Movie Review: Nobel Son

Director: Randall Miller (who?)
How I Watched It: Free Screening at Loews Boston Common theater
Date: Tuesday, December 3rd

I didn't watch the trailer before going to see this movie, so I really had no idea what to expect. Regardless of my lack of expectations, what I got was a convoluted, campy story about a womanizing professor and the consequences of one of his numerous affairs.
Here's a hint: when a movie opens with a scene of professor Alan Rickman in flagrante delicto with a female grad student, the scene played up to full comic effect, you can generally cast aside all expectations for any sort of serious drama. However, the creative team behind this movie try to mash together an impulse toward the comic with a family drama and campy dialogue, along with mediocre acting across the board. The best that the movie ever achieves is being ironically funny in the sense that you are laughing at the movie, not along with the intentions of those who made it.
The screenplay is as much of a trainwreck as I recall myself watching in the recent past. It essentially boils down to a series of increasingly convoluted dramatic plotlines wrapped around contrived witty dialogue to lighten the mood that misfires on every occasion. The cinematography at least made the inspid plot look interesting, but as the movie proceeded further and further it served less and less effectively to distract.
My one positive about the movie was the soundtrack. The music was very good, even if the movie did not quite measure up to the style of the soundtrack. It still made me very intrigued to get my hands on a copy at some point soon.

Blog Relaunch and Movie Review: Australia

I have decided, a year later, to have another go with the keeping of a regular blog, in concert with my attempts to become more knowledgeable in the fields of music and movies. So while this may be a vehicle for other sorts of musings, I intend for it to primarily be a means for discussing those things as I previously mentioned. So here goes...

Movie Review: Australia
Director: Baz Luhrmann
How I Watched It: Free Pre-Release Screening at Regal Fenway Cinema
Date: Thursday, November 20th

Being a big fan of Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo + Juliet, I was extremely excited to see this new movie Australia. I've loved Hugh Jackman ever since I watched him host the Tony Awards in 2003, a fanhood that The Prestige only cemented. (more Christopher Nolan appreciation coming in the next few weeks hopefully :-p)

Unfortunately, this movie did not at all deliver on the potential that I saw in it. Early in the movie, Luhrmann's inventive direction shines, particularly in the prologue section of the movie which illustrates how Nicole Kidman came to Faraway Downs. The art direction, obviously a strength of all the director's movies, remains relatively solid throughout the whole movie.

However, somewhere in the middle, Mr. Luhrmann seems to have forgotten precisely which genre his movie is. He is clearly under the impression that he is shooting the Lord of the Rings, utilizing a number of ornate shots which this reviewer did not find particularly appropriate to a period piece, culminating in a Peter Jackson-esque slow-motion-shaky camera-battle scene shot in a context that failed to deserve such a methodology.

The movie drags through the last half of the movie, and it would've been much better served by wrapping up at least an hour earlier. It picks up for about 5 minutes during the eventual battle of Darwin, only to lose all that momentum immediately afterward.

Jackman was mediocre, maybe a bit better. The part wasn't particularly well-written. Nicole Kidman was exceptionally annoying from her first appearance on camera. Not Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia annoying, but almost there. Only the young man who plays Nullah, Brandon Walters, is especially distinguished, although David Wenham is somewhat better than the rest as well.

As to the climax, I don't want to give it away, but they so stole that from Crash...

Fall '07 Mix

If I were to create a mix of the songs that I have listened to most, or enjoyed the most this past semester....
1. Massive Attack - Teardrop
2. Dropkick Murphys - I'm Shipping Up To Boston
3. Dropkick Murphy - Tessie (For Papi, JPap, Pedroia the Destroyah, etc.)
4. Journey - Don't Stop Believing
5. Ben Folds Five - Don't Change Your Plans
6. Ben Folds Five - Army
7. Just Jack - Starz In Their Eyes
8. The Police - Invisible Sun
9. Devendra Banhart - Shabop Shalom
10. The Police - Spirits In The Material World
11. The Police - Can't Stand Losing You
12. Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass
13. Billy Joel - Downeaster "Alexa"
14. Los Campesions - We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives
15. Gang of Four - I Love A Man In Uniform
16. A Flock Of Seagulls - I Ran
17. A-ha - Take on Me
18. Franz Ferdinand - Outsiders
19. Eastman Wind Ensemble - Festive Overture, Op. 96 (Dimitri Shostakovich)

Attend The Tale (15 Days From Now)

Oh man, if I wasn't already excited about it before, I am really excited now. Early critical response for the movie adaptation of Sweeney Todd has been pretty solid. Almost ecstatic at times. The reviews so far on Rotten Tomatoes are 100% 5/5 positive. A columnist on broadway.com has called it brilliant and meriting oscars for Depp and Burton, as well as Sondheim, although he isn't eligible since the score isn't original. Lastly, Playbill.com reports that the national board of review named it a top 10 film of 2007. Burton was also named best director by the same group.

I think I'm gonna die of excitement before Christmas break. Sweeney Todd would make the 3rd straight major movie musical to do solidly both in terms of reviews and box office (after Hairspray and Dreamgirls). The genre really needed it after the previous 3 big ones: Rent, The Producers and The Phantom of The Opera all did poorly with critics and box office. (despite perhaps having more potential to do well because they were based on better known shows). Admittedly, I liked Rent and PoTO (The Producers was thoroughly unsatisfying) but it's nice to see the last couple have a more broad appeal, because it is courting new fans that will propagate the musical genre, both on stage and screen.

On the topic of adaptating a movie to the stage, I recently took in a screening of Legally Blonde: The Musical on MTV. Despite having a score written by Laurence O'Keefe (writer of Bat Boy: The Musical--if you've never heard the score and you are a theatre person, you need to hear it NOW) which was occasionally tuneful and catchy, the script into which the songs were placed was thoroughly unenjoyable. Laura Bell Bundy was also not very good as Elle, and few in the cast were able to really compensate. Overall, disappointment abounded. If they had to pick a teen-oriented musical to show on MTV, I have no idea which one to choose instead. Oh yeah, how about Spring freakin' Awakening? Like a legit good show. I really should be in television. I would be so much better at pickin' stuff like that. If only...

Opening On A Down Note...

Daily Free Press website, why must you fail me in my hour of need? Already having pre-exam stress, I opened my email to find the most distressing news that Brian McGuirk and several other members of the BU hockey team have been suspended for "indefinitely" games. Unfortunately, when I attempt to further investigate this breaking news on the FreeP website, I found that the site was unresponsive, leaving me in suspense until tomorrow morning when I can get the hard copy. As if the season could not have any poorer prospects. On the bright side, the Icedogs played far better at Agganis on this Saturday past with McG and a couple others suspended, so maybe they can cope. (However, this could partly be chalked up home-ice advantage, and in the end, they did still lose)

When will our misery end? The Dog Pound is waiting for a savior!

Oh yeah, and this is my new blog. I hear they give the possesor trendiness on the level of fashionable Dolce & Gabbana goods. I like trendy. Enjoy.