Corpse Bride
Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Albert Finney, Michael Gough
Directed by: Tim Burton
Rating: 2.9/4.0
This has been a relatively big weekend of movies for me. Last night was A History of Violence(violent action, violent coffee-serving, violent sex), Today was Corpse Bride and Serenity. And while I'm raring to go to get into Serenity, let's touch off on Corpse Bride.
First, let me offer up the disclaimer that I've enjoyed most of Burton's work since Bettle Juice in 1988. I thought, until Batman Begins, that Burton has done the only movies of the caped crusader worth seeing. Big Fish was probably the most touching films I've given as a gift. The Nightmare before Christmas was ghoulishly original and cute.
And maybe it's the precedents he has set with his previous movies that I sit at this one and think "Wow, that's really cool what all he's done with stop-motion. I can't imagine how long it took to do all the wind segments with her train and veil. That's a really cute character or three." But for some reason unbeknownst to me, I didn't walk out feeling like I watched a great or good movie. Just a good Tim Burton film.
Is that a bad thing? Not in the slightest. You should see the movie, and take a friend. It's cute, well-made, superb cast(the usual suspects for a Burton film), what I think lacked was the story.
The son of a noveau riche fish market man is set to marry the daughter of an 'old money' family(who are actually broke), but gets cold feet and runs off. Practicing his vows in the woods, he accidently marries a dead woman instead of the twig he thought he was practicing with.
Here is where I run into a plot hole like I did with Flightplan.
Corpse Bride: "I do!... you may kiss the bride!"
Victor Van Dort: "Oh, wait! Wait wait wait!"
Corpse Bride: "What is it?"
VVD: "Doesn't the vow say until death do us part?"
CB: "Well, uhm... yes."
VVD: "And you... are... dead...?"
CB: "...yes..."
VVD: (snatching ring) "seeya!" (tears off into horizon)
5 minute short is over, on with the feature presentation. I think I would have scored it have a point higher, had I turned my brain off for it. Overall, though, this is a cute little film for most ages, but I'd put this second billing to Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the were-rabbit(yet again, with Helena Bonham Carter).
Wasabi
Jean Reno(Hotel Rawanda, The Professional, Ronin), Ryoko Hirosue(Tenchi Muyo)
Directed by: Gérard Krawczyk(Taxi 1, 2, and 3)
Rating: 2.4/4.0
This one is worthy of the 'last 15 minute' review.
"Hi, I'm Jean Reno, playing a cross between Tom Selleck, Sylvester Stallone, and Dirty Harry. I'm in Japan with this orange-haired japanese girl who I think is my daughter. She's being held by this Japanese version of Bob Hoskins who's been worked over with a garden rake. Evidently, I know everyone in the bank, because they just drew guns on him. BANG BANG BANG! I'm flying home without my daughter, but I forgot to check half a million daughters worth of heavy artillery before I sat down in first class."
Credits....
Ok, I admit that any movie with Jean Reno, I'm willing to take a look at. I haven't been too disappointed yet. Even this one wasn't bad, once I had the perspective that this is probably the equivalent of a "The Rock" movie.
Jean Reno plays the mold-worn loose cannon french detective who is forced to take a vacation after roughing up a transvestite and the police chief's son. As soon as he consents, he gets a call from Japan. The lawyer of the woman he's pined over has called to say she's died and left him her estate and their daughter to his care. I could go on, but you get the point.
The only copy available was the VHS version, which was dubbed. I'm not a big fan of dubs, but Jean did his own dubbing. It's a fun movie when you want to turn your mind off and have some fun, but don't expect to find your life's direction in this movie.
If you do, though. Lemme know, I love watching train wrecks.
Tami has been searching for a new system and finally found it in the Dell Dimension 9100. The system came with the monitor listed above, but Tami loves her 1901FP, so I agreed to purchase the 2005FPW from her.
My first reaction to it is that 20" in widescreen doesn't look as big as in the normal format, but it's plenty big enough for what I use it for. The second, more strong reaction is the response time this monitor posts. I can't quote exact numbers, but it sports a crisper, brighter image with as good if not better response rate than my venerable GS780. I can play Republic Commando in widescreen with no stretching, ghosting, or washed-out color. Even a quick 180 spin won't provide that tell-tale ghosting you usually get with flat panel monitors.
I'm also loving the regained real-estate on my desk. All of Dell's flat panels have the same or nearly the same footprint. It's great being able to lay a book down in front of the screen without having to have a desk 50" deep. So if you're in the market for a new monitor, I'd recommend the Dell 2005FPW or it's bigger sibling, the 2405FPW (Diagonal & model year (05) Flat Panel Widescreen = 2405FPW).
Flightplan
Jodie Foster(Panic Room), Peter Sarsgaard(The Skeleton Key), Sean Bean(The North Country)
Directed by: Robert Schwentke
Rating: 3.0/4.0
Flightplan is the suspense thriller of the year for mothers everywhere. The rest of us most likely will stare at Jodie Foster's character with a mix of pity, sympathy, and 'geez, this lady needs a Zanax'.