summer 2008 movies

indiana jones

don't believe the hype. as a movie, it never really evolved any further than the previous movies, the latest being 20 years ago. it was just like watching a 4thqeul, which would have been great 18 years ago, but not now in the 0's. iron man is a perfect example of what is expected these days for summer blockbusters. lots of action, explosions, etc and less filler. 

it was great to see karen allen again, as indy's love interest. shia did a good job too, and harrison did all his own stunts, not bad for someone who's pushing 70, but my favorite was cate blanchet. blanchet played the evil villainess, intent on capturing what indy could get his hands on. her accent and character was perfect and the best acting of the bunch.

overall, i would have enjoyed the movie a lot for what it was and not expecting it to be anything other than what it was, an early 90's film made in the late 0's, but , but ,but... they made some major character changes to indy and the indiana theme. he spied on the russians for the american government!?!? come on! indiana is not james bond, he's a rough, sometimes rude character, who fumbles his way through his adventures and sometimes comes out on top, just barely. there's no calculated planning, wearing a disguise, going under cover, using gadgets and making information hand-offs to other spies. he's always had a good sense of right and wrong, but that's about it and was never strongly political. it's too bad they spoiled his character. as an aside, the janitor from 'scrubs' was a McArthyist cia agent questioning indy's loyalty to the us government. that was hysterical in it's own right.

i know harrison ford is older now and i know we couldn't have the nazi's again if the setting is to take place later to accommodate for his older appearance, but the russians? i guess it is sort of is ok. stalin was not as bent on collecting supernatural, as was himler and the 3rd reich. the nazi's actual sent expeditions to egypt, tibet, etc to obtain artifacts that would give the master race superior power, but as far as i know, the soviets never did.

and then come we come to the major thing wrong with this movie...

steven spielberg loves aliens, that's quite apparent. and most of them look like the same thing; the ufo sighting type, except for ET, which looked  just like the extra-terrestial from  'war of the worlds,' the 50's movie, not his cheesy remake ("they've been planning this attack for a million years." well then, they must be pretty stupid to take that long and why hasn't the technology changed in a million years? and why had no-one found the alien walking vehicles with all the mining, excavating and city building throughout human history? and why were the aliens not able to know about diseases and bacteria on other planets, like the earthly common cold? nasa, without it's super planet attacking technology knows perfectly well about contaminating other worlds and takes precautions when samples are taken from the moon and mars, etc. and that whole sequence with the telescoping eye-we have better technology in use today that can see through structures with x-rays and infrared, why wouldn't an advanced alien race have these? anyway, back to the current movie). why did steven have to incorporate that into indian jones? he killed it by doing so, in my opinion. why was indiana brought to roswell to investigate aliens in the first place? an archeologist? did they know ahead of everyone else that aliens had been there before and were buried in south america? doubtful. the alien thing was too much of a stretch for the indy theme. supernatural yes, but not aliens. what is the next movie going to be? bigfoot? vampires? time travel? appearing in lucas' star wars world? it was just too much, especially the space ship at the end when you see the actual alien. maybe these aliens will battle the aliens in alien vs predator 3? and maybe they will throw in 'the thing' as well, and a.l.f., from the 80's sitcom, for the comic relief?

so to conclude, the new indy movie, not indie movie, could have been better. it was the plot and the drastic change in character that hindered my experience of the movie and made the other cool things, not so cool.

i give it 3 stars and put it in the rental category or see in a month before it leaves when there is nothing else worth seeing at the theatre.

summer 2008 movies

iron man

not bad. lots of action. it was done very well. i enjoyed it quite a bit. but there was that major hole in the plot....(don't read further if you haven't seen it yet) ... tony stark was asked to build the jericoh missile system by the terrorists, but later in the movie you find out that they already have the jericoh missile system and have been getting weapons from stark enterprises thru jeff bridges. jeff b played a great evil guy, by the way, i have seen him in that role before. they played a new version of the black sabbath song, titled "iron man." i'd highly recommend it, 4 stars.

summer 2008 movies

speed racer.

definite cult classic. if you loved the movie as a kid, then you'll love the movie. it is like watching the whole series in one movie, without all the cheesy stuff from the cartoon. 

i have had debates on youtube about this very topic. most, who didn't like it, had never seen it as a kid and didn't "get it," or they wanted it to be "realistic." the cartoon was never very "realistic" and movie never intended to be that. it was just very cool. lots of great driving sequences.