Summer Moviethon 2016: Alice in Wonderland (2010)

June 14: #2, Alice in Wonderland (2010)

"Curioser and curiouser..."

You probably know before you even see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland whether you're going to like it or not. I personally never took the time to watch it, but not because I didn't think I'd enjoy it. It had more to do with how much I like the 1951 animated version. Well, and I found that the casting of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter and the choice of Burton as director were a bit too on the nose.

Regardless, there's a reason why Burton and Depp were obvious choices: they work well. Burton brings all of the imagination and eccentricity you'd expect to the film, while Depp is perfectly peculiar as the Mad Hatter. Similarly, Mia Wasikowska as Alice and Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen are great, if not adventurous, casting choices.

Mia Wasikowska, playing the same role she played in Crimson Peak.

The framing device is the weakest part of the film, casting more than a few parallels with The Wizard of Oz while taking Burton out of his comfort zone at a fancy garden party as the film opens. Burton settles for a washed out look and overcast sky until he and the audience simultaneously breathe a sigh of relief when all that nonsense ends and Alice goes down the rabbit hole.

The film uses a ton of CGI, and while a lot of it isn't exactly realistic looking, the sometimes dodgy effects actually fit well within the movie's aesthetic. Most of the cinematography and design is beautifully done, and as a fan of the animated version, I was usually only disappointed when the movie paralleled the 1951 film. For instance, Absolem pales in comparison to the psychedelic rendering of the caterpillar from 60 years ago.

Aside from the visuals, the best part of the film is the acting. Depp and Carter are outstanding in their roles and you can tell that they really enjoyed hamming it up throughout the movie. Anne Hathaway and Crispin Glover are fine in their roles as the White Queen and the Knave of Hearts, although their roles aren't all that memorable. Wasikowska plays Alice capably, capturing Alice's sense of wonder early on and her determination as the film moves toward its conclusion.

If you can include a picture of Anne Hathaway, you do. It's a rule. Or it should be, anyway.

Overall, Alice in Wonderland is an enjoyable experience that is still somehow less than the sum of its parts. It's meandering at times and really stumbles its way to a rather corny ending and a hasty, ham-fisted wrap-up back after Alice returns to reality. It feels less zany and more calculated than you'd expect, but it's still worth checking out.

Grade: B

Summer Moviethon 2016: Nintendo Quest

June 13: #1, Nintendo Quest

It's the best documentary ever made about looking for old NES games. By default, really.

Nintendo Quest was the launching pad for this installment of 150 Movies in 90 Days. It's kind of appropriate, really: the subject of the documentary, Jay Bartlett, embarks upon an ultimately rather pointless quest to buy all 678 officially licensed Nintendo Entertainment System games in one month, which mirrors my own equally silly quest to watch 150 movies in 90 days.

The difference, of course, is that instead of making a movie about my quest, I tucked the details away in a crappy blog where they're unlikely to actually gain the attention of anyone who could be doing something much better with their time.

The problem here is that Jay's quest simply isn't that interesting. Sure, it's hard to buy all 678 games, especially without use of the internet, but it's basically a road trip where we see Jay visit the homes of gamers he knows or used video game shops and sorts through hundreds of games to find what he needs. It honestly feels like an idea that a couple of guys came up with simply to entertain themselves, rather than something that could have ever been expected to entertain an actual audience.

Jay seems like he may be a shut-in of sorts. He clearly has anxiety issues, although those aren't really talked about until halfway through the film. At times, the film makes a half-assed effort to indicate that the quest is really a way for Jay to push his personal boundaries and use his love of games as a way to leave his comfort zone, but it simply isn't explored enough to make a difference.

Not pictured: actual entertainment.

Instead, much of the documentary is like a failed TLC pawn shop show where Jay haggles with different shop owners and private collectors in order to stay under his budget while getting all the rare games he can. The problem is that there's no transparency and we never actually know what he's paying for most of the games or what his budget is. Without that information, the film fails to provide any drama when it comes to the actual quest itself.

Another issue here is that director Rob McCallum often makes the mistake of telling us things instead of showing us them. That's a huge mistake in a documentary and it really hurts Nintendo Quest. At one point, we're told that all of the buzz around Jay's quest has centered around the rarest NES game, Stadium Events. "Everybody's talking about Stadium Events," we're told. WHO?!?! Jay is so insulated from the outside world during his road trip that we're left to assume that the only people who give a shit about his efforts are him and the other people in the car, who are rarely ever on camera. It just feels like a couple of friends screwing around.

The game EVERYBODY is talking about. It can be yours for just $70,000!

Despite this, McCallum really seems like he has potential. The film is peppered with historical tidbits about Nintendo that are really well done, and the production values are high throughout. The sound and video quality are much better than you'd expect and little things like travel montages and on-screen graphics depicting the rare games Jay's collected are skillfully done. The problem is, the film doesn't know if it wants to be an exploration of Jay's growth, a buddy road trip film, a NES documentary or a feature-length version of reality shows like Pawn Stars. As a result, it doesn't succeed at being any of them.

At one point, Jay talks about his dad's death and it's clear that he and his mother have very different views on the event. His mother says it was very hard on him to lose his dad, while Jay flat-out says he's glad that his dad is gone. The film threatens to get interesting and help you care about Jay, and then what do you know? We're back in a used game shop watching Jay haggle over a copy of Bubble Bobble.

Although it's somewhat entertaining, the questions Nintendo Quest fails to explore are more interesting than the ones it actually answers.

Grade: D

150 Movies in 90 Days: The Return

Okay, so my last attempt at watching and reviewing 150 movies in 90 days turned into a double failburger with extra fail sauce. I barely made it 40 movies before falling so far behind pace that I stopped altogether not long after.

This was three long years ago.

Here we are, in what 2013 me would certainly describe as the future, and I'm still not sure what to do with this blog. Having a place to force my thoughts on whoever is unlucky enough to stumble on them is great, but I don't know what to do with it. I feel like I should somehow turn this thing into a multimillion dollar cultural phenomenon.

I mean, this is PRIME REAL ESTATE, people. Actually, probably not. Does anyone even use Blogger?

Anyway, in lieu of better ideas, I've decided to review a shit-ton of movies again. Why? Because I'll be hiding away from the heat most of the summer and it seems like a fun thing to do. Also, I need an incentive to watch a ton of movies that I either haven't seen in years or have never seen. And finally, because I need to write something that's not work-related from time to time.

So there you have it.

Now, I've made several attempts to watch an arbitrary number of movies in an equally arbitrary period of time in the past. Each time, there are two camps of people with distinct, but ultimately predictable reactions.

Reaction #1: Wow...that's a lot of movies!

Yes, it kind of is. At least, it is when you've got kids who are home from school all summer and you're working and going to the gym and doing all kinds of other Important Adult Stuff.

Reaction #2: Really? That's not that many movies.

Well, sure, you're also right. It's less than two movies per day, after all.

Actually, there's also a third reaction, which is a combination of "Why are you doing that?" or "Who gives a shit?" depending on the honesty level of the individual in question. My answer to why I'm doing it is always the same, "Cause it's awesome." And it is.

Let's do this.

Summer Moviethon: The Raid: Redemption and Pitch Perfect

August 5: #44, The Raid: Redemption

“There’ll be no empty seats in here on the way home.”

Sorry, proud Amurricans, but the United States has not had a firm grip on the martial arts epic since Jean-Claude Van Damme was put out to pasture and relegated to direct-to-video status. Even then, in the 80s and 90s, our action heroes were largely big, slow, and preferred guns to kicks. Nowadays, we don’t really have action stars at all, besides perhaps The Rock. They just take a decent actor or actress and give them six months of kickboxing classes, instead. A shame, really.

Fortunately, Indonesia has not given up on the art of ass-kicking, and not only are we getting great martial arts films from the East, still (Ong Bak wasn’t that long ago), but now they’re out action-ing our own action films, to boot. Yes, I just made that word up.

I’m not going to lie to you: The Raid: Redemption is almost entirely a balls-to-the-wall action film. I mean, probably the most dynamic action film you’ve ever seen, and that includes my beloved Ong Bak. However, even though some of you will be relieved that you’ll only be reading subtitles occasionally, others of you should not forego this film simply because it’s the best action film in years. That’s because The Raid: Redemption, despite its dumbass, generic subtitle, is not simply a great action film, but has a fairly interesting plot and some quality drama to offer, as well.

Nobody is expected to be Laurence Olivier here, but everyone is great in their roles. From the beginning, we are invited into the headspace of a young rookie policeman who (of course) is going to be a father for the first time soon. You know, because we wouldn’t give a shit about his safety if he wasn’t procreating. The rookie, Rama (Iko Uwais), is going along on an incredibly dangerous raid on a 14-story apartment complex in a bad neighborhood that is home to druggies, thugs, criminals of all sorts, and the local kingpin, who resides at the top and is nearly impossible to get to in the most literal sense of the phrase.

There’s a great scene right at the beginning where all of the troops are loaded up in an armored vehicle and the tension is high as they prepare for what will be the most dangerous mission they’ve ever been on. Then, just 9 ½ minutes in, they’re rushing into the ground floor of the building, and we’re off to the races. Still, in the occasional moments of dialogue, a couple of intriguing plot points are pushed, with one being about the shady reason they’re even raiding the building (and the reason they can’t get backup when they need it) and another being a surprisingly effective story of estranged brothers.

That’s fine, but again, The Raid is all about action, and it’s here, from some of the best-choreographed martial arts sequences I’ve ever seen to gunfights that are simply crazy and everything in between. This film is an absolute orgy of violence, and it’s even free of the abomination that is “shaky cam”, thanks to director Gareth Evans. Evans skillfully directs the film’s thrilling set-pieces, such as when, trapped in a corner, some officers cut a hole through the floor to go to the apartment below and drop down, with the camera dropping down after them and immediately following the fight that takes place directly when the officers land on their feet.

The film is actually pretty exhausting once it’s all said and done, both because of the number of “Holy shit!” moments and the absolutely bleak cinematography. Everything is dark, with plenty of grays, dark blues, and blacks really underscoring the hopelessness of the task that the officers have undertaken. Yeah, you’ll be spent when you get done watching The Raid, but then you’ll probably also be forcing your friends who haven’t seen it to watch it with you, too. Grade: A

August 6: #45, Pitch Perfect

Finally, a capella groups get their Bring it On

Pitch Perfect takes the Glee/a capella singing group/musical mash-up phenomenon and turns it on its ear pretty skillfully, simultaneously parodying Glee and the like while showing genuine affection to its musical roots, which is not an easy line to walk. So it gets points right off the bat, there.

And hey, it’s pretty damn funny at times! The story follows Anna Kendrick as Beca, a new college student who has no friends and is being forced by her inexplicably dickish father to join an extracurricular activity, even though she’d rather make awful club music on her laptop and keep to herself. Along the way, she joins an a capella group called The Barden Bellas, who are a team that has only two remaining members and must recruit heavily to survive, even as they stubbornly refuse to change their boring arrangements in order to get to the next level.

Barden University has several a capella groups, in fact, including an all-male group, The Treble Makers. The two groups have a rivalry, which gives the movie a third of its conflict, with The Bellas’ leader Aubrey (Anna Camp)’s stubborn refusal to change the group’s direction and Beca’s own intimacy issues (yes, really) comprising the other two-thirds.

So it mostly works, although put me down as having zero investment in Beca and Jesse (Skylar Astin)’s will-they-or-won’t-they love affair. The other two-thirds of the plot is entertaining, with the rivalry between The Bellas and The Treble Makers being the best part of the movie. A lot of that is owed to Adam DeVine (Workaholics), who is the leader of the boys’ group and absolutely steals every single scene he’s in. The majority of the other laughs come from Rebel Wilson, who plays Fat Amy and is actually given fairly bland material to work with but still makes the best of it and gets some laughs along the way.

The problem is that sometimes the movie is a parody, and then it goes about 10 minutes while taking itself extremely seriously all of a sudden. Beca inexplicably goes psycho on Jesse to create a romantic comedy-style forced conflict, and the momentum of the film gets derailed completely, and so on. The movie seems to take itself seriously at times, but Wilson and DeVine completely undermine their groups’ performances at time for laughs (which I enjoyed), too. Then there are the supporting characters of The Bellas, who are all completely stereotyped, one-dimensional characters, such as the Asian Girl Who Doesn’t Speak Loudly Enough To Be Heard.

Still, Pitch Perfect is legitimately funny at times, and I actually liked a lot of the musical arrangements better than what I overheard while my wife was binge-watching every season of Glee in the living room a couple of years ago (they simply have more energy). Plus, I was all set to give this a C+ until I realized that against all odds, I was actually invested in the outcome of the film and got that “feel good” vibe that you always get in these corny underdog stories. It was kind of a missed opportunity, but I’ll still be interested in seeing the sequel. Grade: B-