Chronicle

This recent trend in SuperHero movies was made for me. I was big in comic books, long before Kevin Smith made it fashionable for the jocks and the dweebs to read them as well. Surely, I remember aching, ACHING for an X-Men movie even in the late eighties.

And then I got married and that movie opened. The flood gates have opened and picture after picture of heroes have flooded the market. Luckily? These movies are the bastion of special effects so they aren’t cheap. The various studios really have to make a decision to make a movie about being a super hero. I thank them for it. It gives me time to make a decision when it comes to purchasing a ticket.  It also means Hollywood should seriously consider hiring a screenwriter for a few of the lines.

Now, see, The Dark Knight had a profound effect on the super hero genre. Not only a decent actioner, it was a movie with a bit more going on in the heady department; you were required to actually participate in the movie by thinking about the consequences of every characters’ actions.   This was new. Before that point, superhero movies were mere fluffy, great for a last minute movie decision on a Friday night.  What a change in things.  Now, you couldn’t be drunk, high or tired to watch a superhero movie. Suddenly, these movies had a bit more credibility.  Again, I was thankful. This meant that superhero movies might start in a different direction.

Chronicle is a superhero movie that is a step in that direction. Its central conceit, instead of relying on a story we’ve read in the comic books or Saturday mornings, is that three ordinary high schoolers find they have psychokinesis powers and elect to document (the “Chronicle” of the title) it with the latest technology.  Think of the famed Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity. I guess another super power they inherit is the ability to keep batteries from dying out. Never once in the entire picture is there a bad image or a red light for a dead battery. Amazing how that works!

The fact is; the movie does work on some level.  Josh Trank and Max Landis bring what appears to be an experienced picture. This is director Trank’s first foray into directing for the big screen; he has only handled some television programming. No complaints, mind you, the best directors get started this way. Even Speilberg. Landis brings pedigree, being he’s the son of director John Landis (Animal House, MJ’s Thriller), but, looking over his resume, I don’t see much on there that sticks out-in other words, this seems to be his first big screen try as well.   The drawback is, sadly, we’ve been down this road before. I kept pointing out what would happen next—and that was when I first heard the drunken father yelling through the door in the first five minutes.

The film is amazingly brief in 84 minutes, but moves at a decent clip, hitting the needed script points. In this tale, a socially awkward youth goes to a party with his cousin and a friend they discover the usual McGuffin-giving them incredible powers. However, things quickly dissolve through trying to live a life that everyone experiences and the ability to make things fly through the air.

I liked it, thought it to be decent. All the actors are right on cue; the special effects are well blended into the scenery and the script. But, well, here’s the thing with these kinds of movies. Blair Witch worked due to a mythology and a terrific marketing campaign that blurred the line between reality and fantasy. And that was the last time it worked. Both Paranormal Activity and Chronicle really don’t cover new material.  We lovingly hate reality television in the world today. Why would we pay for further copies of it?  Not many people would. Paranormal Activity came off with only one scare. Chronicle? We’d seen it before, so why should we care.

Yes, you’ve seen this movie before. Take away the super hero antics and you have a very violent John Hughes movie; a rated “R” Sky High.

However, I can’t help thinking this is a stepping stone. There’s something more here, almost like a sketch of a future picture that will add more depth and cause then this movie tries to do. Is it possible? I hope so. I liked the idea, and everyone was truly trying. Now? Get to making the next Big Thing….

Morning Fluff - The Daily What

Just to test to see if this works.

 

And, in the end, I just gotta say, have you ever wondered why true joy looks like? Look at this video.

Morning Fluff - The Daily What

Something That Made You Cry

Something that Made You Cry

The pages of books, even digital pages comfort me, truly. With them, I can make up my mind on what I see when I digest text.  When it says "his internal organs spurted." I can define the size of that spurt and my reaction to it. The power of words is totally within reach of the reader and I've loved that.

   I've noticed more and more, lately, I have a thing for crime.  I keep thinking I need to add "borderline criminologist" to my signature page on Micechat.com. I noticed this because the headlines under the topic of "Crime" on HuffingtonPost.com keep bringing me back. Plus, the only short story I got a rush of  and a response from was about a serial killer trying to kill a homeless kid.  I am impressed, for lack of a better word, with the amount of pain the world is willing to inflict on one another without care or concern.

                I see the antigay rhetoric screamed loud from street corners, the vitriol spewing from hatred of what is, basically, people doing what the haters cannot do. That is, celebrating their sexuality and finding comfort. I know it is hate now, for when I see a group with the name National Organization for Marriage, group that defines itself as wanting to save marriage--does nothing but fight marriage rights for gay people. That's hatred. If they wanted to bring down divorce rates, they'd go ahead and set up counseling for families. Heck, I'd even join their crusade if that was the focus.

                 For all their hate directed at me, I don't cry for some reason. I bring this up only for comparative’s sake.

                  For me? It's that fucking Sarah McClacan commercial for the ASPCA.

                Tears roll.

                I think because you pick a fight with a supposed equal, that's one and that's what a hate group does. But when humanity takes their energy and, instead of giving it to the good fight of feeding children and housing the homeless, use their energy to beat their dog. A dog that loves their owner for no reason, other than they provide them food.

                 I'm not a cat man, in any sense of the word. But even Betty, the step-cat, crawls upon my lap or chest when I'm reading without fear, knowing I mean her no harm. How can I intentionally hurt her?

                 I brought up the crime bit at the beginning to point out, how can anyone delibrately hurt another person. When they scream hate or anger, it's easier to punch back. If a dog bites your leg, you can kick it. Where does this hatred of companion animals come from? We can be mean to the pork providers, for a pig has never warmed our hearts-but a dog or a cat? This makes little sense.

                 Another thing that makes the tears flow for me?   Nazism.   Weird. My father, a person of Jewish decent, is an idiot. But not because he's Jewish. It is because he's human and had the ill-luck to marry the complicated creature that is my mother. This probably rotted out his brain, regardless of his national origin. But I really lose it on watching movies on the Holocaust. I don't understand how people, a people I can kinda understand crime about, how can people target and work on a group's extermination?

                Wait a minute, I just got it. I made the connection. I don't cry over the lies the National Organization of Marriage makes; but I shed tears over the genocide of the Jewish people. I need to make the link and the jump. They are doing the same thing. The Nazis started with simple, indirect espouses of lies, before moving in for the kill. I need to remember it. And I need to let it overpower me, emotionally, to tears. Maybe that'll get me to move against them in more than words only.

It Bothered Me, So I'm Writing About It.

You know that cliché-“The more things change, the more they stay the same?” I saw the clip below from TED (which, by the way, you MUST watch if you’re one of those creative types) and it started me thinking about several things. Now I’m pretty laid back. I taught middle school for God’s sake. Perhaps I’ve even seen the worst of humanity—bad because it’s a phase that all humans must go through. Being a teenager some how make your brain a bit wonky and, well, difficult to deal with. That’s not too out of the ordinary. I was subjected to the behaviors so much, I became immune. And now that I live in Florida, I keep hearing the same song, over and over again. The populace down here is marked by their age. So, really, is it that surprising to hear, basically, this, over and over again?

It’s a great play/movie, if ever you get a chance to watch it. If you wanna, jump ahead to Paul Lynde dishing the music a good chunk inwards….

Everyone likes to think their generation was right and, since the generation afterwards had a different situation—they’re bad and not at all respectful. Forget the fact that teenagers, as a whole, are as aggravating as all get out sometimes, I always got a kick out of the Boomers loved to whine about Generation X’s way of doing things. Generation X is disrespectful. Generation X has everything we don’t. On and on the list would go. In some ways, now, I see it a bit clearer. My generation is Generation X. They’re the ones with kids now. And I see them having the same complaints over and over again. My generation is the one insisting that kids today have it good with technology and that technology is making kids today ruder than ever before.

Forget the fact that parents are the ones BUYING the technology for the kids, of course.

But you can see where the complaint is coming from. Through going the normal phase of growing up, another generation is being led to believe that they’re inferior to the one that went before. Nice. Good going. Brilliant.

Then, however, I watched this on reddit.com.

Dang, another long one, but worth the effort. In fact, any TED video is worthwhile. I love watching them.

And I guess it bothered me, so I’m writing about it. The video’s essence is this: the web responds to our touch and our wants and needs. You can see it in our web searches; you can see it in the sidebar adverts that pop up when we’re in Facebook.com. I never really gave it much thought, it happens so smoothly. In fact, I do, honestly, sometimes click those links; I do, sometimes, do Google searches. I had no idea that it was tailor-made for this writer.

The fact is, maybe, just maybe the initial cliché I used, “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” is becoming outdated. Kids today, are, digitally, getting exactly what they want-they just don’t realize it. And the adults do today as well. I see it when I’m standing in line at the Emporium on Main Street, U.S.A. There will be the parent, the child screaming from exhaustion, the parent in their own bubble, hurling insults at some poor cast member about the fact that they are missing the parade while looking for a Minnie doll in a pink, not red, dress. Their anger sours the immediate atmosphere and any frivolity by other patrons is now bent out of shape as they try to shake that minor but evident example of how-not-to-enjoy-your-vacation.

I try to brush it off as the generation before it saying, again, that people are just walking the same path. Researchers love to explain and zipline this topic for quiet news days. I’m so laid-back in reality, remember those years suffering in middle schools, that I can forget it fairly quickly. But after seeing that Ted presentation, I’m beginning to wonder. Maybe the tradition of rude-ness has been broken.

If people today, not just kid, are getting everything tailored to them—even when they don’t know it---it would stand to reason that they would expect that even in the Happiest Place on Earth. I suppose we could blame the speed of response that technology as well, having everything at the flick of a keyboard and the click of a mouse. True, that. But also advertisements, ones we’re not even totally watching? Maybe, just maybe we are becoming more rude.

I have this friend, see, and he’s a total tech-head. Works out of home. So closeted he summers in Narnia. Can’t deal with humans at all. Rude as all get out. Has no concept of compassion or social graces. We excuse him when we go see movies because of his environment and home life. But, really, is he what we’ll soon all become?

And, are we capable enough to adapt to this new change in people’s personality? It bothered me. So I’m writing about it.

And Then Autumn Arrived

And Then Autumn Arrived

The feeling of newness to the condo was hard to be avoided. Surely, the construction of the place was over forty years ago, but the interior had been scrubbed and more-than-spit-washed. Darryl realized he had struck a pose in the middle of the living room with a dish rag in his hand and his bald head gleaming with sweat.

    The last box had been destroyed by his hands, just fifteen minutes ago. Life affords everyone second and third chances. This condo was to become his second. He had no idea what had happened to him back in Washington. Perhaps it was being locked up all winter when the snows came; the summers that had an eerie stillness to them before rain. Whatever the case may be, he cleaned everything, moved what few items he had to Florida and found this fantastic deal on this condo.

    This very clean and very new inside condo.

    He walked out to the alley way, folding the box with such precision, that one might have thought he took some kind of Japanese art class to have mastered it. He tucked the cardboard between the garbage cans where seven other last boxes where now housed.

    He was done with the boxes. Now he could enjoy his life.

    He moved back into the living room and removed the glass top of his coffee table, careful not to add finger prints. To make sure, he held it to the evening's light through the far window to make sure it was still clean.  He placed it on a clean blanket to the right of him. His keys scissored  the lock and he looked in. 

    The research had worked. Inside the cedar and pine trunk of his construction, the insulating layer of plastic and foam had not deteriorated one bit. He placed a palm on them they were not even warm. The Renuzits, all cinnamon flavored, banked the interior and made the fetid aroma greatly reduce--and the mummification had begun on the young victim's body.

    He sighed and looked at the calendar he had placed on the back door. Today was officially the first day of Autumn. Halloween would be soon.

    "Poor bloke. Over state lines, and still no one has asked me about you," Darryl hit the side as if the body understood the joke.

    He was going to love the fall in Florida. 

Borders employees list complaints, grievances | Shelf Life | EW.com

Being a bookie regular, I had to appreciate this. My favorite? “We’re going to Barnes and Nobles!” Please, please do. I’m sad to see the demise of the bookstore in general, but, hey, there’s always the library! Seriously, keep reading. Especially since next week is the “Banned Book Week!”  Enjoy the LINK:

Borders employees list complaints, grievances | Shelf Life | EW.com

Warrior Film Review

Trailer…

Movie Review



I used to box, but I wasn't very good at all, I hate to admit. I detested jumping around, especially jumping rope, but here's the thing--I was thinner then any other time. Your body does respond. Then I got married and wasn't allowed to spar any more. Not that it mattered. I only sparred three times. Two of those times was against my female kickboxing coach.


Yes, she kicked my ass.

But the experience was completely meditative. No, seriously. There's something to be said that, when you're in the ring, nothing else really matters. You had a shitty day at work? You might not want to dwell on that. That fucknut who cut in front of you in the line at Disney World? Remember, you do, technically, have the ability to kill him. However, when there’s a fist or two heading towards your head, you can’t really think about those kinds of things.


I miss boxing. I don't know if I could ever go back in my current state, really. And movies like Warriors proves that. Made by Gavin O'Conner it is, basically, a Rocky movie. I mean, seriously. His other claim to fame, Miracle, was about the American ice hockey team, a longshot in the Olympics being the underdog and kicking the asses of Soviet team.Watch one of these movies, watch them all. The only difference? This one stars two men who are slightly beyond physically fit. One of the brothers, played by the cocky Brit Tom Hardy (who is doing his best self promoting by admitting bisexuality and then denyting it for some reason)was in the military. So his deltoids get a free pass.

Kinda makes you wanna go to the gym 24/7 and give up, I dunno, EATING…

Wait...let me see him again. Okay NOW he gets a free pass.


The other, a pseudo newcomer named Joel Edgerton , I only recognized from the Star Wars Cash Cow prequels. But his pecs are in full glory here. They say the camera adds weight. This youth must look like a glorified telephone pole in reality.

Check out Joel’s Stanly Kowolski in Streetcar….

The story has the two brothers work their way up into a Mixed Martial Arts public fight for a million dollar purse. What makes this film different? Well, they didn't go with melodrama. Surely, there's enough angst to overflow a teenager's cell phone, but there's something tangible about it. A teacher with very little money (Joel’s Brenden Conlon); a man fresh from the military with nothing to achieve other than his honor (Tom’s Tommy). This plot and the accompanying writing keeps the audience interested a bit more than most.

I noticed, in today's day and age, when the poor getting poorer by the second, bloodsport, for many starving men, might be the only way out of debt in front of the plutocrats. So there's even a timeliness angle.


I'm thinking I enjoyed this movie. I came for the eye candy and was impressed.


And I know it. Being in that ring is heavy business. I merely just boxed. Getting hit, anywhere, even with training is painful and drags energy. Mixed martial arts are just as bad, if not worse. These sports require zero pads and a special kind of person. I can only imagine the kind of character a person would be required to have before doing something that painful. Did this movie capture that? With the beautifully thin physics high school teacher? No, honestly. The fact is, in an attempt to be honest and straightforward, they nixed certain realities. One here and there is a gimmie, but to the point where I found my mind wondering in the slower points. How could a teacher stay that thin without coaching something? How can a person go AWOL from the Marines and only be found when he appears on television? Such gaps made the film show up in the nadir of movies, the September release.
I do, however, feel that there is more going on here that is on the screen. I want to see all of these people do more. There’s breathing room to be had. I look forward to it.

Warrior

9/11 Anniversary: World Remembers, Reflects On September 11th

Look, I have a friend who has posted 32 different videos about September 11th. I guess we all mourn and remember things in different ways. But, well, really? I’m sad and blue today, to be sure, but having angst rubbed in my face isn’t going to cure the nation. Still, as I ask to you to remember the date—the purpose behind it still is not defined. We are still, as a people, reeling and mulling for an answer. 

9/11 Anniversary: World Remembers, Reflects On September 11th

Wisconsin Official Instructs Staff Not To Mention Free IDs For Voting

You do realize, of course, Wisconsin was the first state to pass a state-wide gay-rights ordinance in the seventies. Then this happens! Seriously? Believe it or not, I’m fine with the showing of IDs. I’m NOT fine with trying to get money for nothing. I’d tell everyone, frankly.

Wisconsin Official Instructs Staff Not To Mention Free IDs For Voting

I guess I should, at some point, rehash all my geekiness, and pretend that you are all incapable of rereading or remembering previous posts about my personality quirks. Yeah, I could do that.

But I like to think that most of my readers are smart people and don't need a teacher-lecture on how they should review my history. You're being spared.

So, yeah, I knew I'd probably like Thor before going to the theater. This summer has a long list of titles ready to go-Pirates 4, X-Men prequels, Green Lanterns. Probably each one of them following the formula for cinematic success-Fate forbid that a studio invest a few million on an original concept.

Thor is formula, if ever there was one. It's predictable in so many ways, like that very comfortable sweatshirt, it fits the summer of movies like a glove. Everyone in the movie was having so much fun and was so beautiful, it was like watching the beach from a telescope and taking pictures with my phone to prove it to people. Dirty fun, the kind you know you should be enjoying but do anyways.

In other words, even if you weren't invited to the party-you'd still get a kick out of it. THe film tells the story of the Norse God and his abrupt landing on Midgard, or Earth. The scope of the film is actually quite good. He doesn't stop bankrobbers or terrorists--instead, it has to do with his history coming to haunt him and how he comes around to being an honest man. I'd say it's original, but if you were following in the comic book, you'd know pretty much what was coming.

I know I did. But I didn't mind the journey.

Now the movie is created by Kenneth Branagh, one of my first crushes since coming out of the closet in the early ninties. I thought he was a hottieMcbeefcake with an accent in Henry the Fifth, and his selection of material is at once both inspired and surprising. He's one of those Royal Shakespeareans who's voice can make reading ingrediants a sensual experience by inflection alone. Shakespeare is far from an easy read, but he gets it and it showed on the screen (and I assume, his stagework). But, he, well, picked a comic book to return to directing movies. I think this is a trend right now. You have Chris Nolan making Batman completely legit; Ang Lee's Hulk was heady stuff, but an attempt, nonetheless.

It was surprising, but here's the inspiring part-it works. He is completely able to bring a certain gravitas to scenes involving the 'royal play' that the Norse gods bicker through. In fact, he makes Earth a light and forgiving place, full of love and creativity and excitement--a place worth going to. Then he makes Asgard, the home of the gods, a cold place without love and tons of backstabbing and trickery.

Okay, I'm going to mention something else that I don't normally pay attention to--as part of the "cold" of the world of Asgard, Bo Welch, the film's production designer should be applauded. He does something I didn't think was possible. He blends a modern chic with ancient design. It's a technology world, but the tech is all magical. Everything is well lit, but metal; lines lead everywhere, one thinks you're standing inside of a giant clock (especially in the gatehouse...watch for it and tell me what you think).

All things being considered, the movie has its flaws, but I was so busy looking at the Abercrombie and Fitch catalog, I didn't care. And don't think it was only the boys. Natalie Portman is in there and makes the prettiest scientist since Doctor Goodhead in Moonraker. And just as awful of a placement in the piece. She's an excellent actress, so much so, that you can see the weaknesses in the story by her batting her eyelashes enough trying to flutter energy into something. Still, she's just got an Oscar. Maybe this is some kind of movie star break or something.

Yeah, the story is weak becuase, Shakespeare or reading comic books, we've been down this road before.

Go see the movie. It's stupid fun but still fun. I loved it, but we knew that. But I think you might too.

TRON: Legacy

TRON: Legacy was sneaked into a presentation at ComicCon in San Diego back in 2008. The crowd went wild. Cellphones were held up high to try to capture a bit of video-a segment of film that didn't even end up in the final film-to post on YouTube and keep the buzz alive. Disney didn't even worry about the copyright infrindgement.

They had stumbled across their Star Trek. Tron had legions of fans that would happily overlook any flaws and pay full price, maybe even extra for 3-D, regardless of the quality of the film. That is the beauty of Marvel comics and serials. You know you can bring those audiences in again and again and again, no matter what the quality.

The first Tron, I will admit, I was smitten. But I like to think I'm smart too. The first Tron was crappy. It was like a Tim Burton movie; it looked great and that rose above the shitty material. It was all over the map, but like a really big train wreck, it was amazing to see in action.

And it played to the geek factor. The same group of techno-saavy boys who knew how to type, were probably gay and could actually see the applications of technology in this movie. These years AHEAD of the Matrix, but pretty much covered the same territory.

And I loved it as such.

So, yes, I watched those YouTube videos.

And I remember whispering to my husOtter, "dearest, wouldn't it be great to see that movie actually IN Florida AT Disney World?"

So the movie took on a whole other quality--that of the quest of me and my family moving to Florida.

I point out all of these things because I believe a movie got lost in this muddle. Really, I do. And not only my personal muddle of moving and Disney-fandom, but in a public muddle of Generation X, still trying to find legitamcy in surviving the Reagan era, tend to celebrate things and then realize, well, they weren't that great to begin with.

I mean, a Transformers...MOVIE? Now a sequel to a mediocre movie! 

This is not The Empire Strikes Back, I tell you.

TRON: Legacy tries to be several movies at once and since it is spread too thin, it never really achieves greatness beyond visual effects. It's power was stolen by the Matrix films, the inside of a computer being elaborated on in those movies. Yes, the inside of the computer is a neon playground, we got that, and with computers being even more advanced than ever before, you could just sit back and get your money's worth watching this piece unfold.

But this is a sequel and written by people who know computers, but not much aobut storylines and energy. The film takes it's power and watches it fizzle, as if it stole the better parts of other movies. The plot goes like this. Remember how Flynn, Jeff Bridges character in the original movie, got zapped into the computer back in 82? Well, at the start of this movie, he's disappeared, but the audience figures out that he kept going back and eventually was taken prisoner. Artifical Intelligences started forming, basically 'free programs,' but because Jeff's original monitoring program was supposed to keep order, 'Clu' (a digital, younger Bridges) has been killing them off. Where's Tron? The original anti-virus from the first movie? He's now a sideline character, kidnapped and brainwashed by Clu to help rebuild the World Inside of the Computer.

Flynn is living in the computer and has been, his son never knowing where his father was. Clu, however, zaps the kid into the computer and the we're back into the system.

And, well, I liked it. I knew I would. I had moved to Florida, I had my dreams come true. I loved the texture of the film, I loved the feel of the sequel.

But I'm not an idiot. The movie has zero momentum. It starts strong enough and takes the audience into the "Grid." But then does nothing much beyond that point. It was as if they knew we would buy tickets and all they needed to do was get us to willingly buy tickets.

Here's the deal. The first Star Trek movie sucked big time. Then they made a sequel that the geeks would love, not really thinking of the others. Then PUFT, they hit big time.

TRON:Legacy would have worked better if they just stuck to their guns and just made a movie. I kept feeling like Disney was doing their product placement, giving something for everyone. The action sequences are slow, making sure you see the images;  the dialogue was stlited and humor was nonexistent. I kept wanting to see something more--Tron is patroling the Grid, becoming a police state, funded by the government. I would have loved to seen a situation more relevant than ever before--where net neutality is underfire and the technology to make people go INTO the Grid is about to go international.

Instead, I got good guys and bad guys.

I do hope there's a part three--and it's a better one!