Entry tags:
Recent movies
The King of Kong: I loved this! If you like my mumbling about old video games, you will like this movie. You don't have to know anything about the games themselves, though the film won't let you down if you do. Props to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
classicaljunkie for dragging me out to this.
The film is a documentary not so much about the games but about the strange and wonderful community of officially recognized video game title-holders. It puts particular focus on the reigning champion of Donkey Kong, a devilishly handsome 40-something BBQ sauce entrepreneur who set the world record in his teens and has been breaking other game records ever since (you may recall his making national news in 1999 when he played a perfect game of Pac-Man). And then we are introduced to the aw-shucks-likeable young family man who is determined to unseat him. Unexpected drama (well... maybe not that unexpected) results.
My only complaint is that there's a distinct turning point in the narration where the editing goes out of its way to vilify the champion. Threatened, he starts to act undeniably dickish, but I wish they had let that stand on its own instead of going over the top by doing a lot of fakey reality-show-style reaction shots, and throwing Don Henley onto the soundtrack whenever the scene shifts to him.
Stardust: Meh, I think it was oversold to me. I didn't like it nearly as much as I was expecting. No particular complaints, except maybe that the pacing felt weird in spots (including right at the beginning). It never really grabbed me. I spent the last half hour or so thinking about Volity.
The Bourne Identity (yes, the first one, via USA network): Eh. My head will now grow into a point, so beware. There is one scene in the middle that broke my ability to accept that this was the action-movie universe where things just work differently, where the protagonist, driving a minicar, tries to shake off some motorcycle cops by zooming the wrong way down a busy one-way street and the cops stay on him, even going so far as to pick their way around the civilian accidents they're causing in order to keep up the chase.
I am always unsettled by how all chase scenes assume that every other car contains exactly one securely-harnessed professional stunt driver in each. There's an involved scene later in the movie where Bourne makes sure an innocent man and his child are safe from the danger he senses. That's good of him, but he thinks nothing of flipping over carsful of unknown commuters, possibly maiming them or worse due to his own direct actions, in order to keep himself out of the police station? I'm supposed to still see him as sympathetic after that? What kind of person do you think I am, exactly? (I'm willing to let the cops of the hook because they're French and I'm told that all continental European cops are completely out of their minds so OK.)
classicaljunkie for dragging me out to this.The film is a documentary not so much about the games but about the strange and wonderful community of officially recognized video game title-holders. It puts particular focus on the reigning champion of Donkey Kong, a devilishly handsome 40-something BBQ sauce entrepreneur who set the world record in his teens and has been breaking other game records ever since (you may recall his making national news in 1999 when he played a perfect game of Pac-Man). And then we are introduced to the aw-shucks-likeable young family man who is determined to unseat him. Unexpected drama (well... maybe not that unexpected) results.
My only complaint is that there's a distinct turning point in the narration where the editing goes out of its way to vilify the champion. Threatened, he starts to act undeniably dickish, but I wish they had let that stand on its own instead of going over the top by doing a lot of fakey reality-show-style reaction shots, and throwing Don Henley onto the soundtrack whenever the scene shifts to him.
Stardust: Meh, I think it was oversold to me. I didn't like it nearly as much as I was expecting. No particular complaints, except maybe that the pacing felt weird in spots (including right at the beginning). It never really grabbed me. I spent the last half hour or so thinking about Volity.
The Bourne Identity (yes, the first one, via USA network): Eh. My head will now grow into a point, so beware. There is one scene in the middle that broke my ability to accept that this was the action-movie universe where things just work differently, where the protagonist, driving a minicar, tries to shake off some motorcycle cops by zooming the wrong way down a busy one-way street and the cops stay on him, even going so far as to pick their way around the civilian accidents they're causing in order to keep up the chase.
I am always unsettled by how all chase scenes assume that every other car contains exactly one securely-harnessed professional stunt driver in each. There's an involved scene later in the movie where Bourne makes sure an innocent man and his child are safe from the danger he senses. That's good of him, but he thinks nothing of flipping over carsful of unknown commuters, possibly maiming them or worse due to his own direct actions, in order to keep himself out of the police station? I'm supposed to still see him as sympathetic after that? What kind of person do you think I am, exactly? (I'm willing to let the cops of the hook because they're French and I'm told that all continental European cops are completely out of their minds so OK.)