At The Movies

INTO THE WILD - I have been anticipating this movie ever since I read the production report years ago announcing the film was being made. I read the book (by John Krakauer) back in the late 90's and I absolutely loved it. In fact, ever since then I have either bought it for, or recommended it to friends and family. Here we have the true story of Chris McCandless, who graduated from college, left all his family and friends, abandoned his money, and hiked all over the country on his way to Alaska. The book has always appealed to me in many ways. How many times have we all thought about the idea of leaving our troubles behind and heading off somewhere? Well...here is a guy who actually did it. The movie is almost as great as the book. Almost. The scenery acts as a central character that we follow almost as much as McCandless. The acting here is first rate, the cinematography is gorgeous, and the music (Eddie Vedder) is an absolutely perfect fit. I highly recommend this movie. But I would also add that the movie somewhat glamourizes Chris, which really bothered me. The book points out just as many flaws about Chris as his good traits, whereas the movie portrays Chris as a man changing the world one person at a time. The movie also makes us believe that Chris' sole reason for leaving his world behind was to get back at his parents, whereas the book again does not totally imply that. It's a classic example of a movie not being quite as good as the book, but still worth seeing.


WALL*E - If there has been one movie Ben has been anxiously waiting to see for months now...it's this one. We've been reading Wall*E books, watching the commercials, etc. He was so excited to see this movie I can't begin to tell you. So he and I went to see it opening weekend, and we both loved it. Granted, this is not a typical kids movie. The overall theme here is very sci-fi. Plus, the opening scenes seem to be right out of I AM LEGEND, and the main characters have little to no dialouge. But somehow the movie works, and the characters are warm and very kid friendly. Ben wasn't scared watching it, but he's now at that age where he starts to get anxious when the characters are in trouble or peril. In fact, I think he started flailing his arms at one scene and said "Look out Wall*E!" But again...he loved it, and kept raving about it all the way home. This is such a great movie. Ben loved it, and I really enjoyed it too. He's already talking about seeing it again with Jenny. I assume this will be another DVD in our collection very soon.


SEMI-PRO - Well...I answered one question when I watched this movie: "Can Will Ferrell make a bad movie?" The answer is yes...and here it is. Ferrell plays the owner, coach, and player of the Flint Tropics...an ABA basketball team set in the 70's. There are some laughs here, but they are few and far between. Plus, there are some serious storylines here between secondary characters that drag the movie out, and suck the life out of it. Ferrell is the only reason to even watch this movie in my opinion. The scene where he wrestles a bear was very funny, and definately the highlight of the movie. What probably didn't help things here was Jenny and I happened to watch ANCHORMAN a few days before watching this one. ANCHORMAN is a Will Ferrell classic. This is not.


CONTROL - This is the story of Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division who died in 1980. It's the story of the rise of the band during the late 70's, and more importantly the rise and fall of Curtis (who eventually committed suicide at the height of the band's success.) The movie is shown entirely in black and white, which was the norm for the band when they were photographed. There are some great concert performances here, but the behind-the-scenes story of the band is paramount here. The performance of Sam Riley as Curtis is dead on and almost eerie at times. What could be an excuse to portray Curtis as a punk God of sorts turns out not to be the case. Curtis is shown as a talented yet deeply troubled individual who battled depression and epilepsy to the very end. Overall I thought this movie was very cool. It's one of the best "rock music" movies I've seen in quite some time. It moves a little slow at times, but overall it's worth checking out.