Quicky media update

[prog]

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: I liked this exactly as much as I thought I would, no more or less. Worth seeing, because it's very large in stature, if only physically. Doubt that I'll pay to see it again, unless it happens to appear in the February festival lineup.

The Spanish Prisoner: A 1997 film. Mamety goodness. I like all of Mamet's movies even though they're all just strange enough to make me resist loving them.

I'm curious about the ending... did the foghorn serve as a literary device, an acoustic strikeout of information that the characters cared about but the story didn't (since they were only talking about the McGuffin)? Or did it serve to make the ultimate outcome uncertain? I'm actually certain that it's the former case. It's an intriguing stylistic technique I don't think I've seen much (the playful name-bleeping in Kill Bill is not the same thing at all, being a very deliberate tease), but I bet it confused a lot of audience who thought it served the latter purpose. (And I could be wrong. But I don't think that I am.)

The Venture Bros.: I decree this show to be brilliant. It had to work hard to get me to like it, as on one level it's YA The Tick-like sendup of American pop mythology (a mashup of superheroics, "The Hardy Boys" and "Johnny Quest"). But it loves its characters, making them more than just flat goofball parody. It's a joy to watch.

Comments

SPOILER... HONK

[prog.livejournal.com]

It was when the duped hero, after learning that he was wearing a wire for the Feds, asked Steve Martin's character where "the process" was hidden. Martin starts to explain, but a sudden foghorn blast from the ferry they are riding obscures almost everything he says, up until "...after you're dead."

So the first thing I thought was: shit, things were going his way for a second, and then dumb luck ruined everything and now the process is lost, since the Feds will hear only the horn. But the characters' subsequent actions (once the bad guys are put down) have an air of satisfaction about them, implying that all was secure. So, it took extra film content for me to understand that trick as it was intended, which is why I didn't like it too much.