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Monday, July 26, 2010

Movie Alert

If you’re planning on going to see Chris Nolan’s new dreamscape movie, “Inception,” you’ll need to bring along some ear plugs. Hans Zimmer, who did the score, kept the rumbling, menacing wall-o’-sound at maximum intensity, no doubt thinking that that amount of noise would ensure nobody in the theatre fell asleep.

And, you might be well advised to bring along a chaise longue anyway. It’s a long, long, long, long movie so you actually will need a few naps. Plus, consider the power of suggestion: All these folks stopping all the time to plop down for some wired-up naps gives audience the idea that, Yeah, a nice nap right about now would bee a good idea.

Mr. Nolan, whose brilliantly spare “Memento,” a movie made backwards, has fallen into the unfortunate (but typical) state that comes when an artist is given a full box of crayons. The temptation to use them all, again and again and again is simply too great to resist. Not to mention that I’m sure Mr. Nolan has a thrifty soul and it undoubtedly pained him to even think of leaving so much as one frame of footage on the cutting room floor after he’d spend so much of the studio’s money shooting it. So it all went in, creating the kind of scenario you face when your neighbor, who bought a new camera AND recently returned from his vacation in Hawaii, asks you over for the evening to “look at my photos.” And you go and he comes out of the den holding an ENORMOUS box, . . . .. Well, you get the picture, or I should say, you’ll get the pictures; all seven thousand of them, including the 12-shot series showing this interesting water stain on the pavement outside the hotel lobby.

And finally, when will sci-fiy, fantasy film makers learn that you shouldn’t ‘splain too much. Just accept that your premise is ridiculous, the audience likely will be lost pretty quickly anyway, and then just get on with it. ‘Splaining the nature of time and space, the permanence and impermamence of memory, the impossibility of escaping time’s relentless movement forward, the meaning of life and death, the odd fake reality of dreams is the stuff of ruminative writing that too often fails miserably in a visual medium like film. The more you try to ‘splain the worse it gets until you end up with great visuals interspersed with long, boring passages of gibberish that only convinces the audience that you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Whatever idea you’re trying to convey will have to be carried by “moving . . . pictures” . . . so dump the expository lecture and get on with it.

Which, for long stretches, “Inception” does in spades. Unfortunately, way cool images a great movie doesn’t make. Next time, I’d recommend a tougher editor and find somebody to tell old Hans to tone it down. Enough with the rumble. I’m trying to sleep here.

Then, after a short nap, get over to the Palm to see “Cyrus.” That one will keep you awake and on knife edge waiting for the film to fall off its very narrow, twisty path and plop into pathos or satire. Balanced exquisitely, it never does. Bravo performances. And no excess shots of water drying on concrete. There is exactly enough film needed to tell the story perfectly, which it does. Then it stops.  Excellent!

9 comments:

Ron said...

Ann, you're the best movie reviewer I've ever seen.

What was your take on that Twilight movie? Something about how the Vampire and Werewolf should move to Massachusetts and raise their little vampire-wolf babies... ahahahaha. Great!

Cantcha just see the ad:

Ann Calhoun, of Calhoun's Can(n)ons, calls Inception, "boring passages of gibberish," and "somebody to tell old Hans to tone it down. Enough with the rumble. I’m trying to sleep here."

You should write a New Times movie review with Glen. That'd be great!

Churadogs said...

Glen Starkey? Naw, think he's a bit too "Guy-focused" sophomoric for my taste. And the Twilight movie was downright painful, like tying you to a chair and forcing you to watch cement dry while listening to desultory conversations from Valley Girls about their, like, One True Love, oh, and like have you seen the latest lipgloss colors at the mall, Oh, wait, I just got a Tweet. Torture.

Countdown to Armageddon. BOS vote this afternoon to take the sewer project and set a date for bond sales and construction and whether federal money is available & etc. Plenty of questions will remain for a while, including How many people will be forced out of Los Osos. Years ago the percent was guestimated at 30%.With this economic downturn, have to wonder if that number will go up. Or down (since in the ensuring years, the community has Yuppified quite a bit)

Alon Perlman said...

Hmmmm...
Well if it won't be written by Bill "Shakes" Pierre.
Or miz Rowlings (Rollins?)
Or Henry Rollings (Black Flag)
Qubrick
I said QUBRICK (Clickit)
Or Kurasawa
Roeg
Bunelli
Etc…
Vally girls? That is like so… previous century.
Besides the Vals were like totally intellectual giants, fur shure, I mean have you seen the Kardashians? So-like skanky- euwww.
Val 3.0?
Ron is on the right track, Cultural attaché to the vast wasteland that was once celluloid world. But no writing Duo for Stand alone Ann? That is a device. Works well for the Car Guys on PBS radio.
Question-
Who would you write (Movie reviews) with if forced onto a desert island with Man/woman Friday? Or if you landed and the writer, already a slightly mad occupant, assigned you the Friday role.


Har Megido? הר מגידו (The mountain of megido)
The known unintended consequence (Ok some argue intended, but the affordable Sewer evaporated long long before the county picked it up again). A big day, but more a milestone than a fork in the toad. I think Steve Paige caught the best analogy.
A large pot of frogs placed on slow boil.

Ron said...

[Read this in that deep, movie preview announcer voice]

Ann Calhoun, of Calhoun's Can(n)ons, calls Twilight, "downright painful," and, "torture."

..."like tying you to a chair and forcing you to watch cement dry while listening to desultory conversations from Valley Girls about their, like, One True Love, oh, and like have you seen the latest lipgloss colors at the mall, Oh, wait, I just got a Tweet."

See? Even your comments on your movie reviews are hilarious!

"Glen Starkey? Naw, think he's a bit too "Guy-focused" sophomoric for my taste."

You could put that in your review ; -)

Ann wrote:

"BOS vote this afternoon to take the sewer project..."

I'm not so sure about that.

In the staff report it reads, "staff is recommending no consideration of a resolution of determination prior to September..."

So, it sounds like they're going to give it a couple more months.

I guess we'll find out in a couple hours.

Interestingly, the staff report also talks about how if the $80 million from the USDA is denied, then that makes the SRF "more critical."

In my own selfish ways, I'd prefer that, because it'd make my story better.

It would bring my official challenge to the 2005 SRF loan BACK into view.

That's were I officially challenged that illegal loan (that paid for the Tri-W site being ripped up), arguing (beautifully, and time-stampedly, I will add) that that loan was illegally funding a multi-million dollar park for Los Osos, and it was.

And, considering that Gov S. has said that Los Osos can't get any more SRF cash until that $6.5 million from that illegal loan is paid back, well, that just sets up my story perfectly, because it puts me head-to-head with the Gov, and he's wrong, and I'm right.

With his AB 2701 signing statement, he's saying that the State of California SHOULD have funded a multi-million public park for Los Osos.

I said, "Nope," and I said it, through an official time-stamped document, BEFORE they cut that illegal check... that paid for the Tri-W site being ripped up.

I'm right, of course, the Gov's wrong, and if the county can't land that $80 million from the USDA, then all of that will come out... finally.

So, yeah, I'm really hoping that the USDA denies that cash... you know, for the sake of my story.

FOGSWAMP said...

Yes, the movie "Inception" sure as hell gets your mind somersaulting.

When I awoke I wondered what the hell happened. It sure messed with my head. The theater had the temperature at around a freezing 32 degree F, probably to keep me awake, and the volume to the max, probably because they thought we old farts that afternoon were slightly or stone deaf.

I guess when you get to my age dreams aren't really important and neither was the movie. I would rate it at around 3.

A couple of days later we went to the same theatre, with down filled jackets, and saw the movie "SALT".
It was about a 100 minute movie, layered and deep, but I thought the last third of it was kinda absurd.

With the recent arrests of the Russian spies, it was a sorta timely refreshing old fashioned James Bond type movie.

Churadogs said...

Ron sez:"I'm right, of course, the Gov's wrong, and if the county can't land that $80 million from the USDA, then all of that will come out... finally."

If I heard right yesterday at the BOS meeting, the project will also require additional SRF $$?? And part of the $6.5 payback has to be secured before the state will loan more money? So I'm presuming we'll be getting MO' money from SRF, so you'll need to get that time-date-stamped paper in to Jerry Brown or somebody since, unless I'm mistaken, the SRF will be loaning us mo' money? My bet is you'll submit that time-stamped piece of paper and all you'll get is a shrug and a letter saying, "So sue us." But, hey, I say go for it. That'll be a great chapter in your book.

Fogswamp sez:"and the volume to the max, probably because they thought we old farts that afternoon were slightly or stone deaf."

I love Hans Zimmer's scores but he usually changes up the intensity and volume, saving the biggest ZimmerSound for really dramatic moments. In this case he started LOUD and stayed LOUD all the way through. Very odd.

Overall, I'd give the movie a 6-7 for great visuals and a fun idea, but it really, really needed a much tighter edit.

Ron said...

Ann wrote:

"That'll be a great chapter in your book."

Yes, it will.

Me vs. the Governator, and I'm right, and he's wrong.

Ya know, just thinking back on all of that, blows me away.

I mean, here was the State of California illegally funding MILLIONS of dollars worth of "tot lots," "dog parks," "amphitheaters," and "picnic areas," in a friggin' sewer plant in the middle of Los Osos -- using money that's supposed to be used ONLY to clean the State's water supply -- and the ONLY place any of that was ever reported -- to this day! -- was SewerWatch.

To this day, the Trib has never reported any of that... never, and it's, like, one of the best local stories... EVER!

I'm willing to bet, that if someone were to approach Bill Morem, long-time Los Osos resident, and Tribune editor, and ask him today if he knew that the Tri-W sewer plant included millions of dollars worth of things like an "amphitheater," "tot lot," and "picnic area," he wouldn't know what you were talking about.

How does someone get so behavior-based-marketed, to the point where it completely blinds them?

Absolutely terrible, yet fascinating.

(Fogswamp, your movie reviews are funny, too!)

Churadogs said...

So, Ron, have you written, once again, to the BOS AND the SWB reminding them, again, (and include a cc. of our time-date-stamped objection,) that they need to look into this formal complaint, since they're about to float down ANOTHER SRF loan?

Ron said...

Ann wrote:

"So, Ron, have you written, once again, to the BOS AND the SWB reminding them..."

I've written to them many times reminding them of my excellent, time-stamped challenge, including June 2009, at this link, but, of course, County Counsel again just made up an excuse on why they won't pursue it, because again, just like with that Surety Bond I've been writing about that would restore Tri-W at no cost to the county, it's not in Warren Jensen's client's (AKA: Bruce Gibson's Parks Commissioner) best interest to pursue my challenge, and save Los Osos $6.5 million, and, a lot more, because it'd also pave the way for another SRF loan.

So, if your keeping score at home, Jensen is duty-bound to make up excuses on why the County won't save Los Osos millions by pursuing my excellent 2005 SRF challenge, AND why they won't use that Surerty Bond to pay for the Tri-W restoration -- because both of those are not in the best interest of his client -- Bruce Gibson's Parks Commissioner.

As I've written many, many times, the County is Warren Jensen's client, NOT the people of Los Osos, and he is sworn to protect his clients.

In other words, if Bruce Gibson had a different Parks Commissioner, Los Osos could save millions of dollars by pursuing my 2005 challenge, make the Gov's AB 2701 "signing statement" disappear, and, therefore pave the way for a new SRF loan, AND get the Tri-W site restored at no cost to Los Osos or the County, but none of that will happen as long as Bruce Gibson Parks Commissioner is Warren Jensen's client, because none of that is in Bruce Gibson's Parks Commissioner's best interest.

Welcome to Los Osos.