Alice

Impressions before seeing it
I think I stumbled on this movie while browsing around blu-ray.com, and then when I checked out the trailer I was delighted to see a lot of stop-motion animation with a slightly creepy edge to it.

How was it?
My problem with Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland is that he didn't care about the original story (I don't think he ever does when doing adaptations/remakes). Not only does Czech director Jan Svankmajer care about Lewis Carroll's book, but judging by his film he understands it. Alice doesn't contain much logic or any moral lessons, and there are creepy, sinister, slightly adult undertones running through it, and that is what the book is. Watching this movie just made me dislike Tim Burton's version more because it did a much better job in 1988 than Burton did in 2010 with a way bigger budget, cast, and special effects.

The reason Svankmajer's adaptation is so brilliant is not just because it maintains the tone and spirit of the book, but because it actually managed to make the story fresh and unique. I've read the book and seen other movie adaptations, but watching this I was never bored and never knew what was coming next. The word "Wonderland" is noticeably absent from the title, and that's because in this version, Alice doesn't visit a strange, magical land. Instead, she is cranking her imagination/dreams up to 11 on a boring afternoon around the house. This is cleverly indicated by the sets, characters, and props, all made from things found around the house, and at certain points in the movie you can tell when Alice has wandered into, say, the garden shed or the pantry. Also omni-present is the same wooden desk with the drawer handle that always pops off; Alice may have an imagination, but it's limited to what she can find in the house. All of the creatures come to life in stop-motion animation, including Alice herself at times: whenever she shrinks, she becomes the doll used at the beginning of the movie to represent herself. I'm a big fan of stop-motion so I loved that aspect. Some of it was funny in a weirdly charming way, and some of it was a tad disturbing, but not alarmingly so - and, again, that's what makes it faithful to the book. And it didn't even have the fan favourite Cheshire cat, but many other characters and scenes are present.

Recommendation
I had more fun watching this than I thought I would (I was a little worried it might be too weird even for me), and can say it is the best adaptation of Alice in Wonderland I've ever seen. Or at least the most unique one. Fans should check it out, because this movie needs to be more well known.

The Ben Stiller Show

The Ben Stiller Show was a short-lived sketch comedy show that aired on FOX in the early 90's, a time when FOX only had 1 or 2 hits and was not as big a network as it is now. However, they still canceled this show. Some things never change.

The unique thing about this show is that it was not filmed live, which was rare at the time because probably 98% of all comedy shows had a live audience or laughtrack. This allowed for better production values because of the freedom to shoot on location, and for sketches that were movie parodies, they actually looked like movies because they didn't have that live look.
To bring up its flaws, some of the humour was outdated and stale, and some of the sketches went on far too long. Also, the format of the show included interstitials featuring Ben talking to cast members and guest stars between sketches, and those were often unfunny and the worst part of the show. But there are some funny sketches peppered throughout the series (see below). The writing staff consisted of some brilliant comedic minds, including Stiller, Judd Apatow, Bob Odenkirk, David Cross, and Dino Stamatopoulos, who you might know as Star-Burns on Community. It may be an uneven series, but it's an interesting look at weird 90's humour and some talented people who were mostly still at the beginning of their careers. Andy Dick actually did some solid character acting and accurate celebrity impressions, and Stiller had some great ones too, often donning prosthetic noses and chins to help him look more like whoever he was doing. Judd Apatow even got in there for a surprisingly good Jay Leno impression. It was clear toward the last couple of episodes (and confirmed on the commentaries) that everyone was starting to run out of steam at episode 13, but it would have been interesting to see this show go on longer, and perhaps even change the format to remove the dragging interstitials.

Best sketches: I'm not going to choose a best episode for this one, since they're just a mix of clips anyway. Instead I will simply point out my favourite sketches from the series.

-Melrose Heights 90210-2402 - A parody of prime time teen high school soaps where Stiller plays two characters who are exactly the same except for different sideburns, and Odenkirk plays a student who dresses in gay S&M leather but somehow nobody knows he's gay.
-Advantage Agassi - A trailer for an action movie starring tennis star Andre Agassi (Stiller) as the racket-wielding action hero.
-Information 411 - A parody of Rescue 911 (remember that show?) hosted by Adam West that documents stories of people needing to call the information hotline in times of crisis.
-Bomb Squad - A sketch starring Andy Dick as a guy trying to diffuse a time bomb, but constantly stopping to do other time consuming things as the clock ticks for a seemingly endless interval, poking fun at movies where the bomb should have gone off but had to wait for exposition or character drama.
-Die Hard 12: Die Hungry - A trailer for a Die Hard sequel where John McClane (Stiller doing a hilariously exaggerated Bruce Willis impression) is fighting bad guys in a grocery store and cracking food related jokes.
-Woody Allen's Bride of Frankenstein - A weird but clever sketch idea that is basically what it sounds like: a Woody Allen movie where the characters are Halloween monsters. Andy Dick plays the Woody Allen role (a mummy with Woody's big glasses) quite well.

Gran Torino

Impressions before seeing it
Heard it was good, and that some people found the violence controversial or something when it was released. Which doesn't bother me, it only makes me curious.

How was it?
Much of Gran Torino is Clint Eastwood doing what he does best: being a hard, angry badass. So if you're an Eastwood fan, you might enjoy it just for that. For everyone else, I will attempt to explain the appeal. Walt (Eastwood's character) is kind of like a scarier and angrier version of Carl Fredricksen from Pixar's Up. Having just lost his wife, who he deeply loved, he retreats into misanthropy, racism, and horrible memories of his time in the Vietnam War. And like Carl (yes, I'm still going with this comparison), Walt slowly begins to come out of his shell and enjoy people again when he befriends the Hmong brother and sister who live next door. But of course it's not a cuddly friendship movie like Up. The Hmongs are regularly harassed by gangs and thugs, and that's where Walt steps in to defend them using his geriatric Dirty Harry-ness.

Walt's character could have easily been unlikable, what with his grumpy, blunt manner, but he wasn't because I felt that a lot of his contempt was justified. I especially understood the disdain he felt for his own family, as they never seemed to care for him or know anything about him, and were always trying to get something from him, acting like he was the rude one when he refused. The people he thought to be scumbags and morons were scumbags and morons, and that makes us like Walt more.

This paragraph is about to spoil the ending, so skip it if you haven't seen the movie.
I don't know what the specific complaints were regarding the violence, but Gran Torino is really not that graphic. In fact a lot of it is just a looming threat of violence rather than actual bloodshed. Even the ending appears to be setting us up for a massacre (both because the story led us there and because it's Clint Eastwood seeking revenge), but it twists in another direction. In writing, they say the ending should be inevitable but not predictable, and that's what it accomplished. Walt's sins have weighed down on him his whole life, and he made the decision to deliver justice without sinning further. He confesses to a priest and then, perhaps for his own principles since he is not religious, absolves himself completely by giving his life for the same race of people he brutally slaughtered in the war, conveniently landing in the classic Jesus Christ pose as he is gunned down. I don't know if people thought of this as a cop out, as they were probably waiting the entire movie to see Clint Eastwood shoot someone, but that was, depressingly enough, the happiest possible ending to this story. I think Gran Torino is a movie about not always taking the easy way out or the easy choice, because sometimes you have to take the hard choice when it's the right choice.

Recommendation
I really enjoyed it. It has the look and feel of Eastwood's other recent directorial efforts, and there is no gratuitous violence like I somehow thought there would be. Not sure what else to say and this post is getting long. It was just good.

Stand By Me

Impressions before seeing it
After briefly namedropping it in my post on Super 8, this conveniently came on TV and I decided to watch it since it has become one of those classics that everybody knows.

How was it?
"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12. Jesus, does anyone?"

That's the closing line from the movie, and I think it sums it up nicely. Stand By Me is a road trip movie - albeit one without a vehicle, or a road - and like all good road trip movies, it explores the bond formed during the big journey. I think what that closing line, and the movie, uncovers is the strength of childhood friendships. The characters were already friends at the beginning of the movie, yes, but 12 years old is the perfect age for an adventure because you're young enough to have no responsibilities, and just old enough to be developing some adequate maturity, intelligence, and life experience, yet again still young enough that you're not too old to just have some silly fun along the way. The boys do fight and argue on plenty of occasions, as anyone will when forced to spend too much time together, but the significant thing to note is that they each have their scene in the film where they break down, they reach their emotional breaking point, and the others are right there to help them out of it. I don't feel that this would have happened if someone broke down at the beginning of the movie. It feels like they were still kids at that point, and this journey to see a dead body is their first real activity as adults. That kind of experience (and the sobering effect of seeing a real dead body up close) tends to bring people closer together, and I think it created a loyalty that probably wasn't there before they departed. It is also interesting to note that everyone in the movie who is older than the four main boys is essentially a douchebag - with the exception of Gordie's older brother (John Cusack), though he is dead and only seen in flashbacks, so he doesn't really count. I think this was a deliberate choice to accentuate the friendships and favour youth for nostalgia's sake, though it could also be seen as Gordie's potentially biased interpretations of these people and/or adulthood in general.

You could even say that this movie is Lord of the Rings with a cast of kids. You have your group walking a long distance with a set destination and end goal in mind, and a group of villains traveling to the same place with a more sinister version of that goal in mind, and a confrontation when they get there. Or maybe I'm just comparing them because they're both movies about walking.

Recommendation
I am always fond of movies where a group of kids are going on an adventure that is bigger than them, and as a result they have to act more mature than they are. I would put Stand By Me with Super 8 and The Goonies and The Sandlot (not an adventure movie per se, but it is about a group of kids working together on a specific goal) as a movie in that category that fascinates me. Doesn't hurt that it's a road trip movie, either.

The Adjustment Bureau

Impressions before seeing it
The trailers reminded me a lot of Dark City, what with the men in fedoras freezing time and making changes to the world. I liked Dark City, but I didn't think this was necessarily going to be a ripoff because it focused more on romance.

How was it?
The important thing to note is that Matt Damon and Emily Blunt had good chemistry going on. When a movie heavily relies on the viewer caring about a relationship, as this one does, it has to be done right or else literally the entire movie crumbles into a dustpile of failure. Fortunately, not only are the two leads talented enough to pull it off, but their scenes together were charming and made enough of an impact that it was easy for me to root for them. Perhaps there are viewers who didn't fall for it, I don't know. It's a matter of taste.

I also enjoyed the sci-fi/fantasy elements involving the men in fedoras and their mysterious powers. It wasn't as similar to Dark City as I might have thought, but there's a little in there, as well as elements of the observers from Fringe, and even Monsters Inc., in a way. But it was more or less original (still based on a Phillip K. Dick story, I know) and interesting. We have seen the "man vs. fate" story before, but I think "love vs. fate" is a little less common - and I'm not counting romantic comedies, those don't tend to use fate as an overarching bully. This movie is a romance, but more of a romance for guys.

Recommendation
It's a good one to watch if fate is something that has always fascinated you, but again it's also enjoyable for Damon and Blunt's chemistry. The ending was predictable, but the journey was fun so overall I liked it.

Breaking Bad - Season Three

I've been waiting a long time, but finally here we are at the third season of the most flawless show on television. Season two (and season one, for that matter) didn't really end on too much of a cliffhanger, but this show is so addicting that it didn't need to in order for me to keep watching. But boy did they kick it up a notch in round three.

This season we had several episodes that opened with flashbacks, which ingeniously served to not only remind us of key elements from the first two seasons, but to give us a hint of character back story/development that would play a role in the rest of the episode. Some were fun, like the reveal of what Jesse did with Walt's life savings in the pilot, and some were very dark, like when the old man nearly drowned the kid to provoke his brother into saving him. The one with Danny Trejo's second appearance nicely raised the stakes by showing that the assassin brothers took him down.

But yeah, it seemed like everything was bigger and badder this year. Walt goes "pro" by cooking in a large, sterile lab, Saul and Skylar become much more involved as it takes more work to cover Walt's criminal lifestyle, Hank comes within inches of discovering his brother in-law, and everything culminates in full blown conflict with the drug bosses. The wonderful irony of all this is that at the beginning of the season, Walt was attempting to get out of the business, but by the finale he's in deeper than ever. Walter White is one of the most fascinating characters on television, and also one of the most badass. Clearly you don't want to mess with him. But what always amazes me most is the performances of both Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul. These are the kind of intense, seamless performances that make you forget you're watching actors because they're just so believable as their characters. It may get a little tiring for Cranston to win the Emmy every year (though he's not eligible this year since the show has been on hiatus that long), but damn if he doesn't deserve it every time. Fun fact from a DVD extra (awesomely titled "Pizza of Destiny"): when Walt threw the pizza on the roof, he did it perfectly on the first take. Is there anything Cranston is not good at?

Best episode: Up until the finale I would have said "Fly", a "bottle episode" of sorts where Walt and Jesse lock themselves in the lab until they can catch an annoying fly, but it was then outshined by the finale episode, "Full Measure", in which Walt and Jesse plan a murder in an attempt to ensure their safety from the bosses who turned against them. I love tension, and that episode was full of it. The only thing I hate about this show is that I'll probably have to wait another whole year for the season four DVD. But it will be worth it.