Review: Cowboys & Aliens

The tag-line on my blog is, "there's a good story in every day".  You would think that if you were a cowboy living in a town invaded by aliens over 100 years ago, you would find a good story.  I could find a good story there, an adventurous, compelling, good vs evil story.  This movie has the potential to tell a good story, but.......there are so many 'buts'.

There are so many things going on in this movie that you don't even care about one of the characters.  There are so many simultaneous story lines and themes, there is no theme.  The thin plot is a medium for CGI slimy aliens.  It was literally: action scene, action scene, talking, action scene, slimy alien, death scene, action scene (this was the outline for the writer(s), I'm sure).

Remember when you cared about Jason Borne?  The whole of all three movies was a long run-on action scene, but I cared.

I love a good cowboy movie, and love a good sci-fi, so I was disappointed that this movie was so silly.

If you want good cowboy and alien entertainment, watch Firefly.  It's a television show that only ran for one season, and was summed up with a great movie after it was canceled.

Review: Tree Of Life

Last week I watched "Tree of Life".  Here is what I think about it:

I think it is like cilantro: either you'll like it or you'll hate it.

Some reasons you may hate it are its raw topics: grief, parenting, death.  If you watch movies to escape and relax, then don't watch.

Another is "Tree of Life" parallels the story of a family with the story of the cosmos.  It visually interjects cosmic events (Big Bang and  extinction of the dinosaurs) and the story of a family and a boy losing his innocence.  If you need action, watching the Milky Way for several minutes might be difficult to endure.

I can say that I liked it because of my demographic (30 something, parent).

"Tree of Life" is artsy.  It is wonderful to look at, but hard to watch.  It exposes the edges of daily life that we try to rise above.  It is difficult to watch Brad Pitt be a 'bad dad', but I know that I am also making mistakes.  That is hard to watch, like looking in a mirror.  When I see bad parenting in movies, it is usually dramatic.  The parents are drug addicts, narcissistic movie stars, or aliens, not real people, like in this movie.

The one flaw I saw in the movie was more of a question.  Why was Sean Penn in this movie?  His part made no sense to me, not even in the end.  They could have saved 40 minutes of this long movie by taking that bit out.  I see what they were trying to do, but they failed.

I was moved by this movie: moved to look inside, up, and snuggle with my kids.  It is a story of redemption, just like my story, so in that way it was worth watching.

North by Northwest

This week, 2 people told me I should blog about movies I love.  I love movies.  The problem with blogging about movies I love, is I haven't seen many I LOVE for over a year.  The fact is I have seen quite a few movies I end up falling asleep in, not because I am too tired, but because they are too boring.  I love a good story.

I have seen thousands of movies.  My dad got me started on old movies from when he was a kid and before.  B-movies about blobs and monsters from the 50,  musicals, thrillers, academy award winners, Danny Kaye,  and science fiction.  I think he has good taste.  Really I don't care what genre a movie is, as long as it has a well crafted story.  This is why so many movies I have seen lately have been so terrible: un-compelling stories.

I am going to review movies, but only movies I like.  It will be more like a recommendation.  I usually don't watch a movie twice (except for Christmas movies), but I'll watch some of my old favorites again, and then tell you what I think.

I'll start with recommending 'North by Northwest'.  It was made in the late 50's and is by Hitchcock and stars Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint.  What's not to love about that?  If you only watch new movies, you should try this old one.  It might remind you of some newer movies, but this one is fundamental.  There is mistaken identity, a beautiful girl, a lot of running, an airplane and did I mention Cary Grant?