. This film is different from the usual fare. High caliber.
8/10.

WORLD WITHOUT END (2012)
(8 Episode Miniseries)

Based on Ken Follet's novel which was itself a sequel to his Pillars Of The Earth. This miniseries doesn't disappoint. Not Game of Thrones Level, but it is good drama, intrigue and action nonetheless. It basically follows the happenings of the Late Medieval city of Kingsbridge, England against the backdrop of the 100 Years War. I've read that the characters were written with a much more liberal socio-political mindset than people at the time, but it keeps you rooting for certain characters against others. I would really recommend this to any GoT fan who is waiting for the next season of that show to start.
7/10.

FULL METAL JACKET (1987)

Up until this point I never had seen this film all the way through! Only the first half set at boot camp, which is frankly, the best part of the film. Basically a Vietnam War movie, it follows Matthew Modine from getting drafted and into the war. I'd consider this one of director Stanley Kubrick's weaker films, because it doesn't really hold itself together through the entire length consistently. Kind of meanders in the second half. Still, it's a classic for R. Lee Ermey's performance alone. Fun trivia: when writing the film, Kubrick sat down with Ermey and had him spout dialogue he would have used during his tenure as an actual drill instructor. Most of his resulting film dialog is simple transcription.
6/10.

TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH (1949)

Classic WWII movie starring Gregory Peck as bomber pilot general. Couldn't finish it. Too jingoistic and old way of thinking for me. Stopped it after an hour.
4/10.

POLICE STORY: LOCKDOWN (2013)
(Chinese w/ English subtitles)

Jackie Chan action/drama. But not his usual style. Likely due to a different director helming the film. Jackie plays a serious police captain who gets held hostage by a psychotic club owner with the rest of his patrons. Had more of an Oldboy feel to it, rather than Rumble In The Bronx. Mostly psychological mind games, but plenty of kung-fu action too. It was a pretty enjoyable film. Good lazy Saturday fare.
8/10.

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

Star Trek Into Darkness is director/producer J.J. Abrams sequel to his enormously successful 2009 film Star Trek, which successfully rebooted Paramount Studio's ailing sci-fi franchise of the same name. In the 2009 film we were reintroduced to the original characters who filled the bridge of the starship Enterprise from the 1960's TV series. Star Trek brilliantly united both the old and the new in a thrillingly fun outing that set the stage for a Trek comeback.

Star Trek Into Darkness is the fulfillment of that comeback.

The plot is simple. When a mysterious terrorist (played ruthlessly by Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch) begins attacking Starfleet targets, Captain James T Kirk (Chris Pine) leads his crew on a mission to bring the man to justice.

The execution of that plot is far more layered and engrossing than one simple sentence conveys.

There's action a-plenty. And it's edge of your seat, pulse pounding sequences of complex scenarios. And there's effects. We're talking top-tier realistic effects that suck you into the picture, and wash you over with awe. But the core of the thrill in this film is the story. The story of relationships.

The driving force behind the movie is the relationship between Kirk, and his friend, the Vulcan science officer Spock (Zachary Quinto). Their character traits at once play perfectly against each other, and in harmony at the same time. And when crises moments arise you find yourself caring more about their friendship than any action occurring around them.

Thrown into the mix are communications officer Uhura (Zoe Saldana) whose relationship with Spock and longstanding friendship with Kirk is another driving force. Simon Pegg's Scotty has a vital role in this film as does Bruce Greenwood's Captain Pike from the previous film.

The rest of the crew is there, and all play important parts in the film. But there's some fascinating guest stars as well, including Robocop's Peter Weller as a no-nonsense Starfleet Admiral.

Into Darkness also deftly incorporates aspects of previous Trek films and story lines to keep the die hard fans not only satisfied, but happy with the twists and turns this film takes on those previous events.

All in all, a well acted, fantastically shot, energetically written story that will keep you enthralled and focused entirely on what happens next in the film. And you will find yourself gasping and cheering all along the way of this thrilling ride.

10/10.

Elysium (2013)

Elysium was not quite as good as District 9. District 9 was wholly original and unique, full of fresh ideas and moral narrative. Elysium while full of similar moral narrative, also had the misfortune of having the Hollywood gloss applied to its story. Cheap manipulations of emotion via climax and score, not to mention unambiguous victims and oppressors. Good vs. Evil is ok (in this case the Good being the poor and the Evil being the wealthy), but I would have liked to have seen further elucidation on the character and motives of the inhabitants of Elysium. A good morality tale overall, but not as nuanced and detailed as District 9 was. It wrapped up too nicely, too happily, too Hollywood.

My other beef was the use of my old nemesis the shaky-cam. I don't recall such blur in District 9. Only the shaky-cam can take intense action and turn it into a frustrating episode of vertigo, and unfortunately it was on high display in Elysium.

Other than those two beefs, it was a good film. Neil Blomkamp has made another quality entry into the science-fiction pantheon.

8/10.

Pacific Rim (2013)

One of the worst movies I've seen in the theater in a while. I almost got up and left, but I paid ten bucks to see it. I wouldn't have missed much if I had. The acting was the only decent thing about the film. The visual effects were muddy, and for some reason every battle scene was blurred by rain. The respect of the laws of physics was non-existent. And the story, ho-boy the story. While there were a couple of original touches, for the most part it was rehashed cliches. Del Toro even went so far as to steal plot points from not only Independence Day, but also the dreadful Emmerich remake of Godzilla from the 1990's. The rousing speeches all sounded familiar. The conflicts between characters had been done before in every other movie in history. It was overall a very dumb, very boring, very noisy rehash of pretty much every other film of it's genre. I'm only giving it as high a rating as I am because the actors were all quite exceptional in working with what they were given. 3/10.

The X-Files: Jose Chung's "From Outer Space"

I finished rewatching season five of the X-Files last weekend which allowed me to rewatch the film for the first time since it was in theaters. In honor of that, I'm posting a five photo album from my favorite episode that I had posted on my old deleted reddit account.

Writer Darin Morgan again proves he's brilliant by stitching together a plethora of neat references and deadpan humor into a seamlessly entertaining story that respectfully pokes fun at the series itself. Here are some of my favorite moments.

"You ever flown a flying saucer? Afterwords, sex seems trite."

Notice the mashed potato homage to Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. 

"I didn't spend all those years playing Dungeons and Dragons

and not learn a little something about courage."

Notice the "I Want To Believe" poster in Blaine's room. 

Conspiracy hound Jesse Ventura as a Man In Black 

Ventura performs a Pendulum Backbreaker on Blaine 

"As for Reynard Muldrake, a ticking timebomb of insanity, 

his quest into the unknown has so warped his psyche one 

shudders to think how he receives any pleasures from life."

Easy. By masturbating while watching the Patterson-Gimlin film.