Get Smart

Get Smart

I love Steve Carell. I think he’s a classy funny guy. I enjoyed watching this movie. The boys loved it too. In this movie, he works for a U.S. spy agency as an analyst but has wanted to and has been training to become one of the agents. An opportunity came for him and he got promoted as an agent and he was partnered with the famous Agent 99 who he didn’t know was this gorgeous agent played by Anne Hathaway. Cool spy agent devices. Kind of like James Bond, only funny.

New Moon: My Movie Review

I watched New Moon with my girl friend this past weekend. We talk about the books that we read and the movies that we watch but this is the first time we ever went to the movies together. It was nice.

I like New Moon. And I love Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black. He’s cute, he’s hot and “he’s sort of beautiful.” 🙂 Now I find Taylor more appealing than Robert Pattinson. I apologize to Rob’s fans. Not that I don’t like him. But just look at the bulked up, dark and smiling Jacob and then turn to the pale, slender, and always brooding Edward Cullen. Don’t you just want to turn your eyes to Jacob again?

Robert is a lot more good looking without the pale Edward make-up and the restrained look. I’ve seen him on The Ellen Degeneres Show and yes, I did find him appealing on that interview. He was smiling and laughing and he’s sort of humble. And I like that kind of personality in a person, celebrity or not.

In New Moon, Edward left Bella. Heartbroken, she turns to Jacob for comfort. The movie stayed pretty close to the book, although there were a few changes and they weren’t that bad. As usual, it’s exciting to see the characters that we’ve only read about in the books, like the werewolves and the Volturi.

The movie is better than Twilight, as I hoped it would be. I’ve read a movie review of New Moon where the critic had a problem with the acting. It was flat, he said. I don’t even know what that means. I’ll have to look it up. How are teenagers supposed to act anyway? The acting was okay for me.

The only thing that I wish they could have done better was the transformation of the werewolves. One second, Paul and Jacob are human, and the next, they’re werewolves. The special effects are great, but I just wish that they could have shown how they have transformed a little bit slowly so we could see maybe at least a close up of the face changing into that of a wolf’s. After all, this is the first time we see them transform.

But overall, I like New Moon. Can’t wait to see Eclipse. And did I hear it right? It’s going to be shown in June? Only seven more months.

Watching Indiana Jones

Warning: Long post, but NO spoilers on The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

When I was a little girl, I was never interested in adventure films. It was only after having boys that I got to experience this kind of films and stories. It was my oldest son Reggie who introduced me to Harry Potter. He was the one who got me to watch Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

I was glad when I learned last year that they were making a fourth Indiana Jones movie. And I got all excited when the opening of The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull neared. There I found myself again doing an Indy movie marathon. The Indy theme song has been playing in my head ever since.

And today my boys and I watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It’s good to see Dr. Jones again. But it was kind of weird for me. Because I was just watching the first three movies last week and Harrison Ford was so young and fresh in those movies. And here I’m watching him on the big screen in his 60s with gray hair and lines on his face. He still looks good though. I’ve read that he kept fit all these years since there had been plans of doing a fourth Indy film. Well anyway, as Harrison Ford said, Indy’s appeal is not his youth, but his imagination and resourcefulness, his ability to get out of tight situations.

I’ll try not to give out any spoilers but I enjoyed this film just as I did the first three ones. I wasn’t blown away but I think it was still a good movie. It was a thrilling adventure film with the exciting car chases, things blowing off, a temple crumbling down and of course the supernatural element. Indiana Jones is back with his fedora and whip. I didn’t see much whip cracking though. And it was young Mutt Williams, played by Shia Lebeouf, who did much of the hanging and swinging in the jungle. Indy’s love interest in the first movie is also back, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), now Marion Williams.

Before I am tempted to reveal anymore, let me share with you some trivia that I gathered about the Indiana Jones movies.

While they were both vacationing in Maui after the success of Star Wars, Spielberg told Lucas that he wanted to direct a James Bond movie. But Lucas told him that he already had something in mind, something better than James Bond, which he called The Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was about a character named Indiana Jones who is an archeologist who goes around the world looking for antiquities.

At first, Lucas wanted to cast a fresh face so as not to be identified with any project. Tom Selleck was initially cast as Indiana Jones, but he already had a contract for a TV series, Magnum P.I. Spielberg suggested Harrison Ford.

Harrison Ford did as much stunts as he could in the first three movies and even in the fourth film.

Karen Allen was cast as Marion Ravenwood because she was spunky and had a devilish smile like that of Ford’s.

Lucas and Spielberg wanted the series to be about a treasure hunt of mystical objects. They wrote the Nazis in the first movie because they thought that the Nazis were the personification of evil. Also, Hitler was possessed with supernatural artifacts.

In the first movie, Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark, we learned that Indiana was afraid of snakes when he found a snake in the helicopter. And it made me laugh when the pilot said, “That’s my pet snake Reggie.” Well, that is my oldest son’s name, too. And how funny it is that Indy had to encounter 9,000 snakes later on in the Well of Souls. By the way, there’s also a snake in The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And yes, Indy’s still afraid of snakes.

The second movie, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, is actually a prequel to the first movie. Lucas wanted to give a backstory to the first one.

In the first movie, the female lead was very tough, very strong and very independent. Lucas didn’t want to repeat that character. And so enters Willie Scott, less self-confident, a spoiled brat, a prima donna, and not at home with the outdoors. Spielberg cast Kate Capshaw. But Lucas wanted a blonde this time, so Kate had to bleach her hair. And did you know that Spielberg later on married Kate?

The name of the Shanghai nightclub in the opening of The Temple of Doom is Club Obi Wan, as in Obi Wan Kenobi from Star Wars. I couldn’t help but smile today when I was watching The Kingdom of Crystal Skull and I heard Indy say, “I have a bad feeling about this.” This line has been mentioned in all the six Star Wars movies.

When they were planning the third movie, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, they thought that it would be the final installment in the Indiana Jones series. They struggled on how to make it different. They wanted Indy to go after an antiquity rarer than the Shankara Stones or the lost Ark of the Covenant. He was going to go after his father. That was going to be his rescue mission, the antiquity that he retrieves.

They also wanted the third movie to be lighter than The Temple of Doom. And the father-son theme brought humor to this one. The third movie’s my favourite of all in the series, by the way.

Who would they cast as Indy’s father? Who could intimidate Harrison Ford? Since the James Bond film was the father of the Indy movies, who better to play Indy’s father than James Bond himself, Mr. Sean Connery. At first Connery didn’t want to play the part. Because he’s only twelve years older than Ford.

The actor who played young Indy in the third movie was River Phoenix of Stand By Me. He was such a promising actor who died at a young age of 23 due to a drug overdose. He was the older brother of Joaquin Phoenix (of Gladiators and Walk the Line), who once called himself Leaf because he wanted to have a nature-related name like his brother, River, and sisters, Rain and Summer. Their parents were missionaries.

Indiana Jones was named after the family dog. Indiana was also the name of Lucas’ dog. We learned in the third film that Indiana Jones’ real name is Henry Jones, Jr. In the fourth film, he was referred to more often as Henry than Indy.

There were snakes in the first movie, bugs in the second, what else was left for the third movie? Spielberg thought that the viewers would be looking for the equivalent of the snakes and bugs. So they came up with rats. And did you know that Harrison Ford was not actually afraid of snakes? And that he raised lab rats when he was 16 years old? So he wasn’t really put off by them. What did they have then in the fourth movie? You’ll just have to go and find out.

The Assassination of Jesse James

This movie has a very long title and it is very long, 160 minutes. That’s two hours and forty minutes. I have to watch it in two sittings. It’s called The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The title basically tells you what the story is all about. I only wanted to watch it, no, not because of Brad Pitt, but because he was here in Winnipeg for one day to shoot a few scenes. Okay, I think that every time I mention Brad in my posts, I say that I am not a fan. But I realize now that I’ve seen quite a few of his movies. Does that make me a fan? Okay, here’s a confession. I was turned off by what happened to him and Jen Aniston. Because I liked Jen. I was a fan of Friends. But now I can see that he’s happy with Angie. And I guess, I am turned on seeing how he is a responsible family man now.

Well, anyway, I didn’t go out there on Princess Street that cold fall morning when they transformed it into a Western settting. I recognized the Pantages Theatre in the movie because I was once there when I watched my oldest son sing with his class during a music festival when he was still in grade school. I think I’ve also been to the Burton Cummings Theatre once when it was still an Odeon Cinema. These two theatres were used for the stage recreation of Jesse James’ murder.

Spoilers Alert:

I’ve always wondered why Robert Ford was given the title Coward. At first I thought it was because he was meek or weak. In the beginning of the movie, he was portrayed as an insecure man. And after watching the ending, I think he was labeled a coward because he betrayed who people thought was his friend, the same one who gave him food, bed and shelter. And because he shot him from behind. Does that make one a coward? And that day when he was murdered, I think Jesse knew what was happening. But why did he take off his gun belt? And when he saw Robert’s reflection from the dusty picture frame hanging on the wall, his gun pointing at him, why didn’t he duck or something? I guess he has accepted his fate at that point.

I hope I don’t sound twisted by saying this, but I feel bad for Robert. The people and the government wanted Jesse James dead and when Robert finally killed him, Jesse got all the recognition as the famous outlaw. But when Robert was murdered, he got nothing. As the narrator said at the ending of the movie: “There would be no eulogies for Bob (Robert), no photographs of his body would be sold in sundries stores, no people would crowd the streets in the rain to see his funeral cortege, no biographies would be written about him, no children named after him, no one would ever pay twenty-five cents to stand in the rooms he grew up in.”