Wednesday, February 24, 2010

It's Complicated

Those who know me best are certain I'd fall in love with Nancy Meyer's little love comedy plainly due to Goddess Streep. I did- the first 20 minutes of it. I am big on Alec Baldwin too but I think this had too much of him. Meryl Streep embraces her age and maturity with grace and elegance- Nancy Meyer had better written a deserving script but she didn't so. I struggled a bit to see "mature" people being intimate. It doesn't help that Alec Baldwin looks like one of 'em Alaskan Bears Sarah Pailin would hunt down. Still, Streep's character made the picture witty and alive. I am however not at all keen on the actors who played the children. John Krasinski, Lake Bell? Come one! This isn't Over my Dead Body or License to Wed. Hell no. Casting ain't all that great but I did like the bits with the Holy Trio. Steve Martin did a good job though I would have loved to see him more in the movie. He never fails to be funny. Alec I guess had a bit of practice with 30 rock along with Tina Fey so he wasn't too bad. Maybe it isn't much of Meryl's cup of tea but if she could do Death becomes Her and She-Devil then I ought to see her in more of these.

Avatar

This was a movie I think I'll sit in for once in a lifetime- thank you. First, I had a few problems with my 3-D goggles, then I had to watch the entire movie in like 10 hours. It took forever to what seemed like a typical invasive-human race genre. Cameron had 15 years to work on this movie, so I would really expect more plot wise. We've had several of these in the past lets say 10 years; Independence Day (aliens invading though), Mission to Mars, Red Planet, Planet of Apes, The day the Earth stood still and I can go on forever. But with Cameron, since he's all up on the technological front of things, he waited more than a decade after the billions he made with the Terminator movies and lets not forget Titanic to edge out his competition. He made G.I Joe look like a cheap 70's cartoon. I'm not even going to begin on his virtual cameras, simulcam...I just think it was super cool Spielberg and Jackson had a try at it. It's amzing what you can create with a gazillion dollars and what gazillions more you get out of it. James Cameron proves to be a very good businessman, he gets what the present audience wants, just as he did with the morphing T-1000 played by Robert Patrick in Terminator 2 in the early 90's. Now Avatar is begininnng it's own cult. I'd recommend this movie to any budding motion-capture enthusiast. It's worth guzzling down a few cokes on and some popcorn.